Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo!

Last Sunday I enjoyed my first Christmas in Guatemala. I did not, however, celebrate in true Guatemalan style. There were fireworks, which filled the streets with smoke and loud, gunfire-like sounds but not too many bright colors. It seems as though sound is valued over bright colors popping in the sky, which is my preference, but no one asked me. Guatemalans traditionally eat tamales at midnight on the 24th, which are cornmeal and meat boiled in a banana leaf (the christmas ones are special because they put dried fruit in them as well). The other thing that is served at christmas is ponche, a warm fruit punch served with lots of fruit still in it. I didn't have either of those on Christmas because Penni and I were at the beach. Seafood is pretty much impossible to come by here in Quiche (unless you want to figure out how to cook the tiny dried shrimp that sit next to other equally questionable dried animal bits)so we had seafood on the 24th. I really enjoyed the typical Garifuna dish, tapado, which has plantain, coconut milk, fish, shrimp, and crab. It was my first time on the Carribean coast of Guatemala, and although the beaches weren't as nice as I hoped there was still a lot of fun to be had.
We didn't stay long in Rio Dulce but the boat ride between there and Livingston was really pretty. There is a colonial era castle, lots of cranes, cormorants and pelicans and gorgeous tropical foilage. In Livingston we hiked the Siete Altares (seven altars) which is a series of waterfalls that are a short boat ride or an hour and a half hike from the main part of town. We hiked on the way there and then took a taxi for the second half of the way back because rainy season isn't over in that part of the country and we kept getting rained on. We also went Canoeing and had a pelican land in the water less than a foot from the Canoe! It was not scared of us at all and actually seemed like it wanted something. Maybe it is used to tourists throwing bits of food, but we didn't have anything and he eventually went away.
The weekend before Christmas Penni arrived and we hung out in Antigua. Saturday morning we hiked Pacaya, which is an active volcano and we got to roast marshmellows and warm up in a steam vent. It was a much easier hike than Santa Maria in Xela but still had great views of the other surrounding volcanoes. We also had a really fun tour guide who was wearing a leopard print scarf without a trace of irony. This is not terribly uncommon however (men wearing women's fashions unknowingly) because clothes arrive from the states in big bales and then are separated by newness, quality, etc but not by the gender for which they were originally intended. From Antigua we headed back to Cunen so that Penni could get to know my site. We hiked to the waterfall, went to a few of the communities I work in and she met my coworkers and host family.
The first picture is of decorating the Christmas tree my host sister and Melissa's host brother helped me find and the second is from the English class Christmas party. We had baked chicken instead of Turkey but there was stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and we made brownies for dessert.
It was, unsurprisingly not a very successful month for work, with several meetings cancelled at the last minute by the community members. I hope to get some good work done in January before people are carried away with preparing for the town fair which is January 30th-February 3rd.

thanksgiving and turtles

It has been quite a while since I updated. The last month has been a mix of ups and downs. I wanted to sit down and write several times, but it never felt right. My uncle who always read my blog passed away, and it was difficult to not be able to be home with the family. Thinking about updating the blog felt like writing him a letter he would not read. He was so encouraging of the work I am doing and was a positive influence in my life.

It was a fairly normal month in terms of work, I met with the regular women's and promoter groups. Topics this past month were natural disasters and emergency planning, first aid, reproductive health, and family planning. I also taught cooking/nutrition classes; we made some super yummy black bean burgers and in another class we made pineapple jelly. The promoters in all my groups are getting close to graduation. I will still be working with them after graduation, but more in a facilitator position to help them figure out their role in the community.

Last week I celebrated Thanksgiving all over Guatemala. Wenedsday night some friends and I cooked dinner in a cute hostel in Xela-- we bought part of a turkey (there were only four of us) and put that in the oven for a few hours and spent the day cooking and playing spades. It was really lovely. There were also sweet potatoes, stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, green beans sauteed in garlic, a spinach salad, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Needless to say, there were tons of leftovers and we had them in a modified version for brunch the next day. Then, I ended up going to Earth Lodge outside of Antigua for dinner Thursday night where another Thanksgiving meal was served. As it turned out, I had Thanksgiving three meals in a row! It was an extremely delicious and successful Thanksgiving for being out of the US.

On Friday I hopped on a bus headed toward the coast, and with only minimal difficulties arrived later that day in Monterrico. The Pacific coast of Guatemala is mostly black sand beaches, and Monterrico is one of the nicest and best known on that side of the country. It has turtle hatcheries, boat tours, and other tourist attractions. Both days I woke up early and saw a beautiful sunrise, Saturday on the beach and Sunday in a mangrove swamp. Apart from the turtles there are caimans, iguanas, herons, pelicans, sting rays and many more animals I don't know the name of but enjoyed seeing. Watching the pelicans skim the breaking waves for food was very cool. The tide is very strong in Monterrico, so I never went in too deep, but I'm hoping to make a trip to the caribbean coast for Christmas and make up for that. Penni will be coming to visit, so I think we'll be visiting the Livingston/Rio Dulce area. I am very excited to have her here to help me celebrate my first Christmas in Guatemala (I made it home to PA last year).

