Growing up, it was a tradition in my family to watch all of the old Christmas movies starting the first day of December. Among those I consider "classics" is the ORIGINAL (i.e. cartoon) version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I watched it so many times growing up I can now recite it almost by heart. One of my favorite lines in the movie is: "The Grinch hated Christmas – the whole Christmas season. Now, please don't ask why; no one quite knows the reason. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. Or it could be that his head wasn't screwed on just...

My dad is a snuggler; an unabashed, hug-you-hard snuggler. One of his favorite Christmas movies is “Elf” simply because Will Ferrell’s character, Buddy the Elf, makes a long list of things to do during Christmas time that ultimately ends with “… and then we’ll snuggle!” My dad has snuggling on lock, as the saying goes. And growing up, I’ve always known that I could run to him when I was afraid, or hurt, or heartbroken. One of the things I miss most being away from my family is his ability to comfort me, to make me feel safe and assured with a...

Yesterday afternoon, I found my niche. And it was in the last place I thought I’d find it on this trip. I found my niche in a bar. Her name is Z——. She’s 18 years old. She has two children, a three year old and a one year old, who are currently living across the border in Honduras. She has huge, brown eyes and is eager to smile. She’s truly one of the most beautiful people I’ve met here. And she is a prostitute in one of the many bars here in town. She is my little sister- literally. She reminded me so much of the sister I left at home that when I learned...

I truly learned what it felt like when people said their hearts were broken. I had never in my life felt so distraught emotionally for people I didn’t even know until the heartbreak was so manifest physically in the van ride back from the bars. Without even comprehending why, I felt a lump form in my throat and suddenly, I was crying. I cried for the girls I had met that day. Most of them were mothers. Some of them were even grandmothers, but many of them could have been me. They were eighteen and nineteen and in their twenties. They had come from surrounding countries from families of...

During training camp and the months leading up to the trip, we were all warned over and over to expect culture shock.  To expect the unexpected.  To throw our preconceived notions out the window.  I thought I had done everything I could to avoid being surprised by my new surroundings in Guatemala. But honestly, how does one prepare for the unknown? Over the past month here in Puerto Barrios, I have experienced so many new things and accepted them as normal.  However, there are a few things that have taken more time to get used to.  For example: Lines in supermarkets....

We visited the community that makes it's home in the city garbage dump for the second time this past week.    As our team stood around, conversing with the folks we'd met, I watched as several young men picked through the smoking, steaming piles of garbage, looking for recyclable materials. One young man with a huge bundle of plastic bottles has stopped foraging. He was so young compared to the others around him, maybe 22 years old. His eyes were hollow. He stared out past the garbage heaps, looking at the distant forest that was slowly being taken over by refuse. There was...