“As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.” – Margaret Mead

Central America is absolutely fabulous, and I love it here!! Last Sunday was Election Day and last Thursday was Independence Day in Guatemala, and the city was ablaze with fiestas, color, flags, and exuberance. On Friday I and my global development class went into Guatemala City (which is about 45 minutes from Antigua) and visited a church supported by Compassion International, a non-profit NGO. This church is located in a very poor area of the city and does outreach ministry and services aimed primarily at surrounding communities that are established on and in landfills. People live and work in landfills all around this church, and my group and I visited one. The homes were built out of materials scrounged from the garbage piles and were constructed in and amongst piles of discarded materials. Children were running around everywhere, using the trash piles as their own expansive playground. It was heart-wrenching. No matter how many books you read, stories you hear, or pictures you see, the plight of others will never be apparent to you until you witness it with your own eyes. I blessed beyond belief for what I have been provided in life. As sad as this outing made me, it also confirmed to me that non-profit work is precisely what I need to do with my life occupationally and personally: helping people.
Yesterday I (along with the other students and our Professors) hiked the volcano of Pacaya, and it was incredible. The surrounding views from it were sweeping in scope and breathtaking, and the volcano itself was fascinating. This volcano erupted about a year and a half ago, but the eruption-side of the volcano is still newly formed barren volcanic rock with steam streaming from the ground every which away. The entire time we were hiking I was reminded of the scene at the end of Lord of the Rings Return of the King where Frodo and Sam were climbing Mount Doom, and you will just have to see for yourself the eeriness of the similarities between that scene and Pacaya.

In the landfill community

These two were so nice to us while we were at the landfill

 The community put a rainbow to shame with all of the clothes hanging everywhere, and I mean everywhere

An area of the landfill further away from where the people live

 This is on a cliff overlooking the landfill

 This is a picture of the landfill and people working in it from the cliff

 This is near the base of the volcano Pacaya

 This is about half way up Pacaya of the surrounding volcanos

 This shot is from about as far up Pacaya as anyone can hike safely

 Pacaya itself...I told you that it looked like the Mount Doom scene from Lord of the Rings. Haha

View from as close to the top of Pacaya as we could get