The sense of true community begins

Sunday is always a disorienting day for the team.

After the mad-dash of the early morning the day before at the airport followed by the travel by plane and bus, the team shows up in Santa Cruz in the evening just in time to get their bearings, adjust for changes from the previous year's trip and rush off to dinner with evening reflection back at the hotel. Whew! With such a full day, it would be fair for the team to wake up Sunday morning wondering if the previous day was merely a dream... until they heard from the next courtyard over the rooster crow at sunrise. Yep, they are in Guatemala. :)

Back when the team stayed at the Hogar De Los Ancianos, the two things that signified that we were in Guatemala was the dogs barking all night outside our windows as they tried to guard against things that go "bump in the night" such as one of us using the restroom. And the other thing that was the, um, singer across the dirt road in the Pentecostal Church. This isn't a knock against that church so much as this lady would make Simon Cowell's head implode. Let's just say that the dogs barking and howling were quite a relief at times. I just wish that there was a recording of this so that we could share it on the blog here. Fortunately, she did not perform encore concerts after her Saturday session.

And now on to pictures and commentary from Susan and Deacon Al from the team's experiences on Sunday...

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Yesterday was an all inspiring day with our sister parish and Fr. Tomas (the new pastor of our sister parish, Sagrado Corazon de Jesus)! The Mass was tri-lingual so that our team could feel part of the community. Specifically, the Mass started off in English for us and then it shifted back to Spanish and Quiche with Fr. Tomas including Deacon Al in the celebration.

Plus, Fr. Tomas asked Deacon Al to baptize two children from the community.

After Mass, the team met with Fr. Tomas and visited about his vision of the missionary relationship. Following this meeting, the team went over to the Grand Salon where the youth of the church surprised the team with a marimba concert. Needless to say, the team felt very special with this unexpected gift. Many team members had tears of joy and gratitude!

Silvia may have even picked up a new skill in case the whole restaurant business doesn't work out for her.

After the concert, we were able to meet with the community leaders to share with them our thoughts on the mission and to hear their view points as well. Additionally, we learned about the outreach activities that they had within their own communities.

The Hogar experience blew everyone away, again! Rosie has several new boyfriends. And, sorry, Stephen but Deacon Al has stolen away your girlfriend - she thinks he is you with glasses.

The team is already a family! We are fighting a bit of rain and mud, but our spirits are high and full of anticipation.

I would say that the true highlight of the day was the Mass. The simplicity of the Mass and the inclusion of three languages and three cultures taught everyone that we are all one Body of Christ with one Faith!

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Why is today that a sense of community happens? My guess is that the truly open welcoming that the mission team receives during and after Mass is part of it. Before the team even arrives in Guatemala, it is taught to integrate itself and assimilate to the community around itself for we are just mere guests. Now, please do understand that there is always the temptation to observe things and want to make suggestions as we are so accustomed to in our home country. Yet, it's nearly impossible to truly comprehend all that one witnesses while on mission. Many times it takes several return trips for it all to fit together, which makes sense as in a way the mission team is just popping into our sister parish community's daily life as its in progress. How easily the team fits into that daily life is how the sense of community occurs. This mission team is standing on the shoulders of previous teams by continuing relationships long built previously. To be able to stand on those shoulders, our sister parish helps to give us the necessary boost us up and they hold us steady so that we don't falter.

Likewise, the community of Sagrado Corazon de Jesus will be there waiting for next year's mission team and ready to except that team with open arms as well.

Will you be on that team?

Well, let's revisit the day's sequence. Sunday is just like everyday for the team in Guatemala - very full. The morning starts off with a short ride on the bus or (optional) a mile-or-so walk through the Sunday markets and past the Cathedral to our sister parish on the other side of town. Mass is nothing short of beautiful as described above - a truly heart-felt experience full of sights, sounds and incense.

