I have been
absolutely horrible about updating my bloggy blog. In all honesty I think my
lack of willingness to write was mostly because the month of August sucked a
whole lot of ass. There is this thing called “The Volunteer Life Cycle” that
Peace corps told us about it training. The VLC charts how we are going to
feel during certain times of our service(all the highs and lows yada, yada); I
personally was pretty convinced it was all a crock (also, I really hate the idea of people telling me how I am going to feel). According to the chart the
first night in site was allegedly one of the hardest nights of service. I,
however, spent my first night getting to know an amazing group of people and
gorging myself of peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches. To me that says
anything but misery. Then we were warned the two month mark was supposed to be
hard, that’s why they pull us out of site for IST. In reality two months in
site was fine, being pulled out however, was not so great.Two months though,
piece of cake. So then the sixth mark rolls around, this is to be one of our
lowest slumps, but I am feeling pretty invincible. I’ve made friends, every
child seems to know my name (for better or worse), I have set schedules, and
routines, relationships, everything peace corps says that you need to feel
happy. Then suddenly, August showed up. I hit the biggest brick wall I might have
possibly ever hit. Maybe it was a (premature) mini mid-life crisis, I am not
sure, all I know is all the backlogged “life should suck right now” came in one
giant wave of shittiness (there has to be a better word for it than that, but
suddenly, I can’t seem to find the perfect one, so shittiness will suffice).
Part of the
problem was that our town was having their feria (town festival) which is
theoretically a time for awesome having of funsies. However, in reality, it
just meant that none of my schools had class, my schedule se fue, I had way too
much free time on my hands, ran out of books, finished all the seasons of
Dexter (oh muhgerd), was site-mate-less, and got dumped. I guess the last four
have nothing at all to do with feria, but I prefer to have just one thing to
blame, so I will overgeneralize. Oh, also, I almost forget, being so sick that
I literally was ready to die. Almost 104 degree fever, vomiting everywhere (I know how to party) and literally passing out
in the hallway, scaring my poor host siblings half to death. They actually
thought I had died, still not sure how I feel about that one. I also realized
that my bathroom is literally too small for me to kneel in to throw up in the
toilet, horrible timing to realize this. Blurgh. In short, August was a giant bag of dicks.
BUUUUTTTTT NOW IT’S OVER!
September at long last, is here, and it is flying. I can’t believe that it is
already the 9th. In only 3 short days my B’aktun will have been here
for seven months. Insanity.
Since
August and its depression have left my lovely site mate and I successfully had
two trainees staying with us (we didn’t even accidentally forget to feed them
or anything)! And we had our reading competition for the basico schools, and it
went as smoothly as things could possibly go in Guatemala, uncommonly smooth,
eerily so, even…Until we literally got kicked out at the end by tiny indigenous
women with two table full of cake. Also,
the Guatemalan Independence Day is upon us, which means tons of school festivities
and general merriment. Towards the end
of the last month I was in Pana for the day, and on the way back the camioneta
rounded the corner and there was this breathtaking view of the lake, the sun’s
reflection off of it was so absurdly picturesque, and it was a nice moment that
I am having the experience of a life time, and in one of the most beautiful
places in the world, how lucky I am to have this opportunity.
In other
news My B’aktun has (successfully?) made plans to go to Livingston for
Thanksgiving, and I might even get a chance to go up to Belize (definitely on
the bucket list). A few weeks before that I have a GLOW (girls leading our
world) camp scheduled and just a few short days before that I might have my
first real life visit! Eep! Having things to look forward to really is a game
changer, be it a letter, a person or plans.
Okay, I
think that is a decent update…Oh, and I might have gotten a puppy today. A
chucho (street dog) followed me home and waited for me at the door when I left for
classes and the kiddos are already attached. If it works out we have decided to
call her “Amy” short for “amable.” Adorable. Pictures to follow
P.S. thank
you to all the wonderful people who helped me through what shall hence forth be
the month that is not mentioned. I truly, truly appreciate you all so, very
much.
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