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!