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