Christmas and a New Year

Tamales, Ponche, Pepian, cookies, more tamales and more ponche!  So much food was consumed this past weekend during the Christmas festivities.  I made the trek back by camioneta to my host family that I stayed with during training.  When I had left to go to my site the whole last week every meal I sat down and ate with them they asked the question “When are you going to come back?” We had decided to meet up again for Christmas and spend the time together. I would like to visit them more often but  here in PC Guatemala we have a rule of thumb of 3 hour radius when taking personal days so I was lucky to be granted to go to my past host family’s house for the two nights.  We decorated their little fountain with lights, pine, and the nativity scene.  All the lights here in the country are bought with a musical rendition of Jingle Bells-Santa is Coming to Town-We Wish You A Merry Christmas loop that has been playing since the second week in December.  Many people have nativity scenes and some of they are done to maximal effort, throwing everything imaginable into the scene from star wars toys, Mr. PotatoHead, robots, bobble heads and just random things.

Camilla and the decorated fountain

On Christmas Eve, we all hung out and passed out gifts to neighbors and had tamales and ponche.  Ponche is the Guatemalan version of apple cider.  It is made with pineapple, papaya, raisins, prunes, apples, coconut and all chops up finely.  It is boiled with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a variety of other spices (still getting the recipes) but it is so delicious and reminded me of warming myself up back in the states with cider.  So exchanging gifts and food and drink numerous times I was full.  Then we rested and then drove to Jocotenango.  This is a bigger town right outside of Antigua and is where my host mother’s family lives.  We then talked and waited until midnight talking and just enjoying company and then when fireworks went off we all hugged and said Merry Christmas.  There we tons of fireworks being lit off in the streets and celebrations.  It had more of a New Years feel to me than a Christmas feel.  Oh well, Ill get to do it all over again next weekend.  Plan is to go back to Panajachel to visit with some other volunteers and ring in the New Year with them. 

Christmas Portrait

My host family was generous to invite me to the beach the following day as well.  We went to the Pacific Coast where the beaches are all volcanic blacks sand.  It was fun to get away from the temperate climate of my site and see the tropical Guatemala.  We passed numerous mango trees with mangoes starting to grow.  In a few months here in Guatemala the mangoes will be bountiful. I cant wait for them to be ready.  Other than that we returned to eat more tamales and ponche.  

Camilla her Giraffe and the black sand beach!

The next morning I went into Antigua got a nice cup of coffee and then hit the road back here to Malacatancito where I have work this week.  More like ill just be sitting at the office and watching other people sitting watching me watch them watching me. 

Until then…..Happy New Year and 2011!!!!!

all the way!

 Best destinations to visit in 2011. Number 8?

I am in the Peace Corps in the 8th best place to visit?  Sweeeeeet!

Special thanks to my family and friends who sent tons of goodies to me these past few days.  I blame you for the food coma I am in but I enjoy every minute of it!  I opened up gifts from my family last night via skype and had a quasi christmas with them.  Very fun!  Much love to all!

Its Cold and I Have Attack Sheep

Hey Eveyone! 

First and foremost, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year in advance!!  I am writing from my new house overlooking the main road here in Malcatancito!  The weather here has been downright freezing.  The days are warm but once the sun goes down the temperatures plummet.  The last few nights it has been hovering around the freezing mark and people here love to talk about the weather.  There usually is not much else to talk about with the majority of people here except the weather and the weather from past years in comparison.  So people usually ask me if I am cold, or if I woke up cold on average of 30+ times a day. 

The house is a lot better than the previous one.  I am still making it feel like my space as I do not know what to do with this space.  I have a backyard with chicken, sheep and ducks.  I hope to buy a turkey in a few months to add to the contingency off animals here.  The other night I got back late after playing a little basketball and opened the gate to my house.  Where I heard a bleat from the sheep, I did not know what to do but then with the moonlight, I could see that the sheep was actually slowly walking towards me.  It bleated again, then I stopped and it stopped.  It was stalking me like an attack dog would, then it started running at me, so I had to ditch my bike and run into the house.  Good to know here that I don’t need a dog protection when I have attack sheep.  Only in Guatemala...

