Happy Wednesday

So, things have been moving along. Still slow, still a bit confusing but it's already May 12. These past few days have involved lots of festivities due to mother's day. Yes Mother's day is celebrated here and is always May 11th. Since it fell on a Tuesday this year, there was celebrating from Friday until today. I bought my host mom some flowers and gave her a scarf. Something little but I felt it was a nice gesture. Dona Mercedes y Don Pedro really are like my Guatemalan parents. Although I treasure the bond that I have with my training community family, I spend a lot more time with the two of them
A) because I have more time and
B) there are only two of them instead of 11.
I am hoping to make a trip back to visit my training family soon enough. I'm excited!

Sadie is getting bigger by the day. The other night I tried to let her sleep in my bed. Bad idea. She was so confused and she just kept running around. She also has the loudest meow out of all the kittens and everyone loves to comment on it. Oh Lauren, your kitten cries so loud and so much. Thank you Captain Obvious, I can hear here too. Also I'm still going to take her so don't worry. Anyway I had to put her outside because she was driving me crazy, such a loving owner I'm turning out to be huh? Honestly, once I have my personal space it won't be as big of a deal but for right now... not looking good.

As for work, with the recent holiday school has been a bit difficult to navigate. Today there was a director (principals) meeting our town. Although our CTA did not advise us about this meeting nor invite us to attend we thought it would be a good idea to just stop by and present ourselves again to all the directors... Well we showed up this morning really nervous. I mean you really have to get over the American sense of making appointments and schedules because Guatemalans live in the here and now; not in the I'm busy how bout next Thursday at 4? After realizing that it is normal to fly by the seat of your pants; you have to get over being afraid of appearing rude. For example, showing up to a meeting uninvited is not really seen as rude. In the states you would never just barge into your bosses office demanding to speak to everyone about your job, but here it's a little different. Although, they might not love the fact that you barge in on their meeting and interrupt the schedule; in the end it really doesn't matter. Usually the meetings never start on time and adding you in is a lot easier than it seems but it definitely feels uncomfortable when you just go for it. Anywho, back to the meeting. So we show up and we are feeling nervous but I mean we feel like we are doing the right thing. As we are waiting around for the meeting to start, we run into a director from one of our schools. After marathon introductions we ask her:

"What exactly is this meeting for?" THANK GOODNESS WE ASKED THIS QUESTION.

The response was something along the lines of "Well when someone dies and they go to heaven, they leave all of their money for their kids. We are having this meeting to discuss the recent death of one of the maestros (teachers) in Tecpan." The look on mine and Betty's faces must have been ridiculous. We just tried to crash a will reading! Are you joking? Immediately we decided we better leave and we were so embarrassed we had to tell ourselves to walk slowly so that it wasn't obvious to all the directors that we were running away. It's kinda funny when you think about it, but definitely embarrassing.

In other news I've bought a bed. What an adventure. Monday I went around to observe the sales for Mother's day and found a bed for 1195Q (approx 150 US$) I hope it's nice. I can't sleep on it because there is no space in my room for it, or for them to move out their bed that I'm sleeping on now. It's kinda sad but it's going to make my first night in the new apt on that brand new bed so wonderful. Although knowing my luck by that time I will be so used to sleeping on the bed that has a mountain in the middle the new bed will seem really uncomfortable. I guess that's how life goes and if that's my biggest problem, I'm ok with it. I'm hoping that sooner rather than later that apt. is going to be finished. The work is at a standstill, hence the buying of things that I can't fit in my room, to motivate them to get down to business!

Today Betty and I also met the mayor and the head doctor of our local health center. Thanks to Don Pedro who literally knows anybody who is anybody in Tecpan! We were able to meet two important people relatively painlessly and start a "business relationship" because in the future we will most likely have to annoy them for money, advice, and other general help. In this day of presentations we also stopped by the post office. The man who works there is so nice and I had mail! I strongly suggest mailing to the Tecpan address I sent out in an email. I will most surely get the mail and it seems to be way faster then going through the other office. So with that being said, I'd love some mail and I'm going to try to send some tester letters out. I sent out 5 in January and nobody received one... I'm a little discouraged about the mail system here but today restored hope and maybe in the future you will receive a letter all the way from Guatemala.

I think these are the most exciting things to date. The baby shower was successful and I'm contemplating trying to make pizza or some type of food this weekend for the host fam. Need to start practicing cause in a month and a half I'll really have to grow up and start cooking for myself. love love love.

Lots of Reflection

So I'm beginning to realize that in my free time here I'm constantly thinking about A)what I might want to do when my service is over or B) things that I miss from the states or C)experiences I wish I could do over again. This past week I have been remembering how this time in the past two years I was doing some pretty crazy and exciting things. Last year was my last week of college and I was writing all of these crazy-long papers (one of which was all about Guatemala-foreshadowing?) and getting ready for graduation. I can't believe I graduated a year ago. Time goes by so fast. This time two years ago I was finishing my semester abroad in Salamanca... that feels like ages ago. I was finishing one of my favorite semesters of college and doing a little bit of traveling. I miss that semester a lot. I love Spain. This leads to topic A) I'm thinking that I really want to go back there after my service and just spend some more time studying (and playing) in Spain, my first country home away from home.

