Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! I had an excellent Christmas on the beach on the Pacific Coast in the small sleepy town of Monte Rico. It was a great vacation, but didn´t feel like Christmas at all. We spent four days lounging in hammocks, sipping fruity beverages, reading, and splashing in the waves. I went with a fun group of other volunteers and we all kept each other in good companty while being away from our families, many of us for the first time. We made an awesome meal Christmas eve night of a couple roasted chickens, mashed potatoes, beans, and salad. There was some really intense Catch Phrase playing that occurred as well. At midnight the town exploded in fireworks and general festivity. We walked through the streets of the town trying to avoid getting caught in the cross fire of young children setting off firecrackers. There was music and dancing in the central park but most men asking to dance were too drunk to barely stand up. We spent a significant portion of the warm night sitting on the beach lit brightly by the full moon listening to the waves and soaking it all in. It was most different Christmas that I´ve ever spent, but it was really nice.

The beaches are dark sand from volcanic rock and its too hot to walk on during the day. The waves were really powerful and really tumble you about but the water is so delightfully warm and its hard to believe that its the same ocean from the Washington coast. We played some beach volleyball with some random Koreans that we met who could speak about four words of English and frou words of Spanish. Monte Rico is famous for its endangered turtle hatchery and we watched baby turtles being released from the beach at sunset. Amazing sunsets where the pictures can never do it justice. The colors! We took tons of pictures, unfortunately at the time I was convinced my camera had been stolen, so I didn´t take any but luckily I found it at the bottom of my bag. Whoops.

There are also mangrove swamps that we took a sunrise boat ride through. We got up when it was still dark and got into a canoe that is pushed along with a long pole. There was a full moon reflecting off the water. We watched the sun rise over the sillohouttes three volcanoes that I was living among in Alotenango. Stunning. There were tons of birds flying about since its also a bird sanctuary. We watched a pair of fishermen working with a unique tactic of creating a quarentine area with nets and then flapping plastic flags over the water to scare the fish into the quarentined area. They caught a ton, including some shrimp too. I had a very tasty meal of grilled fish with a delightful yellow curry sauce that rocked my world.

Right now I´m on the shores of Lake Atitlán in the town of Panajachel for a few days celebrating new years with almost my whole training class. Its wonderful to see everybody again and this place is beautiful. It is a giant lake surrounded by volcanoes!!! How cool is that? The sunsets and sunrises are breathtaking (yes, I set my alarm to get up to see another sunrise). This is a pretty tourist town, for good reason considering the setting. THe streets are lined with tons of artisan crafts and lovely jewelry. Women and little children come up to you everywhere, including while you´re eating in restaurants to try to sell you stuff. Its so overwhelming. They will drape scarves and things on you and its impossible to get them to go away.

Last night we all went out dancing together and the DJ played a great mix of salsa, merengue, reggaeton, American hip hop and everything. I danced my little heart out. This morning we went kayaking on the lake and took in all the scenery. I just really cant get over how beautiful it is and can´t think of enough good adjectives in English to describe it. The scenery here is splendid and the company is great.

El Chol seems very far away right now as I´m on vacation, but I will return to work on January 2nd with lots of hard work ahead of me. I hope that things will pick up work wise as things get moving again with other organizations and some shuffling happens in the muni.

Well, Happy New Year everyone. 2007 was a crazy year. Its funny to think that in January I was applying for Peace Corps, having just gotten back from South America and wanting to get back to Latin America. In June I graduated from college and in August I took off for Guatemala. 2008 will probably be even more of a rollercoaster...I´m hanging on tight and loving the ride.

Chocolate Chip Cookies and COMUDE meeting

The evenings of posadas continued gloriously in true Christmas festiveness. I ended up eating for free most nights this past week with the generosity of tamales, sandwiches and coffee being offered at every hosting house. It’s quite mesmerizing sitting there listening to the chanting of the catholic prayers in Spanish all in unison monotone. I’m so amazed at how everyone has them all memorized and knows what to say and it just comes automatically. Same thing goes for the a cappella songs sung at every pitch. Everyone focuses on the lit up plastic christmas tree and images of saints on the walls while the incense burns strongly. It’s quite enchanting and I felt very Christmassy, even though I barely understood what was being said it was nice to take in the atmosphere.

My christmas contribution was to bake chocolate chip cookies and give away little plates of them to my co-workers and some of the families that I’ve gotten to know. What a task. Now in the states when I make cookies it can be a rather last minute activity to fill an hour on a lazy afternoon. Here, it took weeks of planning, many trips in search of ingredients, and difficult explanations.

Several weeks ago I decided to make them and knew that finding chocolate chips was out of the question in my site, so I purchased two bags of Hershey’s Chocolate Chips in Antigua for a whopping 33 Quetzales each…the equivalent of like 4 dollars….that could buy two nice big lunches here. I already had flour, eggs, salt, and white sugar on stock at my house. In several trips to the various shops around town I sought out a rather weak fake vanilla essence and a little unmarked baggie of baking soda. Butter is unavailable in El Chol, so I settled for a strange vegetable oil margarine that makes a poor substitute for real butter. Finding brown sugar was out of the question. After trying to explain what I wanted to several shopkeepers and receiving blank stares, I asked the women who live below me, one of whom is a rather avid baker. They told me you have to ask for the kind of sugar “that gets weighed here” because back in the day you would buy sugar in the raw by the pound, rather than the bleached white sugar that is now bought in sealed packages. Well, going back out at least the shopkeepers understood what I wanted, but most of them didn’t have it and one told me it was only available by the quintal, 500 pounds. I decided doubling the white sugar the recipe calls for would have to do.

After searching out several stores in search of cookie sheets and receiving head shakes, I concluded there were no cookie sheets to be had in El Chol, and settled on borrowing cake molds from the family upon which to bake my cookies. I did manage to come by styrofoam plates to put them on (no cute christmas pattern paper plates), aluminum foil to wrap them in, and curling ribbon to tie them up with.

Fully prepared with everything in my kitchen, I put on my ipod with some great Christmas tune classics and started mixed away. After mixing the butter, sugar, and vanilla, I added an egg, which upon cracking in the bowl, was evident that it was rotten. Needless to say I had to toss that batch and start over again. (And deal with the mess the next morning of the torn up bag of rotten egg batter that had been shredded by some sort of animal during the night). The lack of brown sugar, weakness of the vanilla, and strangeness of the margarine resulted in dough that wasn’t quite as tasty as I would have liked, but it sufficed and still tasted good.

The process of baking fascinated the kids in the family after showing them the dough and letting everyone sample. No one had ever tried chocolate chip cookies before. There was a parade of children in my kitchen as the cookies took form in my oven, which I am so lucky to have left there by the owner of the house. It was very exciting and they were all very curious about the ingredients and the whole process. Never have baking cookies been so eagerly watched. They took turns shining my flashlight in the oven to monitor the process. Luckily the oven functioned splendidly, being the first time I had used it, and there were no more gas explosions. When the cookies came out, many little hands reached for the finished product, which was received with big smiles. I took a plate down to everyone else to try as well and everyone was impressed with my efforts. I wrapped up the rest and tied up the plates with ribbon and took them around the next day to their recipients. All in all it was a fun process. Its funny how something that I’ve done hundreds of times in the states was turned into a whole new activity here with new challenges and the aspect of novelty.