Both of my sitemates are away right now, and it has been odd but enjoyable to be the only gringa in Cunen. Today was spent planning for international HIV/AIDS day (Dec 1). A coworker and I will be doing a workshop and poster contest with the young people here, so we walked around today and put up posters promoting the activities.
After work I stopped by my old host family's house and chatted over an atol with them, then we watched some telenovelas, played go-fish and they invited me to stay for dinner, which was nice. They had been visiting relatives in another town for a few weeks so it had been a while since we'd spent time together. I've also been spending more time with my landlady and her niece. The three of us go jogging together most mornings. Now that it is the dry season, there are usually pretty awesome views of sunrise and the mist rising out of the valley and moving between the mountains. Although it sometimes feels really far away from everything, Cunen is a very beautiful place to live.

planning projects, aka I am almost done asking for help

Time is going so quickly! Next week is November, which means we shouldn't be expecting any more rain, woohoo!! We've had several days of sun, so I have clean, dry clothes and purified water (I hand-wash and line-dry my clothes so if it rains a lot nothing dries, I also purify my water using the solar ray method, leaving a 2-3 liter bottle of tap water on the roof for a full day of sunshine). Now that the rain has stopped we have clear, cold nights, with so many stars! With so little pollution (light or otherwise) and the altitude, I think around 6,000ft, the view of the stars is amazing but it is quite chilly. I am sitting here in a jacket and scarf but during the day a t-shirt is still fine.

I will be turning in the SPA application soon to be reviewed in November. When I turn it in I need to show a breakdown of how the money for the project will be spent and where the money is coming from (split between the community contribution, the municipal donation, donations via Friends of Guatemala and then how much I am asking SPA for) so if anyone would like to donate to the stove project in Llano Grande and has not done so already, please send that off in the next week or so (and email me to let me know that you did so, there is a bit of lag time while FOG processes the checks-- katemhoffer@gmail.com).
And a huge thank you to everyone who has donated!! I sent postcards as well, I hope they got there OK since the mail system here isn't 100% reliable.

This coming weekend is Halloween, which is not celebrated here, and November 1st is Todos Santos (All Saints day), which is celebrated. My sitemates and I will be celebrating both holidays in Antigua or near Antigua. There is a kite festival in a community about half an hour away from Antigua on Todos Santos. Kites are starting to pop up all over the place; many are home-made with different colored crepe-paper and sticks. The traditional belief is that the kite symbolizes the connection between the world of the living and the world of the dead, one end held by the person on earth and the kite up above in the sky. In Sumpango, where the festival is held, the best and biggest kites in the whole country are displayed on Todos Santos. I will be posting pictures next week!
People here also re-paint and bring flowers to the tombs of their relatives/ancestors and on November 1st they take lunch and eat in the cemetery. It is a day to celebrate ancestors and honor them by visiting and decorating their graves.

down in the valley

Cunen is in a valley ringed by mountains. It has its distinct advantages, one of which is a marked temperature difference from the higher mountain towns where it is only warm in the middle of the day when the sun is out. For the last two weeks it has been like living in a bowl of clouds. The sun has been out three days in the last two weeks and only one of those days did it stay out for long. The clouds drift in and sit, making it impossible to see past the lower mountains surrounding us.
I have always felt the effects of a lack of sunlight pretty quickly; after a few days with no sunshine it is much harder to get out of bed in the morning and I have very little energy throughout the day. The cold that has accompanied this rainy spell makes it that much harder to get out and do things. The only time I am warm is if I am hiking around, or in bed with lots of wool blankets. I haven't felt sad during this stretch of clouds and rain but it does sometimes feel like living in a dream world that is somewhere between waking and sleeping.
To cheer myself up and try to still accomplish things I make lots of hot tea, read online news to remind myself that the world outside of the cloud bowl still exists, and listen to Stevie Wonder-- I think it's literally impossible to listen to Stevie and not feel at least a little bit happier. I've also been reading a lot, as always, but because the rain has caused a lot of landslides that keep me from leaving home I have had an usually large amount of free time. I recently read The Feast of the Goat, about the Trujillo era in the Dominican Republic. It was a nicely layered story with good characters and lots of real Dominican history. I also read The Help, Year of Wonders, The 40 Rules of Love, The Hunger Games and am currently reading The Last Novel. Those are just the books I've read in the last two weeks. It has been rather nice, but I am hoping that the rain holds off and I can get back to work soon.
My sitemates have been doing mostly the same, we all share books and when we get tired of solitary activities we get together and cook. Melissa and Nicole both really like baking, so I have been eating more than my fair share of cinnamon rolls, cookies and scones. We were on Standfast for about a week, which means we cannot leave our community, and Melissa changed it to StandFEAST which describes pretty accurately what we've been doing. I get tired of sweet stuff after a while and crave salt and veggies so I've made sure we eat at least one regular meal a day with vegetables in it.

There have been a few days where the rain held off for long enough to safely get to the communities where I work. I have been pleasantly surprised by the commitment of the health promoters I am training. The groups have shrunk with time, but the people who are still attending the health talks are genuinely interested in helping their communities. Volunteerism is not as big here as in the states, so convincing people to sign up for a program where they will be doing health education for free was rather difficult. Now, after almost a year of working with the different groups I have three health promoter groups in three different communities. One only has three members, but they are really involved and have already given several health talks independently, even on days where I had to be somewhere else working. Another group has about six or seven promoters that show up regularly to meetings and they have been invaluable in doing all the house visits necessary before completing the SPA application. It has also been a great bonding experience to hike all over the mountains together visiting houses and joking and sharing our snacks. We even joke and laugh together, which I wasn't really expecting since they are from a very small, reserved community that is not hostile but definitely not warm to outsiders. In another community there is a group of eight to ten people that come to the trainings but its been a while since we had one. They live in one of the harder to get to communities and the road gets washed out when the rain is bad.
I was able to skype my friend Peter, who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon, earlier today. It has been a really interesting experience staying in touch and comparing experiences. It's a great support to have someone that understands many of the frustrations of PC life (there are a lot of shared experiences, but also many differences) and its a reminder of how different each posting is. Signing up for Peace Corps, you don't really know where they're going to send you and my experience would be drastically different if I were living somewhere else. I am happy that I am where I am.

ain't no sunshine...