I need to make a few alterations to the house I am living in as I need to get a pila where I can wash my clothes but, my family here has a washing machine so I might make a pitch to them to see if it makes more sense to wash my clothes in the washing machine rather than go and buy a pila just for me to use just to wash my clothes.  I live on the second level of this house and I have a SINK! where I can wash dishes and other small stuff as well.  I just do not want to have them buy me a pila and go through the hassle of it to where I can use the machine twice a week.  Well have to see.  I also need to fix the shower.  Oh man this is a toughy.  As most PCV’s can probably attest, the shower or the daily bathing directly correlates to our mood, esteem and outlook on our daily life.  For me right now I take bucket baths which consist of heating up water for about 20 mins putting 4 boiling hot pots full into a big bucket I have.  I then add 4-5 pots of regular water to balance out the temperature (this took a while to find out the proper balance) but then I stand in the shower area and dump water on my head.  You just simply do not feel clean after.  It is just a process.  Long story short, I had a rough week, knowing that both my sitemates are going home to the states to visit family and friends for the holiday season, but I took a shower at my sitemates house last night and immediately felt human and 100% better.  Amazing what a nice hot 10 minute shower can do.  Ask any PCV about the importance of a shower.  So with that all being said, if I can get a shower like that here in my house, life will be exponentially better.

Work has been plugging along at a snail’s pace but that is all expected here in Guatemala.  Things here are generally really really slow during the holiday season and for most of December for that matter.  This week was tough as my counterpart really was not in the office, and the mayor wanted a presentation for all the projects done in 2010.  I was told to gather information, pictures, costs and everything relating to it all to compile into a PowerPoint presentation.  This was a hassle.  It took such a long time because there is such a lack of communication in the office and it was really interesting to see how the office works together (or lack thereof).  As frustrating as it was, it opened up my eyes into what the problems are, and what I can do to start suggesting how we make things better!  This is a huge thing for me, because it gives me something to do!  I am planning on also starting a youth group and English classes as well.  Slowly things look like they are coming together.  It just takes patience. 

For the holidays, I have been invited to spend time with my amazing host family I spent my training with.  They called me the other night and asked my why they had not heard from me in a while and I told them that I had moved houses and was just acclimating.  They still told me that we were family and need to check in once in a while.  It is a great feeling to have the support within the country from them.  The plan is to go to the beach with them for the day on the 25^th.  Here the 24^th, Christmas Eve is a bigger event than the day actually is.  People here do have little Christmas trees but they really deck out the nativity scene more than anything I have seen too.  They all have miniature figures of everything all played into the scene of Jesus’ birth.  It is tacky beyond tacky but it actually looks pretty cool for the most part.

I special shout out to Brad and Kate who sent me a nice little care package!  Thanks guys you are the best.  Ill be there in spirit for New Years.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and New Year.  I miss you all A LOT!! My heart pangs I cant be in the states, but I know that I will be back soon it! 

Love to all. 

a little link of Guatemala in the NY Times about the chaos and lack of control for authorities.....http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/19/world/americas/AP-LT-Guatemala-State-of-Siege.html?_r=2&hp

Lake Atitlan

Greetings everyone!

I am happy to report to you all that I am feeling a lot better and almost back to 100%. I still get tired really quickly and sleep a lot more than I am accustomed to but I am not sure if that is due to being sick or the way of life here in my site.  I think it probably would be a safe bet to think it’s a combination. 

This past week I have found a great house to move into.  It is definitely an upgrade to the house that I was living in.  I feel bad in a sense that the two previous volunteers had stayed in that house and I had to break the cycle but I am will be paying the same rent for a better place to live.  This house also will be with a family that I will interact daily with.  I will have the second floor of this house and I have just more open space with windows and an area to start growing some plants and test out my green thumb.  Another benefit is that this house is about a 10 minute walk to work.  My previous house literally was about 20 steps from the door to the door of my office.  This extra space will not only allow me to stretch the legs more on a daily basis, but it will allow me to pass more people in the street and talk and know more people.  For example, this week as I began to move things back and forth, I keep seeing this one older gentleman and we kept exchanging little chit chat back and forth.  Come to find out that he was the casket store owner here and tells me about his business.  It was funny because he told me that he has the opportunity to provide families with the last memory and gave a good laugh.  Just little things like this open the doors of relationships that the Peace Corps stresses in our work here within the community.

