My Travel Blog: Unforgettable Experience of Living in Guatemala

Hope that this short personal travel blog will give examples for students in their future writings. I grew up in Japan. I went to school there, I met friends there and most importantly I became a part of the culture there. One of my biggest passions is traveling because I love experiencing new traditions and being exposed to the lessons I can learn from them. I’m going to tell you a story about one of my favorite traveling experiences.

Two years ago I decided to take part in a global service team. It was a small but mighty team of 15 people. Our service work was in Guatemala. With my travel experience, I figured Guatemala would be easy enough to adapt to, however after a short seven days interacting with some of its citizens, I was surprised at what it had to teach me.

Going into the trip I was told our team was there mainly for the support of one specific church and its mission to serve the surrounding community. Even though I knew we would have an impact on only a small part of their country, I was happy to be helping. Our main task was the destruction and rebuilding of the church. With limited tools, this task proved to be difficult.

I remember one moment after we had just finished taking down several big wooden boards that were previously used as the walls of the church. We started taking the boards toward the garbage but were immediately stopped by our Guatemalan leader who told us they wanted to save the nails. I looked at the boards with bent, rusted nails sticking out and was confused as to why it wouldn’t be a better idea to just buy new nails. I took a moment, reflected on our mission to help, decided not to ask any questions and sat down to take each individual nail out of the boards.

In America we are fortunate to have an abundance of reasonably priced supplies. It is often cheaper and easier to buy more nails at Home Depot then to sit down and spend the time and effort reclaiming used ones. In Guatemala they save everything, from a bottle cap laying on the street to a bunch of old rusted nails in used boards. They see the value in being resourceful. With our focus on getting rid of waste efficiently, we miss the point that it might not be waste in the first place.

I remember my U.S. team leader telling us “They aren't helpless, they just have a different way of seeing and doing things.” Looking back I believe the best way to approach differences such as these is to simply accept them. We weren’t going to change their minds and we couldn't fix all their problems so we accepted what was different and helped where we could. The more experiences I have such as this only serve to broaden my understanding of what is an acceptable response and potential solution to our most basic of human challenges.