December

Well no snow so far, really I'm just hoping it stays below 90. Tomorrow is the CONVIVIO (or work chirstmas party) and then we are on vacation, except I'm not really because I'm going to try to make a database of all the new books for the library over the holidays.
This weekend I went to Hawaii, not the state the little village in Guatemala :), for our welcoming party to the new Oriente volunteers. Everything went great, there was sun (as always), and beach, and a pool, and we set free baby sea turtles because the local volunteer there works at the refuge.
After that I came back to medical visits and lots of work to finish up the year. Health wise I'm doing better, but it still irritates me sometimes so I have another appointment right before Christmas. Otherwise every thing in my site is going well, I am really exciting about this next year. Kristy, a previous volunteer, told me over and over again how much better your 2nd year of service is and I feel really positive about it. If anything I will make this Library happen, right? haha
Pictures soon to come, probably Sunday when I go to Chiquimula for some Christmas shopping.

Peace and Love,
Robin

Thanksgiving

December is here and another Christmas/Huannakah aproaches! I already have my Christmas tree set up with blue lights and the few ornaments I received last year. Thanksgiving was amazing, although getting there wasn't really that great. 15 volunteers showed up though and I personally cooked apple pie, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, creamed corn, gravy, and helped out with the turkey. We were orignally going to kill a live turkey but it ended up they sell them nice and prepared if you buy it in a grocery store in the capital. Then afterwards, instead of watching football on tv, we had a camp fire.

While going to Jalapa to spend it with other volunteers and speak english was amazing, many of my friends here asked me about the holiday and the food so I redid the whole thing yesterday (it had to be on a Thursday still :P). I didn't tell many people but 2 weeks ago I was in the hospital here for breathing complications, first to my local health center, then to Chiquimula central, then to Guate the capital. It was a little scarey but now I am doing much better. I aparently now acompany my former PC Muni volunteers as we have all 3 been transported in the ambulance (yes they told me about your high blood pressure, Drew). Anyway I was lucky enough to have the support of several friends during this time that came and visited me in the hospital, watched over my house, and called to check up on me. So I invited them to Thanksgiving and told them about the first pilgram/native american story that I've been told and how I wanted to thank them for everything and share this very strange food with them (they were slightly dissappointed there were no tortillas). Then every one of them said something they were thankful for as well and we ate until our pants busted, haha.
I hope you all had a great thanksgiving as well! Here's a picture of the Thanksgiving in Jalapa.


Peace,
Robin

Book Donations

Dear Friends & Family,

I hope each one of you are doing well and enjoyed a Happy Thanksgiving. Although it took 7 hours and 5 buses I happily spent it in the company of other Volunteers in the small village of San Antonio Las Flores, Jalapa, Guatemala around a table filled with our traditional turkey and mashed potatoes. I am also re-celebrating it at my house this week to share the holiday with local Guatemalan friends.

For those of you who I haven´t had the chance to keep in good touch with, I live in Jocotan, Chiquimula, Guatemala as a Municipal Development Peace Corps Volunteer. It´s had it´s ups and downs (and spiders if you read my blog) as you would expect but I am definitely learning a lot and still feel as though every day we can each make a difference in the world around us.

Recently I have been trying to make a big difference in Library of Jocotan, which serves a community of 60,000 people. I have proposed and found funding to completely renovate the building, but what the library really needs is books. Since some of you have asked me how you can help, and with the spirit of Christmas, and the ease of the internet, I have put together a wish list on Amazon.com (http://amzn.com/w/3LEFGDRF2T287) for contributions. These books are greatly needed. There is no complete Encyclopaedia, no books with color photos, and few that are even good enough condition to read. Your donation will be added to others from a local Jocoteca, the University of San Carlos Guatemala, the National Library of Guatemala, Outreach for World Hope, and Grace United Methodist Church. The books you buy online will be sent to my parents, whom will personally bring them to me in February.

Jocotan and I sincerely thank each one of you for your interest in my work here and for taking the time to read this letter. Thanks for reading my blog. I miss you all dearly and wish you all a very Happy Holidays!

With Love,
Robin Mae Schick

November 1st

November 1st marks a lot of things for me here.

Number 1, it's my brother Eric's Birthday, so happy birthday big guy, although not sure that he actually reads my blog :P

Number 2, it is my offical anniversary of being a sworn-in Peace Corps Volunteer here in my site. 1 year baby!!!


