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