Personal Narrative: My Trip To Guatemala

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.

Be adventurous. Five years ago I experienced a major life change when my father passed away. The loss was the most significant experience I had ever had, a hole in my heart that can never be filled. At that time I was busy working and raising a teenage daughter. I was definitely in a rut, go to work, run Libby to band practice, ballgames, to friends’ houses for sleep overs. Not very adventurous. Then we were presented with the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica with the Spanish teachers from her high school. We signed up, and in June of that year we spent 9 glorious days traveling the Northwestern part of Costa Rica. We went to a Bio park in San Jose, to the Los Arenal Volcano, where we kayaked at the base, hiked 494 steps one way, down to

Each house-- painted a very vibrant, dazzling color, purple, orange, yellow, green, and pink. I had never seen houses like that in the United States the usual house colors are gray, white, tan, blue, very dull colors. The sight of these vivid houses was just a small glimpse of this beautiful country. As I nervously traveled without my family for the first time the lush terrain of Costa Rica dotted with colorful houses welcomed me.

The classic saying, “There’s always someone who has it worse than you” (Shaggy- Keepin’ it Real), didn’t come true to me until I had first-hand experience. As a child, I grew up in the lower middle class. So I wasn’t rich nor super poor. My mother came to the United States from El Salvador in the 1980’s. She has never taken my brother and me to her home country.

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

As I stepped out of the airport, followed by my family, I was unprepared for the snowfall and icy pavement that is so commonplace in January in Michigan. If I had thought enough about it, I would have worn winter boots on the plane and maybe brought my puffy white coat to block the wind. Instead, I stood shivering in brand new, pink ballet-flat shoes, while snowflakes filled my eyelashes.

“Melissa, don’t you want to experience a whole new culture? Guatemala has one of the most beautiful resorts in the world--hell, you can even the stars in the sky unlike here!” my step dad exclaimed, his hands gliding in the air in excitement.

Moving to a new country is very difficult for every person, even more, if it does not have anything in common with your origin country. Crossing borders, taking airplanes, and risking your life can become part of the immigration process. In this essay, I am going to explain the history of how I get out of Cuba. Also, I will be explaining how I reached this country. It was hard, but not impossible, and it was paid off already.

They say home is where the heart is and I’ve found out to be very true last year. I stayed in Palacagüina, Nicaragua for three months with an absolutely wonderful family with four of my friends. The five hour bus ride up to the dry dusty Nicaraguan mountains made me think this was quite an uneventful place. Don’t get me wrong.. Palacagüina is quite a boring place but the people there are so real and so truly amazing and it brings so much light to that city. Nicaragua has a way of making everything brighter. As soon as we met our family we were staying with they made us feel right at home and apart of their family. They started loving on us like my parents or any of my family would, which was so comforting.

Moving to another country is something that for the majority of people it might be a challenge. The toll of cultural defiances, unfamiliar traditions, society, and language are the most important and consternating struggles that people faced. But changes occur every minute, every second, and everywhere. Changes bring doubt, fear, and even pain to most people. But changes are something that I always look forward to because they alter my perspectives on things. Changes remind me of unpleasant memories, but also about learning experiences. The question of why here and not there, was something that I answered 6 years ago.The answer lied in a series of actions and childhood memories. My life is separated into two geographic locations. The first

In the summer of 2011 when I was the age of thirteen, I reached the biggest milestone in my life; which was going to Nicaragua all by myself. I could remember the day when my dad booked the flight and thinking how my siblings and I would experience where my parents grew up and how things worked in their hometown. It was not until a few days later when my dad walked into my room; seriously but not furiously and said, “Son at your age, you should feel so lucky that you guys have a better life than your mother and I had. The ticket I bought, was for you and only for you; you are the only one going on this trip so, then you know what your mother and I went through to be here to give you guys the life we wanted as a kid.” I did not understand what

I have been praying for God to give me an opportunity to go on a mission trip this summer. Many opportunities have gone by but I did not feel God calling me to those places except for Africa but I talked to you guys and you said no, you would rather keep me alive lol. But anyways, about a week ago I was scrolling through Instagram and one of the summer mentors at First Baptist Woodstock, Natalie Priest, had posted a picture with a caption saying that her church Zion Hill Baptist Church is going on a mission trip this summer to Guatemala. When I first read this I thought to myself, oh my goodness that is so exciting!! Well, that entire night I could not stop thinking about this trip. So I started pouring myself out to God asking Him over and

I recently embarked on a two-week long community service oriented trip to the distant and tropical country of Nicaragua with a group of eleven other teenagers and two teachers from my high school. Preparing for the trip earlier in the year, I really did not know what to expect when we eventually would land at the airport in Nicaragua’s capital city, Managua. I knew that it would be sunny, hot, and probably humid, so I packed plenty of sunscreen and several pairs of shorts—but not enough as it later turned out.

My trip to Guatemala helped me realize how great my life really is,and showed me how strong I really am.Many people around the world take Missions Trip every year to the nations of the world. A mission’s trip is mainly meant for missionaries to reach out to the people of other nations and not only share “the truth” but also help them with their struggles in life. Some ways missionaries reach out are building homes, churches, getting clean drinking water, volunteering in orphanages, donating secondhand clothing, giving health screening and checkups, etc. All these not only help the people but in the end give the missionaries a good feeling inside. It takes a special kind of person to go out and serve the people of the world as well as a lot

I have traveled various times to Guatemala in Central America to visit my parent’s families that were living there, since I was child in elementary school. I mostly visited my mother’s family since most of my dad’s family was here, though I did visit my dad’s house and family that was still there once. One thing that is true for all my visits over to Guatemala; I always had some culture shock every time I visited. As time passed by and I visited again and again I became accustomed to the shock, sometimes the shock was not that bad. Next time I visit Guatemala, I will probably have a bit of culture shock again, though now it is not that much, and I think that anyone traveling to Guatemala for a vacation will have a great time