Number 3, The celebration of All Saints Day, which is huge here in Guatemala. Our traditions of ghosts and spiders of halloween are replaced with flowers and good food. Last year for this special day I went to Santiago to see the GIANT kites they hand make and fly from the cliff of the cementary, which was amazing. This year I went to Todos Santos, Huehuetenango to see the drunken horse races and town fair, which was even more memorable, mainly because we arrived soaking wet, in the back of a pick up, to a town with no electricity and flooding. But don't worry, it got a lot better after that with a nice halloween party and the festivities in the town. I even got a ride back from the Ambassador which definately beat taking the pickup in the rain again! I'm trying to upload photos now to webshots.

Well November begins my new and last year of year of peace corps. I say goodbye to some fellow volunteers that are leaving and am planning the welcome party for the new ones that just came in. Work is going well, at least i feel very busy and I've been visiting more villages lately. Still working on book donations for the library and have proposed a building renovation project to the Muni for the next year.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween and keep in touch!

Peace, Love,
- Robin

Guatemalan Pride

I recieved one of those FWD:FWD:FWD emails from a guatemalan friend recently that has some funny/exagerrated truths about reality and pride of being guatemalan. So here I want to share with you (in my english translation) some of those that now also apply to my daily life :)

What it means to be guatemalan (or to work with guatemalans, haha)

1. Have a breakfast of coffee and a "pirujo" (although in reality it's two you always say "a" pirujo)

2. You come home late, wanting to accomplish alot but without time to do anything

3. You wait for wednesdays to go to the movies for 1/2 price, and wait for thursdays to get pizza 2 for 1

4. You sit around whichever day of the week, knowing that the 'next' day you have to go to work.

5. Save your money all week to buy minutes for your phone on a promotional day of double, triple, or cuadruple minutes

6. You have the most expensive cell phone you can buy, and hide it in places the most covert (like in my pants) so that they don't rob it from you on the bus

7. Always dip whatever bread or cookie you have in your coffee

8. Eat a roll with cheese, beans, or butter

9. Repeat proudly that the Guatemalan National Hymn is the best in the world, although most don't know all the verses (however beautiful, it does happen to be the longest song I've ever heard in my life, haha)

10. Eat "caldo de res" (a broth with vegs. and beef fat) while listening to the marimba

11. Wait in anticipation for the 15th of september (Central American Indepence Day) for the parades yet you end up not leaving your house to see them because it always rains the 15th of September

12. Plan the whole month to go to the beach and when the day comes noone goes because this day it rained of course (this includes planing just about anything)

13. Asking the obvious "Your just NOW getting here?," "Oh my god!," "You get wet?," "Did that hurt?,"

14. Also emphasis the evident and repeat it as if repeating it will bring about to change it... "It's so cold, really cold" "Geez luiz, how hot it is..." "Today yes, it's raining, like cats and dogs" and each person that comes in to where you are returns to say the same thing as if noone ever knew it, haha

15. To go to bed later Sunday than any other day of the week so that when Monday comes you want even less to go to work

The email continues on and says, "Are we or are we not special?" "Are we or are we not the best?" "Bless this my Guate, her earth, her customes, her people, and her future..."

Guatemala surely is a special country, and I'm glad I can share the traditions and "life" in a little humor with you all.

Peace, Love,
Robin

More Fotos Uploaded

Photos of the 15th of September (Indepence Day, & the Muni Birthday Cook-out)

http://community.webshots.com/album/574959981ozURfm?vhost=community&vhost=community

23rd Birthday

Well I meant to write earlier than this but last week I felt pretty bad with a sinus infection and stayed in bed taking Benydrl for 2 days, then went to Peace Corps for a VAC meeting. My birthday was fairly low key but the Friday before my co-workers at the Muni had a cook-out and we went swimming at a private house that had natural hot spring pools. It was nice and the BBQ chicken was amazing! Another co-worker (Julio from Treasury) has his birthday the day after mine so we celebrated together. Then on Saturday I went to Chiquimula to shop some and see a movie but they were only playing one I had just seen and "The Orphan" which is scary/stupid so instead I watched Happy Gilmore at my house.

