Weel Come!

“Weel Come.” This simple and telling phrase was written on the blackboard of a classroom I recently visited in Totonicapan, where our “Field Based Training” occurred. This week-long trip, in which the other fifteen trainees and I visited different volunteers and their schools, has been one of the highlights of my month. The majority of the visit consisted of traveling via grey microbuses with tinted windows and the Peace Corps emblem on the side on sickeningly curvy and ridiculously dusty unfinished roads for between one to two hours (one way) from the hospedaje where we stayed to the schools we visited. All this just to get a grasp for the task we have ahead of us…and I couldn’t be more excited!

During the extensive week of training we had the opportunity to talk with many volunteers who we be replaced by our group of trainees and see what exactly is required of these schools to be certified as “healthy.” We even had the chance to prepare a lesson and present to a class on the fifth day of the training. Co-planning with my site-mate Bethany, we planned a 40-minute interactive class on germs, their transmission, and how to properly wash their hands afterwards, for 50+ third grade students. Though we included many activities in the class, my personal favorite was loading a great deal of goopy hair gel onto my hand, shaking the hands of various students and promptly returning to the front of the class declaring en voz alta that I had forgotten to wash my hands after going to the bathroom! (EEEWWW!!!!) As much as I wish I could take credit for this brilliant and slightly revolting idea, it is just one of many activities we are taught as part of a participatory learning cycle for teachers and students alike.

While I loved working with the kids and seeing the schools and their progress, what really has made my heart race was talking about the position I’ll be working in. Working within the municipality we will have significantly less contact with the students and much more work with teachers and directors working to implement this program. With as much as I have studied development and non-profit work during the past four years at Colorado College, the concept of actually doing development makes me so excited I can barely contain myself. My only hope is that I can at least remember, if not keep, this level of energy and optimistic fervor throughout my service.

The other significant and very memorable aspect of FBT* (field based training) was the ability to “see my friends after dark,” or in other words, hang around them outside the hours of 8am and 6pm (most of whom I don’t get to see even that much!) Eating together, living together, and most of all traveling in a microbus without the ability to open a window together really can bring a group…well…together! I can honestly say that there is way more to this group of people that meets the eye! I am amidst an extremely intelligent, carefree and fun-loving group that I am lucky to be apart of! I am going to miss seeing them on a weekly basis when we are hours apart.
*Just a note: I am now very accustomed to using TLA (or Three Letter Acronyms) on a regular basis as is the Peace Corps way so please bare with me.

Of the volunteers we talked to, many of them shared the difficulties they had at site, especially during the first three months when the volunteers are literally out of their element. The key to success, however, was repeated on numerous occasions and is the best advice I have received. “GO BUY AN EGG!” That is to say, it will be very easy to seclude ourselves and stay within our very narrow comfort bubble and by not getting out into the community you become someone to talk about as opposed to someone to talk to…(a thing I like to call the Boo Radley Effect of community integration.) As such, it is vital to actively and purposefully integrate in the community. We were told to walk to one tienda, buy an egg, talk with the owner introducing yourself and such, then go to another tienda, buy another egg and repeat. Even though I might at the end of the first week have eighteen eggs and no stove, I am ready and anxious at this prospect.

While on the topic of eggs, however, I would like to introduce you all to a wonderful tradition here around this wonderful time of CaRNiVaL!! The past two weeks children painted hollowed out egg shells in bright amazing patterns, filled them with pica pica (a.k.a. confetti) and glued tissue paper over the hole. These CASCARONES are then used on Fat Tuesday and the weekend before to smash over the heads of loved ones or even anyone you can!! Technically when all the eggs are smashed the festivities are done, but in the case of my host family, we continued to pick up the confetti and egg shell remnants and sling them at each other until they were sufficiently spilled, scattered and stuffed in every possible crevice. I think I will still be finding confetti (the herpes of the arts and crafts world) by the next Carnival!

In the meantime, things back at home are pretty much back to normal. I am still learning in vain how to cook. My most recent catastrophe was the chile rellenos that ended up more like fried ground beef with slices of red pepper thrown in than anything. Regardless, my very naïve and accepting host mom entrusted me to cook a roasted tomato sauce I had helped her prepare a handful of times previously. However, this whole system of “pinch here pinch there” cooking without proper measurements prompted even her to tell me “why don’t you just go sit and watch TV instead.” So I think I will leave the experimenting for when the only one I need to subject to my cooking is good ol’ flexible me!

