Nothing Importante

Update coming soon. Promise.

World Challenge

There are lots of cool things going on throughout the world. There's a competition going on throughout the world called World Challenge which will fund the project that receives the most votes of people. I voted for a project a past volunteer is working on in Comalapa using trash to build things. My partner and I are planning on working on Manejo de Basura (trash management) for the first part of the next school year becuase trash is one huge problem here in Guatemala. There really isn't anywhere for people to throw trash so it ends up all over the streets, in the river, in people's yards, etc. A Class Apart uses tires and bottles filled with trash to build schools, homes, and other buildings. You can find more information at the site below. I encourage you to watch this video, as well as the other videos, and submit your vote before midnight tonight. It's a little last minute, I know, but I didn't hear about it til yesterday.

http://theworldchallenge.co.uk/2010-finalists-project06.php

Christmastime is here?

Christmas music is blaring in the internet café and radio stations have already started playing some songs. The malls have their Christmas decorations up. Híper (Wal-Mart) has a large section devoted entirely to Christmas stuff. IT'S TOO EARLY!!

I guess to their credit Guatemalans don't have Thanksgiving as the barrier between Halloween and Christmas. If we didn't have Thanksgiving, we might start putting up decorations on November 1st too.

In other news, got computer back but it cannot be fixed. Fortunately the guy didn't charge me anything-I think he felt a little sorry for me and the decrepit state of my computer. Blog updates will continue to be a little sparse.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

All of the kids around here have kites and fly them in the afternoon (it usually gets pretty breezy) so yesterday I went to my friend's house and we flew kites from her roof. Of course it being a holiday I waited about two hours for a bus, which never actually came (none of the busses came-only the micros were working and they filled up before getting to my stop), so I took a ride in a pickup, which was beautiful. The weather has been so beautiful lately-sunny and warm during the day with a nice breeze to cool things off. The day normally starts off like fall/winter (there was frost on the ground this morning), and then becomes spring/summer during the day with the evening finishing out like fall again. So, flying kites was fun but the kids totally showed us up-they sure know how to fly kites. It doesn't seem like it takes a lot of skill to do so, but I could barely keep mine in the air and had no control over where it went, while the kids were good at getting theirs way up in the sky and making them fly in one direction or another. The one things kids here are bad at where kites are concerned is getting their kites stuck on the powerlines. At first I thought people were just handing decorations from the powerlines, but they're really just kites hanging there.

'Summer' vacation is in full swing. The teachers have finally finished paperwork (it took about two weeks of October and they were in the internet café pretty much every day, it was pretty intense paperwork) so things really have finished, although the supervisor is working until December. I still have work, but it’s much more flexible. I spent the first week helping construct a “Rincón de Escuelas Saludables”, or a Healthy Schools corner, in the office of the supervisor de educación. It has photos of the winners of the rincones de salud competition, as well as of the school of the year competition and the certification of Chuistancia. It’s been a pretty full year. Also have been working on the next newsletter but not sure when that’s going out. I’ve also been working on a revision of the sex ed curriculum. This is such an important topic because kids know nothing about it, get married really young, and start popping out the babies (and tend not to stop for a while). The teachers are supposed to teach it but they don’t, so we’re trying to make an easy and more fun way of teaching anatomy, puberty, pregnancy, STDs, etc. and then making a workshop that we can give to teachers. It’s been fun getting together and getting creative. Kids just respond so much better when they’re not being lectured to and copying stuff from the board, which is the normal method of teaching here. I am also looking up information and activities on a variety of different topics to give to teachers next year to encourage them to start teaching health lessons (and to hopefully inspire them to come up with more creative ways of doing things-teachers have proven they can be creative when motivated). I’m also starting K’iche’ classes next week, so we’ll see how that goes. It’s crazy though how time is flying by. It’s already November, and Thanksgiving (and my birthday) is coming up, as well as Christmas, so there are at least two weeks of vacation I’m taking for the holidays. Christmas decorations are already up in Híper Paiz and in the mall and were up in mid-October. I guess Guatemalans don’t have Thanksgiving to wait for before starting to get into Christmas. I will be going home for a week at Christmas to see my family which will be intense. It’s usually one of my least favorite times to be in the U.S. because of all the focus on buying crap and the greed of it all, but I’m really looking forward to seeing my family.

I’ve also been to a soccer game in Xela, which was a lot of fun. You’ve never really experienced soccer until you’ve been to a game in a country where they love the sport. I sat/stood in the rowdy section and got to help hold the Chivas flag with the other Xela fans. I learned some of the cheers and words used when calls don’t exactly go your way. It was educational and fun. Also went to the “final exam” and graduation of the preschool in town, both of which were adorable. For the final exam the kids just had to participate in a party at the school. The kids love us (we’re different, and for some reason that makes us more appealing to the kids), so we were all dancing and talking and eating some really good carne asada (grilled beef). There was even a piñata for Seño Edna’s 50^th birthday, which the kids went crazy over once the candy started spilling out. The graduation was pretty cute too. The kids wore caps and gowns and received “diplomas” (which were really empty sheets of paper, which I found out after convincing one kid to open up theirs). Harvest time has also come. The corn stalks are drying out with the absence of rain, so farmers have cut them down and started to collect the corn from each stalk, all by hand. Once the stalks are cleared, they clear out the rest of the land (unfortunately this means cutting down the beautiful wildflowers that have sprung up with the daytime heat) and leave it ready for another crop. I’m not sure if they plant something new this season. Right now the land is golden and it’s still beautiful despite the diminishing green, but it will soon be the depressing brown and gray that remind me of Ohio in late winter.

I was kind of under the weather for a few days and had to cancel a trip to Nebaj. My friend was kind enough to leave her computer and her Gilmore Girls dvds so I kind of glutted myself on that for a few days. It made me miss college. I probably also miss college because I have run out of good books to read. The volunteer before me left a ton of books behind which I have been getting through pretty steadily-at least one book a week, usually two-but this means I have exhausted the good titles pretty quickly and am now onto books I would never read unless there was nothing else left. Fortunately Xela has a good used bookstore so I may go in next week and find something at least a little intellectually stimulating. I haven’t discussed anything related to what I studied in college for so long, I’m worried I’m going to lose it. At least I won’t lose Spanish.

This has been kind of a random posting. I get kind of bored in the afternoons so today I decided to spend part of the afternoon in the Internet cafe to listen to some podcasts and do some work. Sorry if it's super disjointed-that's kind of how my brain has been. Happy Election Day (in the States)! Too bad I forgot to apply for my absentee ballot-things seem to be getting pretty exciting politically in the U.S.

Summer

So it looks like Summer has come to Guatemala at last. At least for the most part. There have only been two days of rain in the past two and a half weeks. A tropical storm is currently on its way, but probably won't hit my department too hard. Everyday starts out a little foggy and cold, but the sun warms everything up and it gets pretty hot during the day, only to cool off around 5 or so.

This morning as I was walking down to the centro, the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons were out in force, spreading the word. It was kind of a strange site. The women were all dressed in colorful dresses with large straw or plastic hats, while the men were dressed in dress pants and shirts with a tie. Even the kids were looking pretty smart in dress clothes. When I first saw them walking around from house to house, I thought they were heading to a picnic at 9 in the morning, but then I saw the small blue books they were holding and knew what was up. At least it's a beautiful morning for them to be walking around.

School visits are over, but I'm keeping busy. I'm helping create a new curriculum for sex ed for older primary school kids (4th grade and up) and older kids. The teachers here are supposed to teach it, but hardly anyone does and with lots of teen mothers around, it's an important topic. I'm also hoping to start taking K'iche' lessons, if I can get in touch with the teacher. Also have some vacation time coming up for All Saints Day and Thanksgiving, but nothing set in stone yet.

And Now, A Week of Perfect Weather

I have not seen a drop of rain in the past week. Instead, the weather has been near perfect. It's been warm and sunny dearing the day, and cool and fall-like in the evening. One morning I woke up and walked outside to find frost, but the cold is quickly chased away by the sun. Of course now there's dust everywhere, but I don't mind it.

Also finished school last week. Still have school stuff going on, like lunches with the teachers and students and a graduation ceremony for the preschool. I'm also starting to work on workshops to give to the older primary schools kids with the health center. Ï'm sure I'll keep busy despite not having schools to visit every morning.

That's all for now. My time is running out for the internet. Hope the fall weather in the States is beautiful too.

Another week of rain

The title says it all. My clothes have been wet since Sunday morning because it's been raining off and on, day and night since then. But at least everything is still nice and green. I know I'm going to miss it when the rain stops. The mud, now that I could live without. I walked to three schools today to deliver prizes and every one of them had very muddy streets and paths, some of the muddiest I've seen yet. So I just rolled up my pants and tried to find the least muddy way around the giant puddles of water. It wasn't too bad-I'll just have to wash my pants again and wait for them to dry.

Unfortunately my computer isn't charging anymore so I'm typing this from an internet cafe. It's only about Q4 an hour and it's pretty fast, so it's not bad, but I don't like sitting in here for hours to type up work, e-mails and blog updates, so don't expect too many blog updates in the next month or so. I'm almost done with work anyway so there shouldn't be too much going on. Just more rain, probably until November.

So, I'm losing patience with this keyboard (it's sticking). Until next time I have something to write about.