I just got back from a little trip to Lake Atitlan and to Panajachel.  The premier lake here in Central America, has been dubbed by some as one of the best most beautiful lakes in the world.  For me, I have had the opportunity to grow up around water.  I am very blessed to have family that has a lake house up in New Hampshire on Squam Lake (yes there is lot of bias but its still the best lake I know of) and also have had the opportunity to see the oceans of the Pacific.  Atitlan is a spectacle do not get me wrong but for the hype that surrounded it I was a little disappointed.  There were moments where it was very beautiful with a sunset, sun-kissed clouds and lighting clouds too.  It is a lake formed in the crater of a massive volcano and around the lake are three massive volcanoes as well jutting out of mother earth. There just wasn't that wow factor, maybe its there and I just did not find it yet.  Maybe I have to spend a little more time to form a accurate opinion.  I will definitely return.  Here at the lake was a little get together of other PCV’s that enabled me the opportunity to get to see other volunteers from my training group and catch up as well as meet other volunteers who have been in country for sometime.  It was a good morale booster and fun to see how everyone has been going through the same ups and downs as me.  It was a good weekend to recharge the batteries before a few weeks left of 2010. 

Lake Atitlan

I want to extend a Happy Hanukkah to all my family and friends who are celebrating, you know who you are!  I hope everyone is doing well and preparing for the winter! 

Finally, I want to add a little quote about time as a friend and I have been thinking about what time is, how we deal with it how we try to make it relate to our lives.  There is the same amount of time in each day, each week, month and year, but it is amazing the daily interchange of this concept and what we call relativity.  

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't

own it, but you can use it. You can't keep

it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it

you can never get it back.

Thanksgiving with a side of Dengue...

Hey Everyone!  Happy Thanksgiving.  Hope everyone has had a great few days off and will be enjoying the weekend with close family and friends in the company of loved ones!!  I had great plans this Thanksgiving to go and spend some time with other volunteers in another department here in Guatemala.  We have not had the ability to see anyone within our training group yet and this was going to be our first chance to do so.  


Monday was a good day, my project specialist and APCD (program director) came to visit as they were passing through.  It was good to meet up with them and they took me out to lunch.  While they were here, I was able to get another house approved and am looking forward to moving this weekend into a new house with a family.  My housing situation is just not the best for me right now and I think that this new house with this family will provide me with a little more social interaction on a daily basis that will not only improve me Spanish level but also just be a better all around situation.  


A weird thing happened that day, I wasn’t feeling too well and did not sleep the night before.  Sunday I remember having a slight headache and not feeling well all around.  I had gone to bed early and tried getting some extra sleep to shake what I had.  Monday came along and nothing much better except every hour the headache got worse, and my joints started hurting.  My muscles started hurting.  It was not good.  I was not ready for the flu.  I through seriously really?!  Why now. Oh well, that night I came home a little early talked to my brother online and told him what I felt and just was miserable.  I had a little dinner and some hot cocoa to make me feel a little better, to remind me a little of home and tried to go to bed by 8pm.  I woke up and took 800mg of Ibuprofen around 9pm and went back to bed.  Then the rest of the night was horrible at best.  I woke up tossed and turned with calofrios (hot and colds) where I was so cold that I was violently shivering and then the next minute I was sweating heavily.  This was a long night. Battling nausea stomach everything…. not to mention I had unbearable pain running through my back, down my spine into my groin joints and legs.  Every muscle in my body was just sore to move and I had not even been doing anything.  At 3am, I thought to myself, we have to do something, and something fast.  I couldn’t make it out of my bed and to the phone so I just laid there and did my best to do deep breathing and to get control of whatever was happening.  I somehow made it back to half consciousness or death feeling and woke up at 7am. 

 I called the Peace Corps doctor and told him my symptoms and told me to get to the hospital as fast as I could.  I did.  It was a nice long windy bus ride down the mountains here to Quezaltenango (Xela) (pronounced Shay-lah) and then as I was somewhat delusional still I got out at the bus terminal.  This was my first time in Xela and I had no clue where the hospital was, or where I was supposed to go, or which direction to head.  I looked around and started walking.  After about a 10-15 min walk I finally asked someone in the store where the hospital was and showed here the address.  She told me the ‘other direction and very far’.  At this point I had begun to feel a nice itchy sensation, burning almost where every article of clothing touched my skin, and I just realized that I had walked in the wrong direction for 15 mins.  GREAT.  I have no idea where I am, and no idea what the hell is wrong with me.  After talking to a few more people and what felt like 10 hours, I finally just got in a cab and had the driver take me to the hospital which was about a mile away. 

It was him...I swear

 I get to the hospital and was seen right away as the doctors are waiting for me and PC has notified them about my coming.  After taking sample of everything and talking to them they tell me they are going to show me a room.  I tell them a room for what?  I tell them I am hoping to get back to my site tonight, I was hoping I would be able to just get some medicine and get back.  Then a quick reply of ‘your spending the night’  SWEET.  I thought.  I was shown my room, had some nurses fish around for some veins for an IV and then just started at the walls.  The doctor came in a few times, and the blur of the day soon turned into night.  The next morning, I talked to the doctor and the test came back all negative and they told me with my symptoms and where I live, I had dengue.  I knew dengue was from mosquitos but that was about it.  It is common and people get it but I didn’t know it was like this.  Hey it could be worse.  I know what most of you are thinking but seriously, it all retrospect, things could be a lot worse.  I am still alive, I still have my limbs. I still can function….for the most part.  


