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.