I'm back baby!

I know it has been waaaay to long since my last post, I have been busy to say the least. In the last month and a half I have hosted several international visitors, have launched a few new projects here in Chilasco, been called in to help Peace Corps revise the Sustainable Community Tourism Project guidelines, and of course been over my head in English classes. I have also been working hard to obtain mobile internet service for my laptop, and am happy to say that I was just able to succeed in this endeavor today! So from here on out I will be connected to the internet, and will try hard to post more frequently.

First off I want to comment on this wonder that is the internet. I think we would all agree that it is the most significant, world-changing invention of recent times. It has changed everything from the way we shop to the way we communicate with one another. It is hard to think of many aspects of our lives that have not been affected by the internet. However, I never expected it to have a huge impact on life out here in the middle of the jungle with a bunch of farmers. That was naive. After a few months here in Chilasco I have come to the realization that one of the most useful tools I can provide the people of my community with is the internet.

The first step in that process was obtaining service for myself. Now, granted there are many selfish motives inherent in this first step, but nevertheless I now control the only "reliable" source of internet access for miles. The next step is to introduce the power and possibilities of global connectivity to the members of my association. They are not completely in the dark ages when it comes to this issue, but they are only vaguely familiar at best with the internet right now. They do have an email address and a makeshift website, but they barely know how to check the email and the website has never been updated and is unfindable through search engines. This is the fastest and most efficient way to bring in the visitantes, and the best way to connect ADESOCHI and its magnificent wonders to the rest of Guatemala and the world at large. So we will work on that.

We will also be working on a website to sell some of the incredibe handmade goods that are made here and never find a new home. We have organized a large group of female artisans from all over the region who make all kinds of beautiful products; everything from baskets woven from pine needles to fantastic traditional Mayan garments. Thousands of hours are put into these goods and often nobody even sees them. I want to help them learn to take advantage of the fact that the world market place is only a few key strokes away. I think it could be a huge success, and I will be calling on all of you for help once we are able to launch the site. Don't hold your breath though, life moves slowly down here.

I'm going to leave at that for now. I will try to start putting up frequent shorter posts like this one with a few pictures each, rather then really long ones that come few and far between.

This is the main courtyard at the Mayan ruins of Tikal. This is just a teaser, the next post will discuss my trip to the ruins, the Mayan culture, and the great change predicted for the year 2012.

Me in front of the great Ceiba Tree at the entrance to Tikal.

Lake Atitlan at dawn. Stunning.

This is the entrance to Semuc Champey. The waterfalls are draining the freshwater lagoons, and the river, Rio Cahabon is actually flowing under a huge limestone bridge here.

This is Rio Cahabon right before it flows beneath the limestone bridge that is Semuc Champey. I have rafted this beast twice now (although obviously not at this spot exactly).

This is the aerial view of Semuc Champey. The river is raging underneath, and the limestone has formed a series of freshwater lagoons that are fed by rainwater running off the mountains. The water is incredibly clear. Its gorgeous here.

Another aerial shot. Yeah, I know.

This is me attempting a back flip off of a rope swing into the river. It looks good now, but the landing was ugly, 4.3

Wow Nena

So my english classes have reached the tipping point. The current enrollment now stands at 253 students. This has officially moved past the point of being a small secondary project. Its all good though. It is a great way to integrate myself into the community, and I can always sneak little life lessons into the English classes. They will never know what hit ´em. I am definitely having fun with it, I keep rewarding the classes by teaching them a song at the end of class. They love it. I have the whole town singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Too funny.

Here are some pictures, just because I feel like showing off the incredible natural beauty I´m surrounded by daily

El rio Chilascó.

The National Bird. The Quetzal.

Big local beatle.

Our jungle cabins.

Never can have enough pictures of "El Salto de Chilascó"

Our other water fall. "Lome del Macho"

This is what we mean when we say "cloud forest"

Ditto.

This is what we mean when we say "broccoli"

Just a couple quick thoughts

I am currently killing some time in an internet cafe waiting for my guitar lessons to download; thats right I bought my first real six string and I am learning to rock with the help of a 12 year old boy from my town and downloaded video lessons. The only problem is I think I might be tone deaf. Anyway, I wanted to share a couple funny/interesting occurences.

