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