Thursday morning at work was the meeting of the Municipal Development Council (Consejo Municipal de Desarrollo, COMUDE). Guatemalans REALLY like acronyms, but they’re always a bit tricky because each letter doesn’t necessarily stand for the first letter of every word, but posibbly 1, 2, 3 or however many are convenient. As I’ve mentioned before, there is a hierarchy of development councils in Guatemala as part of the decentralization process of the government. They going in ascending order from community level to municipal, departmental, regional, and national level. As I wrote about before, last week I had the opportunity to go to the departmental level one where the governor presides. This week was the municipal level meeting where the mayor presides. Municipal representatives from health, police, etc. are there in addition to the presidents of the community development councils (COCODEs). The mayor gave a review of the projects that have been executed and a summary of the year. Other topics covered were the need for strengthened parent councils for the schools and the problem of animal stealing in the rural areas. I was also on the agenda and given several minutes to introduce myself and explain my background, the Peace Corps, and my role here. It was a bit nerve wracking getting up and speaking in front of about 40 people in Spanish but it went smoothly and it was a great opportunity to make myself known and make connections with people. Several of the COCODE leaders were interested in working with me at the start of next year. That’s good news.

After the formal meeting everyone piled into whatever form of transportation was available and we headed out to an aldea (rural community) for a big lunch. Big it was, indeed. There was a whole group of women merrily hacking away at large chunks of cow and marinating it all in large plastic buckets. Everything was cooked on make shift fires built there on the spot and blood spilled onto the grass. After the first course of carne asada with beans, torilla, and tomato/radish salad I was full. Then they came around again with heaping bowls of fried pork skins with lime and more rounds of tortillas. It was quite the production. We went bumping down the mountain back to El Chol in the back of a pickup truck with about 12 other people. With a full tummy, stunning views, and wind blowing though my hair, I was quite satisfied and happy to be in Guatemala.

I decided to head to the beach on the Pacific Coast for Christmas and hang out with some other PC volunteers. I felt like I got some good festiveness in El Chol with the various posadas and other Christmas activities. I’ve had a lot of cultural integration this past month and am ready to go chill out and relax and be with other English-speakers who are away from their families for Christmas. Eat some extra ham, cheesy potatoes and pumpkin pie for me since I’ll probably be having seafood at the beach. WISHING EVERYONE A VERY, VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE FESTIVENESS OF THE SEASON. MISS YOU ALL!!!!

More feria times and posadas

Well things are getting back to “normal” in El Chol as the feria leaves. I’m sad to see it go, since its been such a good time. A brief review of the events from the rest of the week.

Thursday was an all day soccer tournament where we sat out all day and cheered on the El Chol team as it played against other teams from other munis around the area. After that there was a big tug-o-war competition with teams of 5 people. There were two womens teams that entered and my team won! So I earned another 50 Quetzales (like 6 dollars) for our efforts. It was quite hilarious with everyone cheering us on in the approaching dusk as we yanked on the rope with all our might. It was hard to keep footing in the dusty dirt soccer pitch but we triumphed best two out of three.

Friday was a big rodeo in the afternoon with bull riders from all over the country who came to participate. I had never been to a rodeo in the US, so it was all a new experience for me. I was impressed with their skills and it was highly entertaining. There were some really good riders. I held my breath every time one of the guys fell off hoping the he wouldn’t get pummeled to death. They actually did wear vests and helmets, which surprised me since safety equipment as a general rule doesn’t really exist here. Of course there were also scantily clad women to sing and entertain the crowd as well during the breaks as they danced around and the drunk men came out to dance with them. That night there was a live Tex-Mex band that played in the market. I’m learning to follow guys when I dance since I’m not used to guys actually having good dancing skills. The rhythms are fun I danced until late that night and had a great time.

Saturday was the biggest day of the feria and all the roads in town were impassable due to crowds and stuff for sale. Some other Peace Corps volunteers came and visited and we spent the day taking in the sights, sounds, smells and spectacles of the greatness of what is the feria in El Chol. In the afternoon there was the rodeo again. Everyone gets really into dressing up for it with boots, cowboy hats, button up shirts, and huge belt buckles. I was so glad that I bought my cowboy boots in Pastores during training and could wear them proudly. At one point during a break from bull riding the announcer called for 5 guys and 5 women to come participate in a competition. Nobody volunteered. So they he called my site mate and I out by name to come down and when the whole town is watching and you’re called out by name, you have to go. So after navigating the tricky packed stands in my jean skirt to get down and managing to climb through the fence without flashing too many people, I found myself standing in the bull riding ring with the ENTIRE town watching. We were paired up with random men and music was put on and we had to dance this really awkward dance that is really fast and basically just rocking back and forth wildly. So with everyone watching, I attempted to follow my drunken partner to the crazy beat while preventing my skirt from hiking up, my hat from falling off, and my boots from stepping in cow pies (none of which I successfully avoided). I didn’t win, but we all got a laugh out of it and it was quite the experience.

Saturday night continued with a gastronomic experience of eating “gringas” which are street tacos made with flour tortillas and some sort delicious meat and all the fixins. Its quite funny to joke about the gringas going to eat gringas. We then followed those with delicious churros which are made in one giant long churro and snipped off in pieces with scissors. The fluffy hot fried bread is rolled in sugar and dipped in Nesquick chocolate and strawberry syrup. Out of this world good. We finished up with a nice steaming cup of ponche, which is essentially hot eggnog. They heat it over open fires in the street in giant 10 gallon pots that bubble and boil and smell of cream, sugar, and cinnamon. They throw in a just a splash of a strong alcohol for an extra kick in addition to the spices sprinkled on top. I miss gingerbread, pumpkin spice and eggnog lattes during this holiday season, but it was a nice substitute. There was another live band with Ranchero music that night and once again danced late into the night, this time with my gringo companeros. I think people found it funny that we would stand in a group and dance rather than dancing in pairs. But there were also plenty of opportunities to dance with guys from El Chol and from the surrounding towns. The band was awesome and had four guys who were back up singers/dancers and had amazing energy the whole night.

Sunday the other volunteers went home after enjoying a typical breakfast in a comedor of coffee, black beans, eggs, tortillas, and a fresh salty crumbly cheese that is common here. I spent a couple hours teaching the family that lives below me how to play Phase 10 card game. They got a kick out of it, although the kids had a bit of a difficult time with some of the concepts. It was a really hot day so one of the girls who lives there invited me to go to the river with her cousin and her brother to go swimming. Well, dipping since none of them can actually swim. After catching a ride down the road on the truck that had been delivering beer, we got to the same spot in the river where the triathlon had taken place. We spent the afternoon cooling off in the water and splashing about. I attempted to teach one girl how to swim, but its quite challenging in a river that’s not very deep and doesn’t really have anything to hold onto like the side of a pool. Good times though. There were lots of people there bathing, like literally whole families washing their hair and soaping up. That evening there was a live marimba band (a giant wooden xylophone that is one of the national symbols) to close the feria. I danced for a bit, but its sort of a difficult rhythm to follow. I prefer just listening to the music and watching the spectacle.

