"Para Servirle"

One of our favorite sayings here in Guatemala is often heard at a restaurant or a checkout line. After thanking someone for their help or service, they respond with “Para Servirle” which literally means, “in order to serve you.” Every time we hear it, we talk about how much we love the idea of telling someone “I’m here to serve you.” Today, we saw “Para Servirle” put into action in a wonderful way. One of the benefits of having a team here is that the cooks leave a hot coffee pot out all day long. Today was a little chilly, and the thought of a nice hot cup of coffee was too much to resist, so we headed over to the comedor. On the walk over, we passed don Victor (our resident driver, handyman, and all around good guy) busy working on repairing broken window panes. Upon arriving though, we found the pot was not there! We walked away a little disappointed, but accepted our fate. Through the window he was working on, don Victor witnessed our finding, or lack thereof, and we all shared a little chuckle about it.
We carried on to find Evy to talk about other matters, and upon returning, we passed don Victor carrying out a fresh pot of the coffee and placing it on the table. Had we not seen him, we never would have known that he had gone out of his way to serve us. We were taken aback that through the world’s eyes, this made no sense. He was busy with his own jobs, we are younger than him, Sophie is a woman, and the cooks are responsible for this task. However, through the eyes of the Christian and here in Guatemala, don Victor recognized this as an opportunity to “para servirle.”