Here we are again (estamos aqui ultravez), another week down in the glorious Guatemala. Things seemed to have calmed down since last Tuesdays excitement, when a police officer, off-duty and "supposedly" on drugs shot a taxi driver 7 times, and the town's response to the incident was to burn the police station down, resulting in the police leaving Tecpan. NOT TO WORRY> i was safely in my home and didn't find out about the unrest until the following day when everyone was going about their usual daily business. Unfortunately this is a reality in Guatemala because the police and government are so corrupt that many times the people feel that they must take matters into their own hands so that they can see the results that they feel are necessary. There has been no retaliation or return of the police since the incident and Peace Corps is keeping a good eye on the situation, ready to pull us 3 tecpan volunteers out of the site if necessary, but I honestly do not think it will be necessary!
Otherwise I went to PDM (Project Design Management) last Wednesday-Friday with one of my fellow teachers at a school that we are hoping to give a water project to. It was very informative and my counterpart really seemed to enjoy himself and learning about how to approach asking for funds and executing plans for infrastructure projects. I was able to stay with one of the girls i got very close to during training which is always fun and we were able to talk about future projects and maybe trying to do a GLOW camp (GLOW camp is a worldwide peace corps initiative that focuses on empowering girls to go out and approach their dreams). So hopefully with school ending we will be able to do one of those in December.
After that it was back to site. I started an exercise program called "Insanity" and very quickly quit it. It just wasn't for me, so I am back to trying to run around town, I have found some dirt roads that get less motor traffic so it is easier to breath.
We have finally finished our surveys of all the progress within our schools and are taking it easier this month because of the election (no school for the friday and monday before and after the election day on Sept. 11) and the Guatemalan Independence day on the 15th which also means there will be no school the week of the 15th. But we are going to enjoy this time by traveling to San Cristobal de las Casa in Mexico for a couple of days and I have about a week of spanish class to keep me busy the last week of sept. SO no worries, I am sure between the elections and the 15th there will be plenty of stories to tell!
Hasta proxima ves!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Somewhere only we go....
Sorry again for the pauses in between post, I need to get back into the swing of blogging each week! Things have been going very well for the past couple of weeks in Tecpan. I am finally settling into life here, which has been quite a change from the toasty San Miguel. So far we have been able to visit the majority of our schools and do the surveys to see the progress each school has been making in the program over the past year. This has been very rewarding because I am FINALLY able to see what this program can do (in some schools) over a longer period of time than what Maggie and I had in San Miguel. I am enjoying my sitemates, Lauren and Betty. immensely we spend many dinners together either creating new and delicious creation or making old classics with what we can find in the market. Last week Betty and I made Black Bean,Sweet Potato burritos with pico de gillo- DELISH! Lauren and I have tried to start a Thursday night tradition where we cook something yummy, do yoga, and drink some wine. We have coined the evening Eat. Pray. Wine. Night, however because of conferences and meeting we all have a different times with Peace Corps, we have had to miss a couple of thursdays. But its nights like Eat. Pray. Wine. Thursdays and over indulgent Tuesdays that help the weeks pass quicker and make working much more fun.
I have switched around my living situation a little bit, I am now renting 2 rooms- so that I can have my kitchen in an actual room and not in the hallway that everyone and their mothers pass through on a daily basis- this makes things feel a little more at home, however I do think I am going to continue to look for another apartment that is a little bit more private- I know it seems silly, but it is the little things like having your own space down here that make life much more enjoyable.
I have discovered a coffee place in my town that serves REAL coffee, not that instant crap! it only opens from 3pm-9 pm so it makes a nice late afternoon treat!
Otherwise it is just the day to day living that I get to do in Guate. The second half of this week I get to go to a conference about project design and management which should be very interesting! it is being held in Xela so I am excited to spend some time with my friends that live around that area! I will definitely update next week- i am sure something hilarious/interesting will happen!
MISS YOU ALL until next time :)
I have switched around my living situation a little bit, I am now renting 2 rooms- so that I can have my kitchen in an actual room and not in the hallway that everyone and their mothers pass through on a daily basis- this makes things feel a little more at home, however I do think I am going to continue to look for another apartment that is a little bit more private- I know it seems silly, but it is the little things like having your own space down here that make life much more enjoyable.
