Looking Forward to New Experiences!!

Being outside of the country for the first time is a little nerve racking because of culture differences, unexpected events and of course, flying. The fears will all go away as soon as I meet my host family for the first time. I am exceptionally excited to meet the citizens of San Juan La Laguna, immerse myself into their daily lives and to share my experience with others.

Meeting people of various backgrounds is something that has always interest me. Learning about what activities others like to do during their free time and learning personal experiences are some of the things I look forward to during this trip. Most importantly, I am excited to create amazing memories with the OU group and the citizens of San Juan La Laguna.

 

In my experience with traveling, I have learned that everything does not always go as planned. Sometimes we see that as an inconvenience but in actuality it gives us the opportunity to explore places we that would have not seen because of a set schedule. During this trip, I believe that my expectations of connecting would happen no matter what the situation is. Overall, I hope to have amazing experiences to share with my family and friends when I get back home!

 

                                                                                                                   - Emerlyn Lloyd

 

The Trip in a Quote

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."

-Henry Ford

 

This quote epitomizes the purpose of the trip for me.  If it looks familiar, that is because it is the quote that is written on the picture hanging in the back corner of the fish bowl in the TLCC.  Not only does this quote describe how our group will grow together, but it also describes how we will immerse into the local community day by day.

 

At the beginning, we will come together.  For the first time on Saturday morning, everyone on the trip will be at the same place at the same time.  Similarly, when we arrive in San Juan la Laguna, we will meet the people we will spend the week with whom we have never met before.  This is the initial coming together process.  A group of people who do not know each other very well, or at all, are gathering for the common purpose of serving and learning the ways of a group of people.

 

Throughout the week, we will be forced to keep together.  We must overcome our differences and bond using our similarities.  I am not implying this will be difficult since we have such a great group and we are staying in an amazing community, but it will take work.  Each of us must make an effort to get to know our counterparts, homestays, and the locals.

 

And after all of this, we will work together.  By working together, we will have a successful trip.  Yes, it is true that we will not be changing the lives of these Guatemalans in such little time with so little that we are doing relatively speaking, but by working together, we will achieve much more than quantitative results.  We will grow together as a group and get to know our fellow travelers.  We will make a unique bond with a group of people many miles away.  And both us and the people of San Juan la Laguna will have changed for the better at the end of our trip.  By the end of the week, we all will have succeeded.

 

-Stephen Johnson

On the Shores of Lake Atitlan

The idea of a week in Guatemala immediately conjures up images of mission trips to developing nations and well-intentioned service. A trip like this certainly has many hours of volunteerism incorporated into it, but at the end of the day students are taking an immersive trip into another culture and lifestyle.

The country of Guatemala has a strong history of colonialism and class divides by culture, so an understanding of that past is important to us as foreigners. From Spanish conquest to a thirty-year civil war, the nation has struggled through centuries of control by others. When coming to volunteer as students at an American University, we have an opportunity to change that cycle.

San Juan la Laguna is a beautiful little town on Lake Atitlan. It has a mostly Mayan population that is proud of its heritage. The main language is Tz'utujil, a Mayan dialect spoken only in that region. though most younger people speak Spanish as well, and some speak English. Women wear traditional dress most of the time and men do for more formal occassions.

Race and culture issues have been a major source of population unrest, so working in an area with a strong indigenous population is a great way for us to get a better idea of what the relationships within the country are like.

A large economic gap between wealth and abject poverty lines up with the distinct seperation between indigenous peoples and those of European descent. The resources alotted to Mayan peoples or other indigenous groups are much less than those with more money and power.

By spending a week learning about a place from within, we gain a unique perspective into a culture other than our own.

-Carrie

Almost There!

