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)
Saturday, September 25, 2010
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!
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