Back in July my husband and I were invited by a good friend, who is now a Professor at Cairin University, to go to Guatemala for 10 days. I went with his class of 14 students (as chaperone and translator ) who are in a cohort program studying Urban Studies. As an "unofficial" student, I still learned and was challenged through out the whole trip. As you can imagine it was hard adjusting back to my world here in the states. After being expose to what we all did in ten days, how can my life ever be the same? The students focused on three ares of the country, their school systems, health system and criminal justice. It's really hard to put into words what I took back from this trip, but I know GOD has a plan for everything and purpose. Just one topic alone can take hours to write about and I don't think i'll last that long. One thing I can honestly say is that traveling outside the US always made me appreciate everything I have and not take things for granted. It also makes me realize what is important in life. What we may at times make a big deal out of is really trivial. Can we stop complaining if our coffee is cold, and just be thankful to have coffee. Can we stop complaining about not having anything to wear, and be thankful for having clothes. Can we stop complaining about our homes being messy, and be thankful for having walls, flushing toilet and running water. Can we stop complaining about having to do homework, and be thankful for the opportunity for higher learning.
Aside from all the obvious hardship and lack of resource there was beauty everywhere. My visual sense went bananas as I had fun exploring all the colors and textures. It was good revisiting Guatemala and of course seeing Antigua again. Part of my heart reminds there and always will. I know i'll be back someday.
Signing off..oxoxCoke Stains and Cupcakes..oxox Painthead™
