Rights, fights and the freedom to live

I've noticed here in San Vicente, most women get pregnant at age 15 or 16 (sometimes as early as 13 or 14) and spend the rest of their lives in their house. They never leave, Amas de la casa as they're called, never, ever leave their house, they feel like they have to be there in the house all day every day. The kids go to the market after school for anything they need, and the husbands go out and work. I've started to purposly have my charlas at Ferney's house, instead of one of the houses of the women, to force them to walk across the market, and by the muni. Just to get them out. I then talk about the different foods they can get at the markets in Sija and Xela, and the health benefits of eating different types of food instead of beans and tamalitos everyday. I'm not sure if this is working, but I did notice that many kids had pasta salad packed for lunch the other day, one of the recipies we made in my cooking class with lots of veggies and no fried food!

I've also started to have protemas (freeze dried soy protein) stocked in some of the stores in town, it's good because it's easy to make, and is much cheaper then meat but has the same health benefits without the fat. Today one of my cooking classes and I made rice with protemas and salsa de tomate - putting the three main food groups together, carbs, veggies and protein. And best of all, no need for oil (everything people cook here requires at least a cup of oil). I think it went well, and I'm glad the women will be able to buy protemas here in our aldea.


On a "my kitten is adorable but kind of nuts" note: My kitten is working up to catching and eating the mice out of my room by catching and eating insects. It's sort of cute, but I don't really want to cuddle when you have a few spider legs hanging out of your mouth thank you very much.

He also had to get his first rabies shot today (he was so brave!), but I couldn't watch. I walked him up to the centro de salud in my bag and we got there and I had to hand him over to someone else while he got the shot, because I couldn't stand to watch! But he survived and was very brave, and even let a two year old torture him for about fifteen minutes while I had a meeting with ver few complaints.

New Kitten!

So Ferney and I had a meat-fest BBQ last night....OMG so much food, we had corn on the cob, roasted red peppers, spring onions and tomatoes, all done up on the BBQ (quite a challenge to get going, I think BBQs are going to be easier once the dry season starts, but we won! and got the coals lit,...eventually).

We also had tons of meat, potato salad and beer (alcohol free beer for Ferney).

I get home at about 730PM, and there's a little kid waiting for me - he's like, the kittens are ready...I've been talking to his mom about adopting one of her kittens for almost a month, and I suppose she's ready to get rid of them now.

It's been over a year since Penny's died, and I feel like it's an appropriate time for me to get another cat, even though I'm not sure if I'll be able to take him back to the States with me, or wherever I end up going after my 2 years here.

So I walked over and there were two, one orange and on black one. I play a bit with the two of them, and pick the little black one. He kind of looks like a street rat, but he's adorable, and already friends with the two disgusting dogs that live in our house and roams around the compound with the turkies and chickens like he owns the place (even though he's about 1/3 their size!).

I've named him Chum (or Chumy) which means fatty in K'iche, in hopes that maybe he'll put on a few lbs, which I'm sure he will after living with me.

So I'm totally unprepared for this little furball to enter my life, no kitty litter or cat food (he's been going outside, THANK GOD - and eating whatever I eat) And he wouldn't stop crying last night until he was snuggled nice and warm in my bed (I JUST got rid of my fleas, oh well!), so he had a bath today with lots of flea powder, but with his new best friends (the gross animals on the compound) and my unwillingness to make him an indoor cat, fleas are most likely and inevitability.

Here are some pics:

Peace Corps Loony-ness

We have this joke, that after a few months of living in an isolated Aldea for a few months, you begin to go a little nuts. Not badly, just quirky.

It's ok though, because we're all going nuts together, Peace Corps Volunteers have a tendency to talk about things that wouldn't be normal in a conversation outside of our little world. We also accept life here as normal, as we're all living it together, rather than the weirdness it is.

I got a call from Ferney my site mate the other day, he just got cable so he's been watching all sorts of TV crap, the convo went something like this:

F: I'm watching this new show on MTV where they take the spoiled brats from "My Sweet 16" and send them to developing countries as a form of punishment.

Me: that sounds sweet

F: Yeah, there's this one girl, she got sent to India, and walked into her room and there was a chicken sitting on her bed - it made me think of you.

Me: aw, thanks!

----

I will admit, while the chickens that live in my compound are filthy, needy and often-cannibalistic creatures, we have, in our own way - bonded. I mentioned that I recognized a chicken from my compound walking around town the other day; well apparently the recognition goes both ways. If the chickens are let out, they go and feed out on the "street" in front of the compound. Well, if I am walking home while they’re out, they come scurrying up to my feet and I can herd them back through the door. They recognize me too.

