dripping with passion

#1 – rain showers are the best showers. #2 – be ever grateful for a bed, flushing toilets, electricity, etc. where we stayed, in the nueva concepcion schoolhouse #3 – the polochic valley, alta verapaz, guatemala is one of the prettiest places on the planet. these pictures are completely pathetic compared to reality. i’ve seen lots of beautiful places – and i’m saying the polochic deserves a solid place in the top 5. #4 – the q’eqchi’ people are the sweetest hearts. as we drove by on the cattle cars, people would run out of their houses squealing to wave. this is santiago, choice humanitarian’s main man in the polochic. he is such an incredible, humble, wonderful man. our last night he played us songs on the guitar under the stars. #5 – there are some crazy bugs in guatemala. my bug bites left with with major, major cankles. this is about half of the swelling. i couldn’t walk one night! what an adventure. #6 – true happiness is simple. on day 4, we got to shadow villa...

usquerou q'eqchi' adjective (i spelled phonetically here…): 1. very good. awesome. my time serving with singular humanitarian volunteers was totally usquerou. like i mentioned in an earlier post, i was a bit skeptical about the genuine impact and effectiveness of this project. but, with our seven days in the polochic valley, i was really truly impressed with the true good that was done and the efforts that were made to ensure that aid was sustainable. i always feel on trips like this that those serving are blessed much more than those served, but in guatemala last month i really felt like we made a good dent of impact as we were enriched from our trip. on both sides of the service the world was made better. i’m so glad to have been part of that! i was selected in may to be a “service leader” for singular humanitarian experience (SHe) , which means i get to help the organization with development for the next year (a few hours a week as a volunteer). after going on an expeditio...