Blessed...

Often times I have a day where I look around and realize how blessed I am. Today was one of those days. And always since I use this blog as my personal journal as well as a way to keep loved ones updated I thought I would share why today I realized once again how blessed I am.

For those hoping to see fun picks from my trip to Rio Dulce check back probably tomorrow. Here is a sneak preview... I jumped off a 40 foot waterfall into natural hot springs! And I didn't break anything! :)

Back to why today was a great day. Today I was just really reminded of what an amazing community I have been accepted into down here. One of my biggest worries moving down here was that I would be lonely. Back home I was constantly surrounded by loved ones. I lived with my grandfather who would hug me everyday. Then I would go to work where youth would hug me everyday. Then when I got home I would either hang out with friends or other family who (yep you guessed it) would do some hugging. Even if it was a quiet night at home I would probably be doing some snuggling with my pup and cat while watching stupid TV (which is probably one of the things I am most embarrassed about missing). I was used to everyday being shown that I was loved and honestly I was worried about loosing that down here. However, today I was reminded that after only about 5 months in country I feel loved by those around me. Here are some special moments I had today.

First up this morning I had a Spanish lesson over Skype with Silvia from Guatemala Tours. The owner Hembert offered me free Skype Spanish lessons which I am taking advantage of. All the other volunteers are amazed that he offered them for free. Apparently that is a very unGuatemalan (should be a word) thing to do. It is amazing to me that this company that we partner with a lot cares that much that I learn Spanish because they know it will make my life easier down here. I am very grateful to have made that connection and have been given that offer.

Next, I talked to my friend Archy on the phone. I have probably blogged about my friendship with Archy before, but he is one of the driver/translators with Guatemala Tours that we work with a lot at Salud y Paz. I worked with him several times last Spring and he became a great friend. He would always be so patient with me with all my stupid questions I would ask and really went out of his way to help me understand both how to be better at my job and how to relate to the Guatemalan culture better. His younger son has a milk allergy which causes him to have to drink this special formula that is crazy expensive and can only be bought in the States. He has never asked me for help with purchasing it, but I felt called to help my friend out and have been blessed to have different family members donate money to bring down many cases of formula for him. When my family was here last March Archy came and hung out with them for about an hour and brought gifts for them for bringing down the formula. Both him and his wife Jacky have always had such kind words for my family and towards me.

Anyways, all that being said this is why I felt blessed today. I have been thinking about going to Xela (2nd biggest city in Guatemala) to attend Spanish School. I really feel like I need to get out of my comfort zone (Pana) to be fully immersed. I told Archy of my plan when I worked with him on a team a couple of weeks ago and he offered for me to come stay with his family for a month (or really as long as I could get away from work for). I kind of laughed like yeah right when he offered, but this morning on the phone we talked it through and now I know that I am officially going to go for the month of November and live with his family in Xela. Everyone down here has told me that being invited to someones house here in the Guatemalan culture isn't the same as back in the States. It means a lot to be invited into someones home and I feel extremely blessed that Archy and Jacky have invited me to live with them for a month. Archy also keeps telling me that I won't have to pay for anything while I'm there to which I keep telling him we will have to talk about that later which just makes him laugh. No way would I move in for a month and not help pay for anything, but again blessed that that is the offer they are giving me. The plan is for me to both attend Spanish School in Xela and for me to use their home as a home stay. Also Jacky is going to help teach me on the days that I don't attend classes. They both have to go into Guatemala Tours in the mornings, so during that time I think I can do a lesson with Silvia who is doing my Skype lessons now. I feel really blessed to have Archy as a friend and to have this amazing offer to live in their home for a whole month. Hopefully everything will work out with work to allow this to happen. I think not only will it help me tremendously with my Spanish, but it will also give me the opportunity to learn about another community. Also think about how much I will learn about the Guatemalan culture by living with a Guatemalan family for a month.

