Staging and Arrival

Well, as my mom said, I got to Guatemala City safely. I went through my 2 days of staging in DC in a nice hotel. I got to meet all the rest of the volunteers and I was quite surprised when I met one of the volunteers. I had met him in DC in March when interviewing with the Jesuits. For him and I to both not go with the Int´l program with the Jesuits and then get placed in the same PC Country at the same time all while having different programs seemed astounding. I just cant imagine the odds.

Unfortunately for us all, we had to check out Wednesday, the 29^th, at 4:30am! How early, I tried to sleep on the floor at the airport at we were there for hours. I was blessed again though as I got on the plane, though, through odds that seemed too good to be true. On not one flight, but on both my flights to Guatemala I sat directly behind a former agricultural volunteer from Guatemala. What a resource. Though there were many things I could not think to ask, just hearing experiences makes you feel at ease.

For the arrival, we met in a nice meeting area probably for diplomats in the airport and got to ¨skip customs¨since we did not have to wait in line and all are luggage was loaded up onto vans. Just to clarify, passports were checked, just while we were relaxing on leather couches.

As we drove out of the airport, there were campaign signs everywhere but not like we are used to. There are hung on strings across streets or wrapped around trees or poles or posted on wood which are pounded into polls. The election is the 15^th of September and is for a new president as well as election of all the mayors of the municipalities(major cities in each department) of the 22 departments (like states) of Guatemala. There will most likely be a 2^nd presidential election in November since there are around 15 candidates and for a candidate to win, he or she needs to gain 50% of the vote + 1 vote.

As I got to my host family after having a welcoming at training with some tostados y leche con arroz, I had a hard time talking or thinking in Spanish… I think it was nerves and the fact that my environment had just changed in a flash. After some minutes I got back to normal and got to see a little bit of the town. I slept very well that night. I would spend 2 more nights with this family til I Moved to a different site where I would stay for the duration of my training.