All Things Considered...

Well, I have arrived. It has been almost a month since we swore in and said good-bye to our fellow trainees and set out for our sites. So much has happened in the past month it sometimes feels like it’s been years since training actually occurred. I’ll try my best to describe Santa Apolonia in full but everything is so wonderfully new and stimulating I doubt I’ll be able to do this experience justice. After a fun and riveting swearing-in weekend in Antigua (where I spent about a third of my living allowance on good food and fun) Bethany and I said a final and teary good-bye to our host families and boarded the camioneta full of excitement and enough bags to supply a small nation…we were off.

Now let me try to paint a picture for you…
Bethany and I stepped off the bus in Santa Apolonia arms full of more baggage that two people can reasonable carry and lugged everything through this small town, all eyes on us, up the cobblestone streets until we reached the front of Bethany’s new house with a lamina gate. There we knocked on the tin gate and her host mom came to the “door”. As Bethany stepped inside to acquaint herself with her new home I stood in the gateway. I, with the help of my friend Jessica managed to find a host family but had no idea where the house was, had not yet met them nor had any idea of where to go. To be honest I wasn’t worried. I had spoken briefly on the phone with her and figured with such a small town every just knew each other. The conversation with Bethany’s host mom went a little like this

Me: “Hi Dona Norma, you don’t happen to know where Dona Julia lives do you?”
Norma: “Dona Julia who?”
Me: “I´m not sure.”
Norma: “Dona Julia…do you mean Don Julio”
Me: “No, I know it’s a woman.”
Norma: “Do you know her last name?”
Me: “No”
Norma: “Do you know about where she lives”
Me: “No”
Norma: "I think there´s a Julia that lives over there, she has a corn grinder, does she have a corn grinder"
Me: "I´m not sure"
Norma: "Ok well I´ll have my daughter walk you to her house"
Me: "thank you"

When I arrived at the house, no one was home. Suddenly, a young boy run up to me and said "are you the gringa?" I replied yes assuming both that he had one in mind and that he had said THE gringa as opposed to A gringa…and he ran away.While I was sitting in all my glory in front of the door, a woman with no teeth and a towel on her head came up to me and asked me what I was selling, I said nothing, she asked if I could give her money, I said no, she asked what I was doing here and looked in my bags, I tried in vain to tell her about Peace Corps and she asked how much money I made...I said the same as a new teacher and she said "poor thing" and walked away...As it turns out the little boy is my host brother and went to get my host mom from church...they showed me my room and her really nice house. She has a TV and nice kitchen and I have her recently married daughter’s room that has stuffed animals everywhere. Above the bed is a rapper guy giving a peace sign with the word NIGGA below it...there is also a picture of Sylvester the cat saying "To express my feelings is all I wish for" with hearts around him...Dona Julia is an incredibly sweet woman. She has a motor or corn grinder in the back that starts up at 5am, so I won’t be sleeping much, but honestly over the month I have gotten used to the constant rattle which is more comforting than anything. Recently I’ve learned that Dona Julia also “peels” chickens on the side so in the past two weeks I have woken up to sudden screeching shortly followed by…a sudden stop to the screeching. This isn’t as comforting as the corn grinder hum but I’ve grown accustomed all the same. At first the host family really didn’t know what to make of me. They asked if I was here out of obligation or because I wanted to and could not understand that I am here for two years. They still look a little surprised every day when I come home. We went and visited the grandma with a whole bundle of kids (I still don´t know who belongs to whom.) The grandmma´s name is Mama Chila and she is a everything you would expect a Guatemalan grandmother named Mama Chila to be. This often pensive matriarch with no teeth lives in a small compound with 2 sheep, 2 pigs, a dozen chickens a duck 3 dogs, a kitten and about a dozen grandchildren running every which way. The vast majority of the first day was spent playing with the increasingly growing number of children and answering questions that ranged from “Did you really come here by plane?” to “Do you like to share?” At the end of the first night I was exhausted.I went to sleep that first night and when I turned off the lights there were the glow in the dark one pasted all over the ceiling and I smiled....


