Cups of Coke and English Class

On Monday’s and Tuesday’s, our team gets the privilege to do ministry is the town of Parramos, Guatemala. We have all day long to just go out into the town and serve the people there, whether that looks like playing with the children in the streets, serving the mothers or talking to the street vendors, our purpose is to exist and serve as a small embodiment of Jesus. 

It was on one of these beautiful Tuesday mornings where the children of Guatemala changed my life, once again. We were walking through the main street where they had the farmers market open. A beautiful, bustling street of shaded fruit stands, sprinkled with every color in the rainbow. All the fruit and vegetables are always ripe and huge. The women at the vendors are dressed in the beautiful traditional Guatemalan dress (name), adored with pink and purple colors, embroidered flowers and detailed necklines. 

We stumbled across one of the fruit stands of a woman named Yuriel who had some beautiful flowers she was selling. We bought a big bouquet of flowers and saw a cluster of young children playing in the square behind the farmer’s market. We approached the giggling group of children and gave them each a little bouquet of yellow flowers. They smiled hesitantly and then warmed up to us within no time and were asking us to play. We asked them if they wanted anything from the store that we could buy them, they answered no of course, a common response of the people here, but after listing off some different types of soda they all giggled and agreed they wanted some. 

We quickly ran to the little Tienda across the street, owned by a sweet man named Josue that always, without fail, asks us how we are doing, and bought a liter of Coke and a bag of plastic cups. Then ran back to the kids and sat down in the dirt, sharing cups of coke and our names. 

That interaction turned into an afternoon of fun in the square of Parramos. Playing hide and seek and getting plenty of strange looks, it is not often you see a grown gringa hiding behind a trashcan in the middle of the street and racing across the square, which if you were wondering, I got last place every time which never failed to make them giggle. 

After awhile, some of the little boys nervously approached my friend, Ellie, and shyly asked her if we could teach them English. We all looked at each other, a bit surprised that in the middle of their fun, they would want to learn. But we said of course and sat down in the dirt to write out some words in English. Their eyes light up with excitement and they ran off yelling for us to wait a second. 

They soon came back with their friends, other children from the streets, telling them that they were going to learn English. Suddenly, a herd of children crowed around us as we pulled out a paper and pen and asked them what words they wanted to learn in English. 

We would write down the word and then say it out loud and they would repeat it, they were all so eager to get it correct. We then ripped off the paper and gave it to the little boy who had asked to learn it, soon all the other kids wanted their own copy of the English words too. So we wrote out plenty of little papers with English words and gave it to all the kids.

As soon as they got that little piece of paper, they would treat it like a treasure, looking at it and then delicately folding it and then running with the biggest smile on their face to go show their mothers and family. 

I was astonished and almost wanted to cry. All these kids had been completely out of school since the Pandemic hit because none of their families have the technology to do anything online, so the kids have just been out of school, helping with their parents work. The kids were hungry and eager to learn, taking every opportunity they had to learn and treasuring it. 

A mother of one of the children explained to us that they wanted their children to be fluent in English so bad because it could help them get a better life. 

Again, I was struck with my privilege. To them, English signified success, signified a chance, signified a different life. It was a strange contraction to me because these kids are the most patient, resourceful, kind, understanding, humble and grateful children I have ever met. 

It is easy for me to get a glimpse of the brokenness that is this world, feel that weight and get discouraged. Allow the gap of privilege between those kids and I and allow it to bring shame and heartache. 

But Jesus does this cool thing where He turns shame into empathy and heartache and passion. I thank God that He trusted me to show me these things, not so that I could sit in discouragement but so I could leverage my privilege to offer what I have and take baby steps to how God intended this world to look like. 

I came to those kids with a bouquet of yellow flowers and a cup of coke and left with a new found heart and passion for international education. 

Even if all those kids got was a little paper translating small words from Spanish to English, I hope they left with a new found confidence in their ability to learn and a little more hope in their spirit because that’s what this whole missions stuff is all about, bringing just a little sliver of hope that points to the heart of the Father.

Jesus always has more in store for His children then pretty flowers and bubbly drinks and I thank Him that he allowed our paths to cross like this.