Nathan had warned us of how dangerous an area Paradise was going to be. "Don't wear anything flashy." Needless to say the wedding ring set and earrings stayed at the house the entire trip :)
We were definitely going to stick out {and we did of course} so we didn't need anything else bringing attention our way.
This neighborhood - one of many located in the Zone 18 area - was nothing as the name suggested. We literally parked on the side of a road and came upon a soccer field full of activity.
The field and surrounding stadiums, stairs, etc. were built by an Anderson, SC team many years ago. Nathan uses it today for a lot of outreach and a place to do activities/meeting spot. We all walked in along the top of the stadium looking down on the field while a game was taking place. I can definitely speak for our entire team when I say we felt the eyes of many Guatemalans looking at us "gringos" as we followed like little ducklings behind Nathan, winding our way down to the field.

We continued following Nathan as he led us down a narrow walkway literally surrounded by sheet metal, doorways to "homes," and sidewalks. Definitely like nothing we have in the U.S. nothing.
These homes are literally hanging on the side of mountains with retaining walls for foundation and lots of prayer. The first home we entered was an older man with only one arm. His name was "Grandpa" who has a daughter named Reina, who has a daughter - Blanca. Blanca has three boys - Noe, Richard and Julio. Those three boys live with Grandpa in the house and were there for us to meet. They were super nice and courteous and definitely compared to the other kids we would meet as the day progressed, these boys were clean and seemed well taken care of.
Grandpa is a big victory story and testament to the work Nathan has been doing - Engadi paid for their house to be "renovated." They built them the house with concrete added on a few bedrooms and a bathroom which is huge for that area. This house was eyeopening for me because it was our first house we actually got to go inside. This was such a personal experience. I mean think about it: would you just let a group of 10 people wandering your sidewalks just come into your home? Probably not.
Right away, Nathan's passion for these people shone through (he tries to come across as some big tough guy, but we all saw a different side to him as we spoke with these families.) He spoke with each of the three boys asking about how school was going, and the other events in their lives. {I must clarify - I don't speak Spanish, so any time I reference Nathan talking to any Guatemalan, more than likely I don't know what he said unless he told us afterwards.} Encouraging them, etc (it was all in Spanish which I quickly realized my two years in high school did me NO good). Anyway, we prayed for the entire family before leaving then said our goodbyes.

Our entire group walked out of this house and went a few steps before entering another home. For some reason, I was the last person to enter and didn't hear the story of the family prior to entering. All I know is the second I stepped into the house, I immediately felt this intense heat as though I was in a furnace - literally. It was really difficult to see around this home because it was on the interior part of the neighborhood with little natural sunlight and not "hanging off" the cliff as the previous home. I quickly found a spot to stand among my other team members then started surveying the room for the heat. Suddenly I saw a fire and quickly realized the two ladies were making tortillas! {yum} WOW



I was standing beside an older gentleman thinking he was part of this household, but as Nathan explained, the two women {a mother/daughter duo} had lost their husband/father and needed a way to support their household. So this man was actually a customer, waiting on a hot, fresh off the grill stack of tortillas. {All I could think about was waiting back at home at Chuy's for those little ladies behind the glass making tortillas too}. There were probably 5 children under the age of 6 running through the house, so these ladies were making and selling tortillas to bring in income. Once the customer's stack was ready to go, the tortilla-making daughter grabbed a cloth from the gentleman (that had been hanging on his shoulder) wrapped up the stack and he was on his way.



I watched the two females as they meticulously scooped out the tortilla batter, smacking it back and forth between their hands, then placing them on the grill to toast. I noticed the water bowl they were using as part of the process and how you couldn't really see through it (aka dirty water). The two women looked exhausted. Literally. Their faces were glistening from the intense heat as they stood over that hot fire never pausing from their labor even while Nathan continued to talk to them. I could only imagine what tough work this had to be for them and I could only compare it to the hours I spend standing to make a cake, but in my climate-controlled house, wearing supportive shoes using clean water - really no comparison actually. It's hard to realize the magnitude of this situation unless you're there - the room we were standing in was the main front room of the home. It was maybe 150 square feet opening up to 2 other rooms that looked like their laundry was drying.

I couldn't help but notice the littlest bambino - pictured above. He was about 7-8 months old and looked absolutely miserable. He had a look of utter discontent even though he was barely dressed - with just socks and an unbuttoned onesie - he was being passed among his siblings who each were no more than 6 or 7 years old. An observation someone made later was that while it was sad to see this little one being passed around, it's not something you would necessarily see here: the other siblings taking care of the baby. Again, we prayed for this home and left giving each member either a Guatemalan handshake or hug before exiting.



We then made our way back through the neighborhood winding through the sharp twists and turns back to the soccer field we first stepped on when we entered Paradise. By this time we had a little crowd of about 40 kids - many following us after passing by their home, some hearing we were around and just showing up to see what was going on.



