Travel

Sounds like a really deep question, right? But in this case, it was esay. With help from my parents and grandparents, I traded in my complicated itinerary home for a simple e-ticket on American Airlines from Guatemala City to San Francisco. The old itinerary involved a too-expensive flight from Guatemala to Cancun, or a really long bus ride, followed by traveling standby out of Cancun. The new itinerary has all the random earth-bound connections taken out, and replaces them with a boring old two-stop flight directly to SFO via Dallas and Los Angeles. And it didn’t exactly break the bank, because I told a teensy weenie lie to American Airlines and told them I was sure I could fly back to Guatemala City on Oct 8. We’ll see if I am really in a position to keep that promise to them. ...

Over this year, some people have asked me, “Why do you seek to work for an international organization when there are so many problems that need to be solved inside the US?” It is a good question, and until Hurricane Katrina, my answer was, “I choose to work overseas because the US has enough good people, who can’t leave their families and work overseas, and who time and again give their time inside the US.” ...

Just a quick blog entry so that I don’t forget to write down something funny that happened the other day… At home, I was served a dish which was very close to risotto, one of my favorite dishes of all time. I commented on it to Gladys, but she said, “No, it is just chicken and rice.” I then explained that in the US (and Italy, where it comes from) we use a kind of rice called aborrio rice ( arroz aborrio) to make risotto. She chuckled and said, “You use boring rice?” ( ¿Usan arroz aburrido?) ...

Hoy he tratado una vez mas de encontrar un mecánico de motores dieseles. Quiero aprender las cosas principales que necesito aprobar antes llamo un mecánico verdadero, y las cosas que puedo reparar facílmente con solamente mis manos y mente. Cuando navigaba en Wonderland, leía los libros sobre motores de mar, pero todavía necesito escuchar a un maestro y ver un motor verdadero. Varios veces preguntaba a personas como mis compañeros de trabajo y mi familia donde puedo encontrar un mecánico, pero todos no sabían. ...

I flew to Cancun using Airtech for just $250 round trip. What a deal! The only thing you have to do to get such a good price is not have any fixed plans and be willing to put up with slightly bizarre customer service. Today, I got this email from the President of AirTech. I asked him if I could post it because it seems to provide a fitting close to the story of my AirTech customer experience. He gladly gave his permission, and commented that one of the nice things about owning your own company is that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Indeed! ...

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The good news is I didn’t get hurt, and they didn’t get very much from me. I went for a day trip to Santiago Atitlan yesterday. It is an easy trip; you just take the boat over and back. I was only planning on walking around town, seeing the market, having lunch, and coming home, so I didn’t take much with me, not even my backpack. Just my camera in one pocket, and my wallet in the other. ...

This weekend one of Paulina’s daughters (Paulina is mi abuela or grandmother, here) flew to Canada for a 4 month internship. She will be working with a program in Saskatchewan that provides services to rural communities. She’s pretty good at English (about as good as I am at Spanish, I guess), but she’ll be getting quite a lot more practice in Canada, that’s for sure! She will be in Vancouver the first week for some kind of orientation, then she will move to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for the duration of her visit. ...

Upon re-reading my own words, not even I could believe myself. How could the showers possibly be that scary? So I decided I should show you: I talked to a tall guy from Australia, who says that he gets shocks all the time, because he’s up so much closer to the showerhead. I don’t know whether this is typical Aussie bluster, or if it’s true. I can only be thankful that I am much closer to the average (tall) Guatemalan’s size. ...

I’ve been working here in San Pedro for two weeks now, and I owe people an update on what I’m up to here. The first week, I slept in a hotel and ate at the house of my coworker’s parents. I was going to move in with them when they got a bed for their spare room, but they couldn’t find a convenient one to borrow or buy. So, after a week in the hotel, I found the family I lived with before at the top of the hill and asked them for a room. They were delighted to have me back with them. ...

Jarachik, one of the restaurants/hotels in town is owned by a father and son team from Holland. This week Hank, the father, died of heart failure. It was a big shock to such a little community, and he will be missed. His son has a good support network here, so hopefully he will find the strength to get sorted out in his new life alone (his mother is also dead). ...