Oh I cannot wait for rainy season to be over. I think I have made it through the day with dry feet maybe once in the past week. And there are new mudslides pretty frequently on the main roads, so I haven't been out of northern Quiche since the beginning of September. The weather should improve towards the end of the month; I just have to aguantar (tolerate/bear) a few more weeks. The only thing that saves this season from being unbearable is the fog that rolls down the mountains and hangs over everything. It is really magical looking; especially in the afternoons before the rain when the dark thunderclouds gather behind the mountains and in the valley the clouds are low and misty.

The Hearts and Hands group was awesome, as usual. I really enjoy watching the group dynamic develop over the week. By mid-week each person has their tasks mastered in the stove-building process and my job as translator isn't so much to help them understand each other to build the stove, but to let the volunteers get to know the Guatemalan technician and the families who are receiving the stoves. It was an especially fun group of Canadian volunteers because all of them had been on a H&H trip before so they were already comfortable with the work, each other, climate/food changes and it was a smaller group than usual so we all bonded quickly.

Things are moving along with the stove project in Llano Grande. I met with community leaders from the Community Development Committee to put the final touches on the SPA application this morning. We only need a few more letters/signatures about municipal support and contracts for skilled labor and we'll be able to send it off for review.

Melissa and I started teaching English again after a summer break that was then extended to include the weeks around elections and independence day. It is fun to be working with our students again. I was impressed to hear how much they remembered after a few months without classes. We did a review class last week and will be starting with new material this Wednesday. They can introduce themselves, ask where someone is from, describe their families and hometowns and other things that are useful for basic conversation.

Sunday, which is pretty much always my day to relax, do laundry and go to the market was extra special this week. While walking the market circuit Melissa and I paused by an ayote. It is pumpkin-like gourd that Guatemalans prepare by boiling in cinnamon and brown sugar for Dia de los Santos (Nov 1st). We stood for a while and debated the pros and cons of buying it. It was huge and it was clear it would be difficult to break down for recipes, but I love pumpkin things in the fall and have been thinking about all the deliciousness that I am missing out on back home. We asked the price (10 quetzales, about a $1.25) and decided that it was worth a try. Several hours and one grater accident later, we were enjoying pumpkin bread (3 loaves) and ayote prepared the traditional Guatemalan way (enough for about 5 people) and we still had a fourth of the raw ayote!

It has been far too long since I put up pictures, I often forget to take my camera with me to events and then when I do take pictures the internet is so slow because of the rain that I haven't been able to upload any. I will work on that the next sunny day that I am around and at the computer.

cabin fever

I've made it safely through the first round of elections here and only suffered from ennui, which, considering the hubbub leading up to all of this, is quite good. I live on the outskirts of town which saved me from hearing the campaign songs that played all day everyday for the last few months. The songs were especially annoying because they are all popular songs redone with political lyrics, so I'd be walking down the street and start bobbing my head to Don Omar only to realize the lyrics are about jobs and progress instead of dancing.
Elections were Sunday a week ago and then the town immediately transitioned into preparations for Independence day, which was Thursday. There was a great parade with every school in town wearing different outfits and doing human pyramids and other routines as they went through town. I took tons of pictures but my internet is very slow so I'll have to post them later.
As I suspected it would be, work was very slow the last two weeks and that gave me way too much time to worry about work without actually being able to accomplish much. I had a few meetings and went around to different hardware stores to price the materials for the stoves. Right now I'm working on the community proposal with my counterpart and some community leaders to apply for Small Project Assistance grant money (through USAID) but its quite a process and we'll have to have a few more meetings before that can be sent off for review.
This coming week I'll be in the next town over working with Hearts and Hands, a Canadian organization that builds stoves in that municipality, doing translating and stove building. I'm very much looking forward to the work; the Guatemalan staff is really great and I'm getting to know some of the Canadians that come as there are usually a few that come more than once a year (this will be my fourth time working with the organization). Its also nice to have a clear-cut job since Peace Corps work is very rewarding but everything requires a lot of patience and flexibility because things often change and because of the difficulty of communication (no one has land lines, many people have pre-paid cell phones but never have money on them, so they can't call you anyway) there is always a touch of uncertainty about whether an event will happen as planned.
It has been an interesting and trying couple of weeks and I am looking forward to more work and a change of pace. It will also be good to be busy and not have to dwell on my extreme jealousy of everyone who is able to celebrate the beginning of fall with pumpkin spice lattes.

