Happy Christmas!

Hello All!

I just had a lovely weekend with my mum in Antigua and have a few friends coming to spend Christmas with me, so things are bright and sunny in my world. I hope you all have a lovely and peaceful Christmas surrounded by family and friends. Thanks to everyone who sent me Christmas cards and packages- you made my first Guatemalan Christmas extra fabulous!

Well, Im off to pick up my friends at the bus station and prepare for a night filled with tamale eating, gift exchanging, and fireworks!!!

Long awaited pictures of my new home...

Crazy kiddies in my town

Our basketball/ soccer court with a beautiful sunset


My office, one of my coworkers and her son


Town center- park and church




The municipal building- my office is the second window from the left on the top floor


View of my street from my house (and my index finger in case you´d forgotten what that looks like)


My house! Rose bushes to the left


My pila in my secret garden behind the house- this is where I was clothes, dishes, veggies, etc.


My bed with my cool PACA (used market) blanket


My kitchen


Other side of my room with my homemade shelves

Thanksgiving on the Lake

RJ, Me, and Katie shopping in Panajachel


Scott, David, and Katie lounging at the hostel



The view from my hostel in the morning



Thanksgiving 2008 marked my first major holiday away from home. I was in London for Thanksgiving a few years ago, but the fam came to visit, (you should ask me about trekking a 25 pound Turkey around London via the Tube sometime) so this officially was my first.

I spent it at Lake Atitlan with my training group. We went to this fabulously rustic little hostel called Iguana Perdida in the town of Santa Cruz La Laguna, Solola, where our dorm room was actually a bungalow on stilts without walls! We arrived on Thursday afternoon and took a launch from one side of the lake, Panajachel, to Santa Cruz on the other. The weather was amazing so we swam in the lake until a) we were kicked out for swimming off the dock of the fancy restaurant down the street and b) it was time for Thanksgiving dinner! The hostel cooked the meal, which in the absence of mom food and grandma’s rolls, was pretty much as good as it gets. We then proceeded to lounge around in hammocks in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. Not a bad day, if you ask me.

In true Peace Corps fashion we stretched our Thanksgiving holiday into 4 days of lounging, swimming, kayaking, playing games, and Christmas shopping in the local artisan market. All in all, the weekend was a pretty wonderful, and a much needed break. It was really therapeutic to get together with others in my training group and share experiences from our first few weeks. I know it comforted me to realize that the loneliness and emotional roller-coaster-ness of the last month was a pretty standard experience.

Coming back to the reality of life at site was tough, but as my bus got closer and closer to my house I realized that I actually felt like I was going home. I suppose that means I’m starting to settle in here. Hogar, dulce hogar.

This is the part where I get sappy...

I’m well into week 4 in my site and starting to realize all of the things I miss about home. It probably has a lot to do with the lack of a lot of the relative comforts I had during training (i.e. speaking English) that I’m just now beginning to notice these things. But, without further ado, here they are, in no particular order…
· Libraries
· Peanut Butter
· Coffee shops (and good coffee!)
· Cheese
· My family (and Annie too!)
· Speaking English
· Movies
· Dance parties (Jess, Josh, Paul…you three are most definitely included in that)
· Talking about international development with Houghton friends…man, living it is WAY harder!

But I have to say, that the thing I miss most of all of this is the amazing communities of people that I left behind in the U.S. I miss having late night conversations about important stuff and trivial stuff. I miss cooking meals together and sitting around the dinner table long after the plates are empty. I miss going on walks and hikes with people I love. I miss picnics and Frisbee games after church. I miss church! I miss game nights. I miss trips into DC with lunches on Saturdays. I miss concerts and plays. So, to those of you who live in New Hampshire, Houghton, and DC- this blog is dedicated to you!

However, you have a way of making my life full even from afar. I love the memories and pictures I brought with me to Guatemala, and the knowledge that we will make more soon. Knowing that you continue to dance your heads off, play Bang, talk about international development, and cook lots of yummy food makes me SO happy! Miss you!