Next, I walked to town to meet up with the girls at the coffee shop. When I walked into the coffee shop I was welcomed with warm smiles like I always am. Crossroads Cafe is by far my favorite place in Pana. I love that everyday I go there I am met with smiles, hugs, and great conversations. When the girls arrived they ran inside and gave me huge hugs. I think I mentioned once back in Spring that I missed hugging people everyday, so now every time I see Kaisa and Lungi they greet me with giant hugs. I know I have talked about it before, but I love this family so very much. The girls asked me about my trip to Rio Dulce and shared with me about their trip to the beach. Again I got sad that I had to make a decision to go to the lake with the other volunteers and not to the beach with them. However, then the more I thought about it I realized what a great problem that is to have. I had been so upset that both of the trips were on the same weekend and that I had to make a decision, but really how cool is it that 2 different groups invited me to join their vacations. I even talked to them about going to a water park on the coast before Kaisa leaves in November. Again blessed moment.

I really feel blessed to have made all the connections I have here in my short amount of time here. Sometimes it seems like I have been down here for so long and haven't achieved everything I'm wanted to, but then other times I am amazed with the friendships I have been able to establish in just 5 months in country. There are days where I break down and really miss my family and life back in the States. Then I open my eyes and look around me and realize that I have an amazing community around me down here also. Both my life and community down here is completely different than back in the States, but I love it just as much.

Speaking of my community back in the States I miss them like crazy, but again today I was reminded how even though I am far away people back home are still keeping up with me. When I logged on to write this blog I went into the settings to try to change something and ended up checking out the statistics page on my blog. It has been awhile since I looked at it and I couldn't help but smiling. My overall views of my blog is at 4,264 (great job folks!). It is such a blessing to me to know that people from back home are keeping up with my mission down here through my blog. As I said in the beginning of this blog I use it as a personal journal and sometimes forget that other people read it. It was funny this summer running into random people and everyone telling me that they read my blog. Sometimes I would go back and reread the last few just to remember what all I wrote about. I have also had team members tell me that they read my blog, so I guess I need to always be careful about what I write on here. :)

This also made me laugh. Here is the breakdown per country of who reads my blog.

Entry	Pageviews
United States	3466
Guatemala	271
Russia	235
United Kingdom	48
Germany	30
Tanzania	17
Canada	16
France	15
Czech Republic	14
Australia	10

Ok... So I know that I have loved ones in the States and that a few of my friends down here in Guatemala tell me they have read this. I have a friend in Tanzania who I know sometimes reads my blog, but other than that who the heck are all these other people reading this? I mean seriously 235 people in Russia? What the heck?! Who knew I was such a big deal in Russia?? :)

Anyways, all this being said that I had a great day today being reminded that not only do I have a really strong support group back home (and apparently in Russia), but that I also have an amazing community around me down here in Guatemala. It makes me excited to think about how these current relationships are going to grown this year and how I will hopefully form others that will develop to be just as strong. I know I am a lucky girl and it is fun to be reminded of that sometimes.

But seriously if you are one of my Russia followers (and apparently there are lots of you... I'm kind of a big deal over there) know that I have always wanted to be a Russian celebrity, so thanks for making that dream come true. :)

Tikal Trip.

If you read my last blog then you remember that I talked about going on a couple of trips this week. I got home last night from my trip to Tikal and are leaving in the morning for the trip to Rio Dulce. Here is a recap of the last few days.

The group that I traveled to Tikal with arrived in Pana Thursday night. On Friday we went up to Camanchaj, so they could check out the clinic and school. The kids at the school were putting on a performance for their parents for Guatemala's Independence Day. It is on September 15th, but apparently it is a month long celebration. It was the perfect day for the group to experience the school kids. Each class put on a performance for the group. They were beyond precious and reminded me of how lucky I am to get to play with them every week.

