Day Two: Student's Perspective (Blake Smith)

The day started off seeing how the culture went about living their religious lives. In our culture we are accustom to going to church at a certain time and it starts when they say it starts but here it is quite different. Seeing that we started about a hour later than expected no one even thought twice about the service being later. I was lucky enough to meet the children of the church community and hear about their lives and how they met Jesus. After the service, we went to lunch to meet some new people from the community. Being that they love soccer, I felt right at home, it being my favorite sport. I could have talked for hours on end with them. Also, the mountains, some of which are volcanoes, were something I had never seen before in my life. The housing community was something that I had seen in pictures before but seeing these kinds of homes was surreal for me.

After lunch, we took an even deeper look into the community. We got to meet some of the families that live in Popotlan, the general area of where we have been visiting. It humbled me to see what they call a home compared to what we do. For instance, a family had a piece of sheet metal that they called a roof and that is where they slept. They had a kitchen that consisted of some wood that they had found from trees and some cinderblocks that was a stove. They had no doors, no separations between rooms, just wide open space. It really puts a perspective on what really are "necessities". The thing that caught my eye the most is the fact that they were so welcoming to us. They were giving us the impression that their home was our home and their food was our food. We then got to interact with the community by the means of playing soccer. The kind of excitement and form of welcome was something that you really don't get a chance to experience in other cultures. Even though we couldn't match up to standards   that they play at, it was such an honor to get to know these people today. In reflection, it really made me notice that even though they might speak a different language and live in a different area of the world, we are all quite similar; We are all about community.