Back in country..

Myrtle Beach Sunrise 

So I'm back in country now after spending 2 1/2 weeks at home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. When my friends here ask me how home was, all I can say is how relaxing and comfortable I felt.  The number one thing I definitely enjoyed the most was hot water.  Having fast, high pressured hot showers was a blessing. Also, being able to drink water from the faucet while choosing your temperature was a plus. Other things I really enjoyed were being able to walk around without shoes, waking up at 4am and not having to put on shoes/sweatshirt to walk outside to my outdoor bathroom, not putting toilet paper in the trash, having privacy of a closed bathroom, privacy in general, eating out at restaurants, having a refrigerator, having a television, football, the comfort of a couch, the sense of actually being inside, heating and air conditioning, a bed with a comforter, my iPhone!, running with music, the radio with US music, the beach, driving in a car, not having to guard my pocket/backpack every time I leave the house, not worrying when putting my purse over the back of my chair, not having to put money in my socks/shoes/bra/money belt, speaking English, bathing daily and feeling clean. I think that's about it.

Myrtle Beach, SC

Reading to my nephew Kaleb 

So, although I wasn't super busy everyday doing activity after activity, it was just amazing to be surrounded by my family in such a sense of comfort. Although at times I think how different we all are in my family and how it was possible we were all living under the same household for 15 years they're still the ones who know me best and made those 2 1/2 weeks so wonderful. On siblings, in one of my favorite songs, it says, "They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future." My two sisters and I, as different as we all are from one another, have gone through similar triumphs and tribulations together. And although we all react to each of these in different ways, we still always come back together in the end. These two girls, two sisters, two wonderful beings, are my best friends and I know no matter how far we may be from each other in the world, nothing will change our relationship. Spending time with my sister's beautiful 8 month baby boy made me appreciate her little family so much and really commend them in all the effort it takes.  Watching my sister pack up and move to New York made me realize that it's the point in our lives where all three of us are literally taking different steps in different directions in this world. So, pretty much to sum up this sentimental little thing, it couldn't have been better timing to go home and I am so appreciative of my grandparents who gave me such a wonderful gift and allowed me to see all this.

Our Christmas tree. (Sideways)

So after arriving back in Guatemala, I stayed with my boyfriend's family for a few days. Unfortunately, I decided to hold the cutest little puppy in the world and got eaten alive by fleas. But I like to think of it as just a quick readjustment back to my Guatemalan life.  After arriving back home in SPJ, it truly felt like coming home. I guess after all the traveling and almost after a month of being away from site, I was really relieved to see familiarity.  Venoni and I went to the market and finally bought a kitchen table! I have to say it was the most exciting purchase I have bought since being here (Thanks Mom!). So now I finally have a place to eat. Before, I had been eating on top of a sleeping bag mattress on my floor.  Next, Venoni took me about a mile out into the woods behind our town to look for a Christmas tree. It seemed like another world out there. Pine trees, rivers, bridges made me rocks, and no trash. The main surprise simply being there was no trash. The country is already so naturally gorgeous that it's so sad to see it usually littered with trash giving off quite an unappealing view. So after quite a while off walking Venoni climbed up a 50 ft tree with his machete and chopped away at the top. The top part of the tree then tumbled to the ground where he then literally carried it over his shoulder back to my house. Being able to see this part of their culture makes this whole experience for me. It's the, "Oh Chelsea, let's go find an arbolito (little tree)" that turns into some crazy cultural thing I would never have the chance to see without him. I just love the continuous acts and events in my life that happen daily due to having him as my best friend :-)

I then had a day of training at the peace corps office on bottle projects (ex- bottle schools, eco-bathrooms, benches, etc) with some other volunteers. It was a great taller with presentations of the experiences of other volunteers who have already done a bottle project, speakers from programs such as 'Hug it Forward' and 'Pura Vida', and lastly a hands on mock bottle wall demonstration. After seeing it directly, it becomes much clearer, as well as give motivation to actually start a project in our sites. My site-mate Jacob and I have had a running joke since site-assignment that we're going to build a 5 story bottle hospital or a bottle bridge that brings you over all the mountains so it therefore does not take 1 hour to travel 20 miles (truth). Anyway, so it was fun to go with him so we can start on this little hospital of ours. Orrr maybe even just a kitchen for a school :-)

So after the taller I then visited my boyfriends family again where I went to a baptism. I spent about 2 1/2 hours at a catholic church trying to understand the mass and the blessings of the priest to the 32 babies. Never having been up a baptism even in the States, it was interesting to see how one actually works. The priest went around to each baby twice blessing them with something. The Godparents then brought the baby up to the alter to then be baptized. After the baptism at the church, we headed back to the house for lunch where I then met Venoni who stayed home to supposedly work on construction of the house although he played soccer the entire morning instead. We then ended the afternoon with watching a soccer game in the stadium. In my opinion, it felt great to be outdoors soaking in the sun rather than inside an old church trying to decipher Spanish scripture. Either way, both were integration to the culture and good learning experiences.

This week my counterpart and I will attempt to take a census of the community and on Friday I will head back to Chimaltenango to spend Christmas with Venoni's family. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Hope everyone has a wonderful time celebrating Christmas wherever we all may be!

Kite Festival. Dia de los Santos.

November 4^th, 2011

              Once again, it is election weekend. In Guatemala, the winning party needs to win by over 50% percent; however, during the last election on September 11^th, this wasn’t the case and therefore, this weekend elections are being held again. Since SPJ (our site) was at medium risk for manifestaciones, my sitemate and I got relocated to another site. Out of the 270 some odd volunteers, only 7 of us needed to be relocated – go figure.  However, luckily we got relocated into the city of Santa Cruz del Quiche which apparently is not at risk for any uproar.  So, right now my sitemate and I are enjoying the free coffee, warm showers, television, and relaxing atmosphere of the hotel.  This is definitely a relocation vacation if I ever heard of one.  In September when we were relocated, we went out to a really rural aldea and stayed in 2 hotels. The first hotel was pretty much underground thus being really dark, cold, and boring. The next hotel was great –owned by a great family but definitely no warm water (or wait, actually any water at all). However, after 3 or 4 days, Jacob and I had already finished 2 books each and were ready to pull our hair out in boredom.  Therefore, Jacob and I could not be any more excited that we are staying in a great hotel in the ‘city’ where we will be able to venture out and do many more activities (go to the market, run, have running water, take WARM showers).

           So that leads me to finally being able to write a blog. I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks and am excited to finally be able to share it. At work, I’ve been working hard on preparing for my girls group called “Estrellas de Hoy” or “Stars of today” and my two soccer camps. The girls group in English is actually known as ‘GLOW’ or ‘Girls Leading Our World’. It started in Romania by a Peace Corps volunteer and is now in many countries including Guatemala. Various PCV’s throughout Guatemala have held GLOW camps or clubs which consists of girls ages 12-18 who learn about leading a healthy life, leadership, self-esteem, culture interchange, etc.      

