Feliz Navidad (almost)!
It has been a crazy couple of weeks for me but I am finally getting a chance to sit down and relax so I thought that I’d go ahead and update my blog as well (look how efficient I am!)
So this last weekend I got a chance to go to an exposition in Guatemala City to help my women’s group and to also learn a little bit about where they sell their products. It was really interestinga and the exposition was huge! It is called Interfer and is held in a big park in the city where tents are set up as well as rides and booths with food and games. There was a big fountain where they set up these huge plastic bubbles that people could go inside and roll around without getting wet that Emily and I were extremely tempted to do but because the only other people in line were under the age of 10 we decided to refrain (we are so mature). The whole fair is for artisans, chefs and vendors of electronics and other such products so there was a ton to see there. My group was there for a week and did really well with selling through products so I was very happy about that. The one thing that is still frustrating me about my group is the communication between group members (or lack there of). When I got home from my trip and asked my host mom about how the rest of the exposition went she told me that she didn’t know because she hadn’t heard from the woman that was at the expo selling our products (who is also my official counterpart but who I haven‘t seen or heard from more than 3 times in the 2 months I have been here…). I asked her if she could call her and she said that she doesn’t have a phone. I wanted to point out that it was kind of important to see how we did/make sure my counterpart wasn’t dead but instead decided to just shake my head and suggest that we visit her in the next few days to make sure all is on the up and up. I really want to work on the level of communication but it’s proven to be quite a difficult goal considering my lack of the ability to speak Spanish… I’ll keep working on it though.
After visiting the expo, Emily and I went on to Antigua and spent two nights there, which were so much fun! The first night it was just the two of us but we stayed in a really nice hotel that even had hot showers so that was an extremely nice treat! The next night we stayed in a hostel called the black cat (el gato negro) and met some interesting travelers (one was an Austrian with dreadlocks that spoke fluent Spanish and English… of course Emily and I became best friends with him immediately. We even took our friendship to the next level by purchasing friendship bracelets from a little boy on the streets of Antigua… try not to be jealous of how cool we are). A bunch of other volunteers from our training group came and met up with us at our hostel and we all got to hang out and have fun together, which was very nice cause most of them live really far away so we don’t get to see them much. The next day I went to a town called Patzun to see Thomas and being there reminded me so much of being in Sumpango! Being back in the chilly weather with all the women in trajes made me miss my first family so much but hopefully I will be getting to see them in a week or so, which will be awesome for sure J Yesterday I just traveled all day back to the east where it is hot and sunny and was actually glad to be “home”.
Okay, so now I will explain the title of this blog… when I got home yesterday, I was chatting with my host mom and we were talking about our weekends blah blah blah when she drops the bomb that someone was murdered in my aldea. Apparently December is really dangerous because robbers and hooligans think that people have pisto-money during this time of year and she was telling me that walking around (even into town, which I basically do every day) is not a good idea. She said she wasn’t sure of exactly what went down but it happened like three houses away from where I live and the police have not identified who did it so I shouldn’t be alarmed if there are officers around for the next few weeks (as if I would be scared of the men patrolling the aldea to PROTECT us…). Also, the man was 50 years old and murdered with a machete. As she told me this she made a chopping motion through the middle of her head, which I’m sure you can imagine was absolutely terrifying. I immediately decided that running with an Ipod in the mornings was no longer a good idea and I probably will need more than a pocket knife as a weapon when coming home from Chiquimula after 2pm. Needless to say, I slept with one eye open last night and will probably continue to do so until December is over (or until I get home). In all reality, my aldea is a really safe place and I don’t know why that went down but I’m sure I am perfectly secure here as long as I don’t venture out after dark or walk around with money hanging out of my pants/wearing all my bling so don’t worry too much (especially you mom). Definitely a pretty crazy story to come home to, though but that’s life here so gotta love it.
I can’t believe Christmas is this weekend, time has gone so fast! I hope you all at home are ready for the holidays and have all your shopping done. I would also love to know what everyone’s new years resolutions are because so far the only ones I can think of for myself are to lose my tortilla belly, learn to speak the language of the country I live in or learn to do more in the kitchen besides boil water and add things to it (pasta, oatmeal or tea usually… sounds healthy, right?) I hope everyone has an awesome holiday though and I miss you all!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Miedosa- Scaredy Cat
Good Morning!
Okay so I usually try and wait for something ridiculous/funny to happen to me before I write my blogs because otherwise they are just boring and pointless (I'm pretty sure they still are but hopefully at least some of you get a kick out of the ridiculousness of my life...) Anyways, yesterday just so happened to hold two adventures worth talking about so here are the tales.
First... there is construction in my aldea on a really beautiful house (I'm pretty sure the person building the house is from my town and moved to the states and now has a construction company and is building this new house as a vacation home... or I could have made that all up because I rarely understand the explanations people give me) and I basically have to pass by this house everyday on my way to town or to the place where the buses to Chiquimula are. Because of the construction, there is a ton of water and since it's a dirt road there is also lots of mud (coupled with the huge rocks and unevenness of the dirt I'm sure you can imagine how dangerous that combination can be for someone as clumsy as me...) There are also a ton of really obnoxious construction workers and they ALWAYS heckle me so much every time I pass. Usually I try and just walk by and act like I can't even hear them (which is just silly because they literally yell and are basically right next to me). I also try and keep my head up and act confident so they don't think they are bothering me or getting to me but that poses quite a threat with the condition of the road. Up until yesterday I had been pretty successful in my attempts to ignore them but unfortunately I guess my luck ran out... while I was walking past them (trying to be cocky and confident... talk about a plan backfiring) I tripped and dropped my entire bag of veggies in the mud as well as slip in a puddle. Thankfully, I didn't fall all the way in (cause that would have REALLY been embarrassing) but caught myself and picked up my veggies as fast as I could. The men stopped heckling me for about 30 seconds in order to laugh hysterically, which surprisingly was a nice break from their other comments. I kind of wish I had a different audience for this situation cause I can only imagine how funny it must have looked but I guess we can't have it all...
The next thing that happened was much scarier. Last night I was getting ready for bed so I went to grab my toothbrush (my dental hygiene is impeccable even in Guatemala) when I saw that on my little table where I put all my toiletries there was a scorpion. That is not the bad part. Not only was there a little guy hanging out on my washcloth but there were also about 30 little baby scorpions chilling there as well. They literally must have just hatched because some of them weren't out of their shells (or whatever the heck scorpions are spawned from) while others were wiggling around a little too rapidly. I wanted to take a picture but I was in survival mode so I whipped off my sandal and started hacking the crap out of the entire table. I don't know how many of you have ever tried to kill a scorpion but they really don't die very easily (as if they need more things to make them scarier and more worthy adversaries...) I finally killed them all (as well as knock everything off my table) when my brother came in to see what the commotion was. I showed him the remains and his response was to laugh and say "you don't need to be scared of scoprions kristina. The babies can't sting yet." He also went on to tell me that scorpions are everywhere here and all you need to do when they drop from the ceiling onto your shirt is swipe them off and step on them. I told him thanks for the advice and I'd definitely keep that in mind next time a scorpion falls on my shirt. All in all a terrifying experience but I think I'm braver for it in the long run (silver lining, right?)
Other than that, I have been trying to find things to do without too much success. Apparently lots of things kinda shut down in December because of Christmas so I am just trying to be patient until January. This weekend my friend Jesse is having a Christmas party at his site and we are going to barbecue and have a dance off so I'm pretty pumped for that (time to bust out the worm). I realize this blog is a little lame so I'll try and step up my game for the next one but I hope everyone at home is enjoying the bitter cold while I bask in the sunshine every day :p miss you all oodles!
Okay so I usually try and wait for something ridiculous/funny to happen to me before I write my blogs because otherwise they are just boring and pointless (I'm pretty sure they still are but hopefully at least some of you get a kick out of the ridiculousness of my life...) Anyways, yesterday just so happened to hold two adventures worth talking about so here are the tales.
First... there is construction in my aldea on a really beautiful house (I'm pretty sure the person building the house is from my town and moved to the states and now has a construction company and is building this new house as a vacation home... or I could have made that all up because I rarely understand the explanations people give me) and I basically have to pass by this house everyday on my way to town or to the place where the buses to Chiquimula are. Because of the construction, there is a ton of water and since it's a dirt road there is also lots of mud (coupled with the huge rocks and unevenness of the dirt I'm sure you can imagine how dangerous that combination can be for someone as clumsy as me...) There are also a ton of really obnoxious construction workers and they ALWAYS heckle me so much every time I pass. Usually I try and just walk by and act like I can't even hear them (which is just silly because they literally yell and are basically right next to me). I also try and keep my head up and act confident so they don't think they are bothering me or getting to me but that poses quite a threat with the condition of the road. Up until yesterday I had been pretty successful in my attempts to ignore them but unfortunately I guess my luck ran out... while I was walking past them (trying to be cocky and confident... talk about a plan backfiring) I tripped and dropped my entire bag of veggies in the mud as well as slip in a puddle. Thankfully, I didn't fall all the way in (cause that would have REALLY been embarrassing) but caught myself and picked up my veggies as fast as I could. The men stopped heckling me for about 30 seconds in order to laugh hysterically, which surprisingly was a nice break from their other comments. I kind of wish I had a different audience for this situation cause I can only imagine how funny it must have looked but I guess we can't have it all...
The next thing that happened was much scarier. Last night I was getting ready for bed so I went to grab my toothbrush (my dental hygiene is impeccable even in Guatemala) when I saw that on my little table where I put all my toiletries there was a scorpion. That is not the bad part. Not only was there a little guy hanging out on my washcloth but there were also about 30 little baby scorpions chilling there as well. They literally must have just hatched because some of them weren't out of their shells (or whatever the heck scorpions are spawned from) while others were wiggling around a little too rapidly. I wanted to take a picture but I was in survival mode so I whipped off my sandal and started hacking the crap out of the entire table. I don't know how many of you have ever tried to kill a scorpion but they really don't die very easily (as if they need more things to make them scarier and more worthy adversaries...) I finally killed them all (as well as knock everything off my table) when my brother came in to see what the commotion was. I showed him the remains and his response was to laugh and say "you don't need to be scared of scoprions kristina. The babies can't sting yet." He also went on to tell me that scorpions are everywhere here and all you need to do when they drop from the ceiling onto your shirt is swipe them off and step on them. I told him thanks for the advice and I'd definitely keep that in mind next time a scorpion falls on my shirt. All in all a terrifying experience but I think I'm braver for it in the long run (silver lining, right?)
