School is ending

October 8, 2010
So...I haven't been bored. We had two tropical storms that "standfasted" me in my site, but there were things to do. First there was Quince (I think I already wrote about that). Then there was school again, and planning a visit from some of my U.S. friends (thanks again for coming, guys!). Visiting the schools renewed my enthusiasm for my job and gave me hope for next year. Granted that's because I asked the teachers loaded questions like, "Have you seen any progress since we started the project?" Since they were then obliged to come up with changes they had seen, I felt validated in the work that I have been doing. Plus some of my schools are great, and I had sort of forgotten that.

Then on a Thursday I found out that my host dad was going to leave on Saturday for the U.S. to work legally (it had been planned for a while, but there was never a specific date). So the next day I made a cake and chocolate chip cookies, and we had a goodbye dinner for him. The next morning he left, and it reminded me of my process of leaving for Peace Corps, but I think it's very different for Guatemalans because they almost never travel, and thus spend most of their lives living in the same town and often the same house, as their families (parents, children, siblings, etc.). So it was hard on everyone when he left, and I felt like an intruder into a private event, witnessing their sadness. Then I was standfasted again. I thought that it was the worst possible timing, because my friends were flying in in two days, but the next day we were released from standfast, so it was okay. What followed was a whirlwind 2-week tour of the country that I will describe in my next post.