big changes

In the last post I talked about how I had less than six months until returning home. I will be home in June, but my new close of service date is March 24th. I spent several days in this past week at an all-volunteer conferece in the Xela-area to hear about the restructuring of Peace Corps Guatemala. Currently, there are over two hundred Peace Corps volunteers serving in Guatemala. By March 24th, PC would like to have less than 120 volunteers. This is to have a better staff to volunteer ratio, and a more manageable number of volunteers. Although it is sad to see many sites losing volunteers, perhaps forever, it is an understandable decision given the security situation in Guatemala. Guatemala, as part of the "Northern Triangle" of Central America, was called the deadliest non-war zone in the world by the Pentagon.
What does this mean for Cunen? Not too much, beside the national budget going more towards militarization instead of infrastructure or health initiatives in Guatemala. This area of the country, like most rural areas (except near borders), is very safe and far removed from the gang and drug violence that plagues the capital and drug corridors. The problems found here are poverty related, one of the worst being chronic malnutrition (in some areas of the western highlands the numbers are as high as 7 in 10 children are malnourished). In our most recent health center meeting we were talking about malnutrition and heard that there are 1,200 malnourished children under five in our Municipality of 60,000 people. A pretty scary number, considering that, especially before the age of two, children's nutritional status dictates growth in adolescence and adult health. Children who are malnourished before the age of two are more prone to stunting, decreased mental capacity and chronic illness.
I joined Peace Corps with the hope of creating big changes, working hard and feeling like I had "made a difference." Once I actually came down from the high of training and had my feet on the ground, I saw how difficult that actually is. Language barriers (my K'iche' is still barely functional, unless talking about food, likes and dislikes, the weather or similar topics I am pretty hopeless), an overworked and underfunded national health system and community groups with a barely lukewarm interest in hearing an overeager gringa talk about preventative health, all made this task daunting. My actual successes have been on a smaller scale than I envisioned. I used cooking classes to lure the women's groups to my health talks and concrete skills like first aid to keep health promoter groups intact. I still lost some people, but there are the regulars that come back every month for information on nutrition and a new recipe. I will be finishing up service with about twenty graduated health promoters, instead of the forty or fifty that initially signed up.

When we were told that our close of service date was changed, it seemed as though our project would be postponed and left in the hands of our replacements. I was upset and wanted to figure out a way to still build the stoves in the time that I had promised the community. Yesterday morning I went to the mayor's office and begged and flattered to try to convince him to cover the rest of the funds needed for construction. I was told to wait and come back after the town fair, and that the previous mayor had left them with considerable debts. In the afternoon I got a phone call about the SPA funds. The committee will be meeting next Friday, and if they think it's a good project and that I can finish before close of service, they will approve it!
It's been a time of outrageous ups and downs, and I am going to be very busy for the next two months, but for the next couple days I am going to relax and enjoy the town fair with Melissa, Nicole and our Cunen friends.
The one picture is of my house, which I will be sad to leave because goodness knows when I'll be able to afford to rent a whole house again! The other is of Melissa getting a shoe shine because it amused me and the shoe-shine boys have been hassling us to get a shine since we got here.

2012!

It seemed so far away when I got here April 2010, but 2012 is here and I will be home in less than six months, but there is still so much to do here! After many months and obstacles I finally submitted the SPA application, so if it is approved, construction of the improved wood-burning stoves will begin mid to late February! Thanks so much to everyone who contributed through FOG, it was a huge help and made this project possible! I will be updating and posting photos as things progress.

I was back at the beach for New Year's eve, and it was fantastic. The pictures are of the ferry ride in through the mangrove swamp, and the last sunset of 2011 on the beach. The weekend included lots of dancing, good seafood (amazing ceviche!) and some swimming although the surf is pretty rough in Monterrico. It calmed down the morning of the 2nd as I was about to head back to Cunen, so I made it out past the breakers for about 5 mins and then had to swim back in because I got scared of sharks and other sea creatures. There were skates (or small sting rays?) jumping in the surf; it was strange to see them flapping above the waves. I'm not ashamed to admit I was a little scared of them too, that is how Steve Irwin died!

Due to low funds, work, a standfast, and town fair I will not be out of Cunen again for the rest of the month. Standfast is when Peace Corps tells us to stay put for a few days until the weather (or in this case, inaugurations) calms down. All the new mayors, govenors, and the new president will be taking over this weekend, so just to be safe, we'll all be staying in our respective towns for a few days. Standfast is always a good time to catch up on reading, watch tv/movies for hours on end, hang out with people in town or, as Melissa, Nicole and I usually do, bake something delicious. The weekend after next kicks off town fair preparations, although the real days of the fair aren't until the 30th-Feb 4th. Town fair is a huge event and the biggest marimba band in Guatemala, Los Conejos, is coming to play for the dance (if rumors are to be believed, and I hope so, because they came last year and it was excellent). It should be a productive and fun couple of weeks, and good for my bank account after all the festivities last month!