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!