We hung out in Pana until we left on Sunday for Tikal. On Friday after they visited Salud y Paz Carol Ann, Scott, and I took 2 chicken buses back to Pana for lunch. We then took 2 pick up trucks over to both Santa Catarina and San Antonio Polopo for the afternoon. That was one of my favorite moments of the trip. It was pouring down rain when we were on the pick up trucks over to the other villages. When we arrived in San Antonio an indigenous lady came up to us and told us that at her house they sold the pottery that the village is known for for cheaper than at the factory. We ended up following her to her house and Scott and Carol Ann actually got pretty good deals on their buys. When we got back to the center of town where we were going to catch a pick up back to the next village Carol Ann looked in her backpack and found that the bananas that we had bought back in Pana had crushed everywhere. While in Pana we went to the store and found bananas that had 2 bananas in one peel. We had never seen them before, so we decided to buy them. Then when we were in the pick up truck it was so crowded that Scott had to hang off the back, I had to sit on the tailgate, and Carol sat on the floor on top of her backpack with the bananas. They had crushed everywhere all over everything in her bag. This story is only hilarious (however, it may be an you had to be there story) because when we were cleaning her bag which meant she was cleaning and yelling at me that it wasn't funny because I was laying on the floor laughing the 2 indigenous women who were trying to sell us things were also laughing at us while explaining to us that if we ate the double bananas we would have twins. Then one of the ladies kept tickling me and thought it was hilarious that we were all laughing so hard. Again maybe this was a you had to be there story, but I wanted to remember that moment of just pure laughter and again a reminder that laughter is the same in any language.

On Sunday we took a shuttle to Guatemala City then an overnight bus to Flores. The bus could have been way worst, but it wasn't the best. It was freezing cold and I always have issues sleeping on buses. Scott and I were sharing a seat and I actually ended up moving to the floor to sleep which gave him the seat to lay down on. We kept waking up at the same time and would just complain about how we couldn't sleep then try to fall back asleep. When we arrived in Flores our hotel picked us up and after waiting at the airport for awhile for another dude we traveled into the Tikal Park. Our hotel was one of only 2 that are in the park. Tikal is one of the largest and most popular Mayan archaeological site in the world. It is the place where everyone I have met down here has told me I have to go to. When we got to the hotel we went on the archaeological tour which toured around about half the park. Here we are on top of the first temple that we climbed up.

Next up we hiked up to Temple 4 which is the tallest one in Tikal. The second day we were there we did the sunrise tour which left from the hotel at 3:45 in the morning. We hiked to this same temple again and climbed it in the dark. Then we sat there listening to the animals of the jungle and eventually watching the sunrise. Listening to the animals was my favorite part. The guide kept saying the loud sounds I was hearing were monkeys waking up, but I promise it was a hippo and dinosaur fighting. We also could hear the different birds. Such a cool moment. The next couple of pictures are from when we hiked Temple 4 during the day.

On the way down from the Temple we stopped to take a picture. This is Carol Ann. She used to live in Guatemala and is now serving at the same organization as Scott in Costa Rica. Simply put she is amazing. She is thinking about moving back to Guatemala and if she does I know we will be great friends. She even offered for me to come and stay with her in Costa Rica next month. Both her and Scott are moving back to the States in November, so if I want to go visit them I will have to do it next month. I am seriously thinking about it because if I stay with them it will obviously be cheaper than if I go and have to stay in hotels. Also with them I will see more local Costa Rica. I need to look at my savings and see if I can afford that trip. I would love to visit all the Central America countries while I am living down here, but we'll have to see if I can afford that. We'll see.

These are mapaches. They have them at the Reserva in Pana also. Actually one day Scott and I did the hike throughout the Reserva before we came to Tikal and there was a mapache that jumped up on the railing and got too close to us. I ran away scared which just made Scott laugh. I have gone to the Reserva so many times and I have never seen one get so close.

The very loud monkeys. Seriously when they yell it makes you look around for dinosaurs.

Cool huge spider we found on one of the paths.

