For spring break of 2018, I decided that I was going somewhere warm where I could get my tan on. Except, I didn’t choose to go to Florida or some other southern state; I wanted to go on a mission trip to Guyana, which is a small country in South America. I was a part of the Newman Center on the Winona State campus and one of the FOCUS Missionaries was going on the trip. I signed up with three other people in my bible study, and we soon were raising money and packing for a trip of a lifetime.
When I told most people that I was going to Guyana, most just assumed they heard me wrong and thought I was going to Ghana. Many people have never even heard of Guyana before, and if they have heard of it, it’s most likely because the Jonestown cult lived there. I can’t even count how many times my friends made the joke, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!” It is a third-world English speaking country on the upper-most part of South America. From 1814 to 1966, it was a colony of Britain;Guyana gained its independence in 1966. Guyana struggles as a country, but the main problems my mission trip wanted to address were the extremely high suicide rates and the extremely low observations of religion in settlement areas.
Okay, so now that you know some history and background of Guyana and what we wanted to do there, I’m going to tell you some lessons I learned about different aspects of my trip.
AIRPORT
Traveling can be such a hassle, so don’t make your airport experience more difficult than it needs to be. Make sure you look up the guidelines for airlines you are flying and abide by them. Do NOT be the person that over packs or brings too much liquid and ends up holding the line because they need to be checked. Also, if you have an extremely long layover, bring items to entertain you. All I had for six hours was my phone and my friends, and while I love my friends to death, I got bored really quick.
MISSION
When we went on mission, we would split into groups of two or three and walk the streets of a small town in Guyana, spreading the word about a new church being built. This new town, La Parfaite-Harmonie, had no Catholic Church and was in desperate need of one. I was mostly with the American man that had lived in Guyana for over a year, and it was fascinating to see how he would switch from interacting with me to interacting with the people of Guyana. With me, he used what I see as ‘normal’ English, but when he started talking to the others, he used their form of ‘broken’ English. The way he connected with the people were fascinating, and we saw a lot of people come to our gathering we had at the end of the day. We had many adventures: he brought his recorder along and would play random songs, like ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion, and we would go and pet the dogs even though we were told not to… whoops. Also a cow ran at me and that was absolutely terrifying. He was laughing the entire though *eye roll*. What I learned from our mission is that everyone wants to be saved and they want to have something in their life. There were so many religions in Guyana, but they all welcomed us warmly and talked to us about our faith.
CAMPFIRE
The best part of the trip was a campfire we would have at the end of every day. Throughout our mission, we would invite people to come to mass and then join us for games, fun, and a campfire afterwards. We would lead a story where children would act out stories from the Bible. We led songs that we had learned from before, and we even learned a song in Dutch from the Brother native to Guyana. Throughout these nights at the campfire, I learned a great deal about the people of Guyana. I could honestly feel my mind opening and being able to see through un-judgmental eyes. I thought I had an open mind, but after this trip, I now know that before I went on this mission trip, I did not have as open as a mind as I have now.
FRIENDS
I met so many incredible and amazing people on this trip. The mission team consisted of me, three Focus missionaries, three other girls from Winona, one girl and three boys from Ave Maria in Florida, three Sisters from the Servidoras in Guyana, one priest from Guyana, a Brother from New York, a Brother from Guyana, an American that lived in Guyana for the past year, and many more. At the beginning, I only knew the three girls from Winona and one Focus missionary. By the end of the trip, I felt close to each and every one of these people, and we felt like a huge family. I miss all of them a lot. We all suffered through the heat, being rejected on mission, and different conditions—such as showering by throwing a bucket of cold water over you—and rejoicing when people we talked to throughout the day came to the campfire at the end of the day. We all came together and we even have a group chat that we still send messages and pictures to. The biggest lesson I learned from meeting all these people is that, when going through a new and possibly uncomfortable situation, you need a group of people around you that will support and help you. I definitely had this in Guyana and it helped so much. I got homesick really fast because we had no service, and we weren’t even supposed to have our phones out for an entire week. I was able to look past that homesickness because throughout the day, my friends, old and new, were making me laugh and learn about myself and my faith.
This mission trip to Guyana changed my life, and I cannot wait to meet up with the friends I have made on this trip. Not only did this trip open my mind about others, it opened my mind about myself, and for that I am forever grateful.