Guatemalteca

New Adventures

2011-07-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

In May, I returned to the U.S. from Guatemala. I was obviously sad that my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer (3 years and 5 months!) had come to the end and devastated at having to leave Donal behind (for now), but I was also really ready to start moving forward with the immigration process and to find out what I had been missing all those years outside U.S.

Technology was definitely VERY different including new things like tablet PCs, kindles, and smart-phones that were accessible to the general public. I spent a great deal of time deciding whether I needed a data plan or not and decided I wasn't quite ready to make that transition yet. I haven't regretted it once. The Southcenter mall renovation is also SO overwhelming.

Many things haven't changed. Although my friends are sporting new significant others, new houses, new cars, and new children in many cases, who they are and why I love them has thankfully not changed. I am here at my parent's house which also hasn't changed and the weather is comfortably dreary.

All in all, I am settling into life in the U.S. nicely. I have a job which is a HUGE challenge (in a good way). The cat, after an overwhelming in-cabin journey (my fellow passengers were thankful that the kitty whining was drowned out by the engine noise) to the U.S. and a harrowing near-fatal liver infection, is also loving his new life.

Donal and I are settling into the long-distance relationship as well. The first month was pretty easy (we had been apart that long before on previous visits I made here) and the second not-so-easy. I am thankful for international calling plans and Skype which allow us to talk or text almost every day. It is hard not to be able to see each other but we both know it is only temporary and will be SO worth spending the rest of our lives together.

That is a short update on whats been going on. Next time I will update you on the immigration process and WEDDING PLANS. Hasta Luego.

On the Table

2010-12-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

Here in the U.S., we don't talk about marraige with people we are dating. In general, people don't even mention the "M" word for months if not years. Our culture is caught up in doing things at the "right" time, in following the right procedure. Don't kiss to soon or he'll get the wrong idea, don't say I Love You until you're sure she'll say it back, don't mention marraige with the first 6 months (or the 6 years) or he'll freak out.

Let's face it: we all think about it. After a certain age, everyone you date is automatically evaluated for marraige potential (I'm talking girls and guys here) and anyone who doesn't make the grade is basically a waste of time. How soon does marraige cross your mind? The first date? Second date? After a month? I'm willing to bet that in the first few dates you both have thought about it. If you add it up, you've probably spent days of your adult life thinking about the kind of person you want to marry and in the first few dates, you wonder how that person matches up to your qualifications. We can't help it...but we could NEVER EVER tell them about it.

In Guatemala, things are a little different. Like I mentioned before, publicly dating is a really big deal. People sneak around for years and even if everyone knows they are dating, if it isn't public it isn't serious and people pretend they don't notice. In a town of 2,000 people a tall blonde person tends to get noticed a little. By the time I started dating Donal, I was a bit of a local celebrity. People paid attention to what I did, marvelled at it, and speculated about it to all of their neighbors. So, even before we started dating, they were asking: Is Donal your boyfriend? How does he treat you? Have you met his family?

Are you going to marry him and take him back to the United States to live with you forever and have white-skinned babies?

A simple "I haven't really thought about it." or "I'm not sure yet." didn't satisfy the curiousity of 2,000 townspeople and the question was asked over and over and over. It's the same way that people spend hours obsessing over whether two celebrities are really dating each other when a photographer catched a picture of them lunching out in L.A. The magazines speculate, people talk about it, and the reporters will keep asking them about it until they get the answer they want.

So, my point is, marraige was on the table in our relationship from day one. Since everyone around us was asking, it naturally became a part of our conversations. From the very beginning we talked about what we wanted from our future spouses, the possibility of him moving or me staying in Guatemala. We always knew that if at one point we realized we couldn't marry each other, the deal would be off. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable; it was actually a huge relief. I didn't have to worry about when the appropriate time to bring it up was or if he would react badly. Other people broke the ice for us and we could happily swim in the waters of relationship honesty.

People ask me when I knew that I would marry Donal and it's a hard question to answer. There was no magic moment when I "knew" we would be together forever. In some ways, I always knew I would marry him. After months of letting it be on the table it became a normal part of my plans without me even making a decision. I never found any reason why I shouldn't marry him. Instead, I got to know him better and found a million reasons why I should and it gradually took over my thinking and confirmed the thoughts we had already shared: we would get married. I don't think proposals should be complete surprises or that guys should doubt whether she will say "Yes" or not. We talked about it from day one and when we decided to get engaged it was something we decided together as the logical next step toward the future we both wanted...together.

I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Inner-conflict

2010-11-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

So, basically I was a huge IDIOT (and pretty much really annoying). Donal and I spent MONTHS as "just friends." We really liked each other, spent all of our time together, and I spent most of that time saying "I don't want a boyfriend...let's just be friends...". Part of that was because I was being wierd and part of it was that I thought having a boyfriend would give me a scandalous reputation around town (something the Peace Corps had warned us about). I also thought it was pointless because I knew I would leave Guatemala someday and I didn't want anyone to get hurt.

(embarrassed face)
Ok, I have to admit: I was also being stubborn because someone in my Peace Corps training class had (and I don't know why they thought this) voted me "most likely to marry a Guatemalan." The Peace Corps traning director told us that 2-3 out of every training class end up fulfilling that role. At the time I emphatically denied any truth in the prediction and I later stubbornly tried to avoid situations (like dating a Guatemalan) that could lead to the fulfillment of the prophesy.

All this was floating around in my head making me more and more confused about what I really wanted with Donal.

Meanwhile, people around town started to notice. I should mention that most towns in Guatemala suffer from an illness called "small-town-itis" which causes people to watch each other like hawks and gossip about like their isn't anything better to do (because there really isn't). So, while I was saying "Let's just be friends" everone in town was saying "Did you hear that Andrea's dating Donal?".

I should also mention that in Guatemala, meeting someone's family and admitting that you are dating is a REALLY big deal. Young people meet up in secret for years until they finally tell their parents about it. You can go to any Guatemalan town during the late evening and see dozens of secretly-in-love couples making out on dark street corners safely hidden from their family's knowledge. So, me wanting to be "just friends" with Donal looked to the average townsperson like the normal secret-dating ritual performed by everyone else.

So, I finally got annoyed of saying I wanted to be "just friends", worrying about my reputation, denying my feelings, and hearing from everyone else that I really WASN'T "just friends" with Donal, I decided to go for it. I threw myself overboard into waters I knew might hold dangers like scandalous reputations, future heartbreak, "I-told-you-so"s and inter-cultural conflicts.

...and I am SO glad I did!

Getting to Know You

2010-05-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

So, Donal and I had met, but we didn't see each other again for several weeks. Finally, I decided (don't remember why) to stroll down the street-less-traveled and I ran into Donal. We made plans to hang out (as friends).

In small-town Guatemala, there is not much to do at night. Basically all hanging out/dating/going out at night takes place either by hanging out on the street corner and eating tacos, or if you have a car, driving around in circles (AKA cruising). So, Donal picked me up and we started driving around and getting to know each other. It wasn't like dating. I really liked Donal but I was going through a phase where I was totally sick of guys and really just wanted some guy-friends. So I obsessively mentioned how much I did NOT want a boyfriend during every conversation and we just hung out.

At this point, we were both (after talking about it since) really attracted to each other and really convinced that nothing could ever work out between us. I actually have entries in my journal that say things like "there is no future with Donal." I guess it just goes to show that you never know what God's plan for your life is. I sure didn't see it coming. It took a few weeks of circling around town and around our feelings before the opportunity arose for a real date.

The Beginning

2010-03-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

I met Donal in May 2008.

I had been through 3 months in Peace Corps Training and was working on my 2nd month living in Cabrican, my work site. I had made a few friends in town, but was still feeling a little lonely and missing home.

Now, you might wonder...in small town Guatemala, how did it take us 2 months to run into each other? The thing is, I didn't spend a lot of time walking aimlessly around town at that point. There are two main roads in town. The road that Donal's house and store are on happens to not be the road that I normally traveled. The internet cafe I used and the stores I shopped in were all on the other road. So, I spent 2 months in site without ever even walking down the road he lived on. Donal says now that he saw me ONE time during those 2 months and thought I was too pretty to talk to=).

I always went to the same internet cafe in those days. One of the teachers at the schools I worked at owned the internet and gave me a little discount. So, I spent a lot of time there writing e-mails to family and friends and everything. Naturally, I started being friends with the guy that worked at the internet cafe, Abner. We never hung out or anything, but every time I went there we said hi and chatted a little.

So, one day, I went to the internet and one of Abner's friends was in there using the internet as well. His name was Donal. So, while we all used the internet, we started talking and joking around. I have no idea what we talked about, but when it got to be closing time, the two of them invited me to go eat dinner with them. I said yes.

We went to a cafe in the neighboring town and ate dinner and kept talking and joking. I had a lot of fun, although I don't remember what we even talked about. I remember when we were in the car on the way back to town they asked me to sing a song to them and I did. I thought they were both a lot of fun and thought we might have dinner again someday.

There was no exchange of phone numbers, no future plans. I still didn't have a reason to go down the street less-traveled in town. Two weeks would go by until I would even see Donal again.

Play-by-play

2010-03-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

The moment you have all been waiting for.

Ramirez-Stanaway productions proudly presents the engagement play-by-play that took the breath away of your favorite leading lady....

Valentine's Day Eve 2010. Dinnertime. The best and maybe only good Indian Restaurant south of the border. Empty restaurant. Two nervous lovebirds nervously choke down their spicy lamb curry and cashew chicken. Tension is in the air.

So, let's just say I was suspicious. I know there are a lot of guys that do their very best to give their girls a heart attack with surprising proposals. Other guys are not admired for their subtlety and we love them for it. This belonged to the second group.

The week before, there were lots of ring questions. Not your typical walk-through-the-mall-and-tell-me-what-you-like kind of questions, but more like "ok, so you like white gold, right?". There was also the ring-trying-on for finger size and little clues like "I am planning a REALLY good Valentine's day present for you..."

So, let's just say...I was hoping. Right before dinner, Donal said something to the effect of "I'm going to go buy you a ring, I'll be right back..." and my hopes were confirmed.

Then there was the excruciating wait through dinner. We got to the restaurant and sat down, ordered food, and tried to distract ourselves until present-opening time. We took away some of the tension by taking some really ugly pictures with funny faces that I have been forbidden to publish.

Then, it was finally time to open presents. I received a little gift bag with Snoopy on it ( Who doesn't love Snoopy?) and inside was a gold box. Inside the gold box was a little ring-shaped box. Donal took the ring box out for me and opened it. Dum Dum Dum

He said "Tu eres la cosa mas bonita que me haya pasado en la vida y si algun dia tenemos que estar aparte, quiero que sea por que Dios haya llevado a uno de nosotros al cielo." Which means: You are the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life and if someday we have to be separated, I want it to be because God has taken one of us up to heaven.

I know, right? I am pretty sure after that (kind of a blur) there was a yes and some kisses involved. AH!

After some resizing for large American fingers, I had my beautiful ring on my finger and I was ENGAGED!

Two years ago when everyone insisted I would marry a Guatemalan I thought they were crazy! Who would have thought?

So, we don't know where, when, or how, but Donal and I love each other and we are GETTING MARRIED!

Changes!

2010-02-25T16:20:00.000-08:00

It has been quite awhile since I last wrote of my blog. Life in Guatemala fell into kind of a routine and with nothing new and exciting to write about other than the cats....(I know you all were left riveted by the previous article on cat depression...) I neglected my blog. Fortunately, there have been lots of new and exciting changes lately, so I thought I might start writing again.

In case you are still on the edge of your seat about Aslan's cat-depression, it was a false alarm. His friend came back and the depression passed. Despite a small problem when he got cut on some barbed wire and we had to make an improvised cat-cone out of cardboard for him so he could heal, the cat is fine.

In other news...Donal and I (remember him?) got engaged!!! I'll tell you the whole story in my next entry, I promise.

Also, I was invited to extend my Peace Corps service another year to be something called a Volunteer Leader. That means I will have to move closer to the city so I can spend my time visiting current volunteers and helping with trainings and documentation.

So, in a few weeks I will be starting a new life with a new job in a new town. A few weeks ago I was getting ready to go home to the U.S. I was looking for jobs, talking about what I was going to eat....and now, everything has changed. I will be in Guatemala one more year and when I do go home next year, I will be making plans to get married and make it possible for Donal to be there with me. How exciting! More details and the full exclusive story to come!

Cat depression...

2009-07-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

So I came back from the 4th of July party in Antigua to not good news. The party was fun. I got that party-ed out feeling about halfway through (170 Peace Corps volunteers, 80% I had never met before + loud music + dancing + general craziness). The ambassador and his sons came and played in the staff vs. volunteer soccer game and beat us.

The bad news, I came home and the remaining mean kitten, Willie, has run away. I don't know if he got out and couldn't find his way back or just got sick of me. There is still faint hope he will come back, but he has been gone more than the 24 hours they make you wait to file a police report for missing persons by now...

Aslan has been wandering listlessly around the house, calling out for Willie, looking for her, and won't leave my side. It is SO sad. He is obviously really missing his friend and I don't know what to do. The online help I found wasn't so helpful.

Treating Cat Depression (ehow.com) My comments in RED

Instructions
Step 1
Cats are creatures of habit. Search your home for any recent changes, such as a new brand of kitty litter of cat food (or maybe disappeared companions?) . Temporarily revert to the old brands and gauge the changes in your pet.
Step 2
Monitor how you are presenting yourself to your cat. Pets pick up on the emotions of their owners. Try to be as cheerful as possible when around them. (Uh-oh...I am usually tired, lazy, or stressed out...)
Step 3
Play with your cat! Set aside at least 15-30 minutes a day to interact with your pet. An easy game: attach a feather to a stick using string. Pretend it’s a fishing pole, and dangle the feather over your cat’s head. Make him leap for it. Let him catch and play with it from time to time so he doesn’t get bored. (feathers...like from a chicken....?)
Step 4
Make an effort to pet, hold and groom your cat as often as you can. This will give him the security he needs to feel content. (ok, I think I could have thought of that...)
Step 5
Contact with the outdoors can work wonders. Clear a comfortable perch for your cat by a window, preferably in view of outdoor critters such as squirrels and birds. If you have a backyard, take your pet out for supervised visits. (what happens if your cat lives outside all the time...import some more interesting birds? The slingshot squirrel massacres here eliminate that possiblity...)
Step 6
Consider getting a second cat if the reason seems to be loneliness. An extra buddy to play with can make all the difference! (A second cat so it can run away too? Besides, I think he will know the difference...do you think the mangy cat he lets steal his food counts...?)
Step 7
Take your pet for an examination and blood test. If physical causes are ruled out, it could be the result of a chemical imbalance. You vet may prescribe anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medications to treat it. (Guatemalans laugh at me for giving my cat real cat food instead of table scraps and for taking it for its shots...I think anti-depressants for my cat just might tip the crazy-gringa scale against me...that also sounds like something my PCV budget wouldn't quite allow for)

Too much FOOD....

2009-07-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

A lot of the cultural adjustments for us in Guatemala center around food. Vegetarians are misunderstood and often ridiculed...vegans have it worse. The food make people sick, gives them worms, and there are times when we just don't want to see another tortilla ever again.

The worst part, though, is that everyone is always offering you food. They invite you to coffee, to lunch, to snack, to dinner. Every time you stop by to say hello the food get's brought out to make you feel welcome. Bread, coffee, tortillas, beans, tamales...it's all an option. The custom in probably amplified but the fact that I am obviously not from around here and people go out of their way to make sure I feel welcome. At Christmas, Keri and I were given more tamales than I could stand to eat in a year.

Ok, so I know, right? I too thought that a culture in which you were always offered food (and usually good tasting food) was HEAVEN! Who wouldn't want to have the option of always eating, not to mention never having to cook for yourself or wash the dishes because you are invited to eat in other people's houses?

