I just spent the last two hours with my hands inside a Turkey!

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It's official, Turkey the Ginny is dead.

We bought Turkey the Ginny about two months ago (mas o menos) and since then he's consumed a large amount of liquor (apparently it pre-marinades the meat). Let me tell you how entertaining a drunk turkey is, super entertaining.

He will be missed, however, at 12:15pm today, Wednesday, November 25, Turkey the Ginny was hung from his little feet and his neck was cut. It was quick, and I'd like to think he was too drunk to really realize what was going on - but it had to happen, in order for our thanksgiving feast to be complete.

I get home, and cut him open and take out the inside parts. Take a while cleaning the stomach and put the gizzards in to cook (Nitz had a WONDERFUL dinner tonight, of stomach, liver and legs!). I cleaned him out and stuck him in the fridge.

Tomorrow I'll make Ferney's birthday ice cream cake (well, we'll see about the ice cream part as it melted on the camioneta ride home from Xela, and dripped all over my costal.) and cinnamon cake. In the evening (after the camp of about 40 kids, which I'm going to have to do alone because Ferney's out of town) I'm making the stuffing and going to sew dear ol' Turkey the Ginny back up.

We're not celebrating 'till friday, as it's easier for everyone to get here on friday (yay!), and we're hoping to have about 15 people come to our site to celebrate! It's going to be awesome.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving, I wish I could be at a giant table filled with everyone I love, however know that while I'm devouring dear old Turkey the Ginny, I'll be thinking of everyone I love and knowing that I'll see you soon!

Just to end this post the "right way"...Turkey the Ginny's head is in a bowl in my fridge, I'm giving it to Ferney as a birthday present. I'm am for sure, the Best Sitemate EVER.

Letter to myself:

Dear Philippa,

If in the future you ever decide to climb the highest mountain in Central America, or any mountain in that case; please, please, please, DO NOT go out the entire week before you go. You will regret it.

Good luck with this challenge,

Yourself.

DIGRESSION:

Last week was a HOT MESS. It was great fun and a lot of work, as we all headed back to the Peace Corps office near Antigua for Reconnect, celebrating our 3rd month in site and our 6th month in country. We all stayed at a really cheap hostel called 58B (it's actually just the address, the hostel itself doesn't really have a name) and had a great time. However, we also worked really hard as we had more training and spanish class. We did however party just as hard as we worked, as it's very rare that our entire training group is together. Anyway - I headed home on Saturday (not feeling 100% - and the LONG, BUMPY camioneta ride did not help - it takes about 6 or 7 hours to get home from Antigua).

Anyway I get home, totally exhausted - pick up my kitten from Ferney's, make some food, pack for sunday, chat with the family and pass out.

On Sunday I was up at 5 AM - grab my bag and head out to catch the bus, still feeling a bit off (I'm def. not 18 anymore). We make it to San Marcos (after a short stop in Xela for food and supplies) and prepare to hike Tajumulco, the highest mountain in Central America.

This is us at the bottom, before the pain.



We had big packs, as it gets really, really cold at the top and I was therefore exhausted and winded after about five minutes of walking. As it's an old volcano, so it is all uphill. ALL OF IT.

We walk for about 4-5 hours (I'm about to die) before we get to base-camp. We set up the tents, make a fire, eat some food and pass out.

Monday morning we wake up at 4 AM, and with flashlights in hand head up to the peak in time for sunrise. At this point I'm exhausted and sore from the day before, and thinking what on God's green earth, could be worth this amount of pain.

Then we get to the top and see this:





And I think...oh, wow, this was WAY worth it, and although I'm still in a bit of pain, I feel like this:



It was a GREAT hike, painful, long, but great, and here's a group shot of us all at the top, because we made it!!

Rainy Day

So apparently there's a hurricane down in Nicaragua that has caused some very unpleasant rain storms up here. However as I live up in the beautiful mountains, this morning, the rain was actually sleet. Nothing better then waking up in the morning and heading out to the pila - soap and towel in hand - for a nice face wash (as it's the only running water at the moment) only to realize that it's sleeting out. Regardless, my face is a little dirty at the moment.

Pues, I had the, "do I really have to walk to work today" speech with myself, and decided against going up to the centro de salud, as I had to work on a charla anyway, and could do that at home without walking through the now icky wet rain.

So, for the first time really, I spent the entire day hanging out with my kitten. Just the two of us. I found out many things about him:

A. He likes Negro, the mean dog with one eye that lives in my compound and likes to growl at me. They're actually 'friends' and I saw Negro share some food with Chum - something that is not only unnecessary as my little muffin is getting rather fat (true to his name: Chum in K'iche means chubby) but also UNHEARD of in the world of chuchos, I've seen dogs get seriously beat up over a morsel of food they try to grab from another dog.

B. Chum likes spicy food, especially "fuego" flavored Takis, a delicious if not somewhat overwhelming flavor of chip here. In fact, if I'm eating a bag and don't share I get an awful (and by that I mean awfully loud) telling off.

C. Chum has been sneaking food from the family that lives upstairs, apparently his adorable charms are not spent all on me, and when the family's eating, he finds his way upstairs and sits under the plancha (the stove/table where the family sits) and has bits of food slipped to him by EVERY member of the family (no wonder he's living up to his name so marvelously)


Anyway, it's certainly been an informing day - I write this now with Chum draped over the back of my neck like a mink shawl, purring ridiculously. If not a little cold and wet. So I think I'll retire from the computer for a while and make myself some hot chocolate, Guatemala style (read: about a pound of sugar).

Todos Santos Pics - All Saints Day

Todos Santos, or All Saints day is a day where most Guatemalans go to the cemetery and pay respects to their departed relatives, however in Todos Santos, Huehuetenango, it is a day for horse racing in traditional traje.

We hiked up to Huehue saturday morning, (after spinning class of course) and had a Halloween party at a house we rented that night. There were TONS of volunteers, most of whom I've never met before as I usually only see volunteers from the Xela/Toto/Chimal area.

We also woke up Sunday morning to a bit of a surprise. I was heading out of the bathroom (which is outside on the patio) with no shoes on, and hair that looked like I had been dancing till goodness knows when, the evening before, when I see 2 big suburbans and a few men with earpieces and guns hanging out outside of the house.

Great...The American Ambassador decided to visit the volunteer who lives next door, luckily A. he didn't come into the house we were renting and B. He brought brownies.

After a delicious breakfast we headed down to the races, and after a few hours of watching the races we hiked back up to the town for some shopping (please refer back to the pictures of Ferney in Traje...priceless).

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!

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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.