Travel and Love

Well it´s about time for an update. I wanted to do one before it was over a month since my last one.

These guys played music at a school bathroom inauguration. Check out that hand carved violin!

Mom left teary eyed on July 3rd. I know she had a nice vacation and didn’t want it to end so that was nice. I watched Argentina lose horribly after her departure…which was when I cried.

The next day a great group of friends and I headed to Guate City for a Cultura Profetica concert. Cultura Profetica is a famous Puerto Rican reggae band. Like most things in Latin America this event was pretty poorly organized. Well let´s just say it´s probably the worst organized event I´ve been to in Latin America. Long story short is that we waited for them to arrive at the venue for over 6 hours…I think…I don’t actually want to remember how long we waited. By the time they got one we were all a little tired. But they are still a great band and I would see them again in a heartbeat!

Dani, Rose, me, Faby, and Claudia (couch surfing friend)

I picked up a great family at the airport and then brought them to Nebaj for a dedication to a school they helped build from their Rotary Club in Washington state. I had a really nice time with them as their one son was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay in the 90s and had lots of great stories.

Then my French friend, Coralie, came to NEBAJ! Besides my mom she was my first visitor which made me super happy. We hiked to a well known cheese farm one afternoon and then she made a splendid crepe dinner for me and some friends.

I have finally made some great friends in Nebaj. There are a few Peace Corps volunteers here and Scott and John and I have really hit it off. They come over practically every other day to make dinner with me---super fun and leaves little time to get lonely.

Work is really picking up. I´m helping give some talks about water projects to Peace Corps volunteers at their meetings and doing lots of other projects at the same time. It´s all rather complicated but let me just tell you how great it makes me feel to be chipping away and little by little getting some good stuff done!

The biggest news is that Lynn has offered me an all paid for trip to Nicaragua the 3rd week of August. I get to go look what water projects they are doing in Nicaragua and share with them what we are doing here. Plus I get to see some family and friends in Nica, which I´m super excited about!

Before all of that though…I´m headed home for the first week of August for Ali´s wedding and a beach trip with the college roommates!! Super excited as well about that.

Life is pretty swell and I swear I can still find time for visitors!

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!