As in the past, after Mass, the team met with Fr. Tomas. He is offering a new direction for our missionary relationship by creating more structure and self-sufficiency from within his parish community. Specifically, Fr. Tomas is creating a lay organization comprised of leaders from each of the aldeas (rural communities) that will help guide the direction of the mission and evaluate the merits of financial grant requests from all of the aldeas. These recommendations will be communicated to Fr. Tomas and he will provide his feedback to our team so that we can better make collaborative decisions.

Following the meeting with Fr. Tomas, the team visits with the community leaders as you can see in the photos above and heads back to the hotel to eat their sack lunches. There is a bit of downtime at the hotel to rest and get ready for the first day of school on Monday.

In the middle afternoon, the team drives over to the Hogar De Los Ancianos. The Hogar is run by the Sisters of the Incarnate Word out of Houston. This compound type facility on the southwest side of town contains dormitory style housing for the ancianos along with a dining facility, courtyard, gardens and a simple, but beautiful chapel. This gem is surrounded by a wall with a gate to both protect the ancianos and the facilities. More so, the ancianos who live here are essentially abandoned people who had previously lived on the streets or no longer have family to take care of them. The Hogar provides them all of their needs, but by living there, the ancianos agree to not to leave the facility as the concern is that they would be back on the streets to be abused or neglected again. All of their needs are most definitely taken care of here. :)

The biggest danger in visiting the Hogar is wonderful little gentleman that we dubbed the kisser. He received this nickname a few years back when he locked on to Elaine (unfortunately for her, he was the same height) and he just gave her a big hug and kiss on the check. He could be called the magicman as clearly he's working his mojo on Susan this year. Ha!

After the team returns from the Hogar, they head off to dinner at La Martita's and spend the rest of their evening in team reflection as well as preparing for the next day.

Hopefully, the team was able to enjoy the downtime during the early afternoon because there is no rest for the weary from here on out!

Seriously - are these folks missionaries?!?

The first batch of pictures have come in from the team - this time courtesy of Lili.

Yes, you may think to yourself... "hmmm, I suppose the church should double-check who they let go on mission". Don't worry, these folks maybe slightly crazy, but it's a good kind of crazy.

:)

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Per Lili - Jenna and Rosie are shown enjoying a fun airline ride this morning to Guatemala city.

Not everyone was as comfortable as them, for we had 3 people (including myself) who experienced their first plane ride EVER! As shown in this next picture, Tito quickly grabbed the barf bag before departure! It was kind of disturbing, since he was sitting next to me...

This next picture is an arial view of the beautiful landscaping while entering Guatemala.

We arrived safely and decided to party, by celebrating Michelle's birthday at La Martita's restaurant in Santa Cruz del Quiche. She was completely surprised and didn't react till the second verse of "Happy Birthday".

It's been a long day full of exitement. Everyone seems to be looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Goodnight from Santa Cruz del Quiche in Guatemala (: like some of the others, I still can't believe I'm here.

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It's always amazing how happy everyone is on the first day as it always seems to be the longest. Not only does the team have to show up at the airport early in the morning, most likely, many of the team members did not get much sleep the night before as they may have been trying to tie off loose ends at home in preparation for the trip, packing their carry-on bag and backpack or just simple enjoying a mild case of anxiety.

Of course, the adreneline that kicks in to survive the morning, eventually wears off just in time for a nap on the bus ride between Guatemala City and Santa Cruz del Quiche.

So far though, the team looks happy and ready for the days ahead!

So this is why we have travel insurance...

Hola from the hospital!

A funny thing happened to me this week - I begun to have pains in my abdomen on Tuesday evening and thought it was simply a case of food poisoning or something else mundane. Well, by Thursday afternoon, I was in excruciating pain and in the Emergency Room at Willowbrook Methodist Hospital. Now, keep in mind that my wife had been telling me to go to the doctor since Tuesday evening, but alas, I was not smart enough to agree with her.

So here I am Friday evening after finally going into the hospital yesterday for an emergency appendectomy. Since I won't post the picture of my appendix in this blog post, I will just provide you a link to Wikipedia for your own reading pleasure. Needless to say, I was very fortunate to have access to such good care as my appendix was very close to rupturing.