Sunday (the 27th) I went to a really good Soccer game in Jocotan, we played Livingston and won 2-0 in the last 15 minutes! Octavio came to visit as well and as his birthday is the 28th we celebrated together and did a hike in San Juan Ermita (where Kristy the closest volunteer lives). We hiked to a village named Buena Vista, which means "Good View" and it lives up to its name! We went searching for Pre-hispanic paintings done on the side of these huge rock formations; however, we never actually found them although maybe we did and didn't know it... but the view was worth it anyway. :)


The week passed by quickly with me being sick, and the Volunteer Council meeting was very successful. The birthday celebration continued further into this weekend when on Saturday most of the volunteers in the Oriente all met at a Water park. We were also celebrating the end of service for several volunteers, and just really enjoyed a good day in the sun with slides and the lazy river. Then we all came back to my house for Spaghetti and Strawberry cake, yummmm

Today it's back to work, trying to get a list together of book requests and soliciting help. Wednesday I have a presentation in a village on Community Group Organization and Responsabilities which I need to prepare for. I am also trying to start up an art class at the local orphanage so I will be meeting with the Director sometime this week as well.

As always thanks for reading and all your support!!!

Peace, Love,
Robin

Back from the US

Hey everyone! I really want to first thank everyone that I got to see while I was home, it was amazing. And to all those whom I didn't get the chance, no worries I won't be gone forever. Going home was great, and coming back was difficult but now I'm here and back in the swing of things.
The 15th of September we celebrated Central American Independence Day by going to the border of Copan, Honduras with all the kids who run a torch from there to Jocotan. Then I celebrated in a village named Morola in Comotan that was 2 hours in the back of a pick-up. It was a beautiful day and there were many bombas and piñatas. Now back to work of course. I finally have the letter for the National Library signed by the mayor so that I can present it tomorrow in the City. Also, I have a Volunteer Advocacy Council meeting, which I am now a representative for my region, the Oriente. I was actually in the US for the election so Dan (a fellow volunteer) organized my campaign here, so aplause to Dan, many thanks! (even if noone else ran...)
Also a big thanks to the donations I've received from home for books for the Library! Every little bit helps and if anyone else would like to donate you can contact me or my mom or my grandmother. Also my birthday is coming up, so for those of you who maybe would have bought me a card save the 5 dollars it takes to mail the thing and donate it for a book.

Peace, Love,
Robin

What do I miss most... being dockside.

Agusto

Hey, sorry it's been a while. Time has been flying by lately, and next week I come home! Lately I have been working with a youth citizen participation program with Save the Children. We are organzing different parties of youth and they are running campaigns in town, and on the 28th kids from the entire municipial (including the villages)will vote for their favorite to represent them all. This group of students will then present at the Municipal Council meeting next month about their needs and program ideas. This is a test program, and if all goes well will hopefully be applied to the whole country. These kids are so smart and this really gives them an opportunity to feel like their voice matters and be responsible for their community. I'm still waiting on grant stuff, which seems endless, borring, slow, and doubtful. Also I am writing to the National Library here for their help with books or really anything for our library here. If anyone that reads this blog has ANY books in spanish or knows of any programs to get books in spanish sent here, please let me know. We would also like to get 2 computers to have electronic enclopedias, dictionaries, and other resources. Recently I have also done some work for Esperanza para el Mundo, which worked on the playground project before. Tomorrow I leave for a conference with two local village leaders at the PC headquarters about community projects and resources. I think this could be their first time ever to Antigua, and is a great opportunity for them both, so that's exciting.

But the most exciting thing is that I will be home oh so very soon, even though it is only for 10 days...
Miss you all LOTS
Peace, Love,
Robin

PS The photo is from when I woke up at 3am with the rest of my local co-workers to serenade the mayor for his birthday... a cultural experience for sure

July and the FERIA

So as if 4th of July wasn't awesome enough, the town Fair of Jocotán has got to be one of the best times I've had here. I've been told that this year was one of the best in a while, but Drew will have to compare for me. It of course started Thursday morning at 3am when I get a phone call from Tia Neldy (my neighbor) that the whole Muni is going around to the houses of the Señorita's of Jocotan to serenade them, I made the mistake of not going and of course was awaken by the blasting of firecrackers anyway. Then that morning was the Parade with all the local schools, Señorita's, bands, clowns, dancers, and whatever else they could think to throw in, including a goat. Each day there was a lunch for all the Muni and coordinators of the fair which included live music, churrascos, and a good time. I only went to the luncheon on Thursday as my stomach has been queasy lately (fairly sure I have parasites). And then there was a Rodeo with bull riding and the next day another parade but just with cowboys and horses and ranchero music and this odd, massive, bull type animal which the Señorita of Agriculture rode. There was motocross Saturday, which I didn't go to because of too much fun on Friday... and dances every night, which I did attend two of them, one by accident. All around just a great event, and the venders are still lingering although slowly one by one taking down each wood construction, foosball table, and smoothie blenders.