I have discovered a coffee place in my town that serves REAL coffee, not that instant crap! it only opens from 3pm-9 pm so it makes a nice late afternoon treat!
Otherwise it is just the day to day living that I get to do in Guate. The second half of this week I get to go to a conference about project design and management which should be very interesting! it is being held in Xela so I am excited to spend some time with my friends that live around that area! I will definitely update next week- i am sure something hilarious/interesting will happen!
MISS YOU ALL until next time :)
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
what a crazy ride it has been....
Please excuse the long pause in between post, i know it has been close to two months since i have updated you all and for that i am sorry! Things of course have been nothing less than interesting here and I have been on the move for most of them.
For a quick recap:
May: finished up visiting my schools and settling into my apartment, there was a lot of fun goodbye parties in coban for the youth development volunteers that were leaving in the summer to return to the states. otherwise not too much to report for the end of may, just kind of adjusting to life as normal, trying to improve my spanish, things like that.
June: this is the very fun and interesting month. There had been a growing presence of military in my site, doing patrols and other things like this, so I had called Peace Corps to let them know and to see if this was normal. This resulted in a site visit from my APCD (or head of my program healthy schools) to check out security issues within and around my site, as well as get an update from my counterpart about the progress of healthy schools in San Miguel. The site visit was suppose to take at least 5 hours, but after a quick meeting with mine and maggie's counter part, Dr. Mack decided to pull us from site because of security reasons. We were given the next day to pack everything up and find another volunteer to stay with until a new site/situation could be made possible. I headed down to the department of Chemaltenango to stay with one of my good friend, Lauren Wert. It was a very nice slow week before my parents came for their trip, and it gave me a chance to see what can be done with healthy schools over a period of time (both she and her site mate swore in a year before me and replaced a volunteer that worked in a different phase of healthy schools for a couple of years). By the end of the week, we three emailed Dr. Mack and asked if i could be a permanent addition to their site and take over when they COS next march. I think Dr. Mack was relieved of this idea because it meant he did not have to look into starting a whole new site for maggie and I. So my new home became Tecpan Guatemala, Chemaltenango (a couple of fun facts: tecpan is the first capital of guatemala so it is over 485 years old, there are ruins right outside of town that George Bush visited during his presidency and the mayan priest are still cleaning because of his "bad energry" and there is a gym, pizza place, laundry place <which my clothes are very thankful for!>, and grocery store, it has over 80,000 people in the municipality, and its very cold.)
I finished up June greeting mom and bob at the airport for their vacation down here. I had a wonderful time with them, eating really yummy food in Antigua and Lake Atitlan, climbing a volcano, and spending a day relaxing at earth lodge right outside of antigua. the week they spent here seemed to fly by and it was time for them to leave, but i was fortunate that the same day they left, my good friend from studying abroad in Estonia came!
July: Morgan was here for 10 days, in which case we went to the pacific coast (black sands and coconuts) made our way to atitlan after a VERY long day of traveling on chicken buses, and finished up back in antigua. I had to return to san miguel to move all of my stuff out of my apartment, pay rent, and say my goodbyes on the last day morgan was here, but she also climbed volcano pacaya and i think she had a good time! It was so great getting to share my home with Morgan, Mom, and Bob and I can't wait to have more visitors come!
I am sure you are thinking Katelyn then returned to her new cold home and started work, which she has been busy with every since? not quite. I actually had my reconnect conference with Peace Corps starting that sunday (Reconnect is the first of four conferences that peace corps host to check back in with the volunteers after going to sites and give more training for certain things. Reconnect lasted 2 days and was followed by either mayan or spanish language training. my next conference will be IST <in service training> in november.) Reconnect was a lot of fun because i got to see a lot of volunteers i swore in with and got me excited about returning to work and starting water project and secondary projects. I only stayed for the two days of the actual conference and then FINALLY returned to site and started working and unpacking.
I am living in a small room now with a very nice family, i do have my own bathroom, although my shower is still on the fritz (i know i shouldn't complain....i have a shower in peace corps, but cold showers in tecpan where the high each day is 65 degrees, well is just painful!) but i am working on getting that sorted out. So far I have been trying to settle into my life here, going to new schools, meeting the directors i will work with for the next couple of years, and starting planning for projects that my site mates want to do before they COS in march. Some of the ideas we have are a bottle school (yes!) world map and accrediting 3 of our 18 schools for completing the first stage of healthy schools! (yay!)
