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I can’t believe today is 10/10/10 and I’ve been here for 5 weeks already. It doesn’t feel real. It does, and it doesn’t. I do love it here – especially the kids in my section, the other volunteers, and the beauty of Guatemala. But the reality that I’m going to be here for a year is beginning to sink in.

A whole year. I know it’ll go by quickly, but still. Still what? I still miss my family and friends. I keep having dreams that I’m at my lake house. And I miss the kids that I worked with when I was a teacher’s aid. It’s amazing how attached I became to children in only three months …

And here, I’ll be so attached to the kids after a year. I know that I wouldn’t change and grow in the same way if I’d stayed at home than if I were here in Guate. This is my dream, and I’m living it – which feels amazing. But it is hard work. Last week, one of the girls in speech intervention SPIT IN MY FACE in the middle of the session. I know that she is testing me to see how strict I am, because she doesn’t do that with her tíos (cargegivers). So, after that, I decided that it was time to end the session. I didn’t really let it bother me after that, but it was slightly disconcerting. The incident made me remember something one of my speech pathology professors once told our class: “Get ready – you’re going to get sneezed on, spit up on, peed on, and PUKED on.” Hahaha – I’ve had everything except puke so far.

Also, I want to make sure that all of my 15 kids are getting the best speech intervention possible. And that may take awhile for me to figure out. I want to be patient and to be okay with the fact that it may take awhile.

Last night, my friend and roommate Ruth (I live with Ruth & Josh, a newly married couple from San Francisco, Jess – my roommate – from Long Island, Mona Lisa from Germany, Jonas from Germany, and Mike from Utah; they’re all AMAZING!) and I were talking about the different stages of culture shock. I’m definitely no long in the “honeymoon” phase in which everything is new and amazing. I still love everything and look at the mountains every day with wonder; but like I said, homesickness is also setting in.

I also want to make friends with people from Guatemala, not just the other volunteers (who I do love and am already close to some of them). When I was in Ecuador, I only got to know my host family and the 26 other Americans that were with us; so here, I hope that I’ll have some lasting friendships with other Guatemalans after a whole year.

Also, this blog website takes too long to upload photos, so I'll put this link to my facebook photos and hope it works: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056402&id=1146001044&l=4bd5000fb9