Call Me Linda One More Time
I double dog dare you
I’ve been in Guatemala for almost 7 years now. Actually, October 4th is my Guateversary. I’ll celebrate in my own special way somehow that day.
I still can’t believe two things: 1) I live here and 2) I’m still here.
I was only supposed to stay for 4–6 months, return to Ontario for the summer and then come the next fall, pick another third world country to hang out in for 4–6 months again. I thought this was going to be my life.
Boy was I wrong.
What did happen, was that I got here, fell in love with this place, and stayed. Will I stay here forever? I honestly don’t know. Time will tell.
Anyway, when I first got down here I could barely speak the language. Forming any kind of intelligible sentence was a struggle. I took a few Spanish lessons before I got down here. Learned the important stuff. Numbers, greetings, food and money.
Yup. That’s all I knew. Oddly enough, there are many gringos down here that can’t speak Spanish at all and have been here for years. This still baffles.
So almost 7 years in now, I can sort of get by in conversation and I’ve learned a shit ton of words. Sometimes a friend even asks me to do a translation for them.
