Lets talk about field based training

Hola todos. This is going to be a long post, it has been two weeks since I last posted, and A LOT has happened. It has been a great two weeks, and I am not even sure where to start, so bear with me here.

I guess I'll start with Volcan de Agua, the fifth tallest volcano in Guatemala. I organized a trip for five of us to head there for the day and climb that beast. Jesse, Jamie, Sarah, Valerie and I headed out at 5:30 am one Sunday. After a quick breakfast in Antigua we reached the base of the volcano at around 7:30. As we started the hike we were passed by a group of about 20 runners who were racing up the volcano. This is incredibly noteworthy considering we barely made it to the top walking and taking breaks every half hour. The ascent took just under 5 hrs. We had lunch at the top, and it was incredible. The only negative was that a huge cloud rolled in as we reached the summit, so we were completely enveloped in cumulonimbus and deprived of the best views available. Thankfully I took lots of photos on the way up. The way down got even more interesting, because we decided to take what we thought was a shortcut. What it ended up being was a little used trail through thick forest that lead us through some private farms and some huge areas where deforestation is taking place. We were lost for about 2 hrs, but since we were always headed downhill we were never really all that worried. It was quite the adventure. The entire hike took about 9 hours, the peak is over 13,000 feet.

It is worth taking a minute to talk about the deforestation we encountered as we made our way through the forest/jungle. Forty years ago Guatemala was 66% covered in forest, today it is only 33% covered, and it is losing almost 2% annually. It does not take a genius to realize that at this rate the whole of Guatemala's forest will be destroyed in near future. I won't go into too much detail on the devastating effects this is having on biodiversity, air pollution, soil erosion, increased threat of landslides, etc. etc. etc. Let's just say that this problem has the potential to destroy the country. The government has taken some measures to prevent this by declaring protected areas, which make up most of the ecological parks that we will be working in. These parks currently make up 17% of the land area, but its not enough. Not only that, but they are understaffed, and illegal deforestation continues and rampant rates. Now I am sure you are sitting there thinking: this seems so obvious, why don't these people realize they are destroying their country and stop. Well, first of all the majority of the population is uneducated and totally unaware of the problem. Second, those who are aware are left with little choice; 60% of the population relies on firewood as their main source of energy to cook their food and heat their homes. There have been some reforestation efforts, many of which Peace Corps Volunteers have played roles in, but it is not enough to off-set the deforestation. It is my opinion that until the country as a whole can rise to a level where the poor no longer have to rely on cutting down the forest to survive, this decline will continue, and we have to do everything we can to educate, protect, and reforest where we can. Just one of the many concerns that a Peace Corp Volunteer has weighing on his mind. Now enjoy some volcano pictures.

Volcan de Agua at dusk.

The start of the path.

Forest tunnels on the trail.

Half way there.

Nice view.

We made it to the summit. We are in the clouds.

Next up: Ancient Mayan Ceremony.

A full 2/3 of the Guatemalan population is indigenous Mayan, so Peace Corps figured it would be a good idea to give us some insight into their culture. To do this they took the whole group of us to attend an ancient ceremony. This is a ceremony that the Mayans have been performing for centuries, and it is a celebration of life, a chance to make requests of the Gods (or more specifically their single being that is found in everything, but that is a little too complicated for right now), and a way in which they give thanks for everything they have. There is a great deal of symbolism in the colors, the ingredients used, the position of everything, the direction you face, etc. They burn 12 different color candles each representing an aspect of their life, they chant ancient hymns, call the gods attention by blowing into a conch shell, and speak to the gods through the fire. We each were given the opportunity to make our own offering and voice our requests. I asked for the health of my family and success in my work here. The whole ceremony took a couple of hours, and after we had lunch with the Mayan family that hosted.

Preparing the ceremony.

Offering sugar to the gods.

The blue represents: water, red: fire, yellow: earth.


Ceremony.

Next on the agenda: building a school out of recycled materials.

