6 Month Mark

Well folks, this Friday I celebrate the 6 month anniversary of living in my town! If my site were a boy we’d probably be going out for a nice dinner or something. However, since my town is, well…a town, I shall celebrate instead by telling you the many things that I find fun, hilarious, or otherwise noteworthy about it…

· Sunday and Wednesday market days! It’s huge and the selection is pretty fabulous. However, it’s also notoriously dangerous, or maybe adventurous is a better word. Everyone pushes and shoves to make sure they get the freshest tomatoes. True story: One day a little old Mayan lady literally planted her hands on my butt and pushed until she succeeded in moving me out of her way!
· Saturday night Tamales with Doña Mary and Family- So fun. So delicious. Come here and we’ll go visit her.
· Hearing Mam- Though it can be frustrating to not understand my neighbors or people in my office when they are speaking the local Mayan language, Mam, I love that my town still has a thriving Mayan culture and language.
· Kids on the basketball court- Which is located in front of my office. There is always something going on and it’s usually pretty hysterical. In vogue lately is learning to walk on your hands.
· The mountains- I love them! Though arriving at any of the villages where I work is a bit of a feat, the beauty is well worth it.
· Hospitality- It is impossible to go for a walk in my town and not be invited for coffee or conversation.
· Street food- Now that the weather has warmed up a little there’s lots of people hanging out in the street and therefore street vendors! This provides not only fun (and only slight sketchy) new foods to try but also good conversation.
· The Traje- The traditional clothing of the women. It’s incredibly beautiful and colorful. I could write a whole post just about that. Maybe I will…I’ll try to post some pictures soon.
· Friends- This is absolutely my favorite thing about my town. People know who I am and greet me by name, which feels like a huge accomplishment. I no longer have evenings where my options for activity are a book or a movie; there always seems to be someone to visit or something to do.

Zaculeu

About an hour’s bus ride from my house is a well preserved historical park called Zaculeu. The park, though small, has well preserved ruins which provide the visitor a glimpse into the lives of the Mayan community that used to live there. I went there with some other volunteers from Huehuetenango. Here are some pictures from the day`s adventures…

Samuc Champey

In the department of Alta Verapaz, is a magical little place called Samuc Champey. I adventured there a few weeks ago with friends. Though getting there and back again was somewhat of a feat (both over and below a huge landslide, broken down trucks, dusty backroads, and hours ridden in transport trucks in the freezing middle of the night), the payoff was well worth the effort as you can see from the photos below.

Water and Illiteracy

I am happy to report that work is beginning to pick up for me. My office has successfully solicited the help of several non-governmental organizations who are now supporting us in various capacities. It has been keeping me quite busy lately.

One of the coolest projects that we’ve been given will bring water collection systems to a community really far off the beaten path that does not have running water. The women have to walk down into a really steep valley several times a day to bring up semi-clean water which they use to wash, cook, and drink. The new project will provide these women with fresh spring water piped directly to their houses. Not only will this improve the health of the women and their families because their drinking water will be markedly better, it will also free up a lot of time usually used to carry water so hopefully their kids will be able to go to school and the women will be able to spend their time on other pursuits. Maybe some of them will even have time to open small businesses selling tortillas or eggs to further improve their quality of life. In addition, their crops will benefit and multiply from the easily accessible water to keep them nourished. It’s amazing what a small thing like fresh water can do to change a family and a community.

All that said, this post is less about the water project and more about my experience meeting the women who will be the beneficiaries of it. When we found out that the women had been approved for the project we asked them to make the 4 hour trip (about 2 hours of that by foot carrying small children on their backs) into the town center to fill out the necessary paperwork. They were waiting for us at 8 a.m. when we arrived last Friday. I was awed by their punctuality, as anyone who has spent any time in Latin American can probably appreciate.

There were 33 women who were selected to receive the water tanks (they are the ones who are a part of the town women’s group- I like to think of them as local advocacy emissaries who push the local and departmental governments to provide them with the services that they’ve been promised). Each woman had to fill out a long socio-economic survey detailing how many children were in the household, what income and expenses the household has, etc.

