Wednesday: We arrive in Guatemala City in the evening. After we pick up our bags, we join the crowds of people rolling their luggage to the curbside. Jorge Sommerkamp arrives with his wife in two compact white vans. Jorge is the orphanage's mission teams coordinator and wears many hats at the orphanage. He greets us and then packs our bags in the van like tamales stacked in a warmer for sale&emdash;without an inch to spare. The city is lit with neon signs&emdash;lavaderias, llanterias, cafes, McDonald's&emdash;but before we know it we are inside the thick, high concrete walls of the orphanage, Hogar Rafael Ayau. The men are heading to the hills where they will enjoy tall trees and a pleasant breeze. They will be staying at the San Miguel Orphanage where the boys, ages 10 and older live.
Thursday: The women sleep in two rooms on spartan beds, lined in rows with matching green and white cotton blankets. As the sun begins to rise, the roar of a 747 fills the space&emdash;from the cool, wide paver tiles to the sunny yellow cement ceilings of the sleeping lofts&emdash;it screams through the room and then it's gone. The sound of horns, music, shouts, cars without mufflers, cars with megaphones announcing what's for sale&emdash;or who's running for office, street traffic and the halting screech of a nearby bird quickly fill the silence. For those that make it to breakfast, beans, rice, toasted bread (made fresh in the orphanage bakery) and coffee are served early at 6:40 every morning. By 9:00 AM all of the women gather outside for orientation. Our coordinator at the orphanage is Christina, a petite woman with a flash of soft black hair and a warm smile. She lays out the ground rules and then gives us a tour of the newly expanded church, administrative offices, classrooms, nursery, bedrooms and of course, the comedor (cafeteria). As we walk through the grounds, we encounter children&emdash;in classrooms and playing cheerfully. The sight of so many children all at once, all precious in their own way, brought a few tears to my eyes and I know I wasn't the only one. After a lunch of beans, tortillas and vegetables, we go to work on painting the church ceilings, a larger task than we anticipate, but still one we are able to accomplish. In the evening after vespers we sit in the church with Mother Maria. With a sparkle in her eyes, she tells us story after story of how hardened children&emdash;even at 4 years-old, jaded and stripped by the streets&emdash;passed through the orphanage gate and come to know the tenderness of God through the Church, slowly softening into the child that they were meant to be. So many heartbreaking stories with a joyful ending, stories that remind us who has the victory. By the end of the 2nd day I was reminded of the lessons that one learns on a mission trip&emdash;time after time&emdash;flexibility, selflessness, being pushed to go beyond one's self to reach out to the other. We are pushed so little in our daily lives to go outside of what is comfortable. At first it is uncomfortable to go beyond, but it is so good for our character.
Friday: We spend the majority of the day painting the walls of the church, with the men coming over from San Miguel to pitch in. We give every spare minute we have on the trip to play with the children. Today, the women play with the boys in the newly landscaped park where a paved track wraps around the park with the gentle curve of a ribbon. Young trees, bushes covered in lavender blossoms and decorative logs line the edges. Children race on roller skates, ride bikes, and play games with missionaries. Soon the park is filled with wide smiles and handfuls of laughter, from children that are all delicately, lovingly made by God.
Saturday: Most of the team continue to paint the interior of the church&emdash;making tremendous progress, while some help the older girls (pre-teen and teenage) make thank-you cards for the people in the States who have given in some way to the orphanage. The result is bundles of cards in a rainbow of colors, adorned with hearts, flowers and icons.
Sunday: Liturgy begins at 9:30 am and every moment is fraught with beauty. Watching the children process to venerate the icons and then take communion is humbling. Most of us can not understand much of the language in the service, but we can understand it in our hearts. After lunch the children gather in the administrative building for an afternoon of very organized movie watching. All of the children are seated&emdash;boys on the left, girls on the right&emdash;from the youngest in the front and the oldest in the back of the long, cool room. The first film was Rey de Leon (The Lion King). The children sit in rapt attention to the story with wide eyes. The orphanage owns a popcorn machine and they make their own recipe, complete with consume de pollo (chicken seasoning) for the kids in their own, carnival style popcorn bags. It is very tasty. By the second film, Annie, the boys began to get restless, but the girls sing along to all the songs.
Monday: With still some painting to be done, part of the team put on their paint scrubs, others tutored individual kids and the rest organized games with the boys in the gym. It was, to all of us, something different&emdash;but we were all giving something that was needed. Mother Ines is at vespers that tonight and the children line up obediently to receive her blessing&emdash;it is a memorable sight.
