Problemas and my new nickname...

So today I was what you call in spanish 'enojada'

Recently we have being going out to the villages to elect the community leaders who will then participate at the local level of government to solicite projects and programs for thier villages.(COCODES) Each time we go out I get so frustrated with how horribly organized the elections are. In the last village they voted by someone from the mayor´s office going up to each person individually and asking the vote and annoucing it outloud over a microphone to mark it on a whiteboard in front of everyone.(which as you can imagine took forever! in the hot sun) I suppose this could be looked at as transperancy, it can also be looked at as manipulation, intimidation, and partiality considering the person asking for their vote is part of a political party himself and obviously has his own priorities.(He even told me so.) It kind of appauls me actually that they do it this way, especially when almost 40 people refused to give thier vote, and most women can barely speak up to their husband much less infront of the whole community with everyone watching.

But here's the problem, noone trusts anyone. Which I knew, but not really to this extent until today. Instead of explaining anything to me, my co-workers reaction to my "I want to better the system of votation" was "no we will not" and swiftly walking away from me. I found it extremely rude, considering he didn't even know my suggestion yet.

What I wished to propose today was a vote with beans and buckets. The idea is that each person has 1 bean or "vote" and each bucket represents the contendors, and you simply put your bean in the bucket of your choice. That way you don't have to write anything for those who can't and your not annoucing every vote on a loudspeaker. But apparently my co-worker doesn't agree because people are so mistrusting that they will say we rig the beans, that others rig the beans, or maybe even that the beans with rig themselves, who knows.

But since he never explained his point of view and just told me "no," well I got up some nerve and said to myself 'I'm tired of being ignored here, and my spanish is finally good enough to serve me, and I have something good to say and I am going to be heard g*d d*mn*t.' and went right up to him and told him to never talk to me like that again, that it was rude, and that I will be listened to and if you don't agree that's fine but I deserve a good answer.

Aparently I came off as a little fuerte (or strong). ok alot fuerte... I have now broken any image of being a nice, calm person, and have now adopted a new nickname. Brava.

I hope it serves me well.

Peace, Love, haha
Robin

Back from Vacation

Ok so I went on Vacation it was great... no. really really great... but now I'm back in Jocotan and it is Bloody Hot! I mean whoa what happened, I go on vacation and the sun jumped 1 million miles closer to Chuiquimula, Guatemala. I need another fan.


In work news, the 6 computers that have been donated arrive next week!!! The pictures are of the crate being loading and of the wonderful team from Computers for Guatemala state-side! I'll be going to pick them up the 26th. Also I have more donations for books that should be arriving this week, so all of this is exciting. If your interested in buying a book you still can on Amazon.(http://amzn.com/w/3LEFGDRF2T287) The books with HIGH PRIORITY are obviously the most needed, but each and every book helps!


I'm still working on the mural in the Health Center so I'm busy finishing that most nights. I'm also trying to get letrines for a community but right now the Mayor isn't seeing anyone because he's having legal trouble and I need his signature... I'm also working with a women's group that makes jewlery out of recycling, it's really cool and I'm helping them sell it in Antigua. This weekend I have to go to take a shipment of orders.

Then the 29th starts Semana Santa which if you've kept up with my blog already know is the biggest celebration of the year, possibly bigger than Christmas... I'm not sure what I'm doing for it this year, last year I scouted all the parade routes and hung out around town.

Ok so that's the quick update. Pictures to come!

Peace, Love,
Robin

Happy Valetine's Day

Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day. February has gone by quickly, seems like time here just gets faster and faster, except when it gets slower, :P The picture is of my favorite food here called the Tortilla de Harina (Flour Tortilla in english) and it is probably my equivalent of McDonalds fast, tastes great, tons of calories, and only Q15 (less than $2).

This weekend I'm painting a jungle/forest scene in the Kids Malnutrition Recovery section of our new health center, and I'll be painting underwater scenes in the bathroom. Lively colors, should be fun but I am basically doing it by myself so hopefully I can get it done in time before I go on vacation. I'll be traveling with my family in the beginning of March so I have a lot to finish before-hand because when I'm not here pushing these things nothing gets done, or the worst, a ton of things get done that I never knew about... I hope they don't take my desk computer while I'm gone.