Well folks, there is another cultural aspect that complicates things. In Guatemala, it is also rude and offensive to refuse an invitation. That's right...you just ate dinner? It doesn't matter, you should eat again. "No thank you" translates to "I don't like your food or your house or you" when you turn down food. Also, if you don't clear your plate, it means you didn't like it! Example: I am in the middle of eating second snack at school (first snack was a huge cup of atol I was given before I went to the store to get the snack I really wanted) when the teachers invited me to go eat snack with them (which by the way is more of a meal...chicken and tortillas and rice..) So, I barely choke that down and have about an hour leeway before someone is offering me lunch. AH!

Who would have thought I, lover of food, daughter of Kathy "are you hungry?" Stanaway would dread the thought of free food...

Mean Kittens

2009-06-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Left to right: Willie, Eto'o, and Yoda

So, when I decided that I would babysit 3 wild kittens with the goal of making them tame, I confess I really didn't have any idea of what I was getting myself into. I was thinking that they might adapt pretty quickly to me giving them food, recognize that I wasn't dangerous, let me pet them a little, and my job would be done.

What I didn't count on was the power of motherly anti-human propoganda, lack of human contact in their early moments of life, and well...fear.

I'm used to Aslan, who likes to cuddle and crawl under my covers for a nap. He even falls asleep in matching positions with Donald.

So, the experiment was not a great success. After a month of chasing them around trying to get them to come inside I was left with 2 1/2 wild kittens. We ended up giving away the two wildest to Donald's sister-in-law and I kept the least mean for further observation because there was hope. I thought you might want to meet them.

Eto'o (meanest)

Yoda (right I know, the ears. So cute but not happy with humans)

Ballena = Whale (Willie) He's the keeper...for now...

The good news is that Aslan had someone to play with although I was never quite sure is he was giving them a warm embrace or trying to suffocate them...I think it might be the end of my kitten raising career.

This little piggy stayed home...

2009-05-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the swine flu...oh, sorry...H1N1 or something more scientific sounding like that...has reached Guatemala. A lot of Guatemalans sounded kind of surprised, but with all the people/stuff traffic between here and out nothern neighbor, I would have been surprised if it didn't get here.

Although the nurses warned us of possible future outbreaks of bird flu and gave us an emergency dose of something in case of virul emergency (kind of feels like the bat-phone) swine flu was not in the PC medical (or anybody's) plans.

So, the Peace Corps has advised us to stockpile food in case of the worst case which would mean an in-house quarantine. I have decided to replicate my family's earthquake kit from days of old. My mom bought things like granola bars and spaghetti O's and other things that we normally weren't allowed to eat...C'MON EARTHQAUKE!! The good news was that when the earthquake didn't come in the following 3 years, we got to eat the chewy chocolate chip granola bars to avoid expiration....Mmmm...So the Guatemalan kit will include things like Chikys (chocolate enrobed cookies) and orange soda and pineapple pie and all the other things I shouldn't eat in Guatemala but would make me feel good about staying in my house 24/7.

I will also continue my ever popular Healthy Schools Guatemala mantra...lavate las manos lavate las manos lavate las manos...wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands...Nothing new in that department.

Don't be scared...

2009-03-24T14:50:00.006-07:00

I have been hearing a lot about violence in Guatemala. The funny thing is, I have heard about it not from Guatemalans, not from the News, not even from fellow Peace Corps colleagues. I have been hearing about the increase in violent crime that is apparently happening in the country I am living in from...well...people who don't live in it.

Between Google Alerts, my Mom, and Google Alerts forwarded to me by my Mom, I have heard about quite a few instances in the recent past where foreigners have been targets of violent crime in Guatemalan. One involved a bus of people including a Canadian aid worker who were tied up and robbed on their way to Mexico. Another involved a pastor who was killed. There was also a group of University of Michigan students who were robbed on their spring break trip to Guate.

Ok, so I know I have probably scared you by now.

I am here to tell you: DON'T BE SCARED. Cancel the plane ticket you are buying in order to come here and drag me home to safety. I'm not going.

The truth is, there is crime in Guatemala. There is violent crime and often foreigners can be targeted. The truth is, thieves think that we have money and a lot of times they are right.

Most violent crime as far as statistics you might hear is concentrated in the capital city, which Peace Corps volunteers have almost no occasion to visit. As far as these stories you hear about buses of tourists getting robbed, there are things you can do to easily avoid these kind of situations:

1. Leave your laptop at home. In an article I read about the University of Michigan students that were robbed, they listed among the items taken were iPods, cameras, and phones. Thieves know we (foreigners) carry that kind of stuff. They see the luggage rack full and the girl in front roaming for a wireless signal on her laptop and they know we are a good target.

2. Stay on the highway. There are certain routes that are common targets of burglary. They are usually shortcuts that are more isolated ways to get to where you are going. The Peace Corps has a list of roads we aren't supposed to take. I know it seems like it gets you there quicker, but a robbery slows you down a lot.

3. Give it up. Most robbers don't want to hurt you. If they ask for your diamond earrings or your wallet, give it up. Totally not worth your life.

4. Don't worry about it. Ok, I know you see it on the news and it seems like it is happening all the time, but it's not. Lot's of people come to Guatemala and have a good time without ever being a victim of any crime. The crime most likely to hit you is pickpocketing. Big deal.

It makes me sad that a lot of people might not want to come here because of what is happening. It is a beautiful country with lots of great things to see. Crime happens a lot in New York and there are neighborhoods you should definitely avoid, but there are also a lot of cool things you should go there and see.

I have a friend that had a trip planned to come here to Guatemala and cancelled at the last minute because he was worried about safety. I don't think anyone should do something they aren't comfortable with. However, there are a lot of things you can do here to avoid unsafe situations and these kind of instances aren't that common.

Guatemala relies a lot on tourism to boost its economy. So don't be afraid. Leave your iPhone at home and get down here!

NASCAR has nothing on the Guatemalan "Chicken Buses"

2009-02-16T15:32:00.003-08:00

Here is another submission by my guest writer, describing life in Guatemala better than I ever could.

To properly transmit an understanding of this experience I must first define the elements so as you are reading, you can fully appreciate the story:

To and from anywhere is the country of Guatemala, you have the following transportation options:

Walking - Over two weeks of travel in this beautiful country, we saw lots of people walking in the middle of nowhere, many times with a substantial load on their back to an apparent destination.

Bicycle - Pavement, gravel road or path, the bicycle is alive and well.

Car or Pickup - *** Note to US Automakers, you lost the battle in Central America! 90% of the vehicles I saw were Toyota, the other 10% are mostly Asian between Nissan & Mitsubishi. (A brief moment of silence please, I saw less than 5 Volkswagens during our visit). Lastly, of the 90% Toyota figure, 80% of that total were pickups for hauling things or people, or things & people at the same time).

Private Coach - Can you say "TURISTA".

Chicken Bus - Primary means of travel for any distance for 98% of Guatemalans (including cool travelers with personal bi-Iingual guides). I'm sure there was a time when someone first called buses by this name but here is a picture of the chickens ready to go on the top of the "Chicken Bus":

People ride these buses for school, work or traveling to the next city for "market day", selling their goods in an all cash or barter system:

Where do American used Toyotas and School Buses go ? Guatemala

Now add the free market of these travelers to a bus driver (owner) and helper (a sometimes amazing gymnast climbing with heavy loads up on the roof and back into the moving bus), all the while calling out for travelers to ride their bus along the route. When not busy with these tasks the young man is collecting money and tracking new riders so he can collect their money.

Two more things, then we'll be ready for the story. Very few buses are left with their dark yellow exterior. Most are repainted and then given a "name", possibly a pretty girl or girlfriend:

Or if they really go all out, look at the chrome and fancy paint of this unit:

Getting to/from anywhere in Guatemala including the major cities and also the most off track gravel road you will have an option to catch a "Chicken Bus". (I will call it a bus from now on so I don't annoy my readers). Your first order of business is to identify the direction you want to go (which could include a city beyond your planned destination) and then find a group of people waiting on the side of the road or a regular bus stop. Then you watch and listen for approaching buses by the loud diesel engine and/or air horn. As you hear them approach then you look to see the young helper leaning out the folding door shouting their intended destination "XELA, XELA, XELA..." pronounced Shayla, Shayla, Shayla. (Again, think carnival barker). You either move toward the bus or waive your hand as it approaches at high speed to signal your intention to ride their bus. Now each bus is independently owned but there seems to be some understood cost of a bus ride because people get on the bus and sometimes travel many miles until actually transacting their payment.

Now to my NASCAR reference. I will start by stating what I feel is the generally understood philosphy of every bus driver we encountered:

"No bus, coach, commercial truck, private van, pickup, car or any other moving thing shall remain UNPASSED !!"

Every highway, secondary road, construction zone or gravel backroad is also open game for them to pass traffic whether it's an open straight away or approaching blind corner.

Were your scared ? No, not really. Maybe it was the loud music they play from a 4 speaker stereo or the typical religious references scattered throughout the interior or the non-chalant attitude of the other riders which seemed to say "this is normal, no big deal". Again, couple this speed driving with the drivers constant use of the airhorn and their eagle eye for potential clients waiting beside the road. What an experience !

Next theory: (Actually stated by my wife Kathy). Guatemalan bus riders must have velcro in the seat of their pants. We were sliding side to side while holding on to the seat (classic school bus seats by the way) in front of us while our local friends sat quietly, often with a child in their lap with no apparent need to HOLD ON ! We're talking sore forearms and tention headaches from each leg of the trip...

Last thought: The bragging rights for Cummins, Detriot and Catapillar Diesel engines is alive and well in Guatemala. The last bus we road from Xela back to Guatemala City (or Guate if you're a cool traveler or local) was sitting in the line que of the bus terminal. I noticed the driver had a "CAT" logo cap on and assumed he wore it for no apparent reason. Was I surprised when he fired up the bus engine and typical "CAT" sound roared to life "Blap,blap,blap,blap..." Now if you know your commercial diesel engines very well, the CAT diesel is known for one thing and that is pulling power on the hills. Our new friend drove real slow and cool out of town and then once we hit the open road (i.e. two lane road with traffic out of town he started what would be normal for the next 5 1/2 hours: Pass, pass, pass, pass, airhorn, stop for people, pass, pass, pass, airhorn, stop, let some off etc. Then you could see the faint smile of satisfaction on his face as we approached the hills where the CAT would really shine again with the idea, anything ahead of him needed to be passed.

We made record time to Guate according to Andrea and I was all ready with my practiced spanish "Bueno Chofer" when we encountered traffic as we entered the city. Way up ahead we could see a minor accident in our lane and the CAT driver crawled along clear up to the accident over 20 minutes with no attempt to move over a lane. Guatemalans are infected by our same disease called "Rubber Necking" which is slowing down to look at an accident or distraction for no logical reason.

I may not have done this experience justice but I will leave you with one last thought and a picture. I stand 6'0 feet tall and on average was a head taller that our new friends. When a big gringo rides the bus, the space next to him will be the last to fill including everyone else sitting 3 to a seat. I wanted to show the bathrooms we used in Xela before boarding for our long ride. You pay to use them and are handed a handful of tissue or a section of the local newspaper ad's for wiping... The last two elements are the toilet walls were about 4'0 high with no seat attached to the comode and the common Guatemalan practice was employed that you don't flush the paper, you put it in a bin or throw it on the floor in this case.

It's a different country with amazing, spectacular scenary and geniune, friendly people wherever we traveled. They have one really cool thing going for them that the rest of the world could learn from: Everywhere we went, no matter who we encountered, a pleasant greeting was exchanged: Buenos Dias, Buenos tardes or Buenos noches, Good morning, Good afternoon or Good evening. Wouldn't that make your world a better (and more friendly) place ?

Regards, Jim

Special guests

2009-02-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Last month I had the GREAT opportunity to have my parents come and visit me! It was indescribable and I wish I could find the words to tell you all about it, but I will leave it to my special guest writer to try and put the experience into words. Enjoy!

Imagine if you will, flying to a non-English speaking country, clearing customs and walking out of the unfamiliar airport. Then imagine being met by your bi-lingual tour guide, accompanied by a hotel shuttle with all arrangements made for the next 4 days to tour the country including some of the most popular and picturesque tourist sites.

Then imagine traveling to their hometown to spending a week as their guest, learning about their life, meeting their friends and walking the streets of their town as a special visitor.

Dinner with their family friends:

And enjoying their pets:

Without the creature comforts like heat and hot running water:

Doing the laundry was a whole new process:

And transportation was a real adventure: (more on that later)

And then imagine in the reality of these special two weeks, that your special guide was our daughter Andrea, personally showing us her life in Guatemala working for the Peace Corps. Teaching health education in 3 schools, living in a small town at 9000 feet, completely fluent in Spanish, caring and loving people as an extension of our family and community. Kathy and I were blown away and amazed at her life there.

Where are you Miss Keri?

2009-01-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Guatemala = Tamales + More Tamales + Unsafe Firecrackers + Fruit Punch

Also equals a visit from Keri which despite several fiascos and illnesses was really fun. Here are some highlights of what we did!

Here are the firecrackers we lit at Christmas. I know they don't look like much, but they cause sparks and noises that send you running for your life. Unfortunately Donald didn't tell us that we would have to run AND take over so there was a pretty close call but we escaped with all our limbs.

A day or two after...or was it before...Christmas we went on a hike down to the wooden bridge at the river. Donald made us run across it and I think maybe the expression speaks for how scared I was and how stable that wooden bridge they installed in the 70's feels today.

After Christmas we went to Panajachel where Keri and I got a zipline in before we got ragingly ill (probably from the raw vegetables I forgot to warn her about...) and went home early.

It was ok though beacause we were well in time for Donald and Abner to take us to the ruins in Zaculeu and to the Hot Springs. The ruins were fun, although the plaster-job that the United Fruit Company did in the 40's ruins all illusion of authenticity that might have remained. All the same, they were fun to climb and we had a nice picnic lunch.
All in all, it was a memorable visit and a memorable Christmas for both of us. She was a good sport about everything, even though she was sick almost the whole time. In a time when I should have been REALLY depressed missing friends and family, she came and saved me!

The Un-ill Side of My Vacation

2008-12-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

So, here are some photo highlights of my trip to Mexico with Andrea and Jeff and Jeff and a few days with the Skjonsby's in Guate beforehand. Look, I wasn't ragingly ill the WHOLE time....

We started off with a short run to Panajachel, a beautiful town by one of the most amazing volcanic lakes in the WHOLE world. Donald met us there and tried to learn how to fish.

After a quick review of one of Guatemala's most amazing sites, it was off to Cancùn for some more traditional relaxation, where we met up with the other Jeff. There was lots of good food, games, beach time, and general silliness.

We also got to take a kayak trip out to the second biggest coral reef in the world and I took this nice underwater shot.

Lions, Cows, and Their Anitbiotics

2008-12-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: All medical decisions made in the following stories were made me myself and me alone without the consult, advice, or premission of the marvelous and amazing Peace Corps health staff.

Ok, so I promised information, so here some is. I know you were incredibly enticed by my juicy preview so I will try to tell a few stories. I am waiting on most of Mexico until probably tomorrow when I can put some pictures in there too and quit using these ones I found on the internet to make my blog interesting.

So here is the good news. When I got back from the vacation I have yet to tell you about, I finally got to take my Kitten home. That obviously isn't a real picture of him/her but that you get the idea. My friends are all forming armies around whether it is a boy or girl and there are people that are pretty sure in both camps. I know nothing about animals but how so many reasonable people can get opposite answers from the same kitty's belly is beyond me. The jury is still out on the sex, but its name is Aslan and it is REALLY cute. It is a little whiney right now but that might have to do with tearing it away from its mother and tying it up at my house until it gets used to me and won't run away. I promise, it isn't as cruel as it sounds, animal lovers. I left the rope really long so he/she can frolic.

Speaking of animals....