One day we took a 3 hour road trip through some crazy mountains. The trip itself was an eye opener, because we were able to see just how rural and underdeveloped this country really is. Imagine a 3 hour trip on pretty much nothing but dirt roads winding through huge mountains. After this 3 hour rollercoaster we arrived in a small town in the departamento of Baja Verapaz where for a year a grade school has been collecting plastic bottles and stuffing them with plastic waste (i.e. empty chip bags and plastic bags). They have collected thousands, and it has done wonders for cleaning up the town. Garbage management is one of the biggest problems facing Guatemala today. We then used these bottles to construct a new school building for the kids. When the project is finished the kids will have a 25 x 40 ft. building that will contain a library and a cafeteria. Besides the metal frame, the entire building will be made of recycled plastic coated in cement. It costs a fraction of what the normal construction price would be, it is just as sturdy, and it has cleaned up an entire town. Not bad huh?

A year worth of garbage collecting.

You have to make sure every bottle is packed tight.

And the first wall is under way.

Another project that is fun for the kids and a great use of recycled materials is the construction of a playground. This project we had no part in, but we recieved training so that we can attempt it in the future.

All kids love swings.

Playground of recycled materials.

Next: Santa Clara la Laguna and the Zip-line

So one of the stops on our camping trip was Lago Atitlan. One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. So beautiful in fact that it was considered for one of the new wonders of the world. There is a sight there that is home to an ecological park with elements of extreme sports involved. Including a repelling wall and the largest zip-line in Guatemala (200 meters up and 400 meters across). This park is surrounded by 4 protected areas, and the dream is that one day it will be able to generate enough tourism income to support all 4 protected areas and bring several entire communities out of poverty. That is the kind of potential our work here has. The lake is absolutely breathtaking, and the zip-line was such a rush. I am hoping with everything I have that this will be my site for the next two years, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Eduardo, my spanish teacher, about to try the zip line.

At the landing plank of the zip line.

Before the zip line.

After the zip line.

Lago Atitlan. Breathtaking.

Alyxe and me in front of Atitlan.

Alyxe is ready to zip.

Largest zip line in Guatemala, maybe in central america. Scream loud.

Zip-Line Vdieo!

What else? Oh ya, more recycled materials with kids.

One of the activities of our week in field based training was to go to a school and teach a classroom of kids to make arts and crafts out of recycled materials. I was not very excited at first, but I ended up loving the work I did with the kids. We played a few games that helped them to learn about the food chain, then we made piggy banks out of recycled bottles and paper.

My class after they made piggy banks out of recycled material and recieved our lecture on recycling.

Helping my kids make their piggy banks.

There is so much else I could touch on. I'll try and give a few hi-lites.

We had our second round of spanish exams, and I have graduated to the intermediate-high level, and was told I am on the border of advanced low. This was over a week ago, and I actually think I am in advanced now.

We celebrated Diego's birthday the other day. I gave him 3 new puzzles, that kid loves puzzles. I also embarressed myself trying to hit the pinata after being blindfolded and spun around 10 times.

We find out our sites on March 11. This will be a big day, because it will determine the next two years. Nervioso.

Does anyone have any specific questions? If you leave a comment or write me an email with questions I will spend the next blog trying to answer them.

Here are a few more pics.

Breakfast at Corazon de Bosque.

The Mayan girls that we had a dance party with after our Eco-Camp.

Volcan de Fuego erupting.

Adios Amigos.

Lets talk about Pastores, the Superbowl, Charlas, basketball, markets, Mahimon, birthdays, and things to come

Hola todos! Its really hard to believe that one month ago today my Dad and Lauren drove me to the airport to depart for staging. Let me tell you, time has flown by. Its seems crazy though, because I feel like so much has happened. I have been especially busy in the last week, and I am only going to be busier in the next few weeks. In this post I'm going to try and provide a quick summary of the highlites of the last week, and a preview of whats to come.

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Lets start with last Saturday: community exchange day. The idea of this activity was to become familiar with a different Guatemalan community, so they paired our group up with another from a different town. We were matched up with the town of Pastores. First the girls of Pastores came here to San Bartolome. We set up a make-shift scavenger hunt where the girls had to find us at all the different important locations in town by following clues. At the end I was waiting at my house with a prize; peanut butter sandwiches and a delicious juice I made. Juice recipe: one fresh pineapple, diced; one fresh papaya, diced; add both to blender with water and sugar; blend until smooth; enjoy the deliciousness.

