We spent 10 days in a very small community outside of San Martin, Guatemala. They welcomed us with open arms, and truly made us feel like part of their families.
Opening Ceremony
Over the course of the next 10 days we cleaned, scrapped, and repainted the pre-school and elementary school.
We also played soccer, went on mini adventures, experienced Guatemalan culture, and fell in love with every Guatemalan child we encountered.
This is Don Chepe...
He is the leader in the community and one of the my sincere and genuine people you will ever meet. He has made the trek from Guatemala to the US 3 times in hopes of making money to give his family a better life.
On our last day in San Martin we taught the kids about washing their hands--which is apparently and issue in the town that causes a lot of diseases/infections to occur.
We wrote and acted out a funny little play about washing hands.
It was so much fun and the kids loved it!
Clean hands! =)
Mas niños!
These cuties made the long days worth it
This is Maxima; we became inseparable throughout our time in San Martin. Though there was a definite language barrier, we got by with lots of hugs, hand motions and my impeccable spanglish.
Ten days flew by and before we knew it we had to part ways with our new friends.
I will never forget the people we met and the gratitude they showed for the simple things we were able to do throughout the week. They were so happy and thankful for all we accomplished and yet the whole group wished we could have stayed and done even more. Who knows if I'll ever make it back to San Martin, or even Guatemala for that matter, but at the very least I will always have the memories and friendships we formed with the community.
After our stay in San Martin, we went to Antigua for about a day a half for a action-packed-mini-adventure:
Pacaya Volcano, an active volcano!
Zip-lining
Guatemala was a great trip for so many reasons and the perfect way to end my four years at La Salle.
(Oh, and here is a video one of the adult leaders put together of our trip)
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