Bethel Youth Mission 2016: More from Monday...

The kindergarten and first grade classes of Escuela Integrada walk hand in hand in a single file line down the narrow raised sidewalk, cars and motorcycles honking and careening down the cobblestone street of historic Antigua. Their teachers lead, without fear that they will step into the street, be left behind, or become lost. They trust them. This is life here.

The children of Escuela Integrada are brimming with life, joy, and love, this is visible after the smallest interaction with any of them. Their hugs, laughs, and smiles are enough to communicate that, even with the language barrier. Today our group worked with the kindergarten and 1^st grade playing football and teaching sports injury prevention. Walking into the concrete field the children rushed to greet us with hugs, cuddles, and endless hand holding. Patiently listening to our broken Spanish they participated in every activity with renewed energy and excitement, even taking falls on the concrete field without a murmur. Here there is no room to not be resilient. Within our first day with the children of Escuela Integrada we have encountered endless joy and heartbreaking realities. This trip has branded the face of poverty with 160 smiling children. While the children are clean, educated and fed by the school, while they are happy and loved, they live in a world unlike ours, a world that is already visibly shaping who they are. The older children will leave school early to work, a compromise between the necessities of their lives and the hope of their future. They will take public transportation or walk far distances to reach a home consisting of a dirt floor and corrugated metal sheets, most without electricity or running water. And the reality is, these children are among the blessed in this country. Most will not receive the advantages these children have, and most will continue in the cycle of poverty that oppresses Guatemala. The mission of Escuela Integrata is to educate these children, with the more far reaching goal that they might, in their lifetime, educate their own future families and help to overcome systemic poverty. It is our mission this week to aid in that goal in whatever way we can.

En paz,

-Clara