Although starting over in a new site is hard, actually it is a lot harder than i thought it would be...for the first time in 7 months i have been homesick! I am really thankful that i have the sitemates i do and this site. I feel that i will be able to accomplish something here, even if it is small and I am looking forward to the challenge.
No worries, it won't be 2 months before i post again, look out for one next week!
For a quick recap:
May: finished up visiting my schools and settling into my apartment, there was a lot of fun goodbye parties in coban for the youth development volunteers that were leaving in the summer to return to the states. otherwise not too much to report for the end of may, just kind of adjusting to life as normal, trying to improve my spanish, things like that.
June: this is the very fun and interesting month. There had been a growing presence of military in my site, doing patrols and other things like this, so I had called Peace Corps to let them know and to see if this was normal. This resulted in a site visit from my APCD (or head of my program healthy schools) to check out security issues within and around my site, as well as get an update from my counterpart about the progress of healthy schools in San Miguel. The site visit was suppose to take at least 5 hours, but after a quick meeting with mine and maggie's counter part, Dr. Mack decided to pull us from site because of security reasons. We were given the next day to pack everything up and find another volunteer to stay with until a new site/situation could be made possible. I headed down to the department of Chemaltenango to stay with one of my good friend, Lauren Wert. It was a very nice slow week before my parents came for their trip, and it gave me a chance to see what can be done with healthy schools over a period of time (both she and her site mate swore in a year before me and replaced a volunteer that worked in a different phase of healthy schools for a couple of years). By the end of the week, we three emailed Dr. Mack and asked if i could be a permanent addition to their site and take over when they COS next march. I think Dr. Mack was relieved of this idea because it meant he did not have to look into starting a whole new site for maggie and I. So my new home became Tecpan Guatemala, Chemaltenango (a couple of fun facts: tecpan is the first capital of guatemala so it is over 485 years old, there are ruins right outside of town that George Bush visited during his presidency and the mayan priest are still cleaning because of his "bad energry" and there is a gym, pizza place, laundry place <which my clothes are very thankful for!>, and grocery store, it has over 80,000 people in the municipality, and its very cold.)
I finished up June greeting mom and bob at the airport for their vacation down here. I had a wonderful time with them, eating really yummy food in Antigua and Lake Atitlan, climbing a volcano, and spending a day relaxing at earth lodge right outside of antigua. the week they spent here seemed to fly by and it was time for them to leave, but i was fortunate that the same day they left, my good friend from studying abroad in Estonia came!
July: Morgan was here for 10 days, in which case we went to the pacific coast (black sands and coconuts) made our way to atitlan after a VERY long day of traveling on chicken buses, and finished up back in antigua. I had to return to san miguel to move all of my stuff out of my apartment, pay rent, and say my goodbyes on the last day morgan was here, but she also climbed volcano pacaya and i think she had a good time! It was so great getting to share my home with Morgan, Mom, and Bob and I can't wait to have more visitors come!
I am sure you are thinking Katelyn then returned to her new cold home and started work, which she has been busy with every since? not quite. I actually had my reconnect conference with Peace Corps starting that sunday (Reconnect is the first of four conferences that peace corps host to check back in with the volunteers after going to sites and give more training for certain things. Reconnect lasted 2 days and was followed by either mayan or spanish language training. my next conference will be IST <in service training> in november.) Reconnect was a lot of fun because i got to see a lot of volunteers i swore in with and got me excited about returning to work and starting water project and secondary projects. I only stayed for the two days of the actual conference and then FINALLY returned to site and started working and unpacking.
I am living in a small room now with a very nice family, i do have my own bathroom, although my shower is still on the fritz (i know i shouldn't complain....i have a shower in peace corps, but cold showers in tecpan where the high each day is 65 degrees, well is just painful!) but i am working on getting that sorted out. So far I have been trying to settle into my life here, going to new schools, meeting the directors i will work with for the next couple of years, and starting planning for projects that my site mates want to do before they COS in march. Some of the ideas we have are a bottle school (yes!) world map and accrediting 3 of our 18 schools for completing the first stage of healthy schools! (yay!)