All in all the feria was quite the cultural experience. I got to know a lot more people in town by participating in lots of events. I got really good at foosball since we played like every night. It’s addicting. I’m really sad to see it go, but it will be nice to be able to walk through the streets again and not have so much trash everywhere. And it will come again next year and I’ll get to do it all over again.

Monday morning I waded through the piles of trash and the last of the feria remnants and boots being disassembled to go back to the office. In typical Guatemala fashion I am uninformed and I get there and my counterpart has gone to the capital for the day and the guys in my office tell me that we’re going to walk to a meeting. Of what I ask, and they just say that it’s a bunch of mayors from the department (like province or state level). So we get there and it turns out to be a very important meeting of the CODEDE, which is the Departmental Development Council. In the scheme of development councils, there are the community level ones which I will hopefully be working a lot with, then the municipal one which meets once a month with representatives from the communities, and then the departmental one with representatives from all the municipalities. So the governor was there, all the mayors, representatives from the ministries of health, education, forestry, agriculture, womens issues, etc. were all there. I got to meet the woman who is the representative for the secretary of womens issues for the department of Baja Verapaz. She is a great contact to have and we had communicated over email about getting their support to start the womens office here, so it was nice to meet her by chance. The meeting lasted from 8 am til 2 pm with a snack of ceviche (shrimp with tomato, onion, and cilantro) to break it up. They discussed the year in review of what the various commissions had done and the status of the many of the projects in the department. There were some interesting disagreements over various topics and it was interesting to see the dynamics of everything play out with democracy in action. Afterwards the mayor of El Chol invited everyone to have lunch at his place so everyone (maybe 60 people) enjoyed a delicious carne asada courtesy of the mayor.

I spent Monday evening scrubbing my pila clean, making a nice vegetable stir-fry with peanut sauce over rice, reading and listening to pirated reggaeton music, and arguing with the lady who sold me an extension cord that didn’t work over why she should give me my money back. (I finally triumphed and got my 8 quetzales….like 1 dollar….back).

December 12th the posadas started. This is the tradition where Mary and Joseph go around visiting houses looking for shelter the 12 days before Christmas. The very first night was at the house where the family lives below me. The preparations included making buckets full of tamales and preparing the places where the figurines would be places with flowers and pictures of saints. A group of people arrived in the evening after dark and sang a song to be let into the house. Then they prayed and sang and lit candles while incense swirled about. After about an hour, tamales and punch were served to all. The punch was an amazing hot fresh pureed pineapple concoction with lots of sugar and a touch of cinnamon. Delicious. Its a fun festive experience. I went to one the next night too and it was pretty much the same, except hot chocolate and sandwiches. Im sure all next week will be filled with them too. Its neat to get to see inside other houses and meet more people and see other Christmas traditions. Lots of stores have decorations and lights up now and its starting to feel quite festive, except for the fact that the weather is so warm and sunny I just can´t convince myself that it´s December and almost Christmas. Missing everyone during this holiday season!

Officially a volunteer and Feria time

Okay so Im reposting the last blog since some people couldnt read it. Theres also some new random stuff throughout and more new stuff at the bottom if you keep scrolling. Sorry about the screwiness....gotta love using the internet in Guatemala.

I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!! We had our swearing in ceremony at the ambassador’s house in the capital on Friday morning. It was a lovely ceremony, all in Spanish, with all of the host families attending. There was coffee, mini sandwiches, and brownies following. I said my tearful good byes to my family, and headed back to Antigua to celebrate with my fellow volunteers. Early Saturday morning I took a 6 hour bus ride to Xela, the second largest city in the country where we spent some time during field-based training. Randomly I ended up going with my friend Becca from Olympia who happens to be in Guatemala at the moment. We survived to bus trip with a family of five crowded in the school bus seat next to me all throwing up into the same plastic bag. It was quite tragic, all were very feverish and the bus was so crowded two of the little girls kept laying there feverish headed in my lap. Had a good time in Xela, visited a Guatemalan friend who goes to the University there, ate a yummy pasta dinner, listened to some live music with a glass of red wine, and headed out to my site at 6:30 the next morning. Traveling is always an adventure here. While there was no one throwing up next to me on the way back, I did have to wait three hours in San Juan for a microbus. Evidently I had missed the last camioneta because I was waiting where they usually come, but that day there was a procession and the streets were closed and the buses were on different routes. After almost panicking that I was going to have to spend the night there, I called my counterpart who called the guy who drives the micro and found out that he was on his way still and I hadn’t missed the last ride back. I finally made it to my site at 8 pm after almost 14 hours of travel. Whew. Public transport is wonderful, cheap, but unpredictable.

Yup, here I am at my new site now. It's good so far, my house is awesome…my own little “casita” with four rooms above a family compound. It came with a couch, love seat, chair, bed, and some random kitchen stuff. There is a bathroom just outside my door which has a shower and a toilet. To the side of that is the pila, the water containing device with spaces on the sides for washing clothes, dishes, teeth, etc. The house was sort of decorated in a way with lots of Jesus paraphernalia on the walls and a wooden cross with JC above my bed. Other random decorations like a Winne the Pooh poster that says “Te amo” and various stuff animals and other tacky knick-knacks. But I’m trying to make it my own. I’ve made a nice collage of all the cards I’ve received on the wall next to my bed and posted all of the photos I brought from home. On Sunday night I fell asleep to the singing from the evangelical church nearby and was awoken various times by firecrackers. In the morning there is an abundance of loud wild bird calls and various children’s noises.

The family is very nice so far. There are a ton of people who live there...they didn't even know how many when I asked. There is the matriarch who had 12 children. Three died, and three went to the US, so six live there. Then they all have children and grandchilden. It’s fun and chaotic but I have my own space, so that's good. So far I’ve been eating my meals with them just to hang out and because I haven’t bought a stove yet. My first night there was a birthday party for a three year old boy who is adorable. So there were a bunch of family members over and I realized a bunch of people I had met last week were all family. Well, everyone in town is connected somehow.

I’ve started giving English lessons to one of the little girls in the house who is 8. She’s really smart and really eager to learn. She comes up with all the vocabulary words that she wants to learn, especially animals and fruits. After the first evening of about a 2 hour stint, she requested a test the next day. Okay, it you want I told her. Its really cute.

I shared the box of Applets and Cotlets that I brought with me with the whole family. They were a big hit and the box was gone in no time. The cotlets were the favorite of everyone.

The whole family helped me to go buy an armoire. It was quite the adventure. The furniture shop is like 2 blocks away, but everyone came in the family pick-up. After the bargaining was done I got a beautiful handmade wood stained armoire with four drawers and a hanging space with a full length mirror for less than $100. Everyone helped to get it up into the truck and hold on to it for the short journey. Then all the kids piled out with a drawer in hand and we sweated our way up the flight of stairs to get it into my room. A fun mini adventure.

The town is cool, very small, so it's also awkward with knowing what kind of greeting to give people (hug? kiss? shake hands?) it could be any of those. It's also hard finding the things that I need for my house since its all confusing and stores only care specific things so you kinda have to go around searching. I’m just trying to take everything an hour at a time because I'm in a different mood every hour, depending on what's going on. Its hard being the new kid in town, especially when you're so different.

