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!



Coffee & Culture

February 4^th

Today for Spanish class we took a bus to Antigua and visited a museum of coffee and Mayan culture.  Guides took us through the history and the whole process of making coffee.  Countries that produce the largest amount coffee in order from most to least are: Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, India, Guatemala (Costa Rica was #11 for all my Costa Rica peeps out there).  But the top three countries in coffee quality in order are Ethiopia, Kenya, and third place is Guatemala!  Here is a picture of the coffee “cherries”.  It takes 6.5 pounds of these to make 1 pound of roasted coffee (40 cups).

Here is where they sundried their coffee:

At the end we got a delicious cup of coffee and proceeded to the Maya museum.  The guide showed us tons of crazy instruments like these below.  They are called Tuns or Tunkils and are made from hormigo wood (platymiscium dimophandrum).  They are hollow inside and have an H shape cut into on top.  They hit them with wooden sticks that have rubber on the ends. 

We also got to see a Maximón (pronounced Ma-shee-mone) alter.  From what I understand, Maximón is a mix of Catholicism and the Pre-Colombian Mayan God Mam.  He is represented by different effigys and stays in his house all year and comes out for holy week.  Worshippers stop by and offer spirits and cigars:

And then the tour ended with a “no words” video of various dances, festivals, and ceremonies all around Guatemala.  It was very trippy. One with giant colorful kites (maybe 12 feet across), one with giant dancing birds, one where they swing around a giant pole on ropes, of course many with fireworks, and a ceremony where they were pouring alcohol into the mouth of a wooden MaximÓn (after they stuck a burning cigar in his mouth).

5 de Febrero

This morning the whole group gathered at the training center to partake in a traditional Mayan ceremony. First, we helped to get the offerings ready.  I helped unwrap dried corn husks that had incense chips inside.  The incense was made from pine sap and a mixture of other plants, here is what they looked like:

Then the priestess began building the base of the offering.  The middle square is sugar, most of the circular disks are made from ground chocolate nibs, the liquid on top is honey, and piled all around the sugar are dried barks from various plants.

Then she began to add candles of different colors, whole chocolate seeds, flower petals, etc.

She explained each section and color with detail.  I’ll try to recount what I remember, which is not easy because there was a lot of information that she gave us and the ceremony was at least three hours.  The red represented the East, our blood, the energy from the sun.  The yellow was nourishment, yellow corn.  The section with pink flowers and the black candle was the night, shade, black corn.  The white was white corn, the air that keeps us alive and cleans away bad things like illnesses.

The Mayan calendar goes in rotations of 20 days.  For each of the 20 days there is a god, a special energy.  She explained that this was an offering, but also a celebration so she went through each of the 20 gods and offered alcohol, refreshments, sugar, seeds, tobacco etc.  Many of the prayers were made in Kakchiquel, which is also the language my host dad speaks!  He has taught me a lot of the basic words so I understood when she kept saying matiosh (gracias).  She gave thanks to the mother earth and kissed the ground, to the moon for illuminating the night, to the sun for giving us energy, to the plants, to water (river, lakes, sea, watersheds), to the divine law, to justice, to peace, to the loyal friends we meet along our pathway, to the cosmo, and to the stars (she named off a lot of constellations).  Throughout the ceremony we also participated and made offerings when she would tell us to.  We “paid” a few of the gods having to do with prosperity/money/business with the incense chips.  We made candle offerings.  During one part she just had the men come up and did specific prayers for them, then the women.  We gave blessings to those who have passed.  There was also one part where we gave blessings to those we knew who worked in the medical field as healers.  I gave two red candles, one for Julia & one for Michael. 

She also gave blessings for the success of our projects and safety on our journeys.  She always threw in crosses of protections. 

She could tell that a lot of people were drifting off in the end and she said “Keep your mind and heart here as one, everyone together.  Just in this little moment, it’s not very long.”  Here are pictures towards the end:

Afterwards we got to eat traditional Mayan food of course using what they used, their fingers.

I was chatting with her during the lunch hour and HAD TO ask her about what she thought of 2012.  I needed to hear it first hand, what a Mayan woman thought about all of the fuss.  She said that there will be a lot of change as we move to the next cycle of light and peace.  I asked her what sort of changes and she replied “lots of volcanic eruptions, landslides, changes in weather so there will be people that die but those who live will be in peace and harmony as one”.  Right after that I walked over to the training director Craig and asked him not to place me near a volcano please. 

9 de Febrero

Whew! I have completed my first charla!  One of the first big steps towards becoming a Peace Corps volunteer here.  It is always a painful and necessary learning process for everyone.  It is hard enough to give presentations in front of a classroom of Americans in your own language but man is it stressful to give a presentation in Spanish to municipality workers and farmers.  Not to mention that my training director, program director, country director, a current volunteer, etc. stopped by the municipality to watch us perform.

