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!