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!

standfast and back to site

So it’s been quite a while since I updated but that is because in-site my routines are pretty constant and relatively unexciting but enjoyable. My work week starts off with an exhausting early morning charla with different women’s groups on Monday and then house visits for several hours after. The rest of the week I do mostly school charlas, which I will have to find replacements for soon since the school year ends in October. I am hoping that the women’s groups I work with will be able to meet more frequently and I am also hoping to talk to the Doctor about forming health promoter groups again. I already brought it up, but it’s been a while and no action has happened so I’m guessing with everything else he has to do it has been forgotten.
That has been my work life. I was stuck in Xela for a few days because of mudslides about a week ago and that was frustrating but also nice because I’ve not spent much time there and there are so many cool places to visit. I am a creature of habit and did not see half of what I could have, instead sticking to the same couple of coffee shops, the Mennonite bake shop and the bookstore (where I went through as many of their Joan Didion collection as possible—while I was there I read Salvador, Run River and The Last Thing He Wanted). Melissa and I also checked out the museum in the central park, which was amusing only for the haphazard and random collection of items, ranging from vintage soda bottles to a variety of fetuses, including human.
In the last week my host sister had her birthday and in an effort to celebrate Melissa and I baked a delicious but ugly as sin German Chocolate cake. I will put up photos for the amusement of those who know how to make baked goods look pretty.

shelves, fleas and basketball

Now that I have been in-site for a month I am feeling a bit more settled and less glaringly new—not that I don’t have a long way to go yet, but I know which microbuses go to the communities I work in and how much they should cost; I know who to contact if I am trying to do health talks in schools, the women’s groups I have been trying to start are finally coming together and I am looking for different groups that would be interested in health talks and activities. Oh dear, I am still doing run-on sentences. It is just difficult to not relate everything to everything and punctuation seems like an inappropriate division of all that I feel should stay connected. Or I’m just being grammatically lazy.

In other news, I just fought a flea off my leg. I have been on and off questioning whether I have fleas or not, but once and I while I actually catch them at work. I have been lucky enough not to have a total infestation, just a few random bites—nothing compared to some legs that I saw at our swear-in ceremony or at the Huehue/Quiche welcome party last weekend. Of all the bugs that I fearfully anticipated before arriving in-country (spiders being at the top of the list) fleas did not cross my mind. I have really only associated them with cats and dogs, and since my parents were always vigilant about collars and powders with our pets, this is my first actual encounter with them. They are pesky and the itching can lead to sleep-loss but they pale in comparison to the brown recluse and its leggy cousins. Speaking of which, I am convinced I saw a brown recluse crawl across my suitcase the other day, but it may just be my brain turning every medium-size brown spider into worst-case scenario spider.

Today my site-mate Melissa and I finally braved the doorway of the carpenter and ordered bookcases and shelves. Living out of suitcases is getting old, and the word shelving has made it into our conversations almost ever day since we arrived in-site. I feel that this is a major accomplishment and will be even more pleased when these shelves grace my walls and may even merit a picture of my living situation, which I have avoided up until now due to the general bag-lady appearance of things.

The annual Quiche health workers event is coming up at the beginning of next month and to celebrate they hold various competitions, including basketball games where teams from each health center or hospital compete. I have always cowered on the basketball court; my teammates can depend on me not being where the action is and cringing if the ball comes too close to my body. I am mystified at the events leading up to me going to practice the last few days. I think that it is so that my co-workers have a chance to laugh at me. I was put to shame by women wearing long skirts and sandals while I ineptly ran about the court missing passes and hoping the other players forgot I was there. Oh well, its community integration if people are laughing at/with me, right?