We have reached the under-a-week point for the trip! As we all make our final preparations, I want to remind everyone of the code we agreed upon in one of our meetings:

Código:

•      Be open-minded
•      Go with the flow
•      Do not judge people’s circumstances
•      Learn a new word in Spanish every day
•      Learn one thing about everyone else on the trip
•      Challenge your mindsets
•      Be vulnerable
•      Be curious
•      Take a selfie with every group member
•      Leave with good memories

I'm sure that we will add some things to this while we are on the trip, but this is a very solid starting code, and one that I'm excited to follow. Although things are never the same in the actual practice as they are on paper, I always find it interesting to compare the plans of a trip to the reality of it, not just because it shows how we adapted and went on through the trip, but because upon looking back, there’s so much intricate detail to the reality that a simple itinerary can’t cover. It becomes really fascinating then to look at our plans and fill in the blanks with all of the details that we remember afterwards. That being said, we have to have that beginning itinerary to start with, so here is a tentative schedule for the trip:

Saturday:

We meet bright and early at 8 a.m. at Oglethorpe University’s TLCC roundabout, and drive over to the airport in the CE vans. Upon arrival at the airport, we will check our big bag and go through security, after which we can get breakfast in the airport if you want. Delta flight 904 will depart at 10:55 a.m. and will arrive in Guatemala City around 1:30 p.m., after which we will get our luggage and head outside to find our van driver that will take us to San Juan. Before we arrive in San Juan, however, we will stop at a local Wal Mart in Guatemala City to get the SIM cards for our emergency phones, and to get lunch nearby. Thereafter begins our ~5 hour drive to San Juan, during which we will be rocking around in hairpin turns and climbing elevation. After we arrive in San Juan, we will introduce ourselves to Benedicto and Maria and separate into our homestays for the rest of the night. Before we split up, we will decide on a meeting time and place the next day to prepare for the rest of the week.

Sunday:

This is your day off! Sleep in until 8 a.m. if you’re feeling wild! This is the day when you get to spend some quality time with your family and roommate. Depending on your family’s plans, you will probably go around San Juan and learn your way around the town. Take this chance to get to know your family, help out around the household if they want you to, play with the kids (you won’t get to do it as much during the week because they’ll be at school) and just have a great time!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday will follow a similar schedule, even though there are different projects that we will be doing. The day will tentatively go like this:

6:30 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.: Wake up, get ready, and eat breakfast with your family

7:30 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.: Walk down to the Eco-School

8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.: Spanish lessons at the Eco-School

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.: Walk to the first project of the day

10:30 a.m. – Lunchtime: Work on the first project of the day

Lunchtime: Have lunch at one of the home stays, rotating out to a different one every day

Afternoon: Walk to & work on the second project of the day

5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.: Dinner with host families

7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.: Reflection and/or post-dinner activities

The projects will be as follows:

• Monday morning: Volunteering at a school helping out the teachers and entertaining children as needed
• Monday afternoon: Volunteering at the local library by helping with children’s homework, supporting their local library programs
• Tuesday morning: Volunteering at a garden that supports local families (dress for outdoors work!)
• Tuesday afternoon: Continuing the project by visiting the families who are part of the garden program
• Wednesday morning: Discussing nutrition and health with little children
• Wednesday afternoon: Volunteering with children, doing English lessons and playing games

Thursday:

We will switch it up on Thursday and take a trip to a Heifer International project site. Heifer is essentially a non-profit organization that supports communities by promoting long-term revenue streams, through livestock, agriculture, etc. For more information on Heifer, take a look at their website!

On Thursday, we will meet at 5:45 a.m. and leave by 6:00 a.m. to the site, since it is a bit of a drive. Meals and transportation will be provided, and we will come back the same day.

Friday:

It is time for goodbyes, as we say adis to San Juan in the morning and drive to Antigua. Before we do this, be sure to give your homestay the gift you have brought them, and thank them wholeheartedly! Once in Antigua, we will check into the hotel we have reserved and split up into groups to explore the city. We will decide on a meeting place and time for dinner, when we will have one last dinner with the group.

Saturday: Delta flight 906 departs at 1:40 p.m. on Saturday, March 14^th. That morning, we will eat breakfast and drive into Guatemala City. We will check our bag(s) and head back to Atlanta, where we should be arriving around 7:08 p.m., and drive back to Oglethorpe University after we pass through customs and baggage claim.

Keep our code in mind as we head off in just a few days!