heavy rains and bad roads

This year it seems like bad weather is not just a Guatemalan problem; people here in Cunen have mentioned the earthquake and hurricane that hit the US last weekend. It hasn't been so drastic here yet, but we've had tons of rain every single night starting in the afternoon or evening that makes a deafening noise on my metal roof. The rain also makes traveling, even within my municipality, pretty awful. The road up to some of the communities I work in isn't paved, so when the rain gets bad the gravel gets washed away in some places creating deep ditches and holes and the micro-buses aren't exactly in tip-top shape so its a very bumpy ride.
But the rain is a nice excuse to drink lots of tea and read when I'm not out working, no one really leaves their houses when its raining this hard. I just finished "La Casa de los Espíritus" by Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits). It's definitely the longest book that I've read in Spanish and although I still had to look up some words it was an enjoyable read.
I've been here in Cunen since I got back from in-service training and the weekend at Lake Atitlan, which has been good for catching up on work and spending time with my friends here Cunen. The people I see the most are my sitemates Melissa and Nicole; we cook dinner together several nights a week and alternate between southern dishes (Melissa is from Georgia and anything that calls for frying she does incredibly well. She also shares my addiction to way too much salt) and curries or stir-fry. I also visit with my old host family in the evenings sometimes. The room where I lived the first six months in Cunen is now a sitting room where Maria Isabel and I played Candyland when I last visited. I brought Candyland back from the States when I was home in July and she absolutely loves it. Just like six year-olds all over the world, she likes to play the same game over and over and over again. I think we played six games in row before I suggested we go outside and see the family's animals. They have a goat, which I'm not sure what they plan to do with and a whole family of ducks which I'm pretty sure is destined for the dinner table.
As predicted, the combination of heavy rain, build-up for the upcoming elections and Independence day has affected attendance of some of my health talks and training but there have still been many good days. This month I trained many of my groups in the basics of first aid, the importance of vaccines and also did a training with local teachers on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. Some of the promoters I've been working with also did their first health talks at a school last week. It was a great moment to watch them; when I first started working in Cunen it was a struggle to get groups formed to listen to my health talks, so having a promoter group that is far enough along in training to present a talk without me is pretty awesome.
Tomorrow morning I will be headed out of town in the early hours to go to the Quiche celebration of national health workers' day. There will be a parade, a basketball tournament (Melissa is playing and I'm cheering from the stands) and a dance! I'm very excited; last year I didn't feel as close to my coworkers so this year should be much more fun.

touching base with Peace Corps: lots of meetings!

After a full week of in-service training I feel very intimidated by the amount of work I have to do between now and November. The first three days last week we practiced making different infrastructure projects—stoves, cement floors and latrines. By day two, I realized I am in terrible cement mixing shape. I’ve got the technique down pretty well from all the years working with Dad, but the most heavy lifting I’ve done recently is carrying bags full of health talk or cooking demonstration materials. I was so sore for a few days. It was a fun couple of days because the families we worked with all had young kids who kept asking questions about how to say different words in English and talking about their favorite American musicians. They were big Michael Jackson fans and said that it’s a popular belief in Guatemala that he didn’t actually die or that he did die, but then came back to life. It was pretty funny.
After the infrastructure training we had project design management training with our Guatemalan counterparts. I still do not have a good working relationship with my official counterpart at the health center but a community leader from Llano Grande and a representative of Save the Children, a NGO that works in Cunen, who translates the health talks and trainings for the health promoters into K’iche’ for me both came to the workshop. We talked through all the different phases of planning a community project, from pricing the materials, paid labor and getting municipal, community and outside funding. It’s going to be a crazy process, but I’m looking forward to a new challenge since I’ve been in the health talk routine for over a year and am feeling ready to make this happen.
Friday, after our morning meeting, Melissa, Nicole and I headed to Panajachel for a much needed break. There we enjoyed crepes, lattes, the amazing Saturday barbeque at La Rumba, reading time in hammocks at La Iguana Perdida, some mediocre live music aided by mojitos and restocking on peanut butter and other hard-to-find groceries. It was a great weekend.
Today I went with Melissa to one of her communities to do a health promoter meeting. We talked about birth control and intrafamily violence. As always in such a conservative culture, it took a lot of explaining that this was just an informational session and because they are training to be health promoters they should know these things but we’re not forcing anyone to use birth control. There was a lot of giggling and also some people that sounded upset, but it’s always hard to tell when the discussion is happening in really rapid K’iche’. But when we did the condom demonstration a good portion of the group was paying close attention. There were still some people who were pointedly looking away, but it’s a touchy issue since many of them are opposed to birth control for religious reasons. Hopefully some of them will feel comfortable enough with the topic to talk about the different methods once they have finished training.
The last few months have been absolutely nuts with elections coming up on September 11th but the political propaganda music and parades will be coming to an end in less than a month! The beginning of September will be tough to get work done because right after elections is September 15th, Guatemala’s independence day. But working around local/national holidays is pretty much a constant struggle here so I suppose it won’t be too much worse than usual.

