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.