Thursday, September 15, 2011

Elections & Traje

September 12th, 2011

I am very tired.  And my neighbors have been blasting beloved eighties hits since eight in the morning so I might as well write.

Last night was a very big day in Guatemala. Elections day.  Since I arrived in country the political propaganda has been growing and growing.  Even rocks and trees are painted with political markings.  And with 20+ parties it is a very colorful scene.  And also very noisy.  Candidates love to slowly drive throughout town with loudspeakers blasting their campaign music.  Not going to miss that.  For safety Peace Corps has required that we don’t leave our sites at all for a few days until all the elections madness cools down.

View from the second floor, right over my front door. 


Yesterday San Andrés Xecul was packed with food vendors and lots of people standing around. Waiting with anticipation to see who the new mayor would be.  Normally no one is on the street past 9 pm.  At night I walked out with my new neighbor and site mate Elana (from California & in the healthy schools program) to go grab some snacks from one of our favorite tiendas.  I couldn’t help laughing as I noticed for the first time boys hitting on us in k’iche.  “Jas abi ali?!” “What’s your name girl?!”.  All the boys learn from a young age that they should always hit on every female possible in the street (even if they are a quarter my age). The sun had set but the streets were livelier than ever.  To stay out of any possible trouble we went home and stayed in for the night.  Our friends told us they didn’t know what was going to happen.  Often in Guatemala there are political assassinations, etc. when the news is announced.  The candidates spend a lot of money on propaganda, handouts, and shameless bribes and can get murderously mad when they don’t win.

At around eleven the alcalde was announced and people went crazy! Huge bombas and fireworks started going off until who knows when.  I think past 2 am I was so sleepy I started sleeping through them.  These are much louder than American fireworks.  Fireworks that sound like a war has started.  Bombs that shake your heart.  On top of that, sound carries very well in our little pueblo nestled in the base of the mountains.  I could hear lots of whistling, hooting, hollering, and victory screams.

The view from my office with my counterpart Diego Hic

Turns out a school director won.  I hope that he cares about education and environmental issues half as much as he claims because that would make my job easier.  Today has been pretty tranquilo with the occasional school marching band.  Drizzling all day. 

When the mayor changes usually they hire their own crew to run the municipality.  I have grown close to  my friends at the muni so I am praying that some of them stay on.  Diego works at the office of the environment with me.  He always cheers me up if I'm having a bad day.  One of my only close friends in San Andrés Xecul.

This week the huge Independence Day celebrations are coming up so the semi-quietness won’t last long. 
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A few Guatemalan girlfriends of mine gave me traje tipica.   The traditional outfit that the women wear in the indigenous villages.  I was very touched by such a beautiful and time consuming gift.  They weaved and sewed everything themselves.  If I were to buy it from the market it would have probably been about 1000Q or about $125.  Coming from a poor family that is a huge gift.  Occasionally in San Andrés Xecul I will see women with pants, but they definitely stand out.  Because they have taken me shopping for traje tipica and gifted me a whole other outfit I am taking it as a hint that I should wear it more often.  Right now I am trying for 2 days every week.  People are much more friendly and give lots of compliments when I wear traje tipica.  But now when I wear pants people ask “Why the pants?!”. 

My güipil, traditional to Totonicapán

My corte. The design is called King's Cape. Hand died and weaved.

My embroidered flower güipil

Traje tipica consists of four pieces. The top, güipil in Spanish, po’t in K’iche. The belt, faja in Spanish, pas in K’iche.  And the skirt, corte in Spanish, uq’ in K’iche.  And the apron, delantal in Spanish.  I don’t have an apron yet.

Each area of Guatemala has its own traditional clothing.  Women love to mix and match with traje from different places.  I am obsessed with all the different patterns, colors, and types of weaving.  The traditional güipil from San Andrés Xecul is a gorgeous pattern of animals.  Similar to what you would see on our famous church.  It takes about 6 months to a year to embroider the entire güipil
Traditional top from San Andrés Xecul


Here are some typical güipil patterns that you can find around here:  

Flowers in Beadwork

Woven Deers, Embroidered Flowers
Cross-stitched Basket & Flowers
There are still some places where the men wear traje as well.  I have seen a few men wearing this outfit with the very thick woven shirt and the wrap around wool skirt (minus the pants) in my town:



