A third and final trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon forced me to come to terms with the reality of leaving Tucson. A group of friends from Casa Alitas decided we needed to take a road trip together before two of us leave in a few weeks. The weekend was full of deep laughter, rock scrambling, and held back tears. When someone asked when I was leaving, it was the first time I really looked at a calendar and counted down my days. As of today (6/18), I have 6 more days of work, 3 goodbye parties, and 1 more full weekend in Tucson. This reality hit hard as I walked through the red rocks of Sedona and marveled at the still vastness of the Grand Canyon with these work friends. They have been so important to my time at Casa Alitas
The next two weeks will be full of goodbyes, planning next steps, and packing. It is an a time full of big emotions. Excitement of next steps, uncertainty of the unknown, grief of what and who I am leaving behind, and grattitude for all that this year has been. These next two weeks I am only working Tuesday-Thursday in order to spend time with people, stay tuned for more desert hike pictures. :)
A few stories from work the last two weeks:
I was talking to a Mauritanian man in Spanish (his mother was Colombian, so he was fluent) and I decided to ask him some questions about Arabic. He explained “enshala” in Arabic means God willing. I hear this word uttered all day long and was excited to finally know its meaning. It was a wild experience though to learn the meaning of an Arabic word in Spanish and then translate it to my English brain.
Getting Mauritanian credit cards to go through PayPal or any airline website is an absolute nightmare. It feels like a total gamble, sometimes they work sometimes they don’t and most of the guests do not have online banking set up so there is no way of knowing what the problem is. Midday after wrestling with these cards for hours the Mauritanian man who was helping translate for me looked at me and said, “You look like you need a massage.” “Will you pay for one for me,” I responded. “If my card works,” he said laughing.
Huge shout out to all the guests who spend their day translate for others. There will be days where a guest will be at the Help Desk all day long just interpreting between staff and the guests to help them book travel plans. This is so much more effective than Google Translate! There was one moment this last week where I was training one of my colleagues (talking to him in English), then he spoke to a man in Spanish, who then spoke to another man in Arabic, who then spoke to the man who needed a flight in Pulaar.
Comments