I have been receiving many requests for English lessons from the people of my community, so I decided to start a secondary project and start having some classes. Yesterday I had a sign up day, and I was expecting around 20 people, maybe 30 at the most. By the time the day was over I had well over 100 people signed up, and the requests are still pouring in today. Everyone from 10 year old school children to 54 year old farmers. Now I have 5 different classes, 4 days a week, and mind you I have no english teaching experience. So I guess I am just going to have to wing it. I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew with this one, but it will most definitely be an interesting adventure with plenty of comic relief.

Also, I want to comment on how funny the ropa americana down here can be. There are stores everywhere that are basically salvation army's selling old American clothing, and the people love it. However, they very rarely know what their shirts say. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

I have seen a grandma wearing a t-shirt that said "Are you free tonight or will it cost me?"

I have seen a little boy wearing a t-shirt that said "Bootylicious"

And my favorite, I huge, mean looking Guatemalan man, with a pistol tucked into his jeans, wearing a salmon colored hat that read " I LOVE JESUS"

This is a never-ending source of humor as you can imagine. My goal is to get a few pictures with some of these unknowing souls in their inappropriate casual wear.

Hanging out with "fat-man" and Kaeli

I talked Selvin into painting a mural of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too on my wall.

I was able to squeeze in a white water rafting trip at my buddy Oliver's site.

More rafting. Yep, tough life.

Let´s talk about my first month in site

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

Talent show at the pagaent. This is my buddy Selvin singing.


Fantasy costume portion of the competition.




Yours truly at the base of the El Salto de Chilascó.

Alex and me in front of the waterfall.

Alex trying on a hat made by the women of the town out of pine needles.

Sunset.

Aerial view of my community.

My apartment, thats the Guatemalan flag and my doorless bathroom.

My kitchen.

My bedroom.

More of the apartment. I just realized I don´t have pictures of the outside of the house, so I will include them in the next post.

My boys in Antigua after swearing in.

At the swearing in ceremony with the Guatemalan Peace Corps Director, Martha, and the US Ambassador, Steven McFarland.

The whole crew.

Video from the pagaent. This is the Goddess of water costume and the girl who ended up winning.

Lets talk about my new site

Muy buenos dias a todos. I know it has been quite a long time since my last post, but I have been extremely busy in the last month. The first, most important, and most exciting news I have is that I have finally received my site assignment. For the next two years I will be living in the aldea of Chilasco, which is located in the department of Baja Verapaz.

Chilasco is a small, rural, farming community whose major cash crop is broccoli. To arrive there you need to take a 12 km dirt road that winds through the mountains. It takes about 45 minutes to pass 12 km in a microbus. You know you are getting close when the scent of broccoli slaps you in the face. The town is very simple and poor with about 7,000 inhabitants, mostly farmers that are self-subsistent. We are located on the outer layer of the Biosphere of Sierra de las Minas, which is the largest cloud forest in Central America. The forest is home to all kinds of native plants, some really cool animals like jaguars, pumas, and howler monkeys, as well as the famous national bird, the Quetzal. It is obviously cloudy, it can get pretty cold (we are located at about 1800 meters above sea level), and it is often rainy. About an hour and a half hike from our town through the jungle/forest you will find El Salto de Chilasco, the tallest waterfall in Central America. It stands at 130 meters and is absolutely breathtaking. I keep joking that they only put me here because I grew up next to Niagara Falls, and my Dad tells me I must have a destiny with waterfalls.

So what is it I will be doing in Chilasco you ask, well I would be happy to tell you all about it. I will be working primarily with this association known as ADESOCHI (The Association for the Sustainable Development of Chilasco.) They are a strong and proud group that was founded 12 years ago by community members and with the help of Peace Corps, so they have significant experience working with volunteers. Now your question is: if they have been working with volunteers for 12 years already, how come they still need you? Well, I will be the first volunteer that will be working on business development in Chilasco. The other volunteers have worked on first introducing the idea, then organizing the community. After that they needed to develop the trails, the visitors center, the restaurant, the tourist information center, etc. This is an example of how time moves here, where in the United States we could accomplish these tasks in a year, two years tops, in Guatemala it takes 12 years, and there is still a ton of work to be done.