I have been embroidering my own güipil with my K’iche teacher for months now.  I can’t believe my sister Sara sent me lots of embroidering string! J  Along with really, really cute panda slippers which are great for the freezing nights.  All the letters, cards, and packages really cheer me up.  Thank you mom for all the mouth watering cookies, springroll wrappers, seaweed, and sweet cards! Thank you grandpa and Jackie for the birthday wishes and awesome article (I really want to go explore El Mirador now).  Thank you Auntie Evelyn for all the thoughtful letters.   And thank you Laura for the Greenland postcard.
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After my first half marathon in Antigua with my host parents
I ran a bit more than I should of and now I am afraid I might have tendonitis so I have been taking a complete break from running. Next time I am at the peace corps office I am going to have them check out my leg. But the half marathon was fun.  Lots of Guatemalans cheering us on, bags of recovery honey, music, scenic views of Antigua and the surrounding volcanoes.

mayan fire ceremony on the shores of the sacred lagoon of volcan chicibal
Every year at the beginning of the rainy season they have a huge gathering at Laguna Chicibal.  Hundreds make the steep climb up the volcano to do mayan fire ceremonies all around the sacred lagoon to pray for rain.  No one is even allowed to swim in the waters. Notice the four women standing on the shore?  It is very stylish in Guatemala to make sure every article of clothing and accessory is the same color.  It feels weird to weird wear blue shoes, jeans, a blue top, and blue earrings and walk out the door feeling stylish.

Friday, June 17, 2011

My Sites: SAX & PAX


Well it’s probably about time I updated everyone about my first 2 1/12 months at site.  I will also talk about what happened during the big Semana Santa celebrations.

In Peace Corps, the first months at site are for integration into the community, strengthening communication skills, and getting accustomed to the way your work/life will function for the next two years.  Volunteers have told me that the first months at site are definitely the most trying.  The best way I can describe it is as a rollercoaster.  You don’t know when your ups and downs will come or how long they will last.  It isn’t uncommon for volunteers to be depressed then be incandescently happy, all in one day.  

I am the first volunteer from the ecotourism program at both of my sites.  I have never met another volunteer that had two sites… (--more work, traveling back and forth between sites) (++I can choose which site I feel like working at).  I just had my first site visit from my program director and it really helped my counterparts with organization and what direction we should take our work in.

ABOUT MY SITES

Paxtoca

I am working with Association nicknamed “AQX”.  Their whole name is k’iche—“ Q’ Aq’ Al Xikin”.  My program director calls them the asociación de jovenes (association of young people).  They want to make Paxtoca into a model for other towns as an environmentally responsible community while preserving and salvaging what is left of the Maya k’iche culture. 
Association Q' Aq' Al Xikin

All the way on the right is the president Dionisio.  He is also a director at a nearby school and rarely shows up for meetings.  The man standing up all the way on the left with the baseball cap is Damaso.  He is the vice president and is the one that always works with me every time I visit Paxtoca. To the right of him are the three people who I am closest to and see the most often.  The women are his sisters and every two weeks they have a women’s cooking/nutrition class that meets up.  Usually I meet up with them and cook or do a workshop with them.

Easy to get good shots when you are comparatively a GIANT


One of the main projects Paxtoca wants help with is making the mountain behind the town into an ecological preserve where tourists could come and pay to go on guided hikes to the mayan alters and waterfall.  

Hike to the vista, waterfall is in the background

The only problem is that many different people in the community currently own it.  We are planning to have a meeting with the property owners to discuss signing a possible agreement for land use and also a sanitation plan for their bark beetle problem.  They did not seem happy when I told them we have to cut down all infected trees and the surrounding trees, and then reforest the area with white pine.  If we cannot get the owners to agree to the park then we will just have to give up and focus on my secondary projects with trash management and environmental education.

San Andrés Xecul

This is where I live!  It is on the other side of the valley from Paxtoca and also nestled at the base of mountains.  But it is much larger than Paxtoca and the town even has a municipality.  I work there in the office of the environment. 

My primary project here is helping with community-based tourism.  Currently many French, Spanish, and American tourists come (sometimes in the bus loads) and take pictures of our famous church and then leave.  San Andrés Xecul has never made any money from tourism.  They already have the tourists, amazing things to offer, and a fair amount of advertising.  Just no structure or motivation!  I really hope to get something started this year because we are on the cover of this year’s edition of lonelyplanet. Amazing.  Icon of the Western highlands of Guatemala.