So the day passes and it is about 2pm.  I ask the doctor when I would be able to leave that day.  She gives me a little smile and says, sometime tomorrow….perhaps.  Ha, another night.  I just wanted to go home so badly.  I didnt have anything with me.  Luckily I had a book in my bag that I had forgotten to take out and pounced on it like it was the only book in the world.  At this time, I was going nuts. Just laying in a third world country, and going to spend Thanksgiving, one of only two holidays that the PC gives us as free travel days.  I got to use mine to hang at the hospital with dengue and a side of Salmonella: the double whammy.  They found out I had salmonella too.  Oh man was I in for it.  Yesterday when I woke up….ugggh….I was just miserable.  I was still sore, my lower back at felt like Mike Tyson had given me about 15 rounds of his prime and I was just chilling in the hospital bed.  Ill be honest.  It was a really really low point.  I was depressed.  I didn’t know when I was going to be let out of the hospital.  I did not have anything to do.  I just was a mess, alone, sick in a foreign country which is never a good combination.  


Finally I escaped.  I got back late last night.  After feeling fresh air for the first time in three days and learning how to walk again was a great boost to me mentally.  But after the short 2 hour bus ride home I started feeling horrible again.  I was scared.  But the comforting thing was, when I was walking back into town, people were asking me where I had been.  People were just saying hi.  That they hadn’t seen me in a while, that there, the human interaction of my town here but a little smile on my face.  I got home, talked to my parents on the phone filled them in on what happened and wished them a Happy Thanksgiving.  I took a nice bucket bath, changed my clothes that I had been living in the last three days and went to bed!  This morning I woke up and felt a little better and the headache has lessened considerably but I have read on the Dengue symptoms that it can come back after a day of feeling better.  So I hope hope hope hope, that tomorrow I feel awesome and not anything like I have been feeling.  


I am fine! Seriously I am.  There is no need to worry about me or feel bad for me.  It is just part of what goes on here in the lives of people here on a daily basis.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have had access to medical care where most of the people here in the country do not.  I am lucky to have family and friends to support me through this journey, and I thank you for being a good support group.  I will keep you all updated as these next few days pass.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

First week or so in

Hey guys!

Life has been pretty fun and action packed for what I thought was going to be an experience for a PCV!  Of course there are the long chunks of time when there is nothing to do, but I am quickly learning that this is part of life and when they come it is a great time to just walk around the town, find someone to talk to, or take a little nap. 

The weather here in Huehuetenango is really beautiful.  I am at the foothills of the Cuchamantanes.  Many volunteers in this department are up in the mountains a some pretty high altitudes.  I am around 5,200ft.  That allows of some decently warm day with cloudless skies and sometimes chilly nights.  What I have heard from the other volunteers and talking to people in my town is it can get FREEZING up in the mountains and sometimes here as well. 

My first weeks of work have been typical for any position.  Trying to understand everything that the office is doing.  Who is who, who does what, or sometimes here who doesn’t do anything but ‘works’ and just trying to understand the process of projects, plans and how or where I might be able to fit in.  With my program of Municipal Development, I can work in a whole slew of areas and hopefully in my service time I will be able to work in many areas of the office to help, learn and support some areas that need some help.  Our program  helps work with community groups called COCODES (Consejo Communitario de Desarollo) that are formed by the respective community with a president, secretary, treasurer, and members of the group that have meetings and try to agree upon what type of projects are needed within their aldea. These projects can range from getting potable water to their village, making a new school, building latrines, getting electricity, paving a road or making it easier for travel, it can really run the gamut, it just depends on what they want.  Where I come in is I help strengthen these group by teaching them how to formally solicit the municipality, how to plan and come up with ideas for projects and help them function as a whole.  There are a series of charlas (that we give these group of how to be a group, what they do, how to properly hold meetings, the laws of the government and what they have power to do etc).  I right now am working on creating a database that compiles all the information of our COCODES including who is in them, their pictures, what projects they have received funding for, what charlas they have had etc.  We have 22 COCODES in our municipality so there is a lot of information, but hopefully with this it will streamline some of the office work and allows it to be stored accurately in an organized way.