Día de Independencia, Fería, Fun

I remember applying for Peace Corps almost two years ago and requesting to go to Africa. Peace Corps wanted to take advantage of the fact that I spoke Spanish (which makes sense) and decided to send me to Central America. Then by some luck I was picked to go into the Healthy Schools program in Guatemala and after training, I was placed in my wonderful site. Everything has just worked out for me and I LOVE GUATEMALA! I’ve always been a pretty happy person, I will always remember a money changer in Uganda mentioning to me that he could tell I was a really happy person, but I just find so much joy in being here and in my work. I don’t want to sugarcoat things-it’s not perfect (nowhere is perfect). There are days, of course, when I’m a little grumpy or tired, maybe because some guy has said something annoying to me or because I found a giant spider in my house or, more often, because the poverty of so many people just gets me down, and in my angst I avoid saying my Buenos Días to people in town because I just don’t feel like it and I know that they aren’t going to take the initiative and say it to me. I’m hiking up the giant hill to my house, perhaps lugging up some groceries or market buys, avoiding eye contact, when some kids emerge from a field or a house or from nowhere and scream my name. When I turn to look at them, they wave and say Adios and I feel energized again. Just little things like that make me love life here. Saying Buenos Días to an old woman who looks like she’s having a really bad day and having her smile widely and say it back, hearing birds calling from the electrical wires, starting the day out with beautiful spring-like weather and ending it like a crisp fall day while having some summer in the middle, visiting a school and seeing kids wash their hands and brush their teeth (or lately, seeing the finished projects some schools have put together so rapidly), always having these beautiful mountains to surround me, chatting with some neighbor kids and doing our special fist pump move, getting a “cuidese” (take care of yourself) from my host mom, getting a “Buenos días señito” from one of the older taxi drivers in town, listening to a first grader sing the refrain to that ridiculous Justin Beiber song while a fifth grade class dances to it, waving to kids as they walk to school in town, successfully negotiating my way through the market without getting frustrated and finding some good avocado, finding some great steals at the paca in town, all the little things that fill up my life make it so great. I just can’t rave enough about how great my life has turned out to be. When I was graduating and excited to get into the world, I never imagined my life would be as full and as happy as it is now.

Ok. Enough talking about how great my life is. I’m sure you don’t want to read about that. On to more Guatemalan happenings. Independence Day was last Wednesday. I spent the days leading up to the fifteenth celebrating with different groups of Guatemalans: first a school; then the superintendent and his compañeros, teachers, and community members; and then my host family. On Monday I visited one of my schools intending to visit classrooms and revise hygiene (a normal visit) but they were preparing for an acto cívico (a civic act) for Independence Day. Kids were all getting props ready, teachers were decorating the school and building this map out of moss and dirt. I helped put some maps on the walls and get things set up a little and then settled down to watch the program. Every class had a unique part in the activity. A few classes had dances, some sang, a few kids represented their classes with poetry. The older kids had a play of sorts about giving offerings of the earth to a priestess to represent the indigenous culture. The teachers also played their parts, talking about national symbols (like the marimba as the national musical instrument, the quetzal as the national bird, the ceiba as the national tree, the monja blanca as the national flower, etc), geography, culture, the men and women who fought for independence. One teacher even talked a little more deeply about independence and explained to the by then bored and squirming children that the country isn’t really free politically and economically. I learned a lot and was glad to spend the morning with one of my favorite schools in a bit of a different type of visit. Then Tuesday I helped the Supervisión (Superintendent’s office) set up a display in front of the municipal offices in the center of town. There were maybe fifteen groups setting up patriotic displays to be judged by some prominent members of town (the mayor, some of the queens of the feria, the superintendent, etc.). Our display featured national symbols and a flag, surrounded by Mayan symbols, as well as some corn husk dolls dressed in traditional clothing set up on a corte (traditional skirt worn by indigenous women). My favorite display was done by one of my schools and it was a giant map of Guatemala made out of earth and plants, with volcanoes and the national symbols superimposed on it and surrounded by pine cones. It was really beautiful and took a lot of time to make. Other groups had Barbie dolls dressed in traditional clothing, more maps of Guatemala, kids dressed in traditional clothing. One of my other schools had a display about taking care of the environment with some parts made out of recycled material. It was a fun morning helping out my group and visiting with the others. I just felt a really great sense of community and Guatemalan patriotism. After finishing that I spent the afternoon and evening with my host family in Xela. My older host sister has been learning trumpet and played with her school’s band. They marched in a parade and then gave a concert of sorts in their school. There were lots of fireworks going off and girls twirling batons. They played the national anthem and then some songs that I didn’t recognize, but it was great. Afterwards they gave me some dinner and I hung out with the younger host siblings and cousin. Then we walked a bit through Xela which was crazy because everyone, it seemed, was heading to the Central Park to take part in the Grito de Independencia (when people scream for independence). I didn’t hang around for that, catching a ride back into town with the family, but hopefully next year I’ll be around and make it for the grito. It was a really great day and I got to see lots of different ways that people celebrate the country’s independence.

It is also feria in Xela and I haven’t really done much but yesterdayI did catch one of the parades. The beauty queens for Xela, other departments of Guatemala, and even other countries had their floats and paraded down one of the main streets in Guatemala. I was in town with Yuna and we saw a really sweet old man who lives in town and watched the parade with him. His granddaughter was on one of the floats and we saw the doctora from the Centro de Salud walking in the parade. It’s nice to see people we know out and about in Xela. Anyway, we watched the parade until the end and then went shopping in the market before heading home.

I am happy and healthy here in Guatemala, loving life, the niños, the paisaje, cooking, lots of other things. And this weekend there’s a party in another volunteer’s town and then my site mate’s having a pig roast. There’s always something new going on here.

Tanta lluvia!

It’s been a tough week here in Guatemala. Mainly, it’s just been the rain. I think I read in one of the newspapers that Guatemala hasn’t had this much rain in 60 years. The crops can’t take it anymore and food prices are already rising in anticipation for how bad the harvest is going to be. Corn stalks are falling over and just going bad with all the rain and because corn is so pivotal to Guatemalan food, who knows how the next year is going to go. I went shopping in the Democracia market in Xela yesterday and prices for pretty much everything (tomatoes, onions, spinach, garlic, etc) have risen by 50 centavos or more. The rain is also causing a ton of mudslides which have killed over 40 people. There was one on the Inter-American highway in Alaska (I think its name comes from the fact that it’s pretty high up altitude-wise and is thus pretty chilly) that took out a bus, micro, and some other vehicles, killing most of the passengers and drivers. Some volunteers went to dig out the bodies and look for survivors and were covered by another mudslide (or landslide? Not sure the difference, but here they’re known as derrumbes). Another bus became victim to another derrumbe. The road between Guatemala and here was not built in the most propitious place-there are lots of mountainous roads carved into earth that is prone to collapsing when there is a lot of rain. Peace Corps has us all confined to our sites for the time being so that people aren’t travelling. The Inter-American highway was closed in parts anyway, so I probably couldn’t even get to Guate if I tried. Because of the road closures there is a shortage of gas here and the lines in Xela were crazy yesterday. Now that I have the garbanzo beans I wanted to make a curry later this week I don’t have to go into Xela for a while.

I’ve been getting kind of restless being inside so much because of all the rain. I’ve been cleaning the house, reading a lot, watching movies, sleeping. I’ve also been cooking and baking a lot. In the past week or so I’ve made a lime bread (supposed to have poppy seeds too but I don’t have any), a really delicious carrot soup, cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (though I ate a lot of the frosting just as it was), apple butter, pancakes, popcorn, etc. I’m going to make some oatmeal cookies and guicoy (like zucchini) nut bread to close out the week when the next storm comes (rumored to start on Thursday). I have stocked up on food (plenty of pasta, rice, beans, flour, oatmeal, cereal, powdered milk, etc.) and have water for drinking, so I’m prepared. I also managed to do laundry this past week and the clothes dried on one of the nice days when the sun was out the whole morning and a few hours in the afternoon, though I had to put most of it out the next day to dry.

I’ve had a couple of crazy experiences in the past week. Over the weekend there was a mini derrumbe on one of the paths to my house and it took out part of the path. I didn’t know it was there and I was walking home one evening after spending time at a friend’s house and walked right by the part that fell away without seeing it-it’s a good thing I didn’t walk off of it. The next day I saw it and knew to steer clear (I pretty much avoid that path now-good thing there are two others). The next day, I heard a thunderstorm in the distance and went to my roof to take down the last of the laundry so that it wouldn’t stay wet for the third or fourth day in a row. As I was taking down the last piece I saw a flash of light and looked behind me because I thought someone was taking my picture but it was lightning that struck pretty close to where I was. Then today I had gone up to school only to find that there were no classes and luckily found a micro right away heading down, so I caught it and sat in comfort for about three-quarters of the ride. However, I had to get out to let someone behind me out and my spot was taken so I was standing by the door which for some reason wouldn’t close and at first I almost fell out until I got the door shut most of the way and held it shut for the rest of my ride. But all is good and I’m healthy and safe and staying where it’s flat (for the most part) so hopefully I’ll stay out of trouble for the next several days.