A cooler even bigger spider we later found walking back to our hotel. Know that these were cool to me because they were outside. I would have freaked out if they were in our hotel room. 

This is the most famous temple in Tikal. It is located in the Grand Plaza. When you see t-shirts or anything else advertising Tikal this is the temple that is featured. 

 One of the sides of the Grand Plaza.

We tried several times to get the top of the temple in this picture, but it never worked. Scott and I met at the VIM training last October. That weekend we had several real conversations and the past few days were no different. I am still going through a transition period being here filled with many insecurities and I couldn't have asked for a better person to talk about it all with. We had so many long conversations and I feel like I know more about him than some of the friends I have known for years. He is now in a transition period himself because in the next couple of months he is going to leave Costa Rica an move back to the States. I'm really excited to see what amazing thing he will do next.

No idea who this stone Mayan dude is, but I thought he was pretty neat.

After our first tour we walked back to our hotel and all jumped in the pool wearing our clothes. It was so incredibly hot at Tikal with no breeze. We chilled at the hotel for a few hours then went back into the park by ourselves. We didn't want to pay for the sunset tour, so we just went in alone and did it ourselves. This was my favorite time in Tikal. When we did the tours our guides would just tell us about the temples then we would move on. We never got to explore them because there were always signs saying no climbing which obviously the guides wouldn't let us break. However, when we went out on our own we didn't follow the suggested no enter signs and climbed all over the temples we hiked to. It was so much fun hiking to the top of them and finding ways to crawl across the sides to jump to the next one. Several of the ruins we would walk into them and bats or birds (I could never tell) would fly out. I absolutely loved going out on our own way more than being guided through the park.

We ended up at the Grand Plaza again in time for sunset. We climbed to the highest point of the plaza and watched for awhile. The magnitude of what I was seeing around me was really overwhelming.

This was the other side of the Grand Plaza during sunset. So very beautiful.

After awhile I left the group and climbed on top of another one by myself and sat there watching the sunset and just thinking about being there. We had been talking about my job at the church earlier that day and I kept thinking about missing everyone back home and wondering if I made the right decision. Then sitting there watching the sunset and looking around me I was again reminded that I did. I am experiencing so many amazing things down here which I wouldn't have the opportunity to if I didn't come. It was good to be reminded of that again.

The next morning we did the sunrise tour and after we watched it from Temple 4 we hiked around the rest of the park. I really like this picture of our guide with one of the temples he was telling us about.

After the tour we headed back to the hotel and napped for a couple more hours. Then we had to be out of our rooms by 11:00. However, the shuttle didn't leave for Flores until 2:30, so we all just laid on the couches in the lobby watching TV. The hotel only had electricity for certain hours of the day and during this time there was only electricity in the lobby. They put in documentaries for us to watch. The first one was about other Mayan sites around the world then the next 3 were about the world ending in 2012. Not going to lie I absolutely don't believe that the world will end on December 21st, but it was kind of scary watching those documentaries. Did you know that the Chinese predicted the same date thousands of years ago? Just saying. Let's just hope all the (hopefully made up) scientific proof behind it that these documentaries were referencing are all wrong. After eating lunch laying on the couches like classic Americans we drove back into Flores. We arrived around 3:30 and wasn't getting picked up for the overnight bus back to Guatemala City until 9:00, so we just walked around the town. We ended up taking a boat tour around the island for about an hour.

Who knew Flores was an island?

If you've ever met me you're not going to be surprised by this, but I twisted my foot on the last day of Tikal. I have no idea what I did to it, but it is still pretty swollen and tender. Somehow I hurt the bone on top of my foot. Who knows. As long as I took plenty of Advil I was still ok walking on it. Let's hope it heals itself in the next few days and I don't have to figure out how to deal with this down here in Guatemala.