                 Therefore, about 6 weeks ago I started a GLOW club in Primavera where the girls will meet every other Thursday. So far we’ve had 3 meetings including 1) A welcome meeting where they learned what the club will be, 2) the importance of exercise and 3) the importance of washing fruits/vegetables.  During the importance of exercise meeting, I gave a charla summarizing the things I learned with my wonderful Exercise Science degree and instead of just playing soccer they split up into three teams and had races including a potato sack race, wheelbarrows, 3 legged race, spoon with egg, and dizzy bat (and heather- no dizzy bat is not only a drinking game). The theme was how there are many forms of exercise and any activity that can increase your heart rate, even jumping in potato sacks, can be considered exercise. The meeting I had on Thursday was to teach them how important it is to wash the fruits and vegetables we buy from the market and what illnesses/parasites/worms we can get from not doing so (including giardia, solitaria, ascaris etc.) For the activity they properly washed carrots, cucumbers, peppers, and apples with soap/water, cloro, and peeling.  Each girl then had a little snack with the fruit mentioned above and some watermelon while we discussed what we learned that day.

                Next Thursday we have another meeting where they will learn about hand hygiene and create porta pillas (little hand washing stations made from a bottle, rope, and soap).

Here is actually a little calendar of what’s planned:

6 de Octubre – “Bienvenidos”, Formar un Comité (Presidente, Vicepresidente y Secretaria), Calendarios, Preguntas y Respuestas

 20 de Octubre –“Una Vida Saludable I” La importancia de Ejercicio

3 de Noviembre – “Una Vida Saludable II” La importancia de Higiene Personal – cortar, limpiar, y pintar uñas, Hacer ‘Porta Pilas’

10 de Noviembre –  “Una Vida Saludable III” Nutrición Balanceada – Los grupos de comida, Ensalada de fruta (higiene en la casa en la preparación de comida)

15 de Diciembre– “Intercambio Cultural” Mapa Mundial y clase de ingles

12 de Enero - “Intercambio Cultural” Idiomas de otras países, frases común en otras idiomas en otros lugares del mundo, ej.- francés, alemán, japonesa, portugués

26 de Enero – “Liderazgo I” ¿Qué es un líder? ¿Qué es una dama? Lideres mujeres y sus retos, PowerPoint de líderes mujeres en la comunidad

9 de Febrero – “Liderazgo II” Presentación de los lideres que ellas admiran. Una lideresa de la comunidad va a venir y platicar con las señoritas sobre sus vidas, opciones para el futuro y contestar preguntas

23 de Febrero – “Los Valores/Las Metas” ‘¿Qué vamos a hacer/Que vamos a ser en el futuro?’ Vayan a compartir sus valores/metas/aspiraciones/experiencias

               I also had the girls’ soccer camp this week but due to feriado “Dia de los Santos”, not many girls could come. The first day only 10 girls game but I learned that it is much easier to teach with smaller numbers. At first I was a little disappointed that after all my promotion , planning, and writing a solicitud to the muni, only 10 girls came. But, at the end of the day I was still content that 10 girls came despite it being a holiday. The next day, maybe about 15 girls came along in addition to 2 boys which I allowed since I was lacking in numbers. Next week there will be two days of a boys’ soccer camp. Anyway, the camp ended at noon; however an hour later they came back to play again. I had the girls group at 3:30, so we continued to play until the beginning of the group. So, all in all the camp lasted about 5 hours with the girls’ group right after for almost 2 hours.

            When I finally got a ride home in the back of someone’s pick-up at the end of the day, I was exhausted and felt like I could never kick another soccer ball in my life.  Mind you, that morning there was a road block due to protests and a pick-up dropped me off about 2/3 the way to my aldea.  As a result, I walked for about an hour with a large back pack and costal filled with about Q40 of vegetables, 1 soccer ball (luckily the other 7 were already in the aldea), lunch, a water bottle, plates, silverware, napkins, and my charla materials (including markers, crayons, colored pencils, a ruler, tape, scissors, and 3 posters). Needless to say, after that walk, 5 hours of soccer camp, 2 hours of GLOW club, getting sunburned, that pick-up ride back to my town was the best thing I could have asked for at that point. (Aaron- you know exactly how I felt at that moment).

                On a non-work related note, I recently had the amazing opportunity to truly experience what is “Dia de los Santos” or “Dia de los Muertos” in the Guatemalan culture. However, it’s not actually just one day but rather about 3 or 4. First, I went to the cemetery in SPJ one afternoon with my boyfriend to pay his respects to his father. When we arrived, his brother, cousins and aunts/uncles were already there laying flowers.  The cemetery was filled with people decorating the beautifully colored tomb-houses. To me, the cemeteries here look like little villages of miniature houses painted light greens, yellows, blues, and purples.  The next day we woke up at 4AM to leave for his home town and to attend the kite festival in Sumpango.  We arrived to the house he grew up in around 8AM where I was greeted by his large family. After eating breakfast with his brother and sister-in-law, we went to another room to drink coffee with cousins. Right after that, we went to his aunt house where we were given Pepsi and bread. Then, we went to the cemetery to pay respects to his mother and brother where we met even more of his large family. The cemetery was crowded with people visiting loved ones, selling kites, corn, chicharon, fiambre, amongst many more chapin types of food. We sat around the tomb-house eating, eating, and eating, all while the family asked me a thousand questions from life in the states to when I’m marrying their nephew.

               Finally running on chapino time, we arrived to the National Kite Festival in Sumpango around 3pm (4 hours later than planned).  The weather was great, the kites were beautiful, and I was in great company with several other Peace Corps volunteers. It was a wonderful afternoon of sitting in the sun watching the attempts of the kites fly. That night we had a great meal in Antigua then went home just to wake up again at 3:30AM to catch a bus back to site by 7:30AM.

            When I got back to site is when (after getting sick several times) I headed to my aldea for the soccer camp.

                  So that leaves me to this weekend, where I am thoroughly enjoying this hotel of wireless internet, television, running water, and clean towels. Last month during the last session of elections is when supporters of the losing party in our site started burning tires in the streets and threatened to burn down houses, 3 days after the election. We also got re-located then but when we came back 2 days later is when this incident occurred. This is when my boyfriend, Venoni, came running in my house yelling in fast Spanish to grab all my stuff because people were burning down houses and we had to leave. Therefore, Peace Corps decided to relocate us once again for this weekend of elections. Generally, our town really is calm though so don’t worry! Peace Corps is really on top of their game constantly monitoring media and weather for any dangerous plights.

                Well that’s all for now! This week I’ll be busy with the boys’ soccer camp, GLOW group, and a meeting on Thursday in another town.  Then the week after that, our training group has “Reconnect” which is a week-long session of training and Spanish classes and then that Sunday I will be on a flight to the USAAAA  to see my friends and family who I haven’t seen in almost 7 months by that point. Can’t wait to see yall in exactly 2 weeks from today! 

 Kite festival in Sumpango. Some of these kites actually fly with the ardent help from some determined folks who run full speed in attempt to put them in the air. 

Thank you Aunt Vicki, Uncle Pete, and Matt for the opportunity to give these kids a soccer camp; an opportunity they would never have had without you guys! 

Attempt at making something like an American hotdog! Actually was quite delicious!

"Obama Initiative Targets Malnutrition in Guatemala"

October 10th, 2011

"Obama Initiative Targets Malnutrition in Guatemala"

**Proud to be a Healthy Homes Peace Corps Volunteer in El Quiche, Guatemala.** Click the tlink above to read the complete article. Following are certain quotes from the article and my experiences.

 "High in the mountains, a narrow and practically impassable mud trail leads to the dirt-floor shack where Isabella Hernandez is rhythmically patting tortillas, the main source of sustenance for her nine children."
        Practically impassable mud trails..La Primavera (the village I work in) only has 2 main dirt roads in which only maybe 5% of the houses can be accessed from. To get to houses we travel through the milpa (cornfields), other peoples' homes, over rocks in creeks that serve as bridges, and occasionally have to make our own paths to find houses. AKA, When I need to leave the central part of the village, I must always travel with one of the alcalde auxiliares (assistant mayors) since they know the land and I would clearly get lost and never return.

 "GHI is targeting Mayan women and children in the mostly indigenous Western Highlands, a mountainous area with a single maize harvest per year. The strategy’s cornerstone is reducing one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, only Afghanistan and Yemen fare worse. Half of all Guatemalan children under 5 are stunted and in the Western Highlands, it's 7  out of 10."
        Healthy Homes Peace Corps Volunteers (the project I am in) are all located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala including El Quiche, Totonicipan, Huehuetenango, and Quetzeltenango. A major part of our work is to educate these rural families on the importance of nutrition including the different food groups, balanced nutrition, what exactly is malnutrition and how to recover from it. Some volunteers have cooking groups where they teach a lesson on nutrition then make a proper meal with them. Most meals in these areas include mainly carbohydrates such as tortillas, tomalitos, or rice with a handful of beans.  The mother of one of the girls in my girls' group invited me to lunch a few weeks ago.  We ate tomalitos (which is basically compressed corn grains) with about a handful of peas.  It was delicious and I was extremely appreciative for their hospitality, but I couldn't ignore the lasting hunger I left with. It deeply saddened me to realize this is a normal lunch for them as they quickly got up from the table ready to play a game of soccer.
        I also want to mention there are 7 children living in the household - ages 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 14, and 16.  The mother sleeps in a full size bed with the 3 and 5 year old, the 3 girls (ages 9, 13, and 14) sleep together in one full size bed, and the two boys ages 11 and 16 each have a twin size bed. The father works in the capital and only returns once every 3 months.

 "It is ranked 13th among the nations with the greatest level of income inequality, according to the United Nations Development Program. A semi-feudal society, 2 percent of the population owns about 70 percent of productive land. "
        This is an incredible fact that can't be ignored. The difference in income is evident here. My municipality is only 15 minutes from the city of Santa Cruz, El Quiche and my aldea (village) that I work in is maybe 30 minutes away. I have described the living situations of La Primavera. Only 30 minutes away is the city where Dominos, Pollo Campero, hotels, a laundromat and a gym exist. One home I entered there has a washing machine, a television with cable and even a wii. Clearly far from the living conditions of their indigenous neighbors only 15 km up the highway.

 "They predominantly speak one of 24 Mayan languages. High illiteracy rates and traditional Mayan beliefs further complicate health efforts. "
        The language in our village is K'iche in which 99% of the population speaks. The mayor of our town is illiterate and truly struggles with Spanish.  Also, the doctor and assistance nurse in our health center do not speak K'iche; therefore, if the main assistance nurse who can speak K'iche is not in the health center, it is a struggle to give the correct medicine. Clearly for a country the size of Tennessee to have 24 languages it's inevitable it's going to have communication problems.

 "El Quiche is one of Guatemala’s poorest and most populous states, indelibly stained by the civil war. Of the indigenous civilians killed during the civil war, eighty-three percent of all identifiable victims were Mayans from this mountainous region. "

 "Faced with finite resources, protein and vegetable consumption is virtually non-existent among Mayan families. More than a fifth of all Guatemalan pregnant mothers have anemia, which is caused by a lack of iron and increases the risk of hemorrhage and the chances that infants will be born underweight and suffer cognitive impairment."
        Luckily, La Primavera does have a market on Sundays, however this is the only day available to buy meat. And, since refrigerators are extremely rare (I don’t even own a refri), they may only eat meat once a week, and even that is rare.

 "An extra dollar per month in a Guatemalan mother's hands achieves the same weight gain in a child as roughly 14 times more earned by the father, according to the Population Council, an international non-profit."

 "USAID is also teaching communities how to organize to demand potable water from local governments. In rural communities, access to safe drinking water is scarce."
        Our school does not have running water. Therefore, kids must carry a 2L bottle of water each day to school. Every morning on the side of the highway on my way to my aldea, I see little 7 year olds carrying apparently huge looking bottles (2L in their tiny hands appear large), to their schools as well.

 "Many health workers haven’t been paid in months and in some areas medical supplies simply stopped arriving."
        One nurse at our health center did not receive a paycheck for 3 months. Also, actually having certain types of medicine at our health center has been rare. Since I arrived 2 months ago we did not have pain medicine, anti-inflammatories, or antibiotics up until about 2 weeks ago.

 "One of the biggest sources of help to Hernandez have been Peace Corps volunteers, who built her a stove so she no longer cooks on open fire. "
        This is part of the Healthy Homes framework. In our second year, we hope to build infrastructure projects such as improved stoves, latrines, or cement floors.

**This entire article really hit home after reading it. Throughout all of our doubts, worries, sicknesses as PCVs, there is a higher reason we're here. Our colds, GI issues, bug bites, are all only temporary. But, hopefully the impact we can make on our communities will be forever.**

Getting Going..

21^st de Septiembre, 2011

             I’m finally back at site! After being out of site on and off for about 3 weeks, it feels great to be in my home again.  Right now I’m finally HEALTHY. For probably the first time since I got to site, I don’t have any digestive problems (thank you Cipro), no nausea, no cold, and barely any bites. Knock on wood. 

                Also, I am finally starting to feel slightly productive in my aldea. I’ve almost reached 2 months in site and was starting to feel quite frustrated at how slow things were going. I’d like to think it had something to do with my counterpart being on vacation for 45 days. However, after his 45 day vacation, he returned for 2 hours and I have yet to see him since. After calling him, I was informed he won’t be here this entire week nor next week either.  But, as I’ve learned to work without him I will continue to do so in the future and I won’t rely or wait on him to do any more of my work. So, with that being said, I’m excited to finally start getting this ball rolling even if it will be slightly harder than I had originally planned.

          I learned about one sector in my aldea that takes almost 2 hours to walk to. Therefore, since the sector does not have a school the children in this community need to walk the 2 hours every day to school in the central part of the aldea. Now think about how often school is cancelled in Guatemala. So now Imagine walking 2 hours just to find out school is cancelled.  This gave me the idea of a possible bottle school. Since there aren’t too many students, the school would only have to be one room. However, this one classroom would have a huge range of ages making the teacher have to split the class into two (just like another sector in my community). I have a meeting with the director of the school on Friday to hopefully discuss this possibility. There are still many things to consider, but I like the idea of the bottle school. With the amount of trash in the aldea and the amount of children that would be more than willing to help with this project, I believe the project is quite feasible. But, it will all depend on the necessities of the aldea and what the director believes.

             Other projects I’m currently planning are a soccer camp in November and a club called “GLOW” or “Estrellas de hoy”.  Every day the girls from the school come visit me at the health center wanting to learn English, play soccer, or help me with my charla materials. Therefore, this club will meet either once every other week or once a month to not only learn English and play soccer but also to learn about preventative health, reproductive health, self esteem, leadership, career options, amongst many other topics. Having a ‘club’ will give the girls excitement to be a part of something while having a formal learning environment where I will be able to plan for the meetings; rather than have them just walk into the health post and ask “CHASHEE (my name), what does this mean in English/can you play soccer now/can you tell me my height and weight?”

        Anyway, so today was a good day. As I walked from the highway into my aldea, an older man with probably only 6 teeth stopped me to tell me he remembered me from a meeting I went to last week. It was the cutest thing definitely making that 3 hour long meeting entirely in K’iche (the mayan language) where I didn’t understand one word- totally worth it. I then taught English to a new group of students in “2nd grade”. I told the teacher I could teach for 30-45 minutes. However, she left me to the dust and didn’t return until their recess almost 2 hours later. In the classroom next to mine there was an employee from an organization in Quiche who I ended up talking with later in the day. Mid conversation he was confused that I worked with the health post after assuming I was the 2^nd graders’ permanent teacher. Guess I couldn’t have been that terrible!

                After the English class I continued my nail hygiene/hand washing charla/workshop in the market. Today and yesterday I used my “porta pila” to teach hand washing [see picture below].  The kids love the porta pila and kept coming back asking to wash their hands. I made a booklet of pictures to tell a story about a girl who goes throughout her day performing her normal daily activities but without washing her hands. She therefore not only has dirty hands but dirty nails as well. Clearly, in the end she ends up sick. On the back there’s a series of questions that they need to answer about the story and the importance of hand hygiene before they can get their nails cut, cleaned, and painted. Today I was in the market for 2 ½ hours doing this charla which I now call a workshop because it’s always so long with the amount of kids that come. Definitely not complaining though! It was really rewarding to have the boys start coming to get their nails cut and cleaned. Today, one boy brought his friend and starting telling him the charla and the importance of short, clean nails. Definitely a proud little volunteer today.

          After lunch, a group of girls came to the health center with a pen and paper to ask about what words meant in English. I finally realized I need to write out the pronunciation of the words in order for them to learn.  The other classes I teach either don’t know how to read yet or are old enough to comprehend the odd spelling of English so I haven’t really experienced how different words in English are to the way they’re written. For example, ‘night’ to them is clearly pronounced ‘neegt’ and school is ‘s-shool’ or ‘After writing out the pronunciation of the words, the girls finally got it and improved drastically. It was great to see their improvement and to find a new method of teaching that works. See below for the way I had to write the pronunciation of our common, every day English words.

Spanish/English/Pronunciation

Using a porta pila in the market to learn about hand washing and nail hygiene

 

Nothing about this amount of trash in the street should be Okay. Bottle school anyone?

Travel. Have Fun. Get Sick. Repeat.

September 9th, 2011

       So it’s certainly been a while since I’ve had the chance to write. The past few weeks have been filled with traveling, getting sick, and trying to get better.  After training and since I’ve been to site, it seems like a never ending battle trying to fight illnesses and combat invisible bugs.  However, currently, CURRENTLY, as in this exact hour, I am healthy.  Although this state of health could be told differently if asked this morning, only a few hours ago. After 3 lovely trips to the bathroom by 9am, I finally began to feel better. Now, at 3pm I am hoping to have avoided the bathroom for long enough to consider this 7 day plague to be over. After jumping in the lake exactly 7 days ago, I can finally say, “Okay the lake was worth it.” If asked during the week if jumping in was worth it, clearly the answer would have been “Hell. No”.  Now, that leads me to sharing the wonderful details of my traveling experiences over the past several weeks.

        A few weeks ago, on a Tuesday, I was supposed to go to “Salubrista” with my health center. Salubrista is a weekend celebration where all health center employees from the department come together to have soccer and basketball tournaments and finally a dance. Well, when Tuesday came around, obviously I was sick, and did not want to tempt the health Gods of getting in a microbus for a 3 hour ride. Sorry, but I didn’t want to have to ask the driver, “um, excuse me but I’m pretty sure some type of fluid will come out of some orifice of my body within a matter of minutes, would you mind pulling over for just a sec?” Therefore, I told them to go ahead without me and if I felt better, I’d come the next morning. Well, turns out that not even 5 minutes into their ride, right outside of town, the bus they rented got in an accident. One was taken to the hospital for precaution, two stayed behind, but the rest of the brave soldiers continued on complete with bruised but determined to win their soccer tournament this year at Salubrista. Luckily, they did end up coming in a close second that came down to a shoot out with a final score of 1-0.

            Well, the next day I felt better and really did not want to miss out on a once a year celebratory event such as this. Therefore, I began the voyage to Canilla, Quiche. Little did I know, the road…was not much of a road. Rather, it was a dirt path where microbuses can only reach about 10 mph and the ayudante (or helper) had to guide the micro from falling off the edge down a several hundred foot valley. And when we were actually moving, I felt as though my internal organs would fall out of my body at any point due to the constant plummets, tilts, and banging of the micro against the dirt. I’m sure the combination of sitting in the back row and having to pee did not help. Simply put, ‘smooth sailing’ would not be the correct words to describe this experience. But, finally, I was there!

          After reaching Canilla and meeting up with about 10 other Peace Corps volunteers, I finally was able to relax and enjoy the festivities of the basketball and soccer games. Another surprising fact I learned once I arrived was that, wow, Canilla was HOT (especially after walking to the aldeas of Canilla for 2 hours in attempt to find where your town’s soccer team was playing).  The fact the town is surrounded by great mountains makes for a beautiful site, however it also makes fantastic conditions for a convention oven. In the end, we actually never did find our team that day.

