Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / Guatemala 2024 || Day 4 (Quaid Jones, Ella McNaughton, and Phil Prasse)

Transcript

Guatemala 2024 || Day 4 (Quaid Jones, Ella McNaughton, and Phil Prasse) · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, it's Brian.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: We got a real trick for you today because we have three students who we're gonna hear from.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things about this trip is that we've been disabled at construction and medical and our teams have kind of gone back and forth, and it makes it kind of difficult to record some of these depending on where we are and the timing.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so today we're gonna hear from three people who did construction and they've done construction all week, so they've got a really good uh set of insight from it.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna hear today from Queen Jones and then Alan McNaughton and then Phil Brassy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope you enjoy it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we are sitting here in the cafe of Solomon's porch, and you can probably hear the loud bar music happening right outside uh the building.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um but we are sitting here with Quaid Jones, who is a rising junior, and this is his first time in Pana Hachel, and he's gonna be on residential staff at Wesley next year, so we're excited about all of that.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um and Quaid, I just want to ask you, particularly because yesterday we only interviewed Bella and she was working on the medical uh clinic side, if you just kind of tell us what's happened in the last couple of days at the construction site.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, so for the last couple of days, we've been working on building Feliza and her family, she has three kids, um, a four-room house.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: So it'll be three bedrooms, one bathroom, and then kind of like a communal kitchen towards the middle.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so the past couple of days, we've been really working on laying the foundation of the house and working on the walls.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, today in particular, we finished tying with steel metal uh 24 lines of rebar, which is these six-meter uh two pieces of steel that you have to basically tie together.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: And the equivalent of what we did finished today was the equivalent of two and a half football fields.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um we felt very accomplished.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um we also got to lay the cinder blocks in place which will be on the outside of the house, which are earthquake proof.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: So that's awesome, that's amazing.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um two football fields?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's like 200 yards worth of rebar.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um earthquakes are a real problem here in Guatemala.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um they have trimmers, you know, every three or four days.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um so when we make these houses, we want them to be as sturdy as humanly possible so that they can withstand not only weather but hurt earthquakes as well.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um okay, Quaid, tell us about just something that's been really memorable for you, and it could be today or even just the last couple days.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I know you said one, but I'm gonna cheat a little bit.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna I'm gonna say two just because they meant so much to me.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: So the first one is just um not really a moment, but kind of something that's been happening the last couple of days.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um the Feliz's oldest son is named Emmanuel, or we call him Manuel, and he's uh 11, and he loves soccer.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so every day that we've been at the work site, we've played with him, and not to brag, I've been the one playing with him the most.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like I'll do it for three hours straight every day, and it's pretty exhausting, but it's really fun.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: And so today we finally got to go down to this real soccer field because we had been playing in the street or in his yard, and we took a giant group of kids both in the community and with Wesley, and we got to play.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: And at one point it was eight Wesley staff and people working versus about 14 Guatemalan boys, and you know, soccer is all they do in their free time, so they were just running circles around us.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: But it was still really fun, and I got so into it that I wiped out completely and got a lot of laughter from the kids.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: And then the other moment that happened today in particular was I got to, or we got to talk to Feliz, who is the mother who we're building the home for.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: And she um we were talking through Morgan, who is one of the people working there, and also a translator.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um and she was talking about how we've only been here for a week, but we already feel like family.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: And she enjoys us so much that she was talking about how she doesn't have a house now, um, but in a year's time, when we come back, her door will always be open.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't know, for me, just someone who has so little, who is just ready to share it, just struck a chord with me.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: I I was like this 5'1 woman who is raising three kids, great kids on her own, is willing to open her home to, you know, I felt like strangers, but it's I'm I'm really gonna miss this family.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um they've worked their magic on me, and I I'm sure they can, I'm sure everyone here can vouch for the for the family as well.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I think that's one of the most important things uh about this is being able to remember their their names, their personalities, the ways in which you connected, and then in future years, hopefully getting to see them again and and see how their life has been transformed by not only that relational work, but also the physical work, right, of building that house, the 20 or uh two football fields worth of rebar.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh okay, Quaid, thank you for your thoughts.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we're sitting here in Solomon's Porches Cafe here in Panahachel, and today we're gonna hear from Ella McNaughton.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Ella is a rising junior at FSU, and she is on residential staff and plays in the worship band and has a lot of different roles.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And today she spent time on construction.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: And tonight I'm gonna ask her some questions.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, primarily first, Ella, tell us what you learned today.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I learned that I'm no good at soccer um compared to these like 10 to 13 year old Guatemalan boys.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was really fun to interact with them and have more and more kids like show up and and watch and play because we were just playing with a couple of kids and then a bunch of kids started riding their bikes up to the field and kept on joining in.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it was it was so cool to see.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um okay, and then I'm gonna ask her too what she's gonna miss, because I think part of the hardest thing about uh being on a mission trip is that you get really accustomed in a very short amount of time to everything here, including family and the work you do and all of that.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: So Ella, tell us what you're gonna miss.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm really gonna miss the family and spending time with all the kids.