Trip 2 Day 8

My apologies for taking so long to fill out this blog for May 21st.
It was quite an adventure of a day; filled with plenty of tears, hugs and goodbyes.
Both trucks drove to the sites, while balancing a metal door, window and paint in each of their truck beds. We were piled in as well. I remember having very mixed emotions about seeing the family for the last time. We were bringing them gifts including the stools, books, pencils/pens, mirrors, New! shoes, food, etc. and a piñata. I was both excited and “muy triste,” very sad.

Knowing that I was going to be holding the children for the last time or the hand of the mother for the last time was an emotional roller coaster. While sitting beside the mother of one of the families, her husband asked Kristen for the names of each of us. Kristen mentioned that he had a conversation with some of the people from our group about believing in God and in thanksgiving for what we helped build for his family. He kept the sheet of paper with our names in a small book and said he’d continuously pray for us. Each time they would thank us, I would be compelled to thank them right back for such an experience.

Once we arrived to the site, we were again greeted by smiles, death-gripping kids :) and tickling. Soon enough we were stirring and painting. I’ve noticed that Guatemala is filled with primary colors, from the Reds, Blues and Yellows of the hammocks we laid in at Casa Sito, to the exteriors and interiors of the houses we painted. Both houses had a blue interior. The exterior of one house was yellow (shout out to “Casa Amarillo!!!”), whereas the exterior of the other house was a vivid red. This Casa Amarillo good luck charm certainly came in handy as our worker group played futbol for the last time against the other worker group after we left the family ;)

Some of us decided to unleash our artistic abilities on the wall and on each other. Before I had even decided to participate in this paint party, I had a hammer fall from the roof onto my head then into my blue tub of paint. My teeth were apparently blue as well. After taking a brake, a few of us continued with this “party” covering each other from our tops to our bottoms with primary colors. Papas looked like he had some kind of growth on his face or a late case of the Chicken Pox. Most of us including the Guatemalan workers could not escape Toran’s red-handprints-of-love on our backs…

Giving the family the keys was by far one of the best experiences of my life. After seeing Adam give the keys to one of the families, I knew it would bring me a heart attack after being chosen to give the other family their keys. The grandmother was crying. I couldn’t take it. I had no idea why I was given this kind of opportunity in the first place or what I should tell them. An interpreter helped translate our words to each other. There were so many emotions and words going on at once, so it’s hard to completely grasp what exactly happened during that moment. When I would say thank you for this opportunity; they would just thank me right back. I know that what happened then was not me, but a compilation everyone’s spirit all pushing their ways to that one moment. I just remember thinking about how much I truly wanted to learn Spanish so that I could hear the words from them instead of from an interpreter.

I couldn’t help but notice that no matter how different the familys’ lifestyles were from our own—it’s practically impossible to not be attracted to one another. We all most certainly were. With a mixture of emotions at the worksite, a piñata and paint party, a birthday night, a high class Guatemalan restaurant later on in the evening, and a live traditional Guatemalan band that played “Feliz Cumpleanos a Trina.” This was by far the BEST birthday of my life (even taking into account a hammer that fell directly atop my head as our crew of Cheeky, Edgar, and Mickey were installing the roof above)…

Every bump and bed-bug bite and new friend helped make this trip amazing. It was one of the best experiences of my life and one of the best examples of how people who, for the most part only know bits and pieces about each other, can pull together and abundantly enjoy each other’s company through the Grace of God.

When I was hugging each child and adult of the family for the last time it was hard to hold back the tears…especially when the leaders of the family—the grandmother, fathers and mothers of the group—had tears in their own eyes.
Shout outs to Sara and Toro, Kreeston, Mango, Papas, Lindsay, Giante, Cindy, Funky Chicken, the beautiful family, and the rest of the crew for the immense amount of God-given teamwork throughout these 8 FULLFILLING days. I’d go to Guatemala again in a heartbeat.
God Bless,
Trinaa.k.a. “Cheena”
a.k.a. “Cheena”