Cover of the newest edition of lonelyplanet
We have been trying out different possible cultural stops around town.  I will write more about them in detail when we have made concrete decisions, which is proving to be more difficult than I imagined.  The population is all indigenous and are very wary of foreigners.  For example S.A.X. makes a ton of different colored candles for all the Mayan ceremonies that take place so we wanted to make one stop a candeleria but they do not trust us.  They think that we are going to bring people that want to steal their candle making process and put them out of business.

Two sisters playing on the family faucet

So much culture here!  There are so many Mayan alters and almost every afternoon you can find at least one person doing a Mayan fire ceremony either in the mountains or somewhere in the cornfields.   Behind the muni (municipality) is forest with a trail that leads up to a large Mayan alter.  The hike takes about an hour to get up and would be a great for all the young tourists that live in the Spanish schools in Xela.  Xela is the second largest city in Guatemala and about a 40 minute bus ride from my S.A.X. and a 20 minute bus ride from Paxtoca.
Fire ceremony: El Calvario in San Andrés Xecul

My secondary projects here will also include trash management and environmental education.  There is absolutely no system of trash management currently.  Just many sad looking clandestine dump sites.  On the road out of town there is a large dumpsite with a sign 10 feet before urging to take care of your environment and keep it clean.  The largest dumpsite I’ve seen is constantly burning.  During the day there are always women and children rummaging through the garbage breathing in the toxic fumes. 

I have been training for a half marathon that will be in July in Antigua.  But I sure do miss the clean air in Seattle (I would have never said that before). The many small burning piles of trash along the street mixed with all the exhaust fumes are not pleasant.  And I always have a rock in my hand in case on of the many street dogs decides to try and snap at me.

Everyone burns their trash, buries it, throws it into a river, or dumps it at one of these sites because they do not know about other options.  I think one of the most important things would be education about the harmful effects of trash (especially burning all that plastic!), how to separate and organize the trash, and setting up a center where people could bring their recycling in turn for some quetzales($). 

I have also been working a lot with a Swiss NGO, Helvetas.  They are so great.  Because of them my office has computers, desks, disaster preparedness equipment, and two tree nurseries.  All new this year.  They have given environmental education books to all the students and hundreds of teachers as well.  The 24th of this month I will meet with a representative from Helvetas.  We will plan days for workshops with the teachers where I will teach them technical vocabulary/concepts and how to use the material in the classroom.  I also hope that we do some reforestation projects because we have over 2,000 baby trees waiting and it is one of the best months for it.

FUN STUFF

Semana Santa

Guatemala is famous for their extravagant Easter week celebrations.  The largest in Latin America, people from all around the world come to see the processions.  The largest celebrations take place in Antigua but I decided to stay around my site to see how the locals celebrate.  

During this week there is an overabundance of this traditional Semana Santa sweet bread

A fellow volunteer in San Cristobal (closest town over) invited me to a pre-procession prepping party at his friend’s home.  I was expecting to maybe work for a couple hours.   What I now know is that preparing to make alfombras (carpets) for the processions is an all night process! First we had to sift all the sawdust.  Then we laid out tarps and made piles of fine sawdust that we died and hand mixed for a long time. We had a fire going the whole night to heat the boiling water for the dye. We even got to make smores :)

Making Orange

Other people were also painting, cutting, and drawing patterns for the alfombra design.  By morning we were ready to go out on the street with all our bags of sawdust.

The finished colors
After laying the foundation we started with the patterns
Our slightly rain-damaged, but finished alfombra


Our alfombra was just one of many littered throughout town.  Later in the day the procession marched through town, destroying one alfombra after another.  Below are a couple other alfombras.
Notice all the fruit hanging from the arc
Flower Butterflies

Then I went home and slept for fourteen hours.  I feel like there are random traditions and celebrations every week.  And everyday there is a SOME reason to blow up some fireworks.  Last month there was a big explosion at one the coheterias (place where they make fireworks) in which four children died and several were sent to the hospital.  They usually have the children working for their small fingers.   And accidents like this are not uncommon.  Apparently two years ago there was another explosion in which a 16 year old girl (who was crowned the community's indigenous princess) was killed.