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Next we went to Pastores. This is where things got interesting. We were blind-folded, taken to an obscure part of town (on foot, through traffic, without being able to see), and provided with a map and a sheet of questions. When they took the blind-folds off we had to race through the town, stopping people to find the answers to all the questions, and the first one to make it to the "X" on the map with all the answers won. Some of the questions were a little off the wall; for example, "where in town can you buy iguana skin boots." We found out later that the girls didn't even know the answers, they just wanted to know and figured we could find out for them. I did find the iguana boots. Actually Pastores is famous for their boots, there must be 50 boot stores. They make them all by hand, to your specifications, with almost any fabric or animal skin you want. People apparently come from all over the world for these boots, and the people of this town have been making them for generations. I might return and get myself some snakeskins with snake skulls on the tips, bad ass.

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Next up, Superbowl Sunday. Almost all of the volunteers met up in Antigua at a bar called Mono Loco, where my friend Karina happens to bartend. We had a blast. Other volunteers from all over the country showed up too. It was really funny to see everyone let loose after 3 weeks of hard work and no booze. It seems to me that if you want a group of people to bond, just add alcohol. Plus, what a game!

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The next few stressful days were spent preparing for Thursday, Charla day. Yesterday I had to give a presentation to everyone involved in my park. I spent the night before typing up my lesson plan, preparing handouts, and making visual aids. Then I woke up yesterday morning to find out that half the country was without power, an ominous start. There was a storm with crazy winds Wednesday night and some power lines were knocked down. Since the country is not set up on grids, but on a few main lines that light the entire nation, when one goes down everyone loses power. For some reason we lost the water with the power, so I couldn't shower. I also couldn't print out my lesson plan or my handouts.

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This was a terrible start, but one of the keys to success in Peace Corps is to be flexible and learn to adapt in difficult environments. So I took a trip to Peace Corps headquarters where they have a generator, there I was able to print out everything. I made it back just in time for the presentation. So there I was on the top of a windy mountain where it was freezing cold, with no power, giving a half hour presentation about basic marketing principals, completely in spanish, to 15 people of which only a few can read and write, using a fire for light and warmth. That is Peace Corps.

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The presentation actually went pretty well. I used some simple games to display the principals, and we were able to develop a visitor survey to gather infomation that will help us design a more efficient marketing plan. In reality I already designed the survey, but the idea was to make them think they designed it. That speaks to the heart of development work and being a facilitator. Simply doing the work for people does not produce lasting effects, but if you guide them through the process, teaching them along the way, and allowing them to feel as they own the ideas, the chance of them following through goes up ten fold. In three months it is hard to produce any tangible results, my hope is to help them develop a plan, give them the tools to implement the plan, and pray that they follow it through. It is a slow and pain-staking process, especially given the speed of life down here. For example, I have been waiting for over a week for the park director to email me a copy of the current marketing plan he allegedly has. Now this is someone who has requested assistance, and I am here working for free, but I have had to call and email him over and over for a simple email. Sometimes it isn't as the saying goes and you can't just lead a horse to water, sometimes you have to carry the horse up a mountain on your back. I love the challenge though, and I know this park has the potential to not only support itself, but provide a much needed income stream for the municipality that can help all the residents of the town.

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After the Charla I had some fun. Jesse and I joined a basketball league with some kids from our town. Now, I am not very good at basketball, but here I am Shaq. We play in a town about 15 minutes away called Santiago. It is a big court with bleachers, we played under the lights, and lots of people came to watch. It is legit, we have uniforms and everything. It is five on five, but when we got there one of our players realized he left his backpack at the gas station and took off, he never returned. So we played 4 on 5. I scored 21 points, Jesse had 25 or so, and we won 59-16, with 10 of their points coming from free throws. It was pretty hilarious and I can't wait 'til the playoffs start in 2 weeks. I'm winning that trophy.

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Today was a fun day, it was our last day with our first spanish teacher, and my host mom's birthday. First we went to the city of Chimaltenango where Friday is market day at one of the largest markets in the area. This place is a maze of thousands of little shops, its the craziest flea market ever, on crack. You navigae your way through block after block of aisles. One section will have meat hanging on hooks everywhere; pig feet, full chickens (dead and alive), huge slabs of meat, you name it. Another full block is all clothes, everthing from traditional mayan dress to lacoste polos. You can find anything, all kinds of toys, electronics, knick-knacks, junk, crazy food, animals, fruits, vegetables, flowers, firewood, etc. Some of it is outside, but a lot of it is covered by tarps and tin roofs, and like I said it resembles a maze. Small little aisles, thousands of people, no real order to anything. I bought a real nice sweater for Dona Dora for her birthday. I spent a little more then I wanted too, but I think it was worth it.