Other than that, I have been trying to find things to do without too much success. Apparently lots of things kinda shut down in December because of Christmas so I am just trying to be patient until January. This weekend my friend Jesse is having a Christmas party at his site and we are going to barbecue and have a dance off so I'm pretty pumped for that (time to bust out the worm). I realize this blog is a little lame so I'll try and step up my game for the next one but I hope everyone at home is enjoying the bitter cold while I bask in the sunshine every day :p miss you all oodles!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Canope- Zip Line
So the tale of my first Guatemalan Thanksgiving… obviously not the same as being at home but still turned out to be really fun! The only bad part about the whole holiday was the travel that was necessary to get everywhere we needed to be but totally worth it. Thursday morning I had an exposition for my women’s group in Chiquimula, which was really interesting (even though we didn’t get there until an hour and a half later than we were supposed to and I had to leave an hour after that to make it to Thanksgiving dinner on time… so Guatemalan) but I was there long enough to help set up and get everything prepared so that was nice. There were actually a lot of other women’s groups there that day as well because it was the day of “no more violence against women”. I honestly wish that I could have stayed a little longer to get the full experience and to really see how the whole day went but turkey and pie were just too enticing. After helping out a little Thomas, Jesse and I left from Chiquimula together and met up with Britini and Allie in their town so we could all travel together. That first leg took us about an hour or so and then after two more buses from there and another 3 hours we finally made it to the volunteers site who hosted all of us (her name is Libby just like my mother, which made me feel more at home). It was actually pretty sweet being the last ones to arrive because all the prep work was finished (sorry guys) except for the mixing of the deviled eggs (Emily took care of the rest for me, what a gal) so I did that really quick (not as quickly as everyone ate the deviled eggs though… it was kind of gross) and then we sat down to eat. It was so nice to just sit around the table with everyone and we even each took a turn saying what we were thankful for (everyone said they were thankful for each other and for having a place to get together to celebrate the holiday but clearly I was most thankful for the broccoli salad and the delicious looking pies). I was a little disappointed when there weren’t enough mashed potatoes to go around but the three helpings of stuffing made up for it I think. Everything was really yummy though and we had a good time.
After dinner, we all headed to a placed called the Ecolodge and it was so much fun! We got to roast marshmallows and eat smores (as if we all really needed to eat more after that huge dinner and desert) but who can really ever say no to a smore? Clearly not me. It was also nice to be in the place we were because it was really chilly there and it’s been so hot in my site, it was great to mix it up. I was also pumped to put some of the 2093823 sweaters my mom sent me when I was complaining about being cold to use since they have been packed away the entire time I’ve been at my site (thanks momma). The next morning we all woke up and had a nice little Guatemalan breakfast of eggs and beans (seriously my favorite and since now that I have to cook for myself I’ve only been making things that you can boil or need boiled water added to them such as oatmeal and tea…). Breakfast was followed by a zip-lining adventure, which was so much fun! At first, we were only going to do the first four zip-lines but we ended up getting to do the entire course, which also consisted of a huge, terrifying bridge that swayed and turned ominously in the wind (I’m so good at telling stories). It was really awesome though and the best part was that the whole thing was free and the guy that took us through it only wanted us to “bring people back” so if anyone is interested in that just let me know! The rest of the day we just made some sandwiches and guacamole (thanks to my handiwork… I literally used my hands) and then hung out with the owner of the lodge and his son? I’m not sure who they all were because of my Spanish but it was a lot of fun.
Once the Thanksgiving excitement was over I decided to go to Emily’s site and hang out with her and Brynna for Brynna’s birthday, which turned out to be a blast. We made four huge cakes that even had icing, had a dance party with Emily’s family and woke up at 5am to firecracker Brynna’s house in celebration (who wouldn’t want to be woken up that early to the loudest, most obnoxious noise imaginable… surprisingly Brynna didn’t want to.) All in all, it was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It was a relief to have such a nice Thanksgiving because spending the holidays away from family and friends can be a little scary especially since those of us who just swore in kinda get hit with the triple whammy of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years but one down and two to go! I hope everyone had an awesome holiday as well and ate lots of leftovers (is it weird that leftovers are honestly the part I miss most about Thanksgiving… oh yeah, and my fam). I miss you all tons and hope everyone is doing well J
After dinner, we all headed to a placed called the Ecolodge and it was so much fun! We got to roast marshmallows and eat smores (as if we all really needed to eat more after that huge dinner and desert) but who can really ever say no to a smore? Clearly not me. It was also nice to be in the place we were because it was really chilly there and it’s been so hot in my site, it was great to mix it up. I was also pumped to put some of the 2093823 sweaters my mom sent me when I was complaining about being cold to use since they have been packed away the entire time I’ve been at my site (thanks momma). The next morning we all woke up and had a nice little Guatemalan breakfast of eggs and beans (seriously my favorite and since now that I have to cook for myself I’ve only been making things that you can boil or need boiled water added to them such as oatmeal and tea…). Breakfast was followed by a zip-lining adventure, which was so much fun! At first, we were only going to do the first four zip-lines but we ended up getting to do the entire course, which also consisted of a huge, terrifying bridge that swayed and turned ominously in the wind (I’m so good at telling stories). It was really awesome though and the best part was that the whole thing was free and the guy that took us through it only wanted us to “bring people back” so if anyone is interested in that just let me know! The rest of the day we just made some sandwiches and guacamole (thanks to my handiwork… I literally used my hands) and then hung out with the owner of the lodge and his son? I’m not sure who they all were because of my Spanish but it was a lot of fun.
Once the Thanksgiving excitement was over I decided to go to Emily’s site and hang out with her and Brynna for Brynna’s birthday, which turned out to be a blast. We made four huge cakes that even had icing, had a dance party with Emily’s family and woke up at 5am to firecracker Brynna’s house in celebration (who wouldn’t want to be woken up that early to the loudest, most obnoxious noise imaginable… surprisingly Brynna didn’t want to.) All in all, it was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It was a relief to have such a nice Thanksgiving because spending the holidays away from family and friends can be a little scary especially since those of us who just swore in kinda get hit with the triple whammy of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years but one down and two to go! I hope everyone had an awesome holiday as well and ate lots of leftovers (is it weird that leftovers are honestly the part I miss most about Thanksgiving… oh yeah, and my fam). I miss you all tons and hope everyone is doing well J
Monday, November 15, 2010
Calidad- Quality (used by kids here as "awesome")
Hiii,
Well second week down and a busy (sort of) one it was! I was really worried that I would have a hard time filling my days because of the lack of office/structure in my association but so far I’ve been finding lots of things to do to keep me busy and also to help meet people in my community. On Monday I went to a meeting with a group of women who are learning to make pan (bread). It was only the second time this group was meeting but it was so much fun (mostly because I got to probar-try the bread after we finished making it and I ate three muffins…this is why I have a tortilla belly). Two representatives from the municipal were there to teach the women how to make the bread as well as inform them of the benefits of potentially getting legalized as an association. This was actually incredibly convenient for me because I just found out that my woman’s group is not legalized either and even though the president of my association is not an actual member of the bread group she went with me and so the seed was planted for legalization of our group. Unfortunately, the presentation to try and get the group to consider legalization was more of just a mentioning of the fact that it’s an option instead of an informative session but at least it got the idea out there. I am really excited to be working with this group also because the need in our town for this service is definitely there (who the heck wants to live in a town in Guatemala that doesn’t have a panaderia-bread store? Not me.) Since we currently don’t have any panaderias closer than Chiquimula, that basically means that each little store (mostly are run out of houses in the neighborhood in my town) has to buy their bread supply from an outside source. This is not the best idea for a couple reasons… not only does it mean that my community is putting money into another community by buying their bread but it also means that the bread is less accessible to people living here. Obviously renting or buying a space and opening a panaderia is a long-term goal (things happen slowly here) but I think that it would be really awesome for our town to have and I will not complain in the mean time if I get to learn how to bake and get free samples of delicious treats.
Tuesday and Wednesday were community visits. Let me start this off by saying that since I've been at site I have been very determined to exercise and try and be healthier so I insisted to Dona Irma (the president and also the woman I live with) that I wanted to walk to the other community where some of the women in my group live...fail. This "neighboring" town took about an hour to get to and was literally directly uphill. Also, did I mention how hot it gets here? Oh I did, good. I should have believed Dona Irma when she told me that it was quite a hike but I thought she was exaggerating... I will not make that mistake again. All in all, it was a great workout and I actually am glad I did it just to get to know the scenery better (this is how I am justifying it in my mind) but I really don't think the families appreciated me showing up soaked in sweat and out of breath. Despite the trek that it took to get there, the views were gorgeous and I had a really good time meeting some of the women and their families. The first family I visited invited me back for lunch so after making my rounds I returned there for some chicken soup (first meat I've eaten since arriving at site) and a lesson on how to tejer-weave. This was really exciting for me because I have been bugging people to teach me how to weave so I can have a hobby in my down time! It's a pretty basic process for the most part but some of the designs that they have are really intricate and complicated. I also got to see some of the new products they are making, which include really pretty purses and sombreros (which obviously didn't fit my head because according to my counterpart "my cabeza-head is gigantic". Thanks Dora.) It was nice to get to see how it's all done though and what the women are making because it really makes me more of a part of it all. The walk home was much easier (literally all I could say the whole way back was "wow, downhill is so much better"). Overall, two successful days and hopefully this week I will make it back out there because I only visited a few families and there are 50 women in the group.
So Thursday was probably the most fun/entertaining day for me this past week. I was chosen (clearly just because I am the new gringa-white girl in town) to be a judge for a hip hop dance competition at the secondary school in my village. How freaking cool am I? My friend Brenda has been telling me about this competition since I came on my site visit so you can imagine her excitement when I was asked to be a judge and she was asked, by association, to be the MC (she killed it). There were 6 dance groups in the main competition and then 2 other groups, one consisted of kids from my village and the others were the "visitors". The kids from other towns were SO much better but obviously my village crew won (I tried voting for the outsiders but was overruled by the other two judges who had to go back and make their scores for the home crew higher when they realized it wouldn't outweigh the scores I had given). I will put the videos up on facebook though because it truly was a site to behold. The girls kicked butt and the boys mostly just stood in place and swayed around (not even necessarily in sync with the music but I won't nitpick). Brenda had a really good time though and I did as well so we can check that day off as a success.
Friday was the first day so far in Guatemala where I was actually really ill. I wallowed in bed all day and I think because of how fast it came on, I got really dehydrated, which clearly only made matters worse. Dona Irma pulled through in the clutch sometime in the afternoon with a bottle of pedialyte to rehydrate me and some pepto (pink minty milk paste never tasted so delicious). I was pretty upset during this episode because I was supposed to go to Emily and Brynna's site for their feria and thought that I might not be able to but I consoled myself the whole time with the thought that if it was physically possible for me to get out of bed in the morning I would go. And so I did. I was actually feeling much better and I took my bottle of pepto with me (just ask Lexi how cute I was chugging it on the micro bus as if it were the last thing I'd ever drink). Their feria was WELL worth the effort though I must say. We got there in time for lunch and then made our way to the rodeo, which was so fun and then on to the baile-dance later in the night. Dancing in the east consists of spinning as fast as possible in circles (it doesn't make any sense how people can do that for hours at a time but it was done). We all got to dance and have a good time though and I must say that I greatly enjoyed myself.
Today so far has been eventful and informative. We had a meeting this morning with some representatives of a national group that promotes the development of artisan women in Guatemala and they basically brought up every single thing I have been thinking about in regards to our group since I got here. They stressed the importance of becoming legalized, told the women how beneficial it would be to keep records and have an inventory (I already had a charla lined up for this topic, which I am still going to do because it's awesome) and also the importance of participation level of the women in the group (only 17 women were there out of 50 and it was about the same at the last meeting). I got a chance to talk to one of the women from the national group and to get her contact info but she just reaffirmed everything that I have been thinking and helped me prioritize which topics I should try and hit on first so it was really helpful. Some of the women in my group were a little defensive about some of the points that were raised but I am hoping I will be able to find successful ways of bringing certain things to their attention and promoting ideas (such as an inventory and cost of production) because I think it will really help to take their association to the next level. The rest of my week is looking pretty open with the exception of a meeting in Chiquimula with other artisan group leaders, which should be fun but hopefully I'll be able to fill my time with something interesting (if you wanna help me out by sending me an email that'd be cool too). I'll try and get another blog up next week but it may have to wait until after Thanksgiving (if that is the case, I really hope everyone enjoys their delicious turkey and all the fixings back home and hopefully mine here will somewhat resemble that as well). Love you and miss you all!
