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!!