The Beginnings of My Career

I am almost 10% through my internship at the God's Child Project (GCP) and I would consider this the start of my career as a Social Worker.

As with any new position, things are exciting and fresh and I certainly feel this way at GCP.  My main roles as an intern will be assisting volunteers as they pass through on a daily basis, a lot of research assistance, and I hope to work with children or young adults in the near future.   Typically, the social workers here perform home visits around ten days out of each month to check up on families to see if GCP can offer them any assistance in order to keep their children in school and the family financially stable.

I have to say that it feels great finally being able to use the knowledge and resources I have stored up over the years for an organization like GCP.  Additionally, I am quite thankful for all of the classes that I dreaded taking during my undergraduate (research design...ahem).

Having this opportunity to study abroad, let alone travel abroad, is a huge blessing and is one that I hope never to take advantage of by putting my needs before others.

On the more recreational side of things, our group was able to visit the town of San Antonio in order to visit a home where a group of Guatemalan women showed us some traditional Mayan customs.  These included weaving, grinding coffee, making tortillas, and getting married, the last of which Katie and I were fortunate enough to experience.

Basket-head-carrying race!

Mine and Katie's second marriage

My attempt at the old-school way of
grinding coffee beans

Around 50% of the population in Guatemala is considered of Mayan descent and it is amazing to see so many natives in a country with so much Western Influence.  The United States only has about 1% of the population that can be considered Native American so it is certainly a rare occurence that there is still such a large emphasis on Mayan culture in Guatemala.

That's all for now...thanks for reading!