Well second week down and a busy (sort of) one it was! I was really worried that I would have a hard time filling my days because of the lack of office/structure in my association but so far I’ve been finding lots of things to do to keep me busy and also to help meet people in my community. On Monday I went to a meeting with a group of women who are learning to make pan (bread). It was only the second time this group was meeting but it was so much fun (mostly because I got to probar-try the bread after we finished making it and I ate three muffins…this is why I have a tortilla belly). Two representatives from the municipal were there to teach the women how to make the bread as well as inform them of the benefits of potentially getting legalized as an association. This was actually incredibly convenient for me because I just found out that my woman’s group is not legalized either and even though the president of my association is not an actual member of the bread group she went with me and so the seed was planted for legalization of our group. Unfortunately, the presentation to try and get the group to consider legalization was more of just a mentioning of the fact that it’s an option instead of an informative session but at least it got the idea out there. I am really excited to be working with this group also because the need in our town for this service is definitely there (who the heck wants to live in a town in Guatemala that doesn’t have a panaderia-bread store? Not me.) Since we currently don’t have any panaderias closer than Chiquimula, that basically means that each little store (mostly are run out of houses in the neighborhood in my town) has to buy their bread supply from an outside source. This is not the best idea for a couple reasons… not only does it mean that my community is putting money into another community by buying their bread but it also means that the bread is less accessible to people living here. Obviously renting or buying a space and opening a panaderia is a long-term goal (things happen slowly here) but I think that it would be really awesome for our town to have and I will not complain in the mean time if I get to learn how to bake and get free samples of delicious treats.
Tuesday and Wednesday were community visits. Let me start this off by saying that since I've been at site I have been very determined to exercise and try and be healthier so I insisted to Dona Irma (the president and also the woman I live with) that I wanted to walk to the other community where some of the women in my group live...fail. This "neighboring" town took about an hour to get to and was literally directly uphill. Also, did I mention how hot it gets here? Oh I did, good. I should have believed Dona Irma when she told me that it was quite a hike but I thought she was exaggerating... I will not make that mistake again. All in all, it was a great workout and I actually am glad I did it just to get to know the scenery better (this is how I am justifying it in my mind) but I really don't think the families appreciated me showing up soaked in sweat and out of breath. Despite the trek that it took to get there, the views were gorgeous and I had a really good time meeting some of the women and their families. The first family I visited invited me back for lunch so after making my rounds I returned there for some chicken soup (first meat I've eaten since arriving at site) and a lesson on how to tejer-weave. This was really exciting for me because I have been bugging people to teach me how to weave so I can have a hobby in my down time! It's a pretty basic process for the most part but some of the designs that they have are really intricate and complicated. I also got to see some of the new products they are making, which include really pretty purses and sombreros (which obviously didn't fit my head because according to my counterpart "my cabeza-head is gigantic". Thanks Dora.) It was nice to get to see how it's all done though and what the women are making because it really makes me more of a part of it all. The walk home was much easier (literally all I could say the whole way back was "wow, downhill is so much better"). Overall, two successful days and hopefully this week I will make it back out there because I only visited a few families and there are 50 women in the group.
So Thursday was probably the most fun/entertaining day for me this past week. I was chosen (clearly just because I am the new gringa-white girl in town) to be a judge for a hip hop dance competition at the secondary school in my village. How freaking cool am I? My friend Brenda has been telling me about this competition since I came on my site visit so you can imagine her excitement when I was asked to be a judge and she was asked, by association, to be the MC (she killed it). There were 6 dance groups in the main competition and then 2 other groups, one consisted of kids from my village and the others were the "visitors". The kids from other towns were SO much better but obviously my village crew won (I tried voting for the outsiders but was overruled by the other two judges who had to go back and make their scores for the home crew higher when they realized it wouldn't outweigh the scores I had given). I will put the videos up on facebook though because it truly was a site to behold. The girls kicked butt and the boys mostly just stood in place and swayed around (not even necessarily in sync with the music but I won't nitpick). Brenda had a really good time though and I did as well so we can check that day off as a success.
Friday was the first day so far in Guatemala where I was actually really ill. I wallowed in bed all day and I think because of how fast it came on, I got really dehydrated, which clearly only made matters worse. Dona Irma pulled through in the clutch sometime in the afternoon with a bottle of pedialyte to rehydrate me and some pepto (pink minty milk paste never tasted so delicious). I was pretty upset during this episode because I was supposed to go to Emily and Brynna's site for their feria and thought that I might not be able to but I consoled myself the whole time with the thought that if it was physically possible for me to get out of bed in the morning I would go. And so I did. I was actually feeling much better and I took my bottle of pepto with me (just ask Lexi how cute I was chugging it on the micro bus as if it were the last thing I'd ever drink). Their feria was WELL worth the effort though I must say. We got there in time for lunch and then made our way to the rodeo, which was so fun and then on to the baile-dance later in the night. Dancing in the east consists of spinning as fast as possible in circles (it doesn't make any sense how people can do that for hours at a time but it was done). We all got to dance and have a good time though and I must say that I greatly enjoyed myself.
Today so far has been eventful and informative. We had a meeting this morning with some representatives of a national group that promotes the development of artisan women in Guatemala and they basically brought up every single thing I have been thinking about in regards to our group since I got here. They stressed the importance of becoming legalized, told the women how beneficial it would be to keep records and have an inventory (I already had a charla lined up for this topic, which I am still going to do because it's awesome) and also the importance of participation level of the women in the group (only 17 women were there out of 50 and it was about the same at the last meeting). I got a chance to talk to one of the women from the national group and to get her contact info but she just reaffirmed everything that I have been thinking and helped me prioritize which topics I should try and hit on first so it was really helpful. Some of the women in my group were a little defensive about some of the points that were raised but I am hoping I will be able to find successful ways of bringing certain things to their attention and promoting ideas (such as an inventory and cost of production) because I think it will really help to take their association to the next level. The rest of my week is looking pretty open with the exception of a meeting in Chiquimula with other artisan group leaders, which should be fun but hopefully I'll be able to fill my time with something interesting (if you wanna help me out by sending me an email that'd be cool too). I'll try and get another blog up next week but it may have to wait until after Thanksgiving (if that is the case, I really hope everyone enjoys their delicious turkey and all the fixings back home and hopefully mine here will somewhat resemble that as well). Love you and miss you all!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Alacrán- Scorpion
Holler,
Okay, where should I start? So much about my life here has changed in the last week, it’s nuts! I guess I’ll start with our first day as volunteers… The swearing in ceremony was at the house of the ambassador and it was really awesome! The ambassador was super welcoming and nice and his house is absolutely gorgeous. The swearing-in was a pretty short ceremony, with speeches from our training director, the country director, the ambassador and one of our fellow trainees, Justin (who was hilarious, well done dude). I must also comment on the quality of the refreshments that were offered to us after the ceremony… they were bangin. We got to have coffee with milk (a rare and delicious treat), double chocolate secret recipe brownies and mini ham sandwiches with the absolute perfect combo of mayo and mustard. Aside from the yummy treats though (I think you can all see where my priorities lie…), it was really exciting to finally be volunteers and the oath that we took is the same as the official one we’ve all heard on TV so I must say I felt pretty legit. After the ceremony we went back to our towns to grab our bags and then took off for Antigua for the night. It was the first real night we got to go out and we had a blast. We all had dinner together at a pizza place and did superlatives, which were hilarious. I ended up winning most likely to break a bone, most likely to fall into a latrine and most likely to catch on fire? I forget what the last one was but it was something along those lines (I’m beginning to think everyone thinks I’m clumsy but it’s probably all in my head…). Anyways, Antigua was a lot of fun and a great way to say peace out for the next couple of months.
Okay Saturday… this is when the real fun began. We woke up and got breakfast at bagel barn (I already plan to eat bagels every single day when I return to the US… they are delicious). After breakfast we made the trek to where the camionetas are in Antigua (which was not fun with all our bags but I must say thanks to Thomas for carrying one of mine as well as my water bottle which had re-hydration salts in it that he made for me and tasted like dirt… I appreciate the effort greatly). The camioneta to Guate took forever and there was an incredibly creepy clown dressed as a dog sitting next to Lexi but we made it, which is the important part. In Guate, I got lunch with Emily and Brynna while we waited for Lexi and Carmen to get their wireless internet modems but we all ended up getting split up shortly after this… Brynna and Emily left together and I decided to wait for Lexi because we were going to take the same bus out of Guate. This backfired, however, because the line at the phone store was ridiculous and I had to leave without Lexi (of course I was paranoid about being late…). I made it successfully to the bus terminal and got on the right bus and off we went to Chiquimula… wouldn’t I have been so lucky. It turned out that the bus I took hated me and broke down about 3 times before actually ceasing to work… by this time it was 7 oclock (maybe later) and it gets dark in Guatemala at like 6 so no dice there. Also, buses to my town from Chiquimula stop running at 6 so again, no dice. We had to wait on the broken bus for maybe a half an hour until another bus came and got us and took us the rest of the way to Chiqui, where I stayed the night in a pretty nice hotel actually. The one saving grace about this story is that Lexi was with me! She ended up missing the other bus she was going to take and just happened to get on the bus I was on when it was already en route (the odds of this happening are not that good). So thank goodness we were both together and were able to stay in Chiqui and go shopping the next day for groceries and things of that nature. All in all, it was a looong day but ended up being okay since both of us were having some anxiety about going to site anyways… thanks for sucking bus!
Sunday was my first day in my new house and it kinda dragged. My new family here is really nice and welcoming but it’s so different than having my four little brothers running around and playing all the time. I miss my family in Sumpango immensely. My madre did send me off with a homemade banana cake that she made for me as a going away treat and also joked that it would be all I ate for the next week… little did she know that I’d finish it by Tuesday! I really haven’t eaten much else besides massive amounts of cake and oatmeal… I guess I should have taken my mom more seriously growing up when she told me to pay attention in the kitchen. I guess it’s a good thing I enjoy tea since apparently boiling water is the only thing I’m capable of. Oh, funny story here too… I was making tea two days ago and accidentally put the bag of sugar on the burner after I was finished (duh, the burner was still hot and burnt through the bottom of the bag instantly as well as melted sugar all over it, which is NOT easy to get off). I guess I actually am not even capable of making tea… it’s gonna be a long two years! I also was greeted in my room last night with a big old scorpion crawling down my wall. I immediately thought to myself “is it too late to choose the house with the rats?” Unfortunately it is too late for that and I’m pretty sure there are scorpions everywhere here so it probably wouldn’t have helped much. I ended up hanging my mosquito net (which I seriously McGuyvered, my room was not built for that type of protection). I was finally able to sleep knowing that my net was there to protect me and all the sweat (its blistering here 24/7) was worth it. Other than those few little things, my living situation is not bad. Privacy is a little more difficult here and I didn’t have any service whatsoever for my cell phone until yesterday when I bought a new one with a different service provider, which now works in a few locations in and around my house (better than none). I’m already used to the latrine and have gone running the past two mornings around the soccer field (this morning a little girl literally sat in the shade of a tree and watched me the entire time… when I said hi to her on my way out she started hysterically laughing… TIG dude) which makes the cold showers refreshing and wonderful.
