Being here has brought up so many good memories of being here with the “duo” (Kianna and Michael). There’s been things that I have missed about not having them here with me again this time.  Including daily basketball games,  Kianna yelling perro everywhere we went, and our house and the people in it, to name a few things.  There’s so much that hasn’t changed since I was last here 4 years ago and so many things that have.  4 years ago covid didn’t exist in the form we now know it. There were no mask. The dog that we all where obsessed with in Atitlan (Chula) is still there living her best life catching rocks. I haven’t seen Kianna’s favorite dog Tocino (bacon) in town at all. Cafe no Se is closed.  Our house is still there but with new people living in it.  We are at the same school but in different buildings and with different teachers.  So much is the same and yet so different. Today I found out that our house mother that we lived with passed away due to covid. She couldn’t have been more than 38 years old.  People have died all over the world from covid and some like the people here, died because of lack of access to healthcare when they had covid.  One of the hardest quotes for me to accept and yet the truest about life is that “Change is the only constant in life.” I struggle with change so much. Before this trip I was filled with the normal excitement that comes with a trip,  yet I also had to sit with an my anxieties about the unknown, all the things that would be out off my control,  all of the fear I have of not being able to communicate and looking dumb,  all of it… bubbled up to the surface.  Change often times feels so scary to me. Yet I consciously make a decision to mix things up try something new even if it leaves me scared and vulnerable. This trip has been so so good. I can’t wait to look back at this trip with the same fondness and longing to replicate it like I did after my first trip.  My teacher today in class said “you are just becoming a little Guatemalan, you love everything about our culture.”  It is true there is so much I love here.

Here are some pictures of then (4 years ago) and now