So we’ve based a number of our assumptions about Peace Corps on the wisdom of previous volunteers. We have heard that training is the hardest part and that is closely followed by the first three months in site. Training was tough, but the first two weeks here were equally challenging. The first week, Bethany and I decided it was important to settle-in a bit, get to know our families and our communities. Besides, all the children had exams and school was pretty inconsistent for the week. Given the following week was Semana Santa, we essentially had two weeks with no work other than that of acquainting ourselves with own wonderful town. That first week I spent the majority of mornings laying in bed, listening to the constant rattle of the corn grinder trying to peg exactly where everyone in the family was in the house and how best to manage myself accordingly. It is the first time that my host family had anyone living in their house much less a foreigner such as myself. Similarly, unlike my situation during training, I was free to set the terms of our interactions such as when I would eat, how much I would pay to eat, when I would spend time with the family, etc. The problem was, however, that I had no idea what those terms should be either. Though I tried to establish some sort of routine, what our agreement eventually became was “if you’re home and hungry, you’ll eat with us” which suited me just fine.

Those first two weeks there were always kids around to play with which occupied most of my time. Even when eating at Mama Chila’s house the kids and I get served first in the kitchen, and the adults get served second. I can’t blame them though, I play more with the kids and the only other twenty-three year old in the family has a baby that seems to constantly be breast-feeding, so I can relate more with the children who are in school seeing as how I just got out of school myself. The problem with being an only child, however, is I really have needed to learn how to play with kids. What I’ve learned is…kids are exhausting. We changed games almost every twenty minutes and after an afternoon I was completely exhausted with no new ideas. Sometimes I would retreat to my room saying I had to nap but a few minutes later I would hear the kids called calling my name quietly and feel so racked with guilt that I would just get up and go play. As such if anyone knows of fun and easy kid activities, PLEASE let me know! If will be greatly appreciated!

Dona Julia is a wonderful woman. Over time, Dona Julia and I have more or less gotten to know each other. I know and love her family, it is filled with extraordinary women who function like a well-oiled machine. Although this has gotten better with time, she sometimes still looks at me with the same face she used the first two weeks…like I was some exotic little bird that had flown into her house and she didn’t really know what to do with it.

My second week in site was filled with activity because of the holiday. Lent, as I’ve mentioned, is filled with activities but I came to learn that the same doesn’t apply for Easter. Maunday Thursday and Good Friday were huge celebrations with lunches, processions and everyone baking different kinds of bread and little work, but Easter was just sad did little other than mark the end of Lent which I found fascinating! Try as I might, the whole egg-dying and candy hunting traditions just don’t translate.

Regardless I was so relieved to have the opportunity to start work. That first Monday morning our plan was to meet our new counterpart, an amazing man named Romulo at 8:00am to discuss the plan for the coming months. I, being the over-anxious worker with slight type-A tendencies that I am was awake, dressed and had eaten breakfast by 6:45. Bethany and I arrived early, waited until 8:20 to see him, had a meeting that lasted until 8:40…and that was really it. That was our first day of work. Poco a Poco. As little as we did that first day, we managed to get a great deal accomplished and by the end of the week had been to a meeting with the directors from every school, had started getting paperwork ready for some water projects, and had visited two of the twenty-five schools.

Work is slow but sure as we are still trying to find our way to the schools by bus, foot or pick-up truck but I absolutely love going to the schools and getting to know the communities. On Thursday one school we visited made a point to mention to the students that we are not here to harm them or to steal children as the rumors often go. I guess all things considered I’d rather her mention it than not, but it still caught me somewhat off guard. Another school completely spoiled us by serving us arroz con leche, my favorite hot drink here and a tostada shell with cheese and tomato sauce. The schools are very welcoming and because it is our first month, we spend the majority of our time now walking room to room introducing ourselves to the students. It has really paid off though, as we walk we can hear the students call out our names and we’ve started to recognize the teachers when we see them in town. It’s small things like that which really make me feel like everything is going to be alright.