This is Life

So, I must apologize for my serious lack of posting lately. Ive settled into my new life here in my site and everything seems a whole lot like normal life now. I suppose Ive felt that since nothing has changed and nothing monumental has happened that I dont have anything to blog about. I think thats just a reflection on the fact that this is now my home (wow...weird!) and things are going to be pretty normal from here on out. So, with that in mind, let me fill you in on my normal everyday life in Huehuetenango.

Ive been here for 3 weeks now. I have a cute house on one of the main streets in town and on market days my house is full of noise and smells from the vendors that are parked less than a block from my front door. Im beginning to make friends; the wonderful thing about small rural towns is that everyone knows everyone else and because Im new people notice and invite me in for coffee! So Ive meet some pretty cool people that way. There are several families in town that I think Ill be hanging out with pretty frequently. In one family a baby was born a week before I arrived. We were talking the other day about how she will kind of be the marker of my time here. Ill get to see two of her birthdays, see her learn to walk and talk, get to teach her my name even! I like the sound of that kind of consistency.

Job stuff is going pretty well. Its a slow start, to be sure. Any job takes a lot of orientation and learning and throwing in cultural and language barriers only makes that harder. But my counterparts (the two local women who I work with) are very gracious and are teaching me lots. Im beginning to learn the local Mayan language: so far I can say whats up and safe travels! Next week we are beginning the process of creating our operating plan and budget for next year. Im excited to begin the process with them and to be here to see it through next year.

So yep, thats my life now. I speak a lot of Spanish:)

Obamania

Barb, me, and Alana at the election party


The man of the hour!


Though I was out of the country for the elections, thanks to Democrats abroad, I was able to view the results as they came in. It was pretty exciting to be surrounded by 250 other people- Americans and others as our country selected our first ever African-American president! It looks like our country is in for a pretty big change, with Obama has Head of State! Hopefully he keeps his word and ups the Peace Corps! I´m excited to see what the next few years bring for the US and countries like Guatemala who are really affected by our policies.

It´s Official!

Esperanza and I in the garden of the Embassador´s house


So excited to be volunteers!



The gang looking super fresh in our swearing-in best


Well folks, it´s official, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV)! After 3 months of training we all descended upon Ambassador McFarland´s house last Friday to take our oaths as volunteers. The ceremony was really cool- the ambassador, our country director, and one of our group spoke, reminding us what we´re here for and what our mission is as volunteers.

The day was also bittersweet, as I had the difficult task of saying goodbye to the Carillo family who have taken me in as one of their own. We had a going away party where I cooked them all dinner and we all said words (Guatemalan tradition where everyone present thanks everyone and says nice things about the guest of honor) about how much we enjoyed our time together. Then they gave me lovely presents for my house, which was totally unexpected and very sweet.

It´s hard to believe that I´ve been here for 3 months already, and even harder to believe that soon I´ll be living ALL ON MY OWN, speaking only Spanish!

Final Week of Training

It´s pretty unreal that I´ve been here for almost 3 months and my training is coming to a close. I had my final lanugage interview today, my final common session yesterday, and tomorrow night I´m cooking a big dinner for my family to say thank you and goodbye. It´s all so final.

I´m ready to move to my site, but it´s bittersweet to be sure. I´ve come to love my training site and my family. But I suppose it´s the things you love that are the hardest to leave, so it´s not a bad feeling.

Friday morning we head to the Ambassador´s house and have our swearing-in ceremony and then we´ll have a big party as a group to celebrate our completion of training, and then Sunday...we´re off. To start our lives in our new homes.

Site Assignment and Visit

After 2 months plus a few days of training, the day of October 8th came and it was time to find out our site assignments. I was a little crazy the few days before. Cali, Dan, and I came up with a list of possible places and literally spent hours guessing where we and the rest of our group would be going. On the morning of the 8th I woke up at 5:30 and was so excited I couldn´t go back to sleep. In typical Roberto fashion (he´s my boss- the director of the Municipal Development program), he arrived 25 minutes late, making us all slightly more crazy than we already were. He dramatically rolled out a map and handed us fancy folders with the names of our locations on them and then proceeded to place his finger on the map to demonstrate our locations. Turns out I was right- I guessed correcty!



