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:

PCT- A note on Peace Corps Training

In the nights I have been reading a Peace Corps chronicle “Living Poor” by Moritz Thompson who served in Ecuador.  “Peace Corps training is like no other training in the world, having something in common with college life, officer’s training, Marine basic training, and a ninety-day jail sentence” plus being in a completely different culture!  But it used to be more extreme in that there were more training rounds in different countries where people would get kicked out before reaching their site country.  One of the training people today also told me they used to have stern looking people in white lab coats not talking to you, but watching and writing down everything on a clipboard. Whew, it’s not like that anymore!

It is kind of reminiscent of being back in school.  It is very packed schedule with lessons, papers, textbooks, presentations, vaccinations (so far I’ve gotten my second hep a, typhoid, and 2 rabies pre exposure shots, and going to get 2 more rabies shots fo free! Super duper), Spanish lessons for six hours on the off days.  But I think the people that work at Peace Corps make it fun.  My Spanish teacher will have us walk out into town for 15 minutes and make friends with someone and ask questions about their job, then come back and share.  Now that’s a Spanish class I can do.  In the states I always felt awkward speaking Spanish, but here I am really good at lots of different salutations, chatting about families/weather, getting directions.  Because that is how I learned all of my Spanish.

I have an awesome view of Volcan Fuego (left) and Volcan Alcanatengo (right).  I will try to put a weekly photo of it up.

A couple minute walk from my house I also get an awesome view of Volcan Agua from the street.

Jerry, the 76 year old, is one of the three others in my town. I freaking crack up whenever he uses the expression “Back in ‘Nam!” b/c he is being serious, unlike another certain lady I know. He said all the fireworks that go off here constantly sound exactly like the mortars from back in nam. I don’t really understand them yet. I’ve never seen one with any sparks or color, just for the big bang sound I guess.

But two of some of my favorite people have already dropped L Southern accent David went back to propose to his girlfriend in the South.  His last girlfriend he bought a horse for and built a barn.  Then she sold the horse and broke up with him.  Someone told him it sounded like it was straight out of a country song and he said his friend did write a song about it.  I couldn’t stop laughing at his accent after that.  An odd character for Peace Corps I thought, and it does turn out that trying to get a hold of his gf everyday was too stressful for him.  The other was a really awesome volleyball girl named Alicia.  She had such a chill and awesome personality that everyone loved.  Before we left for DC she talked about how she wanted to live with the indigenous people and learn to use a loom.  But I don’t think she realized that stuff always sounds more romantic and easy than it actually is.

Another guy in my town is having a hard time, because even though he’s had Spanish class he can’t understand when people are talking to him and can’t vocalize very well.  He was wandering around town alone and depressed and another gringo saw him and said, “you’re a volunteer aren’t you?” he replied “why?”, “because you look depressed”.  Hahahah. I’ve just been telling him he is getting better even if he doesn’t notice it (poco a poco) and to cheer up and make the best of it.  I guess everyone keeps saying the beginning of training and when you first arrive at your site are the hardest times.  Even though the dropout rate is 25% on paper, I heard from another person it is actually about 50% ...

1-11-11or in Guatemala -> 11-1-11

On the crazy chicken American school bus rides there are always three people to a seat, the third hanging off into the aisle and leaning on either the other person doing the same thing or against someone squished in between.  It is soooo crowded and the roads are so twisty and bumpy.  Then the ‘ayudante’ or bus helper has to try and walk through the seemingly impenetrable aisle for money collection.  People climb the seats and bars like monkeys to get out of the way. People that can’t fit inside hang off the ladder on the back or out the side doors and squish in when trucks go zooming by.  I NEVER THOUGHT THE BUS COULD BE SO MUCH FUN!

My mama showed me how to make corn tortillas from scratch and we made so many we couldn’t remember why we started making them. Hers were quick, circular, and never had holes. Mine had rips and for the most part were shaped like elephants.  It was my first time to ‘tortear’, yes there is a verb specifically for making tortillas.  I seriously eat five with every meal, making my daily tortilla intake about 15.  Almost equivalent to my daily banano intake.  But those are pretty much the bulk of my meals.  Ok, as you can see I’m going crazy and rambling about tortillas.

The coolest Guatemala Spanish specific word I’ve learned is pronounced (boo-yah!). I don’t know how to spell it. My dad explained that it means a lot of noise.  But it is only a word you would use in the streets with your friends, and in the house you would be respectful and say ruido. Guatemalans also have a very suavecito accent.  It is so comforting and soft sounding.  And they always say uh huuuh, quietly and high pitched at the end, like someone would do in the states talking with a child.

P.S. I dislike diarrhea. I dislike talking about diarrhea. I dislike hearing about everyone else’s diarrhea. Today we had the most disgusting lecture about diarrhea, amoebas, ringworms, tapeworms, hookworms IN DETAIL for about 4 hrs. And she made us sing the diarrhea song. And told us they already stool sampled someone in our group and found ringworms.  Then of course we had lunch right after. But seriously, you gotta be careful, diarrhea kills!  Here’s photos of the most recent diarrhea deposits:

Just kidding!

My favorite new thing to do when my mom is cooking, throw a banana on the coals for 5, then commence eating.  Now whenever she has the fire cooking, “Keem-bear-lee! Quieres un banano asada?” Si madre. Si. Yo quiero. Yo quiero mucho.

¿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!).

Washington To Washington

Seattle, Washington
Preparing to commit 27 months to the Peace Corps in Seattle was a very memorable experience.  Quitting work, holidays, moving out, packing up, saying goodbyes, freaking out, etc.  I especially loved the amazing surprise party from my friends the first day of the new year.  Laurita and Susie Q escorted me downtown to "Seattle's hottest nightclub" as Stefon would say... the Last Supper Club, complete with smiling faces, pink/purple balloons, a disco ball, hard techno oontz beats, people not afraid to just dance, upstairs fem-physio activity, the most epic tooth-brushing party, and plenty of fun photos:

One of my dear worldhouse roommates, Alex, drove me to the airport.  With Laura and Patrick on either side of me in the back and Toni in front.  I kept thinking the whole time during the ride: this is not happening,  I'm not leaving them, are they really not going to be around?  It was very hard separating myself from them.  I have been talking with many other volunteers, none of which have admitted to a painful breakaway from their friends.  Then I realized it hurt so bad because of all that we've shared and all the good time we've had together and that's when I smiled.  I'm so grateful to have friends that leave me crying.