Snapshot

Izzy Ingle

Severino

Travel Writing

We’re smiling because…

            The hot Guatemalan sun beats down on our heads, and sweat pours down our faces faster than we can chug water to stay hydrated. We breathe heavily as we shovel massive piles of concrete and carry cinder blocks up and down a steep hill. A slight breeze drifts by and I close my eyes for a second to enjoy the cool air. Small Guatemalan children run around laughing, wearing tattered clothes. Stray dogs populate the streets. I’ve never worked so hard. I’ve never felt so much joy.

I stand, smiling, with the dense Guatemalan forest appearing behind me. As we go about our work, a couple of us pause for a second to pose for the picture. We’re smiling because it’s summer and it’s a gorgeous day in Sumpango, Guatemala. We’re happy because we’re together with close friends working on a project to help impact a poverty-ridden village. We’re laughing because between the long hours of shoveling cement, we have dance parties and chug AMP, an energy drink that could give a horse the jitters. We’re happily looking forward to the showers, card games, and beds that await us at the retreat center when we’re finished with our long day of work.

            The time I spend here, in Guatemala, is the best week of my entire summer. An entire week focused on bettering myself, making lasting friendships, and doing service for the world, makes for an experience that you can never forget. In this picture we’re purely high on life because we’ve never felt so satisfied with ourselves. We’ve never felt so good spending eight hours a day doing hard manual labor because we know that the families we’re helping are grateful. We know we’re giving children a better life, and this feeling is impossible to duplicate. We’re smiling because we are forever humbled by the experiences we’ve had here in Sumpango, Guatemala.