Now the time has come to leave you

After another weekend of fun in Guatemala City with Sofi and her awesome family and friends, it is time to head home tomorrow.

This weekend was so much fun and the perfect way to spend our time in between life at the lake and life back in the United States. Liza, Sofi, her family, and I headed out to their family weekend house in Palim, about an hour’s drive from their home in the city. We drove 4 wheelers, went hiking ,played in a creek, read, played games, watched movies, and SLEPT in beds with sheets for the first time in a very long time! It was glorious :)

Sofi and I just dropped off Liza at the airport this morning, and after spending the last 7 weeks with that girl, it is a little weird for her not to be within a 5 second to 5 minute walk away. And her departure is a sobering reminder that this Guatemalan adventure is coming to a close and I, too, will be back at home before I know it.

Traveling I always stop at exits, wondering if I'll stay

This is my last weekend in Guatemala and I can’t believe it. Today (Friday) we said goodbye to our families, which was heartbreaking. After living in this tiny pueblo for the past 7 weeks, I really felt at home there, and I felt like a part of the community.

Friday morning I went to school to say goodbye to my students. They gave me a beautiful scarf and countless letters, thanking me for the time I spent with them and asking that I would not forget them, as if that is even possible.

Then it was time to head down to the dock. I walked down with two of my host aunts and my host cousin, Clarita. We met up with Liza and her family on the way down…it felt like the longest walk of my life. After saying goodbye through teary smiles, thanking our families for everything, we got on our last lancha across the lake and headed over to Pana to meet up with the rest of our group for a celebratory luncheon. Appropriately, we got on the local lancha, and stopped at all of the towns on one side of the lake, reminiscing and remembering our favorite parts of the past 7 weeks.

After lunch, Liza and I met up with Caitlin, the third leg to our Guatemalan tripod, who came to Pana to play with us one last time. We did some last minute shopping and one last round of mojitos at our favorite little place. We leave for Guatemala City at 6am tomorrow morning and Liza and I will be staying with Sofi for the weekend!

I just want to be okay, be okay, be okay

Today was supposed to be my last day at LISIl, but I decided on my walk down to the school, with the sun shining on the mountains and the lake, that I wasn't ready to say goodbye there and that I would make time to go tomorrow. At school I listened to the 6th grade girls do their speeches and graded them on their pronunciation one by one. Some of them did much better than others with the pronunciation, grammar. and word order.

Listening to these girls, many of whom were very nervous and who had made a lot of progress since I first met them, made me think about my time here. It made me think about the connections I've made with them and the people in the community, and the things that I have done while I was here. Was it enough? Did any of it make a difference anyway? Because after all, I did not make the girls fluent in English (not that this was the goal). But even if I did, would they be able to go on to a university education, get a high paying job, travel, or do any of the things we count as essential experiences to living a meaningful life?

The answer to all of that is probably no. And after all the traveling I have done and all the experiences I have had meeting people just like these girls, I am always disappointed in myself for asking these questions and wondering those things. Because apart from the fact that our cultures value different things, the truth is, it really doesn't matter if these girls go on to do things like I have done/will do. Because these are not the things that make up a meaningful life. People can have purpose right where they are. Living in a small town on Lake Atitlan, nestled between mountains and volcanos and never leaving there is okay. It is okay for the people that I have met there and it is okay for us wherever we are. I do not only have a purpose when I am in a foreign country volunteering- I have a purpose living in Kinnelon, NJ or in Elon, NC. I just have to remember that purpose.

The most perfect example of this is a woman I have spent a lot of time with here in Guatemala. Petrona (Liza's host mom) has lived in San Juan her whole life. She knows her role in the community. She is the one to whom everyone comes for anything; prayer, food, a friend to talk to, a natural remedy, or anything else one could need. She opens her home to foreigners and locals alike. She will probably never get to see the world, learn to read, or learn English. But that is okay. That is not her purpose. Her life serves a greater purpose as everyone's mom, friend, sister, and the most generous, welcoming, and loving woman I have ever met.


Anyway... after classes I went to the clinic one last time to say goodbye to Antonia, Gloria, and Timoteo. They have been such fun people to be around and I am so glad I was able to volunteer in the clinic this summer. The experience of translating, seeing the educational/nutrition classes, and seeing how the clinic works has been a transforming one to say the least. I am thankful to them for welcoming me and also to Liza for sharing her placement with me :)

Tonight as one of my parting gifts, I made dinner for my host family. I decided to make tomato basil soup and garlic bread- one of my favorites! (And Liza, Mary, and I tested it out a few times!) Elena and Clarita helped me make it and everyone loved it. But of course, they still needed to have their tortillas in addition.

Before dinner a bunch of my girls from LISI came over (they like to drop in occasionally) and needed help with some homework. I was skyping with Erica and Kel at the time, and so they all got to meet each other- it was pretty funny, because (most of) you know my sisters!

Tomorrow is my last day here and I am about to pack now...I can't believe it has been 7 weeks since I moved in here, and it is already time to go.. tomorrow will be a very bittersweet day.

If language were liquid it would be rushing in

Today after class I translated for the Canadian couple we met at Casa del Mundo. I met them at Elenita’s and took them down to Petrona’s house. They run a business called Crossing Cultures and created a cookbook of foods from all around the world. They are making a new edition and wanted to see how people make tortillas. Petrona, the gracious woman that she is, welcomed them to her home and explained the entire process.