As this month draws to a close, I am both eager to learn where I will be living and ready to get started. I find out March 12th where I will be placed and will be sworn in at the ambassador’s house March 27th. The next month will be constantly demanding and full of activity and after that I start the two-year process I have anxiously awaited for so long. Though those first three months at site will be a microbus ride (to replace the cliché roller coaster example) of emotion, please bare with me and send your prayers, optimism and good will my way as it will be welcomed and needed. Thank you all for taking the time and letting me share a small part of my life with you.



*~* Fun Thoughts and Interesting Anecdotes *~*

In one of our last health classes, we were told that often the nurses at the Peace Corps Office are called and notified that a volunteer is starting to smell or is not groomed properly. This is not done because anyone is necessarily complaining about the appearance or smell, but rather that many people when sick don’t shower. The people calling the nurses are merely concerned that a volunteer might be sick and in need of attention. (The smell is just a side effect!)

I don´t think I will ever get used to people eating tortillas with pasta!

Camionetas or the "chicken buses" are a hot topic of conversation around here. Almost everyone has stories about people, things or animals they saw on the buses or what interesting experience they had (and with three people to a school bus seat you can image!) The thing I can´t get over is the SMELLS...with all this new adventures comes a wide array of smells both pleasant and otherwise!

Side Note:

It has come to my attention (thanks Mom) that pictures can often speak a thousand words, and that my blog posts, while informative, are few and far between and lacking in the visual stimulation or ‘fun stuff’ that comes in seeing what this is all about. I just wanted to let you all know that I will do my best to frequently update my blog with short phrases and pictures and will reserve the soliloquy for the end of each month!

This is the beginning of a Mayan Ceremony we were fortunate to be apart of!

Quick Note on the Guatemalan Mail System...

I just thought I would quickly post a comment thanking all of you who have sent letters and packages my way. I know in this technologically driven world it is incredibly easy to shoot off an e-mail or call. As always any sort of communication is greatly appreciated but receiving letters, packages, pictures, newspaper clippings, any tangible memento via mail is very special to me and reminds me of life back home.

For those of you that have sent or are planning to send something, I thought I would post a few suggestions as some volunteers (me included) have noticed things missing from their packages. I will be able to receive packages for the next two years from the address that I first posted and it usually takes about two weeks to arrive. It is possible that I will have a mailbox in my site that I where I will be able to receive letters which is exciting because I am not sure how often I will be able to make it to the Peace Corps Office. I will keep everyone updated on that. As far as sending stuff goes, there are a few tips people have mentioned that are worth a try to protect “the goods.” Some have suggested the following: putting religious stamps or stickers of the front of packages, tightly taping a box inside a box strategy, removing tags from all clothes and/or items, and declaring things as used or homemade.

Again any sort of communication is greatly appreciated and thank you all for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers!
¡Que le vaya bien!

What doesn´t kill you...

Dear Friends, Family and Blog Stalkers,

Well I have been here in Guatemala for about a month and although I was extremely anxious and nervous on the way here and the first few days in this beautiful country I have come to find that I am adjusting quite nicely. More than that, after a month I have realized that I was not the only one that barely made it through that first night in Washington D.C. and hesitated at the gate in Miami, in fact many of my compañeros felt the same way. As I have also noticed, the past month has seemed like a walk in the park compared to those first few sleepless nights.

The first few nights here in Guatemala, I, among the thirty-two volunteers, was emotional, retched with lack of sleep, and thrust into classes about security, interviews in Spanish, and was set up with a roommate named Amanda in a little house in Santa Lucia outside of the Peace Corps Office. Though the influx of new information and people was daunting at first my two items of reassurance were Amanda who, also from Colorado, is one of the soundest and sweetest people I have met, and the Peace Corps Office which in itself radiates tranquility. After a few days living with a family in the town and taking bucket baths in the cold mornings (yes it is actually really cold here) we were moved to our more permanent locations.

