Monday, September 29, 2008

The past week


Sorry its been so long since I've posted but I have been out of town for a week. Here's the low down on whats happened so far: (its long)

Last Saturday before we left for our Field Based Training, which I'll get to later, a lot of the volunteers met up to go to Tecpan and visit a ruin site called Iximche. According to the park police we have to pay Q50 if were tourists, but we convinced him that were volunteers that live here so locals only have to pay Q5! This is the general problem with every tourist site, gringos pay more always. Anyway, the ruins were very pretty and the grounds were kept up really nice. We had a picnic lunch there, and just hung out. It was a beautiful day and didn't even rain! After I got back from that I got to go to an art show opening for a Guatemalan Artist at La Casa de Santo Domingo, which I had talked about earlier and is probably one of the most beautiful places I've seen. There are some pictures uploaded on my webshots of it at night and the reception. It was beautiful, the artist had died and his whole family was there. I left the poster at home so I don't remember his name, but he did very progressive impressionistic work for the early 20th century that he worked in. The colors were amazing, as they tend to be in Guatemalan art and I was really impressed with the show.

The next day we left for FBT, which is were all the people in my training program (Municipal Development) go to visit volunteers in their sites and learn about how they live and what their working on. This really helped me realize the challenges I'm going to face and what I'm actually going to be doing, which is still slightly vague and I want to talk more about that in another post. We visited many places including: Huehuetenango, Malacatancito, Chaintla, San Sebastian, La Democracia, San Antonio Huista, San Carlos Sija, and Xela. Mostly we talked to the planning office or womens office in each town with the volunteer.

On Wednesday we actually gave a charla (or training presentation) to a group of women in San Sebastian about Leadership because women here are very supressed and generally don't think they can be leaders or don't know how. The charla went well, but the women didn't speak spanish which was super difficult. Instead they spoke Mum, which is one of the 22 indigenious languages here in Guatemala. So we had to speak very clearly, simply, and slowly so that the ones that spoke both could then translate for the rest of the women. It was each town paired with a small group of about 6 women which frequently just went off speaking mum to each other so that we couldn't understand them. Frustrating, but a reality of what we will be dealing with because many of the aldeas (small parimeter communities) only speak in an indigenious language and many don't read or write, so our presentations have to be very hands on and oral. Aside from all the work, on Friday we excitedly got to watch the debates at a restaurant in Xela (an awesome city in Queztaltenango) with the Democrats Abroad group formed there. Afterwards we went salsa dancing for my Birthday. I really had a great time, it was a lot of fun and our whole group gets along really well. There are pictures of this on webshots as well.

My birthday was spent mostly in the car driving back, with bad reception and a headache, but thank you to everyone who tried to call and wish me happy birthday! That night I was more than happy to have a calm night at home and get some well needed sleep in a bed that wasn't hard/lumpy/or right next to a highway.

Sunday was great though because although we had work to do in the morning, volunteers and friends came over to the house in the afternoon for a small collaborative bday dinner and pinata bashing. It was Octavio's bday on Sunday and mine on Saturday so all his friends were there too, we watched Superbad (the only movie that I brought), made a chocolate strawberry cake, fought with a giant Elmo pinata, and had a muy ricco sena (dinner). Quinn, Lorba, Marisha, David, Johnny, and Nicole all came and although they had to leave by 6:30 because they all have curfews at our very strict houses, it was great to celebrate with them. My host niece got me a beautiful makeup bag that says Guatemala on it, and I got in the mail today the all the nail polish/tools from my mom to counter my semi-rustic living here.

Today is Monday and I'm in the Training Center as we are most mondays. This next week is going to be pretty low key for me since I only have Spanish classes, but most other people are going to live and visit with other volunteers aroudn the country this week but my language level is too low. But its good because I do need the extra help and hopefully now I'll have time to write about all the other things you want to know about like my job, and the government here, and maybe some history of Guatemala, and lots more.
Peace and Love,
Robin

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

You have mail!