This is the basketball court that sits beside the soccer field where we played with the kids. It's amazing the background for all these pictures - look at the houses lining the back! Think about sending your kids to play here - with the old cars and stacked houses lining the "playground."



We brought lots of fun things to do with the kids - starting with a craft involving popsicle sticks and stickers. A little improv on our part {we kind of forgot the glue} but we made it work! Thank you craftiness!! What mattered was that the kids absolutely loved it. Immediately the language barrier can be so frustrating. You want to talk to these kids but you don't understand each other. Sign language doesn't really work because they actually do SPEAK just not your language. {Thankfully we have Mitchell and Nicole who will become life savers for our entire group throughout the course of the week}. Besides, it's incredible how a smile transcends language barriers. I only hoped that my love and kindness showed by helping them with their craft and constantly encouraging them with "Muay Bueno" or "Muay Bonito" - my token phrases: Very Good or Very Pretty!



Bubbles, helicopters and soccer for 2 hours and we definitely had a full day! Nathan is one guy with a lot of favor with these people - they light up when they see him and have so much respect for him. He's told us so many stories of gang leaders and drug dealers turning their life around or helping him with his ministry - guns in hand walking through the streets.


We passed out candy to this particular group of kids - you would think we were passing out gold as excited as they were. It doesn't hit me for a few days, but it just shows you the magnitude of the poverty here. I mean we were handing out 5 cent pieces of candy. Candy. And even the adults were lined up asking for handfuls. Something so simple, but taken as a treat to these people because they don't get it that often.
Once the candy was gone, we made our way back up the stairs to the road level. We had to leave before 4 because even the police do no enter Paradise after 4pm. We were headed back to the van...or so we thought...



We all quickly recognized we were taking a very different route back to the van. Before we knew it, we were on a 45 degree incline of cobblestone walking through more homes with people's heads popping out windows and doors, curious about this big group of "Gringos."

We stepped into a home, greeted with full-on hugs from this petite Guatemalan Grandma, Olivia.



Her sweet smile showed us her welcome. We quickly learned she lived with her 2 sons (Doctor/Manuel) and Geovanni, as well as her daughters - Iris (4 kids of her own living there too) and Martha (2 kids of her own living there too). Olivia had a total of 10 kids - all of them adults now but 4 of them still lived in the same household. Olivia was so incredibly happy to see us and thanked us for making the trip down the hill to see her and her family. She got rather emotional in thanking us (through Nathan's translation). We left her with a large bag of hotel shampoo and soap and handfuls of candy for each member of the household.

Side stories on Olivia's kids: Geovanni (he was our guide throughout the day in Paradise), Doc/Manuel - this guy told Nathan several years ago that when he grew up he wanted to be a doctor. From that day forward, Nathan calls him Doc as a reminder of the hope and dream to continue to become a doctor. Martha and Iris who I already mentioned. Then there's Christian - a deaf mute who was playing soccer that day on the field, Josue - serving in the military, Marlon - he was shot in the face after a group of gang members approached him on the road trying to recruit him. When he told him the only gang he would be a part of was team Jesus, they shot him point blank. Incredible family and incredible stories of their faith.

The sidewalk back up to street level leaving Olivia's house.



We left Olivia's house walking back to the van. Traffic was still crazy so it took us at least two hours to get back, but not before stopped at one last home. Getting to this house was insanity at is finest. The road wasn't really a road. Literally just dirt but the incline, again, was intense.


We arrived to another village with hundreds of homes - these seemed a little better than Paradise, but still not at all like anything in the U.S. We went into a home and met several beautiful females - Reyna and Herlinda - sisters who had just lost their mother within the past year. She ran their household, so these daughters were picking up the pieces making life work - or at least try to make it work and struggling emotionally along the way. The dad used to come and go and he he's trying to get legal rights to the house which the daughters are fighting against as best they can. I was impressed when hearing that they each had pretty solid jobs: Reyna works at a doctors office as a receptionist and Herlinda does something similar at a professional office. Reyna is also a black belt with the karate studio that Nathan and Claudia run - we actually got to see videos of her later in the week She is one tough cookie!
Reyna and Herlinda looked as though they were about 25-30 years old. They didn't have any children (VERY rare) but their brother and his wife along with their two kids lived with them too. Nathan talked with this group for a while - consoling them and sharing hope yet again. We said our goodbyes and were on our way.

The view outside of Reyna's house.

On our way back to the house, we pulled into Pollo Campero. Translated it means "Country Chicken." it's hard to describe what it was because the menu had fried chicken, hamburgers, pizza and sandwiches. We ended up eating fried chicken and fries and it was pretty solid!


Definitely different than our KFC or Mrs Winners in the U.S.
Back to the house to wrap up the day with showers, team time then bed time. WOW What a full day!