This blog post was written and designed by Melina Thurmond. Thank you Melina for contributing to peoplearemymuse!
Pan de chocolate
“I hope that someday, our first world mindset can all be like Fernando’s and be more concerned about giving a piece of bread to our new friends.” -Melina Thurmond
Although this sweet boy was just a kid, he left the biggest impact on me and my good friend Nora. One of the first mornings we got to Guatemala, we had the chance to visit a school in Comalapa. While we were there, we were able to see a traditional mayan spiritual dance as well as hear the kids perform some of their favorite songs.
In most Guatemalan education systems, the government pushes so much for spanish culture and normalizing american values over the traditional mayan values that most of the kids come into school with. It was really promising to see how much this small school still valued their root customs.
We had roughly an hour towards the end of our visit to play with the kids. Nora and I paired up with Fernando. He was extremely energetic and had a smile that just could not be beat. We grabbed a beach ball and kicked it around for a while until he said something really quick and then ran off. Fernando came back with his snack for the day, which was pan de chocolate. While he munched happily, Nora and I looked around at all the other bright faces. Fernando came up to us and asked us if we wanted some of his bread. I was reluctant to take it because I did not want to eat the rest of his food, considering that he was offering the whole piece of bread. I took a piece and said thanks (picture shown to the right) and we continued playing our ball games.
“Little did Fernando know that that single piece of bread changed my life forever.”
While we enjoyed our little time together, left playing in the dried dirt and with a beach ball that deflated more and more with each hit, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Fernando had done for us.
I took a lot away from Guatemala, but Fernando is still a memory that gets me emotional every time I think of it. We had the opportunity to spend fourteen weeks studying the culture, people, food, history, and lifestyle of those living in Guatemala, but nowhere in the mass amounts of articles were we able to feel the compassion and love that we felt while we were there.
Poverty is nothing out of the ordinary in the cities that we traveled to. Most families live on less than an American dollar a day and have to provide food and water for their families. So when Fernando was so willing to give Nora and I all of his bread, I came back to this idea.
The people in Guatemala don’t live for money. They don’t live to die or to see who can make it up the ladder the fastest. The people of Guatemala live to live. While they may struggle with day to day finances and insecurities centered around clean water and nourishing food, they continue to rely on their God above and the love they receive from a community that is so willing to give it.
While I may have been just an outsider looking into different communities for fourteen short days, I will never feel a love like Guatemala gave me every day. I hope that someday, our first world mindset can all be like Fernando’s and be more concerned about giving a piece of bread to our new friends.