Mi llegada (my arrival)

Yep, I'm back in good ole Guatemala. I took a late night flight from Salt Lake to LA and then at midnight took off to Guatemala City. I didn't hardly sleep at all even though the plane was basically empty and so I took a whole row to myself to stretch out on. I just don't do well trying to sleep on airplanes...and then there's the whole my insides are about to pop out from being nervous ordeal... You would think that after two other visits here that it would all be second nature and I wouldn't think twice about being nervous or what was going to happen to me, but you would be wrong. Every time is a new adventure and I don't think I will every leave for a long time without having it make me nervous.

When I got to the LA airport I had to switch planes, and terminals, and had to walk through this freaky white-walled tunnel with signs everywhere saying "stell curtain tunnel, exit immediately when alarm sounds--room will fill with carbon dioxide." Not the most comfortable long walk of my life, but I survived. I got to the Guatemala airport and had to flee to a corner and rearrange my stuff since my suitcase had been too heavy and so I had taken out a spare backpack to check the extra weight so I got a few funny stares from the workers seeing me dump out my stuff and tie on my sleeping bag as I hunched over my bloated purple suitcase in the corner of the baggage claim area. I got a little nervous since I was the last passenger left, but it turned out just fine. Then, bargaining for a way overpriced taxi blamed on high gas prices and a trip to the bus station to find out I was 5 minutes late for the 6:30 bus and would have to wait for the 7:30. It was so strange seeing things that were completely familiar and yet strange to me all at once. The first thing that hit me was the smell--I still have clothes that smell like Guate... But the bus went nice and slow around the curvy highway and we had to wait for more than an hour since they were only letting one direction go at a time down the highway since they are repairing it... I don't understand why they are repairing it NOW when the rainy season is starting and they won't be able to do much about it or finish up their work while it's all muddy...but I'm not in charge. I got to where I was meeting with some old friends more than 2 hours late, but they stuck it out and waited for me. It was great to see them in their home country after we had met in the States and became friends. They took me down to the beautiful Lake Atitlan where I am staying for the next couple days as we finalize housing and get the students set up. It really took a lot of worry off my mind to have them ride me down so that I wouldn't have to be changing buses with a suitcase and then blindly searching for my hotel. We talked about politics and the upcoming elections (including the potential success of Rigoberta Menchu as a presidential candidate--if you don't know who she is, look her up!!) and the hilarity of all the politicians trying to buy votes and the crazy propaganda. We talked about education a little bit and how their studies were going along, as well as some of the social projects that one of my friends had worked for and whether it was positive social involvement or not--all as we ate spaghetti in a touristy restaurant and joked about how people probably wondered what a "tall" white girl would be doing with these 2 Guatemalans and that they'd have to advertise their services as body guards in the future.

We went down to the lake and lamented that it was too cloudy to see the volcanoes and how sad that they are still cleaning up from last Fall's Hurricane disasters. I bought a cell phone and reacquainted myself with the no-toilet paper in the toilet bathrooms, and otherwise have gotten settled in. I love being able to see the textiles again, the green mountainsides zigzagged by slouchy dirt roads and cozy adobe homes, and the recently sown cornfields as they start to pop up in all random corners of the landscape.

So, basically, I'm here! I'm still trying to adjust for my now obtrusive Argentine accent and the awkwardness of not being able to blend in AT ALL again, but otherwise excited to get going and dig my heels in. My K'ichee' is rusty but improving and with stronger Spanish I will hopefully be able to make up for a lot of what I couldn't in the past and keep conversations going, ask better questions, and respond better to the inevitable suprises that are undoubtedbly headed my way (so stay tuned same blog space same blog channel!) Thanks for all your support, talk soon
Cristina