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