It is actually quite a process. First the maiz is cooked. Then it is brought to the molino (the loud construction site noises that penetrate my walls every morning from 5am-10am, 1pm-4pm, and sometimes as late as 10pm if many tortillas will be made for a special event such as the ferria) to be ground up. Then they add this white thing that I believe is a form of limestone and knead the dough before making small balls of dough and using their hands to make the tortillas. The actual verb is "tortillar" which means to make tortillas. It looks like the women are just clapping their hands with the dough in between and magically a perfectly round tortilla the size of a round coaster appears. It is a learned skill- one that I tried to master- that girls learn when they are 5 years old or younger.

Then I took the couple to one of the weaving coops for a demonstration and translated for them there.

I'll send an SOS to the world

So today was a blast! We had our 3.5 hour eco hike and man was it intense! A group of 5 of us hiked all the way from San Marcos la Laguna to Casa del Mundo, a crazy hotel/restaurant on the lake. We traversed 5 waterfalls, scaled a few rocky cliffs, and climbed a few hills of death.

We had a delicious lunch and relaxed on one of the balconies and planned on taking a lancha back across the lake to San Juan. But we had so much fun that we got lost in conversation with various hotel guests and by the time we were ready to leave, it was 6:30pm, dark, and pouring rain! Liza, Caitlin, Mitielle and I waited by the dock until 8pm looking for the last boat that was on its way from Pana. If we didn’t catch that boat, we would be stranded.

After lots of waiting and using Liza’s flashlight to signal SOS, the lancha finally arrived and we got back home safely!

Goin' places that I've never been, seein' things that I may never see again

So far this weekend has been SICK! Yesterday Liza and I ducked out of the clinic on time and headed out to Xela, the 2^nd largest city in Guatemala. It is about 2.5 hours away from the lake. We stayed at a hostel recommended (not sure why) by some friends and treated ourselves to a night on the town after a very intense/stressful week of translating with the newest medical group. (The translating wasn’t the stressful part…we just had a very persnickety group of volunteers with us, though their hearts were in the right place for sure.)

We had dinner at a place called Babylon and they had the world’s best mojitos. Then we went to 2 different clubs, danced, and made some new friends. At the end of the night, among other things, Liza came home with a new book, and I came home with a 20 dollar bill just for fun.

The drive back this afternoon was absolutely GORGEOUS. The entire trip was worth it simply for the amazing views and scenery we saw on the drive back. It was a sunny day and the fields and mountains were so green from all the rain. Clouds looked like steam coming out of the hills and gave the drive a whimsical feeling.

And of course, riding on the chicken bus is always an adventure with venders jumping on and off before departure and sometimes at various stops.

Tomorrow we have an eco-hike which I am definitely looking forward to!

Doctor thanks for seeing me today, I'm glad

This week we have another group of American doctors and nurses who have come down to hold another medical jornada (pretty much a traveling clinic). We have been going to the same aldeas (outlying towns) as we did for the last jornada. This is a very large group and they are staying across the lake in Pana in a very nice hotel, so they are not eating at Petrona’s like the other group did.

So every day this week we wake up and go to a community center to set up. There is a dentist here this time too, which is really cool. She just pulls peoples’ teeth out. I translated for her one day and at first I was a bit squeamish but I got used to it.

These are long days of waking up at 6, eating breakfast, running the jornadas, and not returning home until dinner. But it is so fun to do this! I love being around the clinic and the doctors and nurses. I have learned so much from them, Mary, and Liza about this entire field and it has really inspired me.

It's the freakin weekend baby I'm about to have me some fun

This weekend was a blast! Friday Liza and I headed over to Cerro de Oro to visit Caitlin and to spend the night at her house! We took a lancha from San Juan to Santiago then a pickup to Cerro. She has a great house and a beautiful room that has a view of the entire lake. (She lives with the most wealthy family in the town.) Her family was so sweet to us and gave us lots of snacks from their tienda that they run out of the bottom of their home.

The three of us had big plans for the night but ended up falling asleep while watching a movie! All in all it was a really fun night and as always, it was great to play with Caitlin!

Saturday we headed back over to Santiago and had a tour of Panabaj, an area of town that was devastated by a landslide a few years ago. It has still not been rebuilt and I have only seen a few situations worse than that in my travels. It was heart-stopping to see the tattered USAID signs and mostly deserted area. It was like a ghost town.

From there Liza and I headed to Panajachel for the night. We met up with Mary and the three of us got a hostel for the night. We went to a salsa competition that we were invited to by our salsa instructor and watched a bunch of people dancing. It was a spicy salsa dancing night!

Then this morning we got together with the whole group and headed out to Chichicastenango for market day! I bought a bunch of stuff and haggled for amazing prices. I got a beautiful bedspread for only 200 quetzales! They originally wanted 600! My friends take me with them to shop now :)

The soup, the soup, the soup, the soup...

Tonight Liza, Mary, and I had an amazing dinner! We made tomato basil soup and garlic bread at Mary's house and ate it with the most amazing cheese in the entire world. Yes, it's true. And also some weird "California style" wine that was from Mexico. Weird.

It was great to just cook and chill and talk...it was a very normal thing to do and it was funny when I realized I was still in Guatemala.