Pounding on the roof,
Drowning out all other noise.
Rainy season’s here.
Every once in a while Guatemala just totally takes my breath away. Sometimes it’s in a good way, like when the bus rounds the curve in the road on my way home, and all of a sudden you can see my beautiful little town among the green hills. Sometimes it’s in the frustrating way, like when the little kids in front of me on that same bus throw trash out the window onto those gorgeous green hills without a second thought. Sometimes it’s just in the out-of-shape, out-of-breath way (you try hauling a huge thing of water up a steep hill to your house in the pouring rain with sweaty, slipping hands and tell me it didn’t take your breath away).
The point is, life here is a life of extremes. For whatever reason, and I really still haven’t figured out why, here in Guatemala the tiniest victory feels like a world series ring, and even the smallest set back can seem like a fatal blow. It doesn’t take much more than a load of laundry for me to feel accomplished for the day. But it also doesn’t take much more than a burned out light bulb to send me into fits of despair.
The weird part is, I’m not usually that person. Not at all. Back home I am slow to celebrate my successes and rarely sweat the small stuff. It’s a funny juxtaposition, being overwhelmed by little things like washing dishes and grocery shopping while living among (and attempting to address) huge problems like domestic violence, poverty, corruption, discrimination, women’s rights. But, on the bright side, I think that Guatemala has taught me how to be a little more proud of myself, even (maybe especially) for the little things.
Moving on from the goopy, self-reflectiony stuff, the house is coming along pretty nicely. It is still pretty much heaven for me to have my own totally private space. The rainy season has definitely hit full-on and most evenings it rains so hard on my tin roof you can’t even hear yourself think, but I just put my “rain playlist” on full blast (although at times the rain drowns out even that) and enjoy the rhythm. It’s not the cliché “pitter patter” rhythm- actually it sounds more like a band of battling snare drums, but it’s soothing in its own way. My roof in the main room leaks, but since I have no furniture it doesn’t really matter (Aha! An upside to living on the salary of a volunteer). Next mission is a hammock and some mirrors.
Other than that, life is boring (I mean, as boring as a “life of extremes” can be, I guess) and I am counting the days until the big Fourth of July party (8) and Su-b comes to visit (1 month from today!). July has always been one of my favorite months, since it’s got the best day of the year in it- my birthday. The only month that might be better is October for baseball playoffs. And I think this year I’ll have even more reasons to love it so much. I’ll keep you all posted-
the view from my house =) (it's the only picture of the place that looks like anything...)
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