I still don't understand.


Well I have to run, but I also have a lot of other blog topics I want to share.  So look out for another update!


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

I really do miss and love you all so first off, sorry I have not updated!  It seems like five and half months in Peace corps time, but in actuality it has probably been about two months.  But don't worry mom I still have both my legs.  And eyeballs.

Sunrise from my home in San Antonio Aguas Calientes

There is plenty I could write about but would prefer not to bore you guys so if you guys could email me or comment with topics that you want to learn more about that would be great.  My home/work situation, food, dress, weather, people, where I go to the bathroom, how the corn is growin', how I cook my eggs in the morning?  I tend to have disorganized thoughts so it would help... while reminding me to write.

Ok, let me just start this thing finally-
Some days go by slow but the months seem to be flying by.  Practicing to appreciate all the moments.  So much stuff has happened and it keeps building so I am not even sure where to start. I think I'll just do this in sections to make it seem more put together.

LAST DAYS IN MY TRAINING TOWN
Me with Rob & Mike. The remaining people in my training  town.

11 o' March
After I gave my charla (chat) on forest fires, Edgar (our counterpart at the municipality) approached me a couple weeks later to tell me gracias and that the fire crew had already been working out in the field.  Coming back to town from the PC center last night, we jumped off the bus for some reason at a stop earlier than we normally do.  Up on the mountain was a forest fire!  We stood there watching the fire wax and wane under the starry sky.  Wondering what the community was going to do…  did they even notice?  Then after about 15 minutes of standing there and watching police cars drive up, Edgar comes rushing up with men behind him carrying hoes and machetes ready to scramble up to the fire.  They disappeared into the night with their t-shirts and the occasional paper mouth mask.  So weird that we got off at a different stop and it was the exact same corner and time that Edgar was walking up.  But I was glad that I got to see them in action.  

It can seem a bit boring or tedious preparing an emergency action plan.  Getting ready for something that doesn’t really seem like it’s going to happen.  But then when the scary/frantic moment comes, it is really easy to see the importance of preparedness.  Whether it be taking preventative measures beforehand, being ready to take control of the situation during, or having the resources/knowledge ready to help afterwards.

I just got another text from our security officer about the tsunamis hitting the Pacific coast of Guatemala.  I heard a little bit about the big earthquake in Japan but I am sure all you in gringolandia know more about it.  My heart goes out to all my Nihon-jin and Gai-jin friends in Japan.  I am sure that mom is worrying about all of our Soka Gakkai friends and our dear exchange students, Masayuki and Emi especially.

And stay tuned for 2012 here.  It just so happens that Guatemala has a really big earthquake every 40 years.  The last one was in 1976 and killed 23,000.  Times a tickin’.  Guatemala is sitting on top of three tectonic plates, which also results in lots of volcanoes.  No matter what I am doing at home now, whenever I hear a big thunder noise my head turns towards the volcano to watch the display.  My fear has slowly transformed into delight over the dramatic scenery.

Oh yes, and training…

is going by so fast now.  I cannot believe how much has happened in so few days.  For a while I was stressed out by the busy schedule, assignments, interviews, feedbacks, our last charla, and site assignment.  My host mom is always there and purposely tries to make me smile and laugh if I seem off.
Two days ago my group finished our last charla.  We presented to local teachers environmental education activities that fit into required competencies from the Ministry of Education.   A lot of education here is lecture and copy.  We showed them examples of creative and fun lessons that keep attention.  We got them to laugh a lot and in the end one woman stood up and thanked us for helping them learn so much.
Using bottles/grass/funnels to demonstrate water retention that trees provide

When I got home that afternoon I plopped down at the kitchen table like I usually do.  My mom said with a smile, “Now the only you homework you have is to eat at least 4 chocolate bananas”.  We just got a freezer so she had made tons of frozen bananas and dipped them in chocolate. 
My host mom's new husband
¡Puro Hombres!


