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.