Figuring it out

Okay, we’ve now officially passed the one month mark and I feel like I’m beginning to get my Guatemalan bearings.

Some observations so far…
- Toilet seats in public bathrooms (and private, for that matter) are few and far between. I’m going to have to start a regular routine of squats to strengthen my quads or I’m going to have problems.
- Guatemalans are better than anybody at cramming people onto a bus. You may think there isn’t any more space, but trust me, there is. When I get home I’m going to start lobbying to bring the camioneta system to the states. Forty cents to go 10 kilometers on a rundown school bus while clutching your bag and hoping that thing touching your butt isn’t the hand of the guy shoved up against you?? It doesn’t get any better.
- Making tortillas is not as easy as it looks
- Garlic in your beans prevents gas. Also, it’s not possible to get tired of beans. You can eat them twice a day, every day and still be sad when you wake up for breakfast and there aren’t any.
- Homemade ChocoBonanos rock!! (Hmmm, I’m seeing a food theme here.)
- Guatemalans seem to have some sort of moral objection to zipping up their flies.
- My host family thinks I’m weird because I like the milk in my cereal to be cold. - Standing outside your house and staring at passersby is a competitive sport in Guatemala. And I used to think they only did it when they heard crazy white people were in town.

Conventional Guatemalan wisdom

- Hay más tiempo que vida: There’s more time than life.
- 45 minutes late is right on time.
- If you get sick, it’s probably because you ate something cold.
- You can’t shower when you’re sick because you’ll get pneumonia.
- It’s better to eat contaminated food and get sick than it is to be rude and refuse it (Personal experience with this one).
- If you’re not bringing food to share, don’t show up – anywhere.

Field Based Training

So on Friday we returned from a week-long trip to the departments (like states) of Huehuetenango, Xela (aka Quetzaltenango) and Chimaltenango. The first and last days consisted of 6-7 hours winding through the mountains, crammed into a passenger van along with 11 other people. Fun times. We stayed in hostels with up to five people to a room, but they were 5-star compared to some of the hostels we used in Europe.

It was an extremely long week, but I learned a lot. We visited several volunteers and went out to their schools to talk with the teachers and learn about the type of work they were doing. I was most surprised by how comfortably they’re all living. Most have a spare room(s) with extra beds, and some of them live in places bigger than any apartment or house I’ve lived in since going away to college.

So far, I feel like this has been the most helpful training experience. Talking to volunteers who are actually in the field and seeing their work gives me a much more realistic idea about what I’ll be doing than does sitting in a classroom listening to a trainer. I’m starting to get really excited about starting my service in less than two months. In a week and a half we find out where we’ll be stationed!

It was fun to spend some time getting to know the other volunteers better, but it sure was good to get back to Pastores where I could take a hot shower and sleep in my own bed.

Día del Cariño

Valentine’s Day is a big deal in Guatemala. It fell in the middle of our trip, so we did a gift exchange among the volunteers along with the teachers at the school we visited that day. Later that night we went out as a group in Xela, a very cool city with some amazing architecture. Here's the before picture:

My host family had their Día del Cariño celebration on Saturday, the day after I got back, and we played Amigo Secreto (i.e. Secret Santa). We drew names about three weeks ago and I got my host aunt Amabillia. She’s a really sweet woman who lives a few doors down from us. She loves to cook for me and has even hemmed a few pairs of pants that were too long for me.

The party was fun except that we were supposed to have a mariachi band come play live music for us. The only problem was, they showed up exactly on time (a very rare thing in Guatemala) and no one else had come yet, so my family sent them away instead of paying them to sit around and do nothing.

But we still had a blast playing musical chairs, having sack races and playing a bunch of other typical Guatemalan party games. At the end of the night, my “cousin’s” fiancé announced the date of their wedding….awwwww. In all, about 30 family members showed up and it reminded me of all the big family get togethers we´ve had at home.

Moving ahead

Tomorrow I’m teaching my first health lesson to some third graders at the school where we’re training. Should be interesting. They’re great kids though, so I think I’ll be okay.

On Sunday I leave again for another trip. This time we’re all going out individually to meet up with volunteers and spend the week with them in their houses. Each of us will have to get to the volunteer’s sites by bus on our own, but I’m going be with one of the girls we met on our last trip. She lives near Xela, which is only about two hours by bus, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

When we get back, I find out about my site and the week after that I go out to spend a few days there and find housing (with the help of my counterpart – the school superintendent with whom I’ll be working – and possibly a volunteer, if there’s one already living in the town). If there’s a volunteer in my site getting ready to finish up his/her service, it’s possible I can move right into his/her house, if not, I’ll probably have to find a family to live with for a while.

After our site visit is Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is a HUGE deal here, and most people have the week off (we’ll have class until Wednesday morning but then we spend the rest of the week with our host families). People come from all over the world to see the celebrations in Antigua. You have to make reservations almost a year in advance to get a room anywhere near the city.

The next week we swear in as volunteers in a ceremony with the U.S. Ambassador (past ceremonies have been at his private mansion, but not always there). Although this year, the Ambassador decided he didn’t want the ceremony to be in Spanish, which I think is a little rude since our host families are invited to attend, but okay.

After that we have a few days to get out to our sites and get settled into our service. It’s still five weeks away, but it feels like it’s coming fast.

I guess that’s about it for now. Thanks for everyone who’s reading these gigantic posts and thanks for the comments.