Being here feels like Peace Corps never really ended. I guess it never really did in a way. Anyway, this morning I woke up and took lovely and annoying (in the morning) Norma outside for some solid bathroom time. Every time we go outside the street dogs and dogs on people's roofs go absolutely nuts. It gets so loud with all their barking. I think Norma likes the attention because she seems to take her sweet time. There's lots of grassy spots around our house so I think she feels good about her choices.

Normally in the morning I see someone, a neighbor, a biking farmer, someone. This morning I saw everyone. For some reason, our neighbors are moving. See, they apparently rented the house next door and are now being sorta thrown out. Or something. So they moved all their stuff into our house for the day while their mom looked for a new place to live on the other side of town. They just moved their stuff out. A whole family. I saw the little girl move her plastic bag with a Pound Puppy sticking out. Anyway, I just spent an hour talking with the boys and boy do they love Norma. They just knocked and said they have to come back later for the rest of their stuff. Weeeiiird... even for here.

Norma is a little bit famous for not liking other dogs. She's a meanie at dog parks and can't be trusted even with a simple sniffy hello to a passerby dog. I was worried about her return to Guatemala with all the street dogs. But so far she is so playful with the other dogs. Maybe she just doesn't like American dogs?

I found an ad for an paid English teacher job in Xela. I'm going to find out more about it. Sometimes I forget I'm in a place called Guatemala. It feels mostly like I just drove a really long time to this place I feel normally weird and weirdly normal and now I'm just going to eat more tortillas than I usually do.

Norma works hard.

Kitchen.

Kitchen.

Front, enclosed area for car. Or neighbor's belongings.

View from roof, south toward Xela center.

View from roof north.

Norma gets her first in 3 years pila bath.