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!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
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!
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