Written by: 1/C Nathan Lemire
01/30/25
Today was our final Thursday here in Guatemala. Given that we are less than seventy-two hours away from being back in the United States, I can’t help but think just how impactful these past four weeks have been, not only from a professional standpoint but also at a deep personal level. From being immersed in an entirely new culture to truly making an impact on those around us while also learning from them, this trip has helped give me a perspective on life that I can only begin to understand. I am most thankful for having been given the opportunity to participate in such an excellent program that has and will continue to resonate with me as one of the most important experiences in my life.
Today, the three groups began their normal work routines at Jocotenango, Santa María de Jesús, and San Antonio. We began with breakfast at Violetta’s tienda around 0700. It consisted of homemade pancakes covered in both a chocolate sauce and a raspberry jam, accompanied by fresh pineapple on the side. After breakfast, my group traveled with our mentor, Helen, to San Antonio. We arrived at our worksite via the chicken bus around 0830 and began to work with Willem, our site supervisor, to continue our efforts in building a toilet and septic system for a community home within the area. I was tasked with using a circular saw to cut various pieces of sheet metal into four-foot quantities in order to provide the material that would be used for future roof structures. We packed up for the day around 1115 and headed down the hill to catch the chicken bus back to Antigua.
We arrived in Antigua around 1230 and stopped for lunch at Violetta’s tienda. Lunch consisted of chicken, rice, green beans, and potato, all smothered in a green chili sauce. Because a fellow student and good friend of mine, Sean, wanted to test how his taste buds would react to hot sauce measured in Scoville units, we asked Violetta for her homemade picante to have with our lunch. This is a green hot sauce that would really make you question whether it should be served to the general public, given its extreme heat. After adding multiple teaspoons on top of our lunch, it would be safe to say Sean will never ask to have hot sauce ever again. When we finished our lunch, the mentors gave us a thoughtful and generous surprise by hosting a small celebration party in the tienda. This party was to congratulate us on all of our hard work. We were able to enjoy Fanta orange soda and a slice of cake from Patsy’s, a well-known bakery shop in Antigua. After the party, we shared our appreciation and thanked Violetta and the mentors for hosting us for an amazing three weeks. Then, we headed back to the hostel for some downtime before our lesson at Ixchel Spanish School.
At 1330, we headed over to Ixchel, where my maestra (teacher), Gaby, and I worked on conjugating irregular future verbs. Our focus today was to discuss the difference between the three different types of irregular future verbs and to better understand when each group is applicable to use over the other. The students ended class around 1600 and were brought to the school’s roof to celebrate the completion of our thirty-nine-hour program. The ceremony began with a graduation component, allowing each teacher to give their certificate of completion to their respective student, followed by a snack-fueled socialization period, and concluding with a large round of applause to both the teachers and the students at the end.
After the end of the ceremony, we headed back to the hostel a little after 1630 for Captain Lennon’s nightly meeting. The focus of the meeting was logistics regarding our flight back to the United States on Saturday morning, followed by an overview of our final workday on Friday. After the meeting, we were dismissed for free time and dinner.
