La vida es como una caja de chocolates: April 2009

My Backyard.

I know it has been too long since my last post, but due to a lack of internet connection combined with a lack of time to make the trip to Salamá to use the internet, it has been difficult. However, I will try to pack as much as I can into this post to make up for it. So here goes...

First let´s cover the swearing in ceremony. After a long three months of pre-service training our entire group of 32 trainees, 16 from the healthy schools program and 16 from the sustainable community toursim program, was invited to the ambassador´s manion in the capital to be sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). The house was incredible: swimming pool, tennis court, sauna, library, beautifully furnished and gardened, our tax dollars hard at work. The ceremony was a bit dry, and culminated with us professing the same oath that you heard Joe Biden swear to if you were tuned in to the presidential inauguration. That seemed a little over the top to me, but it shows you how serious the United States government takes our commintment to service.

After that we had our first two days of real freedom in three months, where we did not have to be home to our host families, and the great majority of us went to Antigua for the night to let loose a little bit. It was a great time, although it would be advisable for Peace Corps to allow more freedom during the training process so that there is not so much pent up energy when it finally comes to an end. So that was Friday night, but Sunday Alex and I decided to take it easy, and stayed at a house outside Antigua known as "Las Tres Gracias"; a wonderful paradise of a home owned by three semi-retired ex-pat women. Thay are an amazing, extremely interesting group of women, that are constantly hosting wandering souls, and they have a special soft spot for PCVs. Soaking in the hot tub and laying in the hammock inside their Zen garden was a perfect source of much needed relaxation.

I say the relaxation was much needed, because that Sunday I shipped off to Chilascó to move into what will be my life for the next two years. I got lucky right off the bat with my living situation. I am living in a building on the property of a woman named Doña Sandra, who is the adult daughter of my counterpart, Don Clementino. The building is a recently constructed, I believe in the hopes that when the tourism industry takes off here it can be used as a small hotel. It has five rooms all in a row, each with their own door to the outside and doorways connecting them all on the inside. Since only the very front room has a finished bathroom, and by finished I mean a showerhead, toilet and sink in a concrete box, this was given to me; which is great because I get my own patio off the front. On top of this I was given the second adjoining room as well, due to the fact that the rest of the building is all sitting vacant. So now I have two rooms that each measure about 10 X 30. This by Guatemalan standards is a palace. It is all concrete; flors, walls and ceiling, which is a huge improvement over most homes in the community which are wood walls, laminate ceilings, and often dirt floors. The higher grade construction is a result of the man of the house living and working in the US to send home remittances. I feel very safe and comfortable here, and Doña Sandra and her five children are great.

For the most part I cook my own food. I eat lots of cereal and pasta; I enjoy making omelets, breakfast sandwiches and pancakes in my non-stick pan (which I value as my most prized possession); I also have been making many licuados. For those that don´t know, to make a licuado: first you buy yourself some fresh fruit (I like pineapple the best, but other variations include watermelon combined with orange juice, cantaloupe is surprisingly good, mango works, and I imagin strawberry would be tasty if I could manage to find some here. Basically anything but banana, which is good at first, but then for some reason ends up turning a mysterious purple color very fast, so you need to drink it all at once.) You slice up the fruit and throw it in a blender, then add milk (I use powdered milk), sugar to your liking (ideally the fruit is sweet enough that you don´t need sugar), and water. Blend until the gruit is liquefied and drink cold. They are deliciouness at its finest. I usually make a new blender full every day. When I do not feel like cooking I have the option of asking Doña Sandra to prepare my food for me, which invariably consists of about 10 corn tortillas, some form of frijoles, and either egg, potato, or chicken (but only once).

On top of lucking out with being provided two very nice rooms to live in, after 3 days here with basically a box spring as my only furniture, and my clothes and possessions all over the floor, I got word that a man named Don Oscar was holding some things that the previous volunteer had left for me. I was expecting a few little things, but when I finally tracked him down and pushed him to turn the stuff over, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was this the stuff of the last volunteer, but every volunteer that has ever been here has passed his sthings on to the next, so there was a large accumulation of treasures. Including but not limited to: a matress, a hand-made futon, tables, chairs, dresser, shelves, refrigerator, two full boxes of books and maps, pots, pans, plates, silverware, sheets, clothes, boots, etc. It was like striking oil. So after paying a group of five guys with a flat bed truckthe equivalent of $2.50 for two hours worth of moving, I was well on my way to living comfortably in the third world.

