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