Guatemala: I Confess

http://www.sanlucasmission.org/

A person who stays a week here could write a book; a person who stays a month might write a chapter; and a person who stays a year wouldn’t know where to begin.

Does that make sense? If not, read it again.

If so, then this thought leads to my first confession: I will not even come close to seeing the reality of Guatemala. As soon as I arrived to San Lucas, I began to feel the presence of this looming fact. It is frustrating not to be able to understand…but maybe at least something to know that I won’t. But I want to try my best while I am here. And with accurate words, I hope to share with you my observations, and what I learn.

Now to my second confession: My words will not be a truly authentic and accurate telling of this place. Not on purpose though! Of course, I will try my best to share the truth of this place—its beauty and its sadness, its strengths and its weaknesses. But I am not from here, and for this I will fail in many ways. This country is one with a shadowy past, and one, where even in the present day, it’s still difficult to find the truth. The complexities of the people, cultures, politics, and history are beyond me. I am an outsider, naïve and ignorant, and I will surely make unknown mistakes in what I write and say.

But with such confessions, that’s not to say that my time here is wasted. Even if the profundity of Guatemala is beyond me, at the very least, my time here is an introduction. Though it is a mere one. Nonetheless, may it be a step towards understanding another way, our commonalities and our differences.

At the moment, I am hesitant of where to begin. What stories and thoughts do I share? I have only been here a short while, but (if it makes sense to say so) I feel so much already…and my mind is clouded with many thoughts and questions. But I think it would be better if I were to settle with this commotion a bit more, before I begin to share any further impressions of this place.

Please know it is with good intentions that I mean to share these perspectives and observations. But also, please forgive me for my misperceptions and inaccuracies, and may they not be detrimental.


"Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be." ~Don Quixote