We just had a baby shower in the office, she is hugely pregnant. Poor girl is so tiny and her stomach has to more than double her. I told her she would have it today, but it hasn't come yet, we're waiting for a full moon. Also we have 3 new interns in and the last one is leaving soon. He has helped me a lot with the library project, which btw we have a meeting tomorrow morning and will hopefully be getting some funding from USAID, so thank you America.

Otherwise I'm doing good. I hurt my foot swimming at some waterfalls on the coast last weekend but it's going away with time. I have lots of laundry to do as always and it's gotten really old doing it by hand... I also made a delicious chocolate cake (from a nice box sent by my grandmae) with strawberry icing, yummmm. I brought pieces around to my neighbors so that I wouldn't eat the whole thing by myself. I'm doing more art lately, well first off these giant murals, and then also some small sculptures at my house. I don't really have the tools or the time to do them up the way I'd like (I've been carving potatoes which smell bad after a day or two), so I'm making drawings of them to take home and hopefully I can finish them there.

Let me know how you all are doing, I miss you all so much!

Peace, Love,
Robin

Starting the Year Update

Sorry I haven't written in a while, but I'm still here and doing better than ever! There is so much to tell everyone. Well first off, the weather is nice right now, not too hot nor chilly and I made BBQ chicken (my favorite thing to cook here)and ate with some neighbors on Sunday. I went to a 2 year-olds birthday on Saturday, where I was the ONLY childless female in maybe 50 that showed up. And just recently I killed a cockroach in my kitchen, although it kind of looked like it's mother had breeded with a giant grasshopper, and it had wings...

I know that's what you all really want to know about, but now for the rest of it:
A couple weeks ago a group of volunteers came down from Wisconsin to help out with project for "Outreach for World Hope" NGO here and Jocotan and I helped translate. It was so great to spend time with them and hopefully I'll see some of them back soon enough. Here is a picture of me translating for the medical team they brought to a village.

The Library is doing swimmingly, what I mean by that is it's still moving along, hasn't drowned, but is more like doing a switch-off between the doggy-paddle and the Phelps Freestyle. Each week the project grows and each time I have to run behind it trying to grab funding, but it's exciting and I am very hopeful. I have presented it to the mayor and town council formally with a nice powerpoint and showing them the books you've sent me along with the other donations I have received. They were very convinced and added some changes of their own, and I represented it yesterday and had them sign a letter of responsability to begin as soon as possible. Also, after getting signed up with the Computers for Guatemala program I have solicited 7 computers in total now at $80 each. The price rose a little because I have a digital encyclopedia that has certian requirements above their standard $60 computer. I'm looking for headphones though because the program has sound and the computers don't come with speakers, so if you want to donate an old set of headphones or a computer email me! schick.robinmae@gmail.com

Also there are more books on the list, and several that are high-priority have not been bought. Please check it out (many are $10 or less) http://amzn.com/w/3LEFGDRF2T287

I'm also working with teaching communtiy groups how to make their own projects and organize better. I mostly work in a village called Tesoro Abajo, and the people there are so nice. I'm actually looking into living there for a week out of the month to work closer with them and surrounding communities.

I miss you all so much, and I know my remaining 9 monthes will fly by. Thank you so very much for your support as always and for keeping in touch by just reading this blog.

Peace and Love,
Robin

New Year Resolutions

January... wow time flies. So for probably the first time since I can remember I don't have a New Years Resolution, I didn't really think about it until now but I guess I do have a few things I'd like to accomplish this year. First and foremost is the Jocotán Library, which is coming along more or less. I just got in contact with a former Peace Corps volunteer who send computers to guatemala for just $60! so now I'm trying to fundraise to put 5 computers in the library which would be a miracle of a difference for the project. I am recieve new books each week, but there are still so many more they could use, like a complete encyclopedia. Luckily if I can get the commputers I have a digital encyclopedia software for free!
(If you would like to help send us a computer you can donate $60 at http://computersforguatemala.com "hint hint")
Other accomplishments for the year will include coming home for Thanksgiving, yes I consider it an accomplishment to eat turkey and deviled eggs at my parents house, and I hope one of these days I'll figure out what to do after all this :P

Oh! And a friend of mine, a volunteer, got caught by guatemala's version of "Candid Camera," it sounds hilarious, and you can read about it on his blog at; http://jnstaples.blogspot.com/

Miss you all sooo much,

Peace, Love,
Robin

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