This is the last paragraph I swear. I had my first meeting with the women’s group this morning and it went really well. I think all the women liked me (only 17 out of 50 showed up) and they expressed interest in me going to their houses and things like that, which is awesome considering this is my only job right now and our group only meets once a month… I need to find a hobby stat! It was really interesting to see how the meeting was run though and hopefully my Spanish will be better in a month so I don’t have to ask the president of the association to repeat every single thing that happened during the meeting to me after everyone left. I also got to hang out with my bff here, whose name is Brenda and she is the coolest 16 year old ever (and she’s super patient with me, which is awesome). We went to town and got me some agua pura so that I don’t get worms and then just hung out for a bit. Tomorrow I am going to meet her in town again and hopefully be able to post this blog (as well as check my beloved facebook and email… a week without technology seriously feels ridiculously long… maybe this is good for me). Anyways, sorry if this bored you to death but I wanted to talk for an extended period of time in English and since I am the only person here capable of doing so, this is what you get! Hope everything at home is great and I miss you all mucho!
Okay, where should I start? So much about my life here has changed in the last week, it’s nuts! I guess I’ll start with our first day as volunteers… The swearing in ceremony was at the house of the ambassador and it was really awesome! The ambassador was super welcoming and nice and his house is absolutely gorgeous. The swearing-in was a pretty short ceremony, with speeches from our training director, the country director, the ambassador and one of our fellow trainees, Justin (who was hilarious, well done dude). I must also comment on the quality of the refreshments that were offered to us after the ceremony… they were bangin. We got to have coffee with milk (a rare and delicious treat), double chocolate secret recipe brownies and mini ham sandwiches with the absolute perfect combo of mayo and mustard. Aside from the yummy treats though (I think you can all see where my priorities lie…), it was really exciting to finally be volunteers and the oath that we took is the same as the official one we’ve all heard on TV so I must say I felt pretty legit. After the ceremony we went back to our towns to grab our bags and then took off for Antigua for the night. It was the first real night we got to go out and we had a blast. We all had dinner together at a pizza place and did superlatives, which were hilarious. I ended up winning most likely to break a bone, most likely to fall into a latrine and most likely to catch on fire? I forget what the last one was but it was something along those lines (I’m beginning to think everyone thinks I’m clumsy but it’s probably all in my head…). Anyways, Antigua was a lot of fun and a great way to say peace out for the next couple of months.
Okay Saturday… this is when the real fun began. We woke up and got breakfast at bagel barn (I already plan to eat bagels every single day when I return to the US… they are delicious). After breakfast we made the trek to where the camionetas are in Antigua (which was not fun with all our bags but I must say thanks to Thomas for carrying one of mine as well as my water bottle which had re-hydration salts in it that he made for me and tasted like dirt… I appreciate the effort greatly). The camioneta to Guate took forever and there was an incredibly creepy clown dressed as a dog sitting next to Lexi but we made it, which is the important part. In Guate, I got lunch with Emily and Brynna while we waited for Lexi and Carmen to get their wireless internet modems but we all ended up getting split up shortly after this… Brynna and Emily left together and I decided to wait for Lexi because we were going to take the same bus out of Guate. This backfired, however, because the line at the phone store was ridiculous and I had to leave without Lexi (of course I was paranoid about being late…). I made it successfully to the bus terminal and got on the right bus and off we went to Chiquimula… wouldn’t I have been so lucky. It turned out that the bus I took hated me and broke down about 3 times before actually ceasing to work… by this time it was 7 oclock (maybe later) and it gets dark in Guatemala at like 6 so no dice there. Also, buses to my town from Chiquimula stop running at 6 so again, no dice. We had to wait on the broken bus for maybe a half an hour until another bus came and got us and took us the rest of the way to Chiqui, where I stayed the night in a pretty nice hotel actually. The one saving grace about this story is that Lexi was with me! She ended up missing the other bus she was going to take and just happened to get on the bus I was on when it was already en route (the odds of this happening are not that good). So thank goodness we were both together and were able to stay in Chiqui and go shopping the next day for groceries and things of that nature. All in all, it was a looong day but ended up being okay since both of us were having some anxiety about going to site anyways… thanks for sucking bus!
Sunday was my first day in my new house and it kinda dragged. My new family here is really nice and welcoming but it’s so different than having my four little brothers running around and playing all the time. I miss my family in Sumpango immensely. My madre did send me off with a homemade banana cake that she made for me as a going away treat and also joked that it would be all I ate for the next week… little did she know that I’d finish it by Tuesday! I really haven’t eaten much else besides massive amounts of cake and oatmeal… I guess I should have taken my mom more seriously growing up when she told me to pay attention in the kitchen. I guess it’s a good thing I enjoy tea since apparently boiling water is the only thing I’m capable of. Oh, funny story here too… I was making tea two days ago and accidentally put the bag of sugar on the burner after I was finished (duh, the burner was still hot and burnt through the bottom of the bag instantly as well as melted sugar all over it, which is NOT easy to get off). I guess I actually am not even capable of making tea… it’s gonna be a long two years! I also was greeted in my room last night with a big old scorpion crawling down my wall. I immediately thought to myself “is it too late to choose the house with the rats?” Unfortunately it is too late for that and I’m pretty sure there are scorpions everywhere here so it probably wouldn’t have helped much. I ended up hanging my mosquito net (which I seriously McGuyvered, my room was not built for that type of protection). I was finally able to sleep knowing that my net was there to protect me and all the sweat (its blistering here 24/7) was worth it. Other than those few little things, my living situation is not bad. Privacy is a little more difficult here and I didn’t have any service whatsoever for my cell phone until yesterday when I bought a new one with a different service provider, which now works in a few locations in and around my house (better than none). I’m already used to the latrine and have gone running the past two mornings around the soccer field (this morning a little girl literally sat in the shade of a tree and watched me the entire time… when I said hi to her on my way out she started hysterically laughing… TIG dude) which makes the cold showers refreshing and wonderful.
This is the last paragraph I swear. I had my first meeting with the women’s group this morning and it went really well. I think all the women liked me (only 17 out of 50 showed up) and they expressed interest in me going to their houses and things like that, which is awesome considering this is my only job right now and our group only meets once a month… I need to find a hobby stat! It was really interesting to see how the meeting was run though and hopefully my Spanish will be better in a month so I don’t have to ask the president of the association to repeat every single thing that happened during the meeting to me after everyone left. I also got to hang out with my bff here, whose name is Brenda and she is the coolest 16 year old ever (and she’s super patient with me, which is awesome). We went to town and got me some agua pura so that I don’t get worms and then just hung out for a bit. Tomorrow I am going to meet her in town again and hopefully be able to post this blog (as well as check my beloved facebook and email… a week without technology seriously feels ridiculously long… maybe this is good for me). Anyways, sorry if this bored you to death but I wanted to talk for an extended period of time in English and since I am the only person here capable of doing so, this is what you get! Hope everything at home is great and I miss you all mucho!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Chocale- High Five
Howdy All!
I hope that everyone is doing very well and enjoying the gorgeous fall weather I am sure you are having (what I'd do to walk through some leaves and go on a haunted hayride right now...)
Instead of all that, I will be leaving for my new site on Saturday and it's HOT HOT HOT there! It's really weird to think that I won't be having a winter for the next two years but I'm excited to get a nice little tan going as well as sweat off all the tortilla fat I've gained (the important things in life, right?) I had my site visit this past week and it was interesting to say the least... I guess I'll start at the beginning and I'll try not to leave anything out cause it's a pretty good story if I do say so myself. Okay so the first day, I met up with my counterpart and another girl from my village who is 16 and her name is Brenda (and coincidentally she is freaking awesome and my new homegirl) and we left for Chiquimula. We had to go through Guatemala city and then take a bus (which I thought was going to be a chicken bus but ended up being a pullman, thank goodness!) It was a little crazy going through Guate but we made it without incident and I kept all of my luggage in one piece. We got to my village around 5 so I had dinner and met the president of my association along with her family (she has two sons and a daughter who are all about my age). After dinner I went to her mother-in-laws house, which is where I stayed for the first two nights and got situated and then went to bed. All was going great with that because I was so exhausted from the traveling until about midnight when I was abruptly woken up by some of the ceiling falling on my face... I immediately turned on my flashlight and started looking around everywhere for the source of this but couldn't find anything so resolved to hang my mosquito net in the morning figuring that it would protect me from the faulty ceiling for the next night... the next day I was reading in my room and all of the sudden two HUGE rats go running across one of the wooden planks that support the roof of the room. This is when i realized that the caving-in ceiling was due to the rats nighttime activities. After seeing that happen I just kinda shrugged my shoulders and said to myself "at least they are in the ceiling and not scurrying across the floor" (I'm so optimistic). So then I go to grab my shower stuff from my one bag when I notice that apparently my room has been built on top of the world's largest anthill. I have literally never seen so many ants in all my life (and hopefully never will again). I spent the next hour or so shaking out all of my clothes and other belongings to be sure I got them all. After that, I McGuyvered my bag to hang from the ceiling (with the rats) so that the ants wouldn't get it. TIG (this is Guatemala). To ice the cake, there was no running water which was surprisingly almost a relief because it's so hot there that cold water felt pretty great. The bathroom was also a latrine. So after the first two nights at this house I finally met up with my site mate, Felicia (or Omi, as she is known in our town) and she saved me! She took me to her house, which is SO awesome! I got to read in her backyard, while swaying in her hammock and looking at the gorgeous mountain views. She made me tuna fish wraps for dinner (first time I've had tuna since I left and I LOVE tuna) and I got to watch the phils game (which they won even though they have since been knocked out). Overall, it was great to hang out with her and get to know the village a little better without all the other stresses from the previous days. Needless to say, I chose to live with the president of my corporation who I am hoping does not have the ant or rat problem (vamos a ver... we'll see). I needed to buy my own bed which I was pretty nervous to do because of my communication skills in another language but luckily Felicia helped me out so I have a brand new bed that was delivered a few days ago (bug free yayyy!) and I'll be all set when I get there on Saturday :)
I am pretty excited about the group that I will be working with at my new site. It is a women's group that works with baskets made from palms (and other products as well such as earrings made from palms) but they harvest the palms themselves in many cases (or buy the materials if they don't have access to the actual plants) and then create the baskets, jewelry boxes, earrings and tons more. They have a ton of potential and their products are actually really impressive so I'm really excited to learn how that all is done as well as help them to find new markets/better marketing strategies to sell their products. It's also sweet because there are other women's groups in town or in surrounding areas that work with shampoo and with pastries which lends perfectly to creating gift baskets or pastry baskets, which are even more marketable! One challenge I see so far will be getting the group to meet more than once a month and to continue to make their product year round (since from what I've gathered they take some lengthy breaks from producing baskets throughout the year). I can't wait to try and learn how to make the baskets though and can't wait to see what we will all be able to accomplish together!
Coming back to where I've been for the past three months was amazing. I missed my family and the food here (not to mention the flushing toilet and trusty ceiling) SO much. I really don't know what I'm gonna do without them (I'm sure I'll be aok but it's gonna be rough for sure). My little brothers were so cute when I got back though... they ran to get the door and were jumping up to hug me and begging to come play with them. Today we got to have a party for our host families in our towns and ours was a ton of fun! All the trainees in my town got up super early and made 20 pizzas as well as a big bowl of pasta and guacamole for tostados. Our families all got together and we had a pinata (see facebook for pictures) which the kids (and adults for that matter) had a ton of fun with. It was nice to be able to give back a little something to our fams for all they have done/continue to do for us and I think they all really enjoyed it. This next week we have lots of stuff going on and then Friday is the big day when we move to our sites so wish me luck and pray that the rats have evacuated the premises especially for me (a girl can dream right?) I hope all of you have an awesome week and hopefully I'll get another blog up here before I leave or shortly after I arrive at site. Miss you all!