Work is interesting....I work in an office with all guys and its hard to find my place. Especially since this is all taking place in Spanish, which is good, but way harder when you're trying to work. The town’s feria in honor of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, their patron saint, is the first week of December. Thus, every activity in the Municipal Planning Office has to do with planning these activities and there isn’t much work related to anything else going on. Already the central park is filling up with a ferris wheel, trampoline, food booths, and carnival games in preparation for the festivities.

Using the example of another municipality that started a Municipal Women’s Office, we’ve been trying to adapt that to El Chol. So this morning we went around to various institutions trying to get data , such as women’s participation in voting, to justify wanting to start the office. It’s slow going, and data isn’t readily available, so we have to wait for some people to get back to us. So then we decided to look at women’s participation in the COCODEs (community development councils). All of the registration information is in a big book, hand written. So we’ve been going through that to create a digital database of the registered COCODEs and the gender of the participants to assess the situation. So that turned into a whole other project.

I also adapted a letter requesting to get the ArcView GIS program for El Chol which I’ll send to a company in the capital to request the program from the company in the states. This process is supposed to take 4-6 months. Argh.

Another afternoon I went with my counterpart and another co-worker to an aldea (outlying small town) for a COCODE (community development council) meeting. This community is only accessible by foot on a fairly steep winding path that took about an hour to get to. We gathered at the local primary school that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere but the hike up was absolutely gorgeous. We had to step around lazy cows and the pies they left behind. The views of the green covered mountains and corn fields are stunning. At the meeting I watched the process of them prioritizing projects for their community. “Which is more important, creating an accessible road, or making structural improvements to the school? Okay, which is more important, making the road or getting flushing toilets?” and so on it went. It was great to see this community democracy in action. The other purpose of the visit was to conduct a community diagnostic, kind of like a census. So I interviewed people about their demographics, education levels, type of housing and access to water and electricity, and their assessment of municipal services. It still is hard to believe when you talk to people who only finished second grade and for example one person who had children when one was 8 years old and in second grade and the other was 11 and in first grade since ages don’t necessarily correspond to grade levels like we’re used to.

I went around with one of my co-workers to give invitations to participate in the towns Culture Night as part of the feria. The neat part was that every house we went to, we were invited in to sit down and have a little chat inside the house. People are so cordial and nice. I can’t imagine a random person showing up to my door in the states and me inviting them in to sit on my couch. It was cool to see the insides of a bunch of houses and meet more people from the community.

Thanksgiving was fabulous. A group of 20 Peace Corps volunteers went to the US ambassador’s house for a splendid meal with all the traditional festivities. The mashed sweet potatoes and pumpkin cheesecake were especially delicious. The ambassador and his wife were very gracious hosts. There were a few other people associated with the embassy that were there as well who were interesting to talk to about their jobs. It was a day of luxury as we strolled through the gardens and lounged by the heated pool in the beautiful Guatemalan November sunshine around 75 degrees. It was great to see my fellow volunteers again after having been in site for a week and to hear about everyone’s diverse experiences so far. It was nice to decompress and compare notes of what everything is like.

I headed back to my site Sunday morning and made the trip in about 6 hours from Antigua. This week I only had to wait 2 hours in San Juan for the bus. Transportation sucks.

Okay, so the Feria is in full swing. The quiet sleepy town has turned into a raging carnival and commecial extravaganza. Everything is for sale in the street...kitchen wares, blankets, clothes, hats, tacky toys, candy and tons of food. Its quite festive. There is a giant ferris wheel that goes ridiculously fast but you get a great view of the town from the top. Im getting really good at fooseball cause we play like every night. No one works in the office this week because there are activities all throughout the day. One evening was the crowning of the princesses of the Feria where one of the little girls I live with participated. Its basically a beauty pagent with elaborate costumes, scenery, music and fanfare. Very interesting. There have been activities such as pushing motorcycles that are turned off, motorcross, slingshots, various soccer tournaments, various other races, and yes, a triathlon which I participated in yesterday.

For the triathlon I was one of three total participants and the only girl. But the whole town came out to watch. We swam in a river that was 10 meters across and one meter deep back and forth a bunch of times for a total of 100 meters. The bike was all uphill up a rocky dirt mountain road for three km. I had borrowed a crappy mountain bike from someone and the chain fell off part way through. Still, I won the bike part cause the other two guys had to get off and push. The whole time there was a car with a loudspeaker behind me blasting reggaeton and giving the play by play. They called it an international race since I was participating and kept commenting {and here we have Caty McKee, la norteamericana!{. One guys passed me on the 2 km run, which was also uphill in the mid day heat. So I got second place, won 200 quetzales which is like 25 dollars, and beat one of my male co-workers who wasnt too pleased about it. It was hilarious.

Its nice to have this week for the feria to hang out and get to know a lot of people in the community at all the different events. And its nice to not being in the office. I finally bought a gas tank for my stove and have started cooking for myself now which is nice. Although its hard to get certain things around town, mostly good cheese Im missing.

Officially a volunteer!

I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!!  We had our swearing in ceremony at the ambassador's house in the capital on Friday morning.  It was a lovely ceremony, all in Spanish, with all of the host families attending.  There was coffee, mini sandwiches, and brownies following.  I said my tearful good byes to my family, and headed back to Antigua to celebrate with my fellow volunteers.  Early Saturday morning I took a 6 hour bus ride to Xela, the second largest city in the country where we spent some time during field-based training.  Randomly I ended up going with my friend Becca from Olympia who happens to be in Guatemala at the moment.  We survived to bus trip with a family of five crowded in the school bus seat next to me all throwing up into the same plastic bag.  It was quite tragic, all were very feverish and the bus was so crowded two of the little girls kept laying there feverish headed in my lap.  Had a good time in Xela, visited a Guatemalan friend who goes to the University there, ate a yummy pasta dinner, listened to some live music with a glass of red wine, and headed out to my site at 6:30 the next morning.  Traveling is always an adventure here.  While there was no one throwing up next to me on the way back, I did have to wait three hours in San Juan for a microbus.  Evidently I had missed the last camioneta because I was waiting where they usually come, but that day there was a procession and the streets were closed and the buses were on different routes.  After almost panicking that I was going to have to spend the night there, I called my counterpart who called the guy who drives the micro and found out that he was on his way still and I hadn't missed the last ride back.  I finally made it to my site at 8 pm after almost 14 hours of travel.  Whew.  Public transport is wonderful, cheap, but unpredictable.

Yup, here I am at my new site now.  It's good so far, my house is awesome…a little "casita"  with four rooms above a family compound.  It came with a couch, love seat, chair, bed, and some random kitchen stuff.  There is a bathroom just outside my door which has a shower and a toilet.  To the side of that is the pila, the water  containing device with spaces on the sides for washing clothes, dishes, teeth, etc.  The house was sort of decorated in a way with lots of Jesus paraphernalia on the walls and a wooden cross with JC above my bed.  Other random decorations like a winne the Pooh poster that says "Te amo" and various stuff animals and other tacky knick-knacks.  But I'm trying to make it my own.  On Sunday night I fell asleep to the singing from the evangelical church nearby and was awoken various times by firecrackers.