Now why is this newsworthy to the blog? Well, I thought to myself yesterday how fortunate I am that this occurred now and not right before the trip to Guatemala or in Guatemala for that matter. Yet, our mission team is very fortunate in that we have a really good travel insurance policy in the event that these unforeseen events occur. Our good friends at SOS went through the time and effort to arrange a travel insurance policy for their team and ours.

Obviously, we hope to never need this insurance, but it is there to make sure that we have the best care accessible whether that means staying in Guatemala or flying back to the U.S. for a procedure. That sure is peace of mind to me.

By the way, the picture below is members of last year's Prince of Peace mission delegation along with the Fr. Diego Agapito Santiago. (He's the man with the red shirt, glasses and long hair.) Members of the POPCC delegation for 2006 were Tony Stewart, Miguel Alvizures, Philomela Jamiro, Lily Villarreal, Elaine White, and myself.

Now, on a completely separate, but somewhat related note: I am often reminded in unexpected ways of how blessed I am to be part of the Prince of Peace Catholic Community. Recently, when Elaine and I lost our twins at the end of her first trimester, we received some many loving words, notes and cards of care, compassion and concern. This was also the case when we lost our daughter a few years ago as she was stillborn.

And today, I had the pleasure of receiving Holy Communion from Barbara Crum as she is a volunteer with the parish's Pastoral Care. While my wife registered me as being Catholic, I did not expect that someone from the parish would come by to share their love of Christ and pray with us. I feel so very touched and fortunate. Thus, thank you to all who are involved in Pastoral Care, including Deacon Al Prescott who leads this gargantuan effort. May God continue to bless you for the work that you do as you have blessed so many people in your work.

There's no crying in basketball!

One common concern that I hear from people who are unsure about going on mission is that they do not speak Spanish. Usually, my retort is that the people that we visit on mission do not speak Spanish too!

I think that my mom would describe this as being a "smart something or another". Yet, I call it as I see.

In the rural communities, the people there grow up speaking their native tongue of Quiche (pronounce Ki'che; not quiche like the French food). As they have to learn Spanish in school - primarily kindergarten, I think they have an acute awareness of what it is like to not be able to communicate with others due to a language barrier. From this, I have experienced a great deal of tolerance and understanding from our friends in Chicabracan to the fact that I do not speak Spanish.

Actually, the kids go out of there way to try to find the few words that I do know in Spanish to parse together what they are thinking or asking. Sometimes they even pepper in a few English words that we teach them during class.

One such practical experience of non-verbal communication and helplessness (on my part) came a few years ago in an unusual setting.

Since I am limited linguistically, I really enjoy playing sports with the kids. This is something that transcends words, of course. In particular, I play basketball with the girls as this is apparently a girl's sport there and I love basketball. Clearly the boys have never seen LeBron James or Yao Ming because if you toss them a basketball, they turn away like it has cooties.

Well, as we were playing basketball during recess, someone's shot at the basket missed quite considerably and headed down the 10-foot ramp to the dirt road and field below. (I do not claim this air ball as my own, but I definitely kept the kids "cool" by throwing up plenty of air myself that day.) I gave chase to the ball so we could keep playing, except that I forgot one thing... how much it had rained the night before. Aye caramba!!! Eventually I did realize it had rained because I was 20 feet into a very muddy field. Since I didn't want to slide in the mud, I slowed down pursuit of the ball as best as I could and tried to find a dry spot or two.

A few little girls had given chase after me knowing the field conditions and one went to retrieve the ball for me while I headed to the one wash basin at the school to somehow clean all of the mud off of my pant legs, shoes and feet (because, of course, I was wearing sandals).

As I scrambled around trying to wash off without making a scene, I was out-of-luck! Kids started to congregate around me in this tiny room with the low-hung roof. I am often called El Gigante in the rural villages for this very reason. After about a half-minute of trying to wash my foot in the washtub with the one bar of soap, the little girl who picked up the basketball appeared. She had a medium-sized bucket and towel in her hands and she was going to help me clean off.