The overnight bus from Flores to Guatemala City was I think better than the first one. It was a double decker bus, and Scott and I sat in the front seat on the 2nd level. This way we could prop up our feet and look out the huge window which went across the entire front of the bus. It took us awhile to fall asleep, so it was fun to just watch the traffic on the roads. Once we made it to Guatemala City we then took a shuttle to Antigua. I stayed there with them for a few hours walking around town then I caught a shuttle back to Pana at 12:30. Before I left we went to breakfast at a cafe on the main square then walked around the Santo Domingo Hotel which is where if you keep up with my blog my cousin Ashley and I planned out a wedding for my brother last Spring. Such fun memories at that hotel. The next picture makes me laugh because it looks like Scott is Carol Ann and my kid.

I was so exhausted when I left Antigua that I actually fell asleep in the front seat of the shuttle going home. The driver woke me up when we got into Pana and asked where I lived. When I got home around 4:00  I fell asleep on the couch and actually didn't wake up until 9:30 when I moved to my bed. The next morning Heather told me that she came home around 7:00 and actually cooked dinner then spent a couple of hours out in the living room before going to sleep. I must have been way out of it to not wake up during that time. Today I walked to town and went shopping for snacks for my trip tomorrow with Lungi. Then I helped cook lunch with the girls and ate upstairs at the coffee shop. This afternoon I "helped" roast coffee and worked behind the counter getting random coffee orders ready. It was good to be back and spend the day hanging out with friends. Right now I am going to finish packing then head to bed since we are leaving around 6:00 tomorrow morning. It takes 9 hours to drive to Rio Dulce, so we should get there around 4:00. Hopefully this trip will be as fun as the Tikal trip. I really love that since starting January I will have a team in almost every week I am taking this slower time as an opportunity to travel and really get to know more of Guatemala. Hopefully next week when I get home I'll write another blog about how Rio Dulce was an amazing trip also.

Rainy Season is among us...

Oh rainy season... It has been raining a lot since I've returned to Guatemala. Here the rainy season is from around May to around October. Apparently when I was gone they didn't get a lot of rain this season, but since I've been back Hurricane Ernesto is hitting us. Usually it is really clear and beautiful in the mornings then by afternoon it is pouring. Some days it doesn't rain at all and some days it is a monsoon all day. There is no way to tell. I have just gotten used to carrying around my rain jacket everywhere I go. It really hasn't affected anything I have tried to do down here since I've been back. I just put on my rain jacket and my rain boots (which are maybe my favorite thing that I own down here) and walk to town.

On Monday this week we drove up to Camanchaj and noticed some rocks had fallen onto the road from the cliffs above since it had rained a lot the night before. Then when we were driving home the roads were flooded. At certain parts it was like driving through a river. It made me nervous that we were going to slide on the roads going home.

On the way home we passed several cars that were stuck (yes I was that tacky American who rolled down my window and took a picture) and one truck which has slid and flipped over. I really don't like driving during the rainy season especially on the cliff roads that we have to drive on to get down from Camanchaj to Pana.

Yesterday driving up to the clinic we got stopped driving up the cliff close to this waterfall. There were small mudslides from the cliffs above which caused huge rocks to fall onto the road. We had to wait for two tractors to clear the road before we could pass through. It rained hard the night before, but really I would have thought it would take more rain to cause that many rocks to fall down. I have been told that in the past rainy seasons there have been a lot of mudslides that have killed hundreds of people and wiped out whole villages. I am praying that since this has apparently been a softer rainy season so far that won't be a problem this year.

On the drive home on Tuesday the waterfall was so large it was coming out onto the road. The other volunteers have told me that in the past the waterfall has completely covered the road and that they have had to drive through it. Heather says that they just pull over, pray, then drive through. Let's again hope it doesn't get that big again this year.

