As two teams leave Mission Guatemala after a successful week of construction projects, two new ones will be arriving shortly. In addition some awesome faculty and staff members from BW just got here! The newness of everything has been stressful so seeing familiar faces has been extremely comforting. I look forward to sharing some more of my experiences here with them.
I am feeling more at home here though, for sure. I'm getting closer with the Mission Guatemala staff- I was even invited to play soccer with them since they have games once a week. I got one goal! But ultimately my team lost. The mosquitoes at least seem to think I'm a great hostess- but over 50 visits later to my ankles and calves, I'm struggling. Beyond the loss of my dignity from the tragic futbol defeat and the pain of bug bites, I am much more confident walking around town now on my own. I can order food, buy items, and use the taxi service. Sometimes it takes some confused looks, me overemphasizing the few Spanish words I know, and crazy hand movements to get my point across, but things usually work out just fine. It is frustrating most often when I realize that I am missing out on some relationships by my inability to speak Spanish. But I try to remind myself that I'm doing my best and that's all I can reasonably expect.
Fun fact, Guatemalans love fireworks. Loud, bomb-like sounding ones. At any time of the day. Literally. At 7:30 AM, 10 PM. Who cares- fireworks for everyone. They scare me every time. There have also been random parades and celebrations recently which have been fine until I walked out of my apartment and accidentally into a group of parading men wearing dresses and animal masks. I narrowly escaped into a nearby Tuc-Tuc.
I still can't believe I made it this far, in one piece, and with the confidence that I can make it through the next month. I was terrified to come here, leave my family and friends, and enter an unfamiliar place with no one I knew. It definitely has some growing pains, but growing comes just when you cross outside of your comfort zone.
Oh yeah, the reason I'm here- to film stuff! That part has been going well, not too much to report at the moment. I could tell you all about it but then you'd have no need to watch the final product. So I'll just keep the suspense building for the next few weeks and you can see for yourself all that my hard work has come to.