Greetings from Guatemala. The four of us--Paige Martin, Cindy Frisch, Jonathan Anderson, and me, Seann Duffin--arrived here in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala on Sunday afternoon. I think the biggest challenge for us so far has been settling into a routine. Don´t let anyone tell you that it´s easy to go to a country where you don´t speak the language. Of course, that is why we are here. For the next four weeks, we will be studying Spanish at a language school in Quetzaltenango (or Xela, as the locals call it).

As soon as I stepped off the plane in Guatemala, I knew that, for the next ten weeks, my life would be completely different than it is back home in Durham. As I´ve wandered around Xela and gotten to know my host family, I have had plenty of opportunities to think about privilege and possessions. I am a self-avowed middle-class, educated white male who is used to a certain standard of living. My accommodations here are not quite as comfortable as those to which I will return in July. However, I´ve noticed something strange. I am no worse off without all those things. In fact, my life might even be easier not having a car, sharing a bathroom with 6 other people, and being able to check my email only once in a while. I have much less than I´m used to, but I still have everything I need. Three meals each day, a warm bed to sleep in, and clean water to drink.

I miss the luxuries of home, but I feel incredibly lucky to have what I have here, because I encounter people each day who do not have even the basic things that I have. We´ve been so busy here that I haven´t had a lot of time to reflect or form many coherent and profound thoughts, but these are just some of my reactions to my first few days in Xela. And I´d like to challenge all of you back home and abroad to look around you and think about what we think of as necessities. There are a hundred things I thought I couldn´t live without until I came here and began to live without them.

Peace of Christ and love from Guatemala.
Seann Duffin
M.Div. ´08
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.