On a happier note I am about to start 2 weeks of traveling. A guy I met at the VIM training I had to go to last October is coming to Guatemala with 2 other friends and we are going to go to Tikal next week. They are going to come to Pana tomorrow then after spending a few days here we will leave on Sunday to go to Tikal which is the most popular Mayan site in Guatemala. After Tikal we will go to Antigua for a day. Then when the group leaves to fly back to Costa Rica I will return home to Pana for a day then leave with the other volunteers at Salud y Paz to go to Rio Dulce which is located on the biggest lake in Guatemala. It is about a 9 hour drive to and from and we will spend a total of 5 days on the trip. It will take a day to drive there and back, so really we will just have 3 days at the lake to explore. I am really excited about both going to 2 "must see" tourist destinations in Guatemala and also to have these trips to bond with friends. I will have to dip into my savings a bit, but I told myself that if trip opportunities came up while I was here I would always take them. Also work will be pretty slow this Fall, but once the new year starts I have back to back teams for months it seems like. I need to take these opportunities now while I can. I don't want to look back on my time here and think about all the things I missed out on because I didn't want to spend the money. Plus at the lake my hotel room is $14 a night. Gotta love cheap hostel bungalows are here in Guatemala. :) Get excited because once I get back from the trips my blogs should get more exciting with more beautiful pictures.

Dunwoody UMC...

So the week is over, the team has returned home, and I made it through! I had such an amazing week with the team from Dunwoody UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. I really don't think I could have asked for a better team to start with. I was really nervous about hosting my first team, but we had an amazing week full of laughter, real conversations, and serving together. Here is a little recap of our beautiful week.

The team flew in on Saturday and since Jose and I were both with the team I let him go to Guatemala City and pick up the team then I was at the hotel when they arrived. I got to the hotel about 20 minutes before the team arrived and called my mom freaking out about how nervous I was. As the bus pulled up I was beyond scared about how the week was going to go and how I was going to handle everything. However, once I started meeting the team I was put at ease. They all got off the bus smiling and joyful to be in Guatemala. After I passed out keys and the team "moved in" we met for a little welcome meeting. If you have ever met me you know that when I have to talk in front of groups I get ridiculously nervous and talk incredibly fast. On a completely side note at the end of the trip the team passed out "paper plate" awards and mine was for the fastest talker. :) They joked with me all week about talking fast. Hopefully the more I work with teams the calmer I'll be when I have to do the welcome meeting.

On Sunday we went across the lake in a private boat to the town Santiago Atitlan. The team spend a few hours walking around the town doing their souvenir shopping. Since I have pretty much bought all the Guatemalan souvenirs that I need I helped the team bargain for better prices. After awhile I walked to the church downtown and discovered that they were having some kind of huge worship service in the square. I have been to this church several times on a Sunday with teams, but I have never seen the outside service before. There were hundreds of people there and I really wish I could have understood what the priest was saying to know why it was a special day. After returning to our side of the lake we spent the rest of the day hanging out in Pana.

The team was split into 2 groups this week. One group went to our clinic in Camanchaj everyday and worked construction. We are in the process of building a second floor onto one of our buildings to be able to expand our dental clinic. Jose hosted this group while I hosted the dental team. The 2 groups were separated during the day, but spent the rest of the time together in Pana. My group went to a different community everyday to set up a rural dental clinic. There were 2 dentists on the team who did extractions for the patients in the communities. I loved my team. It seemed like everyday something would go wrong and they actually had to remind me that I shouldn't freak out. I would apologize for whatever the issue was and they would be completely fine with it. Seriously, whether it be the dental machine not working or the lack of patients because of a funeral in the small village they would just smile and say "no worries". I appreciated their flexibility and hard work greatly.

This picture makes me smile, so I thought I would share the story with you. On our first day we were set up in a community center in Nahuala. I was sitting at the check out desk and looked up to see that an indigenous women was playing with the flashlight that the dentists used to triage the patients. Both her friend and her were laughing so loudly as they played dentist. I walked over to where we kept all the dental instruments and got a mouth mirror and handed it to the woman to use. She thought that was the greatest thing and they both continued to laugh until they were called back into the dental chairs. I know I write about this a lot, but I truly believe that laughter is the universal language. Neither of them spoke Spanish let alone English, but still we had this beautiful moment filled with laughter. 