Cows. I have this nameless Guatemalan friend. Actually, its a friend of a friend...Actually its just a guy I heard of once from a friend of a friend....well, he hurt his foot playing soccer and it was something like sprained. So, after a few weeks of not healing all the way, a friend suggested he use this magical ointment. Now, although it was an ointment for COWS it was rumored to work wonders on human bodies. It actually when used resulted in the worst allergic rash I have ever seen. The obvious moral story I got out of the experience with this aquaintance of a friend's friend was that ANIMAL MEDICINE SHOULD NOT BE USED ON HUMANS. I thought this unnamed guy who used cow ointment was silly.

Ok....skip to Mexico. So, I felt a little ill when we arrived, but since when does air travel NOT make you feel slightly queasy? So, fast forward to ragin illness the first night in the most beautiful 5 start resort you have ever seen. So, the next morning, I felt bad enough to open my wallet and go see the resort doctor they charge you for (not in any way associated with the wonderful Peace Corps medical staff) He was really nice, prescribed me medicine, and took my $150 with a smile. He gave me 4 medecines, one of which I only took for a day because it was liquid and thick and minty. If it sounds like drinking toothpaste, you are right, it felt just like that and I could barely force it down. So, I only took it for one of the two prescribed days.

Fast forward again to Guatemala, where the wonderful Peace Corps nurse looked up the medications I took (just out of curiousity). They all checked out.....except for the toothpastey one which turned out to be an animal antibiotic that is banned in the USA by the FDA. Thanks Mexican doctor!

I don't know if it was Karma for laughing a little at my friend with the cow ointment or what, but I am lucky not to have any adverse side effects. It just goes to show that you can't always trust really nice doctors that work at five star resorts. Let that be a lesson to you. I am telling you, that medicine was gross, I am not even sure my lion/kitten should take it.

Still sorry...

2008-12-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

So, I am STILL a really lazy blogger, but I promise a new one this week although the internet is almost closed for Christmas (I know...you wish you were in a country with severely extended holidays too).

News to look forward too: Photos and stories from Mexico, raging illness, kittens, cow udder allergies, how airport x-rays can affect your pregnancy, and third world prescription of minty animal anitbiotics. All this and more is coming and that is BEFORE the holidays, so keep checking in.

Stay tuned.

Advertisement: Christmas presents can be sent with Kerianne who is the best friend EVER for spending Christmas with me and helping me eat the enormous food gift Guatemalan families are preparing for me.

I also love you.

Sorry...

2008-11-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know what you are thinking...I am a really horrible blogger. It isn't that I forgot about you or I don't like you, I just haven't really had anything exciting to report.

School is still out for the summer. I am teaching english classes to 25 nine to thirteen year olds in the library which isn't my favorite thing in the world, but I did get them to practice pronouns by listening to Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer" which I thought was pretty cool of me.

While you all were celebrating that great-excuse-for-dress-up holiday called Halloween, I was celebrating All Saints Day which is kind of like the Day of the Dead in Mexico. The festivities incluse painting graves and depositing flowers and wreaths on the graves of family members. Although my lack of relatives in the cemetery and my fear of being named a gawker prevented me from touring the graveyard, I enjoyed watching the steady flow of people and flowers headed through town to the cemetery and the flowers for sale in the market were a nice and pretty change.

I am also learning how to communicate to Guatemalans just how important things are in order to get them to work more quickly. In one of my schools, we are trying to get a grant to pave a basketball court. I have spent the last few weeks, together with my teachers, chasing down signatures and price quotes and masons. One thing that the Peace Corps is teaching me is definitely patience. Things just don't always move every quickly here and to hold on to your sanity sometimes you just need to relax and let things take awhile. You can only say "me urge" (its urgent) so many times before you want to give it up alltogether. The good news is, the paperwork is in and the comittee will give us an answer this week. I am also getting some scholarships together for some sixth graders to go to middle school. I think I am finally starting to feel like I am getting some work done here.

Anyways, thanks for tuning in. I will try to write again soon if not before Thanksgiving then after since I am going with my best friends to Mexico to spend the holiday! I am SO lucky.

Update

2008-10-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

So, I have gotten some complaints that I have been ignoring my blog. So, here is a quick life-update to get us back on track!

The school year here just ended. That means the rainy season is also ending, which is good news. I know I said I really loved the rain but it will be nice for my clothes to actually dry for a change. So, I have been tying up some loose ends at school and looking forward to summer break. I am planning on teaching an English class at the library, relaxing a little, and getting some traveling done.

I also just moved into a new house. I loved living with Reina and they are a great family but I started to get a little tired of having to be home by 8:30 and feeling weird with my friends over so I thought I should opt for a little privacy. So the last few weeks I have been cleaning up my new house, painting, and arranging things which you all know I love to do. I will put up some before and after pictures in a few weeks when I get everything done.

I also went to church for the first time last week. There was a special service for Doña Lucy’s birthday and the family invited me so I thought I should go. I was really nervous to go. That seems kind of silly since I grew up in the United States going to church all the time and I have been to lots of different churches over the year. I was mostly nervous because the evangelical church here always seems kind of intense and I had heard it was really conservative. Also, I knew that when I went I would really stand out like I always do and I am uncomfortable with that much attention. I should also be used to the attention because I stand out almost everywhere I go around here. So, I went and it was actually pretty nice. I wore a skirt because I wasn’t sure how I should dress but not everyone was dressed up and some girls were wearing pants. They only announced my presence in the service once and didn’t call me up front or anything. The music was a little different than I am used to. It was just a piano and sometimes a bass guitar with the pastor singing hymns that I couldn’t understand very well. They also gave an opportunity for members of the congregation to go up front and sing a song dedicated to God. This week they had invited a trio of singers to come play as a gift to Doña Lucy and they were really good. They all played the guitar and sang religious songs but it was kind of a Mariachi-style. I really enjoyed it. Afterward, we all ate paches (kind of tamales…rice with chicken and tomato sauce wrapper up and steamed in a leaf) that Doña Lucy’s family had gotten up at 2am to make everyone. All in all, it was a good experience. I think I will probably go back someday. It is just one of the many things that are very very different in Guatemala.

Vocab Lesson

2008-09-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

In light of my friends and family planning their AMAZING visits to Guatemala and to ME, I have composed a little bit of educational material to help you out. Don't worry, there is more to come!

Things you should know in Spanish before coming to visit me:

Hola (Oh-la) Hello
Buenos dias (Boo-oin-ohs Dee-us) Good morning
Buenas tardes (Boo-oin-us Tar-days) Good Afternoon
Buenas noches (Boo-oin-us No-chayz) Goodnight
Mucho gusto (Moo-ch-oh Goo-stow) Nice to meet you
Me llamo… (May Yah-mo) My name is…
Como se llama? (Coe-mow say yaw-maw) What is your name?
Gracias (Grah-see-us) Thank you
Por favor (Pour fah-vore) Please
Lo siento (Low see-en-toe) I am sorry
Disculpe (Disc-cool-pay) Excuse me
Como esta? (Coh-moh Ess-tah) How are you?
Yo soy ---- de Andrea (Yoh soy ---- day Awn-dre-ah) I am Andrea’s -----
Mama (Maw-maw) Mother
Papa (Paw-paw) Father
Hermano (Hair-mawn-oh) Brother
Amigo(a) (Ah-mi-go (gah)) Friend
Yo estoy perdido (Yoh ess-toy pear-dee-doh) I am lost
Me podria ayudar? (May poe-dree-ah ah-yoo-dar) Can you help me?
No hablo espanol (No ah-blow ess-pan-yol) I do not speak Spanish
Habla ingles? (Ha-blah een-glay-ss) Do you speak English?
Necesito llamar a mi --- (Ness-ess-ee-toe yah-marr ah me) I need to call my---
Amiga (Ah-me-gah) Friend
Hija (Hee-ha) Daughter
Hermana (Hair-mawn-ah) Sister
No entiendo (No en-tee-end-oh) I don’t understand
No me molesta (No may mow-lest-ess) Don’t bother me
No tomo (No toe-mow) I don’t drink

Market Day Lentil Soup

2008-08-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

2 cups lentils (soak overnight with some onion and garlic)
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
2 carrots
1 red pepper
4-5 small tomatoes
Any other vegetables you are a fan of (broccoli is good)
2 jalepeños
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Curry powder

Put it all together, watch a movie while it cooks. Good for dinner + next day lunch + so much more.

Q 7.50 = $1.00

2008-08-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Snacks for 3AM bus trip: Q7
Getting up at 2:30AM to catch the bus: Lots of will power
Bus fare from Cabricàn to Santa Lucia: Q52
Chuchitos for Bfast in Cuatro Caminos: Q6
Imaginary fiancee in the US to deflect men: Lots of imagination
Taxi ride to the doctor's office: $36.50
Doctor who shares your birthday: free
Cheeseburger at McDonalds to reward myself: Q40
Pirated movies to last me the next few months: Q50
Night with Mel in Chimal: free
Chuchitos in Mel's site: Q3
Bus fare from Chimal to Cabricàn: Q45
Bus breaking down on the way home: free
New bus fare the rest of the way: Q5
Sitting next to the guy who was also on the 3AM bus: Free

Total two day trip cost: Q254.50
Falling in love with the world around you: Priceless

HU$TLER

2008-08-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

Pop culture has arrived in Guatemala. We have all heard of this phenomenon called Globalization in which we are all connected and goods produced in or by one country can be relevant and available in other countries around the world.

The problem here is Guatemala is that pop culture has arrived without the education to handle it. It used to be that people in other countries were just a little behind stylistically than us in the up-to-date fashion world. Don't worry, we are still using a lot of 80's and early 90's haircuts around here. With the increase of technology and of influence in the forms of foreign brands of clothing, people here have begun to adopt a lot of American styles. Kids run around with gold chains and big jeans and there are even some punk kids running around here in Cabrican.

Somewhere along the line there was a disconnect in which people began to use these pop culture symbols we love so much without really knowing what they represent. Last week I went to a store where the lady owning it wore a black and silver hat that said "HU$tLER" across the front. This morning I ran into a friend's mother who had earring with the playboy bunny on them. I am sure the store owner liked the shiny colors of the hat and maybe even recognized the dollar sign, but I doubt she knows what a hustler is. I am positive that the church-going mother of my friend thought the rabbits on the earrings were cute but had no idea what playboy is.

It is really funny to walk into the store and see the old lady wearing such a ridiculously not right for her hat, I know. It is also kind of sad because they really have no idea. We throw all of our culture into people's lives without giving them a chance to understand it.

Lesson: Next time you are going to donate your HU$TLER hat or your playboy earrings to a charitable organization where it will then be resold in countries like Guatemala, think twice and maybe attach a note explaining the symbolism.

Reoccurring Dreams

2008-08-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have reoccurring dreams about whether or not the post office is open. I suppose it is a good thing that the mail is the most worrisome thought that plagues my mind at night.

My English is slipping. I insertar words of Español even when I am hablaring with mí mamá. Life has become this weird mix of trying to speak Spanish to people who speak English and English to people who speak Spanish. My brain is having trouble figuring out who is who. I have got friends now and I think as I get more comfortable with them I feel like they should understand English because that is what I always speak with my friends….but they don’t and I am pretty sure I look like a crazy person most of the time. Last week I was giving a lesson and I started speaking English instead of Spanish in front of 25 third graders. Awkward.

I think I am the only one who loved the cat Reina got to kill the ratones. Her name is Micheli. Reina says she hasn’t been eating very much and I think it might be because I let her lick my cereal bowl.

I have realized being away from them that I have the best friends in the whole world. I miss you guys. I love living in Guatemala and I love my friends here but there is nothing that could ever beat a barbeque at the beach with you guys. I am starting to get a little U.S.-sick.

Things I miss about the U.S. (besides family and friends and other obvious things that might make me cry in the internet café)

1. Knowing what time to show up to things (everyone here seems so know exactly how late you should be except me. I am either way too early or way too late all the time)
2. The Mongolian Grill
3. Driving (not allowed here because of Peace Corps rules)
4. Costco (thanks to my brother who informed me he bought a huge pack of Australian toaster biscuits the other day)
5. Movies I can understand
6. Paved roads
7. Seattle
8. People who go outside in the rain (It rains here an everyone hides until it is over. Streets: totally empty)
9. Saying what you mean (here you say a trillion things to hint at what you really need or want but can’t ever come out and say it)
10. Laundry machines (have I already mentioned how long it takes to wash your clothes by hand?)
11. Affordable chocolate
12. Things that have prices (blonde hair seems to mean everything costs more here)
13. Concerts

Xelajuuuuuuu

2008-07-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have got some complaints that I haven’t been up to date on my blog. It is mostly because not a whole lot is new but also because not a whole lot is going on. In any case, here is what has been going on lately for those of you who want to silly details.

1. Brian left a few weeks ago and I got new site mates last week. They are a married couple named Joe and Katy and I really like them. SO, now we are 4 gringos in town which is a lot for how small it is. It is alright though, I have 2 more people to help me eat the things I bake when I am bored or stressed out.
2. Last week I was in Antigua doing a training they give after 3 months called “Reconnect.” It was fun to see all my friends that live far away and I learned some good things in Spanish class. Staying in Antigua, however, was not so much fun and I have decided that Xela is 10 times better that Antigua.
3. I also got to go see my family in Alotenango while I was in the area. Christian is growing up and even saved me some candy from his piñata they had on his fifth birthday 2 weeks ago. Andreita is growing TONS and it SO tall now. She isn’t quite walking yet but is really close. She turned one year old a few weeks ago.
4. Last weekend I went to a soccer game in Xela. The team there is called Xelaju and is pretty popular. We played against Huehuetenango and won. There was a man behind us yelling obscenities the whole time, it was pretty comical. My friend happens to know the guy who is the mascot so I got a picture with him. He is a chiva, which I think it like a ram. I have included the picture for your viewing pleasure.

5. Things are winidng down at school. The year ends in October and in September we have a bunch of activities for Independence day (Sept. 15). So, I just have a few weeks left of work before summer break. I have lots of visits coming up so I am really excited. Andrea and Jeff and Jeff are coming as well as Keri and Nicole and my parents so I will be really busy showing people around.
6. Also, my birthday is coming up and I probably won’t have a party but I will be haunting the mailman waiting for the packages that I know you will send me. So you’d better get started. I am specifically longing music, movies, books, and chocolate.
7. I bought a toaster oven on a whim yesterday (it was on sale…) so today I will be baking cookies all day and I am going to try and make my next 10 meals in the toaster oven. I was going to go to school today but I showed up at my teacher’s house and her husband told me she had a training so she isn’t going to school. So, since the other teacher leaves earlier I had no way to get to school. This country drives me crazy sometimes.

Anyways, that is my life. Exciting and adventurous, I know. I really miss you guys! Hope you are enjoying the sunny days in the States. Eat some s’mores and hot dogs for me. Send me presents. Please.

Just some thoughts...

2008-07-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Peace Corps is cracking down on safety issues associated with Volunteer blogs...so in the interest of being a rule-follower I vow to be culturally sensitive at all times and not reveal my precise location. So, if you hadn't already picked up on where I happen to be living, too bad. I am now finding and deleting all references to C***** in the interest of preserving my safety and that of those around me.

Sometimes when I get up to go to the bathroom at night I turn the light on and the rooster crows. I feel pretty bad for him, he really thinks it is morning. He probably feels really confused and thinks he is falling asleep on the watch. Poor guy.

I am going to the training center next week for Reconnect, a week long training they give us to clam our nerves after 3 months of pannicked isolation in site....just kidding. Really I get to take a few days of Spanish classes and they will give me advice on what I should do next...advice I probably need. It will be the longest I will have been out of site since I got here and to be honest I am a little wary of leaving....er...this town I live in. I think I will miss it.

Last week I got invited along with another volunteer to a dance in another town by two friends of mine who announced on the way to the dance they invited us to that they didn't dance. So, we spent the whole night watching their friends coerce each other into dancing with us. It was pretty fun, except for the part where the singer welcomed the "tourists from a faraway land" in front of the whole crowd. So much for being anonymous.