We had a certification for a school a few weeks ago which went really well. A lot of our directors came and hopefully they'll be inspired by the teachers and director who have done so much to have a healthy school. There were lots of important people there for the celebration-the departmental director of education, a Congresswoman, and Dr. Mack from Peace Corps. The volunteer who started the program here was able to make it back for the celebration too, which was really great. Everyone remembers all the work she did here before she left two years ago and were happy to see her again. There were lots of palabras and reconocimientos (words and recognition)-I even got a plaque even though I haven't done much to help the school. The kids did a dance and three gave a thank you speech, one in Spanish, one in K'iche' and one in English-we helped with the English and she did a really good job memorizing it and getting most of the words right. Then we presented a trophy to the school. Guatemalans love trophies and trophies are mostly used for sports, but we found a non-sport one and taped a toothbrush and toothpaste to the base, so it became a Healthy Schools trophy. Then there was a really delicious lunch of jocón-a dish with a sauce made of tomatillos and cilantro served with rice and chicken and, in our case, tamales.

As for my work, things are winding down. September 15th is Independence Day-I think the schools here have most of the week off-which is also feria in Xela, so I’ll be going to some parades and activities with my host family, which should be fun. My host sister has been learning to play trumpet with her school’s band and they’ll be marching at some point. Then there is the Ferris Wheel (Wheel of Death) to ride, which is scary, but more fun than scary. Then at the beginning of October is feria in one of the municipalities I work in so I’ll be going to see the schools in the parade. Then schools have exams the second week of October so I’ll be done by then. Crazy how fast time flies. I think I probably mention that a lot, but my first eight months (it’s already been eight months!) in Guatemala have flown. They’ve been a great eight months and I’m definitely looking forward to the next 19.

Oh Uganda

My dad sent me this link today and I found it pretty entertaining. It's a really short BBC article about recent protests over potholes in Kampala, Uganda, where I spent about four months during my junior year of college (see earlier blog posts from 2008).

Uganda protesters fish in potholes

I sure know how bad those potholes are (or were when I was in Kampala over two years ago). I miss Uganda. Lots of things in Guatemala bring back memories of Uganda-certain smells, riding in overcrowded microbuses, shopping in hectic markets, not refrigerating my eggs.

Just wanted to post the article. Had a long day today and am just using the internet while I wait for Doña Flor to open the store (it's closed while they're eating a late lunch) so I can pick up a few things. More comprehensive update to come, when there's something new to write about.

Some photos of water project

The deposit has a door now, and you can barely tell that there is a giant hole in the ground. It will be drying over the next month (or a little less) before they can fill it and start using it.

The chorros (faucets) with descending height so that younger students and older students can use it without trouble reaching. They just need the actual faucets.

Before it was covered and they were getting to pour cement into the deposit.

Water Projects and Pilas Schools

Water project update:

So the water project is pretty much done. It only took the builders around two weeks to get everything done. All that we’re waiting for now is for the cement to dry, which should take about a month-it’s the rainy season so it takes a little while, and we want to be completely sure that the cement is fully dry before filling the deposit. The tubes are also in place for the faucets, which just lack the faucet part itself-I think they were going to install those today. The height of the handwashing station slopes downward so that smaller kids will be more able to reach the ones on the right side, while the faucets on the left side are a little higher for the older kids. They also just put the top on the deposit so that rain and dirt doesn’t get in (and also so the kids don’t decide to play in there). It all came together so quickly we’re all surprised most of the work is already done.

Here again is the site where you can donate for water projects: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/298

We lack a little less than half of the amount-HUGE THANKS again to those who already helped.

In other schools, they’ve also been coming up with their own projects. One school is constructing latrines with the help of the muni and the Padres de Familia. Another school is constructing a kitchen, while another has some new classrooms, deposit and handwashing stations. Of course, all of these schools are in the municipality that actually helps and gives money towards school projects. The other isn’t quite as supportive yet, but hopefully we can convince them that this is important. Meanwhile, a director in this muni has built his own handwashing station on the weekends partially using money that the school got from hosting cock fights during the feria. At least the money’s going to good use.

At another school, three of the teachers got together and wrote out a month of lesson plans, materials lists, and activities to use in the classroom and all of the teachers are teaching health lessons on Mondays and Fridays. They moreover invited the health center and some university students to come and give a talk to the parents and students on hygiene, which was really great.

Most of the schools have their “Healthy Corners” in place and I’ve seen some classrooms practicing healthy habits. In all, I lucked out with my placement because pretty much all of the schools are willing to work hard and the teachers are really creative and enthusiastic. I’m really looking forward to working with them over the next year and a half or so.

Over the past week and a half, I’ve helped give two HIV/AIDS workshops to middle school kids and participated in a Project Design and Management workshop and will participate and help give a library workshop next week, so I’m keeping busy. I’m also visiting schools, as usual, and judging the Rincones de Salud (Healthy Corners) to pick ten winners. I also have a certification on Friday, the first one, for a school that I really love, so that will be fun. So things are flying by but going really well. I’m happy, healthy, and ready for summer vacation-only five more weeks left. It will be sad to have such a long time away from the schools, but the time will be nice for planning, finding some local sources of funding for projects, taking K’iche’, planning an American culture day, and finding other activities to keep me busy. I also have yet to take any of the three personal days we get per month, so I’ll take some of those and travel a little.

No Time!

I promise to spend more time updating blog soon. This month has been super busy and I'm slowly catching up on housework and other things. I helped give an HIV/AIDS workshop last week to middle schoolers and have another tomorrow, and I attended a Project Design and Management workshop for a day and a half. So I haven't been around much time to write. I will also give an update about the water project, which is pretty much done already. We just have to wait for the cement to dry before the kids can use it.

And here's an article in the New York Times about chicken buses, or camionetas, or my nearly daily form of transport.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/postgraduate-school-buses-call-them-camionetas/

Just a comment on the article.

The writer mentions that he took many camionetas and didn't see any farm animals. I've taken probably a good number more than he has and at least once or twice a week, mainly when there is a market people are heading to or from, I share the bus with animals like chickens, turkeys, roosters, chicks, etc. No cows or pigs, but birds at least. So while the term chicken bus may be offensive, it isn't all that untruthful. I personally try to use the word camioneta to refer to them-that's what people here call them.

Just a note

HUGE THANKS to those who have already donated regarding the water project. The company in charge of the project has already dug the giant hole that the cistern will go in and were laying iron rods to support the cistern when I visited last week. I am going to stop by tomorrow and take some photos. I'm sure things will be a little more advanced becuase the project is actually staying on schedule-we'll see how the rest of the month goes. Thank you again-I can't express how much it means to me to have people who are willing to help this school with water and handwashing stations.

Also, just wanted to mention that I realized for the first time a little while ago that 'esposas', the plural of one of the words for wife (esposa), means handcuffs. That's a little depressing.

That's all. I'll update when I have more time to do so.

Christie

Water Projects and Other Stuff

I hate asking for money, but this project is just so great that I am going to solicit some funds. Briefly, the director of one of the schools I am working with decided to plan a water project. His school is in the municipality that only has running water one day out of every week or two. So the school hardly ever has running water. Anyway, he talked with an engineer and an architect and planned an underground cistern to hold 10,000 liters of water (enough to last the school two weeks) and eight new sinks where the kids can wash hands and brush teeth. He solicited most of the funds himself, getting the municipality to give 12,000 Quetzales of materials and the parents to give 5,850 Quetzales toward labor costs. However, my partner and I need to find around 6,000 Quetzales more and this great organization, Appropriate Projects, which works with Peace Corps volunteers around the world, has agreed to give 4,000 Quetzales ($500). They are wiring the money to me so that we can get the project underway-I mean, water is just so important, it will be good to have it as soon as possible-and they rely on donations to fund the project after it has already been funded. So, any little bit anyone can give would be fantastic.

Here's the link if you want to learn more or donate. http://appropriateprojects.com/node/298

Also, I will keep this website updated with the progress of the project. With the money the parents have already paid (and they paid it really quickly too-they really do understand why water is so important), they have already dug the hole and started arranging the iron pieces to support the cistern. The director and teachers are all really excited (as are the kids, but probably more because of the giant hole in the ground at their school) and I feel really fortunate to have widespread support (teachers, director, parents, mayor, and other community members) for this project because in most communities, it's really difficult to find such widespread support.

End of water project snippet.

In other news, it has been another couple of busy weeks.

I was in Antigua for a week for Reconnect, a time for my training group to get together and discuss the first three and a half months. It’s already been almost seven months here in country, over four months in site, which is crazy. Time is flying. And only about two more months of school until break.

Anyway, Reconnect was ok. A week in Antigua gets pretty boring and expensive, but I tried some new restaurants, stayed in a new hotel (only Q20 ($2.50) a night) that was fine, and even saw a movie. The first two days were general sessions, the first with fellow Healthy Schoolers and the second with everyone. We got to have a pizza lunch with the ambassador from the U.S. and he talked about the current state of Guatemala and gave us pretty frank answers to our questions. The Safety and Security Coordinator also gave us a country update, which wasn’t entirely positive, but at least where my site is has been pretty safe. Then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning were language workshops and I started to learn K’iche’, the Mayan language spoken in my site. There were three others in the class and we got pretty far, learning a good mixture of vocabulary and grammar. Now I just have to find a good teacher in my site and really start studying. Hopefully I’ll be able to dedicate a lot of time to this during break. The Friday right after class was over, I hopped on a micro and headed back to my site.

