Click here to view our photos!
From bustling U.S. cities to quiet corners of Virginia and beyond, ten AMSG Team Members traveled to the heart of Guatemala in August 2025 for AMSG’s annual Global Impact Trip. Some participated in last year’s journey to Honduras. Others were strangers meeting for the first time.
Spanning several generations, from our twenties to our sixties, and bringing with us different stories, skills, and expectations, our group reflected AMSG’s own diversity: analysts, a program manager, a retired Marine Major, missile training experts (also retired Marines), a social media manager, and a contract specialist with a deep love of coffee.
But despite our differences, we were united by something deeper: a shared purpose to serve.
We arrived with work boots and gloves, and a readiness to get our hands dirty. But the most important things we brought couldn’t be packed: curiosity, wonder, our 6Cs, and a quiet openness, not just to give, but to be transformed.
What none of us expected was just how deeply we’d be transformed…by the country, its people, and the work itself.
The Soul of Guatemala: A Symphony of Senses
Guatemala didn’t just welcome us. It awakened our senses.
Everything in Guatemala speaks, even the silence. Culture isn’t preserved so much as it is lived. It sings through language, dances in markets, and greets you not as a visitor, but as a witness to something sacred and enduring.
On our first day, we explored Antigua, a city of cobbled streets, bougainvillea spilling over pastel facades, and centuries-old cathedrals watched over by distant volcanoes. Birds chirped from terra cotta rooftops while cars, motorcycles, and tuk tuks rattled through narrow alleys. Antigua was both loud and quiet, an echo of revolutions and resilience, of colonial pain and spiritual beauty.
Another day, we wandered through the Chichicastenango Market, the largest in the country, where vibrant chaos ruled our senses. Tortillas sizzled, incense swirled, and voices bounced in every direction, Spanish, K’iche’, laughter, and women in traditional huipils, haggling and negotiating prices. Woven fabrics, each thread hand-dyed and hand-stitched, told stories older than the country itself. We moved swiftly through this crowd, taking in and absorbing as much as we could see.
Then there was Lake Atitlán, an emerald and blue crater lake formed over 84,000 years ago by the Los Chocoyos supereruption. The rippled waters reflected more than the sky, they mirrored the spirit of a land rooted in Mayan ancestry. We spent most of our time here, cradled by volcanoes and lakeside villages steeped in tradition: in textiles, rituals, and the warm, curious smiles of its people.
Each village had its own rhythm:
- A far cry from the bustling market, San Marcos La Laguna, dubbed the “hippie town,” hummed with artists, yoga studios, organic cafes, and expats living off-grid.
- Santiago Atitlán, the oldest lakeside village, carried the weight of pre-Christian history. Its cobblestones and altars whispering in Tz’utujil of ancient kings and cornfields.
- Tzununa, where we volunteered, felt especially intimate. Dirt paths wound past shops, homes, and fields. In the afternoons, smoke curled from tin rooftops. Women in huipiles balanced wood and baskets on their heads, moving with grace beneath towering volcanoes.
Each night, clouds gathered, storms rolled in, and rain painted the sky. By morning, the scent of damp earth lingered, birds sang, and roosters crowed in the distance. The land had its own heartbeat.
Serving with Heart, Hands, and Humility
Guatemala marked the third chapter of AMSG’s Global Impact Program – following powerful work in Kenya (2023) and Honduras (2024). This year, we partnered with WellKind, a nonprofit restoring ecosystems and food systems, and preserving ancestral knowledge across Guatemala’s Western Highlands.
Led by WellKind’s Executive Director Shad Qudsi and Program Director Kyle Weinstein, we spent twelve days immersed in a way of life grounded in purpose. Together with WellKind’s team – Isaias Sipac, Antonio Canel, and Damian Ujpan – we built an open-air extension of their headquarters: a new space for workshops, community meetings, and educational sessions.
“I’ve lived a pretty privileged life,” said Operations Specialist Ethan Taylor. “So doing something meaningful for this community feels like a privilege in itself.”
We also expanded a native tree nursery to help protect Lake Atitlán’s watershed. Our hands deep in the soil, we prepped seedlings for reforestation, contributing to healing the land one tree at a time. And on our final day, with help from Education Program Director Maricela Alvarez, we distributed school materials to the local library, small tools with big potential.
