End of training, beginning of service

I am now officially a volunteer. Time flew by after site visit. Actually, it was only five days or so, which really isn’t that long a period of time. My site visit went really well. The volunteer my partner and I are replacing is great and she welcomed us into her home, which will one day become either my home or my partner’s home. We walked around town a bit and got to know some of the families she was friends with. We also visited the host families with whom we are living now that we’ve moved into our sites. The mornings were all made up of visits to schools. We are working with 20-21 schools in two different municipalities, many of which are rural schools. We visited around 18 of those schools in the three days we had to do so. It was a bit overwhelming, but none of the directors ran us off of school grounds, and some were really enthusiastic to start working with us. We already have a meeting scheduled through our counterpart, the supervisor for all of the schools (primary, secondary, etc.) in the two municipalities, to meet all of the directors, after which our work will begin in earnest. My site seems like a really nice community full of really nice, welcoming people.

The end of training was interesting. On Monday we were supposed to have a session at the center in Santa Lucía, but there was a transportation strike and all of the roads surrounding Guatemala City and Santa Lucía were blocked, so people couldn’t get to the center. Basically it was like having a snow day. I finished reading the seventh Harry Potter and started reading a new book (“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Fadiman-a really interesting book about the interstices between medicine and culture, something that has really interested me for a while) and played a little bit of soccer with some Pastores and Las Carretas friends. That evening I cooked eggplant and pasta for my family. I made tons of pasta because I couldn’t pictures how much four bags would turn out to be (there was a deal-buy three get the fourth free-so I bought four), and I ended up making over twice as much as we needed. I also “made” sauce, using tomato paste in a bag and mixing it with a little bit of water and adding some fresh veggies-tomatoes and some really delicious, juicy yellow and orange bell peppers-and some garlic. The meal went over pretty well and everyone was stuffed after eating (I was worried I wouldn’t have enough food). Then Tuesday was a long day at the training center, followed by a shorter day on Wednesday. Wed. was our last day at the school and we were all pleasantly surprised to find that the teachers had indeed (for the most part) made Rincones de Salud (Healthy Corners). My teacher went all out making an entire back wall devoted to health, winning her first prize. She had a little game to check the status of the kids hygiene and had a little spot for their toilet paper, as well as little cups for their tooth brushes and paste. Another teacher had plastic bottles to hold everything, taking our advice to use recycled materials. It was impressive. I’m going to miss the first graders. Later on we went to the hot springs in San Lorenzo as a treat from the mayor to thank us for our work in the schools, then on with Spanish presentations in Santa Lucía.

Thursday was swear-in, the day I officially became a Peace Corps volunteer. The ceremony is usually held at the ambassador’s house, but he was in El Salvador for a mass for Archbishop Romero so we had the ceremony at a nice hotel in Antigua. The sub-ambassador for something (I don’t remember his title) was there to give us the oath (which is pretty much the same one that Biden took when he was sworn in as vice president) and we got little diplomas. There was a nice reception afterward and we took lots of photos. Then we were finally free from the training rules that made us feel like we were back in middle school. I spent the rest of the day and the night in Antigua, eating lunch at a nice restaurant, drinking some good wine and eating hor d’oevures at a nice bar/café. That night a bar had a reggae concert for us and I went and found a dance club with salsa with a friend. I even had some time in there to watch half of Forrest Gump. It was a great night. Then the next morning I went with a group of twelve or so to the beach at Sipacate, about two hours south-west of Antigua. It’s amazing how drastically the scenery changes into tropical the further south you go. There were palm trees, coconut trees, lots of green. It was really beautiful. The beach itself is a black sand beach, so it’s really hard to actually walk on the dry sand. The water was a really nice temperature, so that was nice, but the sand got everywhere. I’m still finding sand in my hair and under my nails. Overall, it was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.