Although starting over in a new site is hard, actually it is a lot harder than i thought it would be...for the first time in 7 months i have been homesick! I am really thankful that i have the sitemates i do and this site. I feel that i will be able to accomplish something here, even if it is small and I am looking forward to the challenge.
No worries, it won't be 2 months before i post again, look out for one next week!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Verapaz
I thought it would appropriate to talk about the name of my department in this blog. Verapaz loosely translates into "True Peace". Something that many of us may not ever find on this planet, but is important none the less. I feel like being here, even though it has only been for a month, has begun to teach me a lesson that will probably be my hardest lesson here. Finding true peace. Not only in my day to day life and inside, but true peace with those around me. My life has slowed down since moving here to something that would have driven me absolutely crazy back in the states and sent me into a frenzy on the internet trying to find something more. Something else I could be involved in. I will not lie and say that I haven't gone into that frenzy here, but as each day passes I am finding more and more peace within myself to just be. Just be here in this community at this time with these people and REALLY learn something. Learn something about a new culture, learn something about myself. Its amazing the things that can come up in conversations with people in town. The connections that I can have. for example I bought a dining room table last week (and when I say dinning room table I really mean a small table that is now pushed up against the wall in the room that I have Dubbed as my kitchen) and was struggling to get it back to my apartment, well two guys in my town on their break for lunch threw my table in the back of the truck and took me the last block and a half to my home. While driving i was talking to the young guy and found out that he had just returned from Gastonia, NC. Working in construction. We talked a little about sonic and walmart and then it was time for me to carry my table up my stairs. But it was so nice knowing someone who sorta knew where my home was!
The more time I spend with my host family is also time that i end up feel fulfilled. Just learning about their lives before I became a part of it and learning about their families has opened my eyes to so much more. My host mom struggled to put herself through school against her parents wishes. She slept on the floor of a room, which she shared with two other girls, cleaned in the afternoons, and worked in as many on the side jobs as possible. She and her husband still have this mentality working incredibly hard so that their two oldest children can attend private schools in Coban and Salama. They are saving now so that their son can go to medical school in Cuba in a couple of years, but are always generously buying my mangos, bananas, and cokes during our talks.
This "true peace" is something I know I will carry on after my time in Peace Corps comes to an end. I am beginning to accept that my life will not be the fast pace go.go.go. that it was in college and even last fall as I waited to leave for this adventure. But I am coming to peace that I now have the time to learn how to make paper cranes, help with the local english lessons that a north american evangelical lady does every wednesday, and learn achi (the local mayan language). I am finding that now when I slow down I can actually see the beauty around me. I saw a bright blue and yellow parrot on the way to some of my schools this morning. I know that this is something I will struggle with week to week, but I hope that I can remember what this place is giving me day to day.
Until next time....
The more time I spend with my host family is also time that i end up feel fulfilled. Just learning about their lives before I became a part of it and learning about their families has opened my eyes to so much more. My host mom struggled to put herself through school against her parents wishes. She slept on the floor of a room, which she shared with two other girls, cleaned in the afternoons, and worked in as many on the side jobs as possible. She and her husband still have this mentality working incredibly hard so that their two oldest children can attend private schools in Coban and Salama. They are saving now so that their son can go to medical school in Cuba in a couple of years, but are always generously buying my mangos, bananas, and cokes during our talks.
This "true peace" is something I know I will carry on after my time in Peace Corps comes to an end. I am beginning to accept that my life will not be the fast pace go.go.go. that it was in college and even last fall as I waited to leave for this adventure. But I am coming to peace that I now have the time to learn how to make paper cranes, help with the local english lessons that a north american evangelical lady does every wednesday, and learn achi (the local mayan language). I am finding that now when I slow down I can actually see the beauty around me. I saw a bright blue and yellow parrot on the way to some of my schools this morning. I know that this is something I will struggle with week to week, but I hope that I can remember what this place is giving me day to day.
Until next time....
