Day 10 – Wednesday, June 17, 2009

We woke up early today to clean up the base before we headed back to Guatemala. It took us about 4 hours to drive back, which included stopping for some snacks just across the Guatemalan border. The first gas station we stopped at was charging us a lot for snacks, so Jonathan made the decision to head to a different place that would be cheaper. So about 30 minutes down the road, we stopped again and bought just enough stuff to get us back to Antigua. When we got to Antigua, we ate at what might be the nicest McDonald’s I’ve ever seen. It had a full, garden courtyard that was gorgeous. The students were excited that they also had free computers with internet access for them to use. I’m pretty sure some of the students would have traded their meal for more time on the internet if we had let them. After McDonalds, we explored Antigua a bit. We went the square where students had their first encounter with street venders. They followed us all through town selling bracelets and necklaces.
After our exploration of Antigua, we visited a special needs orphanage. I’m not sure if I can explain in words what we saw and felt there. All of the kids and teenagers in the orphanage have a physical or mental disability and many of them are kept in cribs that look like cages. It was a surreal sight to see, but after a spending some time adjusting to what we saw, the students hearts were broken for the kids. One by one students starting taking the kids out of their cribs and holding them and playing with them. You could see the excitement on the faces of many of the kids. Then at dinnertime, our team fed the kids of the orphanage either with bottles or by hand. It was a humbling and breaking experience for all of us. We spent a few hours with the kids, but I’m sure the effects of our ministry there will last for lifetimes.
As we left the orphanage it started to rain pretty hard, which wouldn’t normally be a big deal accept that we needed students to ride in the back of a truck back tot he base, so we found some brave volunteers who were willing to get soaked. We tried to hide under a tarp, but we all were pretty soaked when we got back to base. We cleaned up and ate some pasta and tomato sauce, which was delicious on a cold, rainy day. Then we hung out and went to bed.