Updates and Reconnect

Greetings everyone.  Time for updates.  My cast is off and I didn’t have to spend the night for them to take it off.  Granted they moved the appointment back a few times, I am glad to report it is off.  It is still pretty weak and was a little purple but I can walk and day by day it is getting better. 

Last week was pretty busy as after my cast removal on Friday the 11th, the following day I made the trip to Antigua where I got to meet up with my training group for Reconnect.  Reconnect is a 2-day get together with our group to well….reconnect.  Most people got in a few days early and got to spend some extra time together and catch up.  With our travel restrictions and personal days vs. vacation days it is hard to see people when you are on one side of the country and they are on the other.  We are only allowed to travel 3 hours out of our site and have it count as a personal day.  Anything technically more than that we need to take vacation.  Antigua is anywhere between 4-5.5 depending on traffic and connections.  So this was my first extended stay in Antigua really since I have been here in country. 

Sunday and Monday night I stayed with my host family Ingrid and Armando and got to see Camilla.  It is always to see them as they make me feel like I am at home when I am there.  They are such a nice family and I hope to see them again soon.  Camilla is getting so big and is starting to walk and say a few words.  She’s so cute!

Reconnect was good, we got to meet up with other volunteers and have specific meetings on things that went well, what didn’t, and scenarios to help fix them.  Many people have similar problems and frustrations but just with different named people.  The most common thing here is ‘hora chapina’ aka Guatemala time.  You can ask someone to show up and you can expect them to show up usually that day.  I will say they average an hour to two behind that scheduled time.  Very frustrating. 

On Tuesday, we had another packed day with meetings but got to have Pizza and have a lunch/discussion with the Ambassador again.  He’s a really straight forward guy who made us feel welcome and appreciated our work here in Guatemala.  He asked a lot of questions of ourselves and what we saw in the field working and living along side Guatemalans.  He gave us insight on development and some of his thoughts about the upcoming elections and where Guatemala might go.  It was definitely a better session as we had more pertinent questions to ask him than we did during our swear in at his house. 

I am back at site now, and staring to get a few projects underway along with the day to day office work I do alongside my team.  A few people are taking vacation right now so the ‘office’ has a little more space and I can get a little bit more work done.  I am working on a few bottle school projects that uses empty bottles filled with non-organic trash in place of cement blocks to cut costs.  I have proposed a plan to build three schools with an initial investment from the mayor, and with this help and showing to NGO’s that we have the capability to do projects like this in hopes to attract more funds for other programs as well.  We are just in the very early stages of this project(s) so we will see where it all goes. 

I get to look forward to a little visit from my parents in a few weeks which will be a welcomed treat for sure.  Its amazing to already know that I have been here for 6 months. As the saying goes here in PC.  The days are slow and long but the months go by fast….. until next time!