One flight down, one more to go. It is currently 8 am in Mexico City. The airport is already filled with activity and Spanish announcements that I am trying my best to pick up on. While it is typical to complain about a five hour layover, I am thankful for the transitional period before my fully immersive experience when I step out of the Guatemalan airport. I have been spending the last two and a half hours people watching, reading, and mostly freaking out that I will confuse myself and miss the next flight. Luckily, the airport workers can tell that I am very Gringo and clearly explain to me in English the directions for my next flight even when I’m attempting Spanish. Overall, everything has gone smoothly and I am hoping all will continue to do so. At least until I see Marco’s face outside the Guatemalan airport.
I have faced a strange range of emotions while preparing for my two month internship in Guatemala. Starting from the beginning, I met with a good friend of my mom’s Barbara Gylland over Christmas break. She was a very accomplished woman who like myself, had chosen the path of Anthropology. Not really knowing much about the subject except for the fact that I fell in love with my first class, I went to her in hopes to better understand HOW THE HECK I WOULD EVER BE EMPLOYABLE WITH ANTHROPLOGY. Barbara told me that one of the best ways to understand how to utilize Anthropology was to reach out to different organizations, proposing ways that I could help them. People love when someone is excited in what they are working on and their abundant opportunities behind many closed doors. She told me that I just needed to seek them out. And so, after our meeting I was inspired to do just that.
My school offers fellowship money for unpaid internships during the summer. Hearing about Hand For Peacemaking Foundation through an organization from my home town BURN design lab, I proposed to them an internship opportunity for myself over the summer. I proposed to combine my Anthropology major with my internship by interviewing the villages HFPF had worked with. Through this process, I wanted to better understand from an indigenous perspective, how HFPF had helped their communities progress, what aspects of life they thought needed the greatest improvement, and most interesting to me, how willing they were to sacrifice their indigenous roots, culture, and tradition for a better quality of life. Marco Macdonaldo, the global director and Brian Dirks, the president of the board also gave me additional projects I could work on over the summer. One of the bigger projects was writing an English manual for prospective work groups before they come to Guatemala.
With these ideas at hand, I applied for the fellowship.
Throughout the whole process I felt very unqualified, but used the motto “fake it till you make it” to push myself through. I guess this worked, because I received the funds to spend eight weeks interning with HFPF in Santa Cruz Barillas Guatemala!
So here I am two months later, sitting in the airport as my vision turns into a reality and those propositions become projects that I must now follow through with. Can I speak Spanish? I definitely can’t understand those insanely fast announcements coming out of the speakers, and sometimes I still mess up the spelling of hola with olah, but maybe those are things that come in time. Honestly, I have had so much anxiety about these last two months and finalizing all the details. Details are not my forte and I was very worried that something crucial would slip my mind.
Those insecurities are exactly what I must learn to work through this summer. All I can do now is push to the best of my capabilities, be willing to invite the impossible, and accept my imperfection. I have oh so much to learn and see. I have also heard nothing but the warmest praise for my organization, the town of Barillas, and Marco, the man who can help guide me through my next two months. While my Spanish feels shaky, I have taken six years of classes. That must count for something. As far as my contributions to HFPF, I am smart, innovative, and so willing to learn. Let the next two months bring opportunities of meaningful experiences, endless learning, and huge amounts of growth.