My first order of business is going to be teaching English classes to the guides. This will not only be a valuable tool for them, but it will do wonders in helping me to get to know the people and integrate in the community. I will also begin work on a clean-up and trash management project, to hopefully clean up the town so that it is more appealing to community tourists. While doing all of this my main goal will be to familiarize myself with the people of the town, the operations of the association, the attractions available, etc. From there the next step will be to work on administration and customer service. They have a strong infrastructure in place to host tourists, but they are very disorganized, and the level of customer service can be poor. I will work to strengthen this, and then focus on developing an aggressive marketing plan to bring the people in.

It just occurred to me that many of you may not quite understand what "community tourism" is, seeing as it is virtually non-existent in the USA. The basic idea behind community tourism is to provide tourists with an intimate experience with culture and nature, where they can enjoy a new part of the world in its natural form. It is a form of ecotourism that is very conscious of its effect on the environment and the culture. Instead of going to Disney World and staying at a resort, community tourists go to Chilasco and stay at the community tourist center. They eat at the local comedor, they spend time getting to know the culture, they learn how to make tortillas, they hike into the largest cloud forest in Central America, they buy the hand-made local merchandise, and the receive a genuine cultural/natural experience. When a project like this is successful enough the income they bring can raise the living standards of entire communities. One of ADESOCHI's first goals is to build a new school building so that their children no longer have to get their education in dilapidated shacks.

One of the other really cool attractions that I have not mentioned for Chilasco, are the jungle treks. You can hire a private guide for about $10 a day to take you on 2-3 day hiking treks into the Biosphere, where there are cabins already set up. I have not had the opportunity to do this yet, but it is high on my list of priorities.

For the 4 days of my site visit I stayed with Don Basilio and his family. They live much like the rest of the town, in very poor conditions. They have no appliances so to speak of, and all cooking is done on a wood burning stove, sothe kitchen is constantly filled with very unhealthy smoke. There are 5 children and only 4 beds, and I took up one of them during my stay; although I offered to sleep on the floor. They were all extremely nice, but it was a tough week. They do have one piece of electronic equipment in the house, a radio, which the boys liked to play until 2 am at full blast, making sleep a rare commodity. Also, basically all they eat there is brocoli. Now I do not hate brocoli, in fact I kind of like brocoli, but after 4 days of this green monster for every meal the patience of your taste buds starts to wear thin. This family really wants me to stay with them for the first 3 months in site, because it is required that I live with a family in some capacity. They even promised me my own room, the closet that is currently being used to store farm tools and fertilizer. As tempting as this offer was, I am very happy to announce that at the last minute I found other arrangements, living with a nice young lady and her family. There I will have my own room, my own bathroom, my own front porch, and a nice big comfortable bed.

Other things that took place in the last month. All of the volunteers in my previous town were evacuated, and I am currently living in a new town. A girl was gunned down in the street near my house, and one of our volunteers happened to witness the act. As a precaution they moved us all out of there for the duration of training. Which ends this Friday the 29th!

We have been extremely busy, we finished our work at the park Senderos de Alux, and presented our annual and promotional plan to the town board. They accepted it and will hopefully follow it to fruition now. To celebrate we invited all of our families, I brought both my new and old, and ahd a big barbeque at the park. It was a really fun day. I also did find some time to escape with Alex to the beach. A place called Monterrico where the sand is black.

In my site there is no internet access, so I will have to take an hour and fifteen minute trip to check email and update this blog from now on. I am planning on trying to do this once a week, but who knows. I have much more to share, but you are going to have to wait until the next post. Adios Amigos.

View from the hill above Chilasco.

View from the other hill above Chilasco.

Some of my new amigos from ADESOCHI. That is Don Basilio on my right.

The chicken that lives in the "living room". Pretty standard.

The youngest kids playing with machetes. Again, standard. See video below.

Machete duel video.

Kaeli and Jonny (aka Fatman)

Me and the crew in front of the little waterfall (El Saltito)

Entrance to Don Basilio's house.

El Salto de Chilasco.

El Salto de Chilasco.

El Salto de Chilasco.

Entrance to town. Tourist information center.

Alex and I made lasagna for Don Cesar and Dona Dora.

Monterrico. Trust me the sand is black and it burns your feet so you need sandals at all times.

Alex and I at the beach.

Lunch (before)

Lunch (after)

Barbeque at Senderos de Alux.

The Hernandez family, with which I currently reside at Senderos de Alux.