Rollercoaster

So not every day is roses and butterflies here. I knew that going in. You often hear volunteers comparing this experience to that of a rollercoaster. Some days are amazing and other days you feel like you just got run over by a camioneta...what they call a bus here. Well, that was my Saturday. My counterpart is not the most upstanding citizen here in Guate. He is rather corrupt, irresponsable, machista, and a whole other list of words that I won't use here. Anyway, was had a tourism fair in Xela this weekend and he left me to plan the whole thing and every time I tried to talk to him about it, he would walk out of the room while I was in mid sentence. So, I show up at the fair on time and call him to ask where he is. Oh, he hasn't left the community yet with all of our display stuff...great! It takes about 2 hours to get there and finally he shows up 3 hours late after everything is under way with the organizers asking me where he is and where our stuff is...how embarassing. Finally he calls me, tells me he is at some intersection and I go over and he just hands me the stuff and drives off...no help at all. So, I proceed to work the whole day alone. Everyone else has tons of people from their community at their booth, me, no one, the lone gringa. Luckily my friends Amber and Steph were there and they hung out with me and were there to offer emotional support. Surprisingly my counterpart shows up at 5, right at the end, drops his 3 kids off in the booth for me to watch, don't worry about it, he didn't even ask, just drops his kids and leaves. So, I am about to freak out, but luckily my friend Amber sees this and we go for a little walk for me to calm down a bit. I am eternally grateful for my friends here in Guate. They are the key to my sanity. So, Sunday passes much the same way. My counterpart comes to "help" for a few hours, shows up at midday, orders me around a bit and rolls his eyes at me and then leaves, leaving me with his child again. Oh it is sooooo hard to work with someone that you have absolutely no respect for whatsoever. However, the good thing is it is teaching me to stand up for what I believe it and I am not letting him boss me around. I have forced myself to gather my strength and speak for what I believe in and not back down. I used to be afraid to do this but I am learning how to hold my ground in difficult situations and this is a skill that will be good to have. I am never one for conflict but at least this is teaching me the skills to stand firm and get better at dealing with this stuff everyday, but man is it exhausting.

So, after this bit of a downer blog, I try to think of at least 3 good things that happened to me each day to remind myself that life really isn't so bad...so here are my 3 things....

1. The ride in the back of the pick up back to the community. I really love riding in the fresh air and not being enclosed in a car.

2. Got to sleep in today until 7:45 a.m. which is a big deal in my world!

3. I have a computer now here at site and love being connected to the world again.

Thanks for reading and thanks for your support!