The family is very nice so far.  There are a ton of people who live there...they didn't even know how many when I asked.  There is the matriarch who had 12 children.  Three died, and three went to the US, so six live there.  Then they all have children and grandchilden.  It's fun and chaotic but I have my own space, so that's good.  So far I've been eating my meals with them just to hang out and because I haven't bought a stove yet.  My first night there was a birthday party for a three year old boy who is adorable.  So there were a bunch of family members over and I realized a bunch of people I had met last week were all family.  Well, everyone in town is connected somehow.

Work is interesting....I work in an office with all guys and its hard to find my place.  Especially since this is all taking place in Spanish, which is good, but way harder when you're trying to work.  Using the example of another municipality that started a Municipal Women's Office, we've been trying to adapt that to El Chol.  So this morning we went around to various institutions trying to get data , such as women's participation in voting, to justify wanting to start the office.  It's slow going, and data isn't readily available, so we have to wait for some people to get back to us.  So then we decided to look at women's participation in the COCODEs (community development councils).  All of the registration information is in a big book, hand written.  So we've been going through that to create a digital database of the registered COCODEs and the gender of the participants to assess the situation.  So that turned into a whole other project.

I also adapted a letter requesting to get the ArcView GIS program for El Chol which I'll send to a company in the capital to request the program from the company in the states.  This process is supposed to take 4-6 months.  Argh.

The town is cool, very small, so it's also awkward with knowing what kind of greeting to give people (hug? kiss? shake hands?) it could be any of those.  It's also hard finding the things that I need for my house since its all confusing and stores only care specific things so you kinda have to go around searching.  I'm just trying to take everything an hour at a time because I'm in a different mood every hour, depending on what's going on.  Its hard being the new kid in town, especially when you're so different.

Thanksgiving was wonderful at the US ambassador´s house in the capital.  I got up at 3:45 in the morning to catch an early microbus to be able to celebrate and it was well worth it.  We ate a classic turkey dinner with all the fixins.  It was great to relax at his beautiful home and chill out with other Peace Corps volunteers and decompress after out first week in site. Heading back to El Chol tomorrow morning to roll up my sleeves and do some work!

First visit to El Chol

Well, the mystery and the waiting are over....after applying for the Peace Corps in January 2007, I now know my destiny for the next two years. I spent from Wednesday night until Sunday morning at my new hometown.

Tuesday we met our counterparts at the training center which was a long, awkward, but good day. Imagine meeting the person that you will be working with the closest for the next two years of your life and what its like to make small talk, in another language. On Wednesday morning we took off headed for El Chol in the microbus owned by the muni (like a small van, but you can cram a lot of people). Like oftentimes in Guatemala, I never really know what's going on and you just go with the flow. We went to Guatemala City and stopped at a car repair place to do some routine maintenance. As auto shops are anywhere in the world, of course they found something else wrong and we were told it would be a couple hours to fix it. So my counterpart and the driver went to Pollo Campero for lunch. Pollo Campero is like the national KFC....its a Guatemalan company that is so popular that its now in the US in some places too. (My Spanish teacher joked that flights to the US from Guatemala smell like Campero chicken because their family members living there request it from home. Evidently US nutrition rules don't allow as much fat at the "real" Guatemalan version). When we headed back to the auto shop, of course it wasn't ready yet and we had to kill some more time. Well the mayor of El Chol happened to be in town, so I met him and his whole family right there. I went around with them for awhile in their pickup to run some errands with them. When the microbus was finished, we drove it about a block and it was making bad noises that it hadn't been making before, so we had to go back and wait a couple more hours. Finally we started making our way to El Chol after dark so I wasn't able to see the sites very well.

While I was visiting I stayed with my site mate, another volunteer who has been there for almost four months working in the Youth Development program. I went into the office for awhile on Thursday and Friday and met everyone. In addition to my counterpart, there are 5 other guys who work in the Municipal Planning Office, all between 20 and 23. The muni is actually pretty organized and has a long term plan until 2020. My main work goal will be to start the Municipal Women's Office. So that is pretty exciting. Hopefully I'll be able to work with some GIS and with the COCODEs as well.

El Chol is very pretty and very small. It is quite clean, has a brand new park and a small municipal hotel and market. The people are incredibly nice. You can't walk anywhere without greeting everyone and stopping to have a conversation with them. It is surrounded by green mountainous terrain and has pretty pink sun sets. The main streets are paved and there is even a post office where I can get mail directly. (Ask me and I can give it to you). The first week of December is their feria, or community festival. There are already arcade games and a ferris wheel and food stands being set up. Its a really big deal and people from all over will evidently be there and no one works that week. I'm really looking forward to it and it should be lots of fun.

On Friday afternoon some other volunteers from around the area came and visited so I got to meet them and hang out with them. We had a relaxing day on Saturday where I continued to look for housing options and then I took off this morning. It took me about 4 and half hour to get back to Antigua. I have two promising housing options, so I'm waiting to hear back on how much one place wants for rent and then I'll decide. Nothing is perfect of course, but at least there are options, even though I wish it was set up already.

So this is our last week in Alotenango and we'll be going into the training center almost everyday to finish up training activities. Swearing in ceremony will be Friday at the US Ambassador's house in the capital. I'm so sad to say good-bye to my family and my wonderful fellow trainees but excited to get started.

Elections and random things for your imagining

Here I sit in a lovely cafe called Bagel Barn in Antigua using free wireless internet on my friend's laptop sipping a gigantic cappucino. I feel so at home, like I'm in Seattle. We're writing some final reports of our training activities and coming down the home stretch on this part of the Peace Corps adventure. Yesterday was a lazy Sunday hanging out around Alotenango...enjoying life among three volcanoes for the last week. I went around and got more music for my ipod from my friends and am now loaded up with 2500 songs and a ton of reggaeton to get me through. I started the painful process of organizing all my papers, books, and STUFF in preparation for packing. I'm going to try to take as much of my stuff as I can when I go visit my site for the first time on Wednesday.

It was election day, but people were pretty apathetic and didn't really want either candidate. My family told me it was like choosing between cancer and AIDS. Turns out that a fellow by the name of Alvaro Colom won over Otto Perez Molina. The hottest issue was security, which is bad here. You can check out the NY Times take on things at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/world/americas/05guatemala.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

A few funny images for your imagining...

In this country people like to advertise things over loadspeakers blasting from vans or trucks. Any product really, cell phones, fresh fruit, you name it. So one day while Kelly and I were running, a van with a loudspeaker past us and called out things like "Way to keep up your figure. Let's go ladies!" It was quite hilarious.

There are lots of sounds to be heard from my bedroom; this country is never really quiet. For example, I fall asleep and wake up to dogs barking, roosters crowing, conversations heard completely clearly from the street, firecrackers, church bells, pick ups screeching, wind blowing through election propaganda banners, tuk tuk honking, camioneta breaks and honking and aydantes yelling "Antigua!"

