Challenges old and new

This past week was a challenging week. I had to inform my coworkers and friends that I will be leaving NPH and Guatemala in late June (I accepted a job as a High School English teacher at an international school in Managua where I will be starting at the end of July). As I have made some great friendships here it was difficult to inform them that I would be leaving them so soon. After emotional conversations – and a doubled workload as I must now prepare an extra month of classes for my two middle school classes when I leave as well as prepare a smooth transition for my job in the office as project coordinator – I was ready to go out to Antigua with my good friend Samantha on Thursday night. Samantha and I hopped from venue to venue enjoying a complimentary glass of wine at a pretty little restaurant called Las Palmas, a brownie at one of our favorite restaurants Pena del Sol (where they play live Andean music), and lots of rum and cokes in a variety of other bars. Samantha’s friend Will called us to come to hang out with him and his friends so we headed over and immediately requested that the bar play “colgando en tus manos” by Carlos Baute which we proceeded to sing. Then one of my Guatemalan friends called and we scuttled over to go out dancing with him at my favorite dance club where they play a mix of Salsa, Bachata, Reggaeton, Merengue, and Kumbia. Salsa here in Guatemala still trips me up a bit, as they do it a little differently than I have ever done it. Nonetheless, the dancing was incredibly fun and when the club closed at 1 (Guatemalan nights out end very early) we called our trusty cab driver Alfredo to take us back home to NPH. Alfredo is a wonderfully nice gentleman who is about 50-years-old who is taking English lessons from Samantha. Therefore, on the way home he was practicing and asking lots of questions. About one and a half of the five miles on the route home is a dark, uphill segment. Alfredo’s car is pretty old and the lights are very dim – I was half worried that we might have to get out and push the car up the hill or turn around and spend the night in Antigua, but by God’s grace we made it up the hill and back to NPH. Laughing about our adventures, Samantha and I walked to our house, knowing we would have to get up in a couple hours to work in the school. Thank goodness we don’t have classes on Fridays!