Needless to say work was put to a halt in the past week because of it all, but I can't say I'm disappointed about that. Although Tuesday back to work it was, (Monday of course was to rest after the fair) and now the Mayor has uniforms for everyone to wear. I do not wear the uniform, mainly because I was at 4th of July when they ordered them, but I have to say I'm pretty glad. The grant writing process is still slow as everyone is still trying to catch up on work from before the fair, so I have focused back to working on the library some as well. Tomorrow I am going to check out a Guatemalan publishing company that might have some ideas on how to get books. They invited our library to a conference last weekend but well... as you know it was the fair :P

Peace, Love, and many fairs to you all,
Robin

There are photos on webshots!

4th of July and Spanish

Hey sorry I have't posted in a while. I am currently at the Peace Corps office again. I have been away from my site for a while because of a Volunteer training, 4th of July, and a week of Spanish classes. The Spanish classes were pretty rough, mainly because subjunctive tenses don't exist in english I think... but very useful as well. It seems like I've been here at the office forever and I am ready to go home although I am fairly certian going home means encountering the spiders that have infested my house while I was away. These spiders I now know are Brown Reclouse (sp?) and dangerous. I brought a dead one back to the medical office to get it identified, no worries I have Raid.
In other news Micheal Jackson died, which has been a severe loss for the country of Guatemala and they now mourn this loss with lots of his music, which I suppose is happening in the US too. We did jam out to some of it at the All-Volunteer 4th of July Party, which was awesome although it didn't have fireworks.
My work is coming along, as the park is now finishing up thanks to the help of Outreach for World Hope and their volunteers. I am nor trying to solocite Small Project Assistance (SPA)funds for training our community groups. I know very little about grant writing and expect the process to be very slow. This month is our town Fair though so I don't think much will get done until afterwards.
Hope everyone is doing good, and I can't wait to come home to visit!!!
Peace, Love,
Robin

Not so bad

Sorry to be depressing the other day, it was a rough one. Today is good though, I'm at work right now using the internet, impressive I know...
I cut my hair, don't remember if I ever mentioned that. I got it cut at a small shop in someone's house when I was visiting another volunteer near Antigua. It's definitely a lot easier with the heat.

The Park Project is coming along nicely, they just finished repairing the concrete benches and wall. I hope to paint another mural with the kids in the coming weeks. at least now it will be clean and safer than before. Other than that I plan on doing a lot of yoga, reading, and drawing this month. I am also planning on meeting Octavio in the Peten right after 4th of July and going to see Tikal!
In local news here we had another small earthquake tremor Sunday, there have been road blocking protests all over the country, and the President is still under investigation for allegedly being involved and/or ordering the murder of 3 people.

Peace, Love,
Robin

Missing home today

So this morning was just one of those days where I felt like I just really didn't want to get out of bed, and then when I do I realize I probaly never should have anyway. Because of the rain my clothes aren't dry, there is a leak in my bathroom from a crack in the ceiling and it's now full of water, I had some really aweful dreams and hardly slept at all to begin with (I have a lot of sleeping problems here actually), my house is a disaster because I've been away so much and still don't have time to clean it, there is a huge spider in my living room/kitchen that I tried to kill but it ran away and now I don't know where it is or if it's still alive and whenever I touch anything I am constantly in fear of it attacking me (which I know is slightly ridiculous but is also another reason I don't want to clean), the light infront of my house went out and noone is here to fix it, I'm broke but that's normal, and to top it all off I woke up at 4:30 am to put my trash out and they never came by so when I found it this morning to leave for work it was a mess in the street from the chuchos and with flies everywhere (sooooo gross....). Aparently they posted that they wouldn't have trash service today in the bulletin board in the catholic church yesterday afternoon, which obviously I should have checked because I go there all the time... (sarcasm.)
Hesus... what a morning. Can I go back to bed now?

We all have days like this sometimes.

