Hola from Guatemala! Today was our first day of "actual work". The squad woke up at the crack of dawn and took a twenty-minute boat ride to the small town of Livingston shortly after eating breakfast. The town is beautiful and exotic in a very different way that we'd see in the US. Nearly all homes are run down to some extent, which is really eye opening considering we never see a house made of cinder blocks and dirt floors in the states. The project my group was assigned was to replace the dirt floors of one family's hut with concrete because the seventy-eight-year-old grandpa, Antonio, who walked with two canes, could no longer make his way around the house. The heat was pretty rough and I ended up drinking five water bottles full within two hours or so but I could tell the family really appreciated the work that was being done. Despite my painfully deplorable attempts to communicate in a language I hardly know, it's very obvious that smiles, handshakes, and hugs are universal. Antonio thanked me as I sat next to him to rest, and I know this sounds melodramatic, but I could see in his eyes how genuinely thankful he was. His youngest grandson Tito is also the cutest little guy I've ever seen. Josh and I played with him as some of the more experienced people made concrete, and he seems to be content with his life, despite living with very few material things. Something I've noticed about the people of Guatemala is that they're so happy just to be alive. I think that says a lot about Americans as we have the highest rates of depression yet are generally considered one of the greatest countries in the world.
-Noah Bennett