My family got a kitten in an effort to chase away the mice that are eating my bananas at night. She is really cute and I hope she eats the mice whole so I don't have to see anything die like that time one got burnt alive.

Thanks for tuning in. I will keep you updated on all my culturally sensitive, legal, non-location-specific, safe activities

Lately...

2008-06-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would throw it out there that last weekend I ate ants. They are in some places a local delicacy that come out when the rain starts and get fried up with lemon and sugar. Don’t worry, it mostly tastes like lemon and sugar.

I also just found out on Tuesday that I don’t have school for a few weeks because of teacher trainings and mid-year break which means I have two full weeks of no plans at all. I think Melanie is coming to visit me up here in C***** and I am also planning to make my triumphant return to Alotenango sometime at the end considering I haven’t seen my host family since I left 3 months ago.

In the meantime, I went with Sara and her friends that were visiting from the states to climb Chicabal, a volcano near Xela that has a lake at the top. It was a beautiful short, uphill hike that left me exhausted but it was TOTALLY worth it. I am realizing more and more what a beautiful country this is. We got to the top and you had a view of Santa Maria, another volcano, and on the other side straight down into the lake-filled crater of Chicabal.

We also climbed down a zillion stairs to get a closer look at the lake. It is a sacred Mayan lake and they perform rituals there a lot. That means you aren’t allowed to swim there but it was completely breathtaking and totally worth the climb.

In the afternoon we went up to Fuentes Georginas, a hot springs outside of Xela and relaxed. In the evening we had the whole place to ourselves and got to make hamburgers and lay around in the warm water. It was like a giant swimmable hot tub. We stayed in the water for way too long and I have never seen my skin that pruned before. It took several hours to get my toes and fingers back to normal. It was great to just relax in such a beautiful place, especially after volcano-climbing.

So, the new plan is that I am going to relax here in C*****, make some bread, do my laundry, and watch movies for the next few days. Life is good.

Oh yes! Happy Fathers Day! Daddy, you are the best father in the whole wide world!

Stuck in the mud

2008-06-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today I was on my way to Xela and my bus got stuck in the mud left over from the tropical storm which cancelled school twice this week. It resulted in switching drivers to a man I waited at the bus stop with (meaning not a bus driver...). He got us unstuck after a few minutes of fishtailing and kept on driving. It turns out he is the sort of bus driver that likes to race other buses to make up time...so we careened the rest of the way through the mountains, swerving to miss other buses and sliding down the parts of the road that are still unpaved. Needless to say, I made it, but it was one of the more exciting bus trips I have had.

I have been assured I will grow to hate the rainy season...but I am sure I will continue to enjoy how green everything is during this time of year. Yesterday Sara and I hiked up to one of the highest points around the town (an hour long uphill hike...geez...) where there is a lime (the mineral) mine and we had a view of the whole valley and it was BEAUTIFUL....next time I will take a picture. Sara says that hikes like that make her love where we live and I agree.

What I don't live about the rainy season is the cough it gave me which I took antibiotics for which were pointless because the throat culture I rode all the way to the city to get showed that it was a virus. The antibiotics made me vulnerable to another sort of infection which I cannot get tested for yet but am taking more just-in-case-you-have-it medication for...and if that doesn't resolve it I have to come back to the city to get tested...lame.

Good news: they are paving the road to the city so it will be a lot faster/safer in the future...
Bad news: They raised the fare from Q24 round trip to Q30 round trip...Q30 is a liter and a half of beer or a giant box of cornflakes or 10 lbs of broccoli or 30 packages of cookies....in other words, a lot.

Sick Miller

2008-06-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

I know some people (you know who you are) who have mastered the art of the sick person. They lie on the couch, cry out for glasses of water, and milk their pathetic infirmity for all it is worth. I myself am here to admit that I am horrible at being sick. I hate missing things, I get bored at home, I inevitably cry over something, and I don’t like to listen to myself complain.

Last weekend I was sick to my stomach. I have traced it back to the meal I ate at a comedor on Friday. Really, stomach-sickness is fairly common here. It happens to almost everyone at least once every few months. We talk to each other about things like Diarrhea in ways that I would have never even talked to my best friends about. It is a fact of Guatemalan life. Anyways, I forced myself through a birthday part on Saturday and let myself skip school on Monday to speed my recovery and by the time Tuesday rolled around I was feeling good as new.
On Tuesday, I woke up to a sore throat and a headache. I took an ibuprofen and went to school. During the day, my throat improved as my headache got progressively worse. By the time I finished lunch, I didn’t even want to move. I took the maximum amount of ibuprofen possible and tried to relax. In the evening, I scoured my room for my peace-corps issue thermometer to check for fever and it was nowhere to be found. I decided to go to my friend Gary-the-doctor’s house and borrow a thermometer (and a cup of sugar…). Temperature: negative. Ever the thorough medical professional, he looked at my throat with his doctor-light thing and kindly informed me that I had a throat infection and I should be on antibiotics. Things just kept getting better. That night, I woke up with my headache worsening and lost four hours of sleep because of it.

In the morning, I called the lovely Peace Corps medical staff who asked me to go to the city to get a throat culture. I admit I suppressed a few tired tears (I am sensitive when I am tired/sick) when I went to the health center to tell Gary-the-doctor. I hate being sick. So, with a diminished but still present headache, a took a five hour round trip bus ride to the city to spend 30 seconds at the hospital with a lady shoving a stick down my throat. The good news is, I got some migraine medication that was to make my head stop hurting.

My throat culture is still growing in the city and I am back out here. I am on antibiotics just in case it is not a virus and my head stopped hurting. I missed 75% of my school days this week due to illness, including a birthday party. I am avoiding travel this weekend just to be safe. I wish I could relish in the all-day-movies that this allows me, but I am just not a good sick person. I can say that right now I am right back at 90% and I am relieved.

Rainy Season

2008-05-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

We have now officially begun the rainy season here in Guatemala. I am told that it will carry through until around September or October, when we will begin the not-rainy season. During the rainy season, it rains every day (sounds like home, right?) for several hours, usually just in the afternoon. Some years it is really predictable and always starts and stops at a certain time. Some years, it is a little more random. Who knows what kind of year we will have.

The bad things about the rainy season are discussed a lot around here and lamented about to me by other volunteers. Your clothes never dry, you get rained on wherever you go, Guatemalans don’t go out in the rain, there is mud everywhere. Every volunteer I talk to hates the rainy season and assures me that with time, I will find a special place of disdain in my heart for this time of year.

Maybe it is the Northwesterner in me, but despite it all I still love the rain. There is a certain kind of understanding that the rain brings, and a certain part of my soul that really feels the emotion of the rain. It doesn’t make me sad, just content, like the world understands me a little better. Rain makes everything smell cleaner, makes the corn in the fields grow tall, and makes the land a little greener. The sound of the rain lets me sleep better at night.

Guatemalans think I am crazy to like the rain. They have a level of respect for the rain that makes their crops grow, but they personally hate it. They hate getting wet, they hate mud. When it rains here, the streets are completely empty. The sight of someone walking in it, especially without an umbrella and without a disgusted look on their face, is very strange. I have lived my whole life with rain, and I have learned not to let it slow me down. If I had plans to go out, I go. If I need to walk somewhere, I enjoy the fresh smell and the feeling of raindrops on my head.

Rain reminds me of home. They say I will grow to hate it, but I don’t believe them. I am from the Northwest: I have rain in my soul.

Picture Day

2008-05-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I took my camera to the school to get a few pictures of kids. They insisted on taking a picture of me...by myself. I tried to explain why I wouldn't want a picture of myself but they didn't quite understand. Atleast you guys might get to enjoy it!
This is a group of the youngest kids I work with...esentially kindergarten/preschool. They are actually the bravest out of all when it comes to talking to me and being my friend.

This kid really wanted his picture taken. He is drinking atol which they serve the kids during snack. It is kind of milky-rice drink. I really love it. He does too!

This is what happened when I told him to smile... I love the other kid looking so concerned in the background. They are really happy kids, I promise. There is something ingrained in the Guatemalan mind that smiling in pictures is silly.

This might be my favorite that I took.

Me in the sea of children. I have 3-4 other pictures just like this with the kids switched out for other ones...I chose this one to show you.

Ok, now the real work I do is right here...tooth-brushing! This school has already got it down, it is furthest along out of all of them.

My favorite part of the day is right after they brush their teeth and I ask them to show me. I get the biggest, brightest clean-teeth smiles in the whole world!

German Youth

2008-05-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 13th

I found a dead rat in the pila while I was washing my dishes...good news: it was already dead. Bad news: the rat poison/burning survivors alive didn't get rid of all of them.

One of my friends in Germany is organizing a ¨Youth Task Force¨in his church to go out and combat things like hunger and poverty in their city. He is giving this huge inspirational speech in June and he asked me to write something that he could use as an example of someone out in the world working in development. I had a lot of trouble doing it because I feel sometimes like what I am doing doesn't quite qualify as ¨development¨work in the sense that people might expect. I am teaching kids to brush their teeth and wash their hands--not exactly what you see in the movies. I was talking to my mom about it and she pointed out that the fact that life here working in Guatemala isn't neccessarily rewarding, exciting, or difficult is important for people to know. Moms do always know best. So here is what I wrote to my friend:

“I guess one thing I would like to say and I don’t really know if this is relevant or not…but I don’t feel like my life right now is what people would expect when they hear I am working for the Peace Corps in Guatemala. I am actually pretty comfortable here (I have electricity and running water). The help I am giving people isn’t really as obvious as feeding a starving person or keeping someone from getting AIDS. Suffering in the world doesn’t always look exactly like what they show on the news or in the movies or in commercials on TV. Thinking about writing this for you or sending pictures, I found myself thinking that the people I work with aren’t “needy enough” to be an example to anyone. I realized how stupid that way of thinking was. I think a lot of people who want to “save the world” seek out the neediest people they can find where aid work is really obvious when in fact there are people suffering next door. There are people everywhere that need help and the point isn’t where or who you help but that you are doing something to better the life of someone else. The people here are needy even though they aren't desperate. I know that I am in the right place, but I didn’t have to come here to find someone who needed my help. On the other hand, I could have gone somewhere that they needed my help more than they need it here. The point is in the attitude. The point is to do something for someone other than your self. It doesn’t really matter who you are helping, what they need, or how badly they need it. It isn’t always as obvious as putting food in the mouth of a starving person in Africa, but it is often a lot simpler and a lot closer to home than that.

I hope that makes sense. I am actually kind of having a hard time because I don’t feel like I am making much of a difference here. I am teaching kids to wash their hands and brush their teeth. It isn’t exactly my world-development dream. The truth is, I know that what I am doing is important, and at least it is doing something for someone other than me. It is “preventative” work rather than “reactive” so it doesn’t feel as urgent. I can’t see the difference that I am making but it is there. It is just a hard adjustment because it isn’t exactly what I imagined when I decided I would save the world. It is good for me though. I feel like maybe I am growing up a little and I am definitely learning a lot about myself which could turn out to be just as valuable as the things I am doing for others. ”

Peanut Butter Brownies

2008-05-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Author’s Note: Don’t be fooled by the cheery title---if you are at all sensitive to rodents, animal cruelty, or laundry, you should probably just skip to the recipe at the end. The title won’t be quite as witty but you will save yourself some tears.

Today when I got home I decided to get some laundry done. I was down at the pila washing my clothes (by the way, washing clothes by hand is awful and takes a zillion years) when I saw a movement over by where the chicken were pecking at the concrete.

To back up a little, we had all come to the agreement that we had rats in the house somewhere last week. They had been eating my tomatoes at night and also eating clothes in Reina’s room. So, Reina put out some rat poison, which subsequently was gone the next morning. The assumption was that the rats had eaten the poison and had crawled away to some hidden location to die a slow and painful death by poison.

It turns out, a few rats were smart enough or not hungry enough and escaped the trap, because out from behind the crates of empty bottle crawled a RAT. Now, I have spent the better part of two weeks phobically afraid of these guys. I never thought I was scared of rats, but come to find out, they are one of the few things in the world that give me the heebie-jeebies. I have lain awake at night imagining that I hear them skittering around my kitchen. I have run to the bathroom at night as fast as I can because I am afraid they will jump out at me. However, to my dismay, out crawled this rat, and it was CUTE. It was not this giant, hairy, menacing creature I had been imagining. It was this little, cute, furry animal.

So now, I feel bad for trying to kill the little things. I try to imagine all the diseases they carry, all the tomatoes they have eaten, and the swarming capability of twenty of them reproducing behind those crates, because otherwise I kind of wanted to cuddle with it. Roberto (7 years old) came out and asked me if he should kill it. I told him he could kill it, but I didn’t want to see. I was already feeling morally torn and kind of sad for the ones I had already poisoned. So, he proceeded to take a board and throw it on top of the poor little thing. Now, it is halfway squished and suffering, so I told Roberto he needed to kill it all the way because it was hurt. All of the sudden, Roberto is too scared to go near the tiny, half-dead, cute rat. He threw a basketball at it, and a coat hanger, before I realized he did not have the guts to go through with it (I guess he is only 7). So I stood over the dying rat and tried to come up with the courage to kill it. There was a hatchet nearby and I contemplated it, but I just couldn’t do it. I could already feel tears welling up in my eyes.

So, I asked Roberto to go get one of the men who was working on constructing the new apartment at Reina’s house to come kill it. A man came down and stood at the top of the stairs looking down for ten minutes. Meanwhile, the little rat had dragged itself out from underneath the board and was crawling with its front paws back toward the crates (its back legs were already broken from the first blow dealt by Roberto). The man told me he was scared of rats (grown man + construction worker + fear of rodents?) but I finally coaxed him down. By now, the rat had crawled between the crates and he had to pull it out with a broom handle, into a dustpan, where he brought it into the yard onto a pile of garbage. Roberto then proceeded to grab a can of gasoline and some matches. They both looked at me like burning a rat alive was a perfectly reasonable solution. I told them how cruel I thought it was and that they needed to kill it first at least before they burnt it. The man assured me it was already dead. However, when I turned around the leave before I had to see it burn, I saw its little gasoline-soaked body trying to crawl away.

I admit, I cried. I am not a fan of rats, I am annoyed that they keep eating my vegetables, and I don’t blame anyone who wants to kill them. However, being a witness/accessory to the burning to death of that cute little rat was more than I could take. So, I made peanut butter chocolate brownies, courtesy of the supplies sent to me by Ryan Strash and Andrea Skjonsby. Here is the recipe:

Slow and Painful Death by Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies

2/3 cup Crunchy Peanut Butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips

Cream peanut butter, butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs. Add dry ingredients and mix until smooth (besides the crunchiness of the peanut butter). Add chocolate chips. Bake in greased pan at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes (I can’t vouch for that time/temp because I used an improvised stovetop oven).

Bacon Vacation

2008-04-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I went with Chorjale to play sports against Las Ventanas, another of the big schools around here. I spent all day in the sun watching first girls, then three different boys teams play soccer. We lost every game. We also lost every game of basketball they played simultaneously up at the school. In Guatemala, they don’t really go for the “the most important part is that you had fun” philosophy so the kids were pretty disappointed. I had a good time though and we get another chance to win this Friday when the school is coming to play on our home turf in Chorjale. We also rode there in the back of a giant truck which was pretty fun. They tried to insist I sit up front with the driver but I told them I wanted to ride in the back with the rest of the teachers and students. It was a great game trying to keep my balance on the rough dirt road. When they went through to drop me off in Cabrican, the other two teachers climbed over the side and tried to tell the driver to put the ladder down for me but I insisted on climbing over the side too. I just want to be like everyone else as much as possible because I look SO different.