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After the market we went to another village that is famous for having a statue with special powers. The statue is of Maximon (pronounced Mashimon). Stories about him differ, some say he was an old priest that looked after the aboriginees in the western Guatemaln highlands. Some say he was a pre-Columbian Mayan God. We heard an all together different story today. We went to the shrine where Maximon is usually found and discovered he is no longer there. Apparently there was a dispute between the church and the shrine and they had to move the statue to another town. However, after some investigation we found out that there was still a Maximon nearby. We found him in the middle of a deserted lot, where it looked as if a house was torn down there a century ago. In the corner of this lot was a little hut, made completely of the tin that is used for the roofs here. This 8 x 10 foot hut contained a small fire, a ton of smoke, two old ladies, and the statue of Maximon: a man dressed in a black robe, with a cowboy hat on, a cigarette in his mouth, a rifle in his hand, and candles and bottles of liquor surrounding him. Maximon is the god of vices, and he responds to them as offerings. We were told today that he was an old mayor who ruled with an iron fist, and had the power to perform miracles. One of the old ladies said she was his keeper, and that she serves as a spiritual conductor for Maximon. Devotees believe that prayers for revenge, or success at the expense of others, are likely to be granted by Maximon, and if they pay this lady she will give offerings to the statue and he will do their "works". This lady stressed that this was not a business, and that she had faith that can move mountains; however, the starting cost of each "work" is 500 Quetzal. She told us that she has performed "works" for 14 different mayors in her time. Some of the things she can do is make someone fall in love with you, relieve illnesses, remove your enemies, and help you take other peoples jobs. It was surreal being in this dark smoky little hut, with this hunch-backed old lady, hearing about her life work, and watching this cigarette smoking, rum drinking, gun slinging statue that people come from all over to pay homage to. I didn't believe a word of it, but at the same time I hope he doesn't do a "work" on me while I'm here.

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Tonight we had a little birthday party, kind of. I baked a chocolate birthday cake and bought a bottle of Chilean wine. We had a nice dinner, with Diego dancing on his chair the whole time. The cake turned out pretty damn good, I must say. Then I gave Dona Dora the sweater I bought her, and realized that I was the only person who got her a present. They don't buy presents for birthdays, because it isn't affordable. I don't know if I should feel good that at least I was able to get her a nice present, or terrible that nobody else was able too. I also am not sure if her children think I was trying to show them up, or they are happy I am so nice to their mother. I think Dora really appreciated it though, and we will see if she actually wears the sweater or not (she better).

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Tomorrow I will be attending a traditional Mayan cermony, at a highly spiritual place, where the land supposedly emits vibrations that can heal the mind, body, and soul. On Tuesday I will be taking my second language test to see how I've progressed in the last month. After that we are going to get a new teacher. I am going to miss my old teacher, Isabel. She was great, very nice, and very smart. She speaks fluent spanish, a fluent Mayan language, and is learning english. The next week we are heading out for "field based training". We will be hiking and camping for a week at 5 different sites throughout Guatemala. I am really pumped, we are going to see some incredible places, and I get to try out the largest zip-line in Guate. I know this post was long, but a lot happened and I hope you enjoyed it. Adios amigos.

Jesse and me with Isabel.

Cutting the cake I made for Dona Dora's birthday.

Dona Dora with her new sweater, Don Cesar paying no attention.

Dona Dora about to blow out her candles, Diego stealing the show as usual.

Me and mis padres afitriones.

Octavio and his girfriend, Robin, in Antigua. Robin was the volunteer in this house before me.

Thank you

I just want to say thank you real quick to everyone that has been reading the blog so far. Thank you for all the feedback and nice comments, I feel great every time I get a new one. Please keep reading and keep the comments coming. I also added my email for those of you who don´t have it. I miss you all. Adios amigos.