SSC_Newsletter_AUG_2018_2

Sarah Boreen, SSC Team Leader:

Wow, what an incredible week this has been! The Guatemalan village we served is called El Amatillo, a community of approximately 800 people living in about 125 houses. El Amatillo has a K-6th grade school with an enrollment of about 135 students. The community is situated along a large river where many community members bathe, wash clothes, swim, play and spend holidays/ days off. The spot where Living Water chose to build the well is on a big grassy field-like area surrounded by houses and the school. This area serves as a center for the community, so it was the ideal location to build the well. I could use countless adjectives to describe the people of El Amatillo and how they treated our team. These precious people welcomed us with such generosity, hospitality, openness, friendship and true love. Though extremely poor, they shared what little they have with us. They graciously opened their homes and bathrooms to us and cooked lunch for us each day. The week was full of extremely touching moments that will forever be imprinted in my memory. One morning when the team and I arrived to the community, we exited the van and immediately noticed a little boy, Daniel, wearing a Texas A&M University t-shirt. I pointed him out right away to the two College Station students and we taught him how to do a “Gig ‘Em” thumb and promptly took photos. In that moment more than ever, we knew that this trip and experience was truly meant to be. I told his mother, Marta, that I work on the TAMU campus and that 2 of the students in our group attend school there. I told her we had been

ecstatic to see her son wearing the A&M shirt and I asked where it had come from. Marta told me that her sister had gotten it in a donated bag of clothing that came from Guatemala City. The Aggie spirit is indeed global! On our last day in the community, the well was finished and dedicated. Our team stood in a circle with a group of community members surrounding us. There were prayers, songs sung a cappella by a local woman, and sentiments by the community members to us and our team to the community. My parting words to the community best sum up how I feel about this whole experience (originally written

and said in Spanish; translated to English): Many thanks for your generosity and love that you have shown us this week. You all have given much more to us than I could’ve ever imagined. It’s been a pleasure to be here in your community, sharing this week with each other. I am most thankful for everything that happened this week! Thank you to the women of the community who cooked for us, the men of the community for all of your hard work on the well and to all of the children for their laughs, smiles and hugs. Each member of El Amatillo is so precious. May God bless you all with this well and with many more blessings. I love you!

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SSC | SERVICE SOLUTIONS | NEWSLETTER | JULY 2018