I hope that everyone is doing very well and enjoying the gorgeous fall weather I am sure you are having (what I'd do to walk through some leaves and go on a haunted hayride right now...)
Instead of all that, I will be leaving for my new site on Saturday and it's HOT HOT HOT there! It's really weird to think that I won't be having a winter for the next two years but I'm excited to get a nice little tan going as well as sweat off all the tortilla fat I've gained (the important things in life, right?) I had my site visit this past week and it was interesting to say the least... I guess I'll start at the beginning and I'll try not to leave anything out cause it's a pretty good story if I do say so myself. Okay so the first day, I met up with my counterpart and another girl from my village who is 16 and her name is Brenda (and coincidentally she is freaking awesome and my new homegirl) and we left for Chiquimula. We had to go through Guatemala city and then take a bus (which I thought was going to be a chicken bus but ended up being a pullman, thank goodness!) It was a little crazy going through Guate but we made it without incident and I kept all of my luggage in one piece. We got to my village around 5 so I had dinner and met the president of my association along with her family (she has two sons and a daughter who are all about my age). After dinner I went to her mother-in-laws house, which is where I stayed for the first two nights and got situated and then went to bed. All was going great with that because I was so exhausted from the traveling until about midnight when I was abruptly woken up by some of the ceiling falling on my face... I immediately turned on my flashlight and started looking around everywhere for the source of this but couldn't find anything so resolved to hang my mosquito net in the morning figuring that it would protect me from the faulty ceiling for the next night... the next day I was reading in my room and all of the sudden two HUGE rats go running across one of the wooden planks that support the roof of the room. This is when i realized that the caving-in ceiling was due to the rats nighttime activities. After seeing that happen I just kinda shrugged my shoulders and said to myself "at least they are in the ceiling and not scurrying across the floor" (I'm so optimistic). So then I go to grab my shower stuff from my one bag when I notice that apparently my room has been built on top of the world's largest anthill. I have literally never seen so many ants in all my life (and hopefully never will again). I spent the next hour or so shaking out all of my clothes and other belongings to be sure I got them all. After that, I McGuyvered my bag to hang from the ceiling (with the rats) so that the ants wouldn't get it. TIG (this is Guatemala). To ice the cake, there was no running water which was surprisingly almost a relief because it's so hot there that cold water felt pretty great. The bathroom was also a latrine. So after the first two nights at this house I finally met up with my site mate, Felicia (or Omi, as she is known in our town) and she saved me! She took me to her house, which is SO awesome! I got to read in her backyard, while swaying in her hammock and looking at the gorgeous mountain views. She made me tuna fish wraps for dinner (first time I've had tuna since I left and I LOVE tuna) and I got to watch the phils game (which they won even though they have since been knocked out). Overall, it was great to hang out with her and get to know the village a little better without all the other stresses from the previous days. Needless to say, I chose to live with the president of my corporation who I am hoping does not have the ant or rat problem (vamos a ver... we'll see). I needed to buy my own bed which I was pretty nervous to do because of my communication skills in another language but luckily Felicia helped me out so I have a brand new bed that was delivered a few days ago (bug free yayyy!) and I'll be all set when I get there on Saturday :)
I am pretty excited about the group that I will be working with at my new site. It is a women's group that works with baskets made from palms (and other products as well such as earrings made from palms) but they harvest the palms themselves in many cases (or buy the materials if they don't have access to the actual plants) and then create the baskets, jewelry boxes, earrings and tons more. They have a ton of potential and their products are actually really impressive so I'm really excited to learn how that all is done as well as help them to find new markets/better marketing strategies to sell their products. It's also sweet because there are other women's groups in town or in surrounding areas that work with shampoo and with pastries which lends perfectly to creating gift baskets or pastry baskets, which are even more marketable! One challenge I see so far will be getting the group to meet more than once a month and to continue to make their product year round (since from what I've gathered they take some lengthy breaks from producing baskets throughout the year). I can't wait to try and learn how to make the baskets though and can't wait to see what we will all be able to accomplish together!
Coming back to where I've been for the past three months was amazing. I missed my family and the food here (not to mention the flushing toilet and trusty ceiling) SO much. I really don't know what I'm gonna do without them (I'm sure I'll be aok but it's gonna be rough for sure). My little brothers were so cute when I got back though... they ran to get the door and were jumping up to hug me and begging to come play with them. Today we got to have a party for our host families in our towns and ours was a ton of fun! All the trainees in my town got up super early and made 20 pizzas as well as a big bowl of pasta and guacamole for tostados. Our families all got together and we had a pinata (see facebook for pictures) which the kids (and adults for that matter) had a ton of fun with. It was nice to be able to give back a little something to our fams for all they have done/continue to do for us and I think they all really enjoyed it. This next week we have lots of stuff going on and then Friday is the big day when we move to our sites so wish me luck and pray that the rats have evacuated the premises especially for me (a girl can dream right?) I hope all of you have an awesome week and hopefully I'll get another blog up here before I leave or shortly after I arrive at site. Miss you all!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Chiquimula- Cheekymoolah
Hello Hello!
Okay so I finally found out where I will be spending the next two years of my life and am VERY excited about it!!! I can't tell you all exactly where I am going but it is near a place called Chiquimula (pronounced cheeky-moo-lah), which is in the oriente (east) and is pretty close to the Honduras border, which is really cool. The majority of the people in this area are ladino, which means that I will not have to learn an indigenous language (yayyy!). Another awesome thing about this area is the weather... I hope. Where I am living now is pretty chilly but considered moderate by Guatemalan standards, whereas where I am headed is calido (hot). Basically the temperature range in my information packet says that it will be between 25 and 40 degrees Celsius (75 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit) which clearly is extremely hot. I am really excited that the weather will be warmer because that is exactly what I wanted but 104 might be a little extreme especially when I have to ride on a camioneta somewhere and there are 6 people to a seat... I might sweat to death. Another great thing about my site is that I am going to be super close to my biff here Emily (http://emilypcguatemala.blogspot.com/) which should be extremely interesting haha keep your fingers crossed that we don't single-handedly destroy the entire east coast of Guatemala. It is a little sad that we will all be leaving our current training sites, especially Ag Marketing because our group has really gotten so close and I can't imagine not seeing them every day :( We are all super happy with where we will be going though so that is great and I know we'll all be able to meet up once in a while. All of the other people in Ag have awesome sites so I'll definitely be making my rounds to see them. Hopefully people will come and visit Em and I out in the east (even if it's just to use us for our proximity to a beach, Thomas ;) ) I am also pumped that my other really good friend Nicole is going to a place called Quiche (it's not a delicious pie prepared with eggs and cheese) because there is awesome hiking there and it's much chillier weather, which will be a nice break from the intense heat of where I will be.
As for what I will be doing as my job for the remainder of my time here, I am really pumped! I will be mainly working with a group of women who have an association with artesanias including wicker products and shampoos and creams. I am not exactly sure what they primarily work with or specialize in but will hopefully find all of the specifics out on Monday when I meet with my counterpart (assuming I can communicate effectively with her since my Spanish is still not bueno). During training we have visited a lot of coffee cooperatives and learned a bit about mushroom cultivation and that whole process but have not learned a ton about arts and shampoos so I am very excited to see what that is all about and be involved in my association. I have two housing options at my new site, which is sweet cause I'll get to check them out and see which one I prefer (one description says there is a slight situation with the latrine/shower and if you know me at all then you know I'm extremely clumsy and would absolutely fall into a faulty latrine so I'll definitely be taking that into consideration before signing any leases...) As for other specifics, only time will tell. I am really excited/nervous for my site visit next week, which will be the first time I'm really all alone besides the first few days here (which didn't go very well considering my overdose of anti-malaria medicine combined with the lack of any knowledge in Spanish). Traveling to my new site via camioneta with all of my luggage should be an adventure in itself so please pray that my counterpart has some sort of vehicle that can transport me or else it will be an extremely long (4 hours or so) ride with all of my worldy positions... if that doesn't sound like something to add to your bucket list then I'm really not sure what would.
It's really unbelievable that training is almost over but I am so ready to be a volunteer and go to my site to do what I came here to do :) I am going to miss my family in Sumpango immensely but they have already invited my back for Christmas, which I will most likely take them up on because my madre is the best chef ever and my bed here is phenomenal not to mention there is an indoor shower with hot water (I'm so spoiled, it's ridiculous). I miss everyone at home as well and I hope you all are doing great and enjoying the awesome fall weather (what I'd do to roast a marshmallow and go on a haunted hayride would probably alarm you). I'll post another blog after my site visit! Wish me luck :) Adios!
Okay so I finally found out where I will be spending the next two years of my life and am VERY excited about it!!! I can't tell you all exactly where I am going but it is near a place called Chiquimula (pronounced cheeky-moo-lah), which is in the oriente (east) and is pretty close to the Honduras border, which is really cool. The majority of the people in this area are ladino, which means that I will not have to learn an indigenous language (yayyy!). Another awesome thing about this area is the weather... I hope. Where I am living now is pretty chilly but considered moderate by Guatemalan standards, whereas where I am headed is calido (hot). Basically the temperature range in my information packet says that it will be between 25 and 40 degrees Celsius (75 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit) which clearly is extremely hot. I am really excited that the weather will be warmer because that is exactly what I wanted but 104 might be a little extreme especially when I have to ride on a camioneta somewhere and there are 6 people to a seat... I might sweat to death. Another great thing about my site is that I am going to be super close to my biff here Emily (http://emilypcguatemala.blogspot.com/) which should be extremely interesting haha keep your fingers crossed that we don't single-handedly destroy the entire east coast of Guatemala. It is a little sad that we will all be leaving our current training sites, especially Ag Marketing because our group has really gotten so close and I can't imagine not seeing them every day :( We are all super happy with where we will be going though so that is great and I know we'll all be able to meet up once in a while. All of the other people in Ag have awesome sites so I'll definitely be making my rounds to see them. Hopefully people will come and visit Em and I out in the east (even if it's just to use us for our proximity to a beach, Thomas ;) ) I am also pumped that my other really good friend Nicole is going to a place called Quiche (it's not a delicious pie prepared with eggs and cheese) because there is awesome hiking there and it's much chillier weather, which will be a nice break from the intense heat of where I will be.
As for what I will be doing as my job for the remainder of my time here, I am really pumped! I will be mainly working with a group of women who have an association with artesanias including wicker products and shampoos and creams. I am not exactly sure what they primarily work with or specialize in but will hopefully find all of the specifics out on Monday when I meet with my counterpart (assuming I can communicate effectively with her since my Spanish is still not bueno). During training we have visited a lot of coffee cooperatives and learned a bit about mushroom cultivation and that whole process but have not learned a ton about arts and shampoos so I am very excited to see what that is all about and be involved in my association. I have two housing options at my new site, which is sweet cause I'll get to check them out and see which one I prefer (one description says there is a slight situation with the latrine/shower and if you know me at all then you know I'm extremely clumsy and would absolutely fall into a faulty latrine so I'll definitely be taking that into consideration before signing any leases...) As for other specifics, only time will tell. I am really excited/nervous for my site visit next week, which will be the first time I'm really all alone besides the first few days here (which didn't go very well considering my overdose of anti-malaria medicine combined with the lack of any knowledge in Spanish). Traveling to my new site via camioneta with all of my luggage should be an adventure in itself so please pray that my counterpart has some sort of vehicle that can transport me or else it will be an extremely long (4 hours or so) ride with all of my worldy positions... if that doesn't sound like something to add to your bucket list then I'm really not sure what would.
