¿Y cuanto tiempo te quedas por aquí?

This is the question I’m asked over and over again – whenever I meet someone for the first time.

Being run and managed by women from La Esperanza, UPAVIM is naturally very well linked with the community, and the volunteers are respected and protected by them.

Everyone seems to be equally thankful and surprised to see us around. They welcome you warmly, as well your work and what they expect – no, I should say hope – you can make happen.

I don’t know yet the answer to the question being repeated at me so frequently. I want – and I will, I think – travel around Central (and South?) America, but at the same time I also want to leave here with the feeling I helped shape something meaningful. And that, of course, takes time.

Time. Something I do have now.

Time runs differently here. There is a meeting the next day to know what to do about the bakery – is it out of money and should we stop it, or buy materials for another day of production instead? – and I’m relentlessly going up and down the stairs to know the whereabouts of the missing invoices. People are concerned – because the matter is so important to everyone and the urgency of the decisions – but at the same time they know that life goes on, and only the ex(?)-consultant seems to find reasonable to get the numbers right before sun set. How unreasonable that aspiration was…

Time runs differently here. I’m getting used to it.