Not sure if I'm proud - but it's certainly interesting to see that chickens can recognize people.

The Lake etc.

After making myself ill from gorging on chocolate and salt and vinegar potato chips that were sent by my family, I took the weekend off and went to the Toto and Solola welcome party at Lake Atitlan.

It is really beautiful there, a blue lake surrounded by mountains


We stayed in Panajachel - which is sort of the touristy town - which was fun as there were lots of bars and clubs, and it was also the Feria - so music, rides and food through the night (not to mention fireworks at 4am!). But I want to go back and stay away from Pana and have a nice relaxing weekend there without the craziness. Not that the craziness wasn't appreciated, as it was, but I would quite like to see the more peaceful side of the lake as well.

As it was a tourist town, there were lots of street vendors selling things that you will never, ever need. And let me tell you, after a few daquaries, bargaining is the funnest game ever.

Vendor: 25 Quetzal

Me: 2 Quetzal

Vendor: What? This is good price, I give you good price

Me and/or Courtney: We want the BEST price, five Quetzal

Vendor: No! I can't too low

Me: (walk away) - it's ok I didn't want it anyway

Vendor: (running down the street after me) Fine...OK, I give for Five Quetzal.

Me: Snap, I'm going to have to buy it now aren't I? -

***

Thus, I ended up with some ridiculous star earrings, a stud for my cartilage piercing and the most outrageous and random pipe for Ferney with a smiley face on it, made out of wood and rosin - I thought i was the most (and I quote myself) "freaking awesome pipe from here to the lake". The next morning I realized it was kinda weird, but it's all part of the experience.

Besides that, things have been quite peaceful here, getting back into work and starting some new woman's groups in Pacoj and Santa Lucia.

On a "I'm a crazy person" note - the other day I was walking through the center of town, recognized a chicken as one that lives in my house (yes, I can recognize chickens now), wondered (outloud) what it was doing so far from home, scooped it up, and carried it back to the house. - True story.

Best part - On my way home I ran into someone I knew from town, we stopped and chatted for about five or ten minutes, and while we were chatting the chicken wasn't even mentioned. Like it's normal for a Gringa to walk down the street with a chicken tucked under her arm. Who knows, maybe it is?

Kind of like my birthday, Christmas & cinco de mayo in one

I spent last weekend in Antigua, Guatemala which was loads of fun. I met up with Stephanie Fisher who lived in New Canaan and went to GW with me (she was Nick's friend in New Canaan, and therefore was two years ahead of me at Uni). She's an immigrations lawyer now, and is therefore learning Spanish here in Guatemala.

We spent Saturday hiking up Pacaya, an active volcano near Antigua. When we got up to the top we roasted marshmallows on the lava...it was pretty neat!

On Sunday I went back to San Miguel Duenas to visit my homestay family I lived with for the first three months during training. It was SO MUCH FUN, it was the Feria there, so we ate tons of Churros, and rode on rides that were either human powered or powered by what looked like truck engines from the early 1900's...AMAZING. The ferris wheel was going at about 30 MPH, I thought I was going to die, but once I got to the top with Leo (my 11 year old homestay brother) we had a yo yo competition with the yo yo's we won (by shooting actual rifles at cabbage patch kid stuffed animals...seriously that was a fair-ground game) to see who could get the yo yo to go up and down the most number of times while spinning thru the air on a precarious (at best) wooden wheel. He kicked my butt.

On Monday I made it up to the Peace Corps office where I had THREE amazing packages waiting for me. My amazing family sent me everything from butterfingers to embroidered pillows. It was so wonderful. I had to buy a HUGE grain sack from a hardware store to carry it all back home (it's about a five or six hour trip from the office back to my house on chicken busses!) but SO worth it, I've been gorging myself on good books, homemade chocolate chip cookies, english chocolate, Reeses, Butterfingers and salt and vinegar crisps for the past week. So much so that I'm going into Xela tomorrow and Saturday to go to the gym...I need it.

This weekend is our welcome party at The Lake, so I'm really looking forward to that. We're all staying at the same hostel and going out for dinner and going dancing Saturday night. SO much fun.

Also today the Peace Corps Director for Latin America came to visit our site. She and two other PC employees drove up (they were going to a few sites nearby today) and sat and heard about our work (Ferney and I made a sweet powerpoint presentation this morning...some skills are universal) and our site. I think it went really well, they seemed reasonably impressed with our work and our progress so that's nice.

Other than that it's been the same old stuff you know, chasing chickens, kicking gross dogs out of my house, making beans and tortillas (I now make my own tortillas) and hanging out with preggers indiginous women. Not too shabby.