Back in Business

People who blog every day or every week or every time something exciting happens make me feel guilty about how unreliably I post.  Fortunately I think the number of people who read my blog even at peak production is negligible and any guilt I feel actually stems from a sinful pride of how awesome my life regularly is.

Not to say I haven't had embarrassing moments, awkward moments, moments of frustration and depression.  I've had 'em.  But the "everything else" makes up for it 176 cents on the dollar, at least.  Oftentimes more.  I'm doing good.  And, for now, I'm back in business. 

Since the collision with the sea turtle way back in November, stuff has happened.  Anyone who knows me well enough to read my blog I think also knows what I've been up to since, but just for, like, posterity:

My family came down to Guatemala to visit me in December.  We did stuff.

After they left, I moved off the beach and returned to the mountains, to Ciudad Vieja, near Antigua.

I moved in with a roommate into a real house and started doing volunteer work at Valhalla Experimental Station, a macadamia nut farm.  It's awesome.  I do stuff.  Like paint and garden and pick up nuts.

I took up cooking again, since I have a kitchen, and have since made some favorites: mad stir fries and a lovely roast chicken, as well as sapote bread.  

In March a friend from up North, Canada, came to hang out in Guatemala with me.  Plans were scattered all over the place, but we did manage to visit Hannah in Xela for a week and get a school house painted back at the beach.

I got giardia!  And got rid of it.

I got a job working at a bar and restaurant in Antigua!  I have zero experience and the learning curve is intense.  But, I think, worth it.  I'm making about ninety cents an hour.  :D

I still work at the macadamia farm, too.