Guatemala: Trip #2 with School the World

I returned from Guatemala two weeks ago – my second corporate service trip with School the World. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, then you might remember that I went to Panama in 2024 for my first corporate service trip and came home with a broken foot. I’m happy to say that I did not bring home any unwanted souvenirs this time. 

School the World asked me to write a guest blog for them this time, and I’m still trying to find the words I want to say. I’m hoping that recapping my week here on my own blog might get the creative juices flowing, so here goes…

This year, it was just me and one other co-worker (Kevin – this was his third School the World trip) representing our company. Thankfully, we were on the same flight to Guatemala City. We met up at the Dallas airport. Our flight to Guatemala City was less than three hours and uneventful. The problem was that we ended up waiting at the airport for almost four hours for the van to arrive to pick us up. A religious festival was going on in Guatemala City that caused a significant traffic jam. But the van eventually arrived, and we were on our way to Antigua… slowly. 

Antigua, it seemed, was also having a religious festival, so we were stuck in traffic there, too. What was supposed to be an hour ride from the airport took much longer, and we missed our scheduled dinnertime. I was a bit cranky – this was not a great way to start things off. But we got to the hotel, quickly changed clothes, and made our way to the restaurant. By the time we got there, everyone else had finished eating. But we were able to order dinner. Good thing because every one of us on that shuttle was hangry, I think. 

It was all uphill from there, at least. We spent the night in Antigua at Casa de la Fuentes, a Spanish colonial hotel with a gorgeous courtyard full of lush plants. 

The next day (Monday, March 2), we got in our assigned vans and made the 4-hour drive to Quiché. This is where we would spend most of the week. On the way there, we stopped at a restaurant in Tecpán for breakfast. The breakfast was Guatemalan-style: eggs over a scratch-made tortilla, refried black beans, fruit, and sausage. We also had some rice porridge, which was very good. Baskets of hot, fresh tortillas were placed around the table. In the center of the restaurant was a griddle station where you could watch them make the tortillas, so that was pretty cool. 

We arrived at the community of Tululché 1 around noon, I think? And they were ready to greet us. We enjoyed a fun welcome ceremony with games and dancing, and then we were put to work.

The objective for the week: help finish the new building (two classrooms), install a playground, and plant trees. We ended Monday with painting and left the community late in the afternoon to check into our hotel in Santa Cruz del Quiché. Dinner was up on the hotel roof – and to my great delight – it actually was Guatemalan. (In Panama, we were served American food every night, which is so boring.)

A word about the hotel, since I inevitably will compare it to the hotel in Panama: While the food was authentic at this hotel, the accommodations were bare bones and definitely paled in comparison to the beach resort we stayed in during the Panama trip. The main thing I struggled with in Quiché was remembering to throw toilet paper in the trash (despite the signs everywhere reminding me) because they didn’t have plumbing that could handle it. And it was great how the water in the shower turned from scalding hot to ice cold, and the water pressure would constantly change, but I digress…

I won’t bore you with the details of our day-to-day. We mixed concrete by hand, shoveled it into buckets, and formed assembly lines to pass the buckets to the workers who were laying the floors. We painted exterior and interior walls, planned out mural designs, and painted playground equipment. (I didn’t. The playground is where I broke my foot the last time, so I steered clear until it was done.) We played with the kids at recess, taught classes, and helped with chores on our home visit. And we hugged a lot of children, gave a lot of high fives and fist bumps, and laughed a lot. We came back to the hotel every night exhausted and dirty, but we were always be happy.

Tuesday evening after we got back to the hotel, a small group of us went out for a little shopping. We went to Dollar City, which is similar to Dollar Tree here in the States, but much better. And then to a grocery store (which gave out Walmart bags but wasn’t called Walmart) to get Guatemalan coffee and other treats. 

Thursday, we stopped in Chichicastenango after our day in the community. It’s a market town about 30 minutes outside of Santa Cruz del Quiché. We got about an hour or so to wander through the market stalls and shop before we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner out. I would have enjoyed the market a lot more if we hadn’t been harassed constantly by women and children trying to coerce us into buying their trinkets. I couldn’t escape them, and they don’t take no for an answer. Fair warning if you ever go there: They will follow you for blocks, no matter how many times you say “No gracias.” Despite that, I still managed to get some souvenirs and a pretty handmade top for myself. 