I left at 5am Saturday morning to go meet some people at Lake Atitlan. I got to Panajachel at 9:30am and found out that everyone had gone across the lake to go swimming. Thankfully, they left one person waiting for me and we took a launch out to a hotel where they let us swim because we bought lunch there. They had these great stone patios that you could sunbathe on a dive off. I also got to enhance my sunburn from being outside all day Friday. The lake was SO beautiful and the water was perfect. You have this amazing view of volcanoes all around you. The lake itself is a huge crater left over from a monumental volcanic eruption in the past. It has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. After swimming, we went back to the hostel and rested before meeting some Guatemalan friends for dinner. We went to a restaurant owned by a Canadian man where I ordered a bacon cheeseburger. It was HEAVEN after not having anything of the sort for 4 months. We also stumbled upon a punk/ska concert that was happening across the street. It was almost like being home for a night.

In the morning, I woke up too early as usual and left for home at around 7:30. I stood on the side of the road watching buses pass too quickly to stop for me for awhile before I finally got one to stop. The problem was, there weren’t any seats left so the ayudante sat me down in his spot, which is on an upside down bucket in the front with the driver. I had to hang on for dear life around all the curves through the mountains. We were almost to Xela before a seat opened up for me. I politely declined the free ride to San Marcos they offered me. I had to get back to Xela early because the last bus leaves for Cabrican on Sundays at 1:30pm. I got back in plenty of time, did some civilization-shopping (I got cheese, butter, coconut milk, measuring cups, a wooden spoon, and nail polish) and got on a bus that was leaving at noon which put me home around two. I was so exhausted that I slept for 2 hours when I got home. I hung out at Sara’s house and ate popcorn for a few hours and went to sleep at 8pm because I was still so exhausted.

This morning half my teachers didn’t come to school. The ones that were there didn’t really feel like working and invited me to eat scones and coffee and go across the street to the store to drink soda with them. I also got roped into playing basketball for an hour after recess and when I finished, the teacher that had brought me to school had left without telling anyone. I was going to take the bus but the teachers all insisted I get a ride home with a local man they knew because the bus was “too rough” on those roads. I opted for the free ride over paying for the bus. I also got invited to eat dinner at a teacher’s house tomorrow because they are killing a turkey to celebrate Labor Day (Thursday). Life just keeps getting more interesting around here.

Deeper Thoughts

2008-04-23T15:55:00.001-07:00

Author’s Note: I apologize in advance to you casual readers who aren’t ready to hear the serious thought-provoking side of living in Guatemala. I promise the next one will be really funny and witty, don’t worry.

Today my school got canceled so I decided to go on a hike. I just finished reading Donald Miller’s book “Through Painted Deserts” which is about an outdoorsy-finding-yourself type of road trip so I was feeling extra adventurous. I decided I would go up the road past the police station and see where it might take me. It took my down a winding hill (not quite as much fun on the way back) and through some houses before giving way to a lonely road all the way down to the river. There, I found a perfect grassy-picnic-knoll where I could sit, eat lunch, and do some good alone-in-nature-thinking. I thought I might share with you a little of what I wrote in my journal while I was there…enjoy my deeper thoughts!

“It’s funny, at least five Guatemalans told me on my way down here that they couldn’t believe I was walking alone and I was going to get robbed [side note: I know there are times when you should definitely listen to the locals and I assure you mother, I was not doing anything unsafe]. It is so tranquil here; it doesn’t really feel unsafe at all. We Americans, we love to be alone. We love the freedom and the independence that comes with doing things on your own. We love the tranquility and serenity that comes with being alone in nature. To concentrate, we need silence and to pray, we want to be alone. Guatemalans don’t understand that part of us. They think it’s ridiculous to go on a walk by yourself, they think it a waste to live alone and a tragedy to be away from your family. I don’t think they really think I am doing something unsafe so much as they think I am doing something strange and unnecessary. They are always around family, always cooking for ten (or twenty), always looking for someone to talk to, and they always, always know each other’s business.

To us, God exists in nature, in silence, in a “still small voice.” We feel God most intimately in the quiet times and the quiet songs. I think for many Guatemalans, God exists in the laughter of friends and the joy of community. For Evangelicals here especially, God is loudness and joy and movement and LOUDNESS. I don’t think either way of thinking is wrong, but which makes more sense?

The awful truth is, I am not sure if I really fit in Guatemala. I never felt like I fit into life in the United States. When I went to South Africa, I got caught up in the miracle of Ubuntu and the strength of human kindness there. It is a human spirit that I am sure exists here and I know exists in the states in some people and exists most definitely exists in my heart. The thing is, I can’t decide if I could do more good in a place where I fit in or a place that I don’t.

It is safe to say that when I joined the Peace Corps I had definite thoughts of “finding myself” (and the Latin man that I have given up hope on, by the way). Seriously, the truth is that I know who I am, I just don’t know where I belong in this world. I just know there is a place out there with my name on it. I am not feeling like Guatemala is it, which doesn’t mean I can’t love my time here and grow a lot because of it. Sometimes I just think I don’t make sense. I didn’t make sense in the U.S., I don’t really make any more sense in Guatemala. I made more sense in South Africa but I was only there for a month so it is hard to know. I just know there is a place out there where who I am makes perfect sense and where I will feel at home being exactly who I am.”

Encyclopedia Guatemalteca

2008-04-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

Author´s Note: I killed atleast 20 of those beetles in my room before I went to sleep on Saturday night. Thank goodness they aren´t rats...

Today I rode home from school 6 deep in a 2-door Volvo with a group of encyclopedia salesman. Life is so strange.

On Friday I went to Xela and met with Ashleigh for lunch. Before I left I went to the post office and I had TWO packages…one from my parents and one from the Strash family. I was SO happy. So I went to Xela and we went to a Mennonite bakery that is only open Tuesdays and Fridays and I bought some wheat bread. I also went and bought a guitar which will make me very very happy. I might not have to resort to watching the Desperate Housewives DVD that Sara gave me.

On Saturday I got to go with Brian to an aldea close to here named Coralles where he has a stove project. I got to help him build the bases for 4 stoves. A lot of people here are still cooking on fires on the floor of their house or on stoves without chimneys so respiratory problems are a HUGE deal here. So, his project is to build 73 “estufas mejoradas” in houses there. It was really great to be able to go into people’s houses and see their lives from that perspective. Everyone was SO nice and welcoming. They all fed us several times. I also got to do a little manual labor which felt good. We used cement block and cement and basically built a box on the ground (the hardest part is making sure it is level) and when it is dry they will fill it with sand or earth and then build another box of brick on top of it where they can put the metal cook top. They have chimneys so they can still use wood to cook and it will heat the house but there won’t be smoke. It’s great because respiratory problems are some of the most serious illnesses here. It is nice because he teaches people to do it so they can build their own and he doesn’t do it all for them. Also, a lot of the women end up working on it which is great because it isn’t the kind of job they normally let women so around here. It is great to see everyone work together and get something accomplished that is so good for them.

Sunday was market day and I had to buy another blanket for my bed because it has been really cold here at night. I spent all day cleaning and washing my clothes because it takes SO long to wash them by hand. I also make quicoi (kind of like zucchini) bread which turned out really well in the oven I made on my stove top. Next step: chocolate chip cookies with the chips Ryan sent me! It felt really great to bake something, I hadn’t realized how much I missed it.

This weekend I get to go watch the schools play sports against each other on Friday and on Saturday I am meeting some of the people from the training group at Lake Atitlan to hang out. It will be nice to have a vacation.

Did I Mention the "rat"?

2008-04-18T08:28:00.001-07:00

While I am talking of bad weather and natural disasters and things going generally wrong...

Last week I was lying in bed after watching either a movie or 3-4 episodes of Ugly Betty (I don't really remember) trying to go to sleep. All of the sudden, I heard a skittering noise next to the wall beside my bed. No kidding, it sounded like tiny clawed feet running across my tile floor. I thought for sure that there was a "ratón" in my room. I completely pannicked (no screams though). It turns out I am slightly afraid of rodents, especially ones that run around my bedroom at night. I just laid there pannicking, trying to think of what I should do. I figured it wouldn't climb onto my bed (although Sara later told me that it could have) so I just laid there hyperventilating. I didn't even have a broom or anything to shoo it away with from a distance so I was mostly out of options. After what seemed like forever, I got the courage up to turn on my headlamp and find out how big he was. My heart was racing, I got ready to scream, turned on the headlamp and I saw....a beetle. I don't think I had ever been so relieved to see a giant beetle in my life. He was beating his giant wings against my wall which made the skittering noise I attributed to the R.O.U.S. that I thought was in my room.

Huge relief. I named him Jorge, squished him with a shoe and spent the next hour trying to get my heart to stop beating so fast so I could fall asleep. I also went out and brought a broom the next day...just in case.

Earthquakes and Hurricanes

2008-04-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

I woke up Monday morning to the worst weather I have yet to see in Guatemala. It was so cold Sunday night that I had to pull out my sleeping bad in addition to sleeping under the covers. Brr. When I woke up it was foggy, windy, cold, and drizzly. It felt a lot like home but not really in a good way. It was strange because it hardly ever rains here except in torrents for a few hours in the afternoon. Also, the rainy season isn't supposed to start for another month. I commented about the weather to Reina (the weather is one of the things I feel most comfortable about in Spanish) who told me it was a hurricane and it would probably pass by the next day. I am pretty sure it wasn't an actual hurricane, but it did get better the next day, and even better today (still cold but sunny).

Tuesday night I was sitting in bed watching Ugly Betty (Sara has the complete first season...you have no idea how great things like that are around here...). At approximately 9:03pm, I felt an earthquake. It was pretty strong, my whole bed was shaking side to side. I wasn't really scared...I was mostly confused because I don't know what they do about earthquakes in Guatemala. It lasted 40 seconds, and I just sat in my bed and thought ¨wow, an earthquake....that is strange...¨Afterward I thought maybe I should get up and go outside or something...but when I looked out my door, there was nobody moving around in my house at all. So, I went back in my room and hit the play button to continue watching Ugly Betty. In the morning, I found out that it was a 5.8 (the U.S. says it was 6.1) and the epicenter was just south of us off the coast of Escuintla. It made a small splash in the U.S. news but since I didn't get any frantic phone calls, I am assuming they didn't make it sound pretty serious. Nobody was hurt. It was a little exciting though...it has been awhile since I felt one of those.

So I have already survived a hurricane and an earthquake unscathed. I think that counts for something.

Pictures of the Pueblo (because you asked)

2008-04-10T13:43:00.001-07:00

A typical view from one of the aldeas out here. This is the kind of view I see on my way to my schools. SO pretty. It looks a little like the Northwest, right? Maybe I am just a little nostalgic...
This is a view of the town (all of it) from my walk to Loma Grande.
This is the main square with the Municipal building in the background. This is where the market takes place (tiny during the week and gigantic on the weekend).

This is our newly paved road (it is really big news). On the left beneath the peach building is where the gym is.

This is Reina´s store. I also love orange soda, so the sign makes me happy. These are my really fun site mates Brian and Sara. I am pretty sure this is my welcome dinner where they made me some really fantastic tacos. Mmmmm...

More pictures to come!

Trabajando (working)

2008-04-10T13:40:00.001-07:00

Well, I have survived my first week of work. I can’t say it was a normal week or that it represents at all what my work will be like in the future, but it was interesting to say the least. On Monday, I went to Chorjale, my biggest school. I got a ride with Profe Pedro because I don’t know how to get there and it is a 5K uphill walk. My goal this week was to meet with the school directors and give them a calendar of my work schedule I made up and hang around the school a bit so people could get to know me. It turned out that Monday at Chorjale was a civil day, which meant an assembly where all the kids sang the national anthem, said the pledge of allegiance, and Profe Eli, the Director, discussed a topic about the country of Guatemala. It turns out this was the perfect time to introduce me to all of the students and invite me to give a speech. In Guatemala, everywhere you go, especially if you are from out of town, you are invited to give a speech. So I gave a speech in front of the school. I am pretty sure I mostly said thank you twelve different ways and them ran off stage. After the activities, I was asked to help hand out school supplies that the government gave to all of the parents in the school. So, all the parents came and lined up for their supplies and I handed them out while Profe Eli and another teacher checked them off the list. It was a whole 3 hours of me running around, trying to understand what grade the kids were in, and trying to remember to grab the supplies to all the grades of the parents who told me (sometimes 4 or 5 kids). I am pretty sure, like usual, I looked like a crazy person. It turns out, all of this left no time for me to talk to Profe Eli about my calendar. I guess it will have to wait until next week.

Tuesday I stayed in town because I had a meeting with the Education Supervisor to give him my calendar. On Wednesday, it was my day to go to Xacana Chiquito, my smallest school. I rode there with Seño Patti because I don´t know the way and it is a 4.5K uphill walk (seeing the pattern here?). When I got there, I found out the Profe Gilberto, the director, wasn’t going to be at the school that day. So, I couldn’t present my calendar. I guess it will wait until next week. I told the other two teachers that I just wanted to sit in their classes and observe which translated into my giving a lesson. So I was left first with Profe Gilberto’s class because they didn’t have a teacher. I pulled a lesson about hygiene habits off the top of my head and took up an hour of time. I then went to the other classrooms, where the teachers gave me the floor even though I insisted I didn’t have anything prepared. I asked all the kids their names (none of which I remember) and a silly question like if they had animals or siblings or if they lived close to the school. The good news is, I made it through the day and I got atol (hot rice drink) during recreo (recess).

Today I went to my last school, Loma Grande. When I got there, it turned out that two of my four teachers (including the director, Seño Sara) weren’t there today. So, I couldn’t give her my calendar (got the pattern?) and it will have to wait until next week. I told these teachers that I just wanted to observe their classes and it translated correctly this time so I just sat in on the classes for a half hour and then excused myself. Someone from the health center had come to give vaccines and all the kids were crying anyways. I walked home because this school is only 1.5K and was accompanied the whole way by a really sweet grandmother from the community who was going to Cabrican as well.

So that sums up my first week of work. I figure it counts to get to know some of the teachers, let the students see me, and hopefully the real work will start next week. Next week I am preparing a presentation for the kids about my life and my family and friends (you guys!) so they can get to know me. I am hoping it will be fun. The most common questions I get asked are if I am married, why not, if I have kids, and if I am sad. I am hoping to answer the all at once and get it over with.

Ten Ways Guatemala Has Changed Me

2008-04-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

1. I am addicted to orange soda
2. I put sugar on my cereal
3. I’m not afraid of public transportation
4. I sing out loud more often
5. I greet everyone in the street
6. I am more positive (out of necessity)
7. When someone whistles at me on the street I smile and say ¨good morning¨
8. I eat beans with my eggs
9. I don’t consider the distance from Seattle to Portland a ridiculous way to go to get peanut butter and tuna fish.
10. I am a mellower person in Spanish…who knew.

Home at Last

2008-04-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

April 2, 2008
Well, here I am living in Cabrican. Sort of.

After staying at Sara’s this weekend, my room at Reina’s was finally ready. She owns a store across the street from Sara called the Tienda Tikal and she and her family live above it. Right now she is building an (well, my) apartment but it won’t be done for another few months. So for the time being I am renting a room in her house and using a hallway for my kitchen.

The problem is, I don’t have any stuff. Actually, I have a lot of stuff in the sense of clothes and books but I have nothing in the sense of a place to put all of it. On Monday, I went and bought a bed. The little old man at the store was SO excited for my business (not a thriving mattress market in Cabrican) and I got my bed for the same price Sara paid for hers last year. He even delivered it to my house which meant he and his 15 year old granddaughter carried my mattress 3 blocks to my house through the streets of the town. Good news, citizens, the gringa bought a bed.

I walked past the carpinteria at least twelve times yesterday to see if he could make me some tables but he wasn’t open any of those times. Today I finally caught him open and he is making me a table for my stove, two small tables for next to my bed, and also selling me boards to make shelves with cement block. He asked me what size I wanted and I held out my hands to show him while he tape measured the width I was showing him….so precise. All of this won’t be ready until Saturday or longer so for now my things will have to stay piled on the floor.

