Greetings everyone from the comfort of my own bed! I am back in North America 6 days earlier than expected. While on my service project in Guatemala, I fell off the monkey bars (yes you read it correctly, the monkey bars) and rolled my ankle really bad. My ankle swelled up so fast it looked like I had an apple attached to it. In one of the pictures you can see my ankle. I went to a hospital in Guatemala City to get x-rays, they said I needed surgery but I would not be able to leave the hospital for a few days after and our program is heading to Miami today, so I would have missed that. I did this on Saturday and flew home on Sunday.
Needless to say, I am feeling a mixture of emotions as I am back home. I am so sad to have left my friends at LASP so early, I am in pain because of my ankle, I miss Latin America a lot but yet I am very happy to be living in North America where the air is so much fresher and life is a bit safer. So I am going through this time processing what I have learned and how to function with a casted leg.
I have never had a cast or crutches in my life so I am kinda wabbley and need help doing everything.
But before all this happened I had a wonderful time in Guatemala. It was hard leaving my family in Costa Rica, but I have emails and home addresses to write all of them. When we arrived in Guatemala we stayed at a Christian Theological seminary. We had charlas (seminars) with the party leader for Rigoberta Menchu's party. She is currently in third place for president of Guatemala. She is indigenous and 85% of the country is like her, but during my service project I talked to many non-indigenous and they said they would not vote for her because she does not represent the whole country.
My service project was at a NGO called Patronato Pro Nutricional Infantil. They weigh and measure kids under 6 years old, monitoring their growth and weight. They also provide lessons to mothers about nutrition and health. During our time there we made galletas (cookies) that are vitamin and fat packed. They actually taste pretty good and we made over a thousand of these galletas. In one of the photos you can see me pounding out the rounds.
These past four months have been truly amazing and I will always think of it as my best semester. I encourage everyone to study abroad if you still have time to do it. I enjoyed being in Latin America and not being labeled a tourist. I felt that being a student in someone else's country humbled me because I was there to understand and learn what realities Latin American's are faced with.
One of the other pictures is of me and my sisters in Costa Rica on my last night at the house. I love those girls so much.
This will be my last letter to you all. Thanks for reading and sending notes back to me. Feel free to ask me questions about what I experienced. I have over 600 photos and I would love to show all of them to you. Thanks again for allowing me to share these four months with you! Have a great week!!!
--- Clara
No comments:
Post a Comment