We spent the weekend in nearby Antigua, a colonial town with buildings/ruins that date back into the 16th and 17th centuries. For about 200 years, beginning in 1543, the town — now designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site — served as the center of the Spanish colony that is now…
Today was our last formal day on SEMILLA’s campus, with a morning field trip to Guatemala’s only hospital dedicated to serving children with cancer. The hospital serves about 1,200 children with cancer each year, about 80 percent of whom are under age 10. About 150 children come for treatment each…
Today we had our penultimate session on Jesus and Vocation, and we visited UPAVIM, a women’s co-operative in Guatemala City. We also began the day with an earthquake — the second one since we’ve been here, and one that registered 6.8 on the Richter scale at its epicenter on Guatemala’s…
Just so those following the blog — and international news — know, we are all OK this morning after another earthquake at 6:30 a.m. This is the second earthquake incident in the last few days. At this point we haven’t see what this one registered on the Richter scale, but…
Today we had extensive and moving sessions on Guatemalan gangs and on Jesus and spiritual imagination, and then we finished the day with group processing of our learnings and a later-evening, balloon-festooned 18th birthday party for Erick. In a recent journal entry, Maura said (quoted with her permission) in relation…
Today had three significant components, creating what was perhaps our most provocative and moving days thus far in Guatemala City: a visit to Margarita Tejada School, a lecture on human rights in Guatemala, and a lecture about youth experiences in the country. We traveled nearly an hour to a distant…
Today was more quiet than most days, beginning with breakfast and then our 2 1/2-hour morning session on Jesus and vocation. Professor Flores finished by telling about how he had intended to be a sociologist and professor, but that God had called him to be a pastor and also a…
In her journal following our day around Lago Atitlan, Talia reflected on our visit to ANADESA, the women’s co-op that empowers mothers in the community. Her reference to leaving her stone behind is about students bringing a stone from home to orientation on GC’s campus, with the intention of leaving…
This is the third blog this evening chronicling our SSTT field trip to Panajachel and the surrounding area. The last major chunks of the structured field trip to Lago Atitlan included a journey from Santiago Atitlan to San Juan La Laguna, which involved another hour-long boat ride across the lake.
This is the second of three blog posts we’re putting up tonight, given the many experiences we had on our three-day trip and the many photos we took depicting those encounters. Friday began with an extraordinarily good breakfast at a restaurant overlooking gorgeous Lago Atitlan, which is surrounded by several…
