On our way.

We did better today.

We haven't been back to AdJ, but we have been talking a lot about it. As a group, we've made progress in helping each other cope with what happened yesterday.

I still have moments where I flashback to what happened, or when I think about how much I miss Bryan and Ronaldo and the community at large. I'm a little more guarded, a little more nervous, a little more willing to jump to paranoid or obnoxious conlusions about what could happen, anywhere or anytime.

We took the day off and ended up at the mall. Eating food court food and visiting the movies ($3.25 admission, btw). It was a nice, escapist afternoon. But, as I sat in the middle of subtitled "Mamma Mia," I couldn't help but think that not everyone is so lucky to have such an escape.

We are going to Honduras tomorrow to spend our free weekend. Douglas, our most amazing and protective driver, will be taking us. We will stop over in Guatemala for lunch tomorrow, but end up in Copan, Honduras, famous for its Mayan ruins.

I am looking forward to it, but I am also excited for Monday, when our group will be meeting with a counselor from Circulo Solidario to talk about what happened. Hopefully, that afternoon, we will be meeting with the AdJ community to have a large group session and reunite. I wish we could have seen them today, or sometime before Monday, but I know this schedule is for the best.

We did hear from Iris, the Circulo representative for AdJ, who said that the kids did their own reflection session today and that it went well. She said that they, like us, have grown closer because of this and are anxious for us all to come back together.

I'm looking forward to it. The experience yesterday was rather surreal. The fact that today happened, or that this weekend will happen, is also surreal. Life is surely different.

But looking up, looking forward, helps. It's the only way to go.

We're on our way to better times. I just know it.

~MJ