We had the first lady of Guatemala come and give a little speech about a program called Mi Familia Progresa she is trying to push.  It a very political talk as there are rumors about her running for President in the upcoming election.

Currently it is our feria (fair) and the town is bustling with activities.  There are mini rides something comparable to the rides that didn’t make passing grades in the states and had to be sent down here.  It is crazy to see how some of these rides have been put together.  There are food vendors, video games, lots of foosball, and sweets.  I went to a beauty pageant but did not stay for the whole thing because it started at 8pm and went to 2am.  Its crazy!  There are marimba bands, dances soccer friendlys and just active things happening.

One scary thing that happened last weekend was there was a big soccer match.  We have a team within our Muni that competes in the 3^rd division in Guatemala.  Its not professional but the fans here act like it is which is fun and fun to support local people playing for our town.  During the game, fouls started to get a little harder and a little rougher.  Fans were not happy with the referees as they began to throw things at them  and red cards started being issued to players.  After the game, our fans and their fans started arguing and mixed with alcohol (where there is an abundance of here, also noted by the fact that there are two AA offices here) became rowdy.  I was with some friends and we decided to leave and get out before anything happened.  I then saw some other friends turn around and start running back fast to the stadium, which at that point I knew something was going on.  I decided to ride my bike back a little ways to see what was happening.  I saw a guy with a bloody face being surrounded by the police in handcuffs acting as a barrier with a mob behind him swearing, throwing rocks and whatever they could get a hold on at him.  Apparently this guy had a gun and pulled it out and started firing it over people’s heads in an effort to scare them off.  It’s crazy to put it bluntly but it is part of the lifestyle here and just a big reality check that anyone can do anything at any given time.  Yikes.  I am eager to see what these next few weeks will bring!!  

Finally At Site

Me and the Ambassador

I am an official PCV!  What a whirlwind of a week.  I can even describe the rollercoaster of emotions that I went through getting to this point.  I don’t even know where to start or how to tell what happened.  Well….there is this…..

So as you all know I love writing about my camioneta experiences.  This one definitely tops the charts so far.  This last week we were in our training center and had to go to the office every day.  So the last day I am heading back and after waking up around 5am for the entire week I am pretty out of it at the end of the day.  There was something different about the ride though, it just seemed a little dustier, dirtier.  I asked another PCV me if she thought the same.  She though so but we couldn’t do anything, and it is the beginning on summer where there is no rain and the dust can kick up really quickly.  Well then the next thing I know a truck with a load full of workers goes by yelling franticly at us…”tiene fuego, tiene fuego”.  Yeah fuego means fire, which took me a little bit to fully comprehend as I was sleepy but  yeah that means our bus was on fire.  Its Guatemala.  I thought I was used to everything but, then when I saw all the other Guatemalans pouring out both the front and back entrance of the bus somewhat franticly, I decided to follow suit and run like hell.  The ayudante (helper who collects the change) had an extinguisher and other store owners were running with water to help out.  So then I looked for the fire and it was under the engine and by the driver’s side wheel well.  Not a good thing.  After the fire was put out the ayudante insisted for all the passengers to get back on the bus.  When I saw the Guatemalan give the typical finger shake with their index finger, I knew to follow suit once again and not get on the bus.  Lesson learned here: when Guatemalans run, you run.  When they are scared, then it’s time to be scared too. 

As for swearing it, what an experience.  Earlier in the week, we had to sign our contracts which we agreed to defend the constitution and the same oath that all service men and women take before enlisting and for some politicians as well including VP Biden.  We had the pleasure of going to the Ambassador’s residence in Guatemala city to have our ceremony.  We got to walk around a little beforehand and see what his situation was like.  All that mattered to me was he had a tennis court.  I think this was the first tennis court I have stepped on in a few months.  Oh it was exhilarating. 

I got to talk to the Ambassador and ask him some questions about the Guatemalan political stability, and the problems he thinks that Guatemala faces.  The one thing that will stick with me for a while was after some introductions, he asked my group what our program was, with which we answered Municipal Development.  His next response “Yes…yes….that’s good for you all, yes…that is the hardest one we have here no doubt, I wish all the best of luck.’  I took that the best way that anyone could, and used it for motivation for journey ahead.

