Matar- To Kill

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!

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!

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