Tuesday: The women climb into the Hogar Rafael van and are driven by Jorge to the San Miguel Orphanage where the men were staying. The van sails around curvy roads up to our destination. Even when we enter the heavy metal gate of the orphanage, we are still going uphill. Neat rows of colorful buildings sit on either side of the drive, beginning with the church&emdash;which used to be a recycling factory. There are classrooms and a bakery, where the boys learn to make sweet breads from a professional pastry chef. Up a little ways lies a parking lot and the woodworking room where the boys learn to cut and stain crosses and all kinds of items&emdash;like miniature sandals and wooden flowers. The boys greet us with shy smiles and continue on with their work. After a brief time at San Miguel, we squeeze the entire team into the van and head for the Monastery. Mother Ines is waiting for us as we drive through the barbed-wood gate and down the bumpy lane to the Church-in-construction. What a sight to see! Just a skeleton, really of concrete and draped with scaffolding, with a view that takes my breath away&emdash;of a lake so blue and green it hardly seems real. Mother Ines stands in the middle of this church&emdash;without a roof, just walls and cuts for windows and doors, perched on the edge of a verdant cliff&emdash;and spreads her arms out wide as she tells us stories of how God provided for the materials. Next, we walk a short distance a low building that holds the present chapel that flows into the dining area and a bright, airy kitchen. The chapel, small in size, but great in beauty, is flooded with light from the many windows in the building. The kitchen boasts wild honey and immune boosting mushrooms among other items that a visitor can take home. As our time comes to a close at the monastery, we walk up the road to see the house that will one day, God willing, be the older girl's living quarters. This house is a whitewashed little castle of room after room with a lake view and large seating areas. Owned once by a wealthy man who later went bankrupt, it is now the property of the monastery. After a wow-filled morning we travel some distance to the colonial town of Antigua, where we spend a day full with wonderful food, shopping, and well, more shopping.
Wednesday: Today, 3 of our team members flew home, which leave 4 men and 10 women on our team. The day is full of activity. I spend first part of the morning with the toddlers and help children with their Neuro-Net exercises. Neuro-net is a program that was developed with help children stimulate and connect the right and left sides of the brain. Exercises are adapted to age from infants to teens. The toddlers walk in a big group circle&emdash;backwards and forwards, slow and fast, and bounce on balls. Their eyes light up when the instructor puts the music on, and the bouncing begins. Another exercise is done on a makeshift sit-n-spin. The children lay on the smooth flat wood&emdash;bellies down&emdash;and spin in circles, with every kind of variation. After the toddlers finish, several of the women gather in the gymnasium with the school age kids for their Neuro-Net activities. All across the length of the gym are straight lines of girls and lines of boys, about a dozen in all, facing towards their instructor at the front. As the music starts&emdash;pop songs and some country (in Spanish and English), the instructors start moving&emdash;what I can only describe as something like low-impact aerobics, with a little square dancing mixed in. This is a regular part of the kid's lives that not only makes them fit, but mentally alert. The afternoon brings more activity as a few of us tutor individual children on reading and writing. Others teach a Macedonian dance to the teenage girls. That evening, we enter the young girl's rooms and let them play with our hair while Sarah, a long-term missionary, strums on her guitar and sings choruses. I leave with smooth hair and a big smile.
Thursday: Today is the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist. In the morning we attend an awe-inspiring string of services. The thrilling sound of church bells ringing loudly mingling with the children's bold voices was breathtaking&emdash;a little glimpse of heaven, maybe? Our last day, we have lunch and the women on our team dance gracefully with the teenage girls. The children respond with cheers. This Macedonian dance is traditionally the last dance at a wedding or other important celebrations and a group of the women perform it with the girls as a gesture of thanks. Then, the girls show us a few Guatemalan dances and receive more cheers. Before the evening service, an important event takes place, the blessing of the new vehicles&emdash;vehicles, which will be used to transport children through the sometimes-narrow streets of Guatemala. The 2 compact SUVs are reason to rejoice. Father Emmanuel begins to bless the first vehicle, with a throng of children and adults making a half circle around him. Next, Father Steven blesses the second vehicle&emdash;all shiny and glistening with holy water. There were joyful smiles all around as we saw God at work. Later, the team lines up in the park and we kneel on the grass as all of the children, one by one, say goodbye and give us a hug. With so many loving hugs all of the warmth and goodness of these children spread over us. We leave knowing that in this place, each child is resting in the healing hand of God. Grace Cosby, Christ The Savior/Holy Spirit Orthodox Church; Cincinnati OH; July 2004
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