Love, Peace,
Robin

Tremor

Hey guys, I'm alive and well. The earthquake 7.1 scale tremor happened while I was in Honduras and the ruines with Amanda (1st non family visitor!!! Hope more of you are thinking about it). But don't let the tremor scare you off, it was strong but Jocotan and the rest of the volunteers are fine. Amanda's trip went well I think overall, although it is hard to come to a country and travel without understanding hardly anyone around you. I think I've forgotten how much I've had to adjust.
ok I gtg for now, hopefully I'll add onto this post later.

Peace, Love,
Robin

Arc GIS Training and Fotos

Hey guys,
In training and thought I'd send out a little message. Things are good here, but man I miss the heat, it is cold and rainy here. ArcGIS is giving me a headache, man I never knew how complicated a map could be but I do think this training is going to be awesome for mapping the census data for Barrio Nuevo. Lately project wise my work has been returning to the world of Architecture. I am redesigning the only childrens park in Jocotan and I am trying to make it as cost-efficient, evironmentaly friendly, educational, and beautiful as possible. I think I have a month, haha. So that is a lot of work to do, and finishing the census so that I can find the homes in Barrio Nuevo that need the most help and coordinate them with Habitat for Humanity, and events with the Womens office and community comissions. The visit with my PC hefe really helped straighten out my priorities and relationships in the office. The Library project has been put on a back-burner because of all the other work, but I am still very interested in any ideas anyone might have for obtaining more books in Spanish and/or computers.

Heres a good pic of the Folklore Festival, where kids are taunting a bull. I have a good video on webshots and more photos uploaded now.

And something else killed my hampster...

So aparently I'm just not good with the pets. I dunno how Spiderham died, except that possibly he climbed up to the roof of his cage and jumped off one too many times (hence the name)...
So a LOT has gone by since my last post. We had a security meeting for the East that took me 4 hours to get to but is suppose to be a "fast" consolidation point, haha. Then I went to a resort in El Salvador with all the workers in my Muni. Never thought that would be a part of my peace-corps job description, but to be honest I did feel like I was working the whole time. It is really different when you go to the beach with your friends than when you go with your co-workers. I did have a great time though, and when we got back it was the beginning of the Folklore Festival in Jocotan! This festival includes dances, skits, and customs from different cultures throughout guatemala with a focus on the Chorti traditions here in my area. They crowned a Queen Chorti, and we ate typical food and homemade drinks. I bought a t-shirt with a bunch of Guatemalan sayings on it and they think it´s hilarious when I wear it. What else...
The next week I was just working a lot here, as my PC Project Director is coming to visit tomorrow. We´ll see what comes out of this meeting but I just met with Habitat for Humanity last week and I hope to start on a project with them soon, possibly with the Barrio Nuevo community I have previously mentioned.
And finally this last weekend I saw the new X-Men movie (in spanish of course) at the Mall in Chiquimula with some other volunteers and Octavio. It was awesome, and even more awesome to even go to a movie theater at all. This is now the 2nd movie I've seen there, the first being Monsters vs. Aliens which I might really want to see in english since I think I only understood the jokes for ages 5 and below.

This week after the boss comes by I'm going to the PC center for ArcGIS training and think I'll be there through the weekend. Check out my webshots as soon as I get the pics uploaded!

Peace, Love,
- Robin

The heat killed my Rabbit

So you know how I said before that it was hot, well I lied, NOW its hot. So hot in fact that Tuesday morning Bigote was found "sleeping" a little too peacefully. I believe it was from the heat, but it's hard to tell, it could have been a spider or scorpian that bit him also. I felt like I was going to die yesterday from the heat, but luckily I didn't. Aparently we have a week or two where its just going to be hotter than hell before it just bursts into rain for the next 6 monthes.

RIP Bigote.

Peace, Love,
Robin

Biblioteca

Here is a picture of the completed mural. I am hoping that this project jumpstarts more attention to the Library. I hope to work with the SPA projects through PC, Vision Mundial, Noelia (a Spanish volunteer that was living in Jocotan), and the Muni to repair and better the library. They need books (in spanish or chorti), computers hopefully with the internet, a place to actually read, and programs to promote all of this. Much less repair the adobe walls with the paint thats pealing off, and clean the few books they do have which are rotting away because noone uses them and it's 100 degress and so dry that its similar to a dust bowl. They don't even have a catalog system (you know, from way back where you number every book and it has a card and you can go find it) because there simply not enough books to make it worth it. It really makes me appreciate the Colonial Beach Public Library, great job guys, your amazing, seriously!

