airport thoughts

As I write this, I am sitting in the Miami Airport, preparing to board and fly to Guatemala. It’s the third time I wait for a flight to Guatemala City Airport, one could joke about how this is becoming routine. Yet, my stomach is tight and I’m a little nervous, leaving Mom and Dad and Mimi is never fun and trading my comfortable life for the utter unknown is slightly intimidating. But I’m excited, and I know the adventures awaiting me in the coming months are going to be as amazing if not more than the ones I encountered in the last 5 months.

About those last 5 months…I’d like to recap for you what I’ve been doing before talking about what I will be doing, as far as I know.

From September 6 to December 8, I traveled with an organization called Where There Be Dragons to Central America. I was in a group with 10 other young people and 3 instructors with deep experience traveling, working and living in the region. We explored Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua while focusing on the roots of rebellion-the roots of uprising in those countries’ historical and modern conflicts. We also studied development and human right issues while deeply immersing ourselves in the culture by having individual Spanish lessons, staying in people’s homes, and talking to many different locals and grassroots organizations. We met and talked to a lot of very inspiring and humble people who have lived through a lot and taken a hold of their destinies, whether that means organizing to fight against government concessions to mining companies, creating a circus school to get kids out of the streets, or planting trees and protesting against the privatization of water sources. This journey was not without bumps (literally, both on land and water) and was filled with unforeseen crazy twists. We each faced personal and physical challenges and were pushed completely out of our comfort zones, whether that entailed sketchy bathroom situations, very large spiders, or awkward silences with host families. This small paragraph does no justice to the depth and greatness of my time in Central America, and this is precisely the reason why I’ve decided to create a blog for this next experience-so you can follow what I do in real time and know what it is really that I’m doing in that random small country called Guatemala.

Moving on in the recap of what I’ve been doing this first half of my gap year, I spent most of December and January visiting family in France and friends in college, and in the beginning of February went to Israel with my wonderful parents. We went for a week as part of a seminar Papa does every year with his synagogue friends. This year’s theme was the ethics of the Israel Defense Force and how the IDF helps shape Israeli society. It was another incredible, inspiring and eye opening experience: in an intense day to day rhythm, we met with many different people ranging from high ranking officials such as the vice prime minister and chief correspondent of the IDF, to author-philosophers and rabbis, to soldiers and commanders, to Druze and Ethiopian families. Views were wide-ranging and allowed us to better understand some important and complex economic, social, political, religious and historical themes and debates Israel grapples with every day. This blog isn’t about Israel so I will develop no further. Perhaps most importantly, the food was amazing, and so we were very sad to leave. And now, 4 days later, here I am flying to Guatemala.

This is my third trip with Where There Be Dragons, they have proven to be an amazing organization that always surpasses my expectations and hopes, and provide me with a lot of support, a great network, unparalleled experiences, and very close friends. This is also my third trip to Guatemala. When I pitched the gap year idea to my dad in the infamous (and very effective) PowerPoint, I had intended to go to Bolivia for this half of my gap year. Unfortunately, I was the only person who applied to the Bolivia Internship program, and so they cancelled it. Alas I was left with 3 options: do the Guatemala Internship, which I was reluctant to do because I have been there twice already, do another program in a different country, or, and this was the option my parents didn’t view as an option, go to Bolivia on my own. I looked into other programs but found none that equaled Dragons, and my parents understandably (and very politely) said no to my request to travel by myself. So, recognizing that I am only 18 years old and have the rest of my life to go to Bolivia and other places, and that I would acquire new skill sets and gain an even more profound experience because of my familiarity with Guatemala, I decided on option 1.

I am going with 2 other girls named Allie Rawson from Brooklyn NY, who was on my trip last semester, and Kate Tynan from Austin TX, and my instructor from last semester Adelaide Nalley from the Bay Area. We are having a few days of orientation at the beautiful Lago Atitlan and then settling in Xela (pronounced Shay-la), the second biggest city of Guatemala, located in the Western highlands of the country, where I will be living with a family and volunteering in 2 different organizations. In the mornings I’ll be working at the Organizacion Municipal de las Mujeres, a women’s rights organization where I will be doing office work and eventually assist in giving workshops on women’s rights and gender equality. In the afternoons I’ll be working at Entremundos, a volunteer coordinator NGO that has a huge database of all the organizations in Xela and places international volunteers in local organizations based on the needs and demands of both parties. Entremundos also has a bilingual publication, which is what I’ll be working on, that focuses on human rights and development issues. I’ll be doing translation, copyediting, grant writing, distribution, and the good part-writing articles and taking pictures. We’ll have sporadic excursions and 2 longer expeditions with the group, and I’m also planning on taking salsa dance classes, so I should be pretty busy. This is what I’m doing as of now, but things could change. 

I’m about to land now, so I’ll end this inaugural post with the promise that I will never post such an obnoxiously long message again. I’ll do my best to update regularly and not be boring. Enjoy! And don’t hesitate to comment J.