I am currently living in a little town outside of Antigua, Guatemala called Pastores which is the boot-making capital of Guatemala and I couldn’t be happier. Handmade cowboy boots are crafted in any number of stores and sold in Pastores, a tradition that originated in pre-colonial times when shepards and caballeros from all over the western part of the country would bring their livestock to graze. From this Mecca originated the idea of constructing boots of the many different leathers and materials available to them. A pair of custom fit, hand-made cowboy boots here costs around 300 Quetzales which equates to around $40. For anyone that knows me, you can understand my excitement amidst all the cowboy boots!

I am fortunate enough to have been set up with an amazing family of five. My host Mom Doña Auri teaches typewriting from the upstairs of their lovely home and her three children (ages 8, 11 and 17) are wonderful to be around and have already made me feel like part of the family. Excitingly enough I am slowly but surely learning to cook (much to the shock of my friends and relatives) and am hoping that by the time I will need to provide for myself I will have an array of recipes to choose from that won’t damage my stomach or budget. Among the various dishes I have learned to make, I am learning to make tortillas (which believe it or not is a very subtle art as mine usually turn out looking more like thick kidneys than the round deliciousness of those more practiced.) I have also learned to make a variety of different types of hot salsa thanks in a large part to my neighbor and fellow PCV Bethany, and roast to my own coffee. I feel this will come in handy seeing as how Guatemala, despite its vast coffee production, exports all of their rich coffee to the United States and imports instant coffee which is what the common family uses on a daily basis. We were divided into groups of four for living circumstances according to Spanish skills and I am very fortunate to have wound up with three absolutely wonderful and intelligent women, Samra, Valerie, and Bethany. The four of us, despite AND because of our differences just mix well. They are sweet, exhilarating, adventurous and always good for a laugh.




So the days here vary according to what we do or what is planned but we are kept constantly busy from 7a.m. to 6p.m. every day with a half day on Sat. and a day of rest on Sunday. Monday mornings we make our way to the Peace Corps Office for classes on Security, Health and our appropriate programs which for me is Healthy Schools. The rest of the days are usually filled with Spanish classes although Thursdays are reserved for more information on Healthy Schools and at least once a week we go to our Spanish professor’s house to learn to cook (and eat!) and new Guatelamtecan dish. Every day, spare Monday, we return home for a hot and large lunch. Breakfasts and dinners here are usually small, consisting often of beans and/or eggs and tortillas (always tortillas!) but lunches are always something different, usually with a small piece of meat, lots of vegetables (all of which are fresh from the surrounding pueblos) and rice or beans. Fridays are reserved for visiting a school on the hill near our town (about a 20 minute climb) where we will be practicing the assessment and teaching skills we will need in our site.



Though our days are normally filled with classes and family time we have had a little time to explore. Last weekend we ventured as a group to Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano about two hours away from Antigua. It was a short but steep hike (about an hour and a half) and when we came to a ridge, above us was the volcano and spreading from the top through a huge valley was dried lava flow. We walked along the oddly shaped ridges and we would past pockets of extreme heat. We walked over the dried lava flow for a bit until our guide pulled out a bunch of marshmallows that we were able to roast by sticking them near the hot pockets, one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. He also brought a tree brand and just by sticking it in one of the hot pockets started a raging fire that stopped as soon as the stick had turned to ash. Some of us had wanted to continue climbing to the top of the volcano but our guide didn’t suggest it and said calmy “Accidents Happen!”





I was pleased to be notified yesterday that I was admitted as one of four into a fairly new program whereby I will be working within a Municipality to implement the Healthy Schools program on a larger scale. This involves a great deal of administrative organizing and working with teachers and community members instead of directly with students. I am overjoyed at the opportunity in that not only is it incredibly sustainable but I feel like this work is what I have been studying and waiting for. I am also paired with Bethany who is not only incredibly intelligent but has a good sense of humor as well. I think we will work wonderfully together!

All and all, I want to thank everyone for all the support I have received and I want to assure all of you that I am extremely happy. Every day I get this overwhelming feeling that this is exactly where I am supposed to be. So thank you for your thoughts and prayers! I love and miss you all!

**Some Random Trivia**

A popular saying here is “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Fatter!”

Although in more populated areas this changes, many people in smaller communities don’t smile when their picture is being taken. Not only is the dental hygiene fairly sub-standard but the picture taking is considered a formal affair.

I found this quote on a Coca-Cola bottle:
“Walking 30minuts daily and laughing is part of a happy life.”