Speaking of camionetas, I've decided that a good personal safety strategy is to never get on a bus that has posted in the front "Yo manejo, Dios me guia" (I drive, God guides me). Essentially, there is a sense of fatalism here where people think that their lives are more guided by outside influences and God rather than their own actions. When this comes to bus drivers, they think that the driving responsibility is God's, not theirs, which obviously poses various safety risks. There is this one spot on the road from Antigua to Alotenango where the driver always turns off the lights inside the bus when its night time. Its a surreal experience to be speeding down the highway, packed in, listening to blasting ranchero music, and not being able to see a damn thing. Those are moments where you do a reality check and think about "huh....I'm really in Guatemala".

I find young couples with the girls dressed in traditional woven Mayan clothing and the boys sporting modern Abercrombie shirts very interesting. Traditional clothing is much less common in males due to the persecution of the indigenous people during the war. It is still quite common for females, which results in an image that seems to clash. Every time I see one of this couples hugging or making out in the street I just stare for a moment and think about it.

The other night Kelly and I had an incredible experience doing yoga at night on her terrace. I spread out my Barbie beach towel and under the clear night sky full of stars we did yoga. In the upside down poses you could see upside down volcanoes silhouetted against the night sky. It was a bit windy and almost knocked you out of the balancing poses. Wow. I've never enjoyed a yoga session that much. Magical.

You have to be careful wherever you go for the little things like tripping and hitting your head on ill-placed window sills. There are random holes in the sidewalk that people in the states would sue you over. I cant tell you how many times I've come close to whapping my head on the windows, poles, and other randomness hanging around when you're not paying super close attention to where you're walking, not to mention the little street dog presents scattered about.

On the sides of the highway, men cut the shrubs and grass by hand with machetes, not lawn mowers. Very large swaths of land, with machetes.

Site Assignment and Day of the Dead

So! We received our sites... at last after a long period of excruciating waiting shrouded in secrecy. I will be spending the next two years of my life in a very small pueblo called Santa Cruz El Chol in the department of Baja Verapaz. Looking at a map of Guatemala, El Chol is betwwen Guatemala City and Coban a couple hours from the department capital of Salama. The climate is supposed to be warmish-temperate and it sits at an altitude of 1000 meters above sea level. The whole municipality, including rural areas, has about 9000 people, with about 3000 that live in the town itself. It is a mostly Spanish-speaking ladino (metizo, mixed) community but the nearest other towns are evidently very indiginous and speak the Mayan language of Achi'. It's only about 90 Km from the capital, but half of that is on unpaved dirt roads with not so frequent transportation. There are some pictures of the town that you can see at http://www.inforpressca.com/santacruzelchol/index.php. The website is in Spanish, but theres tons of neat info and just click on the picture to see the gallery. I will be working in the Municipal Planning Office and with a variety of community groups. My mayor was reelected, so the entire administration will hopefully not be changing much come January. I'm very excited to get there and get to work and start intergrating myself all over again. Right now its still a huge unknown. I will be very sad to leave Alotenango, my current host family, and my fellow trainees. Mostly everybody is in the Western part of the country far, far away. There is one volunteer in the Youth Development program in my site and there are some other current volunteers close to me, but Im the only one from my training group in that department. Our counterparts from the host agencies will be coming out to the training center next Tuesday to meet us and then we will go out to our sites for the first time with them on Wednesday and stay there til next Sunday. We are supposed to start searching for a place to live and start to get to know the community. I'm very excited, but really just have no idea about what to think.

This whole process is a little crazy because you think you're joining the Peace Corps and going to be all independent and everything, but then you realize that you feel like you have way less control over your life than you did in the states. You sign up for Peace Corps, they tell you the country you'll be going to and then assign you your site with very little input in the process. I'm not used to feeling such a lack of control over my life....I've always decided where I want to live and work and all of a sudden that decision isn't up to me anymore. Its a bit odd.

Kelly and I have started calling great days here, GGD's: Good Guatemala Days. Yesterday was definitely one of them. It was November 1st, was Day of the Dead/All Saints Day and it was incredible. It is the day where everyone celebrates and honors ancestors and friends and family who have passed away. They decorate the cemetaries and graves with flowers and colorful wreaths and pass the day in the cemetary with their families eating picnics and listening to music. There is a big tradition of flying kites to communicate with everyone in heaven. They are brightly colored and made out of crepe paper and every little kid in the street has one. I started the day by going to cemetary to check things out in the morning. There were tons of peopel paying tribute, cleaning up grave sites and the crosses marking them, and of course, a sky full of kites. In the US, cemetaries are sad, somber places that may give you the creeps and people generally avoid. Here, they are a bit more....festive (?)....and natural. Not that death is a happy thing by any means, but there just seems to be a healthier outlook on it. There is just so much more respect and acknowledgement of it. It might have to do with the fact that Guatemalans are very fatalistc and know that death is unavoidable whereas Americans think that their lives are in their hands and have more control and death is to be feared. Just interesting the different takes on it.

After the cemetary I went home for the long anticipated lunch of fiambre. It a traditional dish made on this day taht is basically a giant salad of every meat you can imagine and picked vegetables. For example: chicken, tongue, three kinds of sausage, hot dogs, ham, salami, olives, corn, peas, colliflower, carrots, peppers, beans etc. Its all mixed up in a vinegar-type juice and has both Kraft and powdered cheese on top and parsely as a garnish. VERY interesting. I ate the whole portion (and again for lunch today), but didn't exactly enjoy it and mostly just took it down to be polite. Its such a huge process to make and very expensive. My mom and the whole family was working on it for days chopping and preparing everything and it was finally all put together in a giant plastic tub that is also used to wash clothes at times. Basically, they made a s*&@ load and then sold some, gave some to neighbors and family members, then we eat the rest. Its quite the event.

After lunch we all piled into my host dad's pickup truck and drove to the town of Sumpango, about an hour away, for their famous gigantic kite festival. Gigantic in the fact that theres tons of people, but also gigantic kites that are about 40-50 feet across. They are increible works of art with very intricate designs telling the story of Mayan histories and referencing the war and humans' relationships with nature. Those ones dont actually fly, but rather are displayed with huge bamboo poles supporting them from the back. The subjects of the kites were impressive and very moving. They had words on them that translated as

Guatemala has not stopped suffering for the cruel violence where we have lost our loved ones day after day.

Guatemala cries and struggles, searching for peace.

We want to live together with nature as our grandparents lived.

Oh mother earth! What have you done to man to make him harm you?

It was so cool to see so many people there all in awe of them. We went in later afternoon when the shadows were getting long and the sky was turning pink and it was so impressive. There was a carnival-like atmosphere with great music being pumped out over loudspeakers. There was a diverse mix of people in traditional and modern clothing. Walking up to the cemetary and to the place where the kites were displayed on top of the hill there were mobs of tightly packed people like any great carnival. And of course, wherever there are people, there are people selling things. Tons of jewelry, clothing, and FOOD. There is a whole array of dulces tipicos, traditional sweets, that they make. Basically any fruit cooked in sugar or anything sweet and fried. My family treated us to atol, a thick warm sweet corn beverage kind of like cream of corn soup with sugar and to some tostadas. It was fun to get out of Alotenango with my family on a little excursion. The whole day Kelly and I just kept looking at each other and smiling and saying how happy we were to be exactly where we were and how lucky we are to have to opportunity to see stuff like this.

