Guilty

Normally I never feel guilty about anything. The reason for this is that I usually don't do anything to feel too guilty about...and when I do it's an honest mistake or misunderstanding and I apologize. But yesterday was different...3x.


1. I bought some ice cream for about $1. I paid with what I am pretty sure was about $2. The girl gave me change for $13 (the largest bill here). Now the reason I didn't correct this mistake was because I gave her the benefit of the doubt and just assumed that I was mistaken. The bills here kind of look the same and they are old and crappy due to a lack of wallets (I shove my money in my pocket). And what was I supposed to do? Ask her if she made a mistake? I tell myself that even if she was correct she would have said she wasn't just to get my money. I also tell myself that my Spanish isn't good enough to communicate this to her. And lastly, if she figures out her mistake later she will without a doubt be more careful in the future and thus I was preventing her from further more important loses. Either way, I still feel kind of bad.

2. I had a library book. I am in a different city now...but I still have it. After school I walked by the place to give it back but they were closed. They didn't have those handy drop-off boxes and I coulnd't just set it on the sidewalk. To check out the book all I had to do was write down my name on a list.

3. The dog always jumped on me and barked at me. I would always kick it. Last night it was doing the same thing. It was late at night so all the lights were off and I could only see from the street lights. I grabbed the broom and I took a big swing at what I thought was it´s butt...only it was it's head. She started whimpering and running in circles. She was crying so much that my host mom came all the way from downstairs to ask what happened. This morning I looked at it and one eye was half closed. I'm glad it was my last day there because I really wouldn't want to explain to a 6 and a 12 year old what happened to their dog. It really is hard to teach and old dog new tricks. I don't feel bad for hitting it. I just feel bad that the family is going to have to just guess as to what their foreign exchange student did to their dog. But in all honesty I think the adults will get a good laugh out of it.

In Mark news...I'm still in Guatemala. At Panejachel on Lago de Atitlan. I leave tomorrow.