Sunburned and Tired

As I sit and write this at 9:00 PM I am relatively sure many of the group are lying in bed.   After a full day of soccer and basketball in the hot sun and a trip up into the mountains, they tell me they are exhausted.  Fr. Hazelton invited us up once again today while at mass in the village to sing “When the Saints Go Marching In.”  It is evident this will be a regular event, so we have committed ourselves to learning more than one verse.  He takes a great amount of pride in the song so by tomorrow we will know more than the chorus.

Tomorrow we will spend the day at La Asuncion’, the school Father Hazelton has supported and built from the ground up about three miles up into the mountains.  This school educates kids from the town and from the mountain villages in hopes that they can make their lives better.  Three languages are taught at the school:  Spanish, Kiche’, and English.  Our Carroll grad, Alex Woelkers, who is a volunteer here this year has been working up at the school for the past months teaching and living with the boys in the dormitory.  Alex’s last day is tomorrow and then he will be returning back to Helena with us next week.

We have more basketball planned with the kids and possibly some swimming.  Also a tour of the school and a stop in the morning at a public school so we can compare.

Each day we have had over 550 hits on our blog which makes me feel that we are being supported by so many thoughts and prayers from people.  As great as this experience is, it is certainly not easy.  Poverty is complex and even more complex when we come from a place where so many opportunities are available to us.   It can be so easy to see smiles and happiness and believe people here have what they need to survive.  It leaves many questions to mind as to what they have a right to:  clean water, good education, going places for better opportunities for their families, and health care are just a few to mention.

I am humbled by the commitment that Sheila, Fr. Hazelton, Sister Mary and Sister Ana have to the people  here.  Change here comes very slow and it can be so easy to want to measure this country by the standards of our own country and try to see things as black and white or right and wrong.  The experience here, however, is so much more complex.

There is so much more to come in our journey and I look forward to where it will take us!

Thank you for your prayers!

Peace,

Colleen