I promised to keep y'all up to date and I miserably failed. I will now have to recount the events of two weeks ago so I apologize if I don't give as much detail as I might have if I had been recounting the day at the end of it.
Let's start with Monday:
Let's start with Monday:
Monday May 19th
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DALLAS
I drove to Dallas and spent the night so I could be at the airport by 330am the next morning. Well, I thought I would be in bed at a decent hour but I ended up spending a lot of the night translating interview questions. I am soooooo glad I did that before I left. Thank God for my mother who is fluent. :) I ended up hitting the hay at 1am and rising at 3am.
Tuesday May 20th
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IT'S TIME
I was the first one in line to check in for my flight. Felt good to have my passport back in my hand and ready to present for my international adventure. I then went through security and all that jazz. Made my way to my gate and waited. The first flight out of Dallas to Florida was rough because of how tired I was and how uncomfortable the seat was. I slept most of the way.
FLORIDA
Turned my phone on and the first thing I did was text Alli to see where I could meet her. The moment we saw each other we shrieked with excitement and hugged not fully believing that the day had actually arrived. We grabbed a bit of lunch and took it back to our gate only to be boarding in the next 5 minutes for our flight to Guatemala. On board the plane I ended up having the whole row to myself so Alli joined me. We didn't sleep that ride at all. Come to find out she hadn't slept that night either. We chatted with some other young adults behind us who were traveling for leisure and traveling for work. One of the things I noticed as we flew over Guatemala is the different social class housing. You could tell where the wealthy and the poor lived pretty easily. The mountains though...beautiful! & they only got better as we got back down on the ground.
GUATEMALA!!!
So we got off the plane and made our way to immigration and then to get our bags. I forgot how much you need to use the immigration form and your passport and plane ticket and baggage stub. We ended up juggling trying to carry bags and take those forms out over and over. Note to self for the future international travels: Leave all the documents out and handy. So we went through customs and had the all clear! Phew! Met with one of the ladies from LegalShield named Karen and made our way to find Estuardo (husband of a different Karen, the lady who started the orphanage). The moment we stepped out onto the concrete it hit me...nostalgia. I knew that scent very well and all the sudden my heart ached for Costa Rica. For those who don't know, I spent a little of my summer in Costa Rica two years ago working with trafficked victims and prostitutes and children at risk. So we got in the new Girls Hogar van and made our way to get some lunch (pizza hut ~ 'mericuh). I spent most of the van ride pretty silent. I was taking in the surroundings and kinda still trying to bring myself to reality. I was flooded with flashback visions of costa rica and seeing some of the similarities and some differences. Alli noticed and asked if I was alright but I simply said I was taking it all in and left it at that. I'm glad I didn't just let the moment pass by without grasping it, I have such vivid memories of what it all looked like and felt like for the beginning of that weeks adventure.
MORE TO COME...