oh, so much time away from site

It has been a long run of vacation or work-related time out of site. I started the month in Antigua for the all-volunteer conference and after a few days there it was off to the USA! It was an amazing trip; I got to catch up with a lot of friends and family and summer in PA is gorgeous. Shannon and Brian's wedding was in the afternoon on Saturday July 9th. We spent the days leading up to the wedding getting all the final preperations done. I stayed with Nour so I had the opportunity to watch her make the wedding cake-- with baking, prep work for the icing, assembly, decoration and clean-up it was a many, many hour-long process. But definitely the most beautiful and unique cake I'd ever seen. After the service everyone enjoyed good food and a great night of dancing.
Sunday was a wonderful, quiet, happy/sad and definitely non-traditional day. Instead of giving the bride and groom some time alone together, we all showed up at their place in the early afternoon and went to lunch. It had been a very long time since we'd all been together and they left about a week later for grad-school in Idaho and I'm back in Guatemala.
The rest of the week flew by! Monday Nour and I got on the megabus headed for Harrisburg and Izzy picked us up in the parking lot by the mall. Drifting around the Target was slightly overwhelming, as all ventures into big stores are. Cunen doesn't have anything big enough for isles. Most stores here only carry a few types of soda, some candy, eggs, canned beans, toilet paper, dish soap and other random assortments of daily neccesities. I wouldn't caracterize the shopping exeperience here to be one of deprivation, only a lack of variety. If you are patient you can find almost anything (except nice cheese) in one of the stores or during Sunday market. So it is very weird to walk into an American grocery store and have an entire isle of just different chip and pretzel brands.
Tuesday I went to Philadelphia and walked around Villanova's campus with my college roomate Caitie, her boyfriend Jack and our friend Christine. It was a great but short visit and I had the opportunity to talk to the head of the accelerated nursing program there. Peace Corps fellows works with their nursing program so it's something I'm considering for after this is over (which is strange to think about since I'm only a little more than half-way done, but already time to start making applications).
Wednesday I, with tons of help from my family and Nour, made dinner and had a presentation at St. James about what I've been up to here in Guatemala. It was a really fun evening and I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a very long time.
Thursday Mom, Izzy, Nour and I had a fantastic lunch at Rachel's Creperie and then I went to Manor Barber and had pretty much all my hair cut off. I think that they took off about fourteen inches and donated it to Nour's organization of choice. Danita and Penni met us at a cafe on Chestnut street and then we all rode up to Harrisburg to drop off Nour. Thursday night I had dinner at home, saw a few more people and tried to watch the movie Beutiful but was so sleepy that I'll have to finish it when I have netflix again (August 2012!).
Friday was off to the airport and goodbye to the U.S. and summertime. It is rainy season here so it gets rather chilly and rains pretty much every day, but the clouds hanging low in the mountains make for an incredibly beautiful view. After a rather extended period of intensely missing my friends, family and the long summer days filled with good food and much better transportation options, I am feeling happy to be here again. And I had a fantastic time seeing all my training friends at our midservice conference a week ago and got to enjoy the Antigua lifestyle for a few days. The Refuge has better espresso drinks than anywhere else I've ever been. I'll be back in Antigua in a few days for my midway medical check-up where I'm sure they'll find a few cavities. Guatemalans put tons of sugar in all hot beverages and fruit drinks so despite plenty of brushing and flossing, I'll probably need at least one or two fillings. I'm getting tired of all the travel (from here to Antigua is about 6 hours +/- half an hour depending on traffic and road conditions) but I can't help but be excited everytime I get an opportunity to be in a place where good coffee is served. Well, this has been a very long, rather rambling and perhaps boring entry but it really has been an interesting and fun couple of weeks.

In the USA

I'm hanging out in Pittsburgh for a few days getting ready for Shannon and Brian's wedding. It's been amazing to drive around and just see the city, eat at our favorite restaurants and enjoy the summertime. I'm loving being back in PA, even if it's just for a short trip.

Next wednesday I'll be giving a talk at the St. James parish house on prince St in Lancaster. So if you're in the area around 6 pm I'll be presenting on the Peace Corps experience, life in Guatemala and describing my program. There will be food: rice, beans and chicken, but if you come for the food you still have to listen to me talk!

back from vacation!

Today was my first day back at work after two weeks of vacation. Many people may think that because Peace Corps is so different that I might be excited to get back to work. Well, I think that by mid-week I will be but this morning, waking up and putting together work materials and then waiting for the microbus for an hour and half I was feeling a little frustrated. The irregularity of transport, the bad roads and the rain that started mid-afternoon all put me in post-vacation blues.

However, the health talk went well (I did a presentation on dental/oral hygiene) and I also did a cooking demonstration of Protemas (textured soy protein) sloppy joes. They were yummy and something very different from what the ladies of Chutuj usually cook. It also felt like a small victory when the vegetable vendor (for off-market days) told a man that there were no tomatoes, and then when he left she whispered conspiratorially "how much do you need?" There weren't many left and she was only selling to her regular customers.

I am happy to be back to Cunen so I can cook for myself again. The food we ate on vacation was so much richer than what I'm used to that I spent a lot of the trip with a serious bellyache. Apart from that, it was an amazing trip. We started off with a few days in Antigua, which is always great. Lattes galore, museums and great family time. I think I laughed so hard I cried almost every single day of the trip; I forgot how much fun everyone is. We spent a night and two days in Copan, Honduras to see the mayan ruins there. It was my second trip, I was there in 2005 with my high school spanish class but it was still amazing to see. There are many gorgeous intact stela (carved monuments) and the setting is incredible, huge banyan ( I think that's what they are...) trees and macaws.

After Honduras we headed to Lake Atitlan which is always amazing. Casa del Mundo, the hotel we stayed at, is practically magical. The rooms are all set into the hillside so that nearly all of them have perfect views of the lake with private balconies and lots of windows and light. The hotel's restaurant was also amazing, a several-course dinner seated at a long table with all the other guests. While at the lake we visited Santiago, Atitlan famous for Maximon, a local "evil" saint who accepts offerings of tobacco and liquor. The experience was odd but enjoyable, the cofradía (a council of religious elders who guard the saint) were drunk and a bit belligerent but allowed us to photograph the statue for a minimal charge.

The next day we visited an eco-reserve that used to be a coffee farm but now offers a zipline tour and a viewing area where you can watch spider monkeys and coatimundi (coati) which are so cute and are now on the top of my list of animals which probably aren't good as pets but I want anyway. We had a great time and the whole group (even Mom and Dad!) did the zip lines and then hung around for a bit watching the animals eat their lunch.'

The next leg of the trip was home sweet home, on to Cunen! My family enjoyed meeting my coworkers and host family and got to experience Guatemalan home cooking and hospitality. We visited one of the schools I do health talks at and with only two hours notice the students put together a whole show with singing, dancing, poetry and many words of welcome. I think it was a great experience and I was definitely touched that it meant so much to the school to have my family visit.

