"Do what you LOVE and you'll never work a day in your life.."

So much has happened in the past month and I really wish I could have written more often. I’ll try to touch on each aspect without going into too much detail – but as you may know, I’m not the best at summarizing. I’ll try to update this blog more frequently so each entry is a bit shorter and makes for an easier read.

PDM – Project Design Management

Each volunteer was asked to invite 2-3 members from his/her community to learn more about the project process. I invited the vice president of the new community I just started working in. However, he then asked the president who asked the treasurer who asked the secretary to accompany me. At first I was a little bummed that they changed so frequently in the last moments before the workshop; however, it worked out REALLY well. For three days my counterpart, the secretary, and I worked together on developing a project. We went through every step together and in the end presented our idea. This secretary was SO adorable in everything we did. He was so interested in the process and therefore was really involved and passionate about the project. Also, he has never visited Xela prior to this event so it was really rewarding watching him take everything in. He took pictures of everything. In the end, he asked if he could keep all the posters and paperwork we had worked on. It is people like him that seriously MELT my heart.  His positivity, desire to work, and appreciation towards to the workshop were all the characteristics a volunteer can only hope for in her counterpart, or community member. After this trip, we both returned to San Pedro feeling recharged with excitement for the commencement of the project process and the ability to share the new knowledge with his coworkers who all opted out of coming.

Birthday!

My birthday brownie! Thank you Blintz (and Kimbo) :-)

I decided to have a laid back birthday this year. Well, actually other than prom on my birthday in high school and my 21^st birthday, the majority of birthdays since my teeny-bopper days have all been this way. Teeny-bopper meaning birthday hats and water balloon tosses. Not teeny-bopper as in I still may or may not listen to Justin Bieber. Anyway, so back to my birthday. My site mate, Jacob, gathered together a group of volunteers to have brunch at a local Americanized breakfast place (Blintz). We all ate hamburger-crepes with cappuccinos. Sounds a bit odd but when you live off of eggs, beans, and vegetable soup, this is AMAZING. It was a great morning/afternoon spent with my lovely Quiche crew who constantly prove to be my best allies in this Peace Corps process. Love you guys J

My boyfriend, Venoni, and I then spent the afternoon Paca shopping. This is very similar to yardsaling where you spend endless time searching through piles of junk or old clothes simply to find a trinket that may occupy your time for about 2 days. However, I always find joy in seeing old toys, clothes, or electronics that were prevalent in the States in the 90’s. Before heading back to San Pedro, we bought two movies in the market and a pizza from Dominoes. I ended my birthday in the comfort of my own home while watching movies and enjoying American food with my best friend. It may not have been hiking volcanoes or boating on a lake, but in my mind this was the perfect birthday.

Typical picture of the Quiche group. 

Hospital HIV Taller

Mayra doing the step by step condom demonstration

On Thursday and Friday of last week three other volunteers and I did an HIV workshop with the hospital staff in the local “city” of Quiche. Since they are already educated, the workshop was essentially a review for them. However, Mayra (another volunteer) did GREAT on talking about stigma attached to HIV and AIDS patients. It was a great two days working with these other volunteers. Although each of them grew up speaking Spanish first, aka their parents are from Mexico and El Salvador, I felt like the lost white person in the room who can’t pronounce her r’s. Luckily though, I had the help from these amazing volunteers to get me through. Overall, it was a great experience working in this new environment with the hospital staff in HIV education.

Promoter Group

Duglas, the educator, showing off his awesome
 translator skills to this group of Health Promoters

Yes! I finally started my promoter group in the new community! The training was such a success and the group really appears to be motivated and excited for the rest of the year. The secretary, who accompanied me to Xela , stayed for the entire training despite it being all women. The rest of the COCODE had already left, yet he stayed and took notes. I am seriously so blessed to have him in this group. I know he’s going to be a key component in the success of this group and I look forward to continue working with him.

Another key person in the success of this training was an educator from the health center who joined me to serve as a translator from Spanish to K’iche. Without his help, there’s no way we could have completed the training successfully. I would ask a question in Spanish and frequently receive answers in K’iche. I would just nod and nod while they answered then quickly ask the translator what the person said. 30 seconds later- “AHHH SIII UTZ! MALTIOX XOUWAI NAN!” This means, “Ah, yes, very good. Thank you very much mam.” We left the center at 1:30pm and didn’t return until 6pm. He only gets paid until 4:30pm. Like I said, I am blessed to work with such pilas people.

Tela de Arana/Spider web activity.
 Each person had to say their name and
something positive about themselves

Hospital Emotional Support

I have been visiting the hospital every week for the past 6 weeks or so to volunteer in the pediatric ward. My role is to provide emotional support by doing arts and crafts with both the patients and the parents. Since the mothers all seem to be professional braiders I always bring sets of string for them to use. The first time I gave a mother 3 pieces of string to do a braid, she dropped her hands and said, “What?! Why only 3!?” I then gave her 3 more totaling 6 pieces of string. She then tried teaching me the most intricate braid I’ve ever seen. Therefore, after this I’ve always offered more and the majority of the time the women ask for 6 or 7 pieces.

Often times the parents cannot read or write. I usually write the child’s name in bubble letters and have them color it in if they cannot come up with anything to draw. During these visits I try to learn more about their lifestyles, towns, language, and families.  This secondary project has proved not only to be a great way to learn about health care in a developing country but also to learn more about the Guatemalan culture, other areas of the department, and other Mayan languages.

English Classes

Lastly (and I will try to make this short), I just started teaching English to the teachers in my first community of Primavera. The English teacher for basico, or middle school, has fallen ill and therefore the director approached me to see if I could fill in. Since that would clearly not be sustainable, I offered to teach any of the teachers who would be filling in for him. Since the director had been asking for English classes since I arrived to site he was really pleased with this offer. Here is a picture to show how a pronunciation guide is key and also quite comical for English speakers.

This is just one example of how different
 English is when written and pronounced