Friday was the dedication ceremony in the community. It was fun until it wasn’t. Similar to the welcome ceremony, we had dancing and music. And then the mayor showed up and gave a never-ending speech that drove a lot of people away. (From my understanding, he was giving a political speech, accusing his opponents of being liars, and taking credit for all the work we did. Okay, bro.) I got up and left at one point and just hung out in the classroom we were using all week until the coast was clear.

After the speech, we had the plaque unveiling and ribbon cutting at the classrooms and playground. We took a lot of photos. The community served us lunch, after which we said goodbye to Tululché 1 for good and made the 4-hour trip back to Antigua for our final night. 

We went back to the hotel where we stayed the first night. I had to wait for my luggage to arrive, since that came in a separate vehicle. But I got it in enough time to dress for dinner. And La Fonda de la Calle Real is where I had the best meal on the trip: peppers stuffed with beef and topped with picante sauce, rice, black beans, farmer’s cheese, and guacamole. With tortillas, obviously. (They are, after all, served with every meal.) And the sangria. Oh my God. Out of this world. 

Saturday was departure day. I had a little time before I needed to get on the van to go to the airport. So I went out for an early morning walk to get a good view of the volcano and the market square. (There are actually three volcanoes near Antigua, and one erupted Tuesday of that week. We missed it, of course.) 

It was during breakfast that I started getting notifications about my flight being delayed. It kept getting more and more delayed. And when I was on the van heading toward the airport, I found out it was delayed again to the point where I would miss my connecting flight. My plan was to go immediately to the American Airlines counter to try to resolve this, but my flight got rebooked automatically while I was still in the van. Suddenly, my layover was in Miami instead of Chicago O’Hare. 

So, I got to the airport 5 hours early. Though I did spend some time in the airport lounge and then went shopping to spend what was left of my quetzales. It wasn’t a bad way to kill the time but I would have preferred to have more time in Antigua. Oh well. These things can’t be helped. 

Overall, this was an incredible trip. While I enjoyed the Panama trip (broken foot notwithstanding), I didn’t interact as much with the kids. I felt more like an observer than a participant. I was certainly less physically fit, which made the work a lot harder. And it was much hotter there. This year, I leaned in. Hard. And I was richly rewarded for it. This was one of the best experiences of my life, and it’s no small thing for me to say that. 

Random thoughts:

• It will be a long time before I’ll want to eat another tortilla.
• I was the only non-Latino assigned to our van and also the only one who didn’t speak Spanish. They sometimes had conversations in Spanish, but that’s fine. Though I appreciate that Kevin would occasionally tell me what they were talking about. What’s funny to me is that we were pulled over on the way back to Antigua on that Friday for a routine traffic stop. Everyone else in the van started teasing me that I was the reason we got pulled over. And then the officer opened the van door, poked his head in, looked right at me, closed the door, and told us we were good to go.
• The feral dogs break my heart. Many of them were malnourished and/or injured but terrified of people (for good reason). I fed my snacks to one dog at our gas station stop because it was limping badly from a very serious injury on one foot. I gained its trust enough for it to eat out of my hand, but then the other dogs found us.
• I don’t like rooster meat. Yes, it “tastes like chicken” but it’s tough and greasy.
• Never ever buy these cookies unless that’s all you want to eat until they’re all gone and then you’ll be sad that you don’t have any left. (Can I get them here? Yes. Are they more expensive? Yes. Do I need them? No.)
• Andrew, if you’re reading this: Every time I do squats, I’ll think of you.
• Angi and Liz: I will never forget our conversation that night on the rooftop while I was drinking my sad little bottle of imported American wine (which is cheap to buy in the States and more then double the price in Guatamala but the hotel shop didn’t have much in the way of wine.) LOL. That was the hardest I’ve laughed in ages and I swear it wasn’t the moscato. It’s because we’re hilarious.
• Lainee: I still get chills when I think about your singing voice. Not only are you an amazing nurse, but that voice! Your talent is insane.
• Autumn: Thanks for joining me at 6am to go sightseeing in Antigua.
• Crissy: I miss your energy. I love how much you love dogs. And I loved dancing with you.
• Kev 4-Ev: Our second STW trip together, and it was so much fun! Thanks so much for all your translation help and for just being you. And for inviting me to be your guest in the airport lounge.
• I really do miss you all.
• Why didn’t we go to that ridiculous dinosaur show? It would have been good for laughs.