             My favorite part of Salubrista was clearly, the ‘baile’ (dance).  I was taught several different types of Spanish dances and what kind of stepping is involved for each one. Now, in my life I have never been described as ‘coordinated’, or mind you any word close to coordinated. All those aerobic type classes that involve following a 1-2-3 step count in accordance with other people are harder to me than any type of organic chemistry. Everyone’s arms will be going one way and I’ll still be somewhere 3 steps behind with my legs going the opposite direction. But I still had a complete blast as my dear Guatemalteco dance partner was a sweetheart and didn’t give up on my inability to bailar.

           The next day, I finally found my town’s soccer team and watched a few of their games until it was time for me to go.  The last microbus was leaving around 1pm so a few other volunteers and I battled for the few seats available to get back to our hometowns. This was probably quite a funny scene as well watching a bunch of gringos run after a microbus hoping to get a seat. As I was saying earlier how the group I was supposed to come with got in an accident, well, they rented a different bus which broke down about 4 times on the way to Salubrista. Therefore, I was not risking going back on their bus for the ride back. Luck was with me again on this trip, because it turned out the other bus broke down yet again about 15 minutes into their trip causing them to stay yet another night in the next town over.

            So, Salubrista was over. One day in my home then off to Lake Atitlan to celebrate 4 volunteers’ birthdays from my training group.  Lake Atitlan is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Guatemala. It is a stunningly, gorgeous lake surrounded by the prettiest mountains I’ve ever seen.  The tiendas (stores) are filled with hammocks, paintings of the lake, rope jewelry, custom made bags, and delicious food.  Probably close to 20 volunteers from my training group came together that weekend. After all of us being in site about a month, it was great to hear about other sites, experiences, challenges, successes and of course to spend the quality time we all needed with other English speakers. The weekend ended up turning into a ‘posh corps’ weekend where we all had to keep reminding ourselves that we were in Guatemala in the Peace Corps. The volunteer that lives closest to Panajachel arranged for us to rent quite a large boat that we had the amazing opportunity to be out on the water for about 3 hours just soaking in the sun and jumping off the top tier. It was a truly amazing experience jumping off a boat into lake Atitlan in Guatemala where the towering mountains literally meet the water’s edge.

            However, several hours later after returning to our hostel..I got sick. Go figure, huh? Like I said, now that the sickness is over (so I hope), the lake was worth it. Or maybe I just shouldn’t have jumped in..we’ll never know.

            Well, that leads me to the week I got back from the lake, the week of hell.  I woke up Monday morning determined to go to work and ready to get back at it. I walked into the Health center to discover a weekend storm had ruined 3 of the 4 charla material posters I hung in the waiting room.  Quite sad at my hard work being ruined, but ready to start again, I gathered more materials and went to the park to begin.  A few girls from the school immediately came over to ask what I was doing, so I summarized the charla for them then gave crayons and paper to keep them entertained. It was a cute little experience, until a storm came in and forced me back to the health center and them to their houses. It was then when I realized, the sickness was anything but over. The fever began along with the rest of the Pepto commercial. I waited until about 2pm then finally gave in and took the microbus back home. The same thing pretty much happened again Tuesday with being forced back home due to sickness. However, Tuesday was also the day I received the call about ‘relocation’.

              The election is on Sunday, September 11^th and in Guatemala elections tend to cause a bit of uproar. Therefore, volunteers in areas that were expected to have a lot of political activity during the election were ‘relocated’ to calmer areas. That leads me to where I am now. I am definitely in an area of tranquility. Aka the middle of nowhere. But, I actually kinda love it. My sitemate and I were both moved here where another volunteer from my training group lives. So, we’ve been calling it ‘relocation vacation’ as our only option is to read, hike, explore, write blogs, and play with the kids that own the hotel we’re at. They actually just watched me type for about 10 minutes. Thinking about it now, it is very likely it could be the first computer they’ve ever seen.  There are 7 kids in the family ranging from ages 4-16. From what I’ve been observing, their entertainment is each other and manning the tienda. I have yet to see a Dad, but it’s possible he’s out in the campo (or so I hope).

On another note, I finished a book in about a day here on relocation vacation called ‘Sparking One’ that I found at the peace corps office.  I also finished ‘Have a little faith’ by Mitch Albom, and ‘The Guardian’ by Nicholas Sparks sometime last month. I also started ‘Dress your family in Corduroy and Denim’ by David Sedaris. I might make it a goal to finish 75 books by the end of my service.  We’ll see.

            So just as I was about to finish this blog up, 11 Guatemalan national police officers just walked into the hotel.  Turns out they’re here to monitor and oversee the election tomorrow in this town. Guess we’ll be super safe! :-) 

            Well, thanks yall for reading once again! It truly means a lot to have the interest and support of my friends and family during this adventure. Yall are the best and I couldn’t be here without you, seriously. Love you!

Lake Atitlan, Panajachel



Other volunteers jumping off the boat, simply stunning

Where to begin?

August 17th, 2011

          Every time I begin to write, all I can think is, okay “Where to begin?” During the last week I took the height and weight of about 250 children less than 5 years old. The main shock I got from this week was how rare it was for mothers to know their child’s age. Often times they would be off by a year or two and when I asked the month they often had no idea. But then again, I’m sure any woman who has 13 kids probably wouldn’t know the exact birthday of each kid. Also, yesterday we went to homes to get the height and weights of children and a mother told us her child was 8 years old but when I did the math from the health card (carné) he was only 6.

           So during mi familia progressa week, the kids received vaccines before they came to me; so any child under the age of two was close to impossible to get their height and weight due to excessive screaming and punching. I had to put most <2 years olds in a swing-like contraption where often times my shirt would pretty much be pulled off, lollipops would get stuck in my hair, boogers or some other secretion would be smeared all over my clothes, meanwhile trying to communicate in a language I can barely pronounce – ie. wasa’ ashihap, pash’ol, humpa a’hunap. Or the numbers I learned – hun, kep, o’ship, k’hip, hop, wa’kip, wak’upe, weshakip, belle’hep, y l’ooj. I kinda love it, actually.

                 Anyway, so since my counterpart is on vacation for the entire month I decided just to start walking on my own in order to know my aldea better. For four days I walked for over 2 hours in each direction where I could find a main path. The views, land, people, everything here seriously takes my breath away.  I literally sat on a rock overlooking the mountains for a solid 20 minutes just staring. I took several pictures, but they don’t do it justice at all. When I was sitting there I honestly felt like I could have been in a scene from national geographic. It really makes me want to move out there and I only hope that soon I can find a home in Primavera.

               I’ve also kept up with the nail hygiene thing this week. It’s actually quite cute- it started off with a few girls who brought their siblings who brought their friends. One of the little girls came with her grandmother to get their dogs vaccinated and the grandmother asked me to paint her nails.

             I also taught an English class this week in the school to 7-10 year olds. However, it took me 45 minutes just to teach the numbers 1-5. And still, they could barely pronounce or remember the numbers by the end of the 45 minutes. I planned going over 1-10 and days of the week. Clearly, I did not get that far.

              This week we’re also going to all the houses of the kids in mi familia progresa who did not come the past week. Originally, I thought we would figure out which kids did not come and solely go to those houses. But oh no, this is Guatemala. We have an alcaldia (or assistant mayor) come with us to tell us which houses are mi familia progresa houses. We then go to every house and ask if they came the past week. Yesterday, we walked for almost 3 hours, probably about 20 houses, and only got 3 children who did not come the past week. Not a great system. Also, these houses are nowhere near the paths. We literally were walking through the milpa and through people’s houses to get to other houses. Bizarre.  But all the while, beautiful.

                    Other than work, I’m pretty sure my bug manifestation has lead to me have some kind of malaria. The past 6 days I’ve been quite sick with vomiting, nausea, GI problems, you know the whole deal. Pretty much a walking form of the Pepto-Bismol icon. But that didn’t stop me from going to feria, meeting up with other volunteers, doing laundry for 6 hours one day, and of course working every day. However, I probably should have stayed home some of these days considering one day I actually puked outside of a microbus window. Always a first, right?

                 Since I haven’t written anything in 2 weeks it’s hard to summarize everything, but pretty much everything is still great here.  I’ve really noticed an increase in the amount of people I know. When I came back into the central part of town yesterday after the baby-search, several students called out to me and several wanted to know where I was all morning since I wasn’t in the health center. I like to think I’m still integrating pretty well into my community despite not living there. But, all in all, I’m anxious to really start my work soon with home visits, more meetings with the alcaldia, cocode, cta, etc, creating groups, and of course more charlas and possibly HIV tallers.  It’s a slow process, but here everything takes time and I just need to be patient.

Older sister painting her younger sliblings' nails

They tried teaching me how to play marbles, I failed miserably.

Vaccinated pups

Gorgeous.

It's all worth it..

8/3/11. August 3^rd- today is my bestestt friend from MA Ashley’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASH!!!

           So when I used to get out of the shower, I would put lotion on. Now, in place of lotion is anti-itch cream followed by a nice greasy oily layer of Ben’s 30% wilderness formula bugs spray. I now sit with pants tucked into socks and shirt tucked into pants. After waking up each day this week with more and more bites (currently at over 50), I am not taking any more risks. Today I went to work with spandex under my pants, tank top tucked into my spandex and two more shirts. Pretty much a body suit under my clothes. But let me back up a moment and explain how bathing works around here, since this was definitely a concern of mine and my friends before I left.

          First of all, I’m pretty sure I’ve legit “showered” once in the past month and a half. Since I’ve been here, I showered in the hotels during Field Based Training and once in a hostel after our swear-in ceremony. So, that leaves me to sharing the wonders of bucket bathing. Simply put, I pretty much bathe with a bucket and a pale. In my backyard. So, since I can’t use my pila and my only water source is right above the pila, I have to stand there adding small buckets of brownish faucet water into a trash can, that I use for my bucket. Next, I drag this trash can into my house so I can heat the water. Luckily, I found this wicked awesome ‘calentador’ at the ferreteria that’s a metal rod I put in the bucket to heat it up (slightly dangerous putting an electric metal rod in water?). About 25-30 minutes later the water is ready (usually with a little pile of dirt sediment at the bottom). I then drag the bucket into my bathroom in the backyard, usually spilling half the water on the way. I then bring in a chair to put my clean clothes, towel and hair brush on so I don’t have to put it on the ground where those little creepy bugs I talked about in my last blog like to linger (bathroom floor). The actual bathing part only takes about 10 minutes now (drastically longer when I first arrived back in April), but this entire process usually takes a little over an hour. There are several other minor steps as well, but I’m pretty sure y’all get the point. Now, imagine doing all of this during the rainy season at night in the cold in your backyard where your ceiling is made of lamina and your door is a curtain. Now how pleasing does your shower sound?

        But, on a positive note, I can heat my water, I have water at all hours of the day and I’m not bathing in a river !

          So, as far as work goes this week, I mainly worked on charla materials for next week. After working my butt off planning 9 charlas the nurse says to me, “oh yeah, fijese que..i don’t know why you’re working so hard on your charlas, we’re going to need you to take every child’s height [at least 1000 for the week] soo um, you’re not going to have time to do these charlas of yours” But, I’m pretty set on doing them anyway so we’ll see. I mean, what better time to take advantage of when having a waiting room of over 200 people each day?

Today, I taught some English to girls that came by the Puesto (health center) to ask for help with their homework. They then wanted me to weigh and measure each of them. Later, some girls came by to clean, cut, and paint our nails. They had commented on how clean my nails were in the past so I took advantage of this and asked if they wanted to do the nail care thing today. We started off washing our hands and nails while talking about the importance of maintaining short, clean nails. Two 7 year olds came by later, a boy and a girl, and both wanted their nails cut and cleaned too. It was adorable. I remember being that age and having my hand in my mom’s while she cut my nails. I wonder if their parents do this too. Having their small little hands in my hands reminded me what this whole experience is about. Even if I can put a smile on two little 7 year olds faces because I talk spanglish and k’iche and give them attention they may not have gotten otherwise in their 8 children family, while they learn a little something about preventative health – it’s all worth It, the 52 bug bites, the lack of fast showers, waking up at 6am every day, eating beans out of a can with a pocket knife, every bit of it is worth it.

            I wish I had a picture of the two 7-year olds but since it was my first time meeting them, I didn’t want to take a picture. Here are some photos from the day. Wish I could add more, but my computer is being super slow today.

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One girl helping another other. Hands helping hands :-)

Learning preventative health hands on :-)

"How many of you have a 'toilet' in your house?"

July 29th, 2011

           The past few days have been quite entertaining in the aldea. Feria ended on Monday, and since there are absolutely no trashcans people just throw their trash on the ground. Thus, Tuesday morning my counterpart and I recruited the school to clean up the trash. We only had two pairs of gloves in which my counterpart used both of his, I used one and gave my other to one of the girls. The rest of the students picked up the trash with their bare hands. And mind you, after, the only students I saw wash their hands were the ones that followed me back to the Puesto and I reminded them to wash their hands – some of which disregarded the soap until I reminded them of that too. We only had 14 trash bags and all were filled within less than 30 minutes.  If we had more bags or gloves in general, this clean up would have been exponentially better. But still- it was still 14 bags worth of trash less on the ground.  We then carried it about a half mile up the mountain where we threw the trash in a landfill type of thing. There was already a massive amount of trash there and it had only been serving as a landfill for 15 days. But, guess it’s better that people are using it instead of burning!

