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..