The night we as a big group got together and had a blast with one hurrah before we all were to deploy to our sites.  We came together reflected on our ups, downs, and everything from getting on the plane first in Washington D.C. to being sworn in a saying our oath with the Ambassador in front of us.  We also ended up compiling a list of superlatives and I happened to win the honor of ‘most likely to be elected mayor of my site.’  The next day we all left for our respective sites which was another journey unto itself.  It took me about 7 hours to finally get to my town as there was a national bike race ‘the Tour of Guatemala’ and we got stuck behind it.  So we meandered up along the high hills a slow pace for a good chunk of the trip.

One of the things that will stick with me for a while is the impact that my host family had on me and the amount of support I still feel from them and still continues to feel from them.  They are truly great people and it was hard to say good bye to them, but I am just so honored and blessed to have built such a great bond with people who were 3 months ago, complete strangers.  I know during my service that I will be going back to visit them and to just stay in touch.  They are an incredible family and did a lot to make me feel welcome here in Guatemala during my first few months here.  Kudos to them!

With other volunteers from my group, Justin and Carolyn

This week I will begin to walk around the town and do my best to get to know the people of my site.  I think I will just start by walking up and down every street saying hi to everyone I could possibly say hi to.  I have attached some pictures so please enjoy.  Thanks again everyone for all the support!!

Last Training Post

Greetings everyone!

This will be my last entry as a trainee as tomorrow is our swearing in ceremony.  We will have the privilege to be sworn in at the Ambassador’s house by the Ambassador himself.  I am sure it will be a fun filled event.  After that we will all get together in Antigua for our last farewell together as a training group and enjoy a last night together.  On Saturday we will then all have to travel to our respective sites spreading out all over the country from the eastern part to the western part.  From out group I will be the only one going to Huehuetenango (Way-way-tah-nan-go).  I have two site mates that are in the program of healthy schools and have been there since March. 

For the most part training was an incredible experience for me being here in country already since August!  Time has really flown by for the most part but there have been days that just seem to crawl as well.  I know that I will really miss my host family as we are incredibly close and have bonded really well.  They have already invited me back for Christmas and have told me to consider their door always open.  I feel incredibly lucky because most other volunteers often do not have this type of relationship with their host families.  This transition has been one I can look back on with great admiration and joy.  I know I will be in touch with them and see them from time to time. 

Yesterday we had a Spanish exit exam and I have move up a few levels which is fun to see some progress.  I will be anxious to see what the next 3 month will be like as most RPCVs(returned volunteers) and current PCVs (current volunteers) say is the toughest in the whole service.  This is the time when you are moving into your community where you will be in for the next 2 years, and the first 3 months are integral into your integration into that community.  It’s going to be some tough work, some lonely nights and hard circumstances but one I am willing to take on.  Only time will tell.  I am also excited to start working with my agency in the municipality (I will write a little more about this coming up in future posts of what exactly it is I will be doing (I have to figure that out as well)).  It could range from a lot but mostly working with the planning office and aiding in project design and management. 

Lastly, thanks for all the support stateside! It means a lot to have all you guys rooting for me over here!

Thank you all!

Frank

Trips etc

Hey all!

Just got back from a great trip to Malacatancito Huehuetenango! It took only about five hours in a jammed packed comioneta to reach our destination.  I was there to visit another volunteer who is closing his service and to get a feel of what site living might be like.  I enjoyed my time to be able to talk candidly with another volunteer and get the ins and outs of living, working, and being a volunteer in Guatemala. 

 The journey getting there was quite the experience as going through the hills of the western part of the country was something else.  It was very scenic, refreshing and enjoyable to have the ability to see the volcanoes, the crops carved into the mountainsides and just the Guatemalan country.  That made up for everything that was happening internally on the bus.  How can I describe the atmosphere in the bus…..hmm….ok.  Imagine you are on a rollercoaster that should have been decommissioned only 25 years earlier but is still going at full speed.  The curves, climbs and types of roads we took were breathtaking for their scenery but as well as their sheer dangerousness.  There were countless times where I was white knuckling the seat in front of me to make sure I did not fall out of my seat, to keep the other guy from falling on top of me, and just to hold on for dear life.  The roads were just as treacherous and hair-raising as there were times that we went to pass cars in our lane and dodge cars left and right, (which means going onto oncoming traffic, which means regardless if it is a car, a horse, or 18 wheeler truck we are going to try to pass as many cars as possible, which means we did not have room to go back into our lane when this truck was coming head on at us with us both going in excess of 60 miles per hour, meaning we then had to go farther left where there was no road and had to skirt the trouble on the dirt road with bumps for a little bit until we got back into our lane.) 

