Arrival

The trip from England to here in Guatemala was pretty long. But there was lots to keep me entertained. The flight from Heathrow to Texas was the long leg – but with a personal TV, it was all too easy to share time between watching lots of movies, eating, reading and sleeping. I managed to watch 3 movies (Frozen, Amazing Spiderman and Gravity) as well as reading the second Hunger Games book, which I managed to complete during the rest of the journey!

When I arrived in Texas, I made my way through immigration and, surprise surprise, I was stopped and taken to a holding room where a few people were seated waiting to be called in by security. I waited for about 20 minutes before being called into an interview room where the officer asked me where I was going and what for. Once I had told him that I was going for medical volunteering in Guatemala he said, “I’ll try to get you out as soon as I can”. And that was all that they asked – 5 minutes later he called me saying I could go. I went to the chapel to pray and waited 2 hours for the next flight which would take me to Guatemala. Whilst waiting I continued to read and it was near the end of the second flight that I completed the book – which keeps you in suspense for the third part of the trilogy!

I arrived in Guatemala and soon found my bag before heading outside. I initially looked around and couldn’t see the International Volunteer HQ representative, but soon enough I turned and saw him holding up a big yellow smiley face flag. I went with him by car from Guatemala City airport to Antigua where my family house is. The roads themselves were very good until you get to Antigua itself, which has cobbled roads throughout. But I could tell straight away that this town has character – something that I’d come to explore over the next few weeks.

 I arrived to meet 2 others staying at the same house – one from Japan (Hiro) and the other from USA (Nate) – both of whom could speak quite fluent Spanish. They spoke Spanish to each other which is great as it means that I have to learn Spanish! J With the little Spanish that I know, I managed to speak to them in Spanish a little, but, of course, regularly the conversation turned to English to get my meaning across.

It was soon time for bed though as breakfast was to be at 7am the following morning – and I was meant to be at the office for induction by 8am!