In airports I live in constant fear of being stopped at security even when I know full well that I have nothing to hide. I have travelled on planes for years now and the time when I am going to be away from home for months would have to be the time the buzzer gate thing you have to walk through would go off - that´s right; I had to be searched. Great start. Good news though is that I made my connection in Madrid with minimal effort and arrived safe and sound in Guatemala City Airport and was met by a GVI member of staff called Jenny who is lovely. I am now just at the hotel where I´ll be staying the first night and have met some of the other volunteers, all of whom are really friendly, there are 5 of us here at the moment and 5 more arriving this evening. It is 7.15pm on the 2nd Jan here at the moment.

I am still recovering from my lack of sleep from the days leading up to New Year´s eve and from New Year´s eve itself. It was so good to see all my lovely friends again now that they are back from uni but so hard to say goodbye to them aswell. You will all be missed but as soon as I arrived here I knew I´d made the right decision to come. I haven´t been able to see much of Guatemala yet as it is dark but I am looking forward to tomorrow. We are going to our host families in the morning at about 9am then having a bit of an introduction to what we will be doing here. I think the other volunteers and I are going to grab a bite to eat in a minute so I have to go now. I think I will possibly collapse from exhaustion pretty soon. It´s all good! I will try to let you know more soon...¡Hasta Luego!