A New Kind of Deployment
For Leo Whitcomb, a retired Marine gunnery instructor; Mayor of Faxon, Oklahoma; and assistant coordinator of this year’s Global Impact Trip, who also volunteered last year in Honduras, the experience felt familiar.
“I enjoy these trips because it’s just like being deployed, going to help someone who is disadvantaged,” he said passionately. “In America, we have so many advantages that we take for granted, so I like to give back in places like this. Not only do I get to build camaraderie like I did in the military, but I also get to appreciate another way of life. I get to see that there is another way besides the American way, and that people thrive, are happy, and have families outside of what we believe to be the norm.”
He wasn’t alone in that feeling. Retired Marine Major Joseph “Joe” Montedoro said, “I always enjoy connecting with fellow Marines and hearing about their experiences. I also like that this trip gave me the opportunity to use the skills I developed in the Marines to help make life better for the people here in Guatemala.”
Moments That Made It Magic
Things didn’t always go as planned though, and that was part of the beauty.
One afternoon, our van broke down on a mountain road and we waived down a Chicken Bus to take us to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Another afternoon, our boat ran out of gas on the lake. We laughed, waited, and watched the clouds roll in until a nearby boat brought us gas that would get us the 100 yards to shore.
We rode tuk tuks through windy towns. We hiked the slopes of Pacaya Volcano and roasted marshmallows over the heat of the Earth itself. We swam and cliff-dived into Lake Atitlán’s emerald water. At Duck Willow, Shad’s permaculture farm, we witnessed regenerative agriculture and living in action. The farm buzzed with life, ducks, chickens, herbs, vegetables, and the wind through the trees. It was a model for what a truly sustainable future could look like. Everything had a purpose, nothing was wasted.
We Came to Serve. And We Left Changed.
At its heart, this trip was never just about building or planting. It was about connection, to humanity, to the land, to the work, to each other, and to something deep within ourselves.
We came in search of purpose, and we found it not in grand gestures, but in quiet, human moments: digging our hands into Guatemalan soil, sharing warm meals and belly laughs, stumbling through conversations in broken Spanish with a stranger.
“I came to get out of my comfort zone,” said contract specialist Joe “Chuck” Barber. “Back home in Virginia, I can help one person. But here, I felt part of something bigger, something that could ripple outward.”
As the final day drew near, the goodbyes felt heavier than expected. Our bags were packed with woven textiles and handmade keepsakes, but what we carried home couldn’t be measured in weight. It was the memories of sweat-soaked teamwork, of tuk tuk rides through winding hills, of volcanoes breathing in the distance, that will stay with us.
We arrived to build, to serve, to help. But we left with so much more; new friendships, fresh perspectives, and the unmistakable pull of transformation.
Once you’ve stood beneath a sky alive with thunder over Lake Atitlán, felt the wind off a volcano, stood in a village where ancient Mayan prayers still greet the morning light, or waited for a broken-down boat engine to cough back to life, you don’t return the same.
You return rooted, you return grateful. You return carrying a piece of the world, and a deeper understanding of your place in it.
As Deputy Global Impact Program Leader Zach Taylor put it: “Traveling without helping others just doesn’t feel fulfilling anymore. Leading this trip was the most rewarding thing I’ve done all year.”
AMSG’s Global Impact: The Journey Continues
Guatemala was our third trip in AMSG’s Global Impact Program. And it won’t be the last.
Because service isn’t just something AMSG does. It’s who we are. Whether partnering with local organizations like Arcadia Farms and the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP) or traveling thousands of miles to work in solidarity with communities abroad, AMSG shows up. With our hearts. With our hands. And with the belief that we rise by lifting others.
Want to Be Part of the Story?
You don’t need to travel across the globe to make a difference. But if you ever get the chance: GO. See something new. Step into someone else’s world.
Learn. Listen. Serve.
And when you do, may you find what our team found in Guatemala: that when we give our time, our hearts, and our hands, we don’t just change other people’s lives, we change our own.
– Written by: Juania Owens
Learn more about WellKind and support their work in Guatemala. And stay connected with AMSG’s Global Impact Program – our journey continues.