The roads going through the hills all have been damaged more or less from landslides and poor management.  Any semi-educated civil engineer would have been in amazement of the regulations that the construction projects left out as they literally carved out mountainsides with sheer cliffs on both sides.  Think about Grand Canyon steepness if you can.  Anyways, with the cliffs and landslides some of the roads as we passed had missing ground underneath them where there was no way that a mouse could walk across the road without it crumbling from the lack of support underneath.  Yet somehow I have the ability to write about these experiences.  Oh yeah and the girl three rows in front of us lost her lunch about 20 minutes into the ride of a good 3 hour segment. The buses don’t stop for anything unless there is something in the road.  ¡Que rico!

On Sunday, I ran in a 10k road race which was a great thing to do.  Why? Because I haven’t exercised exercised in a while and thought I would take advantage of a nice day out and subject myself to 5k of straight uphill followed by another 5k or straight downhill.  I finished the race and I got FIRST PLACE!  I don’t like to bring attention but I totally did not expect this but I ran my heart out and did the best that I could do.  I did not care about placement as I just was hoping to enjoy the day which I did as the sky was cloudless and warm.  The course took us through the only road in our town as we are part of the municipality that put on the race, and it was fun to partake in this event.  What surprised me more than anything else was on the return coming back through the town was the amount of people who were cheering for me.  Peace Corps has been right in respects to how much of an impact that we have in our places that we stay even though we do not readily see it.  Just by saying hi and chatting people up at the local corner store or passing by on the street , I have gotten to know them and they have gotten to know the ‘gringo’ extranjero’ or the ‘conchito’ who has been walking the streets of them.  That warmed my heart and put a smile on my face for the rest of the run and made my week.

Oh I might want to clarify one thing as well.  The first place I got was the first place for the gringos.  I think I may have come in 40^th place or something around there with a time of 47:24.  Peace Corps also told us it is all about our perspective on how we look at things.  So I am going to say 1^st place. J

Hope all is well with everyone everywhere.  I find out my site placement and where I will be living for the next 2 years on tomorrow! Cant wait as I am ready to get living and see what I can do.  Hope everyone enjoyed a fun Columbus Day. 

Independence Day and travel to Chiquimula

Hey everyone!

Lots has happened since the last post and I am sure I will miss a little bit here and there but I will do my best to recap and make sure I touch on the best of the best. 

On the 15^th was Independence Day and there was a lot of festivities ranging from fireworks that started at 5:00am to meals and parades.  These ‘cohetes’ or ‘bombas’ are just usually used for making a lot of noise to wake everyone up with the sound of a bomb going off.  Parades started early around 8:30am and went right by our house which was great to see all the elementary students in their outfits showing off their schools.  Bands accompanied them keeping an untimely cadence as there was a chaotic sequence to the rhythm and songs being played.  After that we decided to go into Antigua to catch a bigger parade but on the way as we etched up a steep hill, all of a sudden my father looked at me and told me ‘no mas… terminamos’ I looked at him startled and surprised, We were nowhere near Antigua.  ‘Franco necisita empujar…ahorita’ he followed with just as I realized the car had slowed to a crawl and as the sentence finished we were going backwards out of gas on the Inter-American highway!  That was not what really scared me but the fact that I knew the camionetas (public transportation buses that are filled to 100 people plus more that were bought from the states as they were deemed to cause too much pollution.  Also note that these buses are gutted with then put in extra seats where there is no leg room, painted on the sides where is looked like something out of a horror movie and with jacked up air horns that you can hear miles away (this might need a whole other blog entry soon too))were bounding around the corner at any minute did.  Push I did, and will all my might and strength.  To no avail I could not get the car very far so we parked and waited for a while until a cousin came and brought us gas.  Right before we filled the tank, my host dad opened the trunk of the car and took out this tube that was put together with duct tape; I looked at him and had to ask if this had ever happened to him before.  He looked at me and looked at the tube and we both had a good laugh as he rigged his contraption and filled the car with enough gas to get to the gas station.  Luckily we caught a good parade in Antigua where it was incredible.  The central square was jammed packed and the bands were almost competing against one another.  There was one that stood out that had dancers, baton throwers, and just had swagger.  This swagger was something out of the movie ‘Drumline’ where the tuba players were dancing as they played, moving with cuts and abrupt movements, jiving and contorting in movements that made them drip with sweat.  Their outfits heightened the sultry atmosphere with big feathers in all their caps with a deep maroon contrasted by the crisp white of their pants and shoes and gold laced trim.  Puchica (wow) as they would say here.