That night I went out with my host sisters and cousins to go sing at people's houses and demand more dulces tipicos. I guess its some what of a twist on trick-or-treating. We drove around to various houses in Alotenango and a group of about 20 of us sang songs (none of which I knew) along with the blasting car stereo. You have to really earn the sweets by singing really loud and really long, and then eventually they come to the door and you take a picture with them and they give everyone something to eat. There were tons of drunk men stumbling home from the holiday of drinking in the bars through the dark streets. At one point, the local crazy man came along with a gigantic knife and a crazed look in his eyes. We all freaked out but he passed by us without even glancing over. The words for knife (cuchillo) and for spoon (cuchara) are very similar so I got confused and said, "oh my god that man has a giant spoon!" That broke the moment and everyone laughed and thought it was hilarious. It was great to paddle around with everyone and get to be part of their tradition. It was a long and fabulous day that made me love Guatemala even more and I get all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about it.

Guatemala City

Saturday we spent the day in Guatemala City doing a training in GIS with ArcView. I love maps. I could stare at them all day. I made a nifty one of the extreme poverty levels, by municipalities, of the country and printed it out to reference when we find out our sites TOMORROW. After the workshop we drove around the city in the Peace Corps van to see everything like the central plaza, presidential palace, all the important big buildings, and so on. One of the most impressive things were the vendors and street stalls of EVERYTHING you can possibly imagine. Clothing, household good, pirated DVDs, you name it. On the way out of the city we saw a huge crowd of people by a bus stop with police and a body on the ground covered in a white sheet, with just his Nikes poking out. Very disturbing.

Gotta run...Im in the training center and the bell just rang for our next activity. More later....

Rain and the week in review

Im having a fantastic week this week and on one of "up" times that everyone talks about in the roller coaster of adjustment. It rained for like 16 days straight, which was quite depressing for awhile. The rain here is different because it doesnt feel refreshing like Washington rain, it just feels sticky and damp and the opposite of cleansing. Nothing ever dries! Which results in problems such as my entire red Jansport backpack growing mold practically over night. It had a charming white and green fuzz covering the whole surface and I had to scrub it quite vigorously with detergent with get it all out. Disgusting. But now the sun has come out and some things are drying out. A few highlights from the previous week...

Sunday: Went to mass at a huge old church in Antigua called La Merced, its pretty famous...the big yellow one in pictures of Antigua. I had never been to a Catholic mass before, even in the states, so I figured I might as well go check it out for cultural explorations sake. I couldnt really hear much since the acoustics were echo-y and the priest had deep and mumbling voice. But watching the ceremony of it all was very interesting. Ive still yet to check out an Evangelical service here, but is the other main religion. I hear theres lots of crying...my mom invited me to go with her some time so Ill report back on that later. After mass and a divine almond latte and cinnamon roll from a cafe in Antigua, we headed to Chimaltenango for their market day, about one hour outside Antigua. Well, evidently its more of a morning market place and got there as everything was closing up. We managed to grab some black tortillas, made from that dark purple corn, which taste exactly the same as normal tortillas. So we headed back to Antigua and did some market shopping there. I got some adorable woven items for my soon-to-exist niece. So cute!

Monday: Day at the training center per usual. The US amabassador to Guatemala joined us for a Dominos Pizza lunch and chatted with us about what the emabassy does here. Besides the normal administrative stuff like visas and all that, they also administer the USAID programs and some USDA programs. The neat thing about Peace Corps is that our program does not fall under the "US Mission" in Guatemala and there is a healthy distance between us and the embassy since interfering with that might undermine the very work that we are trying to do. Our swearing in ceremony will be at the ambassadors personal residence on November 16th. In the afternoon some of our Guatemalan Spanish teachers did a workshop with us on how to teach AIDS education in a culturally sensitive way when we get to our sites. This was very useful since AIDS and sex in gereral here are such taboo topics and the need for accurate information is high.

Tuesday: Lovely morning run along our usual route. In the morning we participated in another baking workshop with the womens group in Alotenango. This NGO has been around for over 20 years with the assistance of international support. They have several different sites where they do trainings. In the afternoon we did a great training on how to train group of youth or women on small business techniques.

Wednesday: All day trip to Pachalum in the southern part of the department of Quiché, about a 3 hour drive away. We met the mayor of this town who is very young and very visionary. At only 31 he as elected for his second term (this is quite rare to be elected a second time) and he is also the president of the national association of mayors. He has done some great things for his relatively small municipality and see social projects as highly important (as opposed to most mayors who only value physical infrastructure projects). We also met with some women who have successfully started their own small cooperative business in sewing with the assistance of the Municipal Womens Office and a Peace Corps volunteer. Inspiring work. The muni was generous enough to feed us lunch and then we spent the afternoon at a nearby park with a swimming pool and water slide! I was in heaven and was even able to swim laps in the large pool. It felt so good....I miss being in the water. As always, there are fun times to be had laughing hysterically in the vans that we drive around in with Peace Corps.

Thursday: Yoga in the morning in Kellys room overlooking our two friendly volcanoes. Our final womens group meeting with our group in Alotenango. We gave a presentation on the components of starting a small business that we had talked about on Tuesday like capital, location, primary materials, and organization. I think they liked it, but only 5 women showed up this time which was a little disappointing. Overall I think we had a great experience working with this group, I only wish we could have stayed longer with them since they have so much potential and are such warm people.

Friday (today): Lovely morning run along normal route - with sunshine! Then we went to a very well done museum in Jocotenango, just outside Antigua. There were nice exhibits on Mayan culture, especially music and information on all the municipalities in our department, Sacatepecez. There was another side with tons of info about coffee since there is a coffee farm there which is served all over Antigua. Some interesting coffee facts from the museum. Guatemala is the seventh worldwide producer in quantity of coffee. Of every dollar that is spent on coffee, 16 cents goes to the producing country (8 cents to labor, 5 to farm costs, and 3 to exporting). The other 84 cents goes to the consuming country (6 cents to transport, 11 to the wolesale or retailer, and 67 to the importer). 6.5 pound of coffee "cherries" yield one pound of roasted coffee beans, which yields about 40 cups of coffee. A Guatemalan worker earns about 4 US dollars for every 500 pounds of coffee picked. After the museum we went to a nearby town called Pastored to buy cowboy boots!!! I bought the most beautiful handmade brown leather boots with white and yellow stiching for around 35 dollars. Im in love with them and I think this means I have to be a cowgirl for Halloween.

Some hot topics right now....

Adoption. There is LOTS of it that goes on from primarily poor indigious communities giving babies up to US parents. Adoption of Guatemalan babies is relatively easy for US parents, thus a popular option. US parents may pay up to $40,000 for a baby, so it is concerning that Guatemalan mothers may give up their children not because they cant care for them, but for financial incentives. Theres lots of controversy and talk about this issue.

Remittances. A gigantic portion of the Guatemalan economy comes from Guatemalan workers in the states sending money home, about 11%. 1.5 million Guatemalans are estimated to live in the US out of a population of 12 million. Only about 350,000 of these are documented workers. About 150,000 try to enter the US every year, the same number are deported every year. These figures are from the Prensa Libre from October 11th (I think).

