My 16th and final entry....I'm coming home!!

It’s gonna be strange getting up in the mornings and not checking my shoes for scorpions.
Not being woken up each day at 6am by the strange but beautiful howl of the baby cockerel learning how to crow.
I’ll miss my easy and wonderful 5 minute commute to work through the bumpy and uneven cobbled town to the busy market.







'Some not so busy'

Where I pass, Juanita and Katrina the bread ladies, Juan the nut seller, Brenda the juice girl and Maurice the builder who is always resting on his front step.
He greets me in English now as we have been practicing together daily and watching the world go by.
Apart from Maurice everyone greats me in Spanish obviously, but EVERYONE says either good morning, afternoon or evening every time our paths cross. It’s such a friendly town and I love it.



'Getting around San Pedro'

Every day I stand on the steps to the school and welcome and watch my students arrive. Some as young at 4yrs old climb the steep hill alone, back packs on backs. Somehow their little minds are programmed to get to school and then find their way home at the end of the day. Some come with parents and those parents always say, good morning, thank you, kiss me or hug me as their way of saying ‘thanks I appreciate what you are doing here’.



'A child walking to one of the posh schools with uniforms'

I’ll miss that warm feeling of being connected to the people and of being appreciated for the work that I do.
I’ve crossed over from tourist to teacher, working for them within their town and with that come all the politics too which I was trying to avoid. But you get sucked into their sad stories and religious divide.
Some only ever coming together to protest for peace, which they did for 10yrs till 1996 when the war here ended. Or in the natural disasters of Hurricane Stan in 2005 or the mud slides of last year that killed 2000 people around the lake. Or after death when they all finally lay side by side in San Pedro’s only cemetery.



'The Ice cream mans in town'

The first 10 pages of the local paper ‘El Dario’ informs us of the deaths and murders of the previous day all over Guatemala. The national average for murderers is 8 per day here. But somehow we are in our own little world 4hrs from the City and 3hrs from the hospital only connected by El Dario and a few handed down old US school busses which charge around from Town to Town driven by lunatics. Most people in our town can’t read Spanish as their first language is T’Zutahil and most of the tourists can’t so we all look at the pictures instead and make our own news happy in our naivety.



'My Guatemalan Mum and Sister Sarita'

That’s when I realize I’m a long way from home on Thursday when I was getting some supplies for school I asked the lady in the shop for a receipt but she said she couldn’t. I explained that it wasn’t my money and that it was for the school. She simply replied “I understand totally but I can’t write’. It’s as simple as that! I love the fact that my family had no idea who Walt Disney was or Paris Hilton or that they are not the pioneers of the bendy bus, it’s beautiful.



'La Lancha'

I’ll definitely miss getting around from town to town by boat, Panajachel, San Marcos, Santa Cruz, San Juan, Santiago Atitlan and of course San Pedro. It’s such a great feeling speeding over the waves with the wind in my hair dodging the volcanoes.



'Me in San Marcos on my mini break in the 2nd weekend here'

The lakes, mountains and 3 volcanoes are just stunning. It’s impossible to take a 2D photo of them you just have to see it for yourself.
Sometime I forget about them for a bit, then I turn around in town and I’m standing at the foot of a 1500m volcano.



'Volcano San Pedro in the clouds'

The lake is like glass in the morning and perfect for swimming and if the clouds are low it looks magical and mysterious as the volcanoes hide in the smoke which just touches the water. In the afternoon however it’s like the sea. It’s so big that it becomes our own sea as the children play in the waves.



'Local kids playing while their parents do their laundry on the rocks nearby'

I’m gonna miss every single thing from here, there’s nothing about my personal journey I would change. It’s been an amazing adventure from start to finish. It’s been a fore filing experience in every way, feeding my soul and making my heat smile.



'Dad keeps girl from buring'

I have flexed some of the creative muscles that have been lying dormant in me since University, even if it is only drawing Zebras,



'Did someone say Zebras!!!!'

sharks, forests and deserts.
I also now have the imprint in my memory of 390 little smiling faces to take home with me and treasure forever (apart from this morning when they tried to kill me as I gave out the last of my pencils ‘Seno dame lapiz, dame lapiz’, they knocked me off my feet)!!

I’ve had my moments definitely!! Where I’ve been stressed or frustrated. When I’ve felt like I’m just one person and it’s not really making any difference. And in those moments I’ve been guided by the other volunteers around San Pedro to be positive, to look at the bigger long term picture. That I am part of a bigger team and like my friend Tish said a snowflake in an avalanche of change.



'My kids on a demonstration yesterday afternoon to keep their school open'

The bigger picture is that by teaching the youngest kids about the importance of their environment and the effects that doing too much of one thing or not enough of another will have. That by taking baby steps together hand in hand we can make a difference and it can filter through to their families and in time through the generations therefore having an impact on their lives.
We will never be able to stop them chopping down the forests (which cause terrible effects in the rainy season) as its their income, but we can educate, plant new trees and by training them on the computers we are supplying we can give them an alternative future should the forests not be there (as predicted) by the time they need to work.
I’m definitely leaving here now feeling positive and feeling like I have achieved my part in the bigger picture in the time I have had available. So I’ll hand over my babies and the town to other volunteers as they, like me, for as long as they can too, help Down 2 Earth achieve their mission to continue

‘SOWING THE SEADS OF POSITIVE CHANGE’



'Peace'

Thanks to both my families the one in San Pedro and my real one back home and to all my friends for your lovely comments and support big warm love to all………See you all soon, I’m coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!