As for the community I feel like I am slowly settling in. Even the men in town have begun to say “Nos vemos seno” (We’ll see you teacher) as opposed to “Good-bye muneca” in a broken English accent. More importantly however, is that I have found comfort and friends in those around me. While Bethany is a constant source of reassurance, we also have a site-mate Ellen who works in the Rural Home Preventative Health program in Peace Corps. She is a wonderfully stable yet witty person who is trying to teach me chess and is so well-grounded in the community that I wonder if I’ll ever live up to her example. And in the habit of incessant listing, the other day I sat and made a list of everyone in town who are my friends and everyone who is a potential friend (something I never thought I would do.) With a goal of introducing myself to one random person every day, my list is consistently growing.

I have slowly formed some comfort activities and daily activities that makes existence here more habitual than fleeting and I think has helped me settle into home-life here all the more. A couple of times a week, the three gringas, Bethany Ellen and I all go to Dona Paula’s for chuchitos (a tamale-like item made of the corn masa filled with red sauce and a piece of meat) and a glass of arroz con leche, which, close to dusk when it starts to turn cold, is the most delicious and comforting substance ever. Not to mention, Dona Paula and her incredibly cute daughter definitely made my friend list. It is so comforting to just sit, eat and talk to them and whoever else happens to come sit with us.

I am thrilled to have such wonderful site mates. Bethany and I are functioning incredibly well in the schools, complimenting each other remarkably well, especially in the speeches that we are instructed to give on spot. My other site mate, Ellen, is teaching me chess and has become my running partner (much to the shock of everyone that knows me as the die-hard aquatics fiend I am.) Though to be honest we do have a tendency to retreat to the comforts of Ellen’s house for a movie now and again, we also have a habit of going on our aldea walk. This hour-long stretch through some of the rural communities is uniquely refreshing and comfortable at this point.

I have slowly started learning the tricks involved in successfully washing my laundry. Though Dona Julia was sure to point out a few key things to this success,. Primarily, I bought the wrong soap (the one I bought gives you blisters.) Secondly I finally mustered up the nerve to ask where outside I can hang my ropa interior to dry. I was driven to ask this because the first time I did laundry in my new home, I didn’t want to display my pantaloons for the world to see but I soon realized that keeping wet underwear on a towel in your room only causes them to mold, not dry. I also learned there is an art to getting all the soap out of clothes, a technique that took many demonstrations and many observed (and scrutinized) practices to accomplish. Ultimately, try as I might I can’t get the idea of color-grouping my clothes out of my head (a concept that my host family thinks is hysterical.) As much as I hated doing laundry in the States, I seem to really enjoy it here, partly because it’s a good exercise-related stress reliever and partly because I get to do my “wax on, wax off” impression with soapy socks. This, however, my host family doesn’t appreciate, I think because there’s the lack of Karate Kid reruns on TNT in this country.

I also have grown into a comfortable habit of family Sundays at Mama Chila´s house. All the family usually gathers, I eat lunch first with all the children then while we go and play all the adults (including my 23 year old host sister who is a new mom) sits to eat. I really love Sundays at Mama Chila´s house, mainly because it is routine and a known and something I can count on to actually happen during the week. We usually eat really delicious carne asada or hilachas and I usually retire to the house shortly after for a long nap. I am really hoping this is something I can continue after I leave the host family living situation because the whole ´gather around the stove´ lifestyle that occurs on Sundays really appeals to me.


All things considered I have come to this conclusion…
Whether from the wild dogs or my own bed I have managed to catch fleas, my digestive troubles seem to be never ending, my bag was stolen while I wasn’t looking and I have never been happier. That is a good thing.




