International Hassle

This is when international adventure turns into international hassle. Although I know it will get better, right at this moment, I’d just like to be back in Idaho (snow and all!). We’ve caught the end of the rainy season in Guatemala which means we’re still getting downpours every day. While my skin and hair and nails are loving the humidity (especially after being used to single digit aridity in Driggs!), the moisture has a downside too – and its ugly name is mold and mildew. The room the girls are sleeping in had some leaks and water damage from the rain last week. The air hasn’t been dry enough to air that room out and it’s starting to smell horribly stuffy. It’s so musty, we dragged a mattress into the dining room for Kels & Larissa to sleep on so they don’t have to breathe mildew in the bedroom all night. You can imagine how I sounded complaining about the problem:

“We have a problem. This room is wet. This room needs to dry. It is not ready. My daughters are not able to sleep here.”

The apartment manager, Sofia, promises to get it sorted out tomorrow; I think what I understood her to say was that they’re going to bring in some maquina to remove the water. We’ll see – our experience is that so often in international travel, the response to a complaint is assurance that it will be taken care of….but very often the follow through just isn’t there.

To top it off, we've discovered that Saturday night is serious party night in Antigua. Apparently, many of the wealthy folks from Guatemala City have weekend homes here and they drive up on Saturdays to spend the night in the cooler hill country. Starting about 8:00 pm, we had at least 2 bands blasting us from opposite sides of the apartment. It was so noisy, the drum beats were literally rattling the window frames! I don't know how late they played because I was finally lulled to sleep by the boom boom boom. Ai yi yi!

So now, I’m just feeling a little sleepy and stuck – the rain is keeping us inside and I’m feeling lonely. But, tomorrow the girls & I start Spanish lessons and I know that will help get us out of our isolation. And Tuesday night we’re attending a meeting about how to get involved in Guatemala where we’re hoping to find some volunteer opportunities for all of us to do!