Praying & making an offering to Saint Maximon |
Friday night graduation at PLQ (I went to 11 of these!) |
Our dysfunctional family portrait. (Mom was taking the pic.) |
My Guatemalteca mom cooking something wonderful for me |
One can't talk about Guatemala without mentioning its main mode of transportation, the camionetas. Otherwise known as "chicken buses", these privately owned retired school buses from the USA are painted and decorated with religious sayings and images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary (probably as a way to protect them while driving so fast). They're often so packed that riders must sit three to a seat and stand in the aisle pressed up to one another. The man that collects the money, the "ayudante", doesn't get paid much, but has an incredibly difficult job that often resembles Spiderman. He'll climb over the seats, one foot on each backrest, to collect fares from all the riders. Or he'll climb on top of the bus while it's moving, pulling himself up from the main entrance, only to reappear a few minutes later via the emergency exit in back. Sometimes there are armed robberies on these buses. Sometimes the drivers are murdered because they don't pay their bribes to the local gangs. Sometimes these buses go off the side of a windy mountain road. But usually they are safe and efficient and make for wonderful people watching.
With Maria in her home. (She's standing.) |
I had to take a few different chicken buses to get to Maria's village. She is just one of many lovely people I met while in Xela, but there's something really special about her that will stick with me forever. Unmarried and without children, her means of supporting herself is selling textiles on the sidewalk outside of PLQ a couple times a week. Although from what I can tell, she usually doesn't sell much. She invited me and another student to her home for what I thought would be a trip to see more of her products, since she can only carry so much each time she makes the 1.5 hour trek to Xela from her village. But as it turned out, she didn't have anything to sell us. It was just a friendly visit to see her home and meet her family. Rest assured, I ended up buying many of her things the following week when I saw her outside the school.
During my entire time in Guatemala (90 days exactly), I had constant mild anxiety about my forthcoming need to make money. The necessity for a job was constantly on the horizon. Not just any job, but a job that felt right, a job that was in a Spanish-speaking country so I could continue to improve my language skills, a job that paid a living wage, and a job that was somehow related to education. During the weekends, instead of studying Spanish, I often idled away the hours wasting time on job search sites, which always left me a little more anxious and pessimistic. I applied to a few jobs, but only felt enthusiastic about one. For the sake of full disclosure, I also applied for this same job last October, but after a lengthy interview process lost the job to a bilingual candidate. My initial disappointment didn't last long because I knew it didn't feel right at that time. It felt forced and rushed and it gave me anxiety. Not getting the job because I wasn't bilingual, though, was the motivation I needed to go improve my Spanish. And that motivation led to an amazing adventure through southern Mexico, parts of Guatemala, and a much greater understanding of the Spanish language. But anyways, they posted that same position again recently. So I reapplied. And guess what? This time I got it! And this time it feels right! After three years away from elementary school teaching, I'll be returning to Guatemala in late August as the fourth grade teacher at LIFE School, which is located in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan.
I received the job offer on my last day in the country, which made saying goodbye to the folks in Xela much easier. Although Xela is a very comfortable city in which to live for awhile, I felt like it was the right time to go. It was nice, though, that I could say "nos vemos" instead of adios forever, since Xela is only a two hour chicken bus ride away from the lake.
Saying goodbye to something that is almost perfect but not quite, whether it's a job, a relationship, a city or whatever, is so difficult because we know that perfection doesn't exist. But there's a fine line between accepting a situation with its flaws and settling for something that doesn't feel right. With all its problems and craziness, Guatemala still feels right to me and I'm beyond excited to move there in August for this job. I'm excited to actually live someplace for longer than a few months. And I'm excited for the next chapter of my life, whatever it may hold. Even though I'm a little nervous about returning to the classroom and relocating to Panajachel (a city I've never visited), I know I'll be happy because if there's one thing I've learned for certain over the last three years it's that I can be happy anywhere (or unhappy). It's totally up to me.
I've also learned that my intuition is pretty amazing. If I continue to trust it, I think everything will continue to fall into place for me. And if it doesn't, I know that I'm in control of making the change I need to create peace and happiness in my life. It's really that simple. Three years ago when I made that difficult decision to leave my dream job, I trusted in my gut. Too many of us stay stuck in situations that don't feel quite right, but I was very lucky to have met Luis and the many others who helped me with the courage I needed to leave my comfort zone and live my life differently. Hopefully that's how I'll continue to live from this point on.
This was my last blog entry. Mostly because I'm feeling a bit oversaturated with blogs and conversations about traveling, adventuring and soul searching. Also because I am so over writing about myself, at least publicly. It's time to move on, in more ways than one.
Lake Atitlan, my future home |