It's really unbelievable that training is almost over but I am so ready to be a volunteer and go to my site to do what I came here to do :) I am going to miss my family in Sumpango immensely but they have already invited my back for Christmas, which I will most likely take them up on because my madre is the best chef ever and my bed here is phenomenal not to mention there is an indoor shower with hot water (I'm so spoiled, it's ridiculous). I miss everyone at home as well and I hope you all are doing great and enjoying the awesome fall weather (what I'd do to roast a marshmallow and go on a haunted hayride would probably alarm you). I'll post another blog after my site visit! Wish me luck :) Adios!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Conejo- Rabbit (or adorable bunny)
Hello from Guate!
Okay, time for another entertaining and informative blog post yayyy! Things have been really crazy for me over the past few weeks and probably won't stop being crazy for another 3 months or so, so I am pretty pumped/a little nervous for all of that. Since field based training we have basically just been going on field trips to other organizations and having spanish classes. The field trips have been relatively interesting for the most part (some more than others, of course). We have gotten to see more coffee cooperatives than I can count on one hand and have learned lots about importing and exporting (which is quite informative but really won't be helping me much over the next couple years seeing as most of the sites we are going to be placed in are no where near that step in selling their goods). Speaking of sites... we will be finding out our sites in T-Minus 5 days :-o This is very exciting but I am also a little nervous because this will tell my fate for the next two years and that is just a little daunting. After we find out where we are going, we get to meet our counterparts (the person from the community/coop/association that we will be working closely with) and go on a site visit for a week. This site visit will be our first real travel experience all by ourselves (which is ridiculous for me since I can't get down my street in springfield successfully, but also because I will have to speak spanish the entire week with me help in English whatsoever... wish me luck). We will also get to see where we will be living, meet our families, and learn some about the place we will be working. We were told some information about the 10 possible sites that the 8 members of my group were potentially going to but I tried pretty hard to not pay attention since I don't really want a reason to be disappointed (I'm obviously going to kick butt no matter where they send me so it's no big deal). Needless to say, however, we are all on the edge of our seats awaiting this information so wish me luck and pray for me that I go somewhere with extremely patient indigenous people with a warm climate, small population, flat terrain and near some really cool tourist sites... is that asking too much? Seems pretty reasonable to me...
So what I did today was probably the most interesting thing that has happened to me recently... we did an "information interchange" with the other agricultural group (food security) and it was pretty intense to say the least. First, we learned how to flip tires and make tire gardens, which was extremely interesting and I think will absolutely come in handy for me because I intend to have a nice little vegetable garden in my yard (considering the fact that I am going to be a vegetarian for the next two years, which I will explain in the next few sentences... if you have a weak stomach or don't want to know anything about killing and cooking animals then don't continue reading). After that we went to another community and were shown how to kill, clean and prepare a chicken and... drum roll please... a bunny! It was pretty crazy I won't lie (let me also say that I love animals more than most people) but not nearly as bad as I was expecting (parts of it). The rabbit was first and I won't go into too much detail here but it was actually pretty cool to see how the fur is taken off and which parts of the rabbit you can and cannot eat. I will also say that the whole process is very fast and the rabbit doesn't suffer at all so that was nice to know. Overall, I had to shield my eyes a few times but it was definitely a great learning experience (even though I never intend to do that myself... I think I'd starve first). Second was the chicken, which was much easier to watch cause chickens aren't nearly as cute. I will again spare you the juicy details but what I will say is that after the chicken was dead and we looked inside of it, it was really cool to see that it had some eggs in there (probably like 15 or so) that were developing and I learned you are able to still eat. One of the woman who was helping us kept insisting that we watch because we need to know how to do these things if we live in the mountains, to which I responded, "no gracias, solamente las verduras y las frutas por mi" (no thanks, only veggies and fruits for me). It was definitely really cool to learn how to do these things but I am definitely hoping I can stay alive without having to execute anything I saw today... vamos a ver (we'll see!)
Other than that, life at home is the same old and I am still missing the US but adjusting more to life here all the time. I hope everyone is doing great and is having a wonderful weekend! Miss you all!
Adios!
Okay, time for another entertaining and informative blog post yayyy! Things have been really crazy for me over the past few weeks and probably won't stop being crazy for another 3 months or so, so I am pretty pumped/a little nervous for all of that. Since field based training we have basically just been going on field trips to other organizations and having spanish classes. The field trips have been relatively interesting for the most part (some more than others, of course). We have gotten to see more coffee cooperatives than I can count on one hand and have learned lots about importing and exporting (which is quite informative but really won't be helping me much over the next couple years seeing as most of the sites we are going to be placed in are no where near that step in selling their goods). Speaking of sites... we will be finding out our sites in T-Minus 5 days :-o This is very exciting but I am also a little nervous because this will tell my fate for the next two years and that is just a little daunting. After we find out where we are going, we get to meet our counterparts (the person from the community/coop/association that we will be working closely with) and go on a site visit for a week. This site visit will be our first real travel experience all by ourselves (which is ridiculous for me since I can't get down my street in springfield successfully, but also because I will have to speak spanish the entire week with me help in English whatsoever... wish me luck). We will also get to see where we will be living, meet our families, and learn some about the place we will be working. We were told some information about the 10 possible sites that the 8 members of my group were potentially going to but I tried pretty hard to not pay attention since I don't really want a reason to be disappointed (I'm obviously going to kick butt no matter where they send me so it's no big deal). Needless to say, however, we are all on the edge of our seats awaiting this information so wish me luck and pray for me that I go somewhere with extremely patient indigenous people with a warm climate, small population, flat terrain and near some really cool tourist sites... is that asking too much? Seems pretty reasonable to me...
So what I did today was probably the most interesting thing that has happened to me recently... we did an "information interchange" with the other agricultural group (food security) and it was pretty intense to say the least. First, we learned how to flip tires and make tire gardens, which was extremely interesting and I think will absolutely come in handy for me because I intend to have a nice little vegetable garden in my yard (considering the fact that I am going to be a vegetarian for the next two years, which I will explain in the next few sentences... if you have a weak stomach or don't want to know anything about killing and cooking animals then don't continue reading). After that we went to another community and were shown how to kill, clean and prepare a chicken and... drum roll please... a bunny! It was pretty crazy I won't lie (let me also say that I love animals more than most people) but not nearly as bad as I was expecting (parts of it). The rabbit was first and I won't go into too much detail here but it was actually pretty cool to see how the fur is taken off and which parts of the rabbit you can and cannot eat. I will also say that the whole process is very fast and the rabbit doesn't suffer at all so that was nice to know. Overall, I had to shield my eyes a few times but it was definitely a great learning experience (even though I never intend to do that myself... I think I'd starve first). Second was the chicken, which was much easier to watch cause chickens aren't nearly as cute. I will again spare you the juicy details but what I will say is that after the chicken was dead and we looked inside of it, it was really cool to see that it had some eggs in there (probably like 15 or so) that were developing and I learned you are able to still eat. One of the woman who was helping us kept insisting that we watch because we need to know how to do these things if we live in the mountains, to which I responded, "no gracias, solamente las verduras y las frutas por mi" (no thanks, only veggies and fruits for me). It was definitely really cool to learn how to do these things but I am definitely hoping I can stay alive without having to execute anything I saw today... vamos a ver (we'll see!)
Other than that, life at home is the same old and I am still missing the US but adjusting more to life here all the time. I hope everyone is doing great and is having a wonderful weekend! Miss you all!
Adios!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Jinete- Rider (as in of horses, not like my last name)
Buenos Tardes!
Well, I just got back from field-based training and it was pretty awesome! The marketing group (which has 8 members and we just happen to be the coolest, funniest group on the planet) got to go to a couple coffee cooperatives, an organic farm in the side of a volcano, a couple women's groups that grow and sell mushrooms as well as a couple other places to learn about small business here or training opportunities. The organic farm grows strawberries and they let us go into the field and pick all we could eat (actually what he said was more along the lines of "sure, you can have some" but of course the crazy gringos went nuts and probably ate 30 each... how American of us) We also had to give our first solo Spanish presentations (called charlas) which went better than I was expecting. Mine was about record keeping, which seems like the most boring topic of life (and probably is) but was kind of perfect for me cause I love organization. The women in the group also really liked me for some unknown reason considering all I did during my presentation was ask them questions to take the focus off of the fact that I don't speak their language and spell things wrong when they responded but at the end they told our technical trainer that they wanted me to be the next volunteer at their site so I guess not speaking spanish won't hold me back after all! We also went to a training facility called Utz Samaj, which basically helps farmers learn better ways to grow and harvest and is also available for peace corps volunteers. I would really love to be a part of this program but the only problem is that it's only offered in once place so if my site is too far away I won't be able to. Our technical trainer talked with us this week about what are "preferences" are for our permanent sites (we are currently in our training sites and will be leaving them in about a month to go to where we will be for the next two years). We also learned about some of the sites that we could potentially go to, which was super exciting but also quite a tease since we have to wait two more weeks to find out for sure. I am really excited though and can't even believe there's only a month or so left before we swear in! We also went to a small business called Tikonel, which makes wood products as well as some textiles and used to sell to Walmart so that was really cool to see. I bought my madre a wooden napkin holder and a little wooden candle holder, which she loved (although I'm pretty sure she though I was crazy for spending money on a piece of wood to hold napkins) but when I woke up this morning it was on the dining room table full of them so mission accomplished :)
Everything else here is pretty much the same... lots of rain today and supposedly tomorrow as well, which means we are not allowed to go anywhere outside of our towns (which we aren't allowed anyways so its really nothing new for us) but I get to watch "Ben 10" on cartoon network with my brothers (who called me twice while I was away last week to say hi and see how I was doing) so I'm happy with that! I hope everyone at home is doing well and not missing me too much... wishful thinking? Okay, until next time, adios muchachos! (I tried to say "peace out" there but so many American slangs simply do not translate well into Spanish... no dice)
Well, I just got back from field-based training and it was pretty awesome! The marketing group (which has 8 members and we just happen to be the coolest, funniest group on the planet) got to go to a couple coffee cooperatives, an organic farm in the side of a volcano, a couple women's groups that grow and sell mushrooms as well as a couple other places to learn about small business here or training opportunities. The organic farm grows strawberries and they let us go into the field and pick all we could eat (actually what he said was more along the lines of "sure, you can have some" but of course the crazy gringos went nuts and probably ate 30 each... how American of us) We also had to give our first solo Spanish presentations (called charlas) which went better than I was expecting. Mine was about record keeping, which seems like the most boring topic of life (and probably is) but was kind of perfect for me cause I love organization. The women in the group also really liked me for some unknown reason considering all I did during my presentation was ask them questions to take the focus off of the fact that I don't speak their language and spell things wrong when they responded but at the end they told our technical trainer that they wanted me to be the next volunteer at their site so I guess not speaking spanish won't hold me back after all! We also went to a training facility called Utz Samaj, which basically helps farmers learn better ways to grow and harvest and is also available for peace corps volunteers. I would really love to be a part of this program but the only problem is that it's only offered in once place so if my site is too far away I won't be able to. Our technical trainer talked with us this week about what are "preferences" are for our permanent sites (we are currently in our training sites and will be leaving them in about a month to go to where we will be for the next two years). We also learned about some of the sites that we could potentially go to, which was super exciting but also quite a tease since we have to wait two more weeks to find out for sure. I am really excited though and can't even believe there's only a month or so left before we swear in! We also went to a small business called Tikonel, which makes wood products as well as some textiles and used to sell to Walmart so that was really cool to see. I bought my madre a wooden napkin holder and a little wooden candle holder, which she loved (although I'm pretty sure she though I was crazy for spending money on a piece of wood to hold napkins) but when I woke up this morning it was on the dining room table full of them so mission accomplished :)
Everything else here is pretty much the same... lots of rain today and supposedly tomorrow as well, which means we are not allowed to go anywhere outside of our towns (which we aren't allowed anyways so its really nothing new for us) but I get to watch "Ben 10" on cartoon network with my brothers (who called me twice while I was away last week to say hi and see how I was doing) so I'm happy with that! I hope everyone at home is doing well and not missing me too much... wishful thinking? Okay, until next time, adios muchachos! (I tried to say "peace out" there but so many American slangs simply do not translate well into Spanish... no dice)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Colocha- Curly Haired Woman (aka me)
Hola from Guate!