Interruption: sadly, I can´t actually tell you where I´m going because of Peace Corps security rules for blogs. so if you wanna know, you´re gonna have to email me. I know, you probably hate me right now....but really, even if I told you, you´d have no idea where it was anyway! Plus it´s a good excuse for you to email me and tell me about what´s happening in your life. Then I´ll email you back and give you the official name of my location- plus, that´s way more interactive and fun!



What I can tell you is that it´s in the department (state) of Huehuetenango, which is the most northwestern state and it borders Mexico. The town is adorable and tiny. The population is 100% indigenous Mayan and I´ll be learning a language called Mam. It´s pronounced Mom which means I get to make awesome jokes like ¨hey, how´s your Mam?¨ I´ll be working in the Municipal Women´s office promoting human rights and working to strengthen the capacity of the office. It sounds like a pretty cool gig.



Just about a week after we got our site assignments and had enough time to build up sufficient curiosity about these places, they brought in our counterparts (the people who we´ll be working with in our communities) for a day and a half of training and then sent us off to our sites with them for the rest of the week. I got to see the office I´ll be working in, meet some community members, and I found an adorable house to live in! I have to admit though, it´s going to be pretty strange to be living there in 2 weeks. wow...2 weeks!

Feria de San Dionisio

The town Marimba band

Hayde and Esperanza (my host mom)

Waiting for the Gigantes

Video of the Gigantes (sorry, my camera doesn't do sound!)

So every town in Guatemala has a patron saint and every patron saint has a holiday. The patron saint of Pastores is San Dionisio and we've been celebrating all week in his honor. The festival, or feria, features lots of music, parades, fireworks, cultural demonstrations, and even a beauty pageant.

Individual Directed Activities

With Kay in Ixchiguan

On Miriam's balcony in Xela

Tallest point in Central America! Tajumulco

One part of our training to be volunteers is visiting another volunteer to see their work and lifestyle. So last week we were sent off (first time trying to navigate the crazy bus system alone!) with the name and location of a volunteer to visit. I went to visit Kay in San Marcos. San Marcos is a department (state) north west of where I am currently, it touches both the pacific coast and the Mexican border. Kay lives waaaaay up in the mountains where you have to sleep with wool socks and winter hats on in order to keep warm.

It was absolutely beautiful there. The drastic mountains gave way to rolling hills as we climbed higher and higher on our way there, and the giant trees shrunk to shrubs because the oxygen is so thin at 12,000 feet. We could see two volcanoes from her window; one, Tajumulco, is the tallest point in Central America and looked like a pretty small hill from our vantage point not far below it.

Not only did I get to experience another totally different part of Guatemala, I also got to see the work Kay is doing in her office. She works in the OMP- Oficina Municipal de Planificacion (Municipal Planning Office) and is currently working on a community diagnostic. There’s about 80 small communities in her municipality and with the help of her counterpart, Annabe, is visiting each one of them to fill out a census type form that will help the municipal office determine where the greatest needs of their communities are. They ask questions on everything from how many people live in the community and what type of water services they have, to whether or not the community has a library and if there are children with special needs. It was pretty neat to see the people gathered to answer these questions and willing to work to achieve real development in their communities. Kay thinks the whole process of collecting this information will probably take the rest of her service, but once finished, it can be passed along to the next volunteer and used by the Muni to complete projects for the communities that need them most.