Now let´s get down to business, because after all I am here to work. Things started off slow, at least from the standpoint of my contributions, but not slow for the association. First off, I celebrated my quarter century mark birthday on my first week in site. I did this by helping unpack the new plate ware the association bought in the morning, teaching some computer lessongs during the day, attending a meeting of the women´s group who make a variation of products out of pine needles and who want help with marketing and selling them in the evening, and then finally around 7 o´clock someone finally realized it was my birthday and Don Clementino busted out a bottle of wine. I got a glimpse of the price tag, Q14 which converts to just under $2, and then drank a glass by myself while everyone else watched, because that was all that was left. Then Don Bacilio invited me to his house, where his wife made me dinner. After dinner Don Bacilio, his wife, their five children and I shared a liter of Dorada Ice beer. Nothing like a birthday cheers that includes 8 year olds.

After this milestone we dove right in to the activities of Semana Santa, Easter week. This is a crazy time here in Guatemala, and it is when the overwhelming majority of national tourism takes place. For a week straight the whole town was alive with action from the flow of tourists. I spent my hours observing logistics of the operation, playing cards and bonding with the tour guides, interviewing tourists on their thoughts about the service and attractions here, and taking my own hikes to the waterfall. So as I said I contributed very little at first, but it is all part of the integration and evaluation process that is supposed to take place over the first three months in site.

Then the opportunity to do some real work fell in my lap, and hopefully launch and amazing project. The greatest cause of death in Guatemala today is respiratory disease, and this is a direct result of the woman and their children spending their days slaving over open fire wood burning stoves, inhaling smoke. To combat this in a cost effective manner you can build what are called "Estufas Mejoradas" (improved stoves) which not only help to ventilate the smoke, but also decrease the use of wood by increasing the efficiency of the stove. These stoves cost about $150 to build, which would be an inconceivable cost for most families here, but most don´t even know these stoves exist and what their benefits can be anyway. So through an organization out of Europe that is offering funding for environmental conservation projects, and I believe building these stoves to be just that because of the more efficient use of fire wood which will alleviate deforestation (another huge problem here), I was able to put together a proposal for funding to build 750 of these new stoves in my community. The community development association I am working with would administer the project, and it would include classes on healthier living practices, for whcih I would train teachers to in turn teach the rest of the community. It is an enormous project that would produce a very tangible difference in the quality of life and health here. I most likely will not receive word on the approval or declination of the proposal for some time, but until then I remain extremely optimistic.

Another major step we took over this last month was focused on the promotion of the tourism industry, my main objective here. We were able to arrange a visit to the waterfall for a large group of journalists from the national newspapers and several of the national television stations, who are doing some focus pieces on national tourism in Guatemala. We did our best to provide them with a fun and informative ecotourism experience, and this should be an exceptional source of widespread and free promotion for our project. We all made it down to the base of the waterfall, where the next thing I know I had microphones and cameras shoved in my face from all different directions for interviews, in Spanish mind you. So I am going to be a national celebrity in Guatemala sooner then I expected, but I have no idea what came out of my mouth so it might not be the greatest thing.

Apart from these activities I have done things like: I spent a day working on one of the farms planting corn in order to try and familiarize myself with the work that 99 percent of the town lives on; I have taken several day trips to the closest actual city to do my grocery shopping and use the internet, this is about an hour and a half away; I have participated in several planning meetings to help start developing a business plan for the Association; Alex came for a visit and we took a trip to the Mayan ruins of Tikal, which deserves an entire blog post all to itself, and I will do one soon; I try to dedicate some time each day to studying Spanish; I am currently training for a half marathon, which I will attempt to run May 17; I attended the high school´s annual beauty pagaent (La Señorita Instituto, see pictures and a video below); I have been reading and writing extensively; and more then anything, I try and spend my freet ime during the day integrating and getting to know the people of the community.

More to come, thanks for reading, and please stay in touch. My email is listed on the page so write me anytime and often. Also, I can provide anyone interested in sending care packages with my address, because believe me I am always interested in receiving them. I love you all. Adios amigos.

La Señorita Instituto pagaent