The whole process should have taken about an hour. However, the women are illiterate, meaning that my counterpart Maria and I had to fill out each form with the women individually, which took a total of 6 hours. I honestly really enjoyed the time spent with these women, getting glimpses into their lives and their families; I didn’t even notice the whole day pass as I filled out the forms.

When I moved to my town I knew I was coming to a place with over 50% illiteracy but the reality of that didn’t hit me until this day when I began thinking about going through life not being able to understand all of the squiggles surrounding me, and knowing that other people, mostly men, could. Later that evening, as I was going about my evening ritual, writing in my journal, reading a magazine, scribbling a few letters, reading the directions on a packet of tea sent by a friend, it really hit me, the reality of illiteracy. I feel so lucky to have grown up in a country and in a family where reading came naturally and early. I guess I’ve taken the ability to read for granted and this meeting was a good reminder that I should be thankful for it.

Side note: There is a pretty good governmental program here that is working with groups of illiterate people to help them gain basic reading and writing skills. In addition, education though still not obligatory, is much more widespread than it was even 10 years ago. Hopefully this means that the situation in my community and in this country is changing.

Nebaj to Cunen

A while back I had the opportunity to visit a friend in his site in Nebaj and to take an amazing hike from his town, over the Cuchumatanes Mountains, to the site of another volunteer. I’m finally getting around to downloading the pictures, so here they are for your viewing pleasure…

Reconnecting and Spanish Classes

After nearly 5 months in our sites my training group got back together at the Peace Corps center for a week of training and Spanish classes called Re-Connect. We spent the first two days in our training groups de-briefing all that we have learned, done, seen, and experienced in the last 5 months.

I went into the week feeling pretty overwhelmed by my first 5 months in site. They had been really challenging, at times excruciatingly frustrating, and I frankly felt like I didn’t have a whole lot to show for my time. I was relieved to speak with the volunteers who are a year ahead of me and find that they felt similarly after 5 months in their sites, but that now, a year in, they feel really successful and busy in their sites. I’m looking forward to reaching that point.

After the first two days we broke off into smaller groups and had 3 days of intense Spanish help. I am happy to report that I can now (somewhat) competently speak in the subjunctive! Hurray! I no longer sound like a kindergarten student when I try to tell stories. The week was also lovely because I got go spend my free time with my Peace Corps friends, drinking good coffee and eating bagels (!!!) from the many Antigua cafes shops.

All in all, I chalk it up to a successful week.

Semana Santa in Antigua

Antigua, Guatemala is the place to be for holy week. There are processions daily that involve hundreds of people. The most unique sight of all, however, are the world-famous alfombras (carpets) made of colored sawdust and other assorted materials. They are created all over the streets of Antigua for the processions to pass over. Here are a few pictures that I snapped while in Antigua the week before Easter…

(If Guatemala were a photo, this would be it)

(making the alfombras)

Semana Santa in Central America

This being my first Holy week (Semana Santa) since living in Guatemala, instead of taking off for a vacation, I decided to stay in my site and see what the hubub was all about. I’d always heard that Semana Santa in Latin America is a sight to see, but the activities that I experienced last week far surpassed my expectations.

Guatemala, being traditionally very Catholic, celebrates Semana Santa on a scale quite possibly bigger than Christmas. My landlady’s whole family came into town for the week and stayed in the extra beds at my place, effectively turning the place from an ever-quiet respite to a carnival, complete with loads of food and indoor soccer (see below). They also brought with them the Priest from their local parish who was delightful and taught me lots about the significance of different Semana Santa events.

Among those events were plays in which people from my town acted out the whole passion of Christ from the last supper until the resurrection, including a real live crucifixion (don’t worry; they tied, not nailed his hands to the cross). The whole thing was really quite amazing and experiencing it alongside my neighbors was something I’ll never forget.

On Saturday night the whole town gathered on the basketball court to remember the women who went to Jesus´ tomb to mourn with a candlelight service. There was a short reading from the Bible and then we began lighting our candles. The flame started with the priest in the middle and then was passed person to person until it reached the outer limits of the circle. It was a beautiful ending to my first Semana Santa.