Its partly a cultural issue as well because noone reads for pleasure here. When they do go to the library they ask for books on geography or history. It´s really only to complete research or study. You will never hear the question, "So, what are you reading right now?" Anytime anyone has come by my house and I'm reading they always comment as if its academic like, "You study a lot." I probably need to study my spanish, but no, I'm reading a fiction beach book in english. Part of it is that books here are very expensive, which is why it is so important to have a good public library to give access to a public that is only ever truely going to develop with education, information, and modivation. (you can add on your own personal "ation" words as well)

Peace, Love,
Robin

Semana Santa

Thank you to my family for calling me for Easter, whether or not the phone worked. Also I think there is much to be explain because it seems everyone asked me, "Do they celebrate Easter?"
Well, do they ever celebrate Easter! It´s called Semana Santa (Holy Week), and it actually begins more than a month before hand. Each Friday leading up to Easter weekend there is a procession in the street that carries a huge Jesus float through town symbolizing his journey before the crusifiction. Palm Sunday (or Domingo de Ramos) begins the large processions with carpets called Alfombras (long designs they make in the street with fruit, wood shavings, flowers, and even bags of water; check out the pics on my webshots). Most everyone in Guatemala has off work from Wednesday till the following Monday. Thursday, Friday, and Sunday there are all processions carrying the Jesus and reinacting the different events. It´s almost as if you put on a real time play of the Easter story and everyone paraded in purple uniforms and walked over huge religious murals on the ground and had a huge fair and blasted loud greiving church music through town and you went to the beach (because everyone goes to the beach, I went to the local pool :P)

Pretty amazing.

More information about Antigua and the Processions


Also, I got a bunny. His name is Bigote (which means mustache in spanish). He enjoys fruit, carrots, cabage, my company, and watching the Office. Here is a picture of him in the paper-mache easter basket Kate and I made and decorated, :D

Peace, Love,
Robin

Spiders and Sebastian

So I came home today to find a giant Spider in my house and thought I should share that experience with all of you.




Also my host family sister had her baby two weeks ago and they sent me pictures by email so here he is. Jose Sebastian Lopez Axpuac, both mommy and baby are in good condition!

April Begins

First of all I apologize for not posting recently, but here is what has been going on:
March ended swiftly as we finished the mural and work intensified. I am starting to work with a Barrio (community) in town that is having major structural problems with their homes due to a fault line that runs through the middle of it, a river that swells and floods during the summer, and a drainage pipe that the town put in and has burst. It has become somewhat political, which I am trying my best to stay out of, yet want to find a project to help these people. The first step is a census to collect the data about their homes and families and health. Then we'll see what can be done. I will upload pictures of both the homes and the mural just as soon as I find my USB :(
Then I headed off to Antigua, home of the training center for a conference called "Reconnect" and more Spanish classes. I am currently still here at the center and will leave back for Jocotan on Sunday. Antigua is bursting with people and things to do as they gear up for the biggest holiday of the year, Semana Santa (Easter). Here in Guatemala it is a 4 day holiday and starts next Thursday, but there are still processions and events starting now. Reconnect was fairly helpful as it was great to come back and share my experiences with my fellow volunteers and the staff here at Peace Corps. The are very supportive and encouraging considering the large amounts of complaints and frustrations that can occur. And, as always, the spanish classes are very helpful and practically fry my brain when I think about the fact I've been living here for 8 monthes now and never knew the words for 'bucket' or 'grass' for example, haha. Much less haven't been able to talk in the subjunctive...
This upcoming week with Semana Santa will be mostly vacation. Kate and Rachel (two other volunteers from the Chimaltenango area) are coming to visit and see the culture of the East. oh! and I ordered the most amazingly, awesome boots from Pastores this week which I hope to pick up in a few weeks. Pastores is this cute small town outside Antigua that is famously known for boot making. Every store up and down the main strip is a boot store where they make them all by hand and with local or italian leather. We got to go to a boot-makers home that knows Peace Corps and get an awesome deal. They are completely custom made, I picked the heel from one boot, the style of another, the color of another, and even drew, myself right there on the spot, the design I wanted sewn on the sides! I'm stoked about it and can't wait to take pictures of those as soon as I get them.