Food for Thought:
One afternoon when I went to Mama Chila´s for lunch, I brought photos from home to show that I am, in fact, a real person with a family and have not just been exiled from my own country. Mama Chila in all her wisdom, didn’t say a thing while looking at the pictures and I had begun to wonder whether I had made the right choice in bringing them or not. After she had finished she had three very astute and amazing observations…
The first when looking at a picture of Mom, Dad and I at the ranch…
1) “You really look like your Mom but you have your Dad’s smile. They are really young.”
The second after looking at a picture of Jon and I at the ranch…
2) “Your boyfriend is really hairy, why does he have so much hair?”
(I would like to note that the men here have very little body hair)
The third while looking at a picture of the aspens changing with the Rockies in the background…
3) “Isn’t it a shame that we will die and never know this place.”

And now it begins…

Well training has finally come to an end. The idea has circulated that Peace Corps service is filled with long days and short months…and I’d say I have to agree. It seems that training has flown by but sometimes it seems as if the days will never end. This has been by far the busiest month I’ve faced yet. Between visiting volunteers, finding out our site, visiting our site, packing to move to our site and swearing in, we have definitely been inundated with activity. The benefit of the “long day syndrome” however is that we seem to be provided with ample rest even if it is only a day or two intermittently.

As the month comes to an end, I find myself extremely pensive and a little nervous. We have been in this wonderful training bubble where everything was provided for us. I had a family that protected me and gave me everything I could hope for. I’ve experienced minimal cultural shock and have had the best medical care available should the need arise (which thankfully and surprisingly it has not!) We are now ready to be released. While I still have access to all of the same avenues and services the Peace Corps provides, it is now my responsibility to utilize the tools and training I have been given. If I succeed, it’s because I have been able to take really take advantage of these wonderful sources, but if I fail, it’s all on me. The one amazing thing about this organization is that everything surrounding me is meant to help us succeed. There is no inherent competition or climbing any proverbial ladder, it’s just a united effort intent of on the well-being and development of the volunteers and their projects.

I think a great deal of the nervousness I’m feeling is really a product of the disjointed ideas of accomplishment between the United States and Guatemala. It seems that the question most commonly asked of volunteers is “what do you do as a volunteer?” While this is a perfectly acceptable question and usually elicits an answer relating to projects that have been started or accomplished, schools that have been certified and fun that has been had, there really seems to not be a lot of doing involved, especially in the beginning months of service. I’ve come to realize that this is because of the need to build trust in a community and integrate myself before anything can be accomplished, but I’ve also realized that in many ways, who I am and how I act will be weighted heavily as opposed to what I do. This is still a foreign concept to be in the sense that for years I’ve defined my success according to what tangible results of efforts, and relied little on the importance of the effort itself. Much of my success in this culture, however, will be a result of the time I invest in being within the community, effectively establishing myself as part of it at all times, in all manners…and I’m scared. It is one thing to say what I do isn’t enough, but to say I didn’t succeed because of who I am? It’s a completely different means of self-analysis. However, at the same time, it’s an extremely refreshing concept. So few people get the unique opportunity to spend any significant amount of time on this subject and I am excited for my chance.

It that way however, I also realize that the coming months will be quite difficult in regard to what I will need to do. There are a number of things that I cannot control and nothing has made me realize that than the past month. There is a great unknown that exists with this move. None of know with any certainty if we will succeed or not, who we will meet or even what obstacles we will encounter. But along with that fear and that lack of control I have found comes a great relief. That there exists situations and circumstances that we cannot for see nor control means that ultimately we are only responsible for how we react, and that to a certain extent, we can rest in the idea that there is something else, something bigger than me, good or bad, that I do not have to take responsibility for. And that can be a comforting thing.