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because they really do have like the sweetest hearts and and it's been so much fun like being able to interact with them and getting to know them um and their story.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just crazy how how like generous they are and how amazing they are considering that they are coming from like nothing and and we're coming in and and helping them and they're just so hospitable and amazing, and I know I'm gonna miss them a lot when I leave, and I hope to come back and see them again.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that's one of the best parts about coming back on a trip in the future is that you get to you know stay up to date with the houses and the things you do and the families that you work with, uh, and that's really important.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so now we're here with Phil Prassi.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Phil Prasse is a rising junior at TCC and has served on residential staff and it's gonna be a ministry intern this next year.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: This is also his first time in Pana Hachel.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I'm gonna ask Phil a couple of questions, uh particularly because Phil loves to work with his hands and he loves to kind of build things and make things.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, Phil, tell us first and foremost, like did you learn anything about construction over the last couple of days?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so uh love working with my hands is a little bit, I don't know if that's 100% true, but uh I did build a cross for Easter.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's what he's called for.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: No, but um yeah, I mean most of the construction stuff we did was pretty minuscule, like it was mostly shoveling stuff or uh using clippers to like cut wire.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um but today I got to actually lay like the concrete bricks that um were for the house that we're actually building, and so that was the first time because the first three or I guess two days were mainly kind of prepping for that, but today they actually you know we helped mix concrete.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, I've never actually had to scoop the concrete out and set it and then line up the bricks like one after another.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_04: So that was um yeah, interesting and fun to learn about.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Did you uh do better at some of them than others?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's easily the best.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh compared No, I these uh the guys that we work with do it in like one second and it's perfectly accurate.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_04: So um, but another thing I did learn, not necessarily by construction, uh I'm very bad at soccer.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the the um I heard you guys got slaughtered in that game today.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: It was 10 to 3.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: However, uh no, but we played yesterday, we played in a small uh little dead end kind of um like asphalt uh patch at the end of their uh like street, but today we got to walk down uh the opposite direction, and there was a big field um with two sort of soccer goals, and we actually got to play um like a full game with we brought almost all the team from construction for like the last hour got to go play.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and kids that we hadn't even met would come from the streets when we would they would see the game.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and you know they knew each other, of course, and they were friends and stuff, but they would come down and we played, and it was super fun.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there was probably 14 kids by the end of the game and eight of us.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we did lose 10 to 3, but it was super fun to uh meet all the new kids and just like play around with them and and have uh that experience, it was fun.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the things we've been talking about this week is kind of the relational aspects of what this is about.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, we're gonna try to build the house, but um, if we can spend time with the family and show them one that they're loved and that people care about them, and uh that's that's really helpful and and a good thing.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: So um along those lines with the soccer game and spending that time, uh Phil, just tell us uh some things about the family that you just absolutely love when you think about Felice's family.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so coming into uh the trip, um some people Hannah's one of Hannah's devos was uh big on how she was like not sure if she was gonna be of use because of can uh she wasn't used to doing construction.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: And for me and my big head, I was like, oh, I'm a you know, I'm a uh a young guy.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna be able to go and you know do hard physical labor for uh multiple days, and that's gonna be my role, and that's gonna be my place.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_04: And um I ended up getting sick on like the Friday before the Saturday that we flew out from Tallahassee, and so it's been interesting for me this week to have to kind of play a backseat role in that just like uh brunt work of physical labor for for extended periods of time, and so I've spent uh more time than I was expecting, and I definitely think that that was no coincidence uh being sick and having to sit out and all that stuff.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I've spent more time than I was expecting, yeah, with uh with the kids and with Felisa and her family.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um just hearing their story uh and Felisa talking about that on the the first day that we were there, um myself and most other people in the circle, we were pretty emotional by the time we you know she had finished uh finished telling us her story and and Bryant um prayed over over us before we started working.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um but really just overall their strength as a family.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um I think Felisa, uh the the mom was kind of the first person that jumped out of just such a hard situation that she had been dealt with.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um and hearing that from her and seeing the conditions in which they lived, um it was just really, really incredible to see how much joy they still had and how um their spirits were still so high every day when we were there.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um and it's just compared to I mean I wish you uh I mean I wish we could paint a picture for uh the people listening right now.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_04: They I mean they live in a small, very uh there are a very small like hut kind of that's made out of sheet metal, mostly for the walls, and their backyard is like a slanted downhill with a cornfield, and that's really about it.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: So the the fact that um Felisa and her three kids still they smile so much, they laugh so much, they try and talk to us even with the language barrier.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um just seeing their spirits be so high really, really set into me like uh my privilege having grown up in the United States and and how um I struggle like finding that same joy sometimes as well, but it's seeing the circumstances that they were in really made me like kind of reflect and think about um how I should be in my own life.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's great.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that's an important part.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think this entire experience is humbling to say the least, um, because you see the kind of joy that they have with so little, and it's a reminder that the things of the world are just the things of the world, that they're not necessary uh for happiness and they're not necessary for uh for joy.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, all right, well, thank you, Phil.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate your words.