They gave great feedback afterwards.  I have learned to definitely keep it simple, and then make it even more simple. And I need to use more visual objects and have less writing and reading in my lesson.  A lot of people may not even be able to read and could get down on themselves and lose confidence.  I also need to repeat, repeat, repeat my points.  I cannot believe how helpful my summer job as an orientation leader will be.  I did a ton of different icebreakers and public speaking the whole time and that’s what I will have to do here all the time.  All the current volunteers say that the icebreakers are essential and really do make a huge difference in how comfortable everyone is, and in turn how much everyone participates and learns.

Feb 12, 2011

For Spanish lately I have been walking to the next town over and getting lessons with the more advanced group.  I think it has been great and I’m definitely learning a lot more.

Tomorrow morning the whole ecotourism group is leaving for a week of field based training.  I looked at the schedule I can’t believe how much it reminds me of ESRM fieldtrips, especially the ESRM field trips in Costa Rica.  But OF COURSE that makes sense because I was studying ecotourism there…. hahahaha. We get to check out sweet ecotourism sites and parks.  I know we will be doing environmental education on the trail with niños, a zip line, trail building, and we get to visit the sites of current volunteers.

1 down, 26 more to go!

Jan 15-17^th

Big festival in San Antonio for a few days en el dulce nombre de Jesus.  Strangest things I have seen in quite some time. And that says a lot.  I’d say the weirdest moment happened when I was trying to walk back home Saturday night.  First I notice a man balancing on high heels, sporting a bra, and lifting up his mini skirt to pee on an alley wall.  I turn left onto the road because on the right there seems to be a costumed group of people beginning to gather.  I don’t even get a block and there is a gang of crazy Donny Darko-esque characters bouncing around to really weird music.  I realize there’s no way I can work my way through there.  So after watching for a while, confused, I turn back around.  BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!! There are now huge fireworks going off in what looks like a giant dance of transvestites/firemen/clowns etc.  I’m trapped.  I can’t even go back down the road I came on and try a different route.  I’m trapped in between Disney-world-gone-wild and Drunk-men-in-mini-skirts-rave.  I just wanted to get home ASAP to my host mom.  Not that people in giant animal character costumes would ever scare me… but I chose to try and force myself through the rave.  Entered like a battering ram and came out the other end baffled.

Our technical trainer Craig and even Guatemalans do not know the roots of these traditions.  They have “elderly” dances where even young men dress up like old ladies and dance around.  Afterwards a man from the dance crew goes around with a fake handgun demanding donations for his piggy bank.  Pretty clever idea.

They have ones where they dress up like crazy giant looney tune characters and jump around really fast.

Dances where there seems to be a jumble of random costumes.  My friend had her host dad asking her to put make up on him for their town festival earlier.  Completely normal, even for the macho guys.  And they even had a fake cameraman:

Everyday most of the party activity seems to be at the central park where all the street food, games, and music are.  Music louder than any concert I’ve been to in the states.  I could feel my heart vibrating to the bass.  But on the outskirts at seemingly random times and locations there are parade processions, jousting (yes on horses), and “toritos”.  I don’t know how people knew where to go.  I really wanted to see a torito and got wrong directions a few times.  And finally on Monday I got to see the toritos with my host mom!  They attach lots of fireworks to a giant metal cage, place the cage on a guy, guy runs around, fireworks shoot into crowd, crowd runs away screaming and laughing. 

Jan 25

I can’t get myself to write.  I’m really sick.

Jan 29

When I first heard about stool sampling I was grossed out by the idea.  But after having really bad diarrhea for days I was so excited and pumped about giving a sample.  I had to drop it off in Antigua.  But it turned out that Gladis (my language and culture teacher) wanted to go to Antigua that day anyway to teach us fruit/vegetable/spice words in the market.  It was also required that we haggle (regetear) in front of her.  We were on a bus  back to our hometown from Antigua and it hit a bicyclist.  It jammed up the traffic pretty bad. The medic ran so fast, weaving through the street.  

Jan 30

Seems like I’ve been sick forever.  But now I have medicine so that should change soon.  

For safety reasons they are now giving cells to all the volunteers.  We’re the first training group to receive them in Guatemala.  Free calls between Peace Corps people here.  If any close friends or family want the number just let me know.  You can call cells from skype for like 2 cents a minute I think.  Also I heard there’s a google program out this year that you can call cells with for free.

Jan 31

The medicine worked wonders.   I feel awesome!!  I just got back from a soccer game and actually scored a point for once.  We are also each preparing our own “charla”.  A charla is an educational presentation.  They are interactive and definitely work off of group input and creativity.  We (the four in my town) are presenting to the municipality about environmental topics… in Spanish. I am presenting about incendios forestales (forest fires) and brechas (firebreaks).  I’ve been stressing about coming up with my lesson plan.  Finally came up with an interactive activity that involves candy and possibly lighting things on fire so it should go smoothly.  Well I have to turn in the outline and a couple other assignments tomorrow at the center so I better get to it.  Wow, tomorrow is already February.  Time to switch my calendar page, a picture with Toni.  Here’s a picture of my group taken when we first got to our town, flashback: