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!

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update: Huffington Post mentions our earthquakes!

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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.

Dogs, cats and chuchos

So sad news on the home- front, dear Beausie has been put down. I’m glad I got to see him one last time over Christmas while I was home, but it’s still really sad thinking about him gone. Thank goodness I have Ziki Ziki and Nitz Chum Vicente Wood to cuddle with. Although, thanks to those cuddles I now have fleas again (I blame Ziki as Nitz gets a bath about once every three days, to his displeasure).

I was up making re-hydration fluid with a few groups in some of the Caserios that are further away today, on the way home I stopped at the market in Paloma and therefore spent almost the entire day outside without reapplying the sunscreen… oh dear. My face is red as a tomato, however my scalp is the worst… there’s nothing sexier than applying aloe and moisturizer to your part. Living the dream.

I’ve decided that I’m going to scrounge together some money and finally head up to Tikal in February. Kiki (another PC volunteer who lives in Toto) has a friend coming to visit and Ana (another PC volunteer who lives in Toto!) and I have decided to crash their trip and head up with them. Sorry Nitz, your vaccines are going to have to wait another month (best pet owner award of the year). So, look out for pictures, I’m so excited, even if we are only going to be there one night!

Another trick I’ve been working on (as I’ve been doing a lot of house visits recently) is the “stop and stare” when chuchos try to attack you. My normal human instinct when a snarling, foaming dog runs at me is to run as fast as I can away, and throw rocks at it as hard as I can while running. That strategy however, seems to be failing, and therefore I’m taking lessons from my “unofficial” counterpart Zayra, on how to stand still as a statue and stare the dog down. If that fails, you always have a few spare rocks in your bag you can chuck at it. It’s horrifying and has probably taken about fifteen years off of my life, but so far, no fatalities.

Welcome Home

I've been back in site for just under a week, and it's back to work for sure! I've been up to four communities working and tomorrow I hope to go to another. I guess there's no time to really resettle back in, as I already have flea bites, a chicken has laid an egg on my spare bed (dinner! yum!), I'm out of Saldo for my cell phone and I missed the triple day, my newly bathed kitten is out rolling in chicken poo and I'm already tortilla'd out.

However, it's nice to be getting back into a daily schedule and getting back to work.

It's so nice right now, as although it's really dry (lots of dust on the roads, so I need to sweep ever day) the sun is out every day, so it's not too cool if you're out in the sun. Luckily, I was given lots of lovely moisturizers for Christmas so I'm moisturizing to keep from getting too dry in this weather.

Anyway just a quick note to say, I'm back in site, back at work and doing well (except that my cold came back...but I'm taking lots of vitamin C, so hopefully it won't last too long).

Happy 2010!

So it's back to reality. I've just come back from about three weeks (maybe closer to two) in England, for Christmas and then we went to France to ski for New Years (of course I got tonsilitis so I became a very talented Chalet bunny, if I do say so myself).

I flew into Guatemala city last night, spent the night at a very posh hotel near the outskirts (thanks Dad!) and am now back in the Peace Corps Office trying to get some paperwork done. I was REALLY hoping to get back to San Vicente today, but it doesn't look like that's happening as everyone's dissappeared for lunch and will probably not be back for a while, and I'm looking at a five or six hour trip back and it's already 2pm. ARG.

However, there is a silver lining as I will most likely be able to spend the evening with Robin and Jasmine, two volunteers who were in the same training group as me and have decided to ET (Early Termination aka quit). Robin got engaged over the holiday (congrats!) and Jasmine worked as a volunteer in Boliva before coming to Guatemala and I think she's ready for a normal life. So we'll have a nice send off evening (Ladies night at Mono Loco! oh NO!) and I'll get back to site tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a GREAT Christmas and New Years, I'll update once I'm back in site (if I ever get there).