Hola From Guatemala!
I apologize for the lack of blogging yesterday. As you can probably imagine, the internet connection in Guatemala City is not exactly up to par for American standards. When you last read the blog, we had just flown into the city and gotten our orientation from the Potter's House. After a good night sleep, the team woke up and headed downstairs for breakfast. Once the bus picked us up at 7:45am, we departed for the Potter's House to start our first day of work at the dump. When we got there, there was another orientation on what we were going to be doing for the locals this week. We were told that we were going to be building a cinder-block house, installing a concrete floor, and putting a metal roof over 3 houses in the local area for the families that attend the Potter's House services. When we left the Potter's House front door, we were truely struck by the poverty that we saw. One thing that I noticed instantly was the smell. When you were walking between the piles of trash, the stench was overwhelming. The other things that were quickly noticed were the living conditions of the majority of the people. Most of the homes were built from tin or cardboard, and they were directly in the middle of the dump. Something that was a major misconception was the word 'dump'. When Americans think of a dump, they think of an organized place with an entrance and piles of trash. In Guatemala, the conditions of living continuesly got worse until you were walking between piles of trash and junk. We continued to walk through the dump until we reached a small 'community' where we were going to be working for the week. As soon as we entered the front passageway, the group noticed a complete difference in the visual aspects of the area. Outside this community, everyone was just surviving. Many didn't even acknowledge our presence, and those that did, did so half-heartedly. But once we walked in, we saw the colorful strings hanging from the rooftops, and were greeted by a small fireworks display. After recovering from the initial shock of the gunshot sounding fireworks, we were introduced to the families that we would be helping in the community. Through the use of a translator, we thanked the families for letting us work there, then said an opening prayer and started to work. We broke into three groups, one for each of the houses that we would be working on. The first was a cinderblock house that we needed to spackle, stukko, paint, put in a floor, add a roof, and finish the home. Inside this building, there were many nice locals who were willing to learn from us as much as we were learning from them. The other two houses were just patches of dirt that needed a floor and a roof. We were supposed to level the ground, dig holes, and bury posts for the foundation. Through these three houses, we were very busy until lunch. After lunch, we returned to the site, where we found the children home from school or the dump. Once the language barrier was broken between us and the kids, we started to interact with them through games and work. Some of us went to play a pickup soccer game in the alley while others brought kids with them to build the homes and learn from each other's cultures. At the end of the day, with smiles on everyone's faces, we left the site and walked back to the Potter's House. Once we picked up our stuff, we got on the bus and drove back to the hotel for a quick shower and a delicious dinner. After dinner, we went into the basement and talked about what we had seen that day and how it had affected us. Then we went to bed early to prepare for the next day's work. Once we woke up, we played a minor prank on two of the members (Jeremy Traficant and Tyler Britton) and got on the bus for the Potter's House. The orientation was very similar to the previous day, along with the workload. When we got there, we met up with all of the same workers from Tuesday, and picked up directly where we left off. At lunchtime, we walked back to the Potter's House for lunch. Instead of returning to the site, we decided to serve lunch to the local youth who were attending classes at the Potter's House. After saying goodbye to the children, we made our way back to the homes, where we finished putting the Stukko (SP?) on the walls and installed the tin roof and the shower heads. We also installed the foundation on the other homes and added posts for walls. As we were breaking up the previous floor, a pipe was struck by a pickax. After praying and cleaning up the spill, the work continued while I made my way over the children, who were playing with some bubbles that Bethany brought. I gathered some of the older boys and started a pickup baseball game with James. Once the crowd around us grew, I asked if the kids would rather play Futbol (soccer), which was greeted by smiles from all. I ran and got a soccer-ball that I brought, which I gave to a wonderful little 4 year old (the youngest in the group). We started playing, and it seemed that all language issues seemed to melt away with these little kids. When it was time to go, we left the children playing while we walked home. After a repetitive trip back to the hotel, we showered, ate, and continued downstairs to update each other on the things that we had learned that day. We talked about the differences between American life and the conditions that we witnessed in the dump. It was interesting to see how people with so little could be so content. After reflecting on the realizations of the day, we returned to our room, where I am currently typing this bl0g. The plan for tommorow is to continue our work on the houses, and also visit homes of the locals to pray with them and share the word anywhere that it is wanted. I need to go to bed, so I will end this by asking for your continued prayer support and thoughts everyday.
Zack Renier
ISM Guatemala