Hope everyone is doing well back home. Thanks for checking up on me and reading the blog.

Peace, Love,
Robin

News from home

The mural is looking great, it's almost done and finally I have kids showing up consistantly to help! My work really seems to be picking up and I'll be working on a Diagnostico, or census, as my next project.

But the real news is about San Bartolome Milpas Altas where I did my training. This morning a 32 year old teacher was shot in the street. Overall I would consider the town very safe, but it certianly represents that crime here is growing outward from the city rapidly. It is now currently prohibited by Peace Corps for me to visit the family and friends I have there. I have sincere prayers for her and her family, as they are not certian if she will survive yet. Here is the article from in the local paper, the Prensa Libre, "Atacan a balazos a maestra en escuela de San Bartolomé Milpas Altas, Sacatépequez"

Peace and Love,
Robin

Sunday

Today is a nice Sunday here in Jocotán. Colin and Dan came for the weekend and it was great hang out with them and relax a little here. The Library mural is underway so I have that to look forward for this next week and working on the Memoria, which is a booklet of information about acomplishments and such of the last year. A bunch of work in publisher and coordinating with all the offices but it is really important for the Muni, in getting projects from other programs and NGOs, to have this information available.
My lime tree is starting to have baby limes... I´m so excited. I've also been thinking about getting a pig, dogs are too much work. Let me know if you know anything about pigs... a rabbit might be easier.

Peace, Love,
Robin

After the Rents

So you haven't heard from me in a while because the Parents were here and I didn't use my time blogging away on the internet. But no worries I'm back. I start the mural in the Library this week and have work to catch up on from being gone. The vacation was a nice break and its been a little difficult to get back in the swing of things. One nice thing is I have a camera once again so I can maybe upload some more pictures as things go on. There is a lot to say about the trip, every hotel, ruin site, boat ride, ect. was amazing and I'm glad to finally share it with someone back state-side, but the truth is the whole week I felt like a tourist here. Its kind of ackward to feel like a tourist where you live.. and I'm not complaining about living like a tourist at all because I was far better off, but I have to say one of the things I enjoy most about this experience is really being a part of Guatemala, knowing the people here and being involved in the everyday life. Thats just something you can't show anyone when they visit for vacation. As I said it was still an amazing trip, but glad to be "home."

Peace, Love,
Robin

Christian Parents Politics

ok the title will throw you off a little, especially if you know my dad is Jewish, haha. This weekend the big news has been that 1. My parents and friend Susan are coming Thursday and I am SO EXCITED. We're traveling all around and it's going to be great. As a result of them coming I got back on the issue of having no furniture and in the end have comondiered (sp?) many cynderblocks and 10x1 ft. boards which I got cut and sanded. It's somewhat rustic and I just made everything out of it, bookshelves, desk, dresser, closet, countertops, everything I could think of. Never again in my life will ALL my furniture ever match quite so well. But it's great getting my stuff off the floor and giving the spiders more surface area to house themselves. So mom, dad, susan, this is for you...
and number 2 is that I met a RPCV (Return Peace Corp Volunteer) named Christian. He was stationed in Jocotán in 2002-2004 working with agriculture. Him and his Australian girlfriend and here visiting for 2 weeks. It's great to hear about the other volunteers before me and what can become of you post-peace corps. He's come back to visit 3 times!
and lastly, oh politics, well remember that meeting I had with CIJJ with all the NGOs to get support for our wonderful projects. Well noone from Jocotán showed up! I did all this work, and National and Departmental agencies came, but not one agency directly working here in Jocotan... At first I was mad, until it was explained the next day that they can't support my group because supposedly one of the leaders is going to run against the mayor in the next election and is using it as part of his platform. It's just messy and upseting that politics can ruin such a good cause. Well I guess I'm over it now, and I´m going to work with both groups because I am apolitical, but I can't be associated with this potential canidate directly... So that's life.
Lots of furniture, great meeting Christian, and a "not quite as great as my encounter with Obama", political experience. Wish me luck for the next week. I hope to have photos of my home updates sometime soon.

Peace, Love,
Robin

water solved

Well not completely, there is still no water during the day, but I did get the shower fixed which is like a miracle (Drew, cheer with me on this one). See when I did have water it constantly ran... and I mean I like waterfalls and all, and the truth is after a while I kind of forgot about the noise. It´s just when people come over they ask me whats wrong with it, and it is annoying those who are not used to it. But yesterday they tore out the concrete, replaced the valve, and retiled it. Just this one section so the tile is different in this area, but the only thing I care about is being able to control my shower, and it's awesome. So thats really all the news I have for now.