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Pools and zoos
So this week has definitely not been as exciting as my last couple, what i mean is, there have been no scorpions in my sink or stitches put into my thumb. It has however given me a peak into what my primary job will be here in Baja Verapaz. Maggie and I have officially split up our schools and both of us have started our base line surveys. Base line surveys are pretty much a survey that asks the director questions about water infrastructure, the health habits of the students, and how often health lessons are preformed in each of the classrooms each week. It is suppose to get the director of each school thinking about his or her part in the process to be certified as a healthy school. So far I have been able to complete four of my BLS and meet with the directors to talk about our plan of action. I have also been giving some serious thought into teaching English in my community. It is something that a lot of the families have asked us about and I would love to be able to give my community something that they really wanted and needed rather than something I think would be best for them.
On our free days this past weekend Maggie and I ventured out to Salama to go to one of the pools, when we returned later than afternoon, Maggie's host family asked her why we always go to Salama to go to the pools, don't we know that there is one in our town? We, of course, had no idea. Maggie went to it on Sunday and was delighted to share that there not only was a pool but a zoo in our town!!! Our zoo has a female lion, a deer, Ostrages, pigs, monkeys, and a small alligator! but ever since i found this out i can't help but having dreams of a lion in my shower or an alligator on my porch! haha!
We also started Achi lessons today. Achi is one of the many different Mayan languages of Guatemala and is very very difficult to learn! there are not many words similar between achi and spanish and for this I am very thankful (I know I won't get them mixed up!). There are sounds in achi that can only be made deep in your throat or at the back of your throat, which as english speakers we never ever use. As I am typing this my throat feels scratchy and sore! We are going to start taking lessons every Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours. Why? you may ask...We both feel that it is an important part to working with the parents at the schools within our indigenous communities, we are hoping that this will make them feel more at ease knowing that we are trying to learn their language and share in their unique culture!
Tomorrow I am off to another school, but this time it is to participate in a School Health fair. Each of the classrooms at my school will have some sort of health project set up in them, everything from HIV/AIDS prevention to hand washing stations to brushing teeth. I am excited to see this school in action and get to spend some time with the kids. I am still having a hard time adjusting to the slowness of life here, but find that these sorts of activities remind me of why I joined PC in the first place!
I am sure many of you saw the news of the massacre that occurred in El Peten early this week. I want everyone to know that I am perfectly safe in Baja Verapaz and that Peace Corps is already looking into the situation to see how closely it will effect either of the Verapaz's volunteers. I ask that you all take into your thoughts the family members of those who have died and the people of El Peten, who will suffer more from this state of siege than most of the drug cartels in Mexico.
I will continue to update you as the events unfold!
Have a lovely week everyone! i miss you all a bunch!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
2 stitches
Buenos Dias!
so it has been another leisurely week and a half in baja verapaz! From where i left off last week, Maggie and I hosted a Cinco de Mayo get together on thursday having two of our fellow volunteers come to San Miguel Chicaj and eat nachos, watch movies, and catch up on everything that has been happening. In the process of cooking some homemade pineapple salsa, i cut my thumb, but didn't think anything about it until later that night when Michael (one of the other volunteers) informed me that i should probably get it stitched up- it was a much bigger cut than i thought! So the next morning I called our PC medical office and was told that i needed to get to a hospital asap because cuts cannot be stitched up after 24 hours. This was a little difficult because we were in route to a school in a car borrowed from the muni. I turned to my counterpart and told him about the situation and that we needed to change plans for the day, he felt otherwise because we were already at our first school (Las Minas, a very isolated, but gorgeous school with views of the surrounding mountains), I made our healthy schools presentation and we promptly left so that I could find some sort of health center with a doctor. We ended up at a Puesto de Salud ( these are "health post" in the aldeas of munis) The doctor agreed that i needed two stitches and that he could do it there. This is when the fun began, my counterpart not wanting to leave me alone, decided he should sit in on the whole ordeal and got to witness me getting the numbing shots(the worst pain in my life, i literally screamed) have the stitches sewn in, and then because i hadn't eaten or really drunk anything all morning, faint. Yep. I fainted. only for a second, but it was embarrassing enough. when i finally got my barrings, i start cracking up because this is quite possibly the most ridiculous moment i have had in Guatemala and maybe in my whole life. My laughing only confused my counterpart more! So needless to say, we got a lot closer that morning!