You also can’t buy a stove in Cabrican. So tomorrow I am going to Xela to buy one. The other problem is, I can’t really use it without a table so my diet of bread, cornflakes, powdered milk (no refrigerator), and mangos will have to continue at least until then.

The other good news is that the entertainment in Cabrican consists of sitting in my room reading, walking around town (it takes less than ten minutes to do the whole thing), or going to the gym. So far I have gone to our gym every day and I already feel really sore and tired. I have two years to get used to it. Besides, I have to make up for all the bread I have been eating. Also there is the boredom eating. Also the bite size snickers my mom sent me (thanks mom!).

Life is good.

My new (and final) address

2008-03-30T10:41:00.002-07:00

Andrea Stanaway
Voluntaria del Cuerpo de Paz
Recomendado por el Correo de Cabrican
Cabrican, Quetzaltenango
Guatemala, Central America

If you send things to the Peace Corps address in Antigua, they will still get to me. It will just take a little longer because they have to forward it to me in Xela and I have to go pick it up. I have heard a lot of “I have stuff to send you…” but my mailbox is still feeling a little lonely so…send me a letter atleast!

Buen Viaje

2008-03-30T10:41:00.001-07:00

After being too sick to go out and celebrate, I spent a tranquil night alone in the hostel in Antigua and decided to make the long trek up to my site. I felt well enough that I thought I could make the trip without feeling too miserable. I talked Mel and Jessica into helping me drag my stuff to the bus terminal in Antigua so I could catch a camioneta to San Lucas. I was debating taking a Pullman (like a charter-type bus) but someone I asked told me they only left at 7am and another person told me they left all day long. I decided that I didn’t want to risk going all the way to Guatemala City and taking a taxi to the bus station only to find out that my last bus left at the crack of dawn. So instead I decided to brave the whole way in camioneta. I got thrown on a bus out of Antigua, kissed Mel and Jess goodbye really quickly (easier if it’s a quick goodbye…like ripping off a band-aid), and was off the San Lucas.

In San Lucas, I had to lug my stuff (too much and too heavy) across a sky bridge in order to wait for a bus to Xela (AKA Quetzaltenango). A strange man asked me what bus I needed and told me to wait while he found it for me. Sometimes it is hard to tell if people are really nice or really strange but he found me a bus. The odd thing was, it wasn’t a camioneta. It looked more like a small tour bus, but I decided I would go for it. The ayudante told me it was going to Xela and it was the same price to I figured “what the heck?”. The problem with this bus was that I sat next to a man who was REALLY interested in getting to know me and if I had a boyfriend in the U.S. So, I did what any sensible girl would do in this situation and I made one up. The trouble is, you can’t just say he exists, you have to say how old he is and how long you have been together and if you have kids and if he is going to come visit you (26, 4 years, no, yes). He bought it, but then told me that since I was gone for 2 years I should find another boyfriend here. Sometimes you just can’t win.

The other problem was that when the ayudante told me he was going to go to Xela, what he really meant was that he was going to tell me I had to get off in Cuatro Caminos and find another bus to Xela which is like 30 minutes away. So I got off with this really nice lady and her son who were going to Xela as well and she told me I could follow her because she knew where the bus was. So she brought me to a bus that went to Xela but didn’t go the bus terminal. I decided to wait because I did in fact need to go to the terminal. So I sat on the side of the road (luggage piled around me) and waited while 2 more buses that were going to non-terminal Xela passed by. So I finally got a bus that told me it would take me to the bus terminal.

The problem with that bus was that the ayudante lied to me and stopped at an unknown location in Xela and told me that I had to get off because the bus wasn’t going any further (certainly not to the terminal). So I got off another deceptive bus and found myself in the middle of Xela. Luckily there were some other people there and I asked them if I could catch a bus to the terminal there…the answer was yes which was good because I didn’t think I could carry my stuff very much further (did I mention all I had eaten was a pancake and soda crackers?).

So eventually I got tossed onto a terminal-bound bus in Xela and made it to the actual terminal at long last. I made my way through the throng of buses to Guatemala City, Panajachel (Lake Atitlan), and lots of other exciting places looking for a bus to Cabrican. Every time you pass a bus her, the ayudante smiles really nicely and asks if you are going his way. When I said “no, gracias, voy a Cabrican” they looked confused (not a normal gringo destination) and pointed me in the right direction. So I made it (with all my things intact) to a bus that was headed to Cabrican. I sat next to a really nice older man who begged me to take his sons to the U.S. He didn’t really understand that my embassy connections only extend to swearing to uphold the constitution and being rewarded by a tiny tuna sandwich and a barefoot-grass moment at the ambassador’s house. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really help my find visas for Guatemalans.
So here I am in Cabrican. My room at Reina’s isn’t ready until Monday so I am chilling at Sara’s house and tomorrow is market day so we are going to buy everything I need to survive in Cabrican.

One Last Moment on U.S. Soil

2008-03-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

March 27, 2008

I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer. I know what you are thinking… “Um…hello…I already sent you off to the Peace Corps…” but technically speaking I was what they call a peace corps trainee which isn’t an actual volunteer. Go figure.

Mel and I on the micro ride to the city
So on Thursday we had this ceremony. It was mostly just like your high school graduation. We elected a class speaker…we put on our fancy clothes for the first time in Guatemala…we took way too many pictures of ourselves together. The only difference was it was at the Ambassador’s house, he didn’t invite our families, and we had to swear to defend the constitution of the United States of America against all enemies domestic and foreign. So it was basically exactly the same.

We managed to get through the prestigious high security at the Ambassador’s residence. This meant that we were technically back in the U.S. again. I have to admit, I took my shoes off, felt grass between my toes for the first time in three months, and it felt like home. The house was what you might expect from the residence of a U.S. government official (big, nice, not very home-ey). The ceremony itself was actually pretty anticlimactic. After three months of training, we raised our right hands, swore to uphold the constitution, shook the ambassador’s hand, and were pronounced volunteers. All of us were left saying “Well…congratulations everyone….?”

Me with mister Ambassador

What does the Ambassador serve for refreshments?
Apple or Orange juice (with ice that is safe to drink)
Coffee
Tiny tuna or cheese sandwiches
Brownies

I have been sick (in my tummy) all week so I only ate 2 sandwiches and half of a brownie…which was an awful idea because I am still sick and it is probably because I let myself off the soda-cracker diet too quickly. The good news is, in case you are worried, that I don’t have an amoeba…they checked.

Alotenango girls with our Spanish teachers

That was it. We walked out of the gate back into Guatemala (they didn’t even stamp our passports…) as Peace Corps volunteers, feeling…just about the same as we felt when we walked in.

Healthy Schools training group

The real difference is that now I get to start working. I stayed with my family in Alotenango Thursday and went to Antigua to celebrate on Friday. I was too sick to go out so I had a great night sleeping in a hostel in Antigua before I left Saturday morning for Cabrican.

We couldn´t leave American soil without a thumb war

Top Ten Reasons to Like Cabrican

2008-03-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

So I just got back from visiting Cabrican, the site where I am going to be living during my two years of service. In the interest of thinking positively and keeping you informed, I composed this list of reasons why life there will be good. Enjoy.

In no particular order:

1. The panaderia (bakery) there makes these little pineapple pies that are SOOOO good. There is also a store that sells snickers bars. They are Q7 which is like $1 but expensive for here but its nice to know I have got it in case of emergency.

2. Sara and Brian are my site mates and they are SO cool. Sara is a small business volunteer and Brian is Apropriate Technology and they are both really cool. I am sure we will be spending a lot of time together since there isn´t much to do around town.

3. There is a gym in town that was started my some Guatemalan that used to be a body builder, but the only two members are Sara and Brian (and me now....). So basically we have a private gym.

4. My CTA (the supervisor of education...kind of my boss) is making me a desk in the office so I have a place to work. I have always wanted my own desk.... I had to join the Peace Corps to find a job that would give me my own desk...ironic.

5. Chorjale is my biggest school with 11 teachers and they play sports together like basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Anybody remember how much I hated soccer in elementary school? In this case, I think it will be so much fun and make it easy to be part of the ¨team.¨

6. Profe Eli is the director at Chorjale and he came to the counterpart day the Peace Corps held for us to get to know our new companeros. He was SO nice and invited me to dinner with his family!

7. The last volunteer who was at Cabrican was apparently really unhappy there so everyone kept asking me if I was going to be sad...they are SO relieved when I told them I missed my friends and damily but I wasn´t particularly SAD... That is an easy problem to overcome, they just want someone happy!

8. Reina is the lady I am going to live with and she is renting me a room right about here store that she runs. She seems really nice and with her lives her sister and her nephew named Roberto who is SO cute. I think they will make a good family.

9. I get to take classes in Mom, which is the local indigenous language with a lady named Seno Aida who also seems really really nice. I think it will be fun to learn another language. Also, everyone says my Spanish is really good (I wouldn´t say REALLY good, but its nice to be complimented) which is a huge relief.

10. There is an Art Corps volunteer from Ecuador who lives in Rio Blanco and works once a week at the library (I know, a library!) in Cabrican and here name is....guess...Andrea. So, once again, there are always two of us. It seems like I can´t escape other people named Andrea. I think life would feel strange with only one of us.

¡Hot like Lava!

2008-03-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a trip to see the Volcan de Pacaya near Guatemala City. It is one of the active volcanoes around here and so we were stoked to see some lava. There is a volunteer living there named Carlos (Kyle--in the photo with the walking stick) who took us up there to see the Volcano, it was pretty amazing.

So, after a 1.5 hour uphill climb we finally got to see our goal: the flowing lava. It was SO cool, you can actually hear the cracking noise of the cooling lava rolling down the side of the Volcano.

To my amazement/horror, we actually walked out onto the cooled lava to get a closer look at the lava flow. It was SO hot (I am a genious I know). I was expecting campfire hot, but it was like....hot lava.

So we did the only thing that makes sense when you ar sitting around a flowing mass of lava...we roasted marshmallows!

They were the best s´mores I have EVER tasted. They don´t have graham crackers here but they do have chickies which are vanilla sandwich cookies with chocolate covering one side...oh so tasty!

¡Geographical Destiny!

2008-03-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

Big news! Yesterday I discovered my geographical destiny. They took us all out to the basketball court at the training center where they had drawn a chalk outline of Guatemala. They had us all close our eyes and led us (I almost got mistaken for the other Andrea, haha) to where our site is. We couldn´t talk to make noise and we were all trying to figure out where they led us but they were tricky and took us in circles first. I thought for sure I was in Chimaltenango. Then we all opened our eyes and found out where and with whom we would be spending our time in Guatemala. So, at long last, the place I will be spending the next two years living and working is….drumroll please…

¡Cabrican, Quetzaltenango!

Cabrican (Cab-ree-kahn) is a medium sized town in the western highlands of Guatemala. It sounds like it is beautifully situated on a mountain ridge with lots of nice views and mountain walks to take. I will be working in 3 schools in that area which have been working with another volunteer who left in July. It sounds like she did a lot of teaching in the classrooms and building projects like water systems and latrines so I think I will get to work with the teachers and parents more which seems really great.

The town sounds like it has everything I might want like internet, electricity, and water most of the time. It is right on the border with Huehuentenango and San Marcos which are some of the departments that border Mexico. I won´t be very close to Antigua or the Capital, but the city of Quetzaltenango which is one of the biggest in the country is just 2 ½ hours away. There is also a satellite center for the Peace Corps there where they will forward my mail and I can exchange books with other volunteers. The other great news is that the Riecken Foundation started a public library in Cabrican so I will be close to probably one of the only public libraries in the country! ¡Que Suerte!

Next week I get to go visit, so I will have a better idea of what the town is like. However, I am really happy with my site. Everyone was really nervous yesterday and I think some people were disappointed but I know everyone will love their site. So if you are going to visit, start thinking about Cabrican and mountain walks!

Iximche

2008-03-03T04:55:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we went as a training group tp visit Iximche, the first capital of Guatemala when the Spanish showed up. It is this giant ruined Mayan city and it was beautiful! It was the first time we have really done anything tourist-y. It was also fun to all do something together because we don't get to hang out a whole lot.

We had a ceremony with a Mayan Priest, it was really pretty. They burn different things depending on what kind of ceremony it is (I think we got a general luck/wish ceremony). We all went around and talked about things we hoped for during our time in Guatemala. The priest told us that everyone is connected and nobody is here by accident. Being in Guatemala is part of our destiny. It was a pretty good message.

Before, I was really anxious about a lot of things here. We find out our sites today and a lot of people are freaking out. The ceremony helped me a little though. I'm not going to speculate on the Mayan connection to God, but being there with all the volunteers in such a beautiful place talking about out dreams was really comforting.

We find out our sites today, I'll keep you posted. We also get to have pizza lunch with the U.S. Ambassador, so its a pretty big day. I'll keep you posted!

Lovely Alta

2008-02-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went on a long trek on a dirt road. There were butterflies dancing around my head and crickets chirping. Below me lush green hills stretched for miles...paradise right?

Well, it is certainly very nice. This week I am just northeast of Coban in Alta Vera Paz. I get to visit a volunteer that has been working here a year to see what her life is like and what my future might hold. I am having a really good time hanging out with her (named Jill). She lives in this little town about two hours outside of Coban. Yesterday we went to two of the schools she is working in (two hour walk in total) and tommorrow we will go to two more. Today she had a meeting in Coban so we are spending the afternoon running errands around here.

It is so nice to have a little independence. Yesterday we made hummus and falafel and tonight we are eating pasta and we are going to make cookies (a nice break from the Guatemala food even though I love it). We also go to go to a cooking class yesterday and we made caramelized plantains which smelled a lot like apple pie...I missed the US just a little=).

I really love it up here. The scenery is really green which reminds me a lot of home. I am hoping to get placed here but there are only a few sites available so we will see what happens. It is really nice to see how her life is and have an idea of what is in store for me. She is in a really small town which is something I am hoping for and also gets to do some work with NGOs in the area which I would love. She also talked a lot about her friends and family coming to visit her and I cant wait to share all of this with everyone!

I find out on Monday the 3rd where my site will be and I am really anxious. I am really going to miss my family in Alotenango but I am definitely ready to get started. I will let you know as soon as I can! Keep thinking about me, write me letters! Big hugs!

FBT and the Beach

2008-02-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

¡Bueños dias!

I´m a little behind on my blog, so I apologize that this is being published a little late. I have been meaning to tell you about this all week but in Santa Lucia I ran out of time because I was invited to a Salsa Dancing class in Antigua (If you are awaiting the debut of my dance career you´re probably out of luck, but ti was fun) and I just now had a chance to get to the internet cafe.

Last week we traveled to Huehuetango and Quetzaltango (Xela) to visit some volunteers and see how their lives are. They also happened to be sites that I might be sent to where volunteers are on their way out so it was fun to see the possibilities. I took this picture of my family before I left:

We started out in Huehuetango city as our base and traveled out to various sites from there. We got to stay in a hotel/hostel which was pretty fun because we all got tol live together for the first time since Washington D.C. Poor David (showing off in this picture) had to spend the week with all of the girls but the good news is that he got his own room. Also in the picture (left to right) are the other Andrea, Melanie (lives with me in Alotenango) and Christina who went to Gonzaga in Spokane (the closest thing to a Washingtonian I have here).

One of the schools we went to in our first days was a school that was certified by another volunteer 2 years ago. The prepared a presentation for us where they had speeches and all the students sang the national anthem (impressive because there are lots more verses than we use in ours). Also, they presented us with huge bags of lemons and oranges that the parents had brought to give to us. It was SO generous of them and we felt really honored. The Guatemalan people here are SO welcoming and generous! The problem was that we had to cross the department border on our was back to the city and you aren´t supposed to bring fruit across. However, we didn´t want to part with the gift from the school so we all stuffed our backpacks and purses full of oranges and smiled our biggest smiles at the checkpoint. Luckily, they let us go through, but it was pretty exciting and funny---I don´t think I am cut out for a career as a smuggler. We got elected to guard the oranges overnight so our room smelled really sweet all week. Here is Mel and I with some of the booty!