<- (My co-volunteers making peanut butter)
Today was better than any birthday ever because I finally got mail. 5 letters and a big box that is going to suck to bring on the bus but its cool. I also got strawberry cake with chocolate icing that John, another volunteer, made for his host sisters birthday after I suggested how awesome it was. It was probably the best day ever. There were also Cooler Ranch Doritos in the box, which might last for approximently 2 days, haha. One thing that I've learned here is that I came searching to find a place where I could shed all the stuff in life that I didn't need, but I've found that a basic need is having some of the things around you that you really love and enjoy, and without them, to completely remove yourself from them wont' make you happy either. I think there are things in life that are extra, and possibly unessicary for survival but that make you more comfortable and are important to hold on to. Doing without things always makes us appreciate what we have, and thats part of why working with the people here is so rewarding. They do without things and therefor appreciate the work we do and who we are, more for it. This is another part of why I chose to be here, and probably one of the most gratifying things is the friendship and kindness of host country nationals. Keep sending letters, because possibly in another 4 weeks I'll have a day like this again.

Peace and Love.
PS I put more photos on webshots, check it out.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Independenzia


My weekend was pretty awesome. Saturday morning we had a Mayan ceremony at the PC center and in the afternoon I headed out to the beach. But first we had to stop in Chimaltenango for a basketball game that Cesar, the oldest brother, and other amigos played in. San Bartolo won, which was cool, but they don´t really have too much support here for basketball, not like soccer. It was in a gymnasium similar to the one at my high school, but with a concrete floor. After the game, it rained almost the whole way to Montericco. Right before you get there we had to cross a river on these barges, which are really just planks of wood. We drove the car onto it and in the night coasted down the river for about 20 minutes to the next port. The night was beautiful there, much warmer and the water is so nice. Kind of reminds me of home, especially when on the river. The beach there is greyish black, and the pacific ocean is really strong. All guatemalan women wear tshirts and shorts to go swimming, very conservative, and I did the same. Which means I have sand in every part of my shorts and shirt. The men wear whatever, their underwear, I dunno, haha. They also go really early in the morning, like around 5am because they don´t like the heat. Noone brings towels and noone lays out in the sun. I was the only gringo I saw for a while until we went to eat dinner, and I saw a table of about 10 american girls, which I think were as equally shocked to see me as I was to see them. We returned back Sunday and on the way stopped in Antigua and followed our torch procession all the way to San Bartolo. So essentially I was in their independence parade, which was a little akward since I´m obviously not a guatemalteca. It was fun though, and today has been mostly a day of rest and watching more parades with the school bands, majorettes, and lots of flags. I have some pictures of the beach but my camera got caught up in a wave and didn´t start working again till I got all the sand out of it this afternoon. BTW the olympus that I have truely is waterproof and shockproof, I´ve tested it against the Pacific. It´s not so sand proof though so watch out for that.
Thanks for all the support I get through the blog. I really enjoy your comments, it means at least someone is reading this thing.
Peace and Love.
Robin

Saturday, September 13, 2008

9/11 and 9/15

So this week has been interesting because of the history of the US with 9/11 was discussed with me several times. Guatemalans are well aware of this event, and are curious about american sentiment. Its pretty interesting because it also coincides with Guatemala's Independence Day, which is 9/15 (Monday). This is a very important holiday here, and the celebrations have already begun with a torch run, and festivals all over. We were guest judges for the school yesterday, each grade makes a presentation with maps and flags and monuments to guatemala and their culture. It was really awesome, and a tough decision, they go all out with candles, food, water, lights, glitter, the works. 2nd grade class B won, in case you were wondering. For the holiday, lots of families go on vacation and I think I'm going with my family to Mono Ricco (sp?), which is a beach near by. Finally somewhere that's hot, and hopefully no rain. My family got really sick this week, Don Cesar and Octavio. I don't know what it was but I was fine and so was Dona Dora. But they were both laid out for the count, aparently they are feeling better today though so hopefully our trip is still on. More pictures to come.
PS. I miss fall... send me pictures of the leaves.
Peace and Love.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Today was so nice and sunny....

