Today, September 11th, which holds so much emotion for me as an American, also holds emotion for me as an American living in Guatemala. Today is election day here, it's the culmination of months of campaigning and debate. The mayoral races are the most contentious and in Almolonga passions run high between the three parties vying for power. Peace Corps asked me to leave my site for the weekend as a preemptive precaution, so I'm staying with a fellow PC volunteer about 45 minutes away until Tuesday when all settles down.

Last night I was thinking about how much has (and hasn't) changed in the past ten years. Thought I'd share what was on my mind:

"Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that forever changed our world. 10 years. Time plays such tricks on us, doesn't it? Saddness passes, but not without its scars. And we're weak after all. Delicate flesh that feels. Or maybe we're delicate because we feel. Whether weak or strong-here we are, all connected. Our passions, no matter how polarized, are what make us human. Our capacity for good and evil, is what makes us human. Our hurt, is what make us human.

But it is our ability to forgive, to be compassionate, to choose to rise above guns, tanks, bombs, planes--that, that is what would make us good.

And that is my hope for our world. That each person, each small human, would choose goodness over hurt. "