The next week was more school visits, most of which were really positive. I’m lucky because a lot of my schools are supportive of the program and have started working on things right away. One requirement, Rincones de Salud (Healthy Corners) where the students have their toothbrushes, toothpaste, and towels, are one quick sign whether a school is willing to work or not. Some schools have rincones in all of their classrooms with creative themes. Some teachers have put a lot of work into their rincones and have made them really beautiful, with themes like ocean, ducks, chicks, etc. We’ve even got a lot of them using recycled materials (bottles, cans, etc) to construct the rincones. Then there are other schools where maybe half of the teachers have rincones because some teachers just don’t care. And then there are schools where no one is really invested in the program and nothing much has been done in the two months since the first training. But in general, most schools have started out well and some have even been pleasant surprises since the first visit. We’ll see how things continue to go once my partner and I split schools and start working one-on-one with them.

A few things have been changing. I’ve been more into cooking lately, so I made a lot of different stuff last week, like pita bread, chilaquiles, red pepper sauce, pancakes, a cheese and tomato soup. I made some peanut butter and banana bread yesterday which turned out pretty well. I was surprised that I could make pretty much whatever I want here-it helps to have Hiper Paiz, the Wal-Mart of Guatemala (it’s actually owned by Wal-Mart). I can get smoked gouda cheese, American-imported frosting, or Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup (all pretty expensive). However, what I really love doing is going to the market and bargaining for all of my veggies. It’s so much cheaper to buy veggies from the market than from the grocery stores-I’m not sure why anyone buys fruit or vegetables at the grocery stores. Vegetables are so cheap here that I eat a ton of them. Tomatoes are only 36 cents a pound, bananas a dollar a dozen. I haven’t been eating any meat lately which is nice-it’s good to go back to my veggie ways. I still eat meat occasionally in restaurants, but I really don’t like cooking meat.

I also have a kitten now. I think it’s a girl, but I’m not really sure because it’s still pretty small. The kitten is really cute-white with multi-colored spots and a tail that is striped gray and black. It cries a lot when I’m not petting it, but I think it’s slowly getting used to my house. It had fleas but I gave it a flea bath today that I think killed most of them. However, I now have fleas again so I’ll have to wash everything and take some B1.

That’s all for now. I have a pretty busy month-two trainings (one of which I’m helping give), a rincones contest (we’re picking the best healthy corners, so we’ll have to visit every classroom between the two of us and then judge them all), school visits, maybe a trip up north. I’ll keep on cooking. I just bought some curry so I’m going to make some Indian dishes in the coming week. Hope the last month of summer goes well!

-Christie

Acustombrandome (Adapting myself)

I thought it would be interesting to make a list of all of the things I have had to adapt to and the ways in which I have had to change my life to live here in Guatemala. Because people always ask what is so different about life here, I figured I would post the list on my blog, so here it is.

• No washer or dryer: I wash my clothes by hands using a pila on my roof. I love pilas and would really love to find a way to get one to the U.S. Anyway, the most common type of pila is a plastic or ceramic structure with a depository of water in the middle and two side areas, one where you can wash dishes and one where you can wash clothes. My pila has two areas for washing clothes because I have a sink in my house that I use to wash dishes. Anyway, you soak the clothes for a bit and then scrub them using the ridges in the pila and voila, you have clean clothes. I have rope and clothespins on my roof, so I put the clean clothes out to dry in the sun (or at least in the absence of rain). This process takes more time than using a washer and dryer and my hands generally have scrapes on them from the scrubbing, and I still don’t always manage to get all of the soap out, and I don’t ring out the clothes enough so that they dry more quickly, but I like washing my clothes by hand. It’s kind of soothing to go on my roof and wash, and I have a really great view of the necropolis-like cemetery and surrounding mountains. It is more challenging now to find the right time to wash because it rains in the afternoons and I work all morning, but weekends have become my wash days.
• No hot water: Whatever I’m washing—clothes, dishes or hands—I only have cold water. In the morning when I’m washing my clothes, it’s very cold water. Not sure if it kills as much germs to use cold water and soap, but cold water’s all I have. I have a heater on my showerhead, but I don’t use it very often because it uses a lot of electricity. I kind of prefer bucket baths anyway, and it uses less water.

My pila on my roof

• Water doesn’t always run: Some of my schools don’t have water, which is a problem. In my house, I always have water, but only because I have a deposit. Water only runs in the morning and afternoon-it’s usually shut off in the evening for some reason. I’m always afraid of running out of water because I’m not sure how big my deposit is, but so far so good. I’m much more aware of water conservation now.
• Dust: It’s everywhere. In the sterile environment of the U.S., you don’t really notice dust all that often, but here it manages to creep everywhere. My house is covered in dust and I have to sweep all of the time to keep it from getting really messy. Many of the schools I’m working with have dirt play areas and this just causes dust to get everywhere. The kids help clean the schools, using water and sweeping to try to get all of the dust and to keep it from flying through the air, but it’s inevitable that there will always be more.
• No carpet: I have house shoes that I wear throughout my house. I never walk in bare feet or even socks because the floor is concrete and full of dust. I kind of miss walking around in my socks, and I guess I could if I thoroughly washed my floor everyday.
• Talking to pretty much everyone I pass on the street: It’s polite to say a quick “Buenos días/Buenas tardes/Buenas noches” or “Adios” to people I pass while walking around town. Usually to adults I say Good morning/afternoon/night while to kids I just say adios, which is what I noticed them saying to me. Sometimes I walk by without saying anything just to see if they will initiate the mini conversation, but usually I have to be the one to say something first, and then the person I am passing responds. I love it when I’m walking by someone who looks kind of grumpy and I say “Buenos días” with a smile and their face lights up in a smile and they respond in kind. If I don’t talk to people, they will think I’m “enojada” (mad) or something.
• Chuchos (street dogs): There are chuchos everywhere! I think this is probably common in most poorer nations because they lack animal control. What happens is people buy dogs but then decide that they don’t want them anymore and let them loose on the street. The female dogs have lots of puppies which become the newest generation of street dogs, and the cycle goes on and on. When I was living with my host family in the centro, I would hear this symphony of street dogs every night coming from the lot across the street, but where I am now it’s a lot quieter. There are still chuchos, but not as many.
• Carrying money in bra: I love that I can carry money in my bra and go to take it out and no one looks at me funny. It’s much more secure this way and it’s what most women do, some with cell phones too.
• Answering cell phones in middle of meeting/class/etc.: Cell phones here are always on and if it rings, you answer it. Everyone is constantly running out of saldo (pre-paid money on cell phone) so if someone calls them, they don’t want to have to call back so they answer. This is aggravating, especially during training sessions or meetings, but it’s understandable why it happens.
• Gas stove: I have a gas stove. I’m always afraid it’s going to explode or something, but so far so good.
• Markets: I love markets! We have a weekly market in town where I can get most of my food—all of my fresh produce, pasta, rice, beans, cereal, etc.—and things like matches, toilet paper, soap to wash clothes with, scrubbers, clothes, etc. There’s a woman and her daughter who sell cheap paca (used clothes from the U.S.) usually for between Q1 and Q3 (between 12 and 36 cents or so) and I’ve gotten some nice stuff from them. One thing I’m still getting used to is regatear-ing (bargaining). Almost everyone in the market will start out with a price that is higher than what they are really asking and you’re expected to ask for a lower price. I never know what the normal price for stuff is, so I usually only go 50 cents lower or so (depending on what I’m buying). Sometimes I just ask “Por lo menos?” to find what the lowest price is. I’m almost never really confident that I’m getting the actual low price and not a gringo-fied price, but I feel like they need the money more than I do (even though I am on a budget and it’s pretty hard to stick to it).
• Can never blend in with crowd: Gringo-fied prices and calls of “canchita” (blonde-I’m considered blonde here) or “gringa” follow me wherever I go. Walking through town or sitting on a bus, kids are always staring at me, trying to figure out why I’m so different than everyone else. Of course I’ve had this before, but I’ve been living in town for three months and I still get comments and stares. If I’m having a bad day and just want to go about things unnoticed, I can’t. Also, the men here always need to comment or say something like “mi amor” or something like that, though they do this to other women in town. I really don’t like the attention I get from men, especially when I’m wearing a skirt or dress (hence why I mostly wear pants). On the positive side, kids I have seen in schools before know me and remember me because I am so different. It’s always great to be walking down the street and hear “Cristina.” (Here, people just say your name to grab your attention, and once you give them your attention, they don’t say anything more.)
• Public transportation: I love that there is almost always public transportation to pretty much anywhere you need to go. Some of the schools I’m working in don’t have transport right to the door of the school, but at least a bus or a micro will get me half or most of the way there. Buses generally run on a schedule so I can usually plan my morning visits depending on when the bus passes, but there have been occasions when a bus was supposed to pass and didn’t, leaving me to wait an hour or so for the next one. However, it’s so cheap (about 25 cents to get into the city and 16 cents or so to get around the city) and is better than walking in most cases. However, there are no seatbelts (pretty much no seatbelts in any car-most people remove them), so it’s not always the safest way to get from one place to the next.
• Walking: I’m doing a ton more walking here than I ever did at home. I take buses part of the way to my schools and then I walk the rest of the way, many times up giant hills. My house is also up a hill, so it takes an effort to get up there, especially when I’m carrying groceries. Most people here don’t have cars, so they walk where the buses or micros don’t go. At least I’m getting in better shape.
• Living in a foreign language: I have good and bad days with Spanish, but I always have to speak it. Sometimes I think I’m explaining something clearly only to be met by blank stares as if I was talking in Chinese. It’s frustrating and difficult, but I know my Spanish is improving daily and I just need to keep talking and reading and listening to keep getting better. For the most part, people understand me and I understand them (when they aren’t talking super fast, like most of the kids).
• Putting up with the status quo: Generally speaking, men treat women like crap here. Men almost always cheat on their wives, don’t let their wives have control of the money, don’t help around the house, etc. Living in the U.S., you’re used to hearing about equality between men and women, but here it’s just assumed that women are to be submissive and give in to her husband’s whims and let him go around with other women and use sorely needed money to buy booze. Someone I am close to here has problems with her husband-he was cheating on her, he drinks pretty much every day and often comes home drunk despite the fact that he should be working, he takes money and spends it on expensive things they don’t need when they have the loan sharks calling, etc. It’s a mess and I want to help her, but I know that if he found out it would cause problems for both her and me. I help in what little ways I can, like making food, paying her to do things that I would just do myself, etc. but I know that life is going to continue being hard for her. It isn’t always like this, but it like this often enough.
• Different work environment: Apart from always answering telephones, people work differently here. There are more breaks, especially for snacks, and there are more fiestas/time off. There is also lots of indirect communication and just general misunderstanding (partially to blame for my lack of complete fluency in the Spanish language and partially to blame for lack of listening). However, I like how laid-back it is here. Things still get done, but the deadline isn’t as important. Sometimes this is frustrating (water projects and such), but for the most part it’s nice that people aren’t so cut throat. There is so much more to mention here, but I’m starting to get bored with my blog post so I’ll write more about this later (if I remember to do so).
• Kids are more cariñoso (affectionate, caring): Kids I visit at the schools, despite being of the age where showing affection for an adult is not cool in the U.S., will run up to kiss me on the cheek or shake my hand. They will also talk to me and ask me to play games with them at recess. A director I was talking to yesterday also told me that she thought that poorer kids find more pleasure in simple things as we watched her class of second graders rolling down a grassy hill and having the time of their lives. She commented that kids in the U.S. are always playing video games or participating in other sedentary activities, while kids here are always playing outside with cheap plastic balls or without any toys whatsoever, finding simple ways to entertain themselves. Although kids here aren’t really taught to be creative (they just copy things from the board into their notebooks-they aren’t really asked to think for themselves), they find creative ways to play.

