My not so temporary Peace Corps Guatemala life

8 weeks have passed since I stepped off the plane onto the hot Guatemalan ground. 

My life has taken a complete 360 from my former U.S. nanny life. 

• Long hot showers have been traded in for bucket baths. 
• The days of electric kitchen equipment are no more.  Here my family has no oven, stove, refrigerator, or microwave…but we do have a blender (used mainly for liquefying beans).  




 
• Apples and grapefruits every day in the states have been exchanged for mangoes, papayas, and bananas (which I consume in high quantities). 

• The luxuries of a washer and dryer are long gone.  All of my clothes are washed by hand and then they are hung on the clothes line.  This is a fun task to keep up with my laundry OCD.

• The New Jersey Transit and MTA seem like a dream compared to my daily commute via the “chicken bus”.
• Chicken buses: Yellow school buses that have expired according to US standards, arrive in Guatemala.  They are subsequently pimped out (literally) with a paint job, luggage racks, and added rows of seats (to fit more people and less leg room of course), then stuffed like a can of sardines.  Seats that are normally for two people are packed with three people.  The two people on the end of the seat basically have one cheek on and the other half of their body is resting against the person they’re sharing the aisle with. Some trips are so full that people hang out of the front door and start piling onto the roof of the bus.  Yes this is real life…and after the first few trips, its really not so bad.

 

• Fitness classes at my luxury NJ gym have been replaced with insanity, p90x, and Jillian Michaels workout videos in my bedroom.

• The people at the internet café know me…wifi zones are few and far between.
• Big salads are traded in for beans, eggs, and tortillas. (this will change once I start cooking for myself again in a week!!)

• My former life of chasing my cousins around the house to brush their teeth and wash their hands will soon be a huge part of my full time job as a facilitator of healthy habits in a school setting.

• My days of struggling to learn Spanish are about to be repeated while I attempt to learn the Mayan language Ixil to further communicate with the locals...Ill be living in Nebaj, Quiche!!

Yes, my life indeed has been altered, but I must admit that I feel exceptionally happy here in Guatemala. 

 “Life is too short, don’t just live the length of your life, but live the width.”