Lastly, I also got to see how volunteers lived. On the trip I visited 4 very different volunteer houses that ranged from a huge house in a cabbage field to a small apartment in a big town; I also collected advice on things like how to make an oven, how to get to know neighbors, and how make shelves out of cinder blocks. Three weeks and counting until I’m on my own…

Field Based Training- Huehuetenango

It’s been some time since I’ve updated because for the last week I’ve been gallivanting around the western highlands with my training group. We spent 6 days in the department (state) of Huehuetenango (way-way-tuh-naan-go) visiting various municipal development volunteers. We got to see where they live, participate in some of their work, and ask them all the burning questions we’ve had since we started training. Some of the volunteers we visited are ones that will be replaced with people from our group as they finish their two years and we begin ours. So naturally we were all over analyzing everything our Roberto, our APCD (director of the Muni program) said, trying to figure out where he’s going to send us. We’ve all had several meetings with Roberto, telling him what kind of skills we think we have and what type of setting we’d like to live in- hot, cold, mountainous, rural, urban, Mayan or Spanish language speaking, but honestly, none of us have a clue where we’re heading! This was a good week for figuring out what Muni volunteers actually do, and getting ideas for projects and how to set up a life here in Guatemala. We’ll all be leaving again on Wednesday to spend a few days living with a volunteer to see more of what they do, and when we return they’ll be telling us exactly where we’ll be going. It’s really a pain having to wait, but I can’t believe that in less than 10 days I’ll know my new home for the next two years. WOW The week wasn’t all work though. It was great to finally have time to spend with the rest of my training group. We took advantage of our free time at night to chill at cool local restaurants, hang out, and watch movies. On Friday night we stayed in Xela, the capitol of the department of Quetzaltenango and joined a bunch of other volunteers in watching the presidential debates, and after had some fun salsa dancing!



This is the members of a COMUDE (Community Development Council) voting on what projects they´re going to do for next year.


Watching the presidential debates in Xela with other volunteers.


Downtown Xela



David walking in Xela

The Chicken Bus

In an earlier blog I mentioned the notorious chicken buses that are the Guatemalan public transportation system. Here’s your explanation…

One of the first things a person will notice on arrival to the airport in Guatemala City is the fleet of insanely colored school buses streaming down the roads. These are chicken buses. The buses start out their lives transporting small American children to and from school in the US (some of the buses still have “such and such county” written on the side! I’m just waiting to see one that says Belknap County). The story goes that once the American transportation authority deems a bus un-roadworthy it is sold to Mexico for use in public transport. Then, once Mexico also deems the bus un-roadworthy they continue their journey south to Guatemala, where one can only guess they come to die (or be driven into the ground)!

While chicken buses make up the national transportation system, they are privately owned and therefore the upkeep is the responsibility of the owner. For the most part it seems that the owners take pride in their buses; I think there must be some sort of chicken bus one-upping contest because the way people adorn these things is incredible! All of them are painted in stripes and swatches of bright primary colors which huge phrases like “Dios Bendiga” or “Jessica mi amor.” Most of the buses are also bedazzled with various stickers- my favorite so far was one that read “please don’t put your children in the luggage racks.” Lastly, and the crowing glory of the chicken bus, is the music. To the irritation of my training mate Dan (who literally looks like he might actually hurt someone when we get on a bus with especially loud music), each bus blasts whatever kind of music the owner fancies on that given day, usually some sort of local marimba beat.

When you’re a kid riding on a school bus you’re scolded for trying to cram more than 2 people into a seat. Not here. If you have only 3 people in a seat, you’re lucky. More than likely you’ll be sitting 4 to a seat with several people standing in the aisle, leaning over you. This creates many awkward and hilarious moments. The chicken bus moment that wins the award so far was on a ride from Guatemala City. This mom and her 3 kids got on the bus and there was no room left to sit so she stood right next to me. The littlest of the kids looked about 4 and apparently hadn’t had his nap because about a minute into the journey he fell asleep right on my shoulder. I think in his sleepiness he forgot that I wasn’t his mom and snuggled right into me.

15 de Septiembre

Independence Day. While independence day here in Guatemala does share some similarities with independence day in the US (namely, irresponsible people lighting large amounts of dangerous materials on fire in the street), for the most part, it was a wholly new experience.