                All of last week we did field based training where we saw other volunteers in their sites and saw what life could be like.  We went to the eastern part of the country where it is more tropical and a good 30F hotter than where we have our training sites.  It was hot to saw the least.  The area where we went is totally different than the western part of Guatemala.  There is a heavy ladino influence with very little indigenous population.  One thing that did catch my eye over anything and everything else, one thing that I had not seen before in my life was the amount of guns and hand held pistols everyone had.  It was comparable to the wild wild west.  I did see a guy who looked like the punisher from the movies who had a gun on his waste, 5 clips of rounds on the other side and two guns strapped to his suspenders which were located under his armpits.  It literally was like out of the movies. 

                We returned early from out trip by a day and had to cut a free day out a little bit due to a tropical storm that was bearing its way up Panama and into our neck of the woods.  The amount of rain we have received here is unprecedented and Guatemala will be trying to fix all the damage in the years to come. 

This past weekend was a good weekend, a slow quite one where I could relax get some good thinking in and think about  why I want to be here and really what it is that I want to be doing here as well.  There have been some really good days but then some days that just leave you questioning things.  It really is a rollercoaster ride, and for the ride that it is right now, I am enjoying the ups downs and twists and turns.  We hope to learn where our assignments are going to be in on October 14^th, and after that some of our fears will be either a reality or alleviated.   

Hope all is well with everyone!  Much love!

Ps….speaking of twists and turns….had a nice earthquake the other night!  Will write more after another weekend and site visit to the western part of the country! 

Grettings everyone! Finally I have gotten back to the internet to be able to post this. Let me say first and foremost that everything is getting better. I am not sure what all of you have heard/read/seen on the news but the landslides here the past week have been very devastating and have claimed numerous lives. With that being said, most of the training projects we are doing and are going to be altered a little bit. We were supposed to have a Mayan ceremony in Tecpan, at Ixenche where there are fantastic Mayan ruins of temples and pyramids but unfortunately that is where the landslides have destroyed most of the roads including the Inter-American highway. It was a quick awakening to the strength that Mother Nature can unleash at her will.

Spanish classes continue with little cultural exchanges and learning about anything and everything Guatemalan. It has been very fun and rewarding. Yesterday we had all the mothers from our Spanish class come to our class and did a fun activity. For our icebreaker we were supposed to make a single file line according to our birthday month starting with January and descending in order, but the catch was without words or hand gestures. Soon we were allowed hand gestures and finally made it work after much amusement and laughter. The goal was to provide a language barrier and a problem and means to do our best to work our way through it. This still happened between us trainees and the host familys as we integrate into the Guatemalan communities as sayings, diction and tone all can play a part in the meaning of something said. Hand gestures are a whole other conversation but fun to know and use as well in accordance to verbal communication. After that we talked about perceptions that our American culture had of the Guatemalans and vice versa. That was fun to talk about them after we addressed some key issues and could talk about. We Americans walk way to fast, are too punctual, and read a lot were some of the stereotypes.

This past week we went to a coffee farm, say the process of how coffee is grown, harvested, dried, and roasted and eventually sold. It is very interesting and a quick note for all the coffee drinkers, a coffee tree produces about 40 cups of coffee a year. On that tour, I had an opportunity to take some pictures of flowers and the buildings of the coffee farm. Some are included as I have a little passion for photography that I hope to develop (no pun intended) in some free time down here.

As far as work related training goes, I have paired up with another trainee to work with a youth group within the municipality. We will be doing some ‘charlas’ which are presentations and informational/educational workshops that can range from sexual education, domestic violence, sports playing, geography and identifying needs of the community. We have the opportunity to really get our feet wet and be in front of participating individuals who are looking to be a part of something. It will be fun and interesting to see how we do in the upcoming weeks. Times are busy with packed days of Spanish, cultural and technical training, intensive but fun and rewarding nonetheless.

Next week on September 15th Independence Day and festivities and parades will take place all day and will be a fun cultural experience. I can’t wait. Other than that to report, all is well and each day brings new opportunities and learning experiences and lately (the past 3 days NO RAIN!) decent weather once and a while.

First Post

Hi everyone!  Just checking into see how this is all going to work.  I will be hopefully updating and playing around with the configurations as I get more time with the limited internet connection I have available! 

I will report that everything is going very well here in Guatemala.  I love the culture and the sceanery.  I am living currently with a great host family that takes great care of me.  Days are busy and filled with Spanish classes and technical training and a whole host of training for everything you can imagine. I hope to update you all on a some what routine basis with my developing assignment and things I will be doing!  I will also add some pictures and let you know all about my trials and tribulations as I am on this journey.

Thanks so much for all the support!