               Later that day, I played soccer with the girls from the school who I find absolutely adorable playing soccer in their traje. It’s the cutest thing to see these girls running around in Mayan indigenous outfits without shoes while getting super into the game. 

           The next few days I worked on my charla materials in the Puesto – posters on the ‘Ciclo de Enfermedades’ (Cycle of sickness/contamination), the importance of latrines, Marquita Cochinita story, ways of contamination of agua and prevention, and the importance of boiling/purifying water. After procrastinating all week working on other charla material, I finally did my first charla in one of the schools with the help from my counterpart.  The school is receiving their first latrine – or toilet. Before, the students had to use the field for their bathroom. Therefore, I had a little model of a school, a field, and little rocks as examples of their ‘popó’ scattered throughout the field. I then had a model mosca (fly) made of a toilet paper role, with wings, eyes, and body made of white, green, and black bags ive got from the stores here. Anyway, I then talked about the two situations of the school, with a latrine and without, and how the mosca spreads microbios y parasitos from their popo to their food then inside their bodies. My counterpart then finished explaining the cycle of contamination and connected it all. My Spanish was lacking due to my nerves and my counterpart really helped me out a lot.  Poco a poco!

                  I then played soccer again with the same girls from earlier in the week and finally am starting to remember their names- some which include “mediam, dina, adelina, aubra, 3 maria’s, 2 christinas, and at least 2 ana’s..” Oh, all which have second names they use as well – but if I could only remember or pronounce half of their first names maybe I could begin with the second. But, then again… they cannot pronounce my name for the life of them.  I was supposed to change my name when I left training, but I couldn’t think of one and kept planning on changing it later..however that never happened. Therefore, I currently have 4 names – Chelly, Charlie, Carla, and Chelsea.  I now have figured out that depending on the audience I can sometimes say, “You know, like the soccer team from England…Chelsea!” and, sometimes…they get it and will thus teach their friends. During the soccer game, I kept hearing my name and looked over and two girls were facing each other simply attempting to repeat my name over and over. It was adorable – “Cheshee, Chachee, Charchee, Charlie..?”

               Other things not entirely related to work – I have realized my living situation should probably be classified into the family of camping. I have a two-top burner that sits on a bench in my room in which I sit in a chair at its level to cook. I cook beans out of a can, salsa from tomatoes and onions, eggs, and rice…all of which are usually eaten from the pot or pan. And legit cut from my pocket knife (I have yet to buy a real knife). Also, I brush my teeth and wash my face outside...often in the rain.  My bathroom is also outside, therefore, when I wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom I venture out to my backyard. Often times I find a host of little creatures crawling on the floors and walls that run to little secret hiding places when I turn on the light. It’s like a magic trick. I wish the host of creatures in my room played this game. I often find myself shaking out mostly all of my clothes before I put them on now. When I put on a shirt (from my suitcase) this week, I felt a little itch on my back throughout the morning but couldn’t shake it so I figured it was probably the hook on my bra-strap or something. However, around 10am (4 hours later) I discovered the annoying little itch was a tiny centipede-like insect stuck in my tank top. Jealous yet? Also, the other night I woke up to a constant buzzing in my ear but couldn’t get rid of it, so due to being half asleep I ignored it and fell back asleep. I woke up the next day with about 8 bites on my face and neck. At this point, I wish I had kept up with my malaria pills. Oops.

                   But, throughout living this camping life and daydreaming about a walmart – where I could purchase a fitted sheet, a lufa, and a normal toothbrush (oh the little things), I have truly appreciated the way Guatemalan’s live. Of course some live in nice houses with normal bathrooms, showers, and everything. But, the majority absolutely does not have this luxury.

                In my aldea, LESS than half have LATRINES. This means more than half use the fields for their bathroom. Also, a large quantity does not have running water in the house. This means they use water from the wells, located in the fields where they use the bathroom. No wonder why diarrhea is an everyday activity in their lives. In my next blog, I’ll include the exact numbers with these facts. It truly is incredible. For example, at the beginning of our charla today, my counterpart asked the class, “How many of you have latrines in your house?” I mean, could you imagine in elementary school in the U.S if someone came into your classroom and asked “How many of you have toilets in your house?” We would have looked at them like they had 10 heads. However, this is the reality here.

Well, I have another long day tomorrow so I’m done writing for now. But, thanks for reading and I’ll continue to update as I learn more about my community!

Trash pickup..unfortunately with the lack of gloves

14 bags of trash in less than 30 minutes..barely made a dent

My litte buddy Christina..

Beginning the trek to the trash pile..

 

15 days of trash..

Finally a PCV and in site..

July 24th, 2011

          So, I finally decided to start a blog. There is always so much happening here that I want to remember or that I want to tell everyone back home, so I started thinking about writing a blog and here it finally is.

         Well, after finishing 12 weeks of training in Parramos, Chimaltenango I arrived at my new site in Quiche – only about 3 hours away. Today marks 1 week of being in site..and I absolutely love it. I live in the Municipality (town) and work every day in the Puesto de Salud (Health Post) from 8-4:30pm in an Aldea of the Muni. I should be living in my Aldea but there was no housing available that reached the standards of Peace Corps (doors on the bedroom/bathroom, own bedroom, locks). So, it’s going to be a little harder integrating myself into the community since I’m only there when I’m in the Puesto. But, it will all work out.

            My aldea includes 8 sectors and a sub-aldea called a cabacero. Therefore, it is huge. There are 5 schools. One school literally is one room with a dirt floor, long wooden benches with one long desk to share.  The ages of the students range from ~10-16. There is no bathroom. The students use the campo (or field). I went last week with my counterpart to get their signatures saying they will be receiving education on latrines, and all had to use their fingerprints for signatures. This week I will be giving charlas on the importance of latrines, and how to use them. Hopefully within 2 months this school will have a latrine.

                There are 5 (now 4) employees in my Puesto de Salud. Two nurses, a TSR ( Tecnico en Salud Rural), and me. We did have a doctor but he finished his 6 month practicum on Wednesday and we’re not sure when the next doctor will come. We are a young group – ages 22 (me), 22 (nurse) 22 (TSR), 24 (doctor), and low 40’s I think (nurse).

                   My counterpart was on vacation this week so I didn’t do too much outside the Puesto. A normal day included arriving around 8am, eating breakfast, sweeping/mopping, seeing patients, studying Spanish, lunch around 1pm, seeing more patients, working on charla materials, talking with members of the community, then leaving around 4:30pm. Most of the cases seen included- stomach pain, diarrhea, back pain, headaches, and several deep wounds. Since the majority of the community works in the fields we often see injuries related to mishaps with machetes. See the following picture for one of the wounds.

