Sam's Blog
Pictures
I've put up pictures from the Guatemala trip. I have everybody's pictures but unfortunately there are so many pictures that I can't upload them all to my flickr account until next month when I get more bandwidth from flickr. Also, if you want to order pictures from flickr only use pictures from either my photos or Katie's photos. I had to upload everybody else's photos at lower resolutions (which won't look good when printed) in order to get as many photos online as possible. If you want any of the originals for printing just email me and I'll send them to you.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samueldean/sets/
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments
Father Gregory
Yesterday Father Gregory spoke to us about poverty. It was an excellent talk and I won´t ruin it by trying to recap it here, but I will say it was a very moving and enlightening talk. Thankfully Katie got it on video so once I´ve had a chance to digitize it for the web I will post it online.
Earlier yesterday we went to Providencia. It´s a very beautiful community and I look forward to posting even more pictures of it online once I get home. We visited there in March, but since then they have built a new bridge. They are making excellent progress and I look forward to visiting there in years to come and watching the progress.
Tomorrow we leave for Antigua. I´m kind of sad because the trip has gone so fast. I could pretty easily stay a couple more weeks and maybe longer. Oh well, there´s always next year. This will probably be the last post unless I get online in Antigua. Hope everything is going well with everybody back home and I will see you all soon.
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments
Done!!!!!!!!!!
I don´t want to get ahead of myself but we got the building done today! It´s a great sense of accomplishment. I feel like I finished what I started in March. Let me back up a little bit. Yesterday, we had most of the walls and about 2/3rds of the roof when we left. Today, we finished up the roof, got the rest of the walls up and put up all the trim. The building looks great. We had a meeting today with the leaders of the town where they thanked us for all of our work. We are going back Friday for the celebration and dedication of the new building.
On another note the kids were out in full force today. They have really opened up and many of us had a great time playing with them. I´ve played more soccer this week then I have in years! The kids also learned how to play horse shoes and some of them enjoyed this baton thingy. I´m sure that´s not the technical term, but that´s how I describe it. I´ve got tons of pictures of us and the kids playing. By the way I have to say that the boys beat the girls in soccer both days. Obviously I was on the boys team.
Just a quick note about the travel arrangements. The last two days everybody from out group has piled into one pick-up in true guatemala style. And by Guatemala style I mean we had 18 people in the back (with back packs) and 5 people in the cab. Good times!
Since we finished early I think the plan for tomorrow is to visit Providencia and see if there is anything we can do to help there. Everybody is doing well and that´s all I can think to write at the moment. Hope everybody in America is doing well! ¡Adios!
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 2 Comments
Construction day 1
Today we started the construction on the community center for the village. I thought it went pretty well. Of course I´m just happy that we got the building. We got the skeleton of the building up and we didn´t get rained on at all. It´s their rainy season so that was a good thing. Got lots of sun and hopefully I sleep great tonight!
I ran into a couple girls that were here in March from LMU. It´s pretty cool to see people coming back. And of course I´ve met some new friends. Both in our group and outside our group. I´ve got tons of pictures from the construction effort. Everybody put in a full days work. Not really to much else to report so it´s time for me to say adios!
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 1 Comment
Tourist day
Well today we did the tourist thing. It´s pretty much the same as last time. Did some shopping with the girls in San Tiego and Panajachel. Nothing to terribly exciting. It was kinda rainy but we managed to stay dry. We ate pizza for lunch. How´s that for authentic Guatemalan food?! A few of the girls swear they saw Richard Gere driving by in a boat, but I can´t comfirm if it was really him or not. And to be honest I could really care less. Now if it was a real actor like say Jessica Alba then I might get excited.
The weather here is absolutely beautiful. It´s rained almost every day, but the temperature is perfect. Tomorrow we start work on the construction project. We have to get up at 7am to get an early start before the afternoon showers. Hopefully they don´t get in the way too much.
Tomorrow we will be leaving the site early to hear Padre Gregory speak. I´ve heard he has a wonderful story so I´ll post it here once I´ve had a chance to hear it. I think that´s all for now. Adios!