The whole ordeal begins something like a week before the actual day- with “entorchas”. I’m not really sure how to describe these other than to say that they’re something like what you’d get if you bred a high school cross country race with the Olympic torch-running, and a giant water fight. Got the picture? Yeah, me either. Apparently the whole idea is for a school- primary, high school, typing school (I actually saw one for the department of health too) to load into a chicken bus (blog coming soon about chicken buses. stay tuned) and then drive from point A to point B, all the while having some or all of your students running the road in front of you holding a torch which may actually be a tin can attached to a chair leg. Meanwhile, your fellow citizens cheer you from the side of the road and peg you mercilessly with plastic bags filled with water until rock-solid. It’s pretty wild.

So for the days leading up to Independence Day there are TONS of these crazy entorchas, and also the random parade here and there. The parades usually consist of several local school bands and lots of cute little kids dressed up in the various traditional costumes of Guatemala. It’s pretty fun. The best part though, is when the town drunks decide it’s a good idea to set off fireworks in the crowd (see picture).

Independence Day itself is quite a hoot and holler, a lot more of the same- parades and such, and of course all kinds of yummy local foods. The whole thing was a great way to get to know my town a little better, and learn about the culture and history of Guatemala. Here are a few pictures of the fun…

Homemade Peanut Butter and Volcan Pacaya

Last weekend, I learned how to make peanut butter and climbed an active volcano all within a 24 hour period! Seriously…only in Guatemala is that possible. On Saturday, after a fun filled morning of showing another group of trainees our lovely little town, a bunch of us took off for another training site to help make peanut butter. The agricultural marketing volunteers have to help their family generate some sort of income from locally grown products as a part of their training. One trainee decided to work with her family to make peanut butter and jelly so we went over to help shell peanuts and chop strawberries for their first batch. It actually turned out really good, and as peanut butter costs like $20 an ounce here (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration…but only a bit!) I think I might take up peanut butter making as a hobby.

On Sunday, 8 of us woke up at the crack of dawn and made our way to Antigua where we loaded a bus to Volcan Pacaya. There are 33 volcanoes in Guatemala, 3 of which are active, and only 2 of which are hikeable. Pacaya is pretty close to where we are living so we decided to take our free day this week and see what it was all about.

When we got there we followed other volunteers’ advice and bought walking sticks for Q5 (about 75 cents) from these kids and made our way up the mountain. Though the hike up only took about 90 minutes, we were thankful for the sticks because the last hour consisted of sledging through a mountain of volcanic rock and ash- sliding back half a step for every step we took. There actually was one point where we got to “ski” down this huge hill that consisted totally of little tiny volcanic pebbles.

The view from the top was completely unreal! We were able to see all the way to the Pacific Ocean in one direction, and in another we could see 2 other volcanoes. There was a flowing river of lava literally 20 feet from us and cracks in the rocks we stood on revealed lava only a few feet under us! As a grand finale to the hike, we toasted marshmallows and had ourselves some s’mores!

Come visit me, I’ll take you there!

Community Based Training- Week 3

In preparation for our two years of service with PC, we’re all taking part in 3 months of community based training. Basically this means that we are sent out towns in groups of 3-4 and each live with a family in a small town. Instead of living in dorms and doing our training at a central location, we take Spanish classes right in our sites and then get together once a week with the rest of the groups for common sessions which cover topics like health, safety, and culture. The goal is to immerse us in the language, culture, and way of life as soon as set foot in country.

I’m in the town of Pastores, a small town famous for their cowboy boots, with 3 other trainees. Cali is from Texas and has a Masters in Public Admin, Daniel is from NY state and just finished his undergrad at Notre Dame, and John (or Juanito) is from NJ and is a retired lawyer who practiced for 40 years before joining the Peace Corps (you do the math…he wins the award for oldest PC volunteer currently in Guatemala)! We’re quite a group- lots of different interests and backgrounds to share. I’m sure you’ll here lots more about these three in the months to come.