Saturday was a big day. I got up early and headed out, lugging a giant red bag, a heavy backpack, and a small tote. I’m pretty used to riding on camionetas now and I actually enjoy it, especially on long trips when I can just sit and look out the windows because Guatemala’s scenery is so beautiful. But lugging 70+ pounds of extra weight makes it much more challenging. I caught a bus that was heading to Panajachel (on Lake Atitlán) and took it to Cuatro Caminos. Now this was nice because I bypassed Chimal for the most part, which is kind of the armpit of Guatemala and lots of people get robbed there. So I was pretty happy with myself for just randomly finding the one bus a day that goes direct from Antigua to Pana. However, things started going downhill once I transferred to another bus. I wanted to keep my transfers to a minimum just so I wouldn’t have to keep getting my huge red bag down from the top of the bus and then finding someone strong enough to hoist it on top of the next bus. I found a bus that says Xela and the ayudante told me that it went directly to Xela (I made sure to ask because some just take you to Cuatro Caminos, where you have to transfer again), so I got on and wedged myself in the back between two women with small childrens. One girl feel asleep on my shoulder, which was a little sunburned from the beach, so the two hour trip wasn’t the most pleasant, but I was happy envisioning myself getting the Xela, finding a micro to my site and then finally getting to the family with whom I will be living. It turned out, however, that the ayudante lied to me and dropped me off in Cuatro Caminos and I had to find another bus to the city. So I found a bus and they told me it was going to Xela. I was a little wary after the last problem, but I figured that most buses would probably go to Xela. Plus, the guys had run across a busy street to come and recruit me to their bus, taking off with my backpack when I told them I was going to Xela, so I really didn’t have another option. I even asked if we were going to the terminal, and the guy said we were, so I was sure things would be ok. However, this bus was not going to the terminal and I got off in the middle of Xela in a part I had never been to before. There were micros there and I asked them and none were going to my site, but one said they were going to the terminal, so I got on that one, once again lugging my giant red bag and my heavy backpack. However, this micro was not going to the terminal, so again I got off, though this time I was in a more familiar part. A really nice ayudante from a micro helped me find my way, even stopping the van he was in to tell me exactly which way to go to get the right micro. I had to lug the giant bag on my back, the backpack on my front, and the tote on my shoulder for four blocks or so. I’m sure I was a site to see. Eventually I found a micro that told me it was going to my site and indeed it was and I finally got to the house I will be living in for the next three months. One thing I learned from this escapade is that things are not generally as they are said to be and never take a Guatemalan ayudante for his word. Amazingly I kept my cool throughout and didn’t even yell at any of the guys for lying to me.

The family I am living with now is fantastic. It consists of a mom, a dad, and three kids. The oldest is a daughter, Dora, who is 16, then there is a 10-year-old girl, Jaime, and a 6-year-old boy, Gabriel. There was also a 7-year-old cousin hanging out when I got there and I spent most of the beginning of my time here with him, hanging out in my room and watching t.v. Yes, I have a t.v. in my room (something I never had growing up) and I have around 80 channels, much more than the ten or so my parents have at home. So far in the short time I’ve been here I have seen Thomas the Tank Engine, Baby’s Day Out, Sid the Science Kid, old school Blue’s Clues with Steve (I’ve been watching a lot of stuff with my younger host siblings) and lots of other random movies in Spanish, a news program from Los Angeles in English and some old school music videos on VH1. It’s interesting the mixture of random things there are on t.v. I am looking forward to having CNN in Spanish and in English. I haven’t really kept up with any news lately and I really miss knowing what’s going on in the world.

The family has been super welcoming in the one day I’ve been here. The kids often drop by my room to hang out and we drew some pictures yesterday. The younger boy and his cousin both told me they want me to stay forever. So at least I’m off to a good start here in my site. I have all next week off because there is no school due to Semana Santa. It will be interesting to see how Easter is celebrated here because it’s the biggest religious holiday in Guatemala. Plus I’m looking forward to spending more time with my new host family.

Happy Easter and hope that spring is finally coming. Take care and I'll update again when I get a chance.