Adjusting and all

So I’ve moved into my new house…it seems like it’s going to work out well (fingers crossed). I’m living with a family, however I’m living in the bottom floor of their house. So have my own space, and my own bathroom….I just need to fill it with stuff now. As all I have are my bags and a bed. BUT…I have two years right? Oh and my shower doesn’t exist yet, I was promised that it would be put in today…fail, but I’m ASSURED it will be put in tomorrow. Regardless I’m super sucio right now and living a la tiempo chapina.

I had a weird/good/interesting weekend. On Friday I got a call from my boss, Wendy, saying that the Ambassador to the United States was going to Momostenango, the capital of my district and she was asking all volunteers that live in the area to come. Now, I may live in Momos, but getting to the city of Momos for me is difficult as all the buses that pass my town go to Xela, which is south, and Momos is East of here. So I have to go about an hour south, then get on a bus to Momos and go about an hour and a half north east. BUT… it was pretty cool because I met the other Momo’s volunteers and we also got to hang out with the Ambassador, who is super interesting and interested in the Peace Corps. At one point we just chilled on one of the volunteer’s roof and talked about his job and working in the Foreign Service.

On Sunday I had to get up early to go to Xela to get rent money (closest ATM) and then chilled out a bit with Ferney and then moved into my new house.

I’ve been working with primary schools. Introducing Salud Preventiva and just getting to know the kids. I’ve also attended a few meetings with the various communities near by and am going to start going house to house with an impuesta to see how their living conditions are and what their most urgent needs are. So I’ve been staying busy which is good and my boss is coming to visit me on Wednesday (great)…but the employees of the Centro de Salud are going on an excursion to the beach on Friday (yeah!..and bring the sunscreen), so I’m looking forward to that!!

I may have been sick...

I may have had a bacteria infection, but Courtney (thanks!) insisted we still get a photo with the US Ambassador during our swearing in ceremony.

I think he´s talking or something....

Life as a volunteer has begun

So here I am, I just finished my second day as a Peace Corps volunteer in my site, San Vincente, and let me tell you...I´m exhausted.

My work is great, so far I´m busy writing up schedules, and scheduling meetings, finishing paperwork and getting to know people.

GOOD NEWS

• I have a house!

I looked at it yesterday, it seems to be the best of both worlds as it´s the ground floor of a house with a family. But I have my own entrance and bathroom. I move in this weekend (now I just need a bed and drawers or something...)

• I have work!

As trainees we´re told over and over that the first three months of our service is difficult as we have nothing to do...this is NOT my problem. I just wrote up a tentative schedule for next month and every week day (and some weekends) are FULL...I should be home working right now.....

• I like my site!

San Vincente is SUPER rural, and beautiful. The people are friendly and except for a number of bolos (drunk people) there doesn´t seem to be much crime or anything (minus one incident a few weeks ago that included a mob, surveyors and my site mate having to leave for a few days...but that seems to have blown over!)

BAD NEWS

• If you ever have the option...try not to ever, ever spend 6 hours on a chicken bus with a bacteria infection and three very large bags... it is super unpleasant...
• I think I also have ameobas
• I have no furniture for my empty 2 rooms, nor am I sure how to aquire furniture here, as I have no car and live in the middle of nowhere
• I had a bacteria infection and was SUPER ill over swear in weekend...our first opportunity to go out together...well played.
• I have a really bad head cold and cough

So all in all life is interesting...But I´m surviving and once I heal I´m sure all will be well!

Some quick events

So...

I just thought I'd throw down my introduction to my site, so you could get a feel for it.

First, my first day on my site visit.

It was NUTS, I didn't really know where I was or what I was meant to be doing. I show up at the Centro de Salud and meet Sara a GREAT social worker who I am excited about working with. She says we're going to go up to one of the communities, and asks if it's alright if we walk. I say yeah walking is great I'm excited and we head out.

We start cutting up through a milpa field and climb up over a hill and walk down the other side in an empty river bed. I'm in boots, and not at all prepared for this hike, and it is a hike. At one point we have to climb up over boulders and jump off. After two or three hills (going up and down, on various forms of paths) we finally get to a river. As we approach the river I see a dog laying in the grass and a cow tied to a tree grazing. Next to them is a man in full traje (traditional dress) with a really old worn cowboy hat on.

It was such an idyllic scene, I thought we could have been walking through time, and seeing an image from hundreds of years ago. I admire it before I start to ford the river, and then he turns a little bit and I notice something. The man is actually talking on his cell phone.