Our training consists of LOTS of Spanish, and then a few days a week of tech training in which we learn how to work effectively within a municipal government (blog coming on exactly what this means…I’m still figuring that out!) office in Guatemala. At times it’s completely overwhelming to spend 6 hours a day in Spanish classes and then come home and have to speak it to everyone around me, but I think I’m actually picking some of it up!!! I had this crazy moment yesterday where I was having a conversation with my host mother, Esperanza, and after talking for like 10 minutes straight I sat back and was like “WHOA! I just thought and said that ALL in SPANISH!” I really can’t complain about the Spanish classes either because nearly every day has something interesting thrown in- from learning to make Tamalitos to visiting Mayan Ruins! Life is certainly not boring here.

On Hand Washing or The Value of Synthetics

So although our host families are paid to take care of our laundry for us, I’ve decided that a part of my cultural adaptation will be to wash my own clothes by hand. I figure, I’ve gotta learn this skill in order to live on my own in a few months. Plus, its darn good exercise.

First a few words about the machinery. The pila (pronounced pee-lah) is a big stone trough that has three parts. The middle is a big pool, in which water is stored because it is often scarce. When the town water is on, families will fill this pool with water to be used when the water is imminently turned off. The sides are shallow sink-shaped fixtures where on one side dishes are washed, and on the other, everything else is washed (clothes, false teeth, hair, etc.)

So to begin your hand-washing experience, you first must soak your clothes in a giant bucket for no less than an hour (much more if you allow your clothes to reach the level of grimyness that I have). You then lay your clothes flat on the stone pila. The soap is a softball-sized orange ball that you roll all over your clothes. This is when the fun begins. You then commence with grinding your clothes into the stones to work in the soap and scare out the dirt. Note: when first using this method you will fear for the life if your clothes. However, I’ve found that mine can withstand the abuse. Once the clothes are sufficiently scrubbed, you then rinse several times, wring dry, and hang on a clothes-line, which likely will be in full view of anyone passing through or by your house and elicit giggles from the neighborhood kids.

In closing, let me make an argument against the use of cotton in places where a pila/clothesline are the washing implements. Without a dryer, cotton will NEVER, never go back to its original size. I’m starting to look like a little girl in my dad’s clothes. However, my sturdy synthetics have remained their faithful to their tagged sizes. A word to the wise: stick with syntheticsJ

l{m here

Thats right, i have arrived! I have absolutely no idea how to use these Guatemalan keyboards so my emails and this blog post are filled with lots of errors and strange symbols. i feel like this really describes how i feel in this new place though. My ability to speak spanish is elementary at best ( i seem to communicate quite clearly with the 5 year old who i live with, but no one else!) and also filled with errors.

Its hard to put into words how it feels to be here. I cant believe i arrived here exactly a week ago. it really feels like months. i spent my first few days living with a host family in the town where the peace corps office is located. then on saturday i moved to an adorable little town just north of antigua (wikipedia-now!) where im living with an older woman who is an amazing cook and determined to give me a good introduction to the delicious Guatemalan cuisine (poor me, right?). i am currently spending about 6 hours a day in spanish classes, which are really helping, but i still feel like a crazy person when i try to express myself. however, sign language goes a long way and im getting pretty good at making things up! fortunately, i can usually get my point across using a combination of arm flailing and english words infused with spanish endings.

Ill be living in my current town for the next 3 months while i train for my peace corps service. after i successfully test at an intermediate spanish level and show that im technically competent to perform my job, ill swear in on halloween and begin two years service to a rural Guatemalan town. im excited and nervous and homesick and ecstatic to be here all at once. i really have no idea what im getting myself into, but i think im gonna like it.

Uncharted Waters

One week from today I'll be back in DC for training.

One week and one day from now I'll be in Guatemala! It hasn't fully set in, but the idea of 27 months in Guatemala is starting to get really exciting. Here's to the unknown!

Now if only I had any idea how to pack for 2 years...