And yesterday we received our sites! The day we have all been freaking out about.  Our sites determine our climate, food, culture, people, projects, and even language for the next two years of our life.  We could not concentrate in class all morning. 
Taking notes turns into making Ben's hand fancy

Finally in the afternoon our APCD took us out to the basketball court.  It had a big chalk map of Guatemala.  He gave us a special speech and then blindfolded all of us.  One by one he grabbed us by the shoulders and led us around the map, teasing each one of us with sites all over until he would say, “no my dear, I think this is the place for you, ----".  Everyone was terrified with horror stories of people crying when they find out their sites.  But it turned out great and he managed to give everybody a bit of what they wanted.  I think my site sounds amazing and this Tuesday-Saturday I will be doing a site visit.  
Photo credit to Brandon Napoli!
 Above is the beautiful moment where we all crowded around the map afterwards, desperately searching for the spot where would live out the next two years.

They speak K’iche, in the chilly Western highlands, and a short bus ride from one of the coolest towns in Central America.
My projects include:
Arranging a cultural walking tour with a main attraction that a lot of tourists come to visit, local artists, the market, etc.
Designing or helping with interpretive trails.
Developing marketing materials like brochures, websites, posters.
Helping the Department of the Environment with business plans, management of natural resources, water conservation.
Teaching English.
Environmental education.
Trash management.
Reforestation.
Helping local indigenous people open an ecological park.

March 21, 2011

We had a day where our future counterparts all came to the center and received Peace Corps training.  I have one counterpart in the Office of the Environment at the municipality.  And I have another counterpart from a different town in an association who wants help with the local forest health, trash management, and making their community green.

The next day we all left with our counterparts to visit our towns! I got to get a glimpse into the life and work of a current volunteer because she was nice enough to let me stay for four nights.  She gave me great advice and it was interesting to see how the healthy homes program works.  I am the first ecotourism volunteer at my site so I will probably have a tough time at first.

March 22, 2011

Today we had our first Mayan language classes. I was first for the oral Spanish exam so I had to come in late.  Right away I started laughing because I thought everyone was making popping noises with their mouth as a joke.  So many crazy sounds!  And so much more exhausting than Spanish classes.  Compared to K’iche lessons in Spanish, normal Spanish classes are un pedazo de queque.  I feel like after 8 hours of K’iche class you could become a professional beat boxer.  Fun fact, K'iche is the most common Mayan language in Guatemala with almost a million speakers (7% of the population).  

Well anyways, here are my last random pictures from my training town:
babysitting for an event in my town (international women's day)


An intriguing offer in the grocery store: Free pen with your deodorant!

Robert's host mom Barbara killing her rabbits for a soup



SWEARING IN AS A VOLUNTEER

Now I can officially say I'm a Peace Corps volunteer.

My swearing in ceremony was particularly special and unique because it corresponded with the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps worldwide.  It was held at the Ambassador's gorgeous house with probably about 400 people including all the current Guatemala volunteers. The key note speaker was Stacey Rhodes, the PC Chief of Staff in Washington DC.  The Peace Corps has a long history in Guatemala, crazy that my close of service ceremony will correspond with the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps in Guatemala.  

We also scored a spot on the front cover of the main newspaper here in Guatemala, the Prensa Libre.  Here is an online article: 
http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/Cuerpo-Paz-celebra-anos_0_451154918.html

For those of you who do not read Spanish here is the translation of the beginning:
"Before more than a hundred young Americans, the U.S. ambassador Stephen McFarland, greeted in Quiche and swore in 50 volunteers who start community service in villages and hamlets in the highlands
of the country, with health, education, agriculture and sustainable tourism.
The Peace Corps is seen as one of the most prestigious institutions of the U.S. Government. It was founded by President John F.Kennedy in 1961 and has operated in Guatemala since 1963.

The agency is independent, nonpartisan and dedicated to helping developing countries, with the support of citizens who volunteer for two years."
The last part talks about how volunteers are sent to the most remote and needy parts of Guatemala, we receive Guatemalan wages, transport by bus, and some even walk 6 kilometers to where they work.

After we took our Oath of Service to protect the constitution of the US, the same one that is used for the military, etc. My host mom and dad came up to me to say goodbye with tears in their eyes.  Very unexpected and touching.  I miss them a lot.  On a happier note, here are some fun pics from the injuriamiento:


The San Antonio crew at swearing in. Me and Mike look like Robert's children.  He is HUGE.
Beautiful traje tipico.  I didn't know at the time, but the volunteer on the left lives in a hamlet of my town!
Creepy tree guy that stood like this for an hour.
Once again, Ben lookin' fancy

my lovely eco amigos

Rosie, Kim, Ben, Rob. Now PCVs, yes!

