Day two

It’s been another great day down here in Guatemala.  Even though we have only been in the country for about 40 hours it feels like we have been in for much longer.  Tonight Abbie Rothstrom and Bri Stonebraker will be sharing a little bit about their experiences today in Linda Vista (the squatter’s village).

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Today my heart was filled with love and joy by the kids at both the preschool and secondary schools we visited. At the preschool, we put on two skits, David and Goliath, and Daniel and the Lion’s den. I wasn’t in either skit so I got to sit alongside the children. There was this group of about five kids who were very excited to have a big kid sit with them, it was so adorable watching them listen to the skit and get so excited at the end and laugh when the skit members were being funny. After we did the skits and sang a couple songs, we brought out a few beach balls and bubbles for the kids to play with. A lot of the girls liked to play with the bubbles and pop them. There was a little, shy boy named Javi who I ended up making a connection with that loved the bubbles as well. We also brought out the parachute to play with which just ended up with the kids, and group members, running under the parachute and jumping around under there. I have never seen so much joy on the kids’ faces, or anyone else’s. They had so much joy and excitement for us to be there and it was such an amazing site, I don’t think I will ever forget them. After lunch we went to the secondary school and we sang some songs for them and then acted out the same skits as before. Miguel Baza ended up sharing his story with the kids and touching a lot of them, it was really cool to watch. Lots of them were effected by his story and you could see their emotions, which made me think about how emotions are all universal and how we all share them. I wish I would’ve known more Spanish so I could have connected with them more. They were all very interested in our lives and it was really cool to see how engaged they were. I can’t wait for tomorrow at the women’s shelter and do some help as well as interact with the other kids there. God’s presence has already been so prominent here and I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for us.

Brianna Stonebraker

Today I had the privilege to visit a preschool and secondary school that are both located in the squatter’s village in Linda Vista. There were around 16 of us going to the village. We arrived at the preschool and while we were waiting for one of the teachers to open up the door for us, we could hear lots of laughing. There were 75 children in the little school and it was so surreal just being there. While part of our team was putting on a skit for the children, I saw this little girl sitting up against a wall. She had black curly hair and the cutest, little smile. I ended up sitting down next to her. She didn’t speak one word of English so I was trying to remember how to say and ask her certain things in Spanish. I asked her what her name was and she told me it was Melissa. She ended up resting her head against me and it just made my heart melt, she was so sweet. She started talking to me in Spanish and all I could do was just nod and smile because I had absolutely no idea what she was saying. Throughout our time at the preschool, we played with bubbles, beach balls, and a giant rainbow parachute. All the kids circled up around the parachute and grabbed ahold of the parachute and moved it up and down, creating ripples. The kids, including us, went underneath it, dancing and jumping up and down. While we were playing with the parachute, Doug took class pictures of the students and we were able to be in them as well. When it was time for Melissa’s class to go, I jumped in behind and she grabbed my hand to hold it. I had the best time playing with all the kids. When we went to the secondary school, we sang songs, acted out skits, and asked each other questions about our lives. It took them awhile to open up but they were very respectful and nice. The second song we sang to them was called Rockfist, which is a Rock and Roll song. We got all of the students to stand up and we all went around dancing and rocking out. Some of them laughed and some of them looked at us like we were absolutely crazy. It was hilarious, we had a great time. It was so cool to meet the kids and create relationships with them. It was one of the best days I have ever had.