Wow I'm so far from home!- Project Trip to Nebaj, Guatemala

Last friday, January 25th, my team and I flew out of San Jose, Costa Rica to Guatemala City. As soon as we landed, there was a definite temperature change, since Guatemala City is at about 6,000 ft. After we had gotten all of our luggage, I was in charge of carrying the 4ft plane surveying tripod through customs. It was pretty comical to explain (in Spanish) what was in this big cardboard box, and that it wasn't a weapon. But luckily it all went good.

We then pile into 2 taxis for 9 people, with 4 of us in the back and 3 in front of a 5 seater car! We get into Guatemala City, which is a large city with big buildings. There are hints of the western world, with some mcdonalds and pizza huts. But not for long...

The next day we all pile into two vans headed for very steep roads with hair pin curves all over. The mountains here are very steep, green and lush. In Guatemala, there are renovated school buses with crazy paints jobs that become their public transportation, everyone calls these chicken buses. These chicken buses are packed full with people and are driven by crazy madmen who pass at all costs barely miss oncoming traffic and think 2 lanes means more room for them! ha!

As we drive, we pass many people walking up these roads, some carrying very heavy loads of wood tied to their backs. Cows, sheep, horses, and goats grazed about and often pulled along. We pass many small villages spread all over these hills. Most people live in houses more like metal panel boxes. This is definitely a third world area.

So, it took us a little over 8 hours to get to Nebaj which is located on the Northwestern part of Guatemala. The village is rather small with very unstable roads and people walking everywhere. Most of the women dress very traditional with colorful textiles. Us gringos definitely stood out a ton, we were all way taller and lighter skinned that everyone! I almost got used to people just staring at us! It was very cold there at night since there was no heating and the wall were very thin with no insulation. I definitely slept with 5 blankets and wore the same sweatshirt everyday! Yeah I didn't expect it to be so cold!


Within my team, there are 4 of us interns with eMi, 2 eMi leaders, and 6 other volunteering design professionals. During our time in Nebaj, we worked with a non profit called the Agros Foundation. Agros is based in Central America and works to train and educate the indiginous people in carpentry, textiles, coffee production, agricultural practices and tons more! Agros helps and stays with a village for over 10 years, building strong relationships.


So, Agros has a vision for a large site with training centers, a school, and greenhouses for a piece of land they recently purchased. eMi's job was to do the land development, water engineering, electrical, planning, and design of one shop building. I was able to work along side a very experienced structural engineer and help in the design of the shop building. The week was filled with design work. On the last day, we presented our ideas and the work we have done so far to the Agros team. It was so satisfying to see their excitement for the work we have done for the center and seeing their vision come to fruition.

The Lord is teaching me a lot about what it means to serve and His love for ALL people in ALL countries.
"This is how we know what love is- Jesus Chris laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 1 John 3:16 and also
"Each should use whatever gift he has recieved to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in various forms." 1 Peter 4:10

Well thank you so much for reading and please keep my team and I in your prayers. A few of us have been feeling sick so healing and energy would be a blessing!

We are currently starting another project for an orphanage wanting to build a school in Guatemala City today. So here we go into another week! (By the way, I took tons of pictures that I will try to upload to a website :)

The pictures I have posted are: 1. Aerial view of Nebaj 2. Ali and I with Nebaj 5. View from my hotel room in Nebaj