This past weekend was the welcome party for the Verapazes. We got to meet all the volunteers in the area and learn more about the area around Coban (the capital of Alta Verapaz). Our party was at a eco-lodge that had a zipline, indoor and outdoor pool, and a place for a fire. All of the volunteers seemed really nice and I look forward to getting to know them all better. Some of them are COSing by the end of this year which is sad, but its nice to have people to talk to about these first three months and getting started in site! They had a lot of great advise, like looking outside our counterpart for other people in the community that could be resources. I took this advice and made an appointment with our women's group in town. Maggie and I will get to have a proper introduction and do a charla on nutrition by the end of May. The woman in charge seemed super interested and wanted to help us in anyway possible!
We were able to visit 3 more schools this week, which leaves us with only 2 left to visit. The schools we visited were actually in Alta Verapaz and were very remote! All of the teachers go up on mondays and come home on thursdays. Each of the three schools has dormitory like places for the teachers to stay. So it looks like Maggie and I will probably go up every couple of months for a week and either stay in the closest town or find someone in the community to stay with. These schools were in such a beautiful location though! Guatemala is always amazing me! in the west there is ice and snow, in my site it is slowly being transformed from a desert into the tropics as the rainy season is starting, and the location of these schools looked like we were back in north carolina with pine trees and green rolling hills, and if you go one more hour north, you are in the rain forest! absolutely loco! one of the schools in this location will be a perfect school for a bottle project that maggie and i can work on when the kids are on winter vacation (october- jan). which is something that we need to start getting to work on now because we need lots of bottles stuffed with plastic! haha, if you guys are interested in helping us with this project please visit this website: http://www.hugitforward.com/ it is an awesome way to get involved and all you have to do is spread hugs!
Maggie and I were going to start doing our Base Line Surveys this week, but were informed this morning that because of the celebration of mother's day on May 10th, the schools would not be having actual classes, but rather doing games and eating cake all week. So we are going to have to wait until next week, but it seems like we will be able to get these BLS done quickly and can start doing the trainings for the teachers by june (hopefully)! i am really excited to get all this together, i think tomorrow i am going to start making my training posters and visual aids. Friday i get to get my stitches out, which i am very happy about because its hard only having one thumb! haha
More adventures to come!
so it has been another leisurely week and a half in baja verapaz! From where i left off last week, Maggie and I hosted a Cinco de Mayo get together on thursday having two of our fellow volunteers come to San Miguel Chicaj and eat nachos, watch movies, and catch up on everything that has been happening. In the process of cooking some homemade pineapple salsa, i cut my thumb, but didn't think anything about it until later that night when Michael (one of the other volunteers) informed me that i should probably get it stitched up- it was a much bigger cut than i thought! So the next morning I called our PC medical office and was told that i needed to get to a hospital asap because cuts cannot be stitched up after 24 hours. This was a little difficult because we were in route to a school in a car borrowed from the muni. I turned to my counterpart and told him about the situation and that we needed to change plans for the day, he felt otherwise because we were already at our first school (Las Minas, a very isolated, but gorgeous school with views of the surrounding mountains), I made our healthy schools presentation and we promptly left so that I could find some sort of health center with a doctor. We ended up at a Puesto de Salud ( these are "health post" in the aldeas of munis) The doctor agreed that i needed two stitches and that he could do it there. This is when the fun began, my counterpart not wanting to leave me alone, decided he should sit in on the whole ordeal and got to witness me getting the numbing shots(the worst pain in my life, i literally screamed) have the stitches sewn in, and then because i hadn't eaten or really drunk anything all morning, faint. Yep. I fainted. only for a second, but it was embarrassing enough. when i finally got my barrings, i start cracking up because this is quite possibly the most ridiculous moment i have had in Guatemala and maybe in my whole life. My laughing only confused my counterpart more! So needless to say, we got a lot closer that morning!
This past weekend was the welcome party for the Verapazes. We got to meet all the volunteers in the area and learn more about the area around Coban (the capital of Alta Verapaz). Our party was at a eco-lodge that had a zipline, indoor and outdoor pool, and a place for a fire. All of the volunteers seemed really nice and I look forward to getting to know them all better. Some of them are COSing by the end of this year which is sad, but its nice to have people to talk to about these first three months and getting started in site! They had a lot of great advise, like looking outside our counterpart for other people in the community that could be resources. I took this advice and made an appointment with our women's group in town. Maggie and I will get to have a proper introduction and do a charla on nutrition by the end of May. The woman in charge seemed super interested and wanted to help us in anyway possible!
