¿Sacatepequez whhaaa?

ok, guys here´s a jumbling of my thoughts that i haven´t even looked over.  but it´s getting dark soon and i have to be home before then!

Santa Lucia

We all left from our hotel in DC around 3:30 am and nobody really slept on the plane ride so when we arrived we were all super drowsy. For the local transportation in Guatemala (and in some other countries in Central America) they use old American school buses and paint them with bright colors and crazy decorations.  These are also called chicken buses.  We piled in, got out of Guatemala city as fast as possible, and headed toward the town of Santa Lucia for the Peace Corps headquarters.  Here we stayed for a few days with host families in pairs of two while they tried to figure out our Spanish level.

While most of Peace Corps is a solo experience, it was fun to have a few days with the other trainees and instructors.  It really eased a lot of people into the culture because you still had to share your room with another American. Then when we all went to the headquarters in the morning there were lots of people to swap stories with.  For me the transition was much easier.  Central America still feels familiar and warm, I didn’t realize I missed it.  Costa Rica study abroad prepared me for the climate, eating beans and rice everyday, not putting toilet paper in the toilet, and hand washing my clothes. The month long homestay I did afterwards in San Vito prepared me for living in a conservative latino home.  It has proved useful and definitely eased culture shock. And unlike others I was fully trained in taking cold showers beforehand ;)  I am so grateful to have had those experiences and also to have traveled through all of Central America and Guatemala previously.  Now I am not too anxious to sightsee here and can really spend time getting to know the culture, language, and families.  I can also share what I’ve learned with the other volunteers.  We all have really cool, interesting things to teach each other.

I can’t stop laughing at people though. Especially when they all come in looking drowsy and shocked in the mornings before training sessions.  What I find most funny is hearing from everyone the difficulty they’re having in basic tasks: showering, going to the bathroom, eating food, and sleeping.  Plus it is a way for everyone in the group to vent and connect to each other.  Makes everything much easier to deal with.  Our training coordinator Craig shared with us that some houses have hot water.  And while the electric shower head might look sketchy, it really is ok.  My friend Meredith came in the next morning and told us that she got shocked.  When she told her host family, they showed her that you’re supposed to use the shower curtain to grab the handle. She is so funny, I asked her how you say diarrhea in Spanish and she replied liquido del culo.

Luckily my host mom ran a massage parlor and a traditional Mayan sauna.  And I loved her cooking!   For those of you that know my eating habits more, you know that I like to have lots of different flavors all at once. For breakfast she made eggs, bread, a sort of bean soup (frijoles colados), yogurt, and fruit loops.  Mmmmmm.  I think my roommate really liked the food too, but usually never finished everything.  We both got really strange looks on our faces after our host mom listed off tons of ingredients that were in a hot drink she handed us.  All we could catch is that it had eggs, fish, sugar.  It actually was really yummy.  I am also happy that they use very very spicy (pica mucho!) chile sauce here, unlike in Costa Rica.  Her son, his wife, their children, her grandmother, and their animals were always around to greet us too.  I know that they were probably give us traditional food. But my host family lives in the city and has access to junk food. I was going to the bathroom and saw my host father bringing on dominoes secretly after we went to bed.  Not really jealous.

Headquarters

The director Craig always gives us enthusiastic, comical, informative speeches.  Because he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, is married to a Guatemalan woman, and works and lives here he is an invaluable resource.  And I really like that he doesn’t try to candy coat what it is going to be like. “It’s going to be hard. Damn hard.”

Things I learned from Craig:

*For some reason the average amount of volunteer injuries and mental health issues are twice as many in Guatemala than the worldwide average.

*The US has 1,500 malaria cases per year.  There are that many in Guatemala per week.

*Our malaria medicine might induce night terrors or just vivid colors and smells in dreams. True that.

*There are 5.6 homicides per 100,000 in the US. Guatemala: 48-50. A lot in Guatemala city, this is why we avoid it.

*Because we the volunteers don’t have a lot of time together: “Share your heart and who your are right now. There’s not much time. You guys are going to need each other for the good and bad times. People at home aren’t going to be able to relate”

*Guatemalans will never answer no.  If you ask them for directions they will give you somewhere to go even if they don’t know.  Like the Japanese they want to appease you for group harmony.  If you ask, “does this bus go to Antigua?” they will say yes, even if they know it doesn’t.  So if someone asks us, and we know it is a no, then he said we should respond, “Saaaaaaber!!” Kind of like, “Whoooo knows?!”  Anytime you ask for directions ask a few times.