Sorry it keeps taking me forever to post something new but I am finally doing it so here you go...
So much has happened since the last time I posted that I don't even know where to begin... I have traveled to Guatemala City, Antigua and Comolapa. We went to Guatemala City with our spanish classes and it was so awesome! We visited the American Embassy (just so we'd know where to go in case of an emergency) the hopsital, and most importantly the mall. The mall there is called MiraFlores and it's ridiculous! It's bigger than most malls I've seen in the states and has all the same stores as we have in America, which was really nice since it's been a pretty long time since I've been anywhere like that. We shopped around a bit and got lunch there and then traveled home. Our trip was pretty closely monitored by our spanish teachers because Guatemala City can be extremely dangerous. It kinda stinks because they caution us not to travel there unless we absolutely have to and if we do need to then to definitely not go alone but it's so cool there I am itching to go back! Next was our visit to Antigua... this was on our first free day and I gotta say, it was incredibly nice to get out of town and hang out with the other trainees for the day without supervision! We basically just saw some sites (Antigua is so pretty and has so much to offer as far as seeing ruins and hiking and things of that nature), got lunch and just spent time together having fun. Last but not least was Comolapa... this was actually my trip from yesterday, which was taken with my family for my abuela's birthday. It was so much fun and Comolapa is actually really similar to Sumpanga but much flatter, which was a nice change of terrain for me. At my grandma's party we ate a tradition dish called "pepian" which is either chicken or beef (my madre always makes me chicken when we have beef because she knows I like it better, she's the best!), rice, and a brown sauce that I have no idea what is in besides cilantro. My madre is such an amazing cook though, her pepian is definitely the best I've had while I've been here and I've tried my share. She also includes potatoes, carrots and green beans which definitely adds to the wonderfulness of it. Other than that, my grandma opened presents and we just hung out and told jokes (most of which were about me and I didn't understand but still enjoyed).
We also got to experience our first Mayan ceremony, which was so interesting and cool to be a part of. The ceremony was conducted by a Mayan elder woman and lasted almost three hours (about an hour of that was setting up the fire that she made, which was done with tons of different ingredients and very precisely including flowers, candles, honey and lots of other stuff that I'm sure has significance here but I was unable to understand with my lack of spanish haha whoops). Pictures will be posted on facebook in a couple days so keep an eye out for those. After the ceremony we go to eat some traditional food, which I must admit, I did not love. It was spinach, a green bean dish (which one of the guys I was sitting with referred to as "bone" and I instantly could not eat another bite of) tortillas (of course) and etol de maiz (it's a hot beverage made from corn but they have all different types of etol here and they are all equally amazing although I do prefer manzana (apple), platano (plantains) or arroz (rice)).
On another front, the weather here has been pretty crazy and supposedly is supposed to only get worse. There have been a ton of landslides all over the place but luckily none to speak of around my town, which I am very grateful for. It rains pretty much every day, sometimes really hard at night but hopefully that will only last another month or two and then it will be summer here, which I'm extremely excited for! Sadly, my brothers have been taking turns getting sick and today it's Diego and Kevi :( They both have fevers and I feel so bad cause they are so darn cute and seeing them sad and in pain is heartbreaking but hopefully it will only last a day or two... and hopefully I won't catch whatever it is they have although I probably will considering I spent my afternoon playing cards games with them. It was worth it though because they loved that I bought them a deck of cards (the one thing they didn't already have) and I was able to teach them go fish or "vamos los pescados" as I cleverly translated it to. They really loved the game though and I was pretty happy with myself for successfully explaining it to them in spanish (go me!) I also got a chance to play some real futbol with one of my friends "brothers", which was so fun but also quite embarrassing cause A. I haven't played soccer in a very long time and B. the other team was awesome. We had a great time though and the field was actually turf... sort of... so that was nice as well!
Other than that life is just flying by here. I can't believe its already been over a month since I got here and the rest of training is just going to go even faster with all of the field trips and fun things we have coming up. Next week is field based training, which is when we get to visit the site of another volunteer and spend the week with them so it should be a great learning experience! We also have a bunch of other field trips and then it's our site visit where we get to see where we will be moving and that is so crazy! I really hope everyone at home is still doing awesome and trying hard not to miss me too much (impossible, I know). I miss you all a ton and keep you in my prayers! Love you and hopefully it won't be so long before the next post :) Adios amigos!
Sorry it keeps taking me forever to post something new but I am finally doing it so here you go...
So much has happened since the last time I posted that I don't even know where to begin... I have traveled to Guatemala City, Antigua and Comolapa. We went to Guatemala City with our spanish classes and it was so awesome! We visited the American Embassy (just so we'd know where to go in case of an emergency) the hopsital, and most importantly the mall. The mall there is called MiraFlores and it's ridiculous! It's bigger than most malls I've seen in the states and has all the same stores as we have in America, which was really nice since it's been a pretty long time since I've been anywhere like that. We shopped around a bit and got lunch there and then traveled home. Our trip was pretty closely monitored by our spanish teachers because Guatemala City can be extremely dangerous. It kinda stinks because they caution us not to travel there unless we absolutely have to and if we do need to then to definitely not go alone but it's so cool there I am itching to go back! Next was our visit to Antigua... this was on our first free day and I gotta say, it was incredibly nice to get out of town and hang out with the other trainees for the day without supervision! We basically just saw some sites (Antigua is so pretty and has so much to offer as far as seeing ruins and hiking and things of that nature), got lunch and just spent time together having fun. Last but not least was Comolapa... this was actually my trip from yesterday, which was taken with my family for my abuela's birthday. It was so much fun and Comolapa is actually really similar to Sumpanga but much flatter, which was a nice change of terrain for me. At my grandma's party we ate a tradition dish called "pepian" which is either chicken or beef (my madre always makes me chicken when we have beef because she knows I like it better, she's the best!), rice, and a brown sauce that I have no idea what is in besides cilantro. My madre is such an amazing cook though, her pepian is definitely the best I've had while I've been here and I've tried my share. She also includes potatoes, carrots and green beans which definitely adds to the wonderfulness of it. Other than that, my grandma opened presents and we just hung out and told jokes (most of which were about me and I didn't understand but still enjoyed).
We also got to experience our first Mayan ceremony, which was so interesting and cool to be a part of. The ceremony was conducted by a Mayan elder woman and lasted almost three hours (about an hour of that was setting up the fire that she made, which was done with tons of different ingredients and very precisely including flowers, candles, honey and lots of other stuff that I'm sure has significance here but I was unable to understand with my lack of spanish haha whoops). Pictures will be posted on facebook in a couple days so keep an eye out for those. After the ceremony we go to eat some traditional food, which I must admit, I did not love. It was spinach, a green bean dish (which one of the guys I was sitting with referred to as "bone" and I instantly could not eat another bite of) tortillas (of course) and etol de maiz (it's a hot beverage made from corn but they have all different types of etol here and they are all equally amazing although I do prefer manzana (apple), platano (plantains) or arroz (rice)).
On another front, the weather here has been pretty crazy and supposedly is supposed to only get worse. There have been a ton of landslides all over the place but luckily none to speak of around my town, which I am very grateful for. It rains pretty much every day, sometimes really hard at night but hopefully that will only last another month or two and then it will be summer here, which I'm extremely excited for! Sadly, my brothers have been taking turns getting sick and today it's Diego and Kevi :( They both have fevers and I feel so bad cause they are so darn cute and seeing them sad and in pain is heartbreaking but hopefully it will only last a day or two... and hopefully I won't catch whatever it is they have although I probably will considering I spent my afternoon playing cards games with them. It was worth it though because they loved that I bought them a deck of cards (the one thing they didn't already have) and I was able to teach them go fish or "vamos los pescados" as I cleverly translated it to. They really loved the game though and I was pretty happy with myself for successfully explaining it to them in spanish (go me!) I also got a chance to play some real futbol with one of my friends "brothers", which was so fun but also quite embarrassing cause A. I haven't played soccer in a very long time and B. the other team was awesome. We had a great time though and the field was actually turf... sort of... so that was nice as well!
Other than that life is just flying by here. I can't believe its already been over a month since I got here and the rest of training is just going to go even faster with all of the field trips and fun things we have coming up. Next week is field based training, which is when we get to visit the site of another volunteer and spend the week with them so it should be a great learning experience! We also have a bunch of other field trips and then it's our site visit where we get to see where we will be moving and that is so crazy! I really hope everyone at home is still doing awesome and trying hard not to miss me too much (impossible, I know). I miss you all a ton and keep you in my prayers! Love you and hopefully it won't be so long before the next post :) Adios amigos!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Birthday :)
Hi Everyone!
Okay, I'm finally writing another update... My first week in Sumpango is now over and it's been full of ups and downs. I'll start by telling a pretty funny story about my first week in Guatemala (that really wasn't funny at all when it was happening but now is hilarious). So for the first week in country I was taking 2 anti malaria pills every day (500mg) when we were only supposed to be taking 2 per week... I finally figured this out after taking 7 times the prescribed dosage and only after I was literally almost throwing up from the dizziness. I looked in the mirror on Tuesday morning of this week and my pupils were so small I knew something was wrong so I went to the peace corps nurse and realized my mistake and felt like the biggest dummy of life! She basically told me that I was going to be fine because this medicine is just an antibiotic but that no human being should have that amount of antibiotic in their body and she was not surprised I was feeling so ill... I am sooo smart! The craziest part of me taking so many more than I was supposed is that they tell you before you take those pills that they tend to give people really crazy/weird dreams and so if that happens to you then you should take them one at a time (ex. one on monday night and the next on tuesday night or in the morning). For this very reason I was taking them in the mornings so they wouldn't mess with my sleep but instead they were completely messing my head up all day... All of this was actually a huge relief for me because I had been thinking all week that I was having dizzy spells related to stress/anxiety and wasn't feeling like myself at all which really freaked me out but really it was just because I was overdosing on anti malaria meds. So that is my duh story for the week haha
The rest of this week has been crazy with spanish and technical classes, which basically take up 8 hours a day... it's intense. We usually have spanish in the mornings and then go to technical training, which is specific to the project we have to do in our communities for agricultural marketing, and then back to spanish. The tech trainings are pretty fun cause we get to see more of the trainees and speak english and that's a huge relief after sooo much spanish! It's been raining so much here (it's rainy season till October or November) so walking everywhere has been pretty annoying but I think I'm getting used to it. Other than that, nothing too exciting has really happened to me this week.
