When you think of the word "garden" what do you think? I think of a 16x20 area of land with dirt and veggies in it- just like at home. Possibly a floppy hat, a pair of gloves, and a cold lemonade with lots of ice in it in arms reach to complete the picture. While this was in the back of my mind, it was not why I volunteered to work in the garden, which was good because if that was the reason I would have been incredibly disappointed. Pictures of the garden will come later but let me try to explain the work that needed to be done. For starters, the garden takes place on the side of a mountain. Our job was to clear away all the brush on the mountain with pickaxes, hoes, rakes, shovels, our hands, etc. We then would take all the excess weeds and roots we collected, piled them into a wheelbarrow, and dump it over the other side of the cliff. We were told quite sternly that if the wheelbarrow went over the mountain, we'd have to go after it.
So for the first day we had about 5 young women tearing the mountain side up. On behalf of myself and the other ladies- that is one good looking garden! I know that when you are on a missions trip you have a completely different mentality about what "work" is. You find yourself jumping up to do things you hate to do back home (i.e. dish duty). And I'm not sure if that was what was happening in the garden or if we just enjoyed each others company so much, but while it was a lot of hard work, it was surprisingly more fun. We laughed and sang and told embarrassing stories- we talked about God and what He's done in our lives, we even cried with each other on the side of that mountain.
Later in the weeks, you would find the same group pulling weeds out of the garden, slightly easier labor but no less challenging as we continued to accidently pull the vegetables but keep the weeds. Tony, an amazing man who sold his farm in the states to come and PAY to work at Casa Bernabe and who started the garden, would often tell us that the first priority is to have vegetables, the second priority is to have a garden with no weeds. We may have tried to replant some of the veggies we uprooted, we also may have quickly disposed of the ones that wouldn't stay upright in the garden by throwing them over the cliff; however, I'm sure that even Tony wouldn't have minded trading a few potatoes for a whole lot of bonding and friendships that blossomed in the garden :)
Activity time with the kids was great. We always start off with a Bible verse lead by the youth pastors wife who is also a Spanish teacher. The kids love to shout out the answers even when no reward is given (if you've been in a classroom here you know how rare that is). The lesson then lead into playtime with bubbles and once everyone got outside a soccer game quickly followed. We played with bubbles and watched the kids play soccer and dodge balls up until dinner time where we were treated to the usual amazing meal.
We were told that the house parents and orphans don't eat as well as we do, it is there way of giving back to us and making sure we come back. With almost every meal we would have a piece of fruit- either pineapple, plantines, papaya, peach or plum tasting things. The food was so good and good for you! It was easy to give thanks. Dinner time was such a special experience. The whole team (26 or so) would sit at one long table, the ladies would get their meal first, then the men. We would wait til everyone was sitting, hold hands and someone would say grace. We shared the dining hall with other teams who we got to know better and better over our time there. It is so refreshing to be in a place where God is at the center of everything you do. Dinner would be followed by dish duty- we always had a couple regulars who would volunteer for it with every meal. Bless their soul!
Our nightly ritual soon turned into dinner, dishes, extensive amount of card games, hanging out and chatting with team members from Indiana or with the other groups that were there, and then devotional time and bed. At devotional time we were talking about how great it is to be away from all distrations, i.e cell phones, computers, problems back home, old baggage, tv, and just come to a place where you know that you have no where else to be, to enjoy the moment, relax, talk to God and love each others company. I know that before the trip, you would often be able to hear me say that I need more days in the week because I'd be so busy with work, seeing friends, sports, volunteering, playing and other distractions that I so rarely get to just sit and take in everything God is doing. But there, in Guatemala, God reminded all of us to be still and know that He is God" -Psalm 46:10