Moving on from Cunen, the last part of our trip before heading back to Antigua was Xela. Xela isn't a super-celebrated tourist location but I think its a great city and there are lots of good day trips within an hour of the city. Izzy, Billy and Sheehan went on a volcano hike (I was nursing a cold and kind of felt like staying in bed longer anyway) and the whole group went to Fuentes Georginas, fantastic hot springs a short trip from Xela.

It was sad to say goodbye to the family and get back to normal life here, but my next vacation is fast approaching! I will be back in PA in July for Shannon and Brian's wedding and other fun. It will be my last big trip until I'm done with Peace Corps since I've been using up vacation days as though there were an unlimited supply, which is just not true. But they've all been great trips and it will also be good to be able to give my full attention to my work for the last year of service.

Calm before the storm

The storm I am talking about is the months of June and July where I will be traveling way too much for fun and for Peace Corps events. And there may also be rough weather since rainy season should be really started in the next two weeks. In the next couple weeks I don't plan to leave site at all and focus on works and get a good start with my newest promoter goup!! I've been working in Llano Grande (one of the smaller communities in the municipality) since January and up until now its been just three womens groups but in the last two moths I've been talking to the women about the benefits and responsibilities of becoming promoters. Last month we agreed on a date this month to have the first meeting and so far I have ten people signed up to start training as promoters. It is so exciting to have people that I've been working with show interest in learning not just the health information for themselves but be excited enough to want to become health educators for their community.

It is sometimes hard to create interest in our program since there are so many programs working in Guatemala that give more immediate benefits (food or money hand-outs or infrastructure projects) while I am only offering education. The eventual goal for me in this community is to do an improved wood-burning stove project but that is still a bit in the future since I haven't begun the process to solicit small project assistance funding or donations from home. I am going to begin researching that soon because my next trip home in July for Shannon and Brian's wedding will be my last trip to the States before I am done with Peace Corps so it will be my best opportunity to do some kind of fund-raising event.

I will also do some school visits while I'm home, because even though I'm only part way through my service here in Guatemala I'll need to get applications out sometime this fall. I'm still thinking seriously about an accelerated BSN program with the eventual goal of becoming a nurse practitioner. I've been kicking myself recently for not taking more science classes during college; it looks as though I'll have to take almost a full year of prerequisites before I can begin with the real nursing classes. I did love all the classes I did take during my time at Pitt so I can't really regret anything, I just didn't know at the time how much I would enjoy working in the hospital. When I was working at the nursing home I didn't see myself continuing in medicine but the environment in the hospital was so different and it made me realize that there are so many different ways to use a nursing degree. The work I'm doing here is like community nursing (though only the education aspect, since I don't actually have the degree and even if I did we are not authorized to do any actual patient care).

I was sitting in my hammock last night (one of the best purchases I've made yet) and just feeling happy about where I am and the direction my life is going. I always wanted to do Peace Corps and although it is not exactly how I pictured it, so many more challenges than I expected but also some amenities I didn't expect (high speed internet, pretty much consistent running water and electricity), it is so rewarding. I've met so many good people, both in the PC community and Guatemalans, that have challenged me and helped me grow as a person and do better work here. Life is good and I am excited to share my experience with my family who will be visiting next month!

The photo at the top is a leader in Llano grande who is joining the new promoter group. She is also one of the people I hope to get a stove for since she cooks over an open fire in her home which is a leading cause of respiratory infections and more lasting problems like COPD and lung cancer.

5 de mayo!

I had a great birthday in-site with Melissa, Nicole, Tom and Wilson. Over the weekend we went to Xela and visited Fuentes Georginas, some gorgeous natural hot springs in a community outside of town. It has been a great past couple of weeks and when things slow down a bit I will write a better post. And on April 28th Melissa and I (and the rest of our training group) celebrated a year in country! It is incredible how quickly time goes.

Photos of Semana Santa

I meant to put the pictures up with the last post but because the rainy season started early the internet has been very, very slow. Here are a few pictures from Good Friday in Cunen:

Semana Santa!

Semana Santa is one of the biggest celebrations in Guatemala and Antigua is one of the most popular places to watch the religious processions and see alfombras (carpets made in intricate patterns from flowers, pine needles, sawdust and other materials). The beautiful thing about the alfombras is how much work goes into them when they usually only last a few hours and then the procession comes through and they are trampled. I don't really like the huge crowds that come along with big events like this so I didn't want to spend the biggest days in Antigua.
I met up with Tom last Friday and we saw the build up for Semana Santa, the Palm Sunday processions with tons of men in purple robes and the women in simple black and white carrying the icons of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and various saints. We hung out another day so that he could see some ruins and enjoy the city when it wasn't so full of tourists (well, they were still there but not out in the streets all at the same time like they were for the processions). It was fun to show Antigua to a new person since I usually stick to the same couple restaurants, coffeeshops and bars that I go to with my Peace Corps friends. We spent a lot of time just walking around the city, looking at different neighborhoods and sections of town. Its a real shame that Tom doesn't really like coffee, Antigua coffeeshops are amazing. I dragged him to quite a few anyway and he had hot chocolate while I got lattes or cappuccinos.
We left Tuesday morning to come back to Cunen, and because it is a holiday week all the buses were jam-packed. I managed to find a seat (it pays to be a little person in this country) while Tom had to stand in the isle for about two hours until we reached Los Encuentros where some passengers got off the bus. The whole trip took about six hours. Travelling in this country can be really not fun, its great when you get to where you're going but getting there on public transportation is extremely uncomfortable. There was a man with a chicken in a cardboard box squished up against me the whole ride and I kept worrying the chicken was going to go to the bathroom and leak through the box onto me. It didn't happen but I was concerned.
The rest of the week was spent visiting with different families here in town and a highlight was helping my friend's family make their alfombra for Good Friday. We woke up early and made a fairly amateur alfombra but all in all super fun and then we had breakfast with the family. After breakfast we watched our alfombra get trampled and then followed the procession all over town. Pictures included above.
I'm a little sad that the holiday was over but at least it means no more bread. Apparently Semana Santa also means endless baking and gifting of tons and tons of sweet bread. I have six different loaves on my table right now and have been eating bread with every meal instead of other carbs like rice or tortillas. I'm taking a long break from sweet bread after this. Its back to work tomorrow, but there are more holidays on the horizon. There always are here. The conejos (internationally know marimba band) will be playing in Uspantan in a week or two for their Feria, which means I get to go dancing for my birthday! Yay!

