las pequeñas cosas

Bienvenido a Gualan! I am officially volunteering with Hearts in Motion my partner organization now!! I moved into my permanent place in Gualan at Hearts in Motion’s campus. I am living in an apartment above the PT clinic. It is so much more spacious than I could’ve imagined… I have a little living space kitchen, and a private bathroom! The campus is so beautiful with palm trees, courtyards, and mountain views. On the campus there is a PT clinic, and a nutrition center for malnourished children and their mothers. Currently there are 3 babies with their mothers here and 3 children who live here more permanently.

There are so so many things I could share about this past week but I’m just going to list a few moments that brought me joy.

• My first project: finding & fixing shoes that would fit around a little boy’s AFOs
• Dancing with a little boy who lives at the center (I don’t think he ever runs out of energy!!)
• Teaching one of the girls at the center English
• Painting my nails with the a teenager girl who lives & works at the center
• Playing peekaboo with a little boy in the nutrition center
• Going to the grocery with the women who work at the center
• Watching the sunset
• A patient gifting me a little cake
• Getting ice cream with the women from the center & singing together in the car
• Laughing trying to translate between English/spanish with the PT I work with
• Everyone getting dressed up for a retirement party they hosted at the center
• Drinking a delicious homemade slushie
• Going to pizza with a group of people from the center
• Playing a game with a patient
• The PT teaching me about facial paralysis
• Being given a flower for national women’s day in Guatemala
• Petting Sophie the sweet black lab who lives at the center

When the language barrier is hard and the change overwhelming and lonely, I have to keep reminding myself that it is the little moments that make me smile that matter. The pace of life is slow here (they even call it Guatemalan time), which has forced me to be present, to go with the flow, to surrender to whatever the day could bring. I feel so grateful for all the wonderful people who have welcomed me to Hearts in Motion. There is Jan & Laura the mother and daughter who have been apart of HIM since the beginning and came in at the same time as me to volunteer (we joke that Jan’s my grandma and Laura my mom now they are a hoot haha). The amazing women at the center who cook. I feel like every meal is straight from a restaurant! (I’ve never eaten this many tortillas/frijoles in my life haha). The women who run the center/caregivers they invited me to ice cream and Italian dinner so many laughs. Don a construction volunteer from the start of HIM who drove us around and brought us to see the house he built in a week for a family in need. Esvin the PT I am working worth. He is so kind and patient with my Spanish. And all the children at the center who never fail to make me smile. Tomorrow I start work with two teams coming from the states (a PT group and dental group) I’m so excited to be out in clinics again 🙂