A Campo Story...
So I never thought that I would celebrate my 21st birthday in another country, but yes, that is what happened. On Saturday August 6, 2005, I was awoken by music outside my window at 4:00 in the morning. There is a tradition here to have people come with guitars and sing to you before the sun comes up. Well, I cannot really think in español at that time of the day and so all I could say was gracias and go outside and sit with the family, but just as I set down the fireworks started going off in the street. Yes, I had fireworks for my birthday – it was freaking awesome!!! After an hour of singing, dancing and coffee (which was definitely necessary), my family and I walked to the beach to play in the water and watch the sun come up. Then we returned to the house where I continued to play with the kids for about an hour, we played fútbol and piedrina (hopscotch). Then I took a shower and got bit by a spider when I put on my shirt (that was a good birthday present)!!! Afterwards, I went to El Parque Imposible with two of my brothers and we just hung out and looked at the awesome view of the amazing park!!! When I returned we headed to a quinciñera in Cara Sucia (the puebla close to my campo). It was fun, I mean it was a quinciñera, but then a storm came up and the power went out. So when we thought that the rain had lightened up we headed back to the house, but when we got on the road to the house the storm hit full force. Now, this was not a normal storm and this is not a normal road. The road is a rock road and there are no street lights, and the storm was a tropical storm. I was sitting in the middle of the front seat and had to constantly wipe off the windshield so that Don Jesus could see out the window, the little that we were able to see in the dark storm. Then there were flashes of lightening and sounds of thunder. I really thought that we weren’t going to make it, when we got to the house I wanted to kiss the ground and thank God that I was alive. Never in my life did I think I would be in a tropical storm on my 21st birthday; I mean, in reality, it has never rained on my birthday. Luckily the power came back on about an hour later. And I went to the beach with Rey and Juan Carlos and just hung out in the sprinkling rain and watched the water – for some reason I have this amazing fascination with the ocean….it was definitely a birthday I will never forget.

And now to switch gears a little and share where I am at today…yesterday I left the community for my final time. I do not have the words to describe the emotions that I am feeling and I do not know if I really know how I am feeling about it. The time passed so quickly. I can remember when I first arrived in the community and it seemed like I was going to be there for so long and now, now, it’s over. Just like that. I do not think it has really hit me that in a week I will be sitting in California and this reality, this life, will be a memory. My life here will be a story told with the pictures in my camera and the things I am bringing with me. Maybe one day soon I will have the words to describe all that I am feeling, but as of now, this is where I am leaving it…