The next step after finding out my site was meeting my counterparts (or the superintendent and a couple directors from the schools in my municipality), packing up everything but a weeks worth of clothes, and traveling to Santa Apolonia to get acquainted with the town. We spent the few days we were there doing mainly three things: relishing in the idea of independence, trying to find a host family with whom we can live for the next three months, and going to schools. Of these three things, by far the most interesting are the latter two. Peace Corps rules state that for the first three months of service we must live with a host family and rightly so. We need someone to show us the community as well as introduce us to a community that knows very little about us and what we are here to do. As our training director so aptly says, “It’s like showing someone that you’re married…if people know at least one person that can live with you and put up with you, you can’t be all that bad.” Gentle words, I know. And so, Bethany and I, with the help of the current volunteers went tienda to tienda talking to owners, meeting the people of Santa Apolonia and asking about families we could potentially live with. After talking to many many people and with a great deal of help we have successfully found two families and are ready, with enough luggage to supply a small nation, to move in.

The majority of the time however, and bar far the most applicable part of our time spent in Santa was traveling to the various schools. We will be working in a total of twenty-six schools in the surrounding aldeas or small rural towns and will be traveling by foot, bus or truck between 2km and 17km daily. The schools range between those that are new to existence with dirt floors and limited water access to some that are already deemed “healthy schools” according to the program’s guidelines. The highlight of these visits came in the fourth day of our visit when we rode with a doctor from the Centro de Salud to two far away aldeas to give vaccinations to dogs. As we drove through the towns, he would call out of the window with a megaphone for people to bring their dogs to the schools for a rabies vaccine. At one point, we walked into one of the schools, told the students what we were doing and just dismissed them from school so they could run home and get their dogs. While the doctor was busy giving the semi-wild dogs their vaccines, we were able to meet with the directors and teachers and talk about their goals for Healthy Schools this year. I can already tell that working with the Centro will be a rewarding and equally adventurous experience!

Things I’ve learned about Santa Apolonia…
…I learned that there is no police force in this very small town but there is a pizza joint a town over that, if you get to know the owner, will deliver.
…I learned that the most dangerous thing at night is the chuchos or wild dogs that roam the streets like a gang of adolescents.
…Pedregal, the breakfast place near my town, is more famous than my actual town.
…I am very fortunate to have been placed where I am.

Alongside Spanish, the dominant language in Santa Apolonia is kaqchikel, the third largest of many Mayan languages spoken in this diverse country. Part of the preparation this last week for swear-in and the move to our site included an afternoon of Mayan language lessons. I have a new found respect for the people that can easily speak these languages because I have never encountered one as difficult to speak as kachiquel. We spent the first part of the lesson learning how to touch the back of your tongue to the roof of your mouth to make the q’ sound that is so important to the language
Q’aq’ = fire
Matiox = thank you
Ja´ = yes
Q’ij = sun

In the last weeks so many things have changed, and this graduation-like feeling has completely dominated my emotions. I have packed up, said good-bye to the school where we worked for these three months, expressed my commitment to Peace Corps and my fellow volunteers and have officially become a Peace Corps Volunteers. The ceremony was beautiful. It took place at the ambassador’s house in the center of Guatemala City. After words from the ambassador himself, the directors of Peace Corps and a fellow volunteer Jamie we all stood and together joined the Peace Corps family, thus dedicating ourselves to two years of service. We also individually received a certificate from the ambassador officially declaring us volunteers, or in other words, 3 months down, 24 to go!!

While I have so few pictures in this post, it does reflect in so many ways the events of the past two weeks. It has been a time of reflection, anticipation and preparation. As I embark on my journey in this new town, I will have many new adventures and photos to share so thank you for your patience with this post. Also, I want to thank everyone for your prayers and thoughts, it has really meant a lot to me to receive your blessings and encouragement!



New Address:

Joanna Sylwester
Voluntaria de Cuerpo de Paz
Tecpán Guatemala
Chimaltenango, Guatemala
04006

(Nope, there is no street name and no more than 5 numbers in the whole address. I travel to the nearest town to pick up my mail from the post office where they will know me by name!)

