Earthquakes!

We've just had two earthquakes this morning - one just before 5 am and one around 9 15 am. The 9 am one hasn't been reported yet, but I think it was stronger than the earlier one.

To read about the 5 am one click here!

---
update: Huffington Post mentions our earthquakes!

----

Update: Tsunami warning after earthquake in Chile

Some little videos of my house

I've been playing with the bluetooth on my phone and have sent these videos of my two rooms! They're not great Calidad, but I hope they give you an idea!









Also, here's a powerpoint I made about my work here, that I'm presenting on Wednesday to my Peace Corps boss and the Area de Salud's doctor.

Fíjase que...

OK, si pues, I didn't end up going to Tikal, which is kind of a bummer (it didn't work out as the bus we were going to take ended up not running and our security officer didn't want us to take an overnight bus do to "dangers on the cross country road at night"). Amazing enough though, I'm not too disappointed as A. I know I will get to Tikal, in fact I may go in April with a friend of mine who is COSing (COS = close of service) in July and B. instead we went to Xocomil for Anne's birthday and it was maybe the funnest day ever.

Xocomil is a waterpark on the way to the coast so it's only about an hour from Xela. It was probably the nicest, cleanest, emptiest water park I've ever been to. We had a great day of running around going on water-slides, lounging in the lazy river, lounging in the wave pool, lounging in the sun...wow Peace Corps, what a TOUGH life!!

OK, but it really was a great break where we could play tourist instead of aid worker, and lay out and not worry about things like, contaminated water, malnutrition or work and just RELAX.

It was great.

Anywho, I've spent all my money now due to that luxurious break, so I'll probably spend the rest of the month moping around site, but it was WELL worth it!

House Visits Galore

So I've been super busy doing house visits this week, I've been going house to house to do a census in one of our communities called Xemuj. House visits are NOT my favorite things to do, mainly because EVERYONE only speaks K'iche (NOT quiche (qu-ee-sh) you awful movie 2012 you!-quiche is something you eat with yummy cheese and veggies inside.) and so I go with my counterpart Romeo, who lives in San Vicente and works in the health center with me. He speaks K'iche and usually does all the talking while I take notes. In addition, everyone wants you to 'eat' something or have a drink while you are at their house...I know, this seems like a very friendly offering, and I'm very grateful for the effort. HOWEVER, I have to take it, to help build confianza with the people, so they'll trust me and talk to me in the future, and about 70% of the time after I eat something made by the people in the campo I end up with some serious diarrhea and/or vomiticious vomiting. It's super. On top of that (you know because that's not enough), there are the dogs... no, they're not dogs, that's being too kind...there are the killer chuchos. They are 'guard dogs' NOT, I repeat NOT pets, their one job is protecting the house from intruders, like thieves, drunks and those evil people from the centro de salud trying to help the community live healthier lives. OH NO!

Anyway we carry around large sticks, and usually (not always) but usually after threatening to smack the dog it'll back off (slowly with teeth still out and a nasty growl as a warning) until you can reach the house... however there are times when you have to give the dog a good (not too good! ... oops) whack before it'll leave you alone. Anyway, nothing makes you fear for your life an angry dog coming at you with its teeth out. NOTHING. Luckily my counterpart Romeo is pretty talented with his stick, and I've yet to be harmed - fingers crossed.