Actually, she was there to help me wash and dry my feet. PAUSE. Yes, she was doing just like Jesus did when he kneeled down to wash the feet of his disciples as told in John's Gospel.

Needless to say, I was immensely humbled and have always felt touched by this simple gesture for which no words were needed.

By Papal decree

Did you know that by Papal decree that all bishops who visit Guatemala are required to teach basketball lay-up drills?

Well, I suppose since this isn't true, that's probably why you didn't know this. Perhaps at the next Vatican Council, this topic will be covered though. ;)

As you can see above, Bishop Rizzotto is helping the girls at the school with their basketball practice. During recess, the girls were practicing with their teachers because they had a basketball game against another community later in the week. And, yes, in case you are asking already, the girls do play their games in the attire above (blouse, skirt and flats). This is really their only outfit or set of clothes.

Also, these girls are pretty good at basketball too! Especially, considering the Maya are not very tall, the kids are fast and can run, run, run. Unlike gringos like me who come from sea-level, the kids have no problem shooting hoops at 6,500 feet. Whew!

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In case Archibishop DiNardo happens to sneak a peak at this blog, Bishop Rizzotto did do his fair share of work too. In the picture below, he answers a young man's question during the 5th/6th grade faith formation class. Muy bueno!

Missioning to me

In July 2003, my wife and I made our first trip to Guatemala as part of the Sending Out Servants (SOS) mission program. This mission group is the origination and guide to the mission work that we are doing now as part of a parish-based mission program at Prince of Peace Catholic Community in Houston. Many of the reasons we love this experience so greatly (perhaps I am even addicted?!?) is because of how much groundwork SOS has trail blazed for us.

As part of the evolution of the mission program, the missionary teams preceding us were wise to heed the interests and desires of the local community and its needs. For example, as missionaries, we do not run down to Guatemala to tell the people there how to live. In fact, we go to be one with the people and to learn as much or more than what we may teach. This principal led the mission effort directly to one of our core programs today - youth faith formation in the Chicabracan Primero school.

By the time that my wife and I came along in 2003, the mission teams had been teaching on a regular basis for a few years in the school after being invited by the leaders of the rural community (Chicabracan Primero) to teach and share there. This school covers K through 6th grade and is funded by the government. Yet, the parents actually run the school. In the picture above, we had just concluded our farewell gathering with the teachers, parents and the mission team from the 2006 trip.

This meeting is always very emotional because of how much honest love between the community and our team exists already. If you ask any team member, it's very hard to leave after being there for only a handful of days.

In particular, one such farewell is something that I will always cherish and, as I understand, it happened to be the first one that the teachers coordinated. This impromptu celebration was coordinated unbeknownst to our team. Toward the end of recess on our last day, the team members were invited into one of the classrooms where there was a beautiful (and tasty!) cake and hot spiced tea-like drink. The room was decorated with all of the work that the team members and the teacher using this classroom had done during the week. (To have the cake, all of the teachers donated some money and the principal had to drive an hour and half round trip to go to the bakery in town.)

As the celebration began, one of our team members was designated as the translator for the non-Spanish-speaking tea members. Tony is such a great guy - some would describe him as big teddy bear because he sure looks ferocious, but when you get to know him, he's just a warm-hearted gentleman. As the festivities began and the cake and tea were being distributed, one-by-one the teachers at the school began to speak to us and Tony worked diligently through his translation responsibilities.

After awhile, one of the teachers stepped forward to tell her story of how much joy she had with the team members coming year after year to assist her in teaching the children the beauty of God's story. She expressed deep gratitude to us for leaving our families and homes and jobs to spend one week with her community... to be one together in Christ. Now, I can't say what was exactly was being expressed at the very moment, but I do know that the words flowing forth must have had an immense grace to them because Tony had to suddenly stop with the translations. He was so moved by the emotion of the moment and her words that for those of us who could not understand, we could feel the magnitude of the moment. We could see through him and through the teacher how important it was and still is to travel on mission to be one with people of other cultures.

Or perhaps, we travelled all the way to Chicabracan, leaving our families and homes and jobs for another reason.