            So, something I often heard about during training but didn’t really think too much about is how everyone in your community WILL know you and what you’re doing at all hours of the day. Welp, I pretty much have discovered this is the truth.  It’s only my first week and I would be walking to a tienda when someone would yell my name then turn the other way. Or, when I was studying in the park several people came up to me knowing my name and striking up conversation. Also, children always stare. Sometimes (especially in my aldea), I’m the first North American they’ve ever seen.

               The primary language in my aldea is K’iche. Here are some words in K’iche – Sakirik, Xek’ij, Xoc’ak’ap, Maltiox, Tej, Pix, Tat, Naan, b’ak, ch’at, tz’i. I absolutely love learning new words in K’iche because it amazes the people who do speak it. How often do you see a white person speaking a language so foreign and unique to one area? During my site visit, I had my first experience with this. Jacob and I were eating dinner in a comedor while several men next to us chatted it up in K’iche. When we left, I said to the owner “Maltiox, Xoc’ak’ap, Ven’a” which means "thank you, good evening, goodbye”. They all turned their heads in shock and one just kept yelling “utz, utz, utz! (bueno, bueno, bueno!). They continued laughing and talking about it while we walked down the street. It’s amazing to me how a few words can mean so much to them.

            Anyway, this is probably getting too long for anyone to read so I’m going to finish this up. Pretty much, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my time here much more than I had anticipated.  I mean, I’m currently sitting on my back porch listening/watching the rain while sucking on jolly ranchers that my AMAZING Aunt Vicki and Uncle Pete sent me. I am in love with the beauty of Guatemala. I am in love with the people here. I am in love with the newly found independence of being a volunteer and not a trainee.   Life is good.

This looks good compared to what he came in with. He wrapped these three fingers with toilet paper for 8 days before he came to us. Took us at least 30 minutes just to get rid of the TP and clean it well enough to look like this.

My work place - Puesto de Salud :-)

My beautiful aldea and some of its' beautiful people..

The adventure begins..

So I just found this blog saved in a word document on my computer from one of the first days in site. I completely forgot about it and decided to add it (despite starting a real blog in July). I thought it was really funny to read after 6 months in site..

April 30th, 2011

Where do I begin? The last few days have been decently busy after arriving in Guatemala and the first three days of training.

I guess the first part I should explain was how we finally ended up in Guate. The night before I left, I busily packed last minute things into areas of my bags that clearly didn’t have enough space, meanwhile already being over the weight limit. Therefore, I had to make last minute decisions of what to keep and what to leave behind. Needless to say, this took me until 1:30AM.  Approximately less than two hours later at 3AM I woke up to take my last American hot shower and headed for the airport around 4AM with mi familia.  From Myrtle beach I flew to Charlotte then Philly where we had our “staging event” at a hotel in downtown philly.

I should say at this point, one of my roommates from college, Meridith, picked me up from the airport..which I am SO thankful for considering the massive amount of luggage I had.  Meridith and I then walked around downtown Philly where we saw some pretty sweet Amish people.  Once we got to the hotel, Mer and I met some of the other fellow Guate volunteers. When Mer tried to leave I pretty much begged her to let me go with her. However, she refused and made me go back to the hotel (Thanks by the way!)

Luckily, as soon as I got back into the hotel, I met my friends Megan and Madelynn who made me feel so much better about the whole PC deal. We then had staging for about 7 hours where we discussed what to expect, what’s expected from us, and safety/security things. That night, at midnight we got on a bus to drive 2 hours to JFK Airport in New York.  At about 7AM we boarded the plane and headed to Miami.  Finally at about 3pm ish, I believe, we flew from Miama to Guate.

From Guatemala city (where we flew in), we drove about an hour to the Peace Corps office. I don’t remember much from the afternoon at the pc office considering I had only had about 7 hours of sleep in 3 days at that point.  However, that night we went to our homestays where we would be for 3 days. Here, I had 2 roommates where I was luckily paired up with Madelynn and Janece. Fortunately, they are both pretty awesome at Spanish so it wasn’t too difficult communicating with the family.  The house was much different than what is common in the US. The hallways of the house were outdoors so when switching between rooms, we were outside which I thought was pretty sweet. The first morning I took a warm bucket bath, however the next 2 mornings I had the chance to take the coldest showers of my life – it was fab.

Finally, that gets me to today – my first day with the family that I’ll be living with during training for 3 months.  Well, I got here at about 1ish I believe. However, before that, we were gifted with cell phones, nokia phones that is.  It is 10x harder to use than my iphone (which I happen to miss more than anything), but it is still the most exciting possession I could have possibly been given.  It even has Spanish radio..which I may or may not be listening to right now.

I finally got to talk to my sister, dad, and bester Katiemac. However, we’re given 75 minutes to call home, and yep, I have already used 67…today. Go figure.

Okay, soo now to my new HOME (for the next 3 months). It is AWESOME and I’m pretty sure I have the best family out of any volunteer – #handsdown. The mom and dad are so outgoing and SO forgiving with my Spanish.  They have a daughter who is 29 who has been amazing as well. She has an 11 month year old daughter who I am in LOVE with already. 

When I first got here, they gave me a tour of the house- which is baller.  The bottom floor includes a garage type thing, a foyer, my bedroom, a bathroom, living room/dining room AND a kitchen. The upstairs contains two apartments.

My favorite part is the bathroom – which is INSIDE and contains a toilet that ACTUALLY allows toilet paper. Yes, yes I know I’m spoiled. (FYI, most TP has to go in trash cans next to the toilet).

We then ate lunch which consisted of soup and vegetables/noodles (nice break from rice and beans).  After lunch, everyone took a “siesta” which apparently they do every day, while I unpacked my bags and made my room much homier. 

Later that night, they took me into Quetzenhalgo, or Chetzenhalgo..something of the kind..where we visited a mall type place.  It was really nice to see a bigger city in Guatemala and I appreciated my family so much for taking me there. I just wish I knew how to tell them that more than simply saying “muchas gracias por tomando mi aqui” over and over.

Anyway, I held the baby at the mall while the family talked to their friends while I danced with el bebe to Soulja Boy - #swagright? Don’t worry, Shakira came on after and we rocked that too.

Once we got home, we talked for a little bit then I came into my room to pass out.  The family is Catholic, and very strong believers. One of the first things they asked me was what religion I was.

But yeah, so this house is awesome, my room is awesome, and this family kicks some guate butt. The dad does construction and built his entire house along with almost every piece of furniture in it.  He also showed me his other house today that he owns and built.  Oh and nbd, but this house is where he stores his 2 cars.

So, they’ve been teaching me Spanish all day, and not only did I teach them a few words in English but I also taught them about why they get cold after they eat. #wishicouldsayShuntinginspanish.

Well, I’m gonna go attempt to brush my teeth and wash my face with the lack of H20 (it shuts off at 3pm everyday). LATERGATERZ