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 1 Comment
Safely in Guatemala
We made it safely in Guatemala! The trip was pretty uneventful. Very similar to the last time. We are staying Casa Blanca (White House). It is the same hotel that we stayed in last time. Ely and I went up to the roof top of the hotel last evening and had a great talk about the troubles facing Guatemala. The weather was absolutely beautiful! Once again I stayed up all night before the trip so I was exhausted last night and after Ely and I talked I went to sleep. I slept like a baby!
Today is Katie's birthday. There is a tradition of setting off a bunch of fireworks early in the morning to celebrate the person's birthday. In this case we set them off at 6:30am and woke up everybody in the hotel and probably a few people that weren't in the hotel. Then we played 'Las Mananitas' for her birthday song. Happy Birthday Katie!
After the fireworks some of us went to the building site. We laid out all the materials and made sure everything was there. A few pieces were missing but they should be back at the storage facility. It was awesome to go back to Chuissajcap. The drive up was awesome. I've got some great pictures from the mountains and also some pictures of the concrete slab with the building parts sitting on it. It's going to be great to see the building go from nothing to something.
When we got back I saw my friend Marta from the first trip. She is her usual self. She invited us to go dancing at Casa Vieja again. We might to do that tonight, but not sure yet. Well that's all I got for now. Hope everybody is doing well in the states.
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 1 Comment
Nearly time to go
This time tomorrow I'll be on my way to Guatemala or the GUA as it's known by some. In some ways I know exactly what to expect, but in other ways I have no clue. It's almost an entirely different group and I really only know two people going. Of course last time I only knew one, but I walked away a ton of new friends. I'm hoping the same thing happens this time.
Well I have a TON of stuff to do today, both at work and after work. Gotta pack. Hang out for part two of Cassy's going away. Buy an iPod charger. The list goes on and on. Oh well. I have until 3am or so to get it all done and I'm sure I'll be pushing that. Be sure to check back here while I'm in Guatemala so you can see what's going on. I'm hoping to be able to post pictures, but I don't know if I will be able to or not. If not I'll definitely have a ton of pics to post when I get back.
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 3 Comments
Ely returns!!!
Ely (Elizabeth), our translator from the first trip is going to be joining us!!! Yay! I'm really excited. Even though I only knew her for a week and a half I'm very excited about her returning with us. Her and I will be the only ones that have been to the village of Chuisajcap before. Personally, I think it will be extra special for us because we will be familiar faces to the people in the community and they will be familiar to us. Ely lives in Guatemala City and I think it's wonderful that she does this for the less fortunate of Guatemala.
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments
Facts About Chuisajcap
Ken from Side by Side Internation put together some facts about the community where we are taking the building. I thought I would post them here.
Community Facts:
- Chuisajcap means Sweet Earth or Sweet Ground
- 100 years ago there were maybe 5 families. Today there are 85 families
- 400-500 people in the community and of that 250 are children
- Total existence off the land
- Purchased their land from the government - usually very high payments, often never completed
- Near Rio Madre (Mother River) in the mountains in a beautiful valley
- On our last visit we were the first foreigners in their community
- Antonio - President/Coordinator
- 1 light bulb in house
- $8/month electric bill
- $30/month income
- Miquel - Treasurer
- Rosalina - Wife
- two daughters in school
- Pedro
- Francisco
- Gloria - Wife
- three daughters
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments
The Guatemalan Weekend
This weekend was all about Guatemala. Saturday night we had our reunion with everybody from the first trip. Well almost everybody. Jubilee couldn't make it, but everybody else was there. It was really good to see everybody. It's amazing the bonds that form with perfect strangers when you are working together in acts of unselfishness. Everybody shared a story about someone else in the group and we relived some great experiences. I've said it before and I'll say it again. To me the best part of the trip was the new friends I made both in Guatemala and friends from Kansas City. I really expected something drastic and life changing from my trip to Guatemala and what I got was certainly not drastic, but I expect it's life changing none the less. Out of the experience I got several new friends that I might have passed on the street, but would never have really known without the first trip. Everybody that went on the first trip is special and I'm looking forward to these continued relationships!
