Zacapa

For those who have been waiting for me to update this blog, I'm sorry it has taken so long. I've started writing many times and haven't been able to finish. There's so much that happened in the last 2 weeks in Guatemala, and coming home has been one of the most overwhelming things I've ever experienced. But I will do my best to explain how the last 2 weeks in Guatemala were, and I hope it's been worth the wait!

The Tuesday after we wrote last the family took us out for the morning to see Xela in a new light. They took us up to a mountain that overlooked the whole city. The view was absolutely incredible, and we felt honored to have been taken there with our new family. We then went to the city park and walked around while the family pointed everything out to us. It was a lot of fun just to get out and enjoy the city, but soon it was time to work. That afternoon we went with Josias back to his house for the girls' after school program. We learned that a lot of times he picks the kids up from school and brings them back to his house for some cool down time before they have to go back to the government home to do their homework. It was good to be able to relax and play games with them before we had to say goodbye for the week. But eventually the goodbyes came, because we would be meeting up with the group on Wednesday and going to Zacapa, a town about 8 hours to the North.

If you're looking for a place in Guatemala to vacation, I have one piece of advice: don't go to Zacapa. The weather is how I imagine hell to be. It was the hottest place I've ever been, not because of the heat, but because of the humidity. I've decided it's better to be in Phoenix than in Zacapa. To make things worse, the mosquitoes and other bugs never leave you alone. But not everything about Zacapa is terrible. The people there taught me more than I've ever learned in such a short amount of time.

We stayed at the home of Pastor Orlando, who, sadly, we didn't get to know very well. The program in the government home there is very similar to the one in Xela, with Josias and Pastor German's brother Jacobo behind it all. The home itself is a little bigger, and there are more kids with more room to run around. Our week with them was spent eating lots of pizza and ice cream, going to the zoo, and swimming in Jacobo's little pool.

For us the work was a little repetitive, but for the kids that came with us every day it was an exciting adventure. One thing that I was surprised with was how attached I got to these kids after only one week. I didn't think I would become all that close to the Zacapa kids because I had already spent 2 weeks with the ones in Xela. One kid in particular, Yeifer, was Adrienne and I's little miracle boy. He was 10 years old, now has turned 11 since we've been home, and is the little nerdy boy with glasses that gets picked on by all the big boys. But, his look was deceiving. On the inside, he is one of the strongest little boys I've ever met, with an extremely sad story. He doesn't have parents, and all his siblings are living in a house without him. He was their caretaker, the oldest, and I have a feeling he was doing everything he could to earn money to support them. This led him to getting involved with drug smuggling. He told me that one day he was walking with his "friend" when the police stopped them, put both of them in handcuffs, and asked Yeifer why he was walking with this guy. They found drugs in one of their pants, I didn't understand whether they were in Yeifer's or the other guy's. Either way, the police brought Yeifer to the government home, away from his younger siblings and the only family he had left.

I thought that since Yeifer had been through so much, he had all the excuses in the world not to love anyone. He could understandably be a bitter, angry, violent little boy. But he wasn't. The first day that Adrienne and I met him, he was drawn to our guitars. It didn't matter what song we were playing, he just wanted to listen to the music. Throughout the week we grew very attached. The day we left was one of the hardest goodbyes I've made in my life thus far.

I'm not sure where Yeifer is right now. He was going to be moved to an all boys home. This home would be more violent, and a lot harder for him. There were tears forming in his eyes as he told me that he wouldn't be there next year if and when we came again. Please pray for Yeifer and all the rest of the kids of Zacapa. They all taught me a lot about unconditional love and what that means in my life.

The other person in Zacapa that taught me about love was Jacobo. There was a night that we all sat down to do a devotional, and it turned into a tear fest. Jacobo, Josias, and German's mother had died just a few short months before we came, and this night Jacobo broke down talking about it. Immediately almost everyone around was in tears, and Adrienne and I were especially teary thinking about our uncle.

Jacobo then went on to talk about his dad. When they were little, his dad was a very angry, bitter man. They were very poor, and his dad sometimes took his stress out on the kids. Not physically, but verbally. He wasn't a very loving dad. But that didn't stop Jacobo from loving his dad. Today, his dad is a very changed man. We were able to spend a lot of time with him in Xela, and grew to love the little old deaf man. Jacobo taught us a lesson about unconditional love that night. He taught us the importance of loving our family, no matter what they may have done. For me, it was an eye-opening, life changing night.

Although it was hard to leave Xela and hard to be in Zacapa, I am very thankful for the week we spent there. I don't think I would have learned as much from staying in Xela. I personally needed to meet Yeifer and Jacobo. I needed to learn about unconditional love to everyone around me, especially my family. God has truly blessed me, and He blessed the week we had with these amazing people.

Our last week in Xela will be coming...I think this is long enough already. =)