A Journey for the Soul: Zach's Gap Year With Thinking Beyond Borders

Recently, our group went into Antigua for a weekend long getaway. During our time there, between eating all of the delicious foods and taking in the beautiful sights, I did some people watching. It was incredible to see so many people of all different backrounds and races. It is rare to spot a white person in Tecpán and even more unlikely to see a black or asain person, and without realizing it I had become so used to this homogeny that being in a city with so many people that looked like me just felt... abnormal. This past week, after we came back to Tecpán, I've started thinking more about the implications of this. Since living here, I haven't seen or heard of practically any conflicts between citizens of the city. That being said, during the night there is a group of vigilantes that patrols the streets and makes sure all is as it should be. But aside from that, Tecpán, being made up of over 90% indigenous Maya people, seems almost completely harmonious. It made me ask my...

Life in Tecpan has been going great! Tecpan, the Guatamalan city I´m living in, is an odd mix of rural and urban feel. When you walk down the street you will pass both tightly packed storefronts and men pulling along goats and ox. There are plenty of coffee shops (although coffee shops are only open in the afternoons here, which I´m still slightly confused about) and restaurants as well, although it is impossible to know at which restaurants you are completely safe from the threat of parasites. My Spanish is getting much better as well! I am able to have pretty consistent conversations with my host family at this point, although when I try to speak Spanish while tired I usually end up just stuttering and creating some odd mix of English and Spanish that no one can understand. Being here has definitely reignited my desire to learn new languanges. The ability to converse with someone in their native language, especially as an American, many of whom never bother to sincerely try learnin...

For these last two weeks, our group has been rising absurdly early in order to get out to the farms we are working at by eight o´clock. Divided into three groups of five, we rotate farms every day, so that we all get to experience different farms and work with different farmers every day. This past Tuesday was my favorite day so far. My group hiked deep into the forest and, after being handed machetes, was instructed to clear all the brush and small trees in order to make room for more big trees to grow. I had never used a machete before, and the feeling of hacking my way through the jungle thicket was pretty thrilling, I'm not gonna lie. Most days, though, we spend hunched over strawberry plants, pulling off dry leaves and rotten berries. This is grueling and monotonous work, especially as the oppressively hot sun rises higher and higher in the sky. The farmers we work with will zoom through rows, leaving us in the dust as we all squint our eyes trying to differentiate the dry l...