We're not in Toto anymore.

It’s been a pretty busy week. The group of 27 Healthy Schools volunteers went out to Totonicapan in the Western highlands of Guatemala to spend some time with volunteers to know what it’s like being a PCV. We visited schools, spoke with the volunteers, and got to know each other better, so it was a pretty helpful week overall. All of the volunteers we visited were really great and were full of information and advice, most of which I have already forgotten. They all also live in pretty nice houses and have pretty comfortable lives, which surprised me. We’re not getting a huge allowance to live here because we’re supposed to live like the people we’re working with, but it seems to me like most volunteers live a little better off, with somewhat expensive wireless internet service from Tigo, nice fairly spacious houses, and even t.v.s with cable. It’ll be interesting to see where I’ll end up and how I’ll be living a year from now. Only two more weeks or so until we all learn where we will be assigned and with whom.

Visiting schools was pretty interesting. We got to see schools in all phases of the program, from being pretty far away from being certified as healthy to being already certified. In Toto, we were present to celebrate Carnaval at one school on Tuesday, which turned out to be pretty crazy. I’m a target for kids because I’m short and they can reach my face and head more easily, so from the start at the school kids were throwing pica pica (confetti) on me. I don’t mind this, as long as it’s not aimed at my mouth or it’s not picked up from the ground and then thrown at me. I even bought some to throw back at the kids. It was fun until I made the mistake of saying that I liked pica pica and a few boys heard me, so they went to buy some pintura stuff (like face paint, but metallic) and rubbed it all over my face and neck. I looked kind of like the tin man, even after rubbing it off onto my hands. It looked like I had spray painted my face and hands. They also brought out the glitter and started putting that on my face as well. How this works is the kids sneak up on you and then kind of slap your face to try to rub some of the paint or glitter on you from the packages it comes in. Pica pica is a little different because you can just shake it off, but it took a shower (and then some extra scrubbing) to get the silver stuff from off of my face, ears, neck and hands. Hopefully it didn’t seep into my bloodstream.

Another school we went to served us lunch and made us some recuerdos. It was a certified school, so we were using them as an example of what a certified school looks like, what resources they have. We saw all of their rincones de salud (little spots in the classroom where students store their hygiene things, like toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, soap, etc.), which were pretty creative in some classrooms. One teacher used butterflies, and made the toothbrush the body of the butterfly. Other teachers used other animals, like bunnies, or kites for each student to store their materials. The kids also sang some of the Healthy School songs to us or told us what they thought having a healthy school meant. After touring the classrooms, we went to one room to hear some bienvenidos greetings and to receive a recuerdo from some of the teachers. They had made all of us (including the Spanish teachers who were with us and the training directors) a woven scarf made with the traditional colors of the area and a different woven design at the ends of each scarf. Then we ate a lunch made by the children’s parents. We had a really delicious chicken soup with tamales and rosa de jamaica to drink. Overall it was a good day and it was nice to see that the project was so well-received in this one school.

There are three phases in the healthy schools program, the first of which is ending with our group of volunteers. Only four of us are involved in this phase, and they already know who they are. They will be more directly involved in the schools, working with the students and teachers in two to four schools and helping get funding and starting the infrastructure projects necessary to be certified (latrines, hand washing stations, better ventilated kitchens, a water deposit if water is not readily available). I will be in phase two or three with a partner. Phase two involves working with a whole municipality, so between 20 and 40 schools. This involves more working with teachers and training them to carry out the healthy schools project on their own in order to make it more sustainable in the long run. Then phase three involves working with a whole department, so from between 50 and 400 schools. The way it is set up now, the volunteers in this phase will work more closely with superintendents, who will chose certain schools to participate and then become example schools for the rest of the districts once they are certified. In this phase, the superintendents take ownership of the project and have a more active role in implementing it in their schools. The last two phases also involve doing a lot of training sessions, in phase two with teachers and in phase three with teachers, directors and superintendents. So on the last day of training, we went to a training session given by phase three volunteers for teachers and directors in one region of the department of Chimaltenango. They went over the basic information of the healthy schools program, like what it is, what the requirements are to be certified as a healthy school, how to plan lessons, etc. A lot of the teachers were really enthusiastic so it was good to see that the program is well accepted by them. They had to plan pretend lessons and everyone seemed to be involved in trying to think of ways to actively involve students in the learning process. I’m now a lot more excited about doing these training sessions with my own schools once I get my assignment. My training group in Pastores needs to plan a shorter version (1-2 hours) workshop for the school we are currently working with, so it will be interesting to see how that goes this week.

I also got to know the other trainees in healthy schools a lot better over the past week. This is especially helpful because we will be partnered up for our assignments and the two years would be a lot more pleasant if we were paired with someone we can work well with. We had a brief “speed-dating” session to get to know each other’s work styles, what they were looking for in their PC experience, etc. so I feel like I know some people I could work well with and others that I probably couldn’t work as well with. It’s just a little difficult planning for two years of working with someone because we really don’t know each other that well (except for the people living within the same communities). I’ll just have to hope that Sergio and the rest of those in charge of training have been watching us and have some insight into the matter. Everything will become much more clear and certain on March 11 when we find out our site assignments and who we’re working with (which we might find out even sooner). I’ll let everyone know when I find out.

