Busy Bee

Hello again to all! Since I last wrote, I’ve barely had a moment to breath. I’m really starting to live in Guatemala. I have my home and friends here now and it feels really really great.

I last wrote in May and now it’s July…where to begin!?

Well I went home for a week where I said goodbye to Dottie and celebrated my birthday with some close friends and family. It was a hectic week but a great refresher and I brought back enough trail mix for a few months at least.

When I got back to Guate I spent a few days readjusting and realizing that this is now the place I call home. I went to Nebaj a few days later where I spent a rather lonely week working. I say lonely only because this is when hurricane Agatha hit, the volcano erupted, and a huge sink hole was created in the middle of the city. What fun! However, I was safe in the highlands of Nebaj but didn’t leave the house for days because of the rains.

After a week in Nebaj I traveled back to Antigua where I met my roommate from college, Julie, at the airport! I was about an hour late arriving and ran the last bit in the pouring down rain. It was quite a scene…I showed Julie around Antigua and we met up with some of my friends. Then we went to Lake Atitlan for both of our first times (!!). It was a little rainy and cold---not the best first lake experience but what I love about Julie is her laid-backness. So we had a good time just being together, watching movies, buying acorns, and going to bed early.

Then Julie and I traveled to Momostenango for a week and helped build a hand washing station in a school a Peace Corps volunteer and friend. Once again, I had an amazing time with Julie in Momos. She fit right in and loved helping out. She also made some cute little dolls from construction scraps when there was a lull in work. I can’t nor do I have time to try to explain how grateful I was to have Julie’s presence for two weeks. Time flew and work got done!

Next, my mom and my aunt Betsey arrived. Their time with Julie overlapped about 5 days. We stayed around Antigua for most of this time and went to the lake for two days as well. I also got many of my friends together in Antigua to have a dinner party at Danielle and Erick’s home. The rain held off and the food (and wine) was delicious!

I said a teary goodbye to Julie (well not really, but my heart was and still is sad that she’s not here) and begged her to consider moving here…she heard a lot of this all week long from a variety of sources. I spent another day with mom and Betsey doing last minute errands before Betsey flew off the next day. Mom and I stayed in Antigua for the weekend and watch a lot of the Mundial (World Cup). Argentina’s doing greatttt and I’m excited (and a bit nervous) for their game against Germany on Saturday morning! (update, the pulpo is all knowing and Spain won...)

Then mom and I headed on the dreaded 5 hour chicken bus ride to Nebaj. I caught back up with Lynn and turned in some of the things I’ve been working on. It has been nice to have someone in Nebaj to run errands with and cook meals with, I will be sad when she leaves in two days.

The months of July and August are getting more and more packed with fun things for me to do. We have two groups coming in July and I fly home in August for Ali Moyer’s wedding and a beach trip with my roommates from Gettysburg. When I get back in August there is another group of engineers coming to build a water system and I will be trying to keep track of things in Nebaj as Lynn will be gone for the entire month of August.

Whew! Hopefully I can write more cute antidotes in the coming weeks of my time here in Guate…but for now all I can do is give you this summary of why I really enjoy life here—so come visit!