OMG!OMG!OMG! Why am I feeling NOTHING?

The night before leaving home to go to Antigua I was feeling neutral. I was feeling neutral when I woke and took a shower and waited for my dad, felt neutral when we prayed before leaving the house. I honestly felt like something was wrong with me when I hugged my dad because I felt nothing. I was very happy to see everyone at the airport and waiting our flight together. The voyage to Guatemala was VERY long, taking 2 planes and a bus to Antigua was a pain in the butt. The first thing that hit me was how much Guatemala felt like Haiti in some sort of way but I didn´t want to feel a false state of being comfortable because I didn´t want that feeling to come crashing down on me at any moment. The smell that hit me first in Guatemala City was how polluted the air was and GOD it was horrible, I was gasping for air and couldn´t breathe well. While observing the city, something that caught my eye was how frequently I saw the police with rifles and started to think how different it was going to be living in Antigua.

When we finally arrived in Antigua, what took my breath away was the volcano. My God it was grand, surreal, and ACTIVE. It made me think of how the people were humble in a sense that even though they were at the mercy of the volcano and how much they were trying to live in peace. It made me think of how much I was feeling that too and I knew right from there I was going to enjoy living here for a while. Meeting my homestay mom for the first time, I knew for a fact that the little Spanish I knew had to kick in now and I was very thankful for my Spanish teachers for the years at PHA. I understood what she was saying and talking back in SPANGLISH but somehow she understood.

I woke up to birds chirping instead of cars and the smell of pure air set my day on the right path. We went to the school for a welcome ceremony and the kids were STANDING UP!!! I was astonished and felt kind of bad, but Ms. Bello said it was a sign of respect. Watching the kids stand and sing Guatemala´s national anthem gave me a serious flashback when I used to do that when I was still living in Haiti and doing the same thing that they were doing every morning before continuing the rest of the day at school. That just made me realize, this might be a generalization, how similar life in third world countries is. It gave me a sense of common ground where I didn´t really feel in a different country but felt at home.

Until next time...