Mission Trip To Samayac, Guatemala

I studied many things about Guatemala such as, the culture, religion, food, population, geography, imports, exports, and most popular of all sports. The sports of Guatemala is something I found very interesting.

Guatemala is a small country in central America, bordered by Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, and Mexico. Guatemala is best known for their indigenous Mayan culture and excavated ruins of the Mayan empire, nature, and their world class coffee. If you visit Guatemala, you’ll see that it is unique in many ways.

The country was foreign, a first for me. Dilapidation and ruin scattered the horizon as far as one could see. Guatemala is a place where poverty has a strong grasp on its people. We traveled tirelessly for hours to reach the poorest of the poor. Upon arrival old, young, and natives of all shapes and sizes formed receiving lines, eager to welcome us with gifts of smiles and gratitude. It was an experience that forever changed me. This was the first time I had stepped outside the boundaries of the American culture into a world where nothing is taken for granted. Each day spent on my mission trip brought a fresh awareness of gratefulness. Any pre-trip reluctance quickly became a vague memory as my emotions welled within bring a fresh change to

Guatemala is located in Central America. It bounds with Mexico in the north and the west while it borders on the east by Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Guatemala is divided in three main regions: the cool highlands, the tropical area and the tropical jungle. Each of these regions has an important characteristic that make them very distinguishable between each other. Most of the Guatemala’s population is concentrated in the cool highlands region.

You may think that there is nothing fun to do in Guatemala, but you may be surprised. Guatemala city is home to many things such as: Petapa Amusment Park, mercado central, and Jardin Botanico. Petpa park is a fun place to vist because you would be able to visit plaza de estrellas, plaza arcoiris, and so many more things. So if you're looking for a fun place to visit with children Petpa park is the place to visit. Definitaly visit Mercado Central if you're looking for some authenic gualemalan food or crafts, mercado central is the perfect place to visit at the end of your trip if you need to pick up some gifts for family or just as a small memento. Last but not least Jardin Botanico. Jardin Botanico is exacatally what it sounds like! Jardin

I the case of Laguna Chichoj, Guatemala there was a conflict classes, over a proposal by the peasants to improve sanitation infrastructure with the help of a local lake. However, the local elites who are the political capital in this area, just by their social class, did not feel the need for something like this to take place because it did not feel that it effected the social capital of this given area. Another area of communities that could be identity in this reading was cultural capital; which also helps illuminate this case, due to the fact that they made this lake a protected area, this could have been to for cultural factors, such in using the lake for trade.

Serving other people has always been one of the most important things to me. What I would consider one of my most cherished project was a mission trip I took to Jinotega, Nicaragua. I went on this mission trip during the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school. I was beyond worried going into the trip, my fears of something going wrong were over taking the joy I knew I would be bringing to the people there. Not only would I be going to a country I knew little about, but it was my first time out of the country ever. I pushed all of those feelings to the back of my mind because I knew that I would be protected and enjoy my time there.

From the moment I arrived, Guatemala presented me with great responsibility. Traveling to a rural part of Guatemala where medical care was more of a luxury than the norm, I was lucky enough to have been a medical volunteer, giving me the opportunity to conduct patient interviews and formulating differential diagnoses for the lead physician Dr. Reyes. Excited as I was, my initial experience was nerve-racking. Yet I had to calm my nerves the day a short and slender woman in a bright, multi-colored Mayan dress stood next to the entrance of the free VIDA clinic waiting to be called. “Come in next ma’am,” I said to her in Spanish. I quickly glanced at her chart and back at her before saying, "Tell me about your headache." The patient reported having intermittent, diffuse, and moderately intense, headaches for several weeks.

My grandparents have special celebration. They have married 45 year. My mother, my brothers and sister and me make long trip to Guatemala to celebrate. We carry a special gift it is a picture of all family. My tio, tia and primos going to. We like to visit our grandparents and especial celebration. Our family cooks special food of Guatemala for celebration. I remember we all had good times together. I miss my abuelita and abuelito. This is the name we say for grandparent in my country. The celebration is fun we see friends and play. My grandparents very happy. I want to stay in Guatemala but my Mom say we come back to America.

Dr Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey is Guatemala’s first female attorney general, as well as a respected criminal law specialist, scholar, judge and litigator. She has over 18 years experience working towards strengthening the justice system in her country, and is additionally the founder of a human rights organization, the Institute for Comparative Criminal Studies of Guatemala (ICCPG).

In Guatemala, a family consist of a father, a mother, and children is the most common families you will see in Guatemala. In the 1980s, 6 is the average amount of children in one family. Sometimes orphans or relatives like aunts, uncles, cousin, grandmas, and grandpas, live in the house too!

(The last suitcase was shoved in7to the back of the bus, and our next stop would be Winchester, Virginia.) My youth group and I were heading to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a mission trip. While we were there, we would be involved in a program called P-2 mission, which partnered us with a local church. Our Church partner was Calvary Christian Church, an African American Baptist Church. Throughout the day we would be doing street outreach and during the night we would be hosting a Vacation Bible School. There was an urgency to have this church operating because the community around it was crumbling. The church itself was located in a shanty town, about thirty minutes away from downtown. It was evident that violence was on the rise and the community and the residence were in desperate need of revival. Even the church’s basketball could be becoming a haven for sexual predators to stalk their prey.

Despite significant developments in the health of the population, Guatemala continues to experience an abundance of health-related issues such as communicable diseases, sever undernutrition and maternal mortality, in addition to an increase of non- communicable diseases and injuries due to factors such as violence or vehicle collisions (World Health Organizations, 2014). The United States and Guatemala are on a continuing partnership with the initiative to support Guatemala by improving the level of food security, preventing HIV/AIDS, eliminating the impact of climate change, promoting health, and educational changes (Davis, 2016). From March to May 2016, the U.S. Army Southern Command conducted the Beyond the Horizon mission that was planned

Needless to say, it was what one might call bare, especially with approximately 11 boys. To make things worse, we got to our job sight, where we all thought would be doing children’s ministries or preaching to streetwalkers, and what is the first thing they ask of us? They said, “We need you to dig a ditch.” Of course, there were perfect reasons for said ditch but I mean really? A ditch? Not only that, but they told us that, “the sewage lines run right into the ditch.” To me it seemed kind of un-mission like, but later on God would throw this situation right back in my face to show me how much He needed that ditch dug. This place, where we made the ditch, was right in front of a church, and the church was in the slums. For a while, that had been the only church in the area, and they were constantly receiving visitors for their kid’s ministries and other such activities. Well, being that the entire area was on a river, the ground under the church had started to erode. So, the pastor of the church in San Jose wanted to build a concrete foundation in order to ensure the safety of the visitors and the children who went there. Here is where our team comes in. For the next five to six days, we would be digging and picking through mud and human fecal matter to prepare the way for this foundation and ultimately the restoration of God’s voice in the slums of San Jose, Costa

Two years ago, I came on a mission trip with my church youth group to Austin, Texas. One of the places we volunteered was a refugee house called Casa Marianella. Looking back now, I’m not sure what I was expecting to get out of the experience, but there is no way I could have predicted the encounter I had. My group bought a large amount of lunch food, and we went to the house to serve sandwiches and chips to the residents. About seven men showed up, and after we had served them food, my group and I sat down to eat lunch with them. Right then,