My host brother, aka La Comadre #1, is Cristian. He is 14 years old and you can find him in a lot of the pictures that I've posted in the past. Yes, we hang out a lot. He is probably my best friend here. Why? He shares food with me and I help him with his homework. We put our arms around each others' shoulders as we walk down the dirt path to school. He picks up his dogs and dances different Latin dances with them. He tells me all the good gossip. He is the first to know. People open up to him. Sometimes his mom will send him on some errand and he will take twice as long just because, along the way, he must have found someone to talk to. He's not your regular 14 year old boy, thinking about girls, videogames and soccer. He kinda sucks at soccer actually. He is my comadre. I am his. I am Comadre #2 and his mom is Comadre #3. Because we all snitch to each other, about countless things. Deaths of cows, husbands' cheating on wives, whose pregnant, who bought a new car. Yeah, you know, the really exciting things. TMZ worthy. Perez Hilton worthy.
In true fashion, today Comadre #1 comes down the stairs and knocks on my door to lay down some of his finest material. The neighbor's daughter had been held hostage with two other men, two houses down. Wtf...It's actually not a house, but a bodega where they store all kinds of mercaderia (food stuffs, I'm assuming) and some men came in and tied them up and put guns to their heads until they got all the money they wanted out of them. For 3 hours.
My comadre has always been scared of the dark. We bond over that but since I'm the adult, I try to calm him down. I tell him to repeat "todo lo puedo en Cristo, que el me fortalece." Sound familiar? And he does. And it makes me feel better. But seriously, we have more to be afraid of now. It keeps getting closer and closer to home. Todo lo puedo en Cristo que El me fortalace.
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Words found on this blog reflect my personal thoughts and experiences. They do not reflect the views of the Peace Corps or the United States government.
About Me
- amnightingale
- Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala; 2008-2010; Youth Promoter
You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.
Every day, God gives us the sun--and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist--that today is the same day as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover the magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting the front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists--a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.
Joy is sometimes a blessing, but is often a conquest. Our magic moments helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments---but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.
Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back--and at some point everyone looks back--she will hear her heart saying, "what have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life."
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept-Coelho
Every day, God gives us the sun--and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist--that today is the same day as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover the magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting the front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists--a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.
Joy is sometimes a blessing, but is often a conquest. Our magic moments helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments---but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.
Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back--and at some point everyone looks back--she will hear her heart saying, "what have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life."
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept-Coelho
2 comments:
Please keep sharing your thoughts... I enjoy reading them.
im like two weeks late, but this made me smile. i hope you dont hate coming back home too much. it seems like you have a new home now... i love you
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