But I just wanted to say I'm still alive and at the PC Center for my last day of training, exciting! Our swear-in is at the ambassadors house on Friday and our host families get to come too. This week I want to carve a pumkin-like gord for nostalgia and cook chicken pot pie, recipes appreciated. There are more pictures up on websots, some are from a womens day we had in an aldea of Jocotan, others are of volunteers, check them out.
Peace. Love.
Robin
Monday, October 27, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Back from Jocot@n
So the trip was amazing, pretty imtimidating at first but I have a lot to look forward to. First is my housing: I´ll be taking over the house from the last volunteer which is great because I get his frig and furniture, but there is still a lot to be done as is whenever any girl moves into a guys apartment, (sorry drew :P). The place is really beautiful, but the water is brownish and contaminated and only runs at night, which since there is a leak in the shower means it always runs at night, haha. So I have water from 7pm to 7amish, there is electricity most of the time but when it goes out who knows for how long it will be, and there are some pretty mad mosquitos too but overall everythings not too bad. Right now I have one electric burner and a firepit Drew made in the driveway, which is awesome and I´m going to girl-scout it up everyday. Seriously I want to buy a gas stove though, and start building furniture. I think that will be a good activity to work on in my down time especially the first few months while I´m still adjusting.
The climate is hot, like I said before which is great, and the people seem really nice. The Muni is pretty large and there are several people in the OMP office. My counterpart, Gabriel, seems amazing, motivated, smart, and easy to work with. They also want me to work with the Women´s office too (or OMM), which might prove to be a challenge since not everyone gets along between the two offices, but I think it will be good to work with as many people as possible.
There is a market everyday, and I can´t wait to draw there during my lunch break and bring back memories of Italy. There is a hot springs about 10 minutes away too, which we went to the last night I was there. It was really nice to go to at night, and it´s pretty low-key, no tourists, only guatemalans for the most part. I´m sure it´s not too clean and people pee in and all but it´s warm and I try not to think about those things too much here. Mail aparently will be easier to get there and I´ll post my new address soon.
The time really has flown by even though the days seem to last forever. 2 years and 2 weeks to go...
Peace and Love,
Robin
The climate is hot, like I said before which is great, and the people seem really nice. The Muni is pretty large and there are several people in the OMP office. My counterpart, Gabriel, seems amazing, motivated, smart, and easy to work with. They also want me to work with the Women´s office too (or OMM), which might prove to be a challenge since not everyone gets along between the two offices, but I think it will be good to work with as many people as possible.
There is a market everyday, and I can´t wait to draw there during my lunch break and bring back memories of Italy. There is a hot springs about 10 minutes away too, which we went to the last night I was there. It was really nice to go to at night, and it´s pretty low-key, no tourists, only guatemalans for the most part. I´m sure it´s not too clean and people pee in and all but it´s warm and I try not to think about those things too much here. Mail aparently will be easier to get there and I´ll post my new address soon.
The time really has flown by even though the days seem to last forever. 2 years and 2 weeks to go...
Peace and Love,
Robin
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Ladrones
Now the news of the week... so yesterday I was robbed on the bus to Antigua. There are 100 people on these buses and I was crammed up against everyone and had an over the shoulder small bag on. The crappiest part was that this day of all days I was taking the rest of my american dollars to go exchange them so whoever took my stuff now owns the most amazing camera I´ve ever had and $100 american dollars. I hate my life. Not really, but I just keep replaying it, I feel so stupid for not noticing. I think I can ever remember feeling something and thinking it was nothing just because there were so many people. I was pretty sad about it yesterday but I´m trying to brush it off because it was bound to happen sometime. I really did like that camera... well now I have to report it to the Peace Corps but I don´t think they can really do much. The money was for my site visit this coming week, aparently the volunteer there wants to sell me all his stuff (a frig, table, chairs, pots, bed, everything) for Q1,000 which is a pretty great deal, so now I just have to work out something with Peace Corp maybe loaning me the money in advance of my next payment. Not too much of a problem its just crappy that it was the last of my cash.
Tomorrow I meet my counterpart which I´m excited about, and I can´t wait to visit my site. Drew (the volunteer I´m replacing) has a lot planned and only had good things to say about the site.
I played basketball today, which was awesome becuase it was finally semi-temperate and no rain. We play pick-up games in the park, normally not too many girls play, but Marisha went with my this time. I´m not the greatest but better than even some of the guys, its easier since their all short. It was nice to get some excercise and meet some more people. I´m going to be pretty sad to leave here, I am finally feeling somewhat comfortable although my spanish still has a long way to go.
ok, nada mas for now.
Peace and Love, especially to all those purse stealers....
Robin
Tomorrow I meet my counterpart which I´m excited about, and I can´t wait to visit my site. Drew (the volunteer I´m replacing) has a lot planned and only had good things to say about the site.
I played basketball today, which was awesome becuase it was finally semi-temperate and no rain. We play pick-up games in the park, normally not too many girls play, but Marisha went with my this time. I´m not the greatest but better than even some of the guys, its easier since their all short. It was nice to get some excercise and meet some more people. I´m going to be pretty sad to leave here, I am finally feeling somewhat comfortable although my spanish still has a long way to go.
ok, nada mas for now.
Peace and Love, especially to all those purse stealers....
Robin
Monday, October 6, 2008
Free time out the window
Ok so I thought I was going to have all this free time, but obviously not. So I want to give some links to the history of Guatemala to better understand whats going on, since it seems I´ll never have time to write it all out myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala is generally an overall good place to start. Read the 1944 to present section, but it leaves out some important details about the overthrow of the Guatemalan government with a planed assassination performed by the United States Government in connection with a major fruit company and executive conflicts. It also doesn´t really get at the heart of what the Civil war here was really like.
The war was not very long ago and the nations final Peace Accords were in 1996, and the laws that are now in effect weren´t written and approved until 2002. There is still a lot of corruption in the local and national government and a general consenus of distrust among all the people.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guatemala.htm
This one is a lot better, and more detailed. Please send me your comments on what you think and any other websites that could be helpful.
The peace corps has articles as well which I´ll try to get a hold of and post.
Peace and Love,
Robin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala is generally an overall good place to start. Read the 1944 to present section, but it leaves out some important details about the overthrow of the Guatemalan government with a planed assassination performed by the United States Government in connection with a major fruit company and executive conflicts. It also doesn´t really get at the heart of what the Civil war here was really like.
The war was not very long ago and the nations final Peace Accords were in 1996, and the laws that are now in effect weren´t written and approved until 2002. There is still a lot of corruption in the local and national government and a general consenus of distrust among all the people.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guatemala.htm
This one is a lot better, and more detailed. Please send me your comments on what you think and any other websites that could be helpful.
The peace corps has articles as well which I´ll try to get a hold of and post.
Peace and Love,
Robin
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