What is one of the most exciting places you have ever visited? What made it so exciting?
This one is a tough one! I have been to several amazing places so far in my life. But I guess I am really kind of torn between two places, Guatemala and Italy.
Italy was incredibly exciting because The Hubbs and I were on our honeymoon. We were all set to go to an all inclusive resort in Jamaica for our honeymoon. The Hubbs was on the resort website with his credit card in hand to book our trip when I said “you know…I am not sure I want to go to a beach for our honeymoon.” Even then, The Hubbs knew me well enough to immediately stop what he was doing. He very calmly asked, “Well, where would you like to go?” Even though I am sure he was cringing on the inside. The Hubbs is not big on change, and we had been planning on Jamaica for months. I very quietly said, “Well, we could always look into going to Italy.” That was one of the best decisions we have ever made!!
We traveled through Rome, Florence, and Venice. Italy is romantic and beautiful and absolutely perfect for your honeymoon!! You can walk through streets just oozing with history, while eating a stellar slice of pizza from a street vendor, hold hands with your loved one, and listen to a street musician sing and play quintessential Italian music on his accordion. The food is fantastic! The people are friendly and happy. The countryside is breathtakingly beautiful. And you can culturally geek out to your hearts content. Tuscany is everything you have ever heard that it is. It is gorgeously scenic and even the air smells fragrant and beautiful. If you have never been, you should add it to your bucket list for sure!!
Guatemala was exciting for a whole different set of reasons. When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle lived in Guatemala for several years. One Christmas my grandma took me to visit them, and I was able to stay for about a month. It was the first time I had really been out of the United States, and also the first time I had been away from my parents for an extended period of time. It was a very fun trip, but more importantly, I saw and experienced things on that trip that have helped to shape and define me as a person. Walking through the markets and seeing first hand the way that the people there lived and worked was very eye opening for me. At the time I was still pretty young, so I didn’t think much of it. But as I have gotten older, I often reflect on the the people and places that I saw.
They live such a different life than we do here in the states! It is hard to even describe the way of life for people there. I saw everything from my aunt and uncle's sprawling home with beautifully landscaped gardens and even a basketball court to houses that were little more than a shack, with dirt floors and no utilities. So it was not that no one there had modern comforts or conveniences, it was that so many people still didn’t have them.
But these same people that lived in such seemingly horrible living conditions made some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! And they didn’t use power tools or fancy gadgets to turn these things out in bulk. Each item was painstakingly created and worked on by a person, or even a whole family of people. And they made everything from jewelry, clothing, blankets, and bags, to wooden figures and crosses. They used vibrant colors for everything! So everywhere you looked, was bright and colorful. The markets there were filthy and stinky, but they were also stunningly beautiful.
The people that lived in places that I would find unlivable, were beautiful in a completely different way. Their faces and the things I saw while I was there will stay with me forever. They are something I can not even fully describe, but will never be far from my mind. I gained a perspective from these people and their way of life that nothing else could have shown me, and I am so thankful for that perspective!
One memory in particular that still haunts me, is of a trip we took to a local orphanage. Women and children’s rights are an unheard of thing in Guatemala, so there are a considerable number of orphans there. When we went, it was Christmas time, and it made me sad to see so many children without a loving family to celebrate with. But the thing struck me the deepest, the thing that will never ever leave my memory has to do with gifts. While we were there the children were given gifts. I do not remember if they were from my aunt and uncle, or their church, or a completely separate organization, but the children were indescribably excited to receive these gifts. And as a child, when I saw the gifts they were getting, I was less than impressed. They were not big fancy toys or video games. They were smaller things like dolls or little games that I would have passed right over if they had been under my Christmas tree. But when I watched the children there see these gifts for the first time, it became apparent that these were probably the nicest and most exciting things they had ever been given. They were so happy and thankful for them. Some of the children just sat there smiling in stunned silence holding their new toy, but you could see the absolute joy in their eyes. And for the first time in my life I felt real shame. The kind of shame that sticks with you; the kind of shame that I still feel the sting of today as I type this. These toys that would have meant nothing to me, were everything to them. That day was a real come to Jesus moment in my life that I will eternally be grateful for. It is a lesson that I wish everyone could learn! It is a lesson that I pray Jay will learn. Because I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am a better person because of the day I spent with the orphans in Guatemala.
Guatemala and Italy were two very different trips for me, but honestly, I hope to go back to visit each of them again someday, and I would love to take Jay along too! Have you been anywhere that I should add to my bucket list??
If you are just joining me for Journal Jar Tuesday and would like to check out previous posts, you can find them here, or by going to the Journal Jar tag at the top of this blog. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back next Tuesday!
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