On a lazy, stormy Sunday afternoon in one of the more hideous and dangerous industrial cities in Guatemala, what does one do to pass the time? Of course create a blog about some of the recent random happenings in my life!

 

Mid-day Dehydration in Escuintla: Bad food combined with dehydration on a 90 degree cloudless day lead to me randomly passing out in a tin-walled and tin-roofed house in La Estancia (a peri-urban community) for about an hour and a half. I woke up, a cold cloth recently placed on my head by the client, only to notice the entire family was out on the porch eating lunch. Not everyday you come home from the sugar plantation for lunch to find a blond girl sleeping in your bed…

 

Hotel Fun in Santa Lucía: While finishing up data cleaning on a fine Thursday evening, a nice man came to my door. Of course, I said come in thinking it was a maid or teammate. But, alas, it was a random security guard (I think from the hotel, though I’m not totally sure) coming in to check on my toilet to make sure it was working. He was carrying a very large rifle and a pistol as well. I really didn’t think twice about the situation, but a day or so later, I thought- what if this had happened in the US??? Although possibly it’d be okay in Texas.

 

Shoes getting half burnt off by lava on an active volcano: Self-explanatory.

 

Interviewer to Interviewee?!?: While enjoying my weekend alone in Antigua, I met a lovely Israeli couple on a month long honeymoon in Central America. One thing lead to another and next thing I know I am being interviewed by the woman who happens to be the daughter of a controversial right-wing Israeli Parliament member. Apparently she’s interviewing one person in every country she visits in Central America for the Hebrew equivalent of National Geographic.

 

Water Pipe-line Festivities, all in Ma’m: One of the more helpless moments in my life. I arrived at a community center in the central highlands to interview a few clients only to finish two hours later and walk outside in the midst of a huge town celebration. About 200 indigenous families from this small village came to the community center to cook stew and celebrate the arrival of a new water pipeline from a spring in the mountains. Unfortunately, none of them spoke Spanish and I did not speak a word of their language, Ma’m. So there I sat, nodding and smiling, and they nodding and smiling back. Good fun.

 

Everyday of my life here: Being the most random pale blond girl ever on public buses and the beds of pick-up trucks in places white people never go.

 

 

 

 

 

More than likely you won´t hear from me until next weekend, hopefully with more adventures to share. Have a great week!