New Adventures

This was a week of many new adventures.  It started out with a memorable trip on Tuesday with my office to visit our colleague, Francisco, at his home with his new baby boy.  This trip involved three chicken buses (these are the public buses here…old school buses painted various colors) and a tuk tuk ride (the tiniest vehicle like object that has cloth “walls” instead of metal).  Our final destination was a village called Zaragoza, but we needed to take a bus from the foundation to Antigua; another from Antigua to Chimaltenango; and one more from there to Zaragoza…straight, it is about a 1.5-2 hour trip.  When we arrived in Chimaltenango, we went and bought some food to bring for lunch and a cake.  It was raining quite heavily…we had one umbrella (Jovita and I shared) and Rigo and Karen had jackets…we didn’t know where the food and dessert places were…or the next bus for that matter…we were laughing and walking.  It was so much fun!!! (for real! That is not sarcasm).  I loved how even though it was raining, we were figuring out where everything was.  Even though it was a long trip – there was no stress…there was no worrying.  It made me reflect how this would go if I was in the U.S.  There are some people in my life in which it would go quite the same, but I feel like in general there would be more stress…that is more our culture.  We are on a time schedule; we like to know where we are going; we don’t like getting stuck in the rain.  Yet, this was for me, a fun adventure – full of bonding and laughing and traveling.  Oh, I didn’t tell you about the chicken buses.  Not only are they a little rickety and the drivers drive a little too fast…but they is no capacity limit in the eyes of the workers.  Even when you are sure there is no way anymore people can fit in the bus (3-4 are in each seat and the aisles are full of standing people) you still hear the money collector boy yelling “Antigua! Antigua!” as he motions for people to enter.  Let’s just say, you get very cozy with whoever is around you.  The buses are not always large sardine cans; it depends on the time and destination…but with these longer trips they tend to be fuller as there aren’t as many buses going the long distance.  Again, my thoughts drifted to how most United States citizens would handle this…haha…I’m glad that I’ve had previous experiences like this before and grew up in a big family, so that the extreme touching wasn’t uncomfortable.  Our tuk tuk ride from the last bus to our friend’s house included the four of us shoving into the back of this little cloth bag of a vehicle - Jóvita sitting on top of Karen’s lap, me in the middle, and Rigo on my other side….laughter, smiles, jokes all around.  Again, it just made us laugh at the situation and trip.  I have talked mostly about the journey of this trip because that is what was very memorable…though the time seeing the baby and sharing the meal together was special as well.  Again, another moment of feeling part of the team – part of the Apoyo a Jóvenes office team.

My second adventure this week, sadly was not quite as fun.  I got sick.  It began Wednesday afternoon with back pain and a headache, and turned into stomach pain every time I ate.  I was very tired and slept a bunch.  I was still able to go to work though…I was able to function, but did not enjoy myself quite as much.  I did go to our clinic on site on Friday and was given a prescription for my stomach and I have a blood test tomorrow just to confirm it isn’t some virus we need to worry about (because of how tired I was).  I am feeling MUCH better now though (by Saturday afternoon, I was almost back to my normal self).  I am still taking my prescription though and being gentle with what I eat and how much…but I definitely am on the mend.  Besides the new adventure of being sick, I also had the adventure of going to a doctor and having my whole visit in Spanish.  Do you ever feel that it is hard to explain how you are feeling when you are sick in English?  Well yes…now I had to do that in Spanish.  Of course the doctor was very nice and we connected on shared experience of living in Sevilla for a time (I was wearing my Betis soccer jersey that day).  I got what I needed and am on the mend = success.

On Friday, at our office meeting, I found out that Rigo wants me to take on all our leadership groups in the youth program (instead of just being in charge of my girls leadership group that I am developing and implementing in January).  More or less this is a summary of what was said, “Teresa, I would like you to take on the leadership program in the office.  I would like you to start tomorrow.”  Haha!! Okay, so there were a few more words in there…but more or less this was the message! WOW.  Though, when he said, “start tomorrow” he really meant, begin the process of orienting into this new position…start taking on the responsibilities but Jóvita and he will help me transfer in.  So now I will be in charge of the leaders on Saturday and also my girl group.  We are hoping to revamp the Saturday leadership program so that it has more substance and maybe has some more training for the leaders that could involve a day or two during the week.  I am honored that they trust me with taking all this on…excited with all the ideas I have and all the possibilities…nervous about not meeting their and my goals.  Saturday, I was in charge of the attendance record of the leaders and led the planning meeting (with Jóvita’s support).  One of the biggest struggles for me that I can see right now is going to be my ignorance in Spanish and food.  There are more words I want to know and understand that they youth say so quickly….and a part of planning is making decisions about snack and lunch on Saturdays.  Well, I don’t know hardly any of the dishes that they talk about and therefore I don’t know what ingredients we need and how much.  And guess who is suppose to put the order in for the week?  Yep, that would be me.  BUT no worries – Jóvita helped me out and I also can ask the youth what they think we need and how much.  It will happen…but there will be a learning curve.

Like I said, many new adventures this week…most of them good…and as always, each day brings a new adventure of sorts whenever I get to interact with a new person or tutor a child.  It is quite fun, rewarding, challenging, interesting, frustrating at times, and usually full of purpose.  I like it.  I have more new adventures coming up this week as there is a Vision Team here this week (volunteer group) and I am going to be helping translate for a couple visits of theirs…I will be the only “bilingual” in these situations – it is an exhilarating responsibility.

My hope for each of you is that you find a new adventure in your week…it doesn’t have to be as big as taking three chicken buses and tuk tuk to a far off village in Guatemala in a down-pour…but maybe it’s just taking on a new challenge (big or small) that you have put off because you worry you won’t be able to do it.  I bet you can.  It is quite fun! :)



These are not my own photos, but I found them online to show you what I'm talking about when I mention the modes of transportation.  This is a chicken bus - they are all painted different colors and different ways.  On the front on top you can see where the bus is going...this is how you know if you should get on or not. :)



Tuk Tuk
I don't think the picture captures how goofy and small these things are.