Peace,
Robin

January News

So much has happened in the last week, where to start...

Well the biggest news is that my counter-part in the office quit last Wednesday because of problems in the office with getting paid for his time off. I´m not completely sure of all the details, but I do know I´m now stuck with his work and have no idea what to do. Plus things in my own work have started to pick up as well. I am passing out the IDs I made, and making others for each member of the COMUDE (Municipal Commission of Development). I´m also working with a group of local kids to paint a mural of Central America in the library. The library needs a lot of help, there are hardly any books, no computers, and the paint is peeling off the outside of the building. It´s just one room and noone ever really visits. So if this project goes well then I want to paint a mural on the outside to make it more inviting, and start a project to get them computers. I´m still working on Computer skills with the women's office, which is going fairly well, except last time the coordinator of the office walked out during the middle of it. I'm also planning events with the community group CIJJ and we're presenting our budget to NGOs for support on the 3rd of February.

This last weekend I went to a wedding for a friend I had met back in San Bartolo. She married an American from New Jersey and the entire wedding was in both Spanish and English. The groom had worked here in Guatemala through a non-denominational church organization for the last 3 years, and the pastor, who was also from this NGO, translated everything. It was really a beautiful wedding, but I did feel a little bad for the American side of the family because they were way outnumbered, but they seemed to have a great time nevertheless.

What else is going on... I´m reading books like you should drink water. And I just borrowed the film Tropic Thunder from another volunteer which was pretty funny. What I really want to do is draw more, then send some of my stuff back with my parents so I can have an exhibit.

Everyone here is very excited about the inauguration of Obama, and although I didn´t get to watch any of it I did buy the paper the next day and see the picture of the DC Mall with all the people... very impressive I thought. It´s great that the country is behind Obama, but the reality is no one man can change America. We all need to do our own part and I hope this does inspire people to be more active in the future of our country and the world, environmentally and economically.

Peace, Love,

Robin

Chocolates and Condoms

Monday was back to work and a new task I´m working on is giving training to the Women´s office on Microsoft Office. Basically how to use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, ect. I was a litte nervous because it´s all in Spanish and although I would say I can navigate Word fairly easily, when all the menus are in Spanish it makes for a challenge, and then to teach it in Spanish is well kind of ridiculous. So in the Women´s office were always doing events with kids and adults about health education and different things, and I decided to use an idea from these events. I brought a bag of goodies which included gum, lolipops, chocolate, and a couple of condoms I have from my medical kit just as a joke. It really helped the session, everyone participated and competed for the stuff in the prize bag. Right at the end though a woman came in the office with two twin boys (no more than a couple weeks old) asking for help. Her story is that another woman just left these children, and that this woman wants to adopt them and take care of them but she doesn´t have any money to take them to the hospital or register them, and she already has a 4 year old son of her own, no husband, lives with her aunt or something. The women´s office gave her diapers, some milk, some cups, whatever we had around the office and asked the radio and local cable station to come over and take her information to send out for help as well but she doesn´t have a phone or electrity at her house so we can´t contact her. I took a photo for the office, aren´t they precious? Dylan and Junior are thier names.

Landslide, Happy New Years!

So just to tell you how badly the landslide in Guatemala is effecting me, I heard about it from my Grandmother in Virginia before I heard about it from anyone including Peace Corps here. Basically, I´m fine and it´s on the other side of the country pretty much, but it is impressive... and we do have landslides over here as well but I hope not like this one.

In other news my New Years was low-key but great none the less. I ended up not going to Montericco and instead just hung out with some of my local Guatemalan friends. The New Year all and all has brought me only good things, except lice. Yes I had lice this week... I don´t know how or what or why it happened, I´m pretty sure I did not use anyone else´s comb. At first I was just itchy and thought it was an allergic reaction to something so I started taking Benedryll and slept for about 2 days and when that didn´t work and the itching got worse I assumed the worse. No really it wasn´t that bad, and I got up extra early this morning to drown those damn things while washing almost everything I own. My New Years resolution was to make it through this next year here in Guatemala, please God, don´t make it harder than it has to be!

Love, Peace,

Robin