but now its raining, really hard actually so I don´t know how long the internet is going to be up for because the power keeps going out. Saturday was interesting because we had a site exchange day where PC volunteers in Aloetenango came to our town then we went there. Aloetenango is a lot bigger than San Bartolome, and their houses are a little nicer. While we were there we made peanut butter and jelly from scratch which was awesome and I can´t wait to eat it on Monday at the training center with everyone. Its really a lot easier than I thought it would be, the longest part was peeling 5 pounds of peanuts, I would really suggest buying them de-shelled. The jam is strawberry and smells like heaven. That afternoon I got back a little late so I just chilled upstairs in my house listening to some rap cds that I think are my sisters from home and played spider solitare and drew. I´m borrowing a book about the Cuban War Poster Art from another volunteer, and have recently been interested in learning how to draw more mayan art, but possibly incorporating these pop art symbols as well. Today I was supposed to do a lot of homework but instead went to Guatemala city to the mall. The malls here are nicer than some of our malls, but of course thats only in the city. I have some more pictures uploaded on webshots. The link is: http://community.webshots.com/album/566485335iDGlpQ
Peace and Love.

Friday, September 5, 2008

More Rain



Ok not to get too depressive about the rain, but seriously, all day today. This morning was 6 more hours with Patricia and lots of Spanish, and then a meeting with the director at my house just to check up on everything. Overall pretty good. My family made this awesome hot tea out of fresh fruit which was probably the highlight. I also bought gum at a tienda, which is a fiet because I asked in spanish, haha. Today is my moms birthday, so just want to shout out to her that I miss her very much and wish I could tell her face to face. Maybe I can buy some more gum and send that home as a present :P
Tomorrow a "site exchange" so the volunteers from Alhuetengango are coming here to visit us and then we´re going there to visit them. I hear Alhuetenango is at the base of a Volcano and warm so I´m pretty excited about that.
Still working on uploading pìctures, and now on the lookout for a WAWA...

Peace and Love.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Volcano Weekend



Ok, so this weekend was pretty awesome every time it wasn´t raining, which wasn´t that often but good enough. If you ever go to Antigua, Guatemala you HAVE to visit the Casa de Santa Domingo. It is this amazing museum and old archeological ruin of a monestary from the colonial period. I could definately spend many more hours there, but maybe thats just me because I salivate over art and architecture. Saturday was pretty chill but nice too. I have Spanish class and cried to my teacher that I hate the Casa de Waffles that we meet to have class at so then we went to my house which is soooo much better. That afternoon I went out to lunch with the fam´ because it was Don Cesar´s birthday on Friday. After that, another birthday party, which it began raining in the middle of so that cut it short.
Now for the good stuff, the volcano. Volcano Pacaya is awesome, not too bad of a hike either. It was about 2 hours up and maybe an hour down. You don´t go all the way to the top of the crater but you do get to see where there is a bunch of lava pouring out of. Maybe I can figure out how to get pictures up on this thing. The lava flows very slowly and surrounding the entire volcano is dark black sand, which is pretty aweful to walk on. The lava is super bright though, and we took marshmallows and crackers up with us and roasted them on the lava (which ignited them almost immediately). They were soo good. Then it started raining again. haha. Always.
Monday was a PC holiday, as it was for all you back in the states, which means we got to visit the capital city with our Spanish teachers (this time Oscar, my old spanish teacher went). The city is busy and very developed. We saw the American embassy and walked over to the hospital, which is not a pretty site and I never want to have to go to. Then back to the two malls they have which are sooo American inside I almost forgot I was in Guatemala which was kinda cool for a little while. I finally bought a jacket, which I´ve needed for a while and some long-sleeve shirts. Tomorrow I´m working with the Municipialidad to find out more about our jobs here. I still haven´t received any mail so I´m not sure how thats gonna work.
More tomorrow, eventually I´ll get to it all.

Robin