I’m sure there are lots of things I haven’t mentioned, things that I have just gotten so used to I can’t imagine doing them any other way. This post is long enough (too long, really) so I’ll cut it off here. Until next time, best wishes

-Christie

Feria! Descanso! Fourth of July!

A ton has happened over the past several weeks. I guess I should start with feria, which was very alegre. Probably one of my favorite events of feria was the cross-dressing competition between about 20 guys from my town. Everyone in town attended and thanks to a guy that my site mate knew, we got seats in the second row behind the dignitaries. The guys providing the commentary for the show kept mentioning the three gringas in the front row, claiming we were Obama’s representatives. It was a really fun night for all. The first part was creative dress-the guys all wore homemade creations. One guy for example had this headdress with lots of wire covered in streamer sticking out with tissue paper flowers at the end, while another guy had an outfit made out of empty junk food bags. They all had to march down the catwalk in the center of the salon where the event was held and then danced in place on stage while the others entered. During the next part the guys were wearing traje, the traditional outfit of women in the area, most of them with their own twist (like pulling the skirt up higher than the women normally wear it). While wearing the traje the guys had to sing in the Mayan language of Kakchiquel, which they do not speak in this part of the country (they speak K’iche’, which hopefully I will begin to learn this month). So basically they were making up words to the songs and singing quite horribly, which was so funny. The last part was sportswear with a World Cup theme (yet again-they love their World Cup here), with a dance to some marimba music (there was a live marimba player there providing music for the show). The guy who I thought was the best won and the pageant ended after about 4 hours. For once though the hours passed really quickly. I will definitely catch the show next year.

The parades started on Sunday morning and went through Tuesday. The youngest kids, preschool through second grade, marched on the first morning. They were adorable, of course, and I saw a lot of the teachers and directors that I work with fielding the kids through the parade. Some schools had bands while others were just marching. It looked like a lot of work to keep all of the kids in line. Seeing all of the marching brought me back to my marching band days. The music wasn’t all that great or together because the kids were younger, but it was a lot of fun watching all of my schools march on by. The next day was the older kids so once again I saw a lot of the teachers and directors that I’m working with, and I could actually make out some of the tunes that they were playing, among which was “Wavin’ Flag,” the World Cup theme song that is everywhere down here in Guatemala. With my partner, I was invited to a lunch with the alcalde and all of the participants in the parade, so was had some estofada (beef and cooked veggies in a really good sauce with rice) and tamalitos. I ate everything except the beef and it was pretty rico. The next day was the parade of carrozas (spelling?), which were the floats that all of the queens ride on. There were tons of different queens and flors and misses, representing all of the different public and private schools (there are 15 public and a number of private), as well as different organizations, like CONALFA (something with agriculture?) and the firemen. The queens were dressed in really nice dresses and the cars the were riding in were decked out in balloons, flowers, streamers, etc. and all of the queens were throwing candy at the beginning, but by the time they rode by my house they were already out of candy. I kept looking for the cross-dressing winner carroza, but I don’t think he had one.

Feria also encompasses rides, food, people, concerts, dancing, games, etc. I went on the “carritas locas” (bumper cars) with my host siblings, which was fun, but the steering was kind of broken so we kept going in circles, which made me super dizzy. Then I went on the “rueda” (ferris wheel), which was super scary. When you picture a ferris wheel, you’re probably thinking of a nice, tranquilo ride, going in slow circles, a romantic ride perhaps. Well, not here. The rueda goes super fast and because it’s sketchy and feels like it’s about to fall over at any moment, and you can smell the gas that it’s using to move, and you could get stuck at the top at any moment. At least the big wheel wasn’t propelled by manpower like the kid’s wheel. There were several moments when I could picture the newspaper headline in my head: “Peace Corps volunteer falls victim to rueda at local feria.” I could also remember my mom in the U.S. warning me against fair rides because they didn’t always follow safety regulations. Despite the handlebar that kept moving up, despite the car almost flipping all the way over, despite the wood that is probably rotting away, I made it through and it was a lot of fun. I also ate some feria food (but nothing too sketchy-just the breadlike sweet snacks they had), heard some music, saw some coordinated dancing by a local troupe, played some foosball and old-school racing video games, and just walked around with my host family. There were so many people out and about. One thing I really love about Guatemala is the ability people have to just take some time away from working and just have fun. I mean, the entire town (more or less) shut down for a week, no school, no post office, no meeting with the mayor. Transportation was more crowded (and got super backed up when the parades were making their way through-they were pretty long parades), but no one was in a hurry. I pretty much just stayed in town the whole week. I’m excited for feria next year because I will probably march with some of the schools in the parade.

After feria was a descanso for all of the schools, so I had another several days off. I took a few shopping trips to Xela, went to see Toy Story 3 at the theater (great movie!), organized crap in the house, did a lot of cleaning, read. It was nice to have time off, but I was really bored after a few days. The weekend of the fourth though I headed off to the Peace Corps center for a conference for all of the volunteers and the Fourth of July party (on the third). It was nice to get out of site for a few days (I hadn’t spent time out of my site since I got here), but I am over Antigua (too expensive, too many tourists). It was nice to see everyone though, and I got to know a lot of people better during the few days there. I also got to visit my partners host family, all of whom are really great. We had a nice big dinner and I talked a bit with the host dad. I’ll be heading back soon again for Reconnect, which has some training sessions and K’iche’ classes. Back to Antigua, but I found a really cheap place to stay and I’ll probably eat some peanut butter sandwiches and avocado with Tortrix.

I also had my first site visit with my APCD (my boss from Peace Corps), which went really well. We had a meeting with all of the directors of the schools, a representative of the Padres de Familia of one of the schools, one person from each Centro de Salud where we are working, the supervisor, and two volunteer leaders. The directors were as pilas as always and participated in everything. They had some great role-playing skits, great questions, great ideas. I am so fortunate to have such a great group of people to be working with. In training they kept telling us how difficult the job would be, how people would constantly be letting us down, etc. but it is actually easy to work with most of the people I’m working with and they haven’t let us down so far. No one cancelled our visit without calling, everyone welcomed us with food and warm words, two infrastructure projects have fallen into our laps. There are challenges with both work and daily life, but nothing near what I expected. I’ll keep working with the schools with the diagnóstico to see what infrastructure and health programs they already have, and that will take me through to the second week of August. After that, we have a certification in late August and a few projects to work on, but who knows what else is coming up. I pretty much just have to live day by day because you never know what’s going to happen.

All in all, I am muy contenta with my site and my job. I never thought I would find a job that I really love, but I have, and I wasn’t even the one who picked it out. Somehow Peace Corps knew what they were doing when they sent me to Guatemala with Healthy Schools. I can’t really imagine myself doing anything else right now. I’m living the dream-well, my dream anyway. I’m not sure everyone would love battling giant spiders, playing with the niños, and communicating in a language that they still struggle with every day.

Enjoy the middle of summer! I will try to stay more focused next blog entry and write about something insightful. Hopefully my computer won’t refuse to work before then-it’s starting to get really temperamental.

