another guatemala life update: jungle life

well hey my dear friends and family that read my world race blog. It’s Jackson, back at it with another update from Guatemala. It’s been a wild ride so far here in Guatemala as we’ve just finished month 1/3 here. And let me tell you God is working SO greatly in this place. For those of you who may not know, here in Guatemala each team works with a different ministry, but our big ole guys team was split up and we work with two separate ones. My half of the team: Luke, Gabe, Kevin, Camden & I work with an incredible organization called One Way. They provide after school English & tutoring to children around Guatemala, aswell as soccer practices and game opportunities for the local youth. Now their HQ is located in San Lorenzo, about 20 minutes from our Adventures in Missions base. But they work across the entire country in different towns and villages. Right now, my entire team, all 11 of us, plus 10 of One Way’s staff are in Peten. A district which is 10 hours away from our AIM base. And we’ve had quite a wild ride this past week. On Sunday we found out we’d been splitting up into two teams, decided solely by a sheet of paper with a name of a village on it, everyones draws papers, and that’s where’d you’d spend 2 nights in the jungle. Pretty exciting right? I was paired with a village called Corral Pek, alongside Luke, Caedmon, Knox, Colton and Matt. We left bright and early at 7:30 in the morning, drove for about three hours truly to the middle of no where. After getting our truck stuck in the mud and having to push it out not just once, but twice, we arrived in Corral Pek. We were the very first white people to ever have gone to this place, until that point they had considered the Guatemalans to be “gringos”, so we were a big surprise. But once arriving, instantly I got the biggest reality check, the people of this village are struggling. They have one school, with dirt floor & a few tables and chairs, little to no supplies, no access to clean water & hardly access to food, no running water in sight, and no electricity. Some families here travel 2 hours through jungle & mountains just for their children to come to school or do our one way program. It’s insane how little they truly do have. But you’d never know it. The people of the village are filled with laughter, filled with joy, despite not having basic needs. The people of Corral Pek speak a native Mayan language called “Q’eqchi”. Only very few know a little bit of Spanish making it almost impossible for them to leave Corral Pek and make a better life for themselves. 

On our second day in Corral Pek, our ministry hosts asked us if we wanted to go to the river & bathe. They said it was about an hour walk through the jungle and hesitantly we agreed. We had walked through the jungle a little bit since being there, but it was all straight shots with little to no effort needed so we didn’t think there’d be much to worry about. Right? Wrong. We begin our journey climbing up a mountain, covered in thick mud, and wet leaves, we are slipping, we are sliding, we’re all sliced up, we are disgusting. We get to the top of our first mountain where we’re greeted by a local man asked us if we’re trying to go to the river. We say we are, and he informs us we’ve just climbed the entirely wrong mountain. So what did we do, head ALL the way back down basically sliding on our butts the entire way from the mud, and head on over to the correct mountain. One of 3 slippery, muddy, wet mountains on our treck to simply shower. On our way there the sun is blaring, luckily with jungle tree coverage it feels only like 85 degrees instead of 100. We (mainly me) are DUMPING sweat. It’s hot we’re huffing and puffing but having a great time along the way. After an hour and a half of walking, we make it to our little river. Where we’re informed we have just 15 minutes to shower because ministry was supposed to begin soon. As we’re wrapping up our showers, it begins to not just rain a little but POUR down on us. And in this moment all we could do was laugh and laugh. Realizing we had just showered only to now walk back through the mud was that was bad enough before the rain. Our walk back we just laughed about how crazy this truly was as we slipped and slided and completely ruined our shoes and socks. Thankfully our treck back was only 45 minutes instead of an hour an a half, where we gained all that time? We may never know. We arrived back at our little school where we waiting for kids to show up for ministry. But unfortunately because of the rain, almost no one did, but for the few that did we played soccer with and even was able to teach some of them some English while they recorded. We finished our time in Corral Pek on Wednesday morning, finishing with dances, devotional and snacks for the kids and mothers of the village. We prayed for the families, the kids, the mothers the school, the teachers and village. And I ask that if you’re reading this just pray for Corral Pek. One big thing I learned on this trip is that the power of prayer truly is incredible. 

We finished our time in Corral Pek on Wednesday morning, finishing with dances, devotional and snacks for the kids and mothers of the village. We left Corral Pek thankful to have met and gotten to pour into such an incredible place, but also with the sadness of knowing we may never get to go back there again. We met back up with the rest of our team in a new village called San Miguel, where we’d spend the next two days doing ministry. We arrived to lots and lot of rain and mud again, somewhere we’re all too familiar with. Our base here was just a little covered area from the rain, with little to no privacy, but thankfully, the local church offered for us to sleep inside there. we did our usual ministry of soccer and various fun activities for the kids. we did the same the next morning and then returned back to our base in Peten. The experience of these villages really just changed my perspective on so much, how little we need to be happy, but how much we really do take for granted. Something as simple as clean water to drink, or a shower or bath, is not something these people have. 

Once returning to Peten Thursday night, we were blessed with the news of getting to have a really great weekend. Friday was our rest day, we went into town to check out some pacas & get some ice cream, we relaxed a lot, went for a good ole walk / run with Knox, saw FIREFLIES for the second time in my whole life I mean how INCREDIBLE are fireflies, wow. Friday night we learned that we would get to spend Saturday and Sunday in the capital of Peten, Flores. Where we have a beautiful warm lake to swim in, a bungalow to sleep in, and access to a beautiful city with some crazy night life. Tonight we went to the lake, I faced my fear (barely) of heights jumping (getting pushed) off of a diving platform about 1,000 feet (really only like maybe 25ft) off the ground. And when I tell you that was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. I mean it. Following swimming we were supposed to head into town, but I started feeling horribly stomach sick and nauseous so I had to stay back. Shoutout parasites! So while of course I’m feeling an insane amount of fomo while my friends are currently living it up on the town, I’m grateful for this time of reflection and gratitude of the week I’ve had. Grateful that I get to do it all again in new villages come Monday. Thankful to God for this opportunity of a lifetime that is absolutely rocking my world and changing my life for the better. 

To all my friends & family back home, love and miss you all dearly, have a great & safe thanksgiving / holiday season depending on the next time I blog. Be sure to keep up with all my Instagram & Facebook stories where I post a gazillion photos, aswell as weekly Instagram reals where you get just a glimpse of what’s going on in my crazy world race life.