Today was the day I was to be on a plane

Today was the day I was to be reunited with my life, friends and dog in Guatemala. Right about now I should have been landing in Guatemala City and going through customs and immigration. Instead, I am writing cover letters, attempting to (re)build a life in Canada and my dog is asleep on the couch behind me.

It has been a quick three months. I have watched my big brother get married(!), aided in one of my best-friend's wedding planning, worked two jobs (marginally related to my career path), figured out how to get my dog legally into Canada and talked a lot about Long Way Home and the community I lived in.

You see, I haven't quite settled into life here. I long to be in Guatemala. At first, I was simply happy to be back in Canada. Now I find myself in a persistent home-sickness for my lifestyle there. I don't want to romanticize or idealize life in Guatemala. Things were certainly challenging, but as I have repeatedly said, I had never been happier.

Like many ex-pats, when I decided to stay in Canada I believed that my experience abroad would open up new career prospects and that I would easily be able to interact with friends and family. 

I was offered some advice by an HR friend when I first started looking for work here: change your perspective and realize that repatriation may be a backward step in your career. Those words seem to have more meaning than they did two months ago. I originally thought that my experiences would open up new job opportunities. To a certain point it has, but I here I am unemployed after my last position ended on Saturday.

Shortly after returning home I was told by the friend that introduced me to LWH that I should prepare myself to not be able to relate to people here. Initially, I shrugged his words off, but the longer that I am home the more they make sense. There are only so many sentences that I can start with, "In Guatemala..." before people lose interest. It is hard to understand life there unless you have experienced it for yourself. I am a good orator, but not good enough to hold people's attention for longer than a few weeks of my reminiscing.

I am told that the repatriation process can take one or two years - yikes! There has yet to be a challenge in my life that I could not overcome. This is simply another learning opportunity, but for right now it feels like an awfully long lesson.