Greetings to all my lovely friends from Children of the Maya,
I seriously can’t believe it’s already October! It seems like just yesterday we were bouncing along those dirt roads in Guatemala to and from the schools thinking we were going to fall out of our seats, or as I recall some of us actually did (Woohee, although snuggling up to Oliver seemed to help)! I miss it all so much! The fun we had at service, the music that was mostly appropriate (Maya/Ryan), the afternoon excursions, and of course all the time spent goofing off at the home base! Although probably I could pass on another three hour van trip back to the capital!
Whenever I’m telling my friends about our trip this past summer I always tell them about our beautiful weekend trip to the lake and how unfortunately it was often followed by me getting to play nurse for a few days, (Bailey said it best “The Plague!”)! I’m so happy you all got better so quickly, despite a few days of struggle! I also tell them how much I learned from all of you, keeping me young with the latest Sam Smith jams or serenading me with “Come on Eileen”. Although I do include how I learned that there are consequences to playing games of odds with you (Kevin)!
I still think one of the best parts for me was seeing all of you at service and how hard you worked. It was incredible to watch you, some with language skills others with little, really reach out and make a connection with the children. It was amazing to see how much you cared and really wanted to learn about Guatemala, leadership, and everything around you! You are all an awesome bunch of individuals and I am so proud and pleased I got to spend time with all of you this summer! I hope you all remember your action plans and are continuing to work on those ideas of yours. I know you will all be doing big things in the future!
Rudy, Meredith and I got really lucky this summer. Not only did we become best friends, because, come on, they are the coolest, even if Rudy never quite knows what’s going on! But I got to see some real dance skills, honestly I would like to mention a few names here but the list is quite long! From Fabian’s reggateon, to Pete and Charlie’s salsa, to Ariel’s “moves”, and so many more, I’m laughing right now thinking about it! The whole summer was full of so much learning and fun!
I hope school is going well for you now! Whether it is your first semester of college or high school I hope you are rocking it! Hopefully I will hear from all of you on what’s new and how it’s all going! Or maybe we will even get lucky enough to run into each other on a future GLA trip!
All my love,
Eileen (Momma Eileen)