Every school we went to welcomed us really warmly and always had something for us to eat. On normal days this consists of atol (a drink made from rice kind of like oatmeal) but since we were special guests we got an actual snack. Once we got tostadas but mor often than not we received either tamales or panches. They are both the same sort of texture of corn, rice, or potatoes cooked in some form of leaf. They are generally delicious but we had so many of them that I think I might be happy not to have them again for a very long time. Another thing we got was bags of chocolate milk the schools are given for a school feeding program they have here. Warm chocolate milk from a bag is something I might not be looking forward to in the future. I was really impressed by the generosity of everyone welcoming a group of conspicuous strangers into their schools. It was really great.

On Valentine´s Day (Dia de Cariño here) we were in Xela and we had a chance to go out and hang out a bit which was really nice. On the way home, we visited some volunteers that were just going in to their second year and they had really good advice. I got to meet Nikki, who lived with my host family last year and it was fun to chat about the family.

In total, the trip was really long and I was glad to be home in Alotenango. It made me really look forward to knowing where my site is going to be and what my life is going to be like in the future. I think I am really going to love this job. I am anxious to get the training part over with and find out what the future holds for me. On March 3rd we find out our sites. All I know is that it will be in the department of Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, Chimaltenango, or Alta Vera Paz.

I have also included some pictures of my family at the beach. The day after we got back we all rented a bus and headed for a place called Las Lisas on the coast in Esquintla. It was really fun and nice to relax with my family. The ocean was warm but it felt a lot like home because there is a riptide so you can´t really swim. The kids were really fun though as you can see from the pictures.

We had to take a boat through a canal to get there---pretty exciting!

Even my granparents came! I can´t understand them very well but they are really nice and they enjoyed the trip!
Andreita LOVED playing in the sand. I was reminded of a certain little brother of mine that used to eat sand at the beach in Seaside...

Christian was scared of the ocean so they filled up a tub for him to play in. Later we coaxed him in a little ands he enjoyed it. For lunch I ate Caldo de Mariscos (Caldo with seafood) which is against the advice of the Peace Corps (sometimes seafood is a little dangerous here) but it was really good. One problem was that all my sea animals were cooked whole so I had a crab, a fish, and 4-5 shrimp staring up at me. I don´t think I´ve ever had a meal with that many eyes! It was worth the risk and the work because it was delicious and I didn´t get sick so life is good.

This week we taught a practice lesson in the school. It was my first of hundreds of lessons I will teach here and it went really well. I taught hand washing to the first grade and it was really fun. That class is my favorite because they are really enthusiastic and they love to do things like sing. Now we have set to work preparing a workshop for the teachers who will be a tougher crowd. I also got reviewed and I doing well (not going to be sent home after training) I am doing well in my technical activities and have a Spanish level of Advanced-Basic although some days it doesn´t feel like it. Yeah!

This week I am going to Alta Vera Paz to visit a volunteer named Jill and see how her life is. It will be fun to see that part of the country. I will have a 5 hour bus ride to enjoy the view! I hear that part of the country is really beautiful!

Thanks again for all your support. My parents keep telling me about people that I know and some that I don´t who are reading this and I really appreciate your interest! The adventure is just beginning here. I can´t believe I still have more than 2 years to enjoy this beautiful country!

Tortillando

2008-02-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

This week, we made tortillas at Jessica's house for Spanish class. I already had a little experience because my Abuela let me help her a few times. It is really hard to get them right with the right shape, round, and thin. People here have been doing it since age 4 so the learning curve is a bit steep. I am getting better though...

They tasted really good with lemon and salt. Jessica's parents told me I was ready for my Guatemalan husband! Jaime says I just need to know how to make beans but the beans in a can here taste pretty good so I am pretty sure I could manage. I'm just missing the husband part...

We also took a tour of a Macadmeia nut farm that is owned by this really crazy old American guy. He was really nice and helpful but for every one fact he gave us he told 5 dirty jokes in Spanish. It was pretty funny and the Macademia nuts were SO good. They have trees they donate to indigenous communities and I bought some Macademia butter. It is SO good. Yesterday was our last day with Eduardo as our Spanish teacher. Jessica's sister made a pineapple upside down cake. Today we get to go to his house for dinner and meet his wife and kids. I am really excited. Today we celebrate our one month Anniversary in Guatemala. Everyone from our training class is still here. Only 2 months until I go to my site. 2 months to get better at Spanish/being a teacher!

Thanks again for the support. This is Jessica's cat, Manino (and Mel). He's real cute but I think he gave me fleas. Bummer.

Daily Life

2008-02-07T07:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of daily life for me here in Alotenango (really rivetting, I know!)

Every morning I wake up between 4 and 4:30 AM to the sound of the 50 roosters within hearing distance of my house. I also wake up because I have to go to the bathroom--every mornng, its unbelievable! I think the nurse should give me a prize for being hydrated! Around 5 my grandma starts making tortillas and I can hear the of her forming them in my room which is farthest from the kitchen. Its a beautiful way to wake up.

Depending on our shedule for the day I get up between 6 and 7. I used to shower in the mornings but people here think that showering in the cold will make you sick so I try not to worry my family. If I have to get up early, I eat breakfast alone and its really serene. I always have cornflakes with bananas and sugar. Aura leaves a thermos of hot water out for me at night and sets my place at the table. If it is a little later, I eat with Christian and the morning is full of Aura trying to get him to eat and not be late for school. Sometimes if I am done early I get a chance to drink my coffee on the roof and make volcanic observations (this morning was cloudy with smoke straight up into the air because there was very little wind.) Otherwise, I make observations on the walk to Jessica's house to pick her up and we go off to enjoy the day!

Usually Jessica and I have to walk to the other side of town where Melanie and Candi live in order to meet them for class or to catch the camioneta. That means we say "Buenos Dias" atleast 50 times during the 15 minute walk because everyone greets each other around here. Sometimes we meet Eduardo for Spanish class at someone's house or at the plaza in front of the church. Otherwise we take the bus to Antigua or to Santa Lucia (Mondays) for other activites. We return home for lunch between 12 and 1 (things are pretty scheduled as far as eating in our houses) which means "Buenos Dias" another 50 times. That walk is tough because it is right on the line between "Buenos Dias" and "Buenos Tardes." Technically the switchover happens after lunch but it definately doesn't feel like you should still be saying "Good Morning."

Lunch is the most important meal of the day and dishes vary a lot. My family eats a lot of chicken in general. Almost always there are some form of beans (usually black beans prepared a variety of ways) and there are ALWAYS tortillas. Adult men here who work in the campo eat around 20 tortillas a meal, which is a lot. I usually eat 3 or 4 because I am trying to fit in, but thats all I can manage. Usually I eat lunch with Christian and Aura. Jaime usually leaves for work before lunch or comes home after depending on the day. On Thursdays Aura's grandmother who lives next door eats with us. She is in here 80s and I can never understand what she is saying but she is really sweet. Aura's mother, father, and brother live in our house but her mother cooks for them and they eat seperate. Unfortunately, I never get to eat the tortillas I hear in the morning. We buy ours from the lady at the corner and they are really good.

After lunch we return to class for a few hours. Usually we can convince Eduardo to finish early so we can go to Antigua and run errands or do group work or relax (not usually). Dinner isn't until 7 at my house so I usually have plenty of time for homework in the afternoons. The other option is watching Discovery Kids with Christian and I can't understand any of it. It makes me a bit discouraged that I can't even understand kids shows in Spanish. Sometimes he watches movies. Here they are pirated copies that come 3 to a disc. We have the Lion King (Rey Leon) 1,2 and 3 ad well as a disc that has Curious George (in English!), some fish movie, and Cars. I've seen all of these like 10 times each and I still can't understand the words but yuo get the jist of it. Curious George in English was really entertaining the first 5 times.

Dinner is a lighter meal. Usually leftovers from lunch or beans/tortillas/cheese. Jaime is home every other night and we usually talk or watch cartoons during the meal. Sometimes I have assigned questions for my family from class and its pretty funny. After dinner everyone goes to bed between 8 and 9 and I read a bit, write in my journal, and then go to sleep. The nights here are cool but not cold and I usually fall asleep really quickly and sleep soundly until tortillas/roosters/bathroom in the early hours of the morning.

Thats my daily life! Not so rivetting, a little predictable, and I love it!

Photos de mi Vida Ahora

2008-02-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

My favorite view of the volcano outside Jessica's house! It is SO beautiful here!

Spanish Class waiting for the fateful bus in Aposetas!

The Healthy Schools program all together on Mel's roof! I think my expression is funny=).

Me and my friend Fuego

My little sister, Andrea ("Andreita") she is SO cute and she is used to me now so she doesn't cry when I hold her!

Fuego just this morning, it had a lovely plume of smoke. I love the views from where I live. Some morning I can wake up and drink my coffe on the roof with this is my face. I am SO lucky!

The Fabulous Life of Eduardo

2008-02-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

Who's Eduardo? Well he is our Spanish teacher if you are speaking technically, but right now he is actually our guide to everything Guatemalan. He is our resource for language, culture, and sometimes techincal traning, he is our savior when we are confused about family situations, and he often performs life saving feats during many of our weekly outings together. Basically, he is our Guatemalan hero.

So on Friday we went to San Andres Itzapa to see the shrine of Maximon. The whole experience in the town and at the shrine was very interesting, but the adventurous part of the whole trip turned out to be the camioneta (bus) rides we had to take to get there.

The first bus we took was from Antigua to a place called Aposentos to catch a camioneta to San Andres. The camioneta was REALLY REALLY full (like 3 people to a seat with the aisles jammed full) which means a lot of people in Guatemala. It turned out that some girls from another town were taking the same bus to another town to go to the market. So, instead of being our normal spectacle we were a whole gang of strange people travelling around. I couldn't remember the name for the stop so I remembered that Eduardo had said that it was in Parramos, so I paid the Ayudante (the man who tells you to squeeze in tighter and then rolls through to collect fares) to Parramos (Q3.00). The trouble was, Apostentos was a little past Parramos and actually cost Q4.50. So after Parramos the man came through again to collect more fares and I totally pannicked. I couldn't think of how to say "I'm sorry, I forgot the name of the stop and I really want to go to Aposentos but I wasn't trying to cheat you" in Spanish and I couldn't see Eduardo through the crowd to ask what I should do. So the Ayudante came through and when he got to my row he stopped and looked at me and all I could think to do was smile my most innocent smile and shrug my shoulders like I had NO idea what was going on. I was lucky, he decided to avoid the confrontation and move on. So when we finally got to the correct stop we had to struggle to get out the back of the bus through the crowd (really difficult) and someone yelled "Mas tiempo para las gringas grandes" which translates roughly into "more time for the big white girls!" which may sound offensive but we are all atleast a foot taller than everyone here. I was grateful because it meant the driver didn't continue going which would have resulted in us being thrown out the back onto the street.

So the next bus to San Andres was even more full. Since we got on last, we were stuck riding in the front of the bus near the door. I was lucky enough to get on first so I was right next to the driver (basically sitting on his shoulders which was quite awkward). The other girls were on the stairs which meant the only space for valiant Eduardo was one foot on the step and the rest of him hanging on for dear life to the bars next to the door on the OUTSIDE of the bus. I couldn't see well enough to know how he was holding on and I was honestly afraid he would fall out of the bus. There is no clear Peace Corps protocol for what you do if your Spanish teacher falls out of a moving vehicle on the way to see a shrine.

However, we made it to San Andres in one piece. We saw the shrine of Maximon as well as the Catholic church and then we got back on a bus to return to Antigua. The ride to Aposentos was relatively uneventful thank goodness. However, the bus that arrived to take us to Antigua was just as full as the previous camionetas. There was enough room to all get on safely, but then we realized that it was the same driver and ayudante who we underpaid the first ride! When I handed the man my Q5 note he smiled at me and asked me how many I was paying for. It was a joke because the fare is Q4.50. Very funny. In Parramos, the head of the Spanish Department, Patti, joined us and we were having a crowded but pleasant ride. However, Melanie was standing next to the driver and when we stopped alittle bit suddenly, she fell and cracked the rearview mirror! The driver didn't say anything, I'm not sure he noticed. That is, until the mirror fell out of the frame and came crashing down ontop of his head while he was driving! The funny thing is, our theme this week has been superstitions...I'm not sure is Mel or the driver is getting the 7 years of bad luck, but she has been ok so far.

Fortunately, we made it home in one piece. Eduardo gave me some lemons from his lemon tree and I made a refresco of strawberried and lemons for when the group from San Miguel came to visit us on Saturday. On Sunday we watched the superbowl at Melanie's house and played some football with kids in the street. It was lots of fun and nice to see the Giants win. It was a great game even though the announcers were in Spanish.

I will add a few more picture of my fabulous life. Keep writing me, I need lots of support at this point. Life is moving really fast here...its been almost a month already. I love you all and miss you!

Boda/Cumpleanos

2008-01-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hey friends!

Just a quick hello to say I made it through another week here. We are 3 weeks in and I am feeling a bit homesick (send me stuff!) but I will make it through. I am used to having so much supportive family and friends around me that being here away from you is a but of an adjustment. My family is really great though and I have lots of support from Peace Corps staff. We also visited the school we are working in during training and the kids were really sweet, I think it will be good.

The other good news is that I haven't gotten sick yet. Well, thats not exactly true but everyone gets a little bit sick from changes in eating habits and everything. I haven't eaten anything I don't like yet. We get lots of beans and tortillas with every meal. For breakfast I usually get cornflakes which is nice. They make lots of great soups and stews here (called a "caldo"is I remember right) and have lots of new fruits and vegetables. GIANT papayas, its almost mango season and those are huge too, HUGE avacados, Yuca, Quisquil (kind of potatoe-ey), and other things that are harder to describe.

On Saturday I got to go to a "boda"- wedding (not as fun as it sounds). It was Catholic and pretty serious but an interesting change from the norm in the US. On Sunday we went to the birthday party of one of Jaime's sisters and that was interesting too. It is awkward party x 1000 because not only do I not know anyone...but I also only understand about half the people that even try to talk to me and also I am automatically strange looking because I look different than just about everyone here. It was fun though and his family was really nice...the food was good too, it was beef and chicken in some kind of tomato sauce called "estofada." Jaime also said that he will take me to the volcano soon and if I get it approved I get to go to the beach next month with the fam!

Another funny story (and then I should quit being selfish and let someone else get on here)...On Sunday morning I was sitting at home and I heard a knock on the door. Normally I avoid answering but nobody else was around so I answered it and there was a man outside in a suit. It turns out he was a Jehovah's Witness missionary from San Francisco. Imagine his surprise when a blonde girl answered the door in Alotenango! He said he didn't know there were white people that spoke English there. I talked to him for a moment, but he tried to make it sound like we were on the same team (I happen to be of the opinion that door-to-door evangelism is a little different than working in school health programs) and I told him my family wasn't home and I would let them know he stopped by. It was a little awkward, I don't think I'll answer the door again=).

I also got a new address. The office is moving. Mail will still get to me at the old address for awhile but this one is for the futurë:

Andrea Stanaway
a/c Cuerpo de Paz Guatemala (Peace Corps)
Apartada Postal 66
Antigua, Sacatepequez
Guatemala, America Central

I miss you...write to me...call me...you can get my number from the folks!

Happy Third Week!

2008-01-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I just wanted to send a quick note to say that I am doing great! Not a whole lot of internet time, but I'll deal.

I had a great weekend. There was a fiesta in Alotenango and there was a huge parade (turns out I have a slight fear of costumed people...) with lots of people dressed up like looney tunes and old people and dancing in the streets. There were also "banditos" running around "holding up"the crowd until a chosen person gave them a donation. Turns out I got chosen by every bandito because I stick out of the crowd, haha. It was a lot of fun to hang out with my family.