stoves, health talks and justin bieber

As I predicted in the last post, life has been terribly (wonderfully) busy in the last few weeks. I had a week doing regular work in-site after Spanish week and then it was a long but fun week with Hearts and Hands, a Canadian organization that works in Uspantan (the municipality next to where I live). The other two times that I've worked with them the groups have been primarily made-up of middle-aged and retired people but this trip was a high school and a few teachers.
By the end of the week I was entirely exhausted but so happy to have participated again. Each time is so different and I think this group was my favorite (shout-out to group #2/5 if you see this!!). My team and I did some great bonding over the course of the week. Each day we got out work done a bit more efficiently and with more jokes and fun. On April 1st (April fools day!) my team took control of the walkie-talkie and sang some J. Bieber to the other teams as they worked. I know it was greatly appreciated. The goal was to finish four stoves a day, and although we didn't meet that goal the first day or two we were finishing four with extra time left by the end of the week. It was also great to watch my group get more comfortable interacting with the Guatemalan families, most of the time they didn't really need me to translate to communicate with the kids. While I explained how to maintain the stoves to the families Kayley, Janine and Aaron would be playing Frisbee or coloring with the kids. The week ended with a nice goodbye dinner and a thank you/ cultural night that went wayyyy too long. I was on stage translating and started losing hope of it ever ending when it had been 3 hours and there were no signs of it stopping. Guatemalan ceremonies are always really sweet but then they go for hours and hours and that would normally be space-out time after an hour or so but since I had to translate I had to pay REALLY close attention to everything that was being said. Oh well, all-in-all it was a wonderful week and I miss my awesome team!!
This past week was back to normal work, I had several women's group meetings and some health promoter meetings. The picture I put up is of me and my coworkers in Chutuj. Now I'm off to one of the communities for an afternoon health talk, today's topic is trash management: health and the environment.

The last few weeks have been non-stop and the next few will most likely follow suite. The presentation to the Ministry of Health went really well. It was great to hear all the different things the other Healthy Homes volunteers are doing in their sites, definitely a good reminder of the flexibility of our program and how much can be done. I have to remind myself now to keep pushing to find new ways to reach out in the communities where I work. Before I didn't feel that I was working enough so it was more logical to push for more work but now I need to find better ways to do what I'm doing and that takes a bit more mental effort, which is hard to give sometimes when it seems like there is only enough time to get done things that are already planned.
I'm hoping to gather myself a bit this week in terms of plans for the promoter groups already started and ones that I hope to start in the communities that have groups but no promoters. I should have time, if I manage to overcome the debilitating stupor that a terrible head/chest cold has put me in, to get organized and do some materials preparation.
Last week was a lovely break from the in-site routine. I signed up for a week of Spanish classes along with all the ladies from my training town. We took full advantage of all the opportunities of the week: a photo exhibit at the cooperativa española documenting the war and changes within the country since the 1996 peace accords, lots of lattes and bagels, a much clearer and confident grasp of the many uses of the subjunctive and a weekend at Earth Lodge. The Spanish classes were meant to be individualized but there were more students than teachers so some of us were paired off. I ended up working with my friend Elizabeth, which was perfect because we are the same level and have similar approaches to learning and practice. Our teacher was someone we hadn't worked with during training but quickly picked up on our learning style and had the rare ability of presenting several hours of grammar exercises without making us mutiny.
We spent the week meeting at the Peace Corps office but friday as a reward for a good week we met at a crepes shop in Antigua. We ate breakfast, played banana grams in Spanish and then walked over to the photo exhibit which was impacting and thought provoking.
The weekend at Earth Lodge was amazing. It was the first time I had stayed anywhere but one of the cheapest hostel options, so not finding cockroaches or broken sinks made me feel instantly spoiled. We spent the weekend chatting, listening to music, reading, playing bananagrams and eating good food. Saturday I was in a hammock most of the day reading "The Man in the Iron Mask," drinking coffee in the morning and gin and tonics as evening approched. It was heavenly.
Now I am back in-site, missing the lattes and my friends but without the funding or free time to keep that going. Once I've kicked this cough/cold I'll be feeling happy to be back, now I'm just feeling hazy and happy to be back in my bed. I'm also watching my friend's dog while she travels a bit with friends who are here to visit, so I'll end this post with a cute picture of him. His name is Mojito.

Good afternoon, my name is...

The first English class was not as well attended as was expected, but that turned out to be a good thing. We had about 25 people signed up and at 5:45, (on time if you go by the "hora chapin" guatemalan hour which is at least 15 mins late to any and all engagements) there were 13 people sitting in our class. We reviewed what they already know so that we aren't going too easy or hard on them for the first classes and then went over introductions and pronunciation. A few of the people who were not in class promised to be there this coming Wednesday but I am hoping the class size stays small; its much easier to work with a smaller group and its a more fun, intimate environment.