June=Soccer and Feria

It’s World Cup time! So for the past week, Guatemalans everywhere have been glued to their tv sets or their radios to follow the World Cup games. Guatemala is not in the World Cup so many people here support other Latin American teams (especially Argentina), and Spain. Despite being the team of the former colonizer, many Guatemalans really want Spain to win the World Cup (they were pretty upset when Switzerland beat Spain a few days ago). My host dad brought the tv into the shop downstairs so that he can watch while he works, while we dropped by one school to talk to the director and found him listening to the Spain-Switzerland game on his radio. I’ve gotten into it too and have been watching as many games as I can on tv. They’re all shown live followed by hour-long breakdowns of the game, so I’m getting my share of it. Right now U.S. is taking on Slovenia and they aren’t doing very well (down 2-0).

Feria is also approaching. There was a velada last night for Reina de Deportes (Queen of Sports) in which my host brother participated. It was World Cup theme (of course) and had the boys carrying flags of most of the countries playing for the World Cup. It was cute, for the most part. There were some random “famous” singers, this couple, who sang about four times and it wasn’t really that good. And it dragged on and on (which I have found to be typical), with lots of reconocimientos, giving plates or trophies to people who helped support the activity with long speeches by all parties. The queen’s dress was pretty interesting-it was bright pink with a very sequiny, form-fitting top and a puffy bottom with feathers sticking out. It costs quite a lot of money to be queen, or even to be involved in the activities. My host mom had to buy a new suit jacket and pants, new shoes, and materials to make Holland’s flag in order for him to participate. The queen has to buy her dress, shoes, and food for people who are involved in her activities. Only people with some disposable income can participate, which isn’t the majority of the population here, so it doesn’t really seem that fair. Anyway, there’s another velada tonight which is the cross-dressing one, where men dress as women in dresses, bathing suits, etc. and sing in a Mayan language (which I’m guessing most of them aren’t fluent int). It should be interesting, but I’ve been warned that it can last up to four or more hours. Looks like it’ll be another late night (though any night spent out later than 9:30 is a late night for me).

To get ready for the feria, they’ve also set up ferris wheels and other fair rides in the town square and there are lots of video games and other games that the jóvenes really like. There are also lots of street food stands going up, getting ready for all the people who are expected to come in. There are parades which start on Monday and our supervisor wants us to march, in women’s typical traje, in the first parade. Not sure what that entails other than a lot of walking.

Work has been busy. We started doing a survey of all the schools to see where they are with the program, such as what infrastructure they already have, whether or not they teach health lessons, etc. The second school we visited have already implemented what they learned during the training session we had and most of the classrooms already have their “Healthy Corners” and hygiene revision tools (wheel, dice, box). We also visited a school that is close to being certified, the first in this area, and they put up nylon sheets to protect the kids toothbrushes from the flies and dust. It’s great to see that people are taking us and the program seriously. We have the next week or so off due to the town’s feria which will be nice, though I’m sure I’ll get bored. I will have time, however, to move into my new house, which I plan on doing next week. It needs a lot of cleaning and organization, but it will be nice to have my own space and to cook for myself (and eat at normal times again).

After the Rain

It’s been almost a week since Agatha hit and Guatemala’s still cleaning up. Fortunately here in my site we did not have too many problems caused by the storm. The river didn’t overflow its banks thanks in part to the firemen who reinforced the banks with dirt. Some areas were a little flooded and there were some mini landslides, but nothing very serious close to my site. Further away near the coast and in other parts of the country there were big landslides, intense flooding, and even a giant sinkhole in Guatemala City. Some roads and bridges were destroyed, which continues to make travelling across the country more difficult. Soils are still saturated and roads are unstable, according to our safety and security officer, so we are for the most part avoiding the Interamerican Highway. The airport was closed for a little while so flights are still catching up. As I rode through Xela yesterday I saw people still cleaning mud out of their houses. A lot of people are either facing property damage or have been entirely displaced from their homes. Something surprising has been initiative undertaken by some teachers in my site to collect clothing, food, toilet paper, other supplies for those who have suffered most in the areas around us.

In work news, we had our workshops for teachers this week, starting a day ahead of schedule. Things got a little mixed up with the storm because classes were cancelled throughout the country for this week, so it was good to even have the training at all. Our supervisor had a meeting with all of the directors of the schools and pretty much just told them that the training would start Wednesday (it was supposed to start Thursday) and would go through Friday. So all of our teachers had to ‘work’ despite not having any classes, but I hope that the training was a little fun. We worked with preschool, kindgergarten and first grade teachers the first day, then second and third grade, and finally fourth, fifth and sixth grade on the final day. For the most part, people showed up and participated. We had a few games and a song and people seemed to enjoy these the most. We also had a part where they made their own dice, wheel or box to use in checking to see if kids have clean hands, nails, teeth, clothes, etc. and they really enjoyed coloring the pictures and then making the things. We also had a problem solving session and some teachers came up with some really great ideas about keeping their “Healthy Corners” clean from dust and flies. I am more and more impressed with the teachers we’re working with, especially after hearing other volunteers’ stories and warnings that it is difficult working with teachers here. Of course there are some people who are not very interested in the program, but in general people arrive on time ready to work. Only a few schools had to cancel visits and they called us beforehand and rescheduled (we heard stories of cancelled visits, such as with volunteers walking an hour through rain up a mountain to get to a school only to find it closed because no one had called to say there wasn’t any school). I’m going to do what I can to maintain a positive attitude so people stay positive about the program. It really motivated me to walk home from the second day to find a teacher in my host mom’s shop getting a big copy of the sheet we gave them to make their dice and asking about finding a big box to make the dice with.
We’ve also begun working more closely with the health center. There is a man at our health center in charge of education and he has his own project with schools, such as deparisitization and vaccine campaigns and lectures. He wants to coordinate with us so we don’t both do the same things with the schools and so we can share materials, so we’ll see how things go. It’s a little difficult to plan because they don’t really plan ahead and we do, so by the time it is the start of the month, we already like to have an idea of what we’re doing for the next six weeks, but they work only a few weeks ahead of time. We’re meeting with him next week for the fourth time in a few weeks to plan with a little more detail. We’re also getting in touch with an organization working in my site that deals with deforestation and environmental education, so it will be great to work with them because contamination of water and air and just general lack of knowledge of how to protect the environment are huge here. So this past week has been super busy and next week should be a little less busy, but still full of things-we’re starting to do a survey with every school to see where they are in respect to the program. Feria is also approaching very quickly so we’ll have some time off then to participate in the parades and activities surrounding the town’s fair.
So things are all right here in my site. Work is going well and I'll have some down time this weekend to attend another beauty pageant thing my host sister is participating in. I hope things are going well wherever you all are! Take care,

Christie

RAIN!

So, Guatemala is currently experiencing tropical storm Agatha and I happen to be in the west somewhere near the west coast where the storm first hit this morning, though it had rained for the two previous days. It's my first tropical storm so today has been quite an adventure. This morning I moved all of the stuff from my room around with my host mom's help to get everything off the floor because water was coming in from the window. The walls are also wet because the house wasn't constructed properly, so my room is incredibly damp and cold. At least the water stopped coming in the window for the most part because we put nylon up outside. We also spent quite a while dragging up a lot of stuff from my family's store to the house above so that it wouldn't get ruined if/when the water starts to flood the bottom level. Some parts of the muni and nearby Xela have already flooded and people are trying to move things to higher ground. Meanwhile the river is growing rapidly and the muni was using bulldozers to push dirt along the lower sides of the river, so we'll se how that goes. Now the power is a little sketchy, but my partner's internet is working pretty well. Anyway, I don't want to waste more time so I'll update when the power is more stable and I can brave the weather to make it to the internet cafe. Take care!

Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Monday was Día de la Madre (Mother’s Day) here in Guatemala and it’s a pretty big holiday, celebrated with fire crackers, serenades, parties, and gift-giving. I went to a Mother’s Day party on Saturday which was pretty fun. Only the mothers were supposed to participate in activities. They played games like throwing tantrums and breaking open a piñata. The kids also had a really cute drama they put on where the kids went to school and then came home and the principal had to tell the mom whether the kids had been bad or good. My partner and I also wrote out poems and read them to the oldest women at the party. We also had cake and paches (tamales made with rice and some special seasoning). Everyone was super nice and we now know more people in our community. The celebration continued on Sunday night when a bunch of older kids serenaded some moms in the community, which was followed by firecrackers. This happened around 3 or so in the morning. Then Monday a lot of the kids had the day off from school, which I would think is something most moms would probably not like because it just means more work for them during the day. Everyone gave gifts, had cake, etc. My mom was dressed up and was wearing the necklace and earrings my host sister had given her. It was a pretty good day.

Also this past week I was kind of sick for a couple of days. So I think now is a good time to address perceptions of health and treatment here in Guatemala. I’ve had some pretty interesting experiences with health. One big thing here is always wearing sweaters or jackets if it’s a little chilly outside, because if you don’t then you’ll get sick. Also showering at night will make you sick. Even asking doctors why people here get sick, they’ll tell you that it’s because people have wet hair at night. Sickness is not really perceived as spreading from person to person. Rather, it’s always because of something you ate, exposing yourself to the cold, even eating cold foods on a hot day. I have also heard the thought that worms come about when you don’t get something that you really want-my host brother really wanted pizza and my host mom didn’t give it to him, so now he has worms. So my host brother gets pretty much whatever he wants, when he wants it. These thoughts on health make the Healthy Schools program extra challenging because germs aren’t always seen as the cause of illness so people don’t always understand why you need to wash your hands. Often it’s just up to God to decide whether we are healthy or not, so people don’t really think they need to do anything to preserve their health.

