So for the second time on this trip a little girl named Bianca has stolen my heart.

While I won’t share a photo of her… for many reasons, I will share about this little girl whom we met that was seeking nothing else then connection and someone to play with. 

In Guatemala it’s hard not to judge things based on our own culture.  Here you will find kids left to their own accord often,  or tiny children sent it to “work” selling things that that mother’s have made.  By all accounts it seems awful, neglectful, and scary. Things that would never be allowed in the US, are just simply a way of life here.

I won’t go into all the things that I worried for Bianca about,  but rather I’ll just share how precious of a child she is. Alone down at the thermal waters she climbed rocks as if they were solid flat land. She dressed and undressed (to swim) in her traditional clothing all on her own,  asking for only a little help from myself or Nicole to get her shirt on and off. She took our hands with ease for help and chatted away with Nicole and I. telling me flatly when she didn’t understand what I was saying and making me work hard to communicate with her.  She never once tried to sell us anything from the basket she was carrying,  she never asked for money, she simply asked to swim with us and show us the tiny shells you can find in the thermal waters on the edge of the lake.  When Nicole asked about her family,  she said she wasn’t ready to tell her yet,  but she maybe she would later.  She was smart enough to not fully disclose but trusting enough to spend time with us.  I thought of all the million fears that I had for a tiny girl like her left all alone.  Then I thought about this being her life.  This is where she spends her days. When we all thought it was going to rain… she looked up at the storm clouds above us and said nope it’s not going to rain you can just tell.  And in case you’re wondering, no it did not rain.  That little tiny girl had all the wisdom and innocence you could hope for from someone so tiny.  She crosses my mind often since we’ve parted and makes me wonder about the things she’s already seen and what the rest of her life has in store for her.