On Tuesday we went to the public school in Pahaj. The Free to Smile Dental Team that was here a couple of weeks ago had treated about half of the children in the school. The 2 dentists, Nelson and Bill, somehow got through the other half of the children with half the dentists the last team had. I have no idea how they did it, but they saw all the kids that needed treatment. In this picture Nelson is doing an extraction on one of the school kids.

Also at the dental clinics a group of team members put on a VBS for the children. They took and printed pictures of all the children, did a presentation about dental and other hygiene, and then had the kids color a booklet they had put together. On this day they did VBS for more than 200 kids. Here are Sandy and Peggy doing the dental demonstration with Archy translating.

On Wednesday we partnered with Mayan Families and went to the village El Barranco. The night before someone in the community died, so we didn't have many patients because they were at the funeral. We saw patients in the morning then packed up before lunch and headed to Camanchaj to join the construction team for the rest of the day. The little girl in the picture below got 6 extractions. When she was done her mom had to see the dentist, so I held her until her mom was done. She wouldn't stop crying (6 extractions!), so to calm her down we played Angry Birds and Talking Tom on my IPod Touch. I know that sounds odd, but looking at the IPod was the only thing that seemed to distract her from the pain. I did have a hilarious moment when a team member walked into the room and looked at me and just started laughing.

This was the set up for that day. It always amazes me when we walk into a random room and within minutes are able to move things around and set up a full functioning dental clinic. I did finally learn this week how to put together the portable cardboard dental chairs. Seriously, they are much more complicated than they look.

This week I had an amazing team of translators and drivers to work with. I really love these guys. They are really protective of me and spent the week answering all of my stupid questions. When anything would go wrong they were the ones to help me come up with a new plan. I really loved all the moments when I would pull one of them aside when an issue came up and I wanted to fix it before the team found out. So many times something would happen and I would be brainstorming of how to fix it and they would just look at me and laugh. They would then explain to me that we were in Guatemala and that there was nothing I could do to fix it. Then they would just smile and pretend to play along when I still tried to fix things and once I finally gave up they would just give me a hug and promise everything was going to be ok. It is comforting to me to know that when I'm working with teams I will have a great group of them around me to help out. They make my job easier and I'm blessed to have the friendships with them that I do. 

This picture I just stole from Facebook. This is Linda who was one of the team member I got the closest to. Her and I had a week full of true conversations that I loved. I feel like within a week I really got to know her and really shared deep things about myself. She also is pretty sarcastic like I am, so there was also a lot of laughter. 

All the team members this week were amazing. I really feel like I got to know about each of their lives back home. At the end of the week several of them asked for my email so we could keep in touch. One couple (Peggy and Richard) told me that they have adoptive daughters all over the world and I could be their Guatemalan daughter. They also asked me if it was ok that they were treating me like one of their daughters. I laughed and explained that I miss my family a lot and it was really sweet for them to be acting like parents to me. So many of the team members told me that they were sure I was in the right place and that they believed I was going to do great as the team coordinator. They even donated to me to help me stay here longer. I can't even begin to explain how much it meant to me that they would come together as a group and donate to my mission down here.

On their last morning in Pana I read to them the Starfish Story and thanked them for coming down to serve through Salud y Paz. I then thanked them for an amazing week filled with such kind words about me. I explained that before the week started I was still unsure that I had made the right decision quitting my job and moving down here. However, after working with them this week I now have more confidence that this is exactly where I am suppose to be. I started crying (duh) and when I was done talking and looked around I noticed that most of the team were crying as well. This team will always have a very special place in my heart. They spent the week complimenting me and saying how great I was doing, but in reality they did so much more for me than I could have every done for them. I can't imagine not being here next year when they come back. I know it isn't possible, but let's just hope all teams are this wonderful.