Perhaps it was for them to mission to us.

My first brush...

So who are these four kids and why are these men playing futbol so effortlessly at 3,000 meters in the Andes?

Well, my journey to Guatemala first started in Peru. You may think that I happened to get lost along the way since I'm an Aggie. Yet, my first brush with another culture in a real and personal sense was when my wife and I took a trip to Peru in August 2002.

Although we climbed the multiple peaks of the Inca trail to get closer to the mountains, we found ourselves closer to God through his many people. We did not get to know the individuals in the picture to the left so much as we came away asking questions about other cultures and the way that they lived their lives.

Now my wife has experienced other cultures in a more substantive sense than myself as she was born in Kenya and move to an "other" culture in the United States when she was in elementary school. Additionally, typical of many immigrant families, my wife's family had to be careful with their finances. Yet, they still were resourceful in experiencing all that there was in their newly adopted hometown of Houston. Furthermore, when the opportunity arose, they would travel to other cultures to visit extended family in England and Goa.

So back to the picture... the four children are boys and girls that we met along the trail. For those who have hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, you know how beautiful the sights are. I believe that we went through seven different ecosystems along the way. For example, the first night was below freezing in the Andes while on the third day we were in the far western edge of the Amazon. It's funny to me and I'm sure that it's funny to the children above when the history books say that Hiram Bingham "discovered" the Lost City of the Incas as the people of this region always lived amongst the trail and the ruins.

We met the two boys on our first day on the trail at a minor resting point. The trail was easy and relaxing for the first half day. These two boys lived with their mother selling small snacks and drinks off of the trail, near their simple home. I was amazed at how kind they looked so I snapped their picture.

This was my first lesson of mission work... I had noticed that someone else had given the boys a Sol (Peruvian currency) after taking their picture. As I thought that would be a simple gesture to do, our guide quickly admonished me after asking him if this was customary. He insisted that I not turn these boys to charity cases. Instead, I was encouraged to thank them for letting me take their picture, which is what I did. Also, I learned that we can't go about throwing money at challenging situations or those situations will gladly follow you home.

The two little girls lived in the town of Olantyatambo. This town is the launching point where all the hiking teams stay the night before entering the trail. The younger girl was crying incessantly as her mom tried to calm her. I found it interesting the impact of American culture all the way down in the remote corner of the world as this little girl wore a Winnie the Pooh shorts. Obviously, these were hand-me downs from some fortunate children in the remembered world. Yet, what I noted was the need to be mindful of how wide our footprint on other beautiful and ancient cultures of the world can be.

The last child is a little girl who was working with her parents to sell walking sticks. It's amazing that we negotiated over these sticks (although mine was quite impressive AND I still have it! Ha!). Out of guilt no less, we shared with this girl some bread that we were eating at a small cafe that night. This little girls is obviously very precious, but I wonder what hers and the rest of the children's life may be now. Hopefully, it's for the better what that may be.

Which all of this leads me to the bottom picture. These are some of the men who carried our gear on the trail. I have no idea how they do it because the altitude is brutal and their loads are very heavy. Above all else though, these men found room to carry a soccer ball to play futbol on the side of a mountain where a bad kick is definitely penalized. I thank these guys for making my trip easier than it could have been, but also for providing joy in watching their playtime early on the third on the trail.

Amongst my friends

In the time ahead, I plan to share various pictures, videos and sounds from my travels abroad while specifically highlighting the communities and friends that we visit in Santa Cruz del Quiche, Guatemala.

The above picture is my beautiful wife with her goofy husband before Mass. ;)

And no, she did not make me write this!

In the photo are children that we work with in the local, parent-run school, which is based in the rural area known as Chicabracan Primero. We took this photo on a typically beautiful Wednesday afternoon outside of the San Pedro oratorio. It always amazes me to see how much joy the children and adults exhibit to us considering all of the violence these communities have experienced over the recent decades.

Even the little boy in red to the left of the picture knows well enough to goof around with the ol' rabbit ears almost being held behind someone's head in the photo. This must be a universal thing for kids. Ha!