So on Saturday night,  I went with the team to go and do their cultural experience. The one where they go to a guatemalan family's house, go the cornmill, make dobladas and eat delicious arroz con leche!  :o).  Anyway, I ended up getting there about 1/2 an hour earlier than the team did, and so it just ended up being me and the lady of the house who went to the cornmill. As we walked down the small dirt path leading to the cornmill, I stopped to look around me. There were huge bunches of corn growing around me, you could see smoke coming out of people's kitchens, children playing outside their houses, and a game of soccer going on with some of the men from the village. It was around 6 pm, and so the sun was beginning to set, but it was still the perfect temperature outside. So, eventually, we got to the cornmill and we waited in line as other women and girls from the village were getting their corn made into mush for making tortillas.
As I stood there watching them come in to the mill, with a bucket of corn on their head, dressed in the typical clothing from here and having little to no jewlery on, the word " simplicity" came in to my head. Simplicity, simple, enjoying life as it comes. Doing tasks day after day, the same ones..over and over again....but enjoying it while it lasts, because, in the end, it's life and tomorrow never rolls around again.
For most of the girls and ladies who came through that door, going to the cornmill is just part of their daily routine. They do it for breakfast, lunch and supper. There is no such thing as a " major grocery shop trip" for them. Every day they go the market to buy whyat they need. Every day is lived as it comes, no agendas, no crazy busy schedules, no planning 2 weeks ahead. Just life, as it comes, one step at a time.
You see, simplictiy is what makes me LOVE  Guatemala. The way that relationships are everything, that planning crazy ahead in advance, is almost a foreign concept. The fact that, friends  are almost always availabe,  or that wedding invitations get given out the week before, or sometimes, the night before, and we still usually end up attending.  Life is something that gets lived here. It is something that gets enjoyed to the fullest of its ability. It's not that there is no planning done whatsoever, there is. But, a key word in guatemalan vocabulary, is: flexibility. Being flexible, being open to changing your schedule, in order to bless someone elses day, or to be there for someone else. It's what they do, something I do,  and it's something I love about them.
Simple. Uncomplicated. Life  lived the way I believe it was intended to be. People and relationships being the first priority. Family and friends always coming first. It's Guatemala, it's the country I love. It's the place that will forever in my heart be called, Home.