Ok I think I'll stop here, this is getting really long and I haven't even started on what my site has been like this past month.  Another update soon to come!




Saturday, February 26, 2011

Group Adventures In Field Based Training

For a week long field trip, throw a group of people together in a microbus…
            Although they are given a schedule beforehand they never know what is next.
In the many places they visit, they will usually not know where they are.
During lectures, when they are accessible, they will play with sticks (draw in the dirt, debark, build mini houses/Mayan sacrifices, throw them at each other).
Nicknames will begin forming within the group.
            They will become close, fast.
            They will laugh and learn much more than they could in a classroom.
            Intense group separation anxiety will settle in shortly afterwards.

I have been on almost ten long fieldtrips and those have been the common trends.  Can I get an amen?
(front to back) Christine, Lily, Edrick, Ana & Kim, Ben, Rob
The last night of the trip I had a migraine so I didn’t get any sleep and skipped breakfast in the morning.  I started to hear a sawing noise outside and then a big boom that shook the whole cabin.  Right after Mimi came in smiling and chatting.  She then proceeded to calmly tell me she was going to throw up now.  I just plugged my ears while she was in the bathroom. As she was throwing up, Rosemary and some others girls entered the cabin talking about their diarrhea and I just said out loud, “OK, now I feel like we’re in the Peace Corps!” and we all started laughing.  Even when some of us had diarrhea, were down with a fever, were throwing up, or had migraines—it didn’t seem to rain on our parade.

Field based training was a great overview of different possible sectors of tourism we could be working with at our site. We traveled around quite a bit and got to hear stories and advice from current volunteers to go along with the experience.

Day 1- Cultural Walking Tour in Totonicapan

We went on a walking tour throughout Totonicapan entering the homes of local artists while experiencing first hand the craft creation process. We got to visit weavers, box makers... and a

Pottery workshop!  He told us about his family’s long history with clay, where he gets his clay from, how he prepares it, how he molds it, and then let a few of us play “Ghost” with him.  He has spun the wooden circle below with his foot about 8 hours per day for the past 50 years so it has a nice groove.


As we finished the tour, we strolled down the road and watched a beautiful show of sunset colors and lightening storms.
Totonicapan

That night we ate at a small comedor.  All of the artists joined us for the meal and spoke afterwards.  Everything they had to say was very kind and touching.  The funny, quiet box maker had my favorite quote:
“We all have the same blood, just not the same height.”

Day 2- Environmental Education in El Aprisco forest, Totonicapan

Off with a bang! First thing in the morning we begin to prepare our lesson plans.  What better way to start off a day of environmental education than to actually give a lesson? 

They paired us off in twos and divided us up along the trail that wound through the El Aprisco forest.  Each of us had a station where we would talk about a specific topic and had an activity for each group of children that came through.

We waited nervously, shivering (Toto is almost 3,000 meters above sea level) in the dark pine forest, for the first group to come while we paced back and forth mumbling phrases in Spanish to ourselves.

Ours was “El Ecosistema”.  We split each group up into “the plants”, “the deer”, “the wolves”, and “vultures & beetles”.  We asked each group what they eat and then asked them to put their hands and weight on the shoulders of those they depend on.  Then we would pull one away and ask “Now what happens when you pull a part out? Everyone falls! You can’t just take out the parts you don’t like, even the spiders and rats have their place”.

It went better than I expected. The kids were very smiley and receptive so they must have understood us.  I asked one group of kids if I could get a picture with them and they got so excited, rushed over, and clung on.

It just so happened that it was “Dia de Carino”.  It is their equivalent of Valentine’s Day, except they also celebrate affection between family and friends.  Lily and Joey at the last station helped children make cards for baby trees that they would take home and plant. 
Una familia llena de amor hace la vida mejor

The rest of the day was filled with interesting presentations on education topics from current volunteers and our program director.

Day 3- Trail Building in ???

We packed our bags early to leaving the freezing pine forest.  We headed towards a volunteer site on the coast that had coffee and macadamia tourism.  A strike and blockade prevented us from reaching our destination.  Supposedly it was supposed to end at 2 pm so we decided head back to freezing Totonicapan for the trail building and come back to stay the night there later.