I'm including some photos of health talks. I finally took some pictures while working because I'm trying to put together a nice power-point for a presentation that all Healthy Homes volunteers have to give to the Guatemalan Ministry of Health (I believe we will be presenting every six months) about our work: difficulties, successes and plans for the future.

I'm not feeling writing much more so what I would write wouldn't be worth reading but I'll do a highlights of the week to keep things short and sweet and then be done:
-lots of well-attended and successful health talks
-finishing season 3 of The Wire and moving on to season 4. It is quite possibly the best show I have ever watched (The Mighty Boosh excluded because they really can't be compared)
-using a pressure cooker for the first time, resulting in the best black beans I've ever cooked in my life
-drinking the water I purified using the solar ray method and not getting sick. I wasn't sure how safe it was initially, but since I pitch it to all the groups I work with as a good method I thought I would give it a try. Plus I'm poor-ish and don't want to spend money on water, it just seems wrong.
-getting a great valentine's day package from my parents and a letter from a friend

Feria, hiking santa maria and lots of work!

SO I haven't gotten my act together enough to post more than once a month, but this is an improvement from once every 4 months... Now I do have good excuses though. Work has gotten busier and busier lately; my coworkers at the Health Center and Posts finally realized that I'm here as a resource and and are all asking for collaboration on different health talks and series of capacity building talks. Its wonderful, and just what I've been hoping for all along, but also kind of overwhelming with everything else that is going on. K'iche' class is still happening twice a week in the evenings and giving into popular pressure from our Guatemalan coworkers my sitemate Melissa and I will be giving English Classes once a week as well.
Aside from work in-site my sitemates and I have recently gotten close with a family in town because all the young people are about our age and unmarried (gasp) so they have time to hang out with us and do fun things like play vollyball in the park. Most people our age here are already married with a few children, so my hopes for making friends my age were not high at all and this has made life in site a lot more fun! The last two weeks were the town fair in honor of our patron saint, the Virgin of Candelaria. There was the burning of the torito (look up online or see my facebook page for some entertaining videos and photos!)and los internacionales Conejos, the most popular marimba band in guatemala, came and played at our fair! Melissa and I were doing a translating project for the organization Hearts & Hands which is based out of Canada and works in Uspantan (the municipality next to ours) building improved woodburning stoves, schools and hopefully in the future latrines and other infrastructure projects. We invited some of the volunteers from Canada to come to see the Conejos and it was definitely a scene with that many grigos dancing in Cunen's central park!
Last weekend was my dear friend Elizabeth's birthday so I headed over to Xela and visited her in site, along with a few other friends. We don't see each other as often as I'd like since its a bit of a journey from where I live to pretty much anywhere but we keep in touch and visit usually at least once a month. There was a delicious birthday dinner and then we all went to bed fairly early to get up and hike Volcan Santa Maria the next morning.
The hike itself was grueling and showed me how far I have to go to actually be in shape but the view from the top made everything worth it! We camped the night and packed up after watching sunrise and our guide pointed out all the different volcanoes that were peeking out from above the clouds. I think the furthest ones we could see were the volcanoes closest to Antigua.
This weekend will be much calmer, I am thinking a hike to the waterfall tomorrow with a book. I also can't miss Sunday morning market because I've been out of fresh fruit and veggies for the last week and I'm tired of street food and oatmeal.
And, on an unrelated note (to life in Guatemala) congratulations to the protesters in Egypt!!

excitement and outrage in Cunen

It is a new year and I return (well I returned two weeks ago) from the States refreshed, happy to escape winter and most importantly (for blogging purposes) with a working computer. Writing more often in all forms is one of my goals for this year. And now I have the time alone to properly sit down and write because I am moving into my own house soon! Pictures as soon as remember to take them (not one of my strong points).

I am very excited to be in my own place. Although I was happy with my host family, the lack of privacy and sharing a kitchen got a little old after a while.
Today is also a special day because my training class was sworn in July 16th-- so this is six months into service! It is hard to believe how fast six months went but I feel that I made some good headway in that time. There were definitely moments where I felt very frustrated and wasn't sure if was getting anywhere (and I'm sure I'll feel that way again) but I have a few groups now that I think I can count on to continue showing up for health talks and some prospects among those groups to turn into health promoters.
Now for the outrage: Last Thursday I was giving a health talk on cholera, how to prepare oral dehydration solution and how to cook with a nutritional supplement in one of the rural communities and afterwards one of the women from the group stayed to chat with me. We were having a good talk and then she told me that while I was away for Christmas my coworkers had to have a meeting with the local authorities to defend me because a woman from the next community over had started a nasty rumor about me.
Here in Guatemala it a common thing for people to mistrust foreigners because they believe that we are here to steal their children.
One day my coworkers left me alone at the health post while they ran an errand and a woman from a neighboring community saw me alone there. I was studying k'iche' but that isn't what she though I was up to; she started telling people from her community that my coworker shuts the doors to the health post and then goes away while I take the children that he locked inside. Pretty crazy, but I am lucky that the health post staff is so supportive and dealt with the problem as soon as they heard about it.
And to end on a good note, I am part way through War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa. It was Izzy's Christmas present to me and I'm really enjoying it. Not really far enough along to give any commentary but it has accompanied me on several hikes to the waterfall near my town (picture included above). Its a great place to go and feel far away from town and bit more relaxed without the actual trouble of traveling.
Now to sleep, and tomorrow will be a fun filled day of health talks about cholera!