Closing Down

Yesterday, we started to close the book on our trip to Guatemala this summer. After getting the team started on their projects, we headed back to our house and began packing. This alone is a traumatic experience! It’s amazing to see how much we’ve accumulated in less than 3 short months! We have so many treasured mementos (the best ones were free, like lava rock and crafts we’ve done with the kids) that will help us remember our time here this summer.
It was a beautiful day, so in the afternoon, we headed out and started taking pictures of the grounds and buildings to show people and to help us remember exactly how it looked the summer we lived here. We didn’t know it at first, but as we walked, we realized it was more for us than it was for anyone else. We were saying goodbye to the buildings, mudholes, swingsets, smells of the carpenteria, sounds of the laundry room, and giant cow patties that we’ve come to love over this summer. With each picture we took, we were hugging it goodbye, until the next time we return.
It was interesting that in past trips, we’ve known where these buildings are, but this time it was different. We know the details of each place, the cracks in the walls, the broken windows, and the foot imprints in the cement sidewalk. We fell more in love with everything here by coming to love the details. It was the intimate details we were saying goodbye to, not just the places.
Tomorrow, we’ll take the team to Antigua, and say goodbye to all the sights and smells there.