September 28, 2016: All 28 of us hazily departed the plane.

We eventually approached volunteers with a sign: Bienvenidos a Guatemala.

In my bedroom, Bienvenida hangs above my mosquitero. For a quick language lesson: because I am alone and a woman = Bienvenida, for a group of women= Bienvenidas, a group of men and women = Bienvenidos. Venir is “to come” and Bien is good. Welcome.

In Guatemalan culture, there is a custom where you start meetings with “Palabras de Bienvenida.” It is a warm welcome to extend to a group. It’s more of a commitment of time than useful directives. It’s not meant to be productive, it’s meant to be friendly, muy amable.

In America, welcomes consist of the word ‘welcome’ and perhaps a short story of how you relate to the group. And then you get to task. Why am I here? Let’s talk about it. What’s the plan. Let’s unfold it. Go, now. And that’s it. That’s a welcome. In Guaté, you usually greet everyone in the room with a handshake or a kiss on the cheek. Then you launch into your address.

Palabras de Bienvenida make an American greeting look like a banana peel.

We don’t have words of welcome. We have word of welcome. It’s “Welcome.”

In Europe, I noticed that people say “You’ve very welcome” in a greeting. In the States, we don’t say that unless we are responding to someone’s thanks. Weird, huh?

So, Welcome.

Training/La capacitacion is peppered by Palabras de Bienvenida. Por ejemplo, the Mayor of Santa Caterina stopped in to greet our group on our first day of Youth in Development Training. He explained who he was, his career background, talked about how glad he was that we were there. He spoke very quickly. But the welcome lasted five minutes. Then he left. He only came to say “Welcome.” Not “Welcome.. Now let’s..”

So, Welcome. Thank you, Guatemala.

I hope I can invite your ways into my very American habits for the better.