RESPONSE: Photo A Day

I traveled to San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala over Spring Break for a mission trip. It was an absolutely amazing and life changing experience. Below are are a photo a day from the trip, as well as the stories behind them.

Saturday, March 26 — This was the view from or hotel balcony, overlooking the beautiful Lake Atitlan as well as the mountains (and some volcanoes!)

Sunday, March 27 — This photo was taken in Santiago, Gautemala, which was across the lake from San Lucas. We took a boat trip over there on Sunday. I saw these two kids (on the far left) walking down the street with their arms around each other and couldn't get my camera out of my pocket fast enough to get a good photo of them, but I still like how it turned out. There was such a sense of companionship and family and brotherhood there, which was really inspiring.

Monday, March 28 — This is a photo from my new favorite ice cream place, Sarita. On Monday after a day of work, we saw this couple walking down the street carrying the most delicious looking ice cream creation I'd ever seen. Through a group effort, we figured out how to ask them where they got it in Spanish. Best idea ever. It was called La Bomba and it was magical. Three flavors of ice cream, fresh fruit, toppings, whipped cream and a cracker. Needless to say, we came back to Sarita a lot.

Tuesday, March 29 — This would be my laundry hanging outside to dry... The airline lost my luggage and it didn't arrive in San Lucas until Thursday. So, for six days, I had to wash my clothes in the sink with hand soap and hang them out to dry. It was actually one of the best things to happen to me. I had packed waaay too much in my checked baggage and it was a good lesson for me to learn than I don't need that much to get by.

Wednesday, March 30 — These cows would pass by our work site just about every day. We named some of them and one girl in our group tried to pet one of them. Not a good idea. There was also a single cow tied up by our work site one day, which we named Victor. We came back the next day and he was gone. We had had hamburgers the night before... Hmmm...

 Thursday, March 31 —This was one of my favorite memories of Guatemala. We helped worked on this septic tank that these two guys (including my new friend Pablo in the yellow) had been working on for four months. They were only about halfway done. All they had was a pickax, a shovel, a chisel and a pulley system. We helped lift rocks out of the hole with the pulley. The best part was getting to know Pablo and Noe who we exchanged jokes and expressions with and learned about each others' families.

Friday, April 1 — This might be my favorite photo from the trip. These three kids would play with us outside the mission almost every day. Our last night there, we took tons of photos with them and they loved to grab our cameras and take photos of us. This little guy took my sunglasses off my face to try them on, so I also put the cowboy hat I was wearing on him. (Btw, a common debate on this trip, was whether the cowboy hat I bought was pink or beige. It's totally beige. Thoughts?)

Saturday. April 2 — Saturday was a long travel day, but that didn't stop us from having fun. The two girls in the photo wrote a song dedicated to me and another guy on the trip called Bad Bromance (obviously to the tune of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance). It's pretty epic. They performed it in the middle of the Guatemala City airport, which got us some weird looks from other travelers. You can watch the full length music video here.