Púchica, it’s the last Tuesday in November already! I hope
everyone survived Black Friday.J
It blows my mind that I have only got two blog posts left before the end of the
program. I thought the last week would be a little slower-paced since we are
back in full-time classes, but I couldn’t have been more wrong…my host family
and I had our very own Guatemalan Thanksgiving, I hiked up a volcano and
visited some hot springs with my group, and got surprised with a second
birthday party here in Guatemala from my family.
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| Saying goodbye to my church choir friends on Sunday since they only sing the last two Sundays of each month. I have never played the guitar for them, but for some reason they insisted I hold it for this picture... :) |
I had my first Spanish exam in almost three months yesterday
--- I haven’t missed those a lot! I think it went well though, and it is nice
to get back into the groove with classes. Rocky is my maestro this week; he is
an older, extremely knowledgeable guy with some great stories. Some good news:
I am making a lot of headway on my thesis! I am researching the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), its significance, and how it
can be improved by taking pieces from other health care systems around the
world. I have my 20-minute presentation on Thursday (in Spanish), so I think I
will need to be a bit of a hermit for the next couple of days…
I was not quite sure what Thanksgiving would end up being
like here, especially being my first Thanksgiving away from home. I was
surprised and incredibly excited when the night before, my host family’s niece
arrived from the States…with a turkey in tow (apparently you can take just
about anything into Guatemala, but not out). She decided to make a huge,
American-style Thanksgiving feast and invite all of the family over for dinner.
It was incredible! Better than the food was the company; all twenty of us went
around the table and said what we were thankful for, and I got the opportunity
to meet a lot of the extended family for the first time.
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| Thanksgiving dinner with my Guatemalan family! |
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| Made it to the top! Enjoying the sunrise from Volcan Santa Maria. |
Last night my family surprised me with a traditional Guatemalan
birthday party since I was in El Salvador over my actual birthday: all of the
extended family, cohetes (firecrackers), paches (a typical Guatemalan dish, one
of my favorites), an English-Spanish mix of “Happy Birthday,” and a cake! It is
tradition here to take a bite out of the cake after blowing out the candles,
knowing that someone beside you is going to shove your face down into it. All I
have to say about that tradition is…yumm!
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| My 'mordita' of birthday cake. Yumm! |
Between Thanksgiving and my second birthday party, this week
got me thinking a lot about the idea of hospitality.
Here I am, thousands of miles from home living with people I had never met
until five months ago, and now I feel like a part of their family. We have
laughed together, shared in the loss of loved ones, had our misunderstandings,
been frustrated with each other, watched movies and cooked meals together, and,
most importantly, shared who we are with each other. Here in Guatemala, I have
learned that hospitality is the difference between feeling like a pensionista (boarder) and a member of
the family. And, there really is no greater gift I could have received during
my time here. My Guatemalan host-family’s hospitality has given me a new lens
for looking at the world and the people I meet: the immigrant that has just
arrived in a new country, the hitchhiker or couch-surfer making his way across
the world, and the sick that I will be working with as a physician. I am now
convinced that simple hospitality can be the difference between an incredibly
meaningful experience and one that is easily forgotten.
The Christmas trees are up and the marching bands are
playing Christmas music here in Xela, which has definitely decreased how much I get
done in a day but made the time studying much more enjoyable. Espero que tengas
una buena semana, y te quiero! Hasta próxima vez.
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| El arbol de la Navidad in Parque Central. |
Paz,
Nico
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