Sunday night (tonight) we had a meeting about the next trip. It's coming up soon! Only 25 days to go! Since I just recently returned from Guatemala I have to admit that the meeting tonight didn't interest me all that much. And by interest I mean I wans't so anxious becuase I've already been and it wasn't nearly as unknown. I caught myself looking at people around the room and thinking about how this next group of strangers would soon be called friends. I have to admit that on the first trip I expected to go down with Becky (and I thought Katie) and do some good, get some warm and fuzzies, see the country of Guatemala and go home. It never dawned on me that I would walk away with so many new friends. Some of my new friends weren't even in our group, but they were a group from Rockhurst. I'm still amazed at how cool that is to go to Guatemala and meet another group from Kansas City! It's a small and amazing world we live in.
Well I'm starting to get excited for the next trip. Like I said in the last post, relationships are still building because of the first trip. What other good things will come out of my willingness to go to Guatemala? What new friendships will come from the next trip? What other great things are in store? I'll let you know in 35 days! :)
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments
A fellow Guatemalan traveler
So I went tanning last night (yeah yeah, I know it's bad for you) and met a girl who had been to Guatemala also. It's not exactly a hot spot for vacation and probably not even as popular as mexico for Mission trips and service projects so I thought that connection was pretty cool. The connections didn't stop there. Naturally I was curious why she had been there three times and she said it was because her mom runs an adoption agency in Guatemala. Well that's another connection because when I was in Guatemala I met a lady who was there to take her adopted children home. And even bigger than that is the fact that I myself am adopted.
It seemed really strange to meet someone with so many commonalities, but the strangeness didn't stop there. After I mentioned I was adopted and how funny that coincidence was she said that she was adopted too! How weird is that. She is still a stranger but we have so many common threads that we instantly have a connection. A connection that most likely wouldn't be there had it not been for going to Guatemala. The Guatemalan trip that almost never happened. What a strange exciting world. And it really is a small world after all.
I encourage everybody to think about taking a trip like this. You have no idea how it will change your life. I expected big dramatic changes and what I've gotten is small, wonderful, hopefully life long connections. The trip continues to impact my life and I expect it will for a long time to come.
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments
Reflections from the last trip
Since there is only a little over a month left before I go on my next trip to Guatemala I thought I would share some of the great things that came out of the last trip. The absolute best part of the trip was all the new friends I made while in Guatemala. I made friends with a wonderful little boy named Willy. He always seemed to know when I was passing by his house and would run out of nowhere and jump right into my arms. I've never had a child do this and it was a pretty special bond that I had with Willy by the end of the trip. He was only one of many reasons it was so hard to leave.
Then there was all the people that went on the trip with Side by Side International. There are too many to name but of the dozen or so people that went I only knew one and so everybody else was a stranger at the beginning of the trip. The wonderful part about a trip like this is that nobody stays a stranger for long. By the end of the trip I considered them all friends. The trip wouldn't have been the same if each and every one of them hadn't come along. And of course I can't forget about my wonderful friend Becky. Even though she was already a friend I was very glad to have her on the trip. The only word for her is awesome!
And lastly I can't leave out my friends from Rockhurst. The last thing in the world I expected was to go to Guatemala and meet a group from Kansas City. I mean seriously, what are the chances? I know us midwesterners have big hearts but I didn't expect two groups to be there at the same time. Meeting the Rockhurst group was definitely one of the best parts of the whole trip. And better yet I've had a chance to hang out with several of them on different occasions after I returned from Guatemala.
Those are just some reflections of the trip but I think they are some of the most valuable because to me the trip was really about building relationships and that happened many times more than I expected. I never would have dreamed that I would have so many new friends just by taking a ten day trip outside the country. I can't imagine what the next trip has in store!
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments
Pictures from the last trip
In case there is anybody who doesn't already know I've posted a TON of pictures from the last trip to San Lucas, Guatemala. You can find them on my personal web site. Be warned there are a LOT of pictures. I've been collecting pictures from all the people on the trip. Pretty soon I'll be posting a condensed version of just my favorites. Of course I'll probably get this all done just in time to go on the next trip and start all over again. :)
Posted over 2 years ago | Permalink | 0 Comments