Santa Apolonia here I come!

Just thought I would drop a few pictures from the past couple of weeks...

And of course, there is no better way than to start with food. Here are some Guatemalan beef tacos that are then fried and loaded with boiled cabbage. Probably the best food I´ve ever eaten!

With the beginning of Lent comes a whole slew of festivities. Here was the first Friday of Lent in Pastores. Every Friday a procession occurs in the streets with a float-type figure of Jesus carrying the cross as he visits different houses in the neighborhood that place candles, vegetables, incense, and a photo on the table. The procession then stops at the house to pray and recite one or two repetitive Bible verses.

So a large part of last week was spent in a town called Santa Apolonia working with the municipal coordinators, learning what they do on a daily basis. Thursday, the first day we were there, we traveled 3hours to Totonicapan on a trip that felt more like an Indiana Jones ride than a bus trip. It was wonderful to get to see a new part of the country and to visit the other site in the new municipality program. Friday, school was canceled for the a huge basketball tournament of all the teachers in the area. Very entertaining in that fouls and travels are not really considered in the refereeing process! I am seriously considering asking to be part of the team, if for no other reason than the stories and to feel like a tall person for the first time in my life!

In keeping with the theme of Lent, Sunday evenings are reserved for a much larger procession in Antigua where people create alfombras or rugs on the street out of dried flowers, wood ashes that are dyed, and various other organic ingredients. People spend hours making these for the procession of men from the various communities robed in purple to carry a very large and imaginably heavy float of Christ and his disciples through the town. It is a wonderfully interesting experience and I wish I was going to be in Antigua for Semana Santa or the week between Palm Sunday and Easter as I´m sure it will be a huge celebration. The good news is that I have two years to see it!

Well the jury is out! The day our entire group was waiting for has arrived! On Thursday we all lined up on the basketball court with our eyes closed and were lead out to a chalk map of Guatemala to stand on our site. Needless to say we were completely suprised, but Bethany and I now know for sure that we will be in Santa Apolonia, a beautiful town about an hour and a half away from Antigua. We will be working in about 25 schools between 2km and 14km away and I am really starting to get excited! I will be meeting with the superindentent and two of the driectors on Monday and packing up and leaving Tuesday to visit my site for the week toprepare for the next two years. It has all come on so fast, I will be a legitimate Peace Corps Volunteer before you know it.

As a final note I thought I´d leave you all with a story...

So as you can see, one of the volcanos in area has been smoking a lot recently. This is significant because of some seismic activity in Guatemala that´s been occuring. The other night I was asleep when we had a somewhat substantial earthquake (according to my Colorado standards.) Although I thought it was a product of my malaria medication, I did manage to wake up enough to realize "Oh this is an earthquake, maybe I should go stand in the doorway," but did not enough to actually do it. I thought this was funny considering the fact that earlier this month I awoke at around 3a.m. and booked it to the doorway at the mere sound of fireworks outside my window! Needless to say, this story sparked quite a response from my family and I just want everyone to rest assured I have learned my lesson, and will now be standing in all sorts or doorways, false alarm or not.

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.”

Starting Off

Dear Friends and Family,

I am off to Guatemala for 27 months! I will be departing January 6th 2009 and will be returning March 26th 2011...as such, I have decided to attempt this innovative "blogging" technology. To start off with I want to thank you all for all your love and support. It means so much to me and is exactly what will keep me going in these next years. My Bon Voage party is January 3rd at the Sylwester House, 8pm and you are invited to come! Please drop us a line if you will be attending!

It has taken a lot of great advice and love to get me this far and I will need the same as I go...please feel free to drop me a note while during training...my primary address is listed below! Thank again!
Love Always, Jo


PCT Joanna Sylwester
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 66
Antigua Guatemala
Sacatepequez 03001
Guatemala
Central America