On Sunday, the volunteers met in Antigua at the Mono Loco. The restaurant is conveniently highlighted in the guidebook nicole gave me but contrary to the rough guide, the food is NOT mediocre and it was FANTASTIC. Almost everyone showed up (which is a lot because there are 36 of us!) We got to hang out and watch the Patriots/Chargers game. Despite the lame outcome it was really nice to relax and bond together, we had a lot of fun.

When we got home, my family was all in the kitchen making tortillas and we all got to cook together. Jaime was home for the evening (kind of rare because he works so much) and so he was helping out too and it was really really great.

I am feeling really good today. I am excited to start working, I love the country, I love my home and my family here. I cannot wait to share all of this with you guys when you come to visit. The postal system is a little slow, but I hope I get your letters soon. Thanks for all the encouragement! Lots of love! (I get to go get Rabies shot #2!)

Photos de mi Vida!

2008-01-17T14:03:00.000-08:00

Hey All! Here are some pictures of my beautiful home in Alotenango! Enjoy! This one is the view of the Volcan de Agua from my rooftop!

Here is a picture of the Volcan de Fuego (the active one)...it's the view from the other side of my rooftop!

Christian in front of Fuego (Agua is his favorite though!)

Here is my room! There is lots of space and a TINY little skylight in the ceiling! I love it, lots of privacy and right next too the bathroom, shower, and the pila! Also sharing a wall with a VERY loud evangelical church...it keeps me up at night, I guess it could be worse!

Here is Christian riding his moticicleta in the main hallway/courtyard of the house! If you look closely you can see Aura and Andreita in the background!

This is the Spanish class in front of the Volcano. This was taken on top of Melanie's house on the other side of town. We have been having Spanish classes there this week! That is all for now, I have to take the camionets right back to town from Santa Lucia. Love you guys! Write to me pleeeease! You can also call me, let me know if you want my phone number and I can e-mail it to you!

Love!

Andi

Place of Volcanoes...

2008-01-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

I only have a few minutes here at the training center. It turns out that my town doesn't have an internet cafe so I will have to travel to Antigua or wait until mondays when we return to Santa Lucia for training classes. I feel bad robbing the other volunteers of internet time so this one will have to be quick.

Now I am living (for 3 months!) in a town called Alotenango. It is just south of Antigua at the bases of the volcanoes Agua and Fuego. Don't worry thoug, Agua is dormant. Fuego, on the other hand, causes small tremors and sometimes has lava flows but I am asssured that it is very safe! It makes for some beautiful scenery though, I can't wait to send pictures! I am there with 3 other volunteers and we will have language and technical classes there in town most of the time. My family is really nice although a little quiet so far. It will be a lot better once my Spanish is better because we can have more conversations. They are pretty young. Don Jaime and Don Aura are both around 31 or 32. They have two kids, Christian who is 4 (starting Kinder today!) and a 6 month old little girl called Andrea (there are always 2 Andreas in my life...). Also there lives Aura's mother and father, and her sister. Her Aunt and Grandmother live next door so there is always lots of family around.

It was a little hard to leave the safety net of the other volunteers in Santa Lucia, especially Jan who has been my companion through everything so far. The night before we left the power went out and Don Estuardo pushed his motorcycle up to the door and we had dinner by motorcycle headlight. It was great fun!

When I got to Alotenango there was a bit of confusion because a sticker from Mark's luggage got stuck to mine so they thought I would be a little different. Dona Aura said she had flowers in the room but she took them out because she thought I would be Mark.

I am adjusting well and I know it will get a lot easier from here. Well, I need to go get my rabies vaccine! I miss you all, keep writing. e-mails too (that means you Kerianne!)

Bienvenidos a Guatemala!

2008-01-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

This is the first of what I hope will be many entries about my adventure in Guatemala. Thank you for all your support and interest in what is going on here with me! I (obviously) arrived safely in Guatemala after two days of orientation in Washington D.C. Orientation (also called staging) was great and I have met a lot of really wonderful people so far. One of the guys here used to live in D.C. so he took us sightseeing and my roommate, Jan, is really cool. She is in her 50s and really adventurous and down to earth. I am glad we got paired together, she was a great encouragement to me.

It has also been a rough week saying goodbye to everyone. I am a little bit homesick and I am missing all of my friends and family a lot. I made some phone calls during our layover in Miami yesterday and it was really tough. I know it will get better over time though.

So here I am at the Peace Corps training center in Santa Lucia de Milpas Altas. We got here yesterday afternoon and have had several training sessions and spent time getting to know each other a little better. I also had my Spanish interview today (I was muy nerviosa!) and it went alright. They will be grouping us in training communities according to job and Spanish level for the remaining 3 months of training. This means we will have on-site small group sessions and lots of hands on experience which I am looking forward to. I also found out that the Peace Corps office is moving from Guatemala City to here so my address will be changing already (sorry!) but not worries, they are keeping the other address open for awhile so don't quit writing me letters! I need them!

My host family during these 3 days at the training center is at a lady's house who is called Dona Marleny. She has two beautiful children named Maria Jose (7) and Carlos Manuel (2). They are really cute and very smart. Jan and I are staying there together and she has been really welcoming. My Spanish allows me to communicate fairly clearing but I am still pretty shy. Dona Marleny says it is good but she may just be being polite. Last night she made us spaghetti and pancakes this morning which were delicious (althought not so traditional) but it smells like they are cooking something really great here at the training center for lunch.

The scenery is beautiful. The montains are all around us (it is 7000 feet here) and all of the hills are really green. We can also see three volcanoes from here and the rumor is that you can sometimes see lava there! Also, they have been having some small earthquakes this week which I hear is pretty normal for this region.

Other than that, there is not much happening yet. On Saturday we will be sent to our training communities and I will have an idea of what life will be like for the next 11 weeks. I am a little anxious about it but everyone here is kind of in the same boat so it helps a lot and there is a lot of support. All the staff are really open to us and ready to help wherever needed. They want us to succeed and they don't want anyone going home so it helps.

Well, lunch is being served outside and I think I am due for some vaccinations (fun!) so I have to sign off. Write to me, I miss you!

Muchos gracias y te amo!

Into the Wild

2007-12-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

"I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life."

-Leo Tolstoy, as quoted in "Into the Wild"

I jut got finished reading the book "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. I had some of these same thoughts a few months ago when I saw the movie that was made from the same book but it is relevant to the way I am feeling right now so I thought I would share.

If you haven't heard the story it is about a boy who graduates from college and is really unsatisfied with the life that he is living. He donates all his saving to charity ($25,000) and leaves everything behind to set off on this great adventure across the US and eventually pursues his dream of living off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. I won't be ruining the story if I tell you that in the end, he makes a mistake and ends up starving to death in the wilderness.

I can't help but see myself in that boy. Just out of college (me too!) he is young, adventurous (sounding familiar…), he is unsatisfied with his life and leaves everything behind to follow his dream (I am going to do that!). In his case, his dream is to live off the land in the Alaskan wilderness. So I see myself in his spirit.

I wonder if he knew how it would end—death and lonely starvation—would he have still gone? I think he would have. I am almost sure. Dreams like that are too powerful to walk away from. If I knew that following my dreams would cost me anything important, would I have the ambition to follow them? I think I would have to.

This concept is really hard for some people to understand, but if your dreams aren't that compelling, you are living the wrong life. Those are strong words but I believe in them completely. Let me repeat that in case you didn't get it because I mean it: if your dreams aren't that compelling, you are living the wrong life.

Some people think that the guy in the story was an idiot. A lot of people think he was too unprepared and it was a wrong decision for him to go into the wild. I won't get into the details but I would urge those people to read the book and understand who he was and what really happened. I personally think that thinking he was an idiot is completely absurd and most people who understand what it is to dream big would never say that. He had a dream and he had the courage to follow it no matter that the personal cost. What would you sacrifice for your dreams? If you can't answer that question you should take a hard look at your life and wonder if you are selling yourself short.

People tell me all the time that the Peace Corps will cost me things. It will cost me experiences with friends and family, it could cost me my dignity, even my life. Realistically I know that the experience will be really really difficult. It will be uncomfortable most of the time, frustrating all of the time, and I will be probably really lonely. To tell you the truth, none of that matters to me. I know what it could cost and what I will probably have to give up in the long run and the short run. I also know that I have to do it. Period. I can't explain it, I don't understand it, but my dreams have compelled me to do this and nothing else matters. I understand why that boy had to go to Alaska. I don't think that not going was an option for him. He made some mistakes and it cost him his life but I believe the story when it says he was happy in the end.

He had some crazy dreams and he believed in the possibility of realizing them. He had the courage to chase his dreams no matter what the cost…do you?

Note: Excerpts of this blog are from a similar blog I posted on myspace on October 22 after seeing the movie. Sorry for anyone who is getting repeat information. Thanks for being interested.

Two weeks!

2007-12-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems there are only two weeks left until my departure. Time went really fast. It seems like just yesterday I was looking at two more months in the US. These next few weeks are going to be really crazy trying to see everyone before I go. I have a tendency to want to do everything and make everyone happy which is ending up being really difficult. I already feel like I have run out of time to do all the things I was thinking about doing.

I am starting to get less nervous and more excited to go. I am ready for an adventure and after all this time building up my expectations I am anxious for things to get started. I am also anxious to get my goodbyes over with. I am horrible at saying goodbye and I have to basically say goodbye to everyone I have ever known in the next two weeks. I am really going to miss everyone here. Sometimes I wish life could just stay the same as it is now forever. I also know that we never learn anything if we stay where we are comfortable. I need this experience and so does everyone else I love.

Good news, I have an address you can send me mail at! I will need lots of encouragement so start sending me nice letters!

Andrea Stanaway, PCT

8 Calle 6-55, Zone 9

Guatemala City, 01009

Guatemala, Central America

Office Tel. # 502.2384.3800

(needed for FedEx, DHL, etc.)

Why???

2007-12-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

I am often asked about why I joined the Peace Corps. Sometimes it is in the form of a friendly question and sometimes it is accompanied by the same look you give someone who tells you they are going to go skydiving. It's a bit of a difficult question for me to answer, not because I don't have a reason, but because the real reasons are often hard for others to understand.

There are a lot of practical reasons to join the Peace Corps. I get to differ my student loans, get priority for government jobs, and it looks really great of a resume. I spent my academic career talking about other cultures and about global issues. It makes sense that after I have graduated, I should go out into the world and experience that which I have spent all that time talking about in school. All those things are true. I want to travel, to have an adventure, to help others. All those things are extremely important to me and a really huge part of who I am as a person.

Honestly? The real reason I wanted to join the Peace Corps is less tangible than that. It is very hard for my to explain to others, but joining the Peace Corps is just something I know I have to do. You could say it was the call of God, you could say it was destiny, you could say it was the universe nudging me in the right direction. The truth is, I just feel it.

One year ago I never would have considered the Peace Corps as an option for myself. Going to South Africa really changed things for me. Spending time in those villages and townships really opened my eyes to new possibilities. I felt like I had finally found someplace where other people understood who I was. I wanted to stay there forever. If I could fit in South Africa, there has to be other places like that in the world. Suddenly, it didn't matter where I went, I just knew I had to get out of here. When I got home from South Africa, it was so clear that the Peace Corps was the only option that made sense for me.

So here I am, exactly one month before my departure. Sure, I'm nervous. Really nervous. There are a lot of unanswered questions about what my experience holds. In truth, it really doesn't matter to me. I know the Peace Corps is the right thing to do. It can be as bizarre and spiritual or as simple as you want it to be, but its the best answer I can give.

The Great Jean Experiement

2007-11-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

Day 1

Today is the day after thanksgiving. I have decided to test to see how long I can wear my jeans without feeling like too much of a dirtball. The objective of this experiment is to reduce my stress about packing for Guatemala by proving that I can wear the same pair of jeans for a long time without panicking. I generally only wear jeans for 2 days and wash my clothes quite a lot so I am not sure at all what the outcome will be. Let me tell you a little about these jeans.

They are GAP 1969 jeans, about 3 months old. I bought then with my little brother who tried to convince me to get straight leg jeans which look good on him but awful on me. So these jeans are bootcut and are my sturdiest jeans, though not my favorite. They are mildly dark blue and look pretty good on me I think. Basically, they are your average pair of medium-priced blue jeans.

Day 1: The jeans are freshly washed, which everyone knows means they are a little hard to get on, but I succeeded. Today I went to lunch with Hannah in Freemont and walked around for awhile. I bought 2 CDs that I didn’t need. “Happenstance” by Rachel Yamagata and “Hvart-Heim” by Sigur Ros. I got home at around 4, ate Thanksgiving leftovers with my parents and met some friends for bowling. I bowled poorly but had fun hanging out and playing a little DDR. Overall, I was pleased with the performance of my jeans. They feel nice, not too stretched out but not too tight.

Day 2

Today my family and I drove to Oregon to see family. We spent 3.5 hours with my entire family (5 of us) in my Dad’s 5 seat Passat wagon. We stopped at my Aunt Susie’s house to say hello to her and my Uncle Pat and their 8 kids before going to my grandparent’s house. There, we spent time watching football and knitting. In the evening, the whole family came over for dinner (My grandparents small house + 30 people = chaos). It was a lot of fun. Afterward, I went to stay at my Aunt Ginny’s house but hung out with my Cousins and my brothers across the street until pretty late. My jeans worked really well on the entire car ride. They were comfortable, which means a lot on a ride like that. They survived all the kids and the food. They still fit well and feel nice and not too dirty.

Day 3

More family time and the drive back to Washington. I am surprised, because my jeans still feel good and don’t really feel grungy at all. When we got home I went shopping at Target and then to hang out at Keri’s house. I told her about the experiment and she told me that she has a pair of jeans that she thinks she could wear every day forever without washing them and they would still be good. Interesting…

Day 4

I have decided not to wear my jeans today. Not because the experiment has failed but because I think it could go on forever. I think I would wear my jeans indefinitely if I had to (not that I would want to…). However, I feel content knowing that in the event that I can’t do laundry for a very long time, I will have something to wear that makes me look decent.

I deem this experiment a success. My jeans deserve a name…a good Spanish name for my new life…

Eduardo.

Packing List

2007-11-26T09:05:00.000-08:00

Here is my packing list (subject to revision) for Guatemala. Let me know if you have any advice, but keep in mind:

1. I will most likely not be in the middle of nowhere for the whole time and can get things I need when I am there.
2. I am trying to pack VERY minimally. I don't want to appear as if I have too many things or have a whole bunch of luggage to carry around between locations.

Packing List

Clothes

1 pair nice pants

3 pairs regular pants

Gap Jeans

Cords

Light Jeans

5 T-shirts

3 nice shirts

Birthday shirt

Yellow shirt

Plaid shirt

1 pair shorts

Dark jean shorts

4 skirts

2 home made

Tan skirt

Wrap skirt

Grown-up dress

Long underwear?

2 pairs pajama pants

2 pairs pajama shorts

2 sweatshirts

1 vest

Raincoat

Scarf

Belt

Bandana

Hat

2 Bathing suits

Underwear

Socks

Shoes

Chuck Taylors

Running Shoes

Chacos

Flip-flops

Ballet flats

Toiletries

Chapstick

Shampoo

Conditioner

Soap

Face wash

Face lotion

Lotion

Razor

Hairbrush

Hairbands

Nail clippers

Tweezers

2-3 pairs earrings

Light makeup

Misc.

Sunglasses

Flat sheet

Elephant pillow case

2 towels

Headlamp

Day pack

Watch

Alarm clock

Wallet

Nalgene

Multi-tool/knife

Sewing kit

Sleeping bag

Camera

Books

Guatemala book

Into the Wild

Long book

History/culture book

Journal

Pens

Pictures

Cards

i-pod

Duct tape

Peanut butter

USB drive

Guitar?

Gifts for family