Living in Guatemala, it’s hard to spend a day without seeing difficult situations: torrential rains and even hurricanes filling the streets and people’s houses with water; people with obvious medical ailments who do not have access to necessary healthcare; kids wandering the streets when they could be in school learning.

But working at Common Hope’s Family Development Center here in Antigua, it is even harder to let a day pass without seeing what good can come from the hard work, generosity, and dedication of so many of Common Hope’s employees, volunteers, and supporters: houses being erected in two days for a family that needs a roof over their head; our clinic bustling with activity as the doctors in the clinic offer high quality healthcare to affiliated families; affiliated students progressing from grade school all the way through the university.

In the work that I do with visitors and volunteers, that same dynamic also exists. Living in Antigua, I run into tourists everyday who enjoy all of the fun that the city has to offer, but I am often disheartened by the fact that many of them will never get to know the other side of Antigua – not the side with the fine dining and lively nightlife but the side where people are struggling just to get by.

Working in the Hospitality department though, the visitors, Vision Team members, and short-term volunteers I work with everyday remind me that there are people who want to see that side and offer their services to aid those in need. People use their vacation time to volunteer. They donate suitcase space to bring medical and school supplies. They sponsor a child to make sure he or she is able to attend school. And, they put me in good spirits with their excited attitudes as they go off to work in the morning, and their stories and revelations when they return.

One such revelation came not from a Vision Team member or a short-term volunteer but from my own brother, Gabe, when he opted not to spend his spring break in Cancun or Miami or on a cruise with his friends but visiting me in Guatemala. While he was here, we spent some time at the Family Development Center, where I gave him a tour and introduced him to everyone I work with. We even worked in the construction department putting up a house. One day near the end of his trip we were quietly walking to dinner when he looked up and said, “You know, I don’t know why anyone would go on a cruise for spring break when they could come here. There are so many eye-opening things to see, and there are so many people that need help.”

All I could do was smile proudly.

I’ve found in my short time on this earth that the good somehow always finds a way of outweighing the bad. But in this past year I have come to realize that this doesn’t just happen by chance. It happens because of the dedication, generosity, and kind hearts of people just like the ones I get a chance to work with everyday.

Jesse Atkins is a long-term volunteer in the Hospitality Department at Common Hope ’s site just outside of Antigua . Jesse spends most of his time coordinating the experience of our Vision Teams and accompanying them while they visit. Jesse will complete his year of service in July and return to Minnesota to begin law school in the Fall.

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