corners of my mind

In the current phase of my self-organization, I am sorting through boxes of pictures and shredding duplicates and unsentimental photos. One of these days I may even break out my scrapbooking supplies, but for now I’m simply downsizing. I’ve spent considerable time with my mission trip photos, particularly those from Guatemala. While I only spent one week there, it is an experience I will not soon forget. It’s been around 2 years since I was there, but I’ve had friends go back for longer stays. Being there gave my soul a completely new experience.

While at the Casa, your priorities are completely different. There were no concerns about beating traffic, catching up on paperwork, my looming Masters paper, that new skirt at the Gap, or tomorrow night’s Gilmore Girls. My daily duties were quite simple, and yet extremely significant. Waking up with the sunrise, I would walk over to the baby dorm and help with 25 bed babies. Entering the room was in itself an experience, with many of the babies already standing in their cribs and crying, while others will still clinging to the last precious moments of sleep. We would lift them out of their cribs, give them morning hugs, change diapers, bathe those who messed themselves, change clothes, and entertain them until breakfast. Feeding multiple babies simultaneously was quite entertaining in itself ~ Molly, Sarah, and I have some great pictures of this If I knew how to download them (I’m not in the digital age).

The rest of my day was pretty much spent loving children. I played soccer with a deaf child who seemed to forgive my lack of athletic ability in favor of my knowledge of his language. I was able to gain the friendship of some of the pre-teen girls by drawing pictures of them on a notepad (and I am a terrible artist). I rocked children, sang songs, gave lots of hugs and pushed a lot of swings. I learned that even six-year-old Guatemalan girls understand sarcasm and use it quite skillfully. I also learned to always ask the teenagers how much driving experience they have before letting them get behind the wheel.

Evenings were consumed with cooking meals (Molly and I learned we could experiment well with the ingredients at hand), spending time in worship, and just plugging into each other’s experiences. Even side trips to Antigua and Guatemala City had a surreal feel to them.

I know that life cannot be this removed from reality, and that for those living in that day-to-day reality life is not always so serene. But its nice to experience it, and to be able to look back upon it, and to remember that life doesn’t have to be so complicated.