Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I Guess This Is How It's Gonna Be

My aunt Lise and uncle Wahba came to visit for a few days this week. We were chatting in the kitchen on the day they got here, and Lise asked me if I feel like I've readjusted to life back in the States. Let's just say I'm about as readjusted as I'm ever going to be. Some observations:
  • Immigration news carries so much more weight for me now than it did before. I used to have a "position" on immigration laws, but truthfully they were just one more headline to skim over and forget. Before we left for Guatemala/Mexico, Byron, one of our group leaders, would occasionally send articles to us, but it wasn't until I got back that I found myself reading about these issues, understanding them, and actually caring about what I read. On a related note, it's now way more annoying when people DON'T understand or DON'T care. Especially if they then choose to make comments and advertise their ignorance. 
  • Spanish makes me very happy. I'm about half way through the novel Malinche by Laura Esquivel, which is of course weird but still good practice. I wish I had more opportunities to speak Spanish though, because while I could easily hold decent conversations with my class or my family in Guatemala, here I feel awkward even using the small amount of Spanish that I am able to at work. 
  • The "Mexican" food aisle at the grocery store has never been more thrilling. Refried BLACK beans, horchata and jamaica drink mixes, corn tortillas, corn flour in case I ever want to make my own tortillas, and mole sauce! I just about died. I also managed to find plantains and queso fresco, so I'm all set to try my hand at cooking the classic desayuno chapin (Guatemalan breakfast).  :D
  • I get the feeling that my life here is quite shallow.  My interactions, my day-to-day activities don't seem very meaningful.  When I hang out with friends, we do the same things we always did, but instead of enjoying myself fully I'm thinking that I'd rather have a conversation about something that actually matters. 

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Something I Like Quite A Lot

From Gracias by Henri Nouwen:
I am a small part of life, a human being in the midst of thousands of other human beings. It is good to be young, to grow old, and to die. It is good to live with others, and to die with others. God became flesh to share with us in this simple living and dying and thus made it good. I can feel today that it is good to be and especially to be one of many. What counts is not the special and unique accomplishments in life that make me different from others, but the basic experiences of sadness and joy, pain and healing, which make me part of humanity.