We were able to visit 3 more schools this week, which leaves us with only 2 left to visit. The schools we visited were actually in Alta Verapaz and were very remote! All of the teachers go up on mondays and come home on thursdays. Each of the three schools has dormitory like places for the teachers to stay. So it looks like Maggie and I will probably go up every couple of months for a week and either stay in the closest town or find someone in the community to stay with. These schools were in such a beautiful location though! Guatemala is always amazing me! in the west there is ice and snow, in my site it is slowly being transformed from a desert into the tropics as the rainy season is starting, and the location of these schools looked like we were back in north carolina with pine trees and green rolling hills, and if you go one more hour north, you are in the rain forest! absolutely loco! one of the schools in this location will be a perfect school for a bottle project that maggie and i can work on when the kids are on winter vacation (october- jan). which is something that we need to start getting to work on now because we need lots of bottles stuffed with plastic! haha, if you guys are interested in helping us with this project please visit this website: http://www.hugitforward.com/ it is an awesome way to get involved and all you have to do is spread hugs!
Maggie and I were going to start doing our Base Line Surveys this week, but were informed this morning that because of the celebration of mother's day on May 10th, the schools would not be having actual classes, but rather doing games and eating cake all week. So we are going to have to wait until next week, but it seems like we will be able to get these BLS done quickly and can start doing the trainings for the teachers by june (hopefully)! i am really excited to get all this together, i think tomorrow i am going to start making my training posters and visual aids. Friday i get to get my stitches out, which i am very happy about because its hard only having one thumb! haha
More adventures to come!
Monday, May 2, 2011
The week ends, the week begins....
Hello Everyone!
It has been another very interesting week in the verapazes. definitely an emotional one! After returning from Semuc Champey, I found out that my potential living situation was not going to work out because the Doña of the house couldn't afford to put doors on the bathrooms because her father was very sick. This came as a shock and left me feeling very confused and down! but after battling it out with Peace Corps throughout the week, I was able to find a much better situation with another family, so now I am the proud renter of an apartment above an incredibly nice family! And the apartment is absolutely beautiful! i am constantly asking myself, how did i end up here? this is just too nice! I feel incredibly blessed and lucky! thanks to all of you that sent out good vibes last week! they definitely worked!
We started visiting schools last week and were happy to find that about 13 of our 14 schools are on the same road and some of them are even in the same school area! which is going to make working with these schools much easier than we orginally had thought! Most of the schools seemed really receptive, which is also a good sign, I am sure when we actually start trying to do training of teachers and charlas with the Padres and Madres de la Familia (the PTA of sorts) we will probably hit some road bumps, but for now things seem to be going smoothly! In fact today I went to a Padres de la Familia meeting to introduce the program and myself and had to talk in spanish in front of 150 people! they all encouraged me on as a stumbled through what I wanted to say! I feel very comfortable speaking in spanish now, but in front of 150 fluent speakers, the task because very daunting! But they all seemed very excited about their part in the project as well, even after i told them, I had no money to fund any of the infrastructure projects that we have to do in the next two years! haha
Big Excitement of last week though was.....in my second to last day in the hotel, I woke up early to visit schools, took my normal cold shower and started brushing my teeth. I have had an infestation of flying ants (seriously the size of a penny) living in my sink since the day i moved in and have learned how to coexist with them. So as I am brushing my teeth, i see them running around the edges and go to spit my toothpaste into the sink....Bad idea. The next thing i see are these pincher like things coming out of the drain...and i am thinking (half asleep) that doesn't look like an ant. Next thing i know a SCORPION is crawling out of the drain, tail ready to strike ( i am guessing he didn't like being spit on?) Picture this: me with toothpaste all over my mouth, hair in towel, tooth brush in hand, Jumping around like a crazying person and squealing "what do i do...what do i do?" Luckily the maintence guy at the hotel heard the commotion and came running into my room where he informed me that the scorpion was very dangerous and then proceeded to stab it with a very short stick, scoop it out of my sink , and stomp it in one fluid motion. I am telling you the guatemalan's do not mess around here!
I learned that the spanish word for scorpion is Alacran, something i feel like i should know for the coming years!
this week it is more school visits, these are the ones that are very far away (3 hours in a car) so it should be very interesting! until next time.....
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