But back the the right now, I just can't believe that I am in Guatemala. 4 months into service and 23 to go. 23 months sounds like a lot but it also sounds a lot less than 27. The three months of training flew by and so has the first month in site but it is a weird passage of time. Sometimes the days feel like they drag on forever and that I'm not accomplishing much but then I look at my calendar and the month is over. I feel like my concept of time is completely skewed. I spend the day running miscellaneous errands related to work or daily need and end up not feeling like I've done many things of substance. Then it is night time and I'm really tired and wondering what happened to the day and what exactly did I do. I'm worried that I've become either incredibly lazy or very Guatemalan. I guess I'm ok with both options. But I want to feel more productive with my days. There are 692 days left, not that I'm counting already but I just need to have so more things to do. I just have to keep reminding myself that all will happen in good time. Just have to be patient and let it ride.

Happy Birthday Lady Sadie Pickles

Well today is my little kitten's one month birthday! How exciting... I think I've decided on the name (Lady) Sadie (Pickles) because I wasn't sure about Sadie but I just haven't gotten anything else... And I love Lady and Pickles as well, so all together I think it is a winning combination. Today was just your typical Tuesday. Meeting with our CTA and trying to get the last few schools out of the way so we can really begin to work with our program. I don't have too much exciting news. Betty and I are still just adjusting to life here. I've been spending my time doing some of the following:

1. Watching 30 Rock
2. Buying house items such as tables or baskets to hold things (table count- 2 Baskets-4)
3. Poster and Project Planning for introducing Healthy Schools
4. Sleeping with my awesome down comforter
5. Planning to begin my Mayan Kakchikel lessons as well as teaching English to my host dad and his grandchildren
6. Making skype dates... we should chat!
7. Thinking about other things I should buy for my new Apartment
8. Planning a baby shower for this weekend with my host mom for her niece.

I think that's the most exciting news for now. Just trying to take things one day at a time still and getting ready for more adventures. Lots of love to the states... and send birthday wishes to Lady... I really hope I don't become a crazy cat lady at 23... or ever!

Surprise

Well, it has been a long weekend seeing as I went out to Huehuetenango to visit some of my other volunteer friends. Although I spent 3 hours on a bus to get out there it was worth it. The story of how this visit came about is pretty cute if I do say so myself. Early this week my friend Javi called me and suggested I come up to visit his department (Huehuetenango) to visit with him and other friends including one of my closest friends Kristin. The surprise to this visit is that we didn't tell Kristin I was coming. Her birthday is in May and we both have been going through some separation anxiety. I mean you get pretty close with your training town and the fact that mine is spread all over Guate (we are all in different departments) is really hard sometimes. Claire, Kristin, Brent, and I were really lucky to form some real friendships... We even bought matching bracelets. That's true love. Anyway, Operation Surprise Kristin began Friday when I left my site after doing some miscellaneous work in the morning and I began my 3 hour journey to Javi and Megan's site. I was excited about going on my trip for a number of reasons but one of my main goals was to actually travel somewhere in Guatemala by myself. Considering what has happened in the past few weeks and the fact that I sometimes feel vulnerable and scared I was really excited to tackle the mission of managing some camionetas alone (well I had the advice of my surprise planners). I successfully got the buses I needed to get me to the right place and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I even made some nice friends on the bus who advised me the best spots to get off and how much I should pay for my trip. I really regained some confidence and hope that this little adventure will help me to feel more comfortable. Anywho, after reuniting with Javi and Megan we went into Huehuetenango to wait for Kristin and her partner Damian to arrive. The irony of this situation is that everyone knew I was coming except Kristin. There was a fear that Damian might ruin the surprise by accident, which would have been a bummer. There was also the fact that Thursday Kristin was having second thoughts on coming into town on Friday. I had to convince her without giving away the surprise. It was really hard.

We awaited our guests in the Taco Mansion, which despite it's name is really delicious and obviously cheap. I was properly disguised (sunglasses and sweatshirt with hood) while Javi guarded the door so we would be ready for their arrival. When the moment of truth came I hid behind a corner while Javi greeted our guest and dropped something along the lines of "Hey Kristin. How's it going? I just wanted to tell you I got you an early birthday present. It just came in today." Kristin was thinking he ordered her tacos already so she was really shocked when I jumped out from the corner and yelled "Surprise!" It was such a great moment. It was so good to see her and to see the look of complete surprise on her face. There may have been a few tears; definitely some laughs and then some delicious tacos. The rest of Friday was spent passing the time and catching up. It is amazing how much you miss people and how great it is to see them and hear even the most minuscule details of their lives.

Saturday we went into Huehue again for a day at the local swimming pools with other volunteers. While walking to catch our bus, we ran into Claire. So 3/4 of our training town were reunited and it felt so good. We really were heart broken that Brent wasn't there but he was in spirit. The day was spent relaxing, chatting, and just enjoying the company of people that you may not have realized how much you care about and rely on. Saturday night we went out dancing for a little bit only to wake up this morning realizing that it was already time to say goodbye. I really enjoyed seeing some of my friends that I hadn't seen in a WHOLE MONTH!

It was nice to return home to my bed(which has the reverse of a valley... the middle of my bed is a hump that I have to sleep directly on top of otherwise it pushes me off -Besides the point but an interesting visual-). I was happy to return home and see my host family; which I should probably backtrack about. Thursday night the three of us had a very sweet conversation. They told me that they already consider me like a daughter and they are here to help me with anything. They said you have your family at home and your friends here but we are here to take care of you anytime you need it. We already accept you as part of the family and we want you to be happy. I really cannot describe in words how cute and sweet they are.

So all and all it was a wonderful weekend. I got to see good friends, talk with my family, even fit in a few skype dates with the home-front. I'm ready for another week who knows what it will include. Lots of love.