Out and About Once Again

Weekend away. Two days here. Running off again tomorrow. In my life, that sounds about right.

Tomorrow morning, all the volunteers are leaving for a 3-day volunteer workshop about 20 minutes away. (Between this and Earth Lodge, we're having lots of together time this week.) The workshop is supposed to be a chance for us to step away from our crazy lives of work, kids, sleep, repeat (oh God, I sound like a parent) and reflect on the volunteer program at NPH Guatemala.

I'm not exactly sure what to expect. I've heard that last year's workshop got slightly out of hand when it came to what people were using their campaigning energy on: "Our showers aren't hot enough! I'm too busy! I don't like the food!" That isn't exactly the point of this whole thing. Believe me, we have no trouble complaining about those things from the comfort of our own living rooms, hah.

The 3-day workshop is meant to have a somewhat bigger focus. Are we serving a useful purpose at NPH Guatemala? What is that purpose? If I'm kind of just taking up space, how can we change that?

I for one think the volunteer program here is valuable and is making a difference, but not everyone out there agrees. Some NPH homes do not accept international volunteers, period. So, this workshop is our chance to prove that, in Guatemala at least, we do function better with an international volunteer program. It's our chance to prove that the 13 months (or more) each one of us spent here wasn't just wasted time.

Anywho, here's hoping the next 3 days go well. If all else fails, Katie, Leeah, and I bought ourselves the first season of Entourage in the market last weekend. If we're not having fun in the workshop, at least we're bringing eight 50-minute episodes of fun with us! Then, after the workshop ends Friday night, we're thinking the plan is to head out Saturday morning for a weekend at Lake Atitlan! Woohoo!

Entonces, see ya next week!