An important realization at which each of us volunteers must arrive is that we are guests. We are guests of the people, the nation, the land, and the culture.

     We would not be here if we were not wanted here. Our presence is accepted, embraced, and invited by the very people we came here with the intention of serving. They are committed to ensuring our safety, our comfort, and our health. They are patient with our Spanish – and even more so with our Cakchiquel. They seat us at places of honor, give us the best food, and meet our needs with an intensity that can be uncomfortable or embarrassing.

     Our response to this respect and care should be gratitude. The people are our hosts; we need to acknowledge and welcome their preoccupation with our comfort. When we put aside our own intentions, when we not only serve them but allow them to serve us, neither we nor they will
be patronizing.

     Our response should also be to act as guests. This is not our home, nor will it ever be unless we move here permanently, so we should not act as if it is our home. This is difficult, because we want San Lucas to feel like home while we are here. Nevertheless, the way we present ourselves in public, greet people on the streets, attend to our work, and converse with our new friends should continually reflect humility and gratitude. We deserve nothing. Everything we have here, including the welcome to be here, we have through the community’s generosity.

     On another level, we are also here by the permission and welcome of the Guatemalan government. Some evidences of this are its work to maintain tourism through increased safety measures, the renovation of the airport to provide a more welcoming and hospitable reception, and the respect that I myself have received during the few times I have been stopped on the highways at military and police checkpoints.

     Again, our response is gratitude. It is also patience. The more people we come to know, the more frustrated we can become with the governmental and political systems that have led to their poverty. Still, we need to be aware that our presence within these borders is a privilege, not a right.

     There is also a sense in which we are guests of the land. We eat its fruits, delight in its beauty, and share its serenity.

     As guests of the land, we need to respect it. We should never litter, cut, take, change, or destroy. We should respond to how God cares for us through the land by expressing gratitude for its goodness.

     The clearest aspect of our being guests lies in the distinct culture of San Lucas. Compared to the cultures of our homelands, there are differences in dress, food, work habits, prayer, and family life that are too easy to tread on if we do not maintain open eyes and respectful hearts.

     We walk a fine line here. We cannot live this culture without risking a loss of personal integrity. At the same time, we cannot completely live our own culture without risking a loss of respect.

     Our attitude toward the culture should be one of learning, appreciating, and celebrating. The oppression that these people have endured for many generations has largely been one of cultural repression, and to honor who they are as people is to potentially undo some of its effects. Being a guest in the proper way and with the proper expressed attitude is thus an effective avenue of service.

     Gratitude is the key to our living as guests. Gratitude uplifts the other, honors the other, and celebrates the other. When we are truly grateful, and when we express our gratitude through every encounter with the people, their nation, their land, and their culture, then we will come to deeper realizations of who these people are who have welcomed us into their home.