Today was my birthday and it was really awesome! I was pretty sad about not being home for the day but my friends here completely made up for it. We had spanish class this morning which was actually fun because we got to play pictionary and a couple other fun games to help with our vocabulary and after that I just said goodbye to everyone and went home to my familia. My padre and my hermanos and I went to the mall to pick up some glasses for my padre, which I thought was a little strange but they told me we were going to the movies after so I just followed along. Then we went back to get my madre and she told me to go into the rec room to grab something and all of my friends were in there with the room full of balloons, a cake, chips and dip and the whole 9 yards... it was so awesome! My hermanos even decorated the balloons saying "happy birthday kristen" in a caligraphy font they learned in school! We all kinda just hung out after that and talked and laughed so it was really nice. Unfortunately, some of my friends with the other towns couldn't make it to the party cause the peace corps won't let us leave our towns for the first few weeks but they tried really hard to make it and that is all that counts!
Overall, it was an awesome birthday, especially with all the facebook love from home :) Thank you sooo much everyone for your birthday wishes and I miss you all dearly! Please keep those emails coming, they get me through the day! Love you all <3
Okay, I'm finally writing another update... My first week in Sumpango is now over and it's been full of ups and downs. I'll start by telling a pretty funny story about my first week in Guatemala (that really wasn't funny at all when it was happening but now is hilarious). So for the first week in country I was taking 2 anti malaria pills every day (500mg) when we were only supposed to be taking 2 per week... I finally figured this out after taking 7 times the prescribed dosage and only after I was literally almost throwing up from the dizziness. I looked in the mirror on Tuesday morning of this week and my pupils were so small I knew something was wrong so I went to the peace corps nurse and realized my mistake and felt like the biggest dummy of life! She basically told me that I was going to be fine because this medicine is just an antibiotic but that no human being should have that amount of antibiotic in their body and she was not surprised I was feeling so ill... I am sooo smart! The craziest part of me taking so many more than I was supposed is that they tell you before you take those pills that they tend to give people really crazy/weird dreams and so if that happens to you then you should take them one at a time (ex. one on monday night and the next on tuesday night or in the morning). For this very reason I was taking them in the mornings so they wouldn't mess with my sleep but instead they were completely messing my head up all day... All of this was actually a huge relief for me because I had been thinking all week that I was having dizzy spells related to stress/anxiety and wasn't feeling like myself at all which really freaked me out but really it was just because I was overdosing on anti malaria meds. So that is my duh story for the week haha
The rest of this week has been crazy with spanish and technical classes, which basically take up 8 hours a day... it's intense. We usually have spanish in the mornings and then go to technical training, which is specific to the project we have to do in our communities for agricultural marketing, and then back to spanish. The tech trainings are pretty fun cause we get to see more of the trainees and speak english and that's a huge relief after sooo much spanish! It's been raining so much here (it's rainy season till October or November) so walking everywhere has been pretty annoying but I think I'm getting used to it. Other than that, nothing too exciting has really happened to me this week.
Today was my birthday and it was really awesome! I was pretty sad about not being home for the day but my friends here completely made up for it. We had spanish class this morning which was actually fun because we got to play pictionary and a couple other fun games to help with our vocabulary and after that I just said goodbye to everyone and went home to my familia. My padre and my hermanos and I went to the mall to pick up some glasses for my padre, which I thought was a little strange but they told me we were going to the movies after so I just followed along. Then we went back to get my madre and she told me to go into the rec room to grab something and all of my friends were in there with the room full of balloons, a cake, chips and dip and the whole 9 yards... it was so awesome! My hermanos even decorated the balloons saying "happy birthday kristen" in a caligraphy font they learned in school! We all kinda just hung out after that and talked and laughed so it was really nice. Unfortunately, some of my friends with the other towns couldn't make it to the party cause the peace corps won't let us leave our towns for the first few weeks but they tried really hard to make it and that is all that counts!
Overall, it was an awesome birthday, especially with all the facebook love from home :) Thank you sooo much everyone for your birthday wishes and I miss you all dearly! Please keep those emails coming, they get me through the day! Love you all <3
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
lifeee
Hola!
Sorry it took so long for me to get one of these up here but I'm finally doing it so here is an update on my life so far...
The first four days of my time in Guatemala were spent in a town where the peace corps headquarters are. I stayed with a woman named Irma and her family and it was awesome because Irma's family was the first family in santa lucia to host a volunteer and shes had more than 150 volunteers staying with throughout the years! It was also awesome because I got to stay with another trainee named Jaron who was super nice and also spoke much more spanish than I do so she helped me a lot in understanding/communicating. Jaron and I shared a room which had two full beds and a dresser (although we didn't even unpack since we were only there for four days). The bathroom was down the hall on our right and had a shower when you first walk in followed by the toilet and we had running water and electricity which was awesome. All of the rooms in the house were separated by sheets for privacy and to keep bugs out. In the kitchen there was a big cement fixture called "la pilla" which is where dishes are done, teeth brushed, clothes washed and sometimes bucket baths taken if the water isn't working. The food was also delicious but I am not used to so many carbs and not many fruits and veggies so that will definitely take some getting used to. Irma's grandfather kept teasing me that I was too scared to try to speak spanish and told me before I left that I should come back and visit them when I am not so scared... I will definitely do that!
Yesterday was our first day with the host families we will be with throughout all of training. My family is amazing!!! The mom is Norma and the dad is Roberto and they have four sons (Melvin 12, Kevin 9, Diego 7 and Daniel 5). The boys are great because they are so interested in me that they help me try and speak spanish and help me with my pronunciation so hopefully that will allow me to learn spanish even quicker! Roberto also speaks english well so that is helpful when I really have no idea what is going on (which is often). My mama is so cute and nice, I can't wait to get to know her better and to learn more spanish so that I can talk with her more because right now it's a little difficult. Their house is also absolutely beautiful! The town we are in is a little bigger compared to some of the other cities trainees went to and it is also very hilly. Everyone who has a car here has to drive stick because the roads are so steep that you'd never make it up them without it. My house has three floors and the top two have "decks". They are actually more like balcony's but I want to call them decks because they are so big and we are higher up on the hill so it overlooks all of the city and the view is really unbelievable! We also have a great bathroom with running water and a shower and a sink. My room has a full size bed and a big wardrobe and desk, it's perfect. All the boys play soccer so I can't wait to go out with them and practice my skills :)
Last night (my first night here) we went to a birthday party for one of their family members. In Guatemala most of the friendships are within a family and the families are pretty big. I'm pretty sure this party was for someone on my padre's side but I'm not 100% positive because there were so many people that I was really overwhelmed trying to listen and understand anything of what was going on. We had a delicious potato-y dish with coffee for dinner followed by two HUGE cakes, one was peach and one was chocolate. I had a piece of the peace cake and it was so delicious! You really have to be careful of what you eat here because since the water is bad it really matters how the food is prepared/cleaned as well as how the silverware/dishes are cleaned but so far I've been aok. The birthday party was really similar to one we'd have back home with the singing of happy birthday and gathering of family members (although their happy birthday is much more fun than ours!) The party was an awesome experience and I had a great time but by the time it was over I was definitely ready for bed. It's amazing how tiring it can be just trying to take everything in and learn as much as possible every day but I'll get there, it's just gonna take time.
Language classes start back up on Monday but my group for that only has 2 other people so hopefully that will be helpful for me and my teacher, Isabel, is awesome. Every Tuesday all the trainees head back to headquarters for group sessions and I can't wait to get back to see all my fellow trainees (we all were split up between different villages and there are only 8 out of 32 here in my city). I miss everyone back home a lot but am thinking of you guys all the time! I hope you are all doing well and I'll try and get back on here in a few days to write you all an update :) Pray for me!
Love,
Kristen
Sorry it took so long for me to get one of these up here but I'm finally doing it so here is an update on my life so far...
The first four days of my time in Guatemala were spent in a town where the peace corps headquarters are. I stayed with a woman named Irma and her family and it was awesome because Irma's family was the first family in santa lucia to host a volunteer and shes had more than 150 volunteers staying with throughout the years! It was also awesome because I got to stay with another trainee named Jaron who was super nice and also spoke much more spanish than I do so she helped me a lot in understanding/communicating. Jaron and I shared a room which had two full beds and a dresser (although we didn't even unpack since we were only there for four days). The bathroom was down the hall on our right and had a shower when you first walk in followed by the toilet and we had running water and electricity which was awesome. All of the rooms in the house were separated by sheets for privacy and to keep bugs out. In the kitchen there was a big cement fixture called "la pilla" which is where dishes are done, teeth brushed, clothes washed and sometimes bucket baths taken if the water isn't working. The food was also delicious but I am not used to so many carbs and not many fruits and veggies so that will definitely take some getting used to. Irma's grandfather kept teasing me that I was too scared to try to speak spanish and told me before I left that I should come back and visit them when I am not so scared... I will definitely do that!
Yesterday was our first day with the host families we will be with throughout all of training. My family is amazing!!! The mom is Norma and the dad is Roberto and they have four sons (Melvin 12, Kevin 9, Diego 7 and Daniel 5). The boys are great because they are so interested in me that they help me try and speak spanish and help me with my pronunciation so hopefully that will allow me to learn spanish even quicker! Roberto also speaks english well so that is helpful when I really have no idea what is going on (which is often). My mama is so cute and nice, I can't wait to get to know her better and to learn more spanish so that I can talk with her more because right now it's a little difficult. Their house is also absolutely beautiful! The town we are in is a little bigger compared to some of the other cities trainees went to and it is also very hilly. Everyone who has a car here has to drive stick because the roads are so steep that you'd never make it up them without it. My house has three floors and the top two have "decks". They are actually more like balcony's but I want to call them decks because they are so big and we are higher up on the hill so it overlooks all of the city and the view is really unbelievable! We also have a great bathroom with running water and a shower and a sink. My room has a full size bed and a big wardrobe and desk, it's perfect. All the boys play soccer so I can't wait to go out with them and practice my skills :)
Last night (my first night here) we went to a birthday party for one of their family members. In Guatemala most of the friendships are within a family and the families are pretty big. I'm pretty sure this party was for someone on my padre's side but I'm not 100% positive because there were so many people that I was really overwhelmed trying to listen and understand anything of what was going on. We had a delicious potato-y dish with coffee for dinner followed by two HUGE cakes, one was peach and one was chocolate. I had a piece of the peace cake and it was so delicious! You really have to be careful of what you eat here because since the water is bad it really matters how the food is prepared/cleaned as well as how the silverware/dishes are cleaned but so far I've been aok. The birthday party was really similar to one we'd have back home with the singing of happy birthday and gathering of family members (although their happy birthday is much more fun than ours!) The party was an awesome experience and I had a great time but by the time it was over I was definitely ready for bed. It's amazing how tiring it can be just trying to take everything in and learn as much as possible every day but I'll get there, it's just gonna take time.
Language classes start back up on Monday but my group for that only has 2 other people so hopefully that will be helpful for me and my teacher, Isabel, is awesome. Every Tuesday all the trainees head back to headquarters for group sessions and I can't wait to get back to see all my fellow trainees (we all were split up between different villages and there are only 8 out of 32 here in my city). I miss everyone back home a lot but am thinking of you guys all the time! I hope you are all doing well and I'll try and get back on here in a few days to write you all an update :) Pray for me!
Love,
Kristen
Friday, August 6, 2010
Family Reunion
I spent the last week with my extended family in Michigan. This is a picture of me with my cousin Caitlyn from last year's reunion. We look pretty much the same now...
Leaving
Hello, friends!
I'm heading to Guatemala in just a few days! Stay tuned for posts about my experiences in the Peace Corps...
Love,
Kristen
I'm heading to Guatemala in just a few days! Stay tuned for posts about my experiences in the Peace Corps...
Love,
Kristen
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