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Guatemala 2024 || Day 2 (Hannah Squires & EJ Hoffmaster) · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Hey everybody, it's Bryant.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, if you're listening to this, you have heard yesterday's podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: But just to catch you up to date, one of the things that we're doing on our trip to Panahechel, Guatemala, right now is that we're having daily reflections with students in the form of a podcast so that those of you who care about Wesley back home can follow along.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I would encourage you to go back and listen to yesterday's podcast with Kara Ashley as she was kind of outlining her expectations for the week.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: And uh go ahead and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so that you can follow along with our team.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're gonna hear from two students, Hannah Squires and E.J.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Hoffmaster.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we are sitting here with Hannah Squires, who has just finished her first year at Florida State, and uh she was on the construction team today, and I'm gonna ask her a couple questions about what her experience was like and uh just some general reflections.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, Hannah, tell us just kind of summarize for us what happened today, like what we did as a construction team.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So, pretty much the first thing that we did as like a whole group is um we got up, had breakfast, and then um Noe and Hilda they introduced their entire team, like their construction team, um, and kind of everybody that we were gonna be working with, which is really good.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we kind of got to know them first.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we headed um on a bus, we went up probably like 3,000 feet, I think, um, to the place, like our construction site.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just the first thing that we did is meet the family, um, which was amazing, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then we kind of just got divided up, and um, yeah, we did a lot of different things.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: People were tying rebar.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was cutting wire, I literally cut wire all day, so that was really fun.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, people were sifting sand, they were digging this huge hole for the septic tank.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you know, we got like lunch, and then we got time that we were able to spend with the family, so we each like took a little bit of time to do that, which was really nice.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, we were just doing a lot of the construction stuff, and it was really cool to see because when we got there, there was already some stuff built up.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we were just getting to add on to that, and it was it was really good, and it was a great experience for the first day, I think.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Part of these trips, part of these experiences is that you get to try something and do something that you've never done before that you've never experienced before, or you get to learn a new skill.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Were there any new skills you feel like you learned today?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is gonna sound really stupid, but I've never really done construction, so I haven't used a ton of tools.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned how to use like pliers and wire cutters, which is I just don't think I've ever used them before, so that was cool.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then I also got to like I don't know, I I got to see a lot of other people learn new skills, like tying the rebar.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was cool because I saw you know certain people's skill sets like elevated, like Ella and like Kara and Emily were really good at tying that, and so I thought that was really cool, and I thought everyone kind of like honed in on their skills, but yeah, I think I just got to you know use stuff and I got to like measure stuff and use the cinder blocks, which was cool, and it's just something I would have never done if I wasn't on this trip.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's just not something I would have done outside of that, but it's something that I would be more like apt to do again, I guess.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so one of the things that I think everybody was looking forward to in this time is getting to spend time with the family.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Some inside baseball podcast listeners.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: I asked Hannah ahead of time, uh, kind of told her what I was gonna ask her, and I specifically like said, you know, where do you do you see God at work?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: And she she wanted to talk about the family, so I'm gonna give her an opportunity to kind of speak about um Feliz and and um her kids and you know how much this project will mean to her.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: So Hannah, and in that framework, like where did you see God at work in that today?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think there was so much, and I'll talk about like all of it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um but when we started out, um, we have a translator that was there.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So first we met Feliz, and we met Juan, her three-year-old, and then Dominga, and she's her little little baby, and Emmanuel, her son, her 12-year-old.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: He was at school, but he came back for a little bit to to come meet us, and then he ended up coming back later after his school was over.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: But um, she was talking and that and the translator was translating for us, and she was just talking about kind of her story and how you know there was she came like obviously from a pretty abusive household and like made it out with her kids, and she was talking about that.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think we were all just like tearing up, like I don't know.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I was just feeling really, really emotional because I think we don't think about just how lucky a lot of us have it, and even just like looking around at their space, like we got to go inside of the house, and it's literally like it's like the size I don't even know.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was it's tiny, um, it's tiny, and they like don't have yeah, they don't have any space for for anything, and she has three kids.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think that yeah, just something I said when they were like, Does anyone want to say anything?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was saying, you know, the least we can do is is build you this home and you know connect with you in this way after everything that she's been through.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that something that was really special to me was she emphasized a couple times about like God and and praying to God about this, and I think that that is such like amazing faith that is shown, and it's like that's something I wasn't expecting about coming on a mission trip is seeing the families and seeing their faith.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I didn't I didn't necessarily even think about if they were going to be religious at all, but whenever when she said that, I that was like amazing.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Juan, he's the three-year-old, he's literally the cutest little kid ever, and he's got the biggest personality, so he was helping me and Phil and Ella.