“Quiero comentarte que después de revisar tu perfil hemos decidio aceptarte como voluntaria para el periodo del 15 de mayo al 15 de agosto del próximo año.”
Reading my acceptance e-mail was everything I had imagined it would be. I scanned until I found “aceptarte”, and then went absolutely wild from there. Those on my floor were probably wondering what zoo animal had escaped, since I was sitting (actually madly jumping around and screaming) in our neutral zone, and I faced quite the dilemma coming up with a room to visit and share the good news, since Friday night is not the best time to find someone. Quick calls (I’m going to Mexico, and now I have to hang up with you to tell someone else) were followed by five-exclamation-point-worthy text messages. I ran to find my Paisa (my Spanish-speaking “homie”, Rosangela) to translate and confirm I hadn’t misread it and false-cognate-d the verb aceptar, which thankfully does mean ‘to accept’ in English. I loved receiving everyone’s texts or phone messages back during the night, and when I returned from a successful Kappa date party, I was in a state of exhaustion and excitement.
I am so blessed and lucky to have been granted my wish to return to Atlixco, and it meant a lot that everyone I told (which really was pretty much everyone) was nothing but excited for me. Mom, many people wondered if I had told you yet, which seemed a bit odd, because you were the first person I called. I was disappointed when I processed that the May 15-August 15 date range meant missing Cart’s graduation and birthday, but I decided when I even came up with the notion of applying that if I was going to go, I was going to go all the way, for their entire requested time commitment of three months. It feels strange now to have such a concrete deadline of May 15th; really at this point just a semester away. But I get teary with sheer joy when I look through the pictures from last year, and imagine seeing boys like Jesus or Roberto again. They asked me when I left if I was going to return, and I cannot believe that my answer of “maybe” is now a definitive yet.
I am also excited to start this blogging concept! After I saw my friend Amanda wrote one during her semester in the Dominican Republic, I decided it would be a great way to hopefully keep everyone at home informed of my adventures down south. I have a very limited understanding of how much internet time I might or might not receive (I think the boys had an opportunity once a week?) so I’ll see if I can’t keep things both in hard copy form and then in a later-posted electronic one. Right now I would just like to thank a million times over everyone who helped me achieve that e-mail; from my mom who actually let me apply to all those who helped translate the communication stages of it (which are certainly not over yet!) to everyone who’s support, love and assistance have followed me and will continue to follow me throughout my stay in Mexico.
I am overwhelmingly excited, and cannot wait to share my stories with you, just as I cannot wait to share in the lives of the boys at IPODERAC. I thank God for giving me this opportunity and can only hope I allow myself to make the absolute best out of everything I am about to experience.
6 months.
Con amor,
Laura
