As I get ready to return to the states after 4+ months in Guatemala, I have been rehearsing my answers to the questions I expect to hear numerous times. Today, however, I realized how much my reality has changed by being here.
Here are a few examples:
* My security fee at my house is more than my electric biil or my cable/internet/phone bill
* Every time I go visit a friend, I have to check in at the guard gate with my id
* Every time I enter a shopping center, I have to get a ticket or a card so that when you leave, you have the same card and the car is supposedly not stolen
* My mind immediately divides by 8 to see what it would cost in US $$$
* I see guns everywhere, since every guard carries one
* Stop signs are treated more like yield signs
* I sometimes don't notice if the radio is in English or Spanish
* I could buy flowers, nuts, and fruit, from my car, while waiting for the light to turn green
This all came to me the other day when I was having dinner at a local restaurant. The guards came in for the cash drop and 3 of the guards had, what looked to be, double barrel shot guns. I know very little about guns so I really don't know what kind they were, but I just went back to eating. I didn't even think twice about it.
Reality can change based on a lot of things, but I certainly say that location can make things change the faster. Its safe to say that that is why I am here. I was ready for a change and here it is. It seems so second nature though, in such a short time. I wonder if anything back home will strike me as weird, after being away.
It totally will feel weird to be home. I was only in Mexico for three months and I had so many things to adjust to, like all of the white people, the difference in the weather, the over consumption of everything. I think the last one got to me the most. We have so much and so many of us take it for granted. Keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteWHOA cool, Sis! Counting the days! Say when & where!
ReplyDelete