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: We were cutting wire, and he was like super obsessed with their watches, that was fun.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, he's just running around, he like went into the the pit, the big hole one time with Bryant, and he had to get hoisted up with a bucket, so it was just so cute.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then Emmanuel eventually came back from school, and Quaid actually spent like three hours just playing soccer with him, and um, I went and we played soccer with you know a couple of his friends, and then just like a bunch more boys just started coming.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we were playing soccer with like 10 little boys, and it was just such like a special moment.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they were kind of talking about how Emmanuel, because he's he's 12, but he's kind of like the father of the household, and so a lot of us were talking before, and we were just saying, you know, I I just want to just like give him some of that childhood back this week, anything that we can do.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So just playing with him, talking with him, and he was so excited that we wanted to play soccer, and then the little baby, she is just so cute, and she was letting us hold her, which was so sweet because the translator said that she doesn't like she always cries whenever anyone else holds her.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt so special and so honored.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was so emotional because Juan, as he does, he was like running into the cornfields, and I was like, You have to come back.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I went and I grabbed him, and as I was holding him, he like was holding my necklace, and I have a cross necklace, and he was like clutching onto it, and I was like so emotional.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why, but these like kids are just so like full of life, and just I was talking to some people on the way home, um, and they were like, You don't really get it until you're here, like you don't really get it until you see it, um, and until you see like these kids like have no space, like you know, they don't have like and there's just like a jug of water that they drink out of, so it's like just we have so much luxury in the states.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um just coming here and being able to play with them and like blowing up a soccer ball and like being able to give them them toys, like brings us so much joy, but also I think like more importantly, like our goal here is to create connections with them, obviously to build them a home, but in the process to glorify God and like you know, and that's just what like Jesus would do is like help people and like every person on like this earth is his like child, and so I think that that's something that's super important to keep in mind on the trip is like we are just all yeah, like loving our neighbor, and I think we saw a lot of that today, and I just I had so much fun, and yeah, I like can't wait to do it again tomorrow.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I saw, yeah, God in in all of that.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's awesome, and I'll add to one of the things that was really emotional, I think, for us is as we were listening to Felisa tell her story and talking about the abuse that she's had in previous relationships, and and she has three children, and she's a single mom living in this very small, I've not even seen a dorm room as small as that, and all three of them are living there.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I was I was overwhelmed by uh a couple of things that she said, but primarily that she said she feels like she's a bad mom.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I was moved because when they were asking us to talk about, like, you know, what is it that we would like to say to her?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Phil, I'll call him out.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Phil said in that moment, he said, I want you to know that you're a really good mom.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that was really uh a special moment uh where I saw God at work um giving grace where she wouldn't even give grace to herself.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that was really cool.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so now we're here with EJ Hoffmaster, who has just finished her first year at TCC, and uh she was on the medical team today, so I've asked her to say a little bit about what she did today and what some of the skills she did today and learned today.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So it was very interesting.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: They opened a clinic in an indigenous community in a local elementary school, and they closed school today.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: So all of the children went to the clinic and their families.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: The group that I was a part of was triage.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I was with a nurse and we both each had a translator and we took vitals.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: We saw a hundred patients and we took their blood pressure, SBO2, pulse rates, and their glucose.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was very interesting.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: There was a few things that were different than in the United States.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that was different was the needles that we had were a lot different than the ones that I was used to for checking glucose, and a lot of the people were really nice.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was interesting, like not being able to communicate with others and like relying on a translator.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I never experienced anything like it.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of sad, too.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: There was we had a four-year-old who weighed 40 pounds.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of very young women would ask for pregnancy tests, um, but they don't have access to birth control, that's not allowed.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: There was um even a lot of people who were in their 30s or 40s, and the blood pressure cuff wouldn't even fit around their arms because they were so thin.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I saw God in seeing that they had how joyful they were even in their circumstances, and how they were willing to laugh and make jokes even in the misery.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: But if you I feel like you learned one thing today, what do you think that thing would be?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think I learned I learned how lucky I am to have access to healthcare and to solid, nutritious meals.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: I also learned that there's always a way to find joy in any circumstance.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: And what do you think you're looking forward to or expectant for over the course of the next four or five days?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am looking forward to getting to know more people and hearing more people's stories.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed the job I was in today because I got to see a hundred different people and get to learn a little bit about each of those person, each of those people, and hear a little bit about their journey, and I found that fascinating, and I'm really looking forward to hearing about more people's journeys.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, EJ.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for listening.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Be sure to catch up tomorrow as we interview two more students and find out what this has meant in their lives.