Bastante lluvia!

Hola todos! It’s been a little while and here’s why… For three days, rain had been wrecking havoc on my little city and most of Guatemala. That meant a whole lot of quality time with my host fam, drinking coffee, watching telenovelas, and catching up on the latest Ciudad Vieja chisme (gossip). Sunday night was the worst of it. It sounded like freight trains coming through the house. On Monday morning, I received a call that I needed to pack a bag and prepare to be evacuated within an hour. This was distressing and confusing news to deliver to my host family. I was being taken to a safer place with shelter, water, electricity, and food. The privilege of being an American, Peace Corps volunteer was thrown in my face.

I stood in the kitchen, hugged my host mom for thirty seconds longer than usual, and told her I would call the moment I could to check in to see how they were fairing. The feeling of guilt and sadness clung to my soaked clothes as I hopped into a government jeep with four other volunteers. None of us really understood why were being evacuated, but since we didn’t have much access to news, we had to put our confianza (trust) in Peace Corps. We knew they would only be acting in our best interest.

Once we arrived at our “consolidation point”, a hotel near Antigua and the Peace Corps office, the country director and other staff greeted us. We were told it would likely be four days before we could return to our host families. We learned that the highest risk for landslides is actually the days after the rain stops. When the sun comes out, it dries the top layer of the soil, leaving the lower layers of soil loose and fragile, and when this layer shifts, it can create massive landslides. Earlier this month, a landslide in El Cambray (about 2 hours from where I live) killed 130 people and 300 are still missing. The country director and staff explained to us that if things were to get serious, our host families did not need to have the extra stress of making sure we were safe, but instead needed to be prioritizing their own family’s needs/safety. The last thing I would want is for Doña Aura and Don Rodolfo to have to worry about taking care of me during an emergency. For this reason, I was a bit more at ease leaving them behind until the weather conditions got better.

During our consolidation, we spent a lot of our time making the best of the situation. We shared stories about our hopes and fears for our future service, playing card games, watching movies, and speaking ENGLISH! Each day, we walked to the Peace Corps office for medical, technical, and safety sessions and hoped to receive news that we would be returning to our families. On Thursday, we were told we would be going back to our families that evening! I couldn’t wait to be back in the kitchen with Dona Aura and sleeping in my own bed under my mosquitero (mosquito net). Even a dinner of frijoles and tortillas couldn’t bring me down!

As hard and upsetting as it was to leave our families, PC Guatemala did an incredible job of keeping us safe and informed. It’s a really reassuring feeling that in the face of serious danger, Peace Corps will do whatever is needed to keep us safe. However, the privilege that comes with being a volunteer and an American here in Guatemala, is definitely something I will continue to grapple with. I know that no matter how bad things get here, I have a way out, a home, and family to return to in the United States. And for this reality, I am so fortunate and humbled.