This is Oliver, one of the many current volunteers kicked out of the Verapazes for the stage of siege that is going on up north.  Luckily for us it means that they are free to help in training.  He is almost done with service and has seriously been roughin’ it for the past two years.  His site has no Spanish (Q’eqchi’), no electricity, no running water, and he literally had to build his residence.  He got a brief mention of his site (Adetes) in the newest LonelyPlanet on page 221, check it out grandpa! He accompanied us for FBT and for trail building showed us how to build this to measure slope grades.


I have 2 Oliver anecdotes to share. 
1) His first night at site the hammock he was sleeping in was tearing into his skin.  Because the floor is dirt he moved to sleep on top of the table.  He then started to feel something biting him all over and started screaming.  His host family that was sleeping in the same room (the house is the room) came over and started getting bit too.  Turns out it was a troupe of ants that were marching through.  This whole scene is much funnier when you picture Oliver not understanding anything.  Now he is fluent in Q’eqchi’ though.
2) He would go on runs around 5 in the morning.  One morning a little kid saw this strange gringo running around in the mist and was frightened because he thought he saw a ghost.  Oliver had no idea he had scared him.  Later on Oliver’s host parents explained that they needed his hair to make a soup that the little boy would eat to cure his fear.  He gave them his hair.

Also apparently the more indigenous the area, the more they like Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, and Rocky.

We tried driving back to the warm coast but yet again were stopped by the blockade.  Blockades are really common here.  I remember on my last trip always having to wait at them.  Our directors called around to see if it would be safe to walk across.  After about an hour of waiting and rumors of tear gas we decided not to.  Because it was getting dark soon, sadly we had to stay at a really nice hotel right across from where we were parked.  The air conditioning, the pool, the restaurant, the big beds, the hot showers, oh the horror!

Here is a photo of the security guard on grounds showing us to our room.  I think it is so funny that even if they are guarding a case of pop they will carry something like this around.


Mimi (left), Grace (front), Christine (back), Kim


Corazon Del Bosque

For the remainder of the trip we stayed at a small park “Corazon Del Bosque” where a current volunteer is stationed. 
Our bonfire and moon (upper right)

 At the bonfire we made smores, had a guitar, sang tons of songs, and laughed about movies that make us cry.


For all the documentary buffs, we got to see “south of the border”, “crude”, and “exit through the gift shop” on various nights.  The few days here were amazing and we learned a lot about writing business plans, marketing, how to mudplant during an ultimate tournament, the state of tourism in Guatemala, birding, agrotourism, preparing for emergencies, tourism alliances, and making things out of recycled materials.  Like earrings, bags, even schools, and playgrounds like this one below:

On our dawn birding trip I saw a Quetzalillo!  The brown backed solitaire had the coolest bird call too.  Almost as cool as the black faced solitaire I heard in Costa Rica.  What is it with solitaires?

Last Day At Chuiraxamolo

Chuiraxamolo is another current site where one of us will be lucky to serve.  Complete with a zipline, beautiful forest, and this view of Lake Atittlan.

Some people call it the most beautiful lake in the world.  It is a collapsed caldera surrounded by volcanoes. 

Our technical trainer, the one and only Chris Mayer helped put in place an awesome interpretive trail at this site.

He taught us the process of putting in an interpretive trail at our site and taught us first hand about maintenance and sign building:

Chris Mayer (he’s like Chuck Norris, you have to include his last name) lives on the lake and kindly took us into his home for the afternoons lessons.  Then came a Peace Corps Response volunteer doing trash management at the lake.  The communities around the lake drain RAW SEWAGE directly into the lake.  On the edge of the lake you can see water pumps (water treatment is very minimal here) right next to the sewage drains.  It is recommended by the medical office to even wash yourself in purified water here.
The whole ecotourism gang. Ok minus one person...

** The Ecotourism Group of 2011 strongly endorses the following statements**

Chris Mayer’s does not get amoebas from drinking water.  Amoebas get amoebas from Chris Mayer drinking water.
Chris Mayer doesn’t speak Spanish.  He lives Spanish.
Chris Mayer’s watch doesn’t tell time, Chris Mayer tells his watch what time it is.
Before Chris Mayer arrived, Guatemala was flat.


Thanks for the great FBT Chris Mayer!