Guatemala: An Eye-Opening Service Trip

First and foremost, I never envisioned that going on an alternative winter break trip to Guatemala would cause me to alter my outlook on the world. Originally I signed up for the trip to be involved in mission work as well as experiencing a foreign country for the first time. I also signed up for more selfish reasons such as being able to say that I did a mission trip in a foreign country on my resume. But this trip became more than just something to add onto a piece of paper. This trip became much more than just a service trip to me. It became an eye opener and showed me how blind I had been to the world around me and how I had become too comfortable with where my life currently was. From the very first day in Guatemala I knew that the experiences I would have over the next week would be nothing

I had a sense of what type of poverty I would see in Guatemala but nothing could have ever prepared me for what I actually saw. Back in the “bubble” you knew that there were people in the world that lived in huts and slept on dirt floors and often times didn’t have enough food to eat everyday but it never actually felt real, or real enough to affect how you thought. But once you experience extreme poverty first hand it becomes real, it becomes heart breaking. In a sense, you quickly become ashamed for how privileged your life is, but I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. I think that if you feel ashamed that you are at least recognizing your privilege, which is something that some people never do. Then comes the part when you realize that this is their everyday life. That what they do everyday is vital for their survival and is usually hard labor but to my surprise everyone that I met was always so happy. They were so happy that we were