An alfombra, (a street carpet made of sawdust, flowers and plants) in Antigua during Lent. Photo courtesy Eunice How (click to enlarge).

A sock puppet made by Eunice How's class. Photo courtesy Eunice How (click to enlarge).

“¡UNA CORONA! ¡UNA CORONA!” The girls at Proximas Pasos, or The Next Steps School, commanded me to make more pipe-cleaner crowns for their sock puppets.

I gladly handed them out, as well as foam flowers, googly eyes, felt tongues, and yarn hair. These arts and crafts were one way we, a group of 10 from Illinois and Washington state, served in Guatemala through Mission Impact during the week of March 10-14.

Day 1

After two flights, checking in at our three-star hotel, a Spanish Catholic mass in a beautiful church on Sunday, and a hardcore day of shopping, my first two mornings were spent working in Santa Maria de Jesus, a village on the side of the inactive Volcano Agua.

We were staying in Antigua, at the foot of the volcano. Others members of the group, the ones with professional medical training, volunteered at the hospital, Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro.

In Proximas Pasos, a girls elementary school built by Mission Impact, we taught a fun exercise class (my godmother, Marilyn, was part of this) and created sock puppets. Luckily we had a wonderful translator to tell the kids things like, “Your puppet can be your best friend!”

During our group’s initial introductions to the classes, the principal, Myrna, also informed the students that it was my birthday. Their adorable faces lit up, and they sang “Feliz Cumpleaños” to me and bounced out of their desks to give me hugs and kisses.

The generosity and open hearts of these children blew me away. One class sang about wanting cake, so our group paid some staff to go out and bring back cakes to share with the whole school.

That afternoon those of us under 26 years of age in our group went to the Obras and met Wendy Robinson, a Uni alum from Oregon who is trained as a lawyer but now is helping with global medical missions. She took us into the surgical unit so we could don scrubs and observe two hernia operations and a vaginal hysterectomy right in the operating room! It was more shocking than I had anticipated, but still extremely fascinating.

As I found out later, there was only school in the morning because the kids in the neighborhood, some as young as five, must support their families by selling produce in the market in the afternoon.

Day 2

Tuesday was basically the same as Monday, except after school we invited the mothers of the schoolgirls to celebrate International Women’s Day. They giggled while making sock puppets and listened to Myrna, a Guatemalan woman herself, praising them for investing in the future of Guatemala by sending their daughters to school. With great luck we ended up having just the right amount of arts and crafts for the ever-growing number of mothers.

To these women, this was a welcome mini-vacation from the grueling everyday chores, including taking care of children, cooking, and laundry. We didn’t know how much our event helped, but later a mom spoke personally to Myrna, expressing her appreciation.

Day 3

On Wednesday we hauled out trunks full of socks and yarn hair and tapes of children’s songs for exercises to Nueva Vida, or the New Life School, where we spent the next two mornings. This school was for disabled children. Here it was more hectic, because every cute kid was so eager to make a puppet all at the same time!

One boy needed a wheelchair, but his had a wheel loose, so therefore it could only be used indoors. The school lent him another wheelchair for his brother to take him home over the bumpy cobblestones of the hilly village. After that, we had to load the indoor wheelchair into a pickup truck and take it to his house.

Day 4

Thursday, I began to question my purpose on this mission trip because I was the only person not trained professionally in either education or medicine, nor could I speak Spanish.

My doubts were banished when a boy named Byron, who was up to make puppets, asked my name. No one had ever asked that before; I was always the one asking in my dismal, broken Spanish. He repeated my name in a jumble of sounds, but he made sure I knew he was saying “Eunice.”

After his turn was over, he would peek out the corner of his classroom window and yell my name. I would respond with an equally enthusiastic “¡Hola!” and a wave, and hopefully I brought as much joy to him, even if for a little while, as he brought me.

A couple days earlier, there was shooting on a public bus that killed two people in Antigua. The public was tired of this recurring violence and threatened to strike. However, the strike never happened because apparently the people depend on the buses for their daily lives, no matter how dangerous the transportation might be. When I asked one of our drivers and my friend Gerber why, he simply responded, “This is Guatemala.”

Day 5

While helping move supplies, I got a tour of the Obras with Jill, a co-leader. The facility is also a home for people with spinal bifida and cerebral palsy. I remember seeing an autistic boy who could walk, but he was confined to a crib and forced to wear a helmet. Most of the people living there crave human touch, according to Jill, because they don’t get many visitors.

It was tough saying goodbye to the students. I already miss their hugs and toothy grins. Parting with our group was also difficult. In the beginning, we were strangers and by the end we had laughed and cried together. Now my world is put into perspective — my daily lamentations have little importance compared to the global sphere. Guatemala is a beautiful country that opened my heart and broke it at the same time.

More photos: Eunice How in Guatemala

Guatemalan public transportation. Photo courtesy Eunice How

A view of Antigua from Volcano Agua. Photo courtesy Eunice How