Guatemala

My sisters, Yvonne & Carolyn, are leaving for Guatemala tonight. We started talking about taking a trip together last summer before we found out Yvonne’s cancer was back. Then we thought she would die by this summer. She got better with chemo, and now the cancer is back and growing rapidly. I purchased the tickets before we knew that she needed to go back on chemo. The doctor said it’s OK for her to go on this trip, but can’t start the chemo until she gets back as it will kill her immune system and make her extremely sun-sensitive. I tried to talk her into canceling the trip as I care far more about her life than about the money, but she said no. I do think she’s worried, though. The pain in her left shoulder is acting up again and the big, hard lumps of cancer are back.

Apparently Yvonne & Carolyn had a discussion about the trip and decided they needed to make it clear to me that this time, they didn’t want to sleep on any floors or the ground. When I responded, “Of course not! Are you crazy?” they reminded me that they had, in fact, done these things with me on other trips. They were swapping stories of how I made Yvonne sleep in the corridors of an overnight ferry and then sneak into a vacated room in the morning to shower after the ship had docked in Santorini, Greece. And Carolyn said she could top that story. I made her sleep on the cold, hard ground, with no sleeping bag between the borders of Malawi and Mozambique. The next day we got a lift in a truck with the convoy traveling the “gun run,” the corridor through war-torn Mozambique that was escorted by the army in the hopes of avoiding a guerrilla attack or land-mines. I’ve toned my traveling down a bit since then. This trip will be tame.

Home

“Home” is where my family is. It’s also where I live. If you could hear how many places I call “home,” you’d be confused. Saudi is “home.” Newberg is “home.” Anywhere I’m staying is “home” such as my hotel room or a friend’s house. I don’t know if that’s normal or just a product of moving around so much.

So…it’s great to be home with my family and my dog, Phoebe. There’s nothing like being around people who love you and you love. It’s the best thing in the world to see my sister Yvonne who we all thought would die this year. She’s still alive although looking older now. Her hair is short as she lost it all and it’s now grown back thicker, curlier and greyer than before. She often seems tired. Other than that, you wouldn’t know there is something trying to kill her inside.

Phoebe ran laps around the living room and whimpered from excitement when she first saw me. Such satisfaction to know she still loves me. She was, however, a bit confused as to where her loyalty should lie when Yvonne & I were together that first day. I desperately want to bring her back with me. She effortlessly raises my happy level to unusual highs.