Health care in Guatemala is divided into health posts and centers in smaller areas and then hospitals in larger towns and cities. Health posts in small areas are usually manned by a nurse and a doctor, sometimes more personnel if the town is bigger. I haven’t used their services because the Peace Corps prefers that we go through our medical officers because they have been trained in the U.S. But, I have experienced a Guatemalan hospital, but it was a private hospital (one that the Peace Corps uses) and it was much like a hospital in the U.S. I was there for some tests and an overnight stay for something that turned out not to be serious-I was pretty much the healthiest person in the hospital that night. The nurses were really friendly and the doctor who was in charge of my tests was really nice. He was trained at the University of Michigan so we joked a little about the Ohio State-U of M rivalry. The tests were performed with up-to-date equipment, the food was really good (and I got to choose), and I had a t.v. in the room I shared with another patient. It was painless as far as hospital visits go. Peace Corps took really good care of me throughout the process, I just hope I don’t have any more hospital visits coming up. In public hospitals, you wait a long time to see someone and they often give you medicines. It’s so easy to get medicine here because you don’t need a prescription to go to a pharmacy and pick something up, so pharmacists are always trying to get you to buy something that you don’t really need or get some sort of injection. There are also guys that come on the bus selling different syrups and pills to take to get rid of parasites or to help the nerves and goodness knows where they’re buying these concoctions from nor whether they have any medical background, but people buy their medicines.

I am also becoming more Guatemalan by the day. Last week a microbus passed by heading up to where my partner and I needed to go. It was packed and there was barely enough room to squeeze the rest of us in with no chance of being the least bit comfortable, but we didn’t even hesitate to get on. It was a very uncomfortable twenty minute ride and when I got to my stop, my legs and back were achy, but we got there a lot sooner than we would have if we had waited. I am also adopting different hand gestures, like raising a finger instead of a hand to say something or waving my index finger back and forth to say no. My English is also failing me more often and instead of saying I am hungry or thirsty, I say I have hunger or I have thirst.

As for work, we’re continuing with our first school visits and we’re planning on a training session with all of the teachers (250+ of them!) the end of this month. We’re breaking it up into three different sections, so it will be a bit more manageable. I’m also starting to get ready to paint some of the house where I’ll be moving in the beginning of July. Things are thus moving on pretty smoothly. Not much else to report for now. Hope things are going well as summer comes.

Take care everyone!

Christie

One month down, twenty-three months to go

I can't believe it's May and I've been a volunteer already for five weeks!

It's starting to rain more and the frequent afternoon rains are simply a sign of what is to come-rainy season. Over the past several weeks I have seen farmers in their fields planting milpa (corn plants) that will shortly grow to surpass my height. I am looking forward to the green that is promising to come, but not to the mud that will make my treks to some of the schools more difficult and messier. I need to find some rubber boots to keep my feet and pants dry in the coming months, but at least I already have my raincoat and umbrella broken in.

I figured I might write about my experience working in a foreign country, or at least continue what I started writing about last week with communication. There are so many things that make working here so much different than working back in the U.S. I am staying really busy with work and though it doesn’t always look like I’m working “hard,” a lot of the work I’m doing is just as draining as spending eight hours in the office with an hour-long lunch break. Much like the American concept of commuting to work, the actual task of getting to the school I am visiting in the morning is sometimes exhausting. I have to find the correct bus/micro/person who’s giving me a ride. If I’m traveling in someone’s personal vehicle, things are great. Micros are the second preferred method of travel because I have always been able to find a fairly comfortable seat (though sometimes I’m wedged between two other people barely able to keep my balance on sharp mountain turns). The most uncomfortable method is by camioneta (bus) because I often get onto already full buses and either have to stand or sit in an aisle seat, which is definitely the worst. Many of my schools are in mountainous areas, so the camioneta ride is very curvy. When you’re sitting in the aisle, you have to find some way to brace yourself, especially when you’ve only got half a cheek or so on the seat and you’re trying to hold onto a bag full of stuff. I get some really good leg workouts on the buses, but it just drains me before I even get to the schools. After half an hour of this I’m ready for a nice break but I need to keep on my feet to get to the school itself (sometimes another hike up part of a mountain) and go from classroom to classroom. Lately I’ve been on my feet for several hours at a time with only a short break to have a snack with the school. After four hours or so at the school, it’s time to find a ride back to my site, which is just like the ride up only scarier when I’m going down the mountain and I can start to smell the brakes of the bus. Meanwhile, this whole time I’ve been negotiating everything in a language that I feel comfortable with but that still frustrates me all the time. My Spanish is much better after four months here, but I still can’t fully express what I want to say or understand everything people are saying to me, especially when they’re talking fast or are talking to me on the phone. Then in the afternoon I have to prepare and plan for the coming days. Though our activities in the schools have been the same, we are soon going to start on the next step, completing a diagnostic to know where the school is health-wise and what we need to focus on in the coming two years and then presenting it to the teachers. We are also planning on having a workshop by the end of May broken up into three sessions so that we don’t have too many teachers at the same time. We are also talking to one of the municipalities about water and possibly working with them on finding funding for a water project. There is also a lot of waiting involved in nearly every aspect of my work day-waiting for the bus to come, waiting around the school to start presentations or to have a meeting with the teachers, waiting for the bus to carry us back to town, waiting to have a meeting with our supervisor or city officials, waiting to hear from someone regarding information we need, etc. It would be much easier if I could dictate what I wanted to have done, when I wanted to have it done by, or just do everything myself, but I’m not here to do that. I’m here to work with the teachers and the directors of these schools. It’s just a challenge to realize that things aren’t going to go at the pace you want because work is measured differently here and because standards are different. We’ll see how things go in the next weeks.

I’m just trying to be patient. I know it’s probably weird for the people I’m working with to have a bumbling, demanding foreigner come in and start working with them. I don’t always get the language very well, I don’t understand all of their customs and social norms so I know I probably do offensive things or at least things that confuse people, and I don’t fully understand what I’m doing or how I’m going to accomplish my goals with the project. The next several months will be spent building confidence and getting to know my schools, teachers and directors better, but I know that this is going to take a while.

But not all of my work is hard. Interacting with the kids comes easily because they are always interested in learning more about the strange foreigners in their school. Moreover, they include me in games at recess, buy me snacks and just talk to me, often asking questions about the U.S. or how to say certain words in English. And some of the teachers and directors are really great. Moreover, I know that the work is worth it. I believe in the efficacy of what I am doing and I know that what I am doing will help the kids at these schools live healthier lives.

In other news, I made lasagna today and it was absolutely delicious. The host family loved it too. They're convinced I'm a really good cook, but all I'm doing is introducing lots of cheesy dishes into their lives while they're meanwhile introducing a lot of sugar into mine. There is also a religious 'campaña' in a tent maybe 30 feet from my house and I could hear them singing at 5:00 this morning. Yesterday they were competing with the Catholics in town, who had a procession of the Virgin for some festival, complete with band and fireworks. They passed right by the tent and I could hear both things going on at the same time. Just the level of noise here is astounding and I'm still not used to it, though the few occasions when it is silent are slightly eerie. Then there is the howling of dogs when we have tremors, which is also pretty eerie.

There is never a dull day in Guatemala. Hope life is just as interesting for everyone else!

Best wishes,
Christie

Ending April

I can't believe it's almost May! Time really has already been flying here and I've been pretty busy with work. I’ve finally started visiting schools with my partner and the school visits have been going well so far. We are meeting with all of the teachers to tell them about the program and give a brief overview of the “Profile of a Healthy School,” with the eight steps toward fulfilling level one of certification. We also visit every classroom and present ourselves to the students, telling them a little about where we’re from, our families, what we like to do, etc. Working with the schools however will be quite a challenge because we are working with 21 schools in two municipalities and all the schools have different challenges that they face, different needs that we have to address. The smaller municipality has six schools and five of them lack water right now (they only get water in the community once every couple of weeks). One community has worked by itself to find water, so that school is going to get water, and even a handwashing station, hopefully soon. But the four that have no means of finding water for the time being rely on students to bring water and fill buckets and other containers on the two days or so per month when there is water. It will be challenging to try to get kids to wash hands and brush teeth when water is so scarce, but we’re going to do what we can. We started working with these schools first partly because we thought we might have an opportunity to apply for water projects (which is not the case anymore) and because they lack the most out of the schools because water is so crucial. The kids have been great-they’re just really open to new people and are always interested in hanging out with you, sometimes just talking, other times putting puzzles together, playing basketball, etc. Meanwhile, teachers seem more “clique-ish,” and seem less open to us (though some are super nice and seem really interested in working with us). I’m not so naïve that I thought that we would be welcomed with open arms and fanfare at every school, but we are bringing a program that the government of Guatemala has specifically asked for and we’re implementing a program that the government will hopefully mandate country-wide in the near future, so these schools are kind of getting a nice head start. However, in general so far the directors have all seemed on board with the program and most of the teachers also seem willing to work with us.

Guatemalans are extremely generous people. We have been given snacks and meals aplenty though we’ve just visited seven schools so far. At one school they serve lunch to all of the students once a month and they changed the lunch for the day we were visiting and gave us a ton of food (way too much-I don’t know how they expected two non-obese females to eat a plateful of rice, tomato sauce, a chunk of meat, and 6 tamales each). Then another school organized a really nice snack for us, complete with fancily folded napkins and delicious arroz con leche. The kids even buy us snacks and share their snacks with us. Regrettably though, I can usually tell by how dirty their hands are that they don’t yet practice healthy habits and this makes accepting the offered peanuts and chips a little difficult. I usually do my best to pretend to eat it.

One really frustrating thing that has really been getting to me lately is the lack of direct communication. Communication is much more indirect-people often don’t tell you what they are really thinking in order to spare your feelings. This is partially because people have notions of how interactions work out and how people will behave, so they are able to read behavior in other people and therefore don’t have to be as direct with what they’re saying. Instead of having the other person know exactly what they mean in a clear, direct way, they worry about saving face and not insulting anyone. I have learned to use indirect communication myself, but it’s frustrating sometimes to have people not tell you if there’s something wrong or if they don’t like how you’re doing something. People don’t like to say no to you, so they will go out of their way to make something happen or they will say yes and do nothing about it. When people tell me what they think I want to hear, I’m not getting the information that I really need. If you ask for directions, if they don’t know where the place is that you’re going, they’ll tell you some type of directions rather than telling you that they don’t know. Because communication is so central to everyday life and to my job, it adds a whole new context to my dealings with people because I always have to second guess what they’re saying. It’s also common to use a third party, especially in my family. My host sister will see me do something, like eat a banana, and instead of asking me why I’m eating, she’ll tell my host mom that I’m not getting enough food at mealtimes (which is not the case) and I’ll see my portions increase. It’s kind of like she’s “telling” on me to her mom, who is the one who confronts me and makes the changes that she perceives as in my best interest. Small talk is also big here. If you don’t say “Buenos días” or the appropriate phrase to people you know, they’ll think you’re angry with them. Some days when I’m exhausted and cranky for some reason, I still have to act all nice and cordial with people so that they don’t think I hate them. I’m not saying that this style of communication is wrong-I think the way people care about one another’s feelings is much kinder than how blunt Americans can be sometimes-but it certainly is frustrating sometimes.

Yesterday I went to the zoo with one of the schools for a field trip. Xela has a fairly small zoo with some animals, like monkeys, a leopard, lots of birds, and giant rabbits, along with a really giant playground for kids. I was hoping to go off with some of the kids to explore the zoo, but their teachers dismissed them and everyone, from the younger preschool aged kids to the older sixth graders, scattered all over the place. I couldn't tell the kids from my school from the kids from the other school, so I just ended up walking around with Yuna, my partner. Today has just been a day to relax. I cooked some lunch for my family and just read through some articles on hygiene from the UN that I had saved up. I have Monday off next week because some of the teachers are in training sessions, so I’ll catch up on some reading I’ve been putting off. There are so many materials for Healthy Schools that sometimes I feel like I’m drowning in information.

Take care everyone. I hope no one's stranded in Europe. It's crazy to hear about a volcano causing so many problems. Enjoy spring!
Christie

Easter and On

It’s been a pleasant couple of weeks here in site. It’s still weird to be split up from the group and not having my life mimicking that of others, but I’m doing my own thing and I’m happy with it. My first week here was Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is the biggest religious celebration here in Guatemala. The month leading up to the week before Easter is full of processions and prayers, mainly on the weekend. I feel like I’ve mentioned this before, but my favorite part are the alfombras, really elaborate “rugs” made out of flowers, fruit, sawdust, sand, and other items that the parade floats and those carrying them walk over. Hours of work go into these alfombras, but it only takes minutes to destroy them and make them a blurry mess of trampled stems and flowers and mixed up sawdust. The important part is in making them, which is usually a family affair and also shows one’s love for God. My new family got together, aunts, cousins and all, with my host parents and sister to make a rug on Friday morning for Good Friday. We all got up around 5:00 to make it before it got really hot and sunny out. The day before I had gone with my host mom and aunt to the market in Xela to buy some palm fronds, flowers and coroza (not sure how it’s spelled) to make the rug with and it took us a while to find what we wanted because there wasn’t a whole lot left. We used the palm fronds to make the base of the alfombra, and we made a flower basket out of sawdust and coroza and put flowers in it. It was really pretty. I walked around to see the other rugs in the area and there weren’t a whole lot. Apparently over the past couple of years people just haven’t cared enough to make alfombras for the procession of Jesus and Mary. However, there were some really elaborate ones by the church that the youth in the community had put together, including a really beautiful one of Jesus carrying the cross made out of sawdust. The procession set out from the church at noon or so and my family waited for it by our alfombra. This procession was much more elaborate than the previous ones I had seen in Pastores and Antigua. There were actors portraying Jesus, the guards, the thieves, the women in the crowd. When the procession got to the corner where we were waiting, they stopped for the actors to portray a woman offering Jesus water and the guards abusing him. Once it passed, we joined the procession and walked up to the Calvario, stopping at little shrines along the way to recite prayers, thus making the procession move fairly slowly. Once we got to the Calvario, the same actors then reenacted the crucifixion, even putting the thieves and Jesus on crosses. It was hard to see because tons of people had shown up and everyone had umbrellas opened because it was really sunny out, but I got the gist of what was going on. Later on we followed the Jesus statue to the house where it will be for the next nine days until it returns to the church. The family that is hosting the statue had a large lunch for us. Good Friday was a lot more interesting here than it ever was in the U.S. That night there was another mini procession of a float where Jesus was in a coffin to symbolize his death that would on Sunday become a float with a risen Jesus on it to represent his resurrection. There was also a Maximón effigy that is a pretty interesting tradition around here. Maximón (or Saint Simón) is a pagan saint that smokes and drinks. There was an effigy of him sitting on the sidewalk on Friday in a hat and clothes with a cigar in his mouth and signs around his neck. He represented Judas Iscariot and later he was burned, but I couldn’t find where he was being burned so I missed it. Holy Week also meant eating lots of sweet bread, hearing lots of evangelical churches’ services late in the night and lots of people just hanging out because there was no school throughout the week and most people didn’t have to work later in the week. There was no mention of an Easter bunny or Easter candy. I miss the candy part but not the bunny.

Other than the craziness that was Holy Week, it’s been pretty tranquilo here. I love the weather in this area-it’s nice and cool in the evenings and in the morning and it gets pleasantly warm during the day. It has also started raining nearly every afternoon, a sign of what’s to come in the rainy season. I’m just looking forward to having less dust everywhere. I’ve gotten into Xela a few more times. On Monday I went in with my partner, Yuna, to see the NCAA final game with some other volunteers. Then on Wednesday I went again in the morning to get some food from Hiper Paiz (which is the Guatemalan equivalent of Wal-Mart-I even think it’s owned by Wal-Mart). On Friday morning Yuna and I had our first meeting with the directors of the schools we’re working with the talk about the program and what we’re hoping to accomplish and to set up a schedule for visiting the schools in the next several weeks. It was a successful meeting and everyone seemed ready to accept us as a part of the schools over the next two years. They were participating and seemed like a happy, fun group of people and we have 21 school visits scheduled through the end of next month, so we’re ready to get started working. To celebrate Yuna and I went into Xela to get a nice lunch from the Indian restaurant (SO good-I can’t believe I have quality Indian food twenty minutes away), to explore the bookshop (tons of used books in English and in Spanish), to find the Mennonite bakery (again, SO good and something I never would have expected to find close to me-I got some cupcakes for my family and a chocolated-glazed, cream filled doughnut, which I never expected to find in Guatemala), and to explore La Democracia (a large market, much like the streets of Kampala, where you can find stores or stalls selling pretty much anything you need, from animal feed to socks, underwear to food). I really like Xela-it’s a big city, but it’s more tranquilo and safe than Guatemala City but offers pretty much the same mix of things. There is a nice theater that has productions on the weekends, several clubs that have live music, places to dance (and to learn), lots of restaurants and bars, two malls, a Mennonite bakery and a place to buy good cheese, and even a zoo. It will be fun to explore more over the next several months when I can and I’m finally starting to find my way around, at least from the central park to the bus terminal and mall. Though living close to a city is what I didn’t want from my PC experience, and I know I’m going to spend more of my money on food and other things because of it, it will be nice to have it close if I need to get away and I’ll learn how to budget myself.

I’ve also been spending lots of time with my family and just hanging out around town. The kids always want to do something, whether it’s drawing, playing cards, or playing computer games. Then there’s the t.v., which we watch together sometimes, though I often see what’s on at night before going to bed. Instead of CNN in English, I just have Fox News, which I still refuse to watch, though I might break down soon because watching CNN in Spanish gets frustrating sometimes. Seeing Glenn Beck yelling about something just made me angry-I’ll just need to avoid it around 3 or so when he’s on. Yesterday I went from watching Fuego en la Sangre, the really horrible telenovela that is finally ending, to watching Jeopardy (so happy to find it on here), to watching Borat (which made me realize just how bad globalization can be sometimes). I also cooked for my family the other day, making tuna fish casserole (my host sister had commented about how she loved tuna), which was very well received. If I can find eggplant I’ll try making that again. I’m excited to be on my own and cooking everyday, though I’m sure I’ll have less energy once I start visiting schools next week.

That’s pretty much all I have. Once I start school visits, I’ll probably have more to write about. Until then, I’m just relaxing and getting everything organized and ready for working with the schools.