You don’t look different, but you have changed

Forget Comfort Food
Baseball playoffs on TV
That’s my therapy.

I’m in heaven. Really, things could not be better. My host family recently discovered my love of baseball and has since more or less constantly left the playoffs on the TV for me. I have a little guilt about this, since they are clearly completely uninterested in the sport, but not enough to tell them to turn it off. Last night I tried to explain to my host mom the phenomenon that is Mariano Rivera, and her response was “oh…sí”. So, baseball clearly won’t be any sort of avenue for cultural exchange, but it sure is nice to have for my own personal sanity.

The only one who seems to show any interest at all in baseball is Wilson, who replied enthusiastically “sí!” when I asked him if he was going to play baseball when he was older (although I got the same response when I asked him if he drove a car today and if he was a penguin). We also played a makeshift game, using his hat as the ball, a matchbox as the glove, and a pen as the bat. Every time he hit, threw, or caught the ‘ball’ he yelled “goalllllllll”. So it’s a work in progress.

I once again made it back from the East. My trip to visit a volunteer who’s already had her two years in country was pretty relaxed. We met some of the families she’s close to in the community, made pizza with her youth group, traveled to one of her communities to give a training (three people showed up, so the training was cancelled, but it was fun to see one of the smaller aldeas), and basically just hung out. Everyone wanted to know if I was the volunteer that’s going to replace her, and when we responded that we still didn’t know, their next question was always “well can you request to be placed here? Can we request you?” We find out this week (Thursday!) where our actual sites are, and I’m peeing-my-pants excited.

Wilson was, once again, ecstatic when I came home. He’s talking so much more just since I left for this trip, and it makes me sad to think about leaving in less than a month. My Guatemalan family has been such a huge support system for me so far; I can’t imagine life here without them.

Nothing else very exciting going on here- I will try to keep everyone updated on my site assignment ASAP. Until then, keep your fingers crossed =)