That pretty much sums up my site I think. Everyone has cell phones, but no one really has flushing toilets. People have relatives in the States who send back money. With that money hug houses are built with ten or eleven rooms. However, the houses don't have running water, lights or a bathroom. WHY?!!

I think some of my charlas are going to be on financial planning.

Some Photos

It's our last week of training, we swear in at the Ambassador's house on Friday. This week we've been wrapping up, mainly up at the Office.

But here are some photos of my site from last week!

Some PCV (Peace Corps Volunteers) hanging out in Xela

The main road out of my Aldea

A view from Ferney's roof

San Vincente

Site visit

I don't have much time and I hope to post some photos later today or tomorrow, but I just wanted to write down about my week long site visit.

For the past week I've been living in my site in San Vicente Buenabaj, Momostenango, Totonicapan. My site mate Ferney is great, and there are some great people to work with at the Health Center.

Mostly a Social Worker called Sara, who took me out to many different communities (there are 14 in San Vincente) to introduce myself and get to know some of the groups.

On Friday I also helped to give the 4 hour HIV charla with Ferney to a school of kids, which was tiring but great practice.

I still don't have a place to live, but I'm hoping something will come up before I move back there on Sunday...we'll see. But I sort of want to move in with Ferney as he has two extra rooms in his house and a flush toilet and a shower that is almost luke warm...sometimes.

The site itself is really rural, all dirt roads, and is in beautiful mountainous countryside. And it is really, really, really cold (for Guatemala). You need lots of blankets and layers to stay warm, especially at night.

Must run, but I hope to upload some photos soon!
xo (and happy birthday Shivvy!)

Just because

First of all:

Second of all:

We had a great 4th of July party yesterday near the Peace Corps office in Santa Lucia.  Beer...boxed wine....hamburgers...potato salad...dancing...chaos...good times where all included.

I hope everyone else had a happy 4th!

The good, the bad and the ugly

The past eight days (or so) have been absolutly insane, I don´t even know where to start so I´m going to break it down by good and bad and insane.

Good:
We had a GREAT weekend at the beach (not counting the sunburn I brought home on my legs, but it´s not THAT bad).

All of our families (and extended family) from Dueñas rented a 28 person microbus and the four of us from Dueñas as well as Courtney from Pastores and Anna from San Lucas, piled in (I think there were 29 people) with all of our stuff and headed down to Las Lisas, a beach near the El Salvedor border. It was NUTS...we get there and the first thing we see is their pet Racoon on a leash...it´s name is Jackie.


To get to the house (the ¨house¨we stayed at was in a compound owned by Doña Vila´s family, she is the homestay mother of Katherine here in Dueñas...) we drove about 2.5 hours and all of a sudden the road ended...it just ended, and we were clearly in a town, not where we were staying. But, the entire family got out of the microbus (not an easy task), and bags and logs were thrown (literally) off of the roof. I had no idea what was going on, but before I knew it, we were being herded into a small covered boat...all 29 of us

(see the covered boat on the right...exactly like that, the engines were 15 horse power and we had a LOT of stuff).

We finally stop at a beautiful sandbar island with a lagoon-bay in the back and the Pacific Ocean in the front. It was beautiful!

We had amazing food (including a caldo which had surprise animals in it, most of whom still had their eyes) and relaxed under palm trees and drank Cuba Libres. It was perfect.

In addition to that...

I FINALLY GOT MY SITE!

(way to bury the lead right?)

I will be living in Aldea San Vicente Buenabaj, Momostenango, Totonicapan


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It´s an indígena community that speaks mainly Quiche...good luck!...it´s a farming community that produces corn, trigo, potatoes, habas, arvejas, beer and pears.

I will have a site mate who has been there for a year and is in the Youth Development program, I will meet him at the 4th of july party on Saturday (can´t WAIT!).

ok so now to the BAD:

I think that many times people don´t understand what a Peace Corps Volunteer is. We´re not volunteers, not really...we volunteer to work abroad, but once we´re here, we have a job, we get paid (not alot, but enough to eat and live) and we have a lot of real work. So like any job, the Peace Corps has an interview, however, it´s interview is 3 months long and called training.

During training we´re watched, talked about and judged as to whether or not this country and program is right for us. It´s hard.

Recently our good friend Haley was asked to leave. It was sad, because she didn´t break any rules, it was just decided that she wasn´t a good fit for the program and sent home.

We will miss her and I wish her all the best in her future endevours.