Today is our last day and was quite interesting! Many of us climbed our first volcano, Picaya! It took us about 2 hours to climb nearly to the top. There were lava rocks, heat vents where we roasted marshmellows, and a heat hole that felt like a sauna. After our volcano high, we faced a new reality with visiting a neighborhood in Villa Nueva and the dump in Guatemala City. The community of impoverished families are faced with gang violence and challenges providing basic needs. Despite the despair, the community is close knit. There are programs available to help the individuals develop faith, education, and work skills. The dump was eye-opening to say the least. The dump looks similar to those in the US. However, when the dump trucks bring the trash in, they dump in rows and individuals make a living scavenging through the trash to find items to recycle and sell. Guatemala counts on these individuals to sort through the trash and provide a recycling system of sorts and they count on the dump for their livelihood. We also met Shorty, a preacher, who is a former gangster. He is helping individuals all through Guatemala turn their lives around. We ended our day with a nice dinner celebration with the students, practitioners, faculty, translators, drivers, and other new friends. Overall, we had another emotionally charged day full of education and inspiration.

Shout to all of our translators, drivers, and new friends: Steve, Rolando, Lisa, Darvy, Gerson, Diana, Darryl, Alex, Ileana, Hubert, Huego, Edwin, Daniel, Gerardo, Avril, Shorty, Rafeal Lanavair OT/PT students, the hotel staff and to all of our sites!!! Thank you to everyone!

Thank you for following our journey! It has been a great week!
Valerie Hill (Faculty)