*ALL OF US BELIEVE IN GOD.  They’ve had communities totally reject Peace Corps forever after getting an atheist volunteer.  So if they ask us if we believe in God, we say yes even if it’s the little bush outside our window.

*We will put away scientific reasoning in conversation.  It doesn’t fit and sounds condescending.  I will listen to Craig because I want the community to accept and trust me completely so my project will be most successful.  Having small talk about the weather today on the porch or asking how somebody’s cousin is at the corner store can be some of the biggest parts of the job.  He said people from small towns are some of the most successful volunteers, yes!

*Guatemala is the most conservative country in Central America. Instead of “this is Juanita” you would say “may I present Juanita”.  On the street only use “good morning and good afternoon, etc.” never “hello”. Always use titles and overplay them instead of downplaying them like we do in the states.  I have to brag about my degree for the next two years for respect, not bad.  Adults are not friends with members of the opposite sex unless they are family.  If you bring the opposite sex into your bedroom and close the door, even for a moment, you just had sex with them.  If you have a conversation on the street with a member of the opposite sex all of a sudden you guys are bf/gf.  If you are my age and not married with children they feel really sorry for you. 

*It is weird to have “alone time”.  If you go into your bedroom and close the door they will assume you are sad about leaving your boyfriend/girlfriend in the states.

*It takes about 2 weeks on average to finally figure out all the people who live in your house.

*And everything in the house is assumed communal so expect if you accidentally leave some money around that children will whisk it away quickly for candy.  The children will also enjoy going through your things.

*And give our rent money to the madre, not the papa. He will go to the cantina (bar).

While Guatemala is the most conservative country in Central America. There are definitely plenty more conservative developing countries.  We have a RPCV in our group who served in Tonga and he said you couldn´t even invite a friend over of the opposite sex and nobody was EVER alone in the street even if they lived alone.  He said one volunteer had a tongan boyfriend and after a year invited her bf over for the night, the next day her neighbor came out angry and speared her pet dog in front of her..

San Antonio, January 9, 2011

There are about 17 ecotourism volunteers and over 30 healthy schools volunteers.  Us 17 ecotourism volunteers have been separated into groups of about 4 into various towns.  My training town is San Antonio.  I will meet up with the other three in my town occasionally for Spanish lessons.  And Tuesdays we will all travel together back to the headquarters for technical training.

There are great views of the mountains and various volcanoes from my home.  Volcan fuego is always spitting out ash.

There is only a mom and dad.  My dad works all night and sleeps during a lot of the day.  He is very nice and always has lots of things to teach me about Guatemala in a very fast pace over meals.  He also speaks the indigenous language, Kakchiquel and has been teaching me some.  I use it to make them laugh.  I spend pretty much every second with my host mom and their pets (a dog named Dadi, dos gatos, 4 little birds, and two parrots which kind of just chill in the trees talk about how they’re hungry or yell Paco randomly).  We cook, go to the market, platicar (chat), wash clothes.  She is cooking lunch right now and burning plastic garbage. Hence I am in my room, writing on my laptop.  I am finding it hard to sleep because—BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!! Oh what was that again? Oh just extremely loud fireworks that go off throughout the night.  Guatemala has a bloody history of war so Craig makes jokes about waking up and thinking, “It’s the war again!!”  By the 5 am one I wasn’t so startled. Adjusting little by little.  It is a tradition to wake people up on their birthday by lighting loud fireworks off outside their window.  Never noticed how many birthdays there were before this.  5:30 am this morning we left to get seats at the church for the Catholic mass.  It was extremely interesting for me.  When I go next Sunday I’ll try to get some pictures.  On top of the fireworks there was a town festival last night so lots of yelling through loudspeakers and marching band music.  During the day it is very sunny and hot, pretty tranquilo.  I like how chill it is but my host mom keeps asking me if I’m bored. Nope.  When I feel lost or homesick looking at my bracelets from Patrick and Laura help me feel grounded and give me a reality check (you are a person with your own family Kimberly!).