On to a more interesting topic (maybe), I haven’t really talked about food yet. I know that this interests a lot of people, so I’ll briefly write about it now. The food in Guatemala has been pretty good so far. To break up the day, I eat breakfast between 7 and 7:30 (usually), lunch between 12 and 1, and dinner around 7:30 at night. Breakfast normally consists of corn flakes with warm milk (made with Nido milk powder and hot water) or mosh (oatmeal with milk and water), to which is added a lot of sugar. Usually I have fruit in some form, mostly cut up. I often have pineapple, papaya or melon pieces or orange, pineapple or papaya juice. I can’t wait for mango season. Sometimes I also take tea with breakfast, and on the weekends we usually eat eggs and beans with tortillas and bread. Then for lunch, I eat a variety of different dishes: sometimes pasta with tomato sauce, sometimes soup with chicken, a lot of beef with a tomato salsa, occasionally tamales or chiles rellenos, sometimes a side of avocado, a really good soup-like dish with chicken called pepián, rice, carrot salad, always tortillas, etc. For the most part, everything is really good. Then for dinner, we usually eat half-scrambled eggs and beans with tortillas and bread with tea. There is usually sweet bread to dip in the overly sugared tea, which is especially good. Sometimes we have tortillas with melty cheese in the middle, which is probably my favorite type of dinner, or salty ramen-like noodle soup, which is also good. Talking about specific foods, first I’ll mention tortillas. Tortillas are to Guatemala what matooke is to Uganda. It’s the staple food that pretty much everyone eats with almost every meal (not with cereal, but with beans and eggs at breakfast). I typically eat between 6 and 8 tortillas a day, 3-4 with lunch and with dinner. One uses tortillas to scoop up beans or other soupy items, or to eat with avocado (my favorite use of tortillas). The dog and the bird in the family also enjoy tortillas. Many families make tortillas, but mine buys them fresh everyday. I also eat a lot of bread, mostly with dinner. The bread my family buys is called pan frances (French bread) and it’s bought fresh daily so it’s pretty good. There are also sweet breads which are good for dipping in tea or coffee. Eggs are the other food I’ve been eating a lot of here. My family has them almost always with dinner and occasionally we’ll have them for breakfast. I’ve been making them but I like to cook them all the way and my family doesn’t like them like that (too dry), so they’re usually a little soupy (and occasionally very much so). Black beans (frijoles) are also huge and we eat them with dinner and occasionally with breakfast and/or lunch. They can be a really soupy dish to be eaten with tortillas, volteados (like refried beans)-good with tostadas, and whole beans. Also, salt and sugar are used quite a lot here. If a food isn't salty, chances are that it is sugary. My family adds a teaspoon or more of sugar to one cup of coffee or tea, as well as to already sweet fruit juice. Meanwhile, salt is added to eggs, rice, avocado, other veggies, soup, etc. So I constantly feel like my teeth are rotting and my blood pressure is rising.

So far I’m not tired of these staple foods, which is a good sign. I’m pretty flexible when it comes to eating, so all should go well, as long as my family doesn’t start feeding my the chicken soup they feed the dog (with chicken feet and fully intact heads, along with tons of tortillas). This soup is supposedly good for her milk production for the puppies. I guess my favorite food would have to be pepián, which is usually served with chicken, potatoes, and other veggies. I also really love tortillas with avocado or toasted with cheese between two. I also ate pupusas while on field-based training, which are like tortillas with cheese, beans, or meat cooked inside, which is pretty delicious.

I haven’t gone out a lot for food because I’m trying to save money, but I have eaten at Pollo Campero 3 or 4 times. This is a Guatemalan-owned restaurant chain you can find in countries around the world (including the U.S.) that has really good fried chicken. I really like their chicken sandwich, which includes chicken, lettuce, tomato, beans volteados, and guacamole. It’s about Q25 ($3) for a meal with fries, a roll and a drink (a meal big enough to split), so it’s a good deal. We’ve also found a good cookie shop in Antigua where a reasonably sized cookie is Q2.50 ($0.30), so that’s a good find. I also like the McDonald’s chocolate sundae or an ice cream cone from Sarita or somewhere else for less than $1. There are tons of restaurants in Antigua that I want to try out (Italian, Indian, Guatemalan, etc.), but we aren’t supposed to be out of our communities after dark, and around lunch we’re usually around our communities and eat at home, so eating a good dinner in Antigua is going to be difficult.

Some other time I’ll write about my experiences in church, my fun camioneta (chicken bus) rides, Antigua, etc. If you want to hear about something, let me know in the comments. I’m also going to try to start putting pictures up, depending on how cooperative the computers I use and the internet are, so we’ll see. That’s all. Que todo vaya bien!