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.