Elizabeth Jean-Louis - 6/15/18

On June 3rd, 2018 Fuego volcano erupted in Guatemala causing smoke to go up in the air and ashes & sand to coat the surrounding areas with blackness. It left the streets of some surrounding cities dirty with ashes, sand, and debris. On June 4th, I came to school not knowing what this Junior Journey trip would hold. I was honestly confused to the fact that we were about to leave knowing that a volcano erupted. I was a bit concerned but knew whatever I was going to do, I wanted to somehow help the areas that were affected. I was constantly thinking - how can a volcano at this time erupt right when we were going on our trip? Finally, we were told the area we were going to was safe, and that the airport had resumed operations so we could indeed go on our trip safely.

On, June 9th, we spent the morning at a small town, San Juan Gascón cleaning the streets for a festival. It was not in immediate danger of the volcano eruption, but it did get a light coating of sand that the wind blew over.  As we cleaned, wearing face masks, many people started to help us sweep and then paint the town park walls. We took multiple breaks like tired teenagers would, but this man with a tan shirt, and blue jeans persisted. He continued to sweep and pull out weeds while his son helped him. I didn't notice who he was until one of my teachers addressed him as the Mayor. All of a sudden, I was shaken. How often do you see a man with power (the Mayor) being humble and actually cleaning his city. In addition, the whole scenario of me even cleaning volcano ashes is something I thought would literally never be doing. It was a lot of work, but I'm happy that we did it. How many people can you say have helped with volcano clean up?

The city before had a layer of blackness but our efforts in helping brought the town a bit of brightness.

~ Elizabeth