3 Days Out....The Last Post About Expectations

Since the last post accidentally turned into a blues cruise, I thought I'd intentionally pivot and talk about what I'm excited about. I am not excited that I just ended a sentence with a preposition, but I digress.

First, I was fortunate to meet Scott Garrison, who runs both Ceiba and Buena Onda, and he asked me to run the social media programs for both organizations. The companies are the same generally in that they both focus on volunteerism, but with different groups.

Ceiba works with students who want to come to Guatemala and complete a service project, whether it is for the summer, spring break or a semester.

Ceiba sets up projects and provides room and board with the other students with the goal of developing global citizens. Check out the video. The intent here is not to recruit your kids, but if they'd like to check it out, let me know.

Buena Onda, on the other hand, works with adult professionals. For example, Buena Onda just placed a physician at one of the villages on Lake Atitlan to work with people on dietary needs, especially as it relates to diabetes.You can check out his blog here. 

So that's the main thing that I will be doing. I hope to meet some more people and maybe expand into working with other organizations. But this is a good start, I think.  I'm also going to enroll in Spanish classes, because apparently 9th grade Spanish and 3 years of French aren't sufficient to get around in Guatemala. Fortunately, the classes are incredibly cheap. My plan to to do four hours a day for three months and see where I stand. Hopefully, that will be enough to become relatively fluent.

So the last time I was down, I found a place to live. Really, I found Steve a place to live. I would have liked to have been a little closer to town, but it's still only about 8 blocks to the central park in the middle of town and it has great green space for Steve to play. It looks like this. It's really not as big as it looks. Once you walk in, there's a giant courtyard with apartments around it. There's also a rooftop terrace for views of the volcanoes.

Sorry for the awful light, but I rented it late in the day and that's the best I could do. Also, finding a place that allows pets is a pain in the ass. While it's a decent walk into town, it is only a couple of blocks from Caoba Farms, the local farmer's market/eco-restaurant whatnot, which seems like a really cool place to hang out. And cabs will take you anywhere in town for about $2 USD. I still haven't decided whether I'm going to get a car or a scooter or what, but I can't see myself walking everywhere all the time.

Let's see. Activities. Beyond work and school, the next challenge is watching American sports. Thankfully, baseball is in the 21st Century, so I can watch the Cubs on the mlbtv from anywhere in the world.  Internet connections are as good if not better in Guatemala than at my house in Orange Beach. Actually, it's much better, so in theory watching the Tide and the Saints shouldn't be a problem. But the issue is access. Alot of apps don't allow international access, so I may be using pirate sites. Otherwise, there's always Monoloco, a bar that caters to gringo types. They have all the HDTV big screen amenities. But I'd rather not schlep to a bar for every game, so I hope I can find a way to do it from home.

Today is Sunday, and I'm driving to Houston on Wednesday to fly out Thursday morning. So this will be my last post on what I expect, the next one will be coming to you live from Antigua, Guatemala. But expectations are what they are and reality will likely be incredibly different. But either way, I'm looking forward to it.