This Tuesday we find out our sites. Im so nervous!!!!

Soccer, womens group, eating flowers

Guatemala beat Mexico 3-2 in the qualifying soccer game!!! They haven't beat them in 31 years....so it was quite the celebration. We watched it on TV with Kellys dad and I was so excited!

Yesterday we had another successful meeting with our womens group where we gave a participatory presentation on discrimination against women and strategies to combat it. The women are definitely becoming more comfortable with us, but unfortunately next week will be our last meeting with them.

Last night we got together with our families and bribed them with brownies to do some activities with us. It was a really good time since they hadnt had brownies before and thought they were great, paired nicely with coffee. We had them draw a map of Alotenango with the places they visited most frequently, places they liked, dangerous places, and places they would like to see improved. We did two different maps, one for the women and one for the men and it was interesting to see the differences and get to know the community more through their eyes. Kellys dad made us a great snack of sauteed flowers with garlic and onions put into tortillas. Hes doing all the cooking right now since his wife broke her ankle and is on crutches.

Were in the training center all day today and looking forward to a relaxing weekend with some soccer playing and another birthday celebration on tap.

Field-based training, tortillas, pacas and cake

Field-based training this week was wonderful. We spent a week We got to see a lot more of this beautiful country, spend time with our municipal development training group, learn more about our work, and get tons of ideas for projects.

The day before we left, we had the opportunity to go swimming at a private pool in this country club type place that Kellys family belongs to. It felt so good to be in the water and swim a few laps, even though there was no deep end. We nibbled on tortillas with salt, lime, and chicharrones (fried pork skins). It a pretty populular snack. Coincidentally there happened to be a girls first communion party going on at the same time...so we were treated a youth dance performance of a series of strange themed dances like cowboys or the generic Asian dance. That is a strange thing about here, is that there is no such things as political correctness. They dont have much contact with Asians, so everyone of any Asian descent is known as a "chino" and there is no social limitation on making faces with squinty eyes. Being raised uber-PC it still grates on me.

That night we got together to make pretty posters for the presentation that we were supposed to give to our womens group. Our tech trainer has emphasised the importance of making things pretty when we go to give presentations, so we went all out with construction paper flowers on our agenda. Lucky enough, my mom made an amazing pizza from scratch with ham, red peppers, and onions. Delicioso...I was in heaven.

We left Alotenango early Sunday morning to make our way to Huehuetenango, another department in the Western Highlands. (Sensing a theme with all the places ending with -tenango? It means "place of" in a Mayan language). So there is some serious highway construction going on with long waits and precarious looking piles of dirt and rocks. In fact, at one point we had to dodge some falling rocks and it was a rather close call as we all screamed and leaned away from it, as if that would help. Another close call with an unweary bulldozer coming at us. Road construction here is a bit more chaotic with "flaggers" being random people who wave pieces of fabric at the opposite sides of traffic whenever they feel like it. I made use of the five hour trip to read a manual on the functions of the Municipal Womens Office.

In general, I can't count the number of times a day that I say to myself, "this wouldnt happen in the US." Its pretty funny. But thats why you travel, right?

Our first day in Huehue (for short) we visited the Mayan ruins of Zaculeu. The lighting was magical with late afternoon shadows falling over the stone steps of ancient temples. Its fun climbing and crawling on them. Im realizing that we when learned about the Mayans in school, they were clumped together with the Aztecs and the Incas. They are all very distinct cultures and the way we studied them it was as if they were all dead cultures. The Mayans are still very much a present day vibrant culture with lots of variation among them, including like 22 different languages. Its sad that US schools are teaching about them as if they no longer exist....very much not the case.

Monday morning we went to a pueblo nearby to see the amazing work a volunteer has done creating a municipal womens office in her site. It was quite the accomplishment with her counterparts. Right now only about 60 of the 333 municipalities in Guatemala have womens offices, even though it was put into law five years ago. We had a guest speaker of a recently elected woman who is the first and only sentator for her department (the equivalent of a state in the US). She talked about the role of women in politics and the challenge that its been for her to advance in the male dominated arena. The municipality was kind enough to give us a great snack of tamales and coffee and lunch too. That night while we out eating dinner, the power went out everywhere and we had a romantic dinner with the group by candlelight. Im assuming the pizza was from a wood fire stove, otherwise Im not sure how it came out cooked. Power outages are rather common here.

Tuesday we visited another pueblo in the area to see the work that another volunteer had done with womens groups in her community. We were all supposed to give presentations to these womens groups, but there was a little snafu. The water had been shut off by a group of angry citizens who were generally pissed off, as far as we can tell, because the person they wanted didnt get elected and there's an international mining company that wants to set up shop in their area. Consequently, 20,000 people who have nothing to do with all that have been without water for over and a week and they say that it could be a month more. People are forced to buy jugs of water, stretching already tight budgets, or try to collect rainwater at the end of a drindling rainy season. Tough times, but an effective way to get attention. So basically, the womens groups were in meetings about how to get water which should obviously take priority over our little plans. The other groups gave their presentations to trainees and the couple of women that were there, but since we had already given ours to our womens group in Alotenango, we were off the hook that day, even though we had put in all that work on making the pretty posters. That afternoon we were supposed to go visit another town, but rumblings about a lynching mob prevented us from going to that activity. These little examples show that sort of environment that we're working in Guatemala....unpredicatable.

The next day we visited more volunteers, met their mayors and counterparts and got ideas of some successful projects in their muncipalities. Then we drove to Quetzaltenango, more commonly known as Xela (Shay-la). We were thrilled to go to Hiper-Paiz, the mega-uber-super store (sickenly half owned by Wal-Mart) and get breakfast makings and whatnot and enjoy some tastey fresh Subway for dinner. That night a few of us went out for a free salsa lesson and enojoyable dancing experience.

The next afternoon we took advantage of the bountiful market in another pueblo that we visited to purchase a giant bagful of veggetables to make dinner with the hostel. We threw together a bangin peanut sauce that we put over the mounds of stirfried veggies and rice. Its amazing what you can come up with with a few local ingredients and a splash of creativity. Overall, I think each of us spect the equivalent of like 40 cents on that delicious meal. Its always fun cooking in hostels too where you get to meet people from all over the world and hear about their travels and what not. We met a guatemalan women who is studying to get her masters degree in Municipal Development in the capital. Rather a neat coincidence, and she invited us to visit her classes sometime.

Friday we went to the university in Xela to use their computer labs for a ArcView GIS training which was really fun. I think I could look at maps all day long. That afternoon we met with the governor of the department of Quetzaltenango with all pomp and circumstance. We arrived to the meeting room with the welcoming of a live marimba band - seven guys dressed up in suits playing two giant marimbas that were 75 years old. The marimba is basically a giant wooden xylophone played with 2-3 mallets a person. The marimba is one of their patriotic symbols and this music is heard everywhere in Guatemala...including on the camionetas, in tiendas, at parties and throughout the neighborhoods through thin walls from houses. After the marimba playing, the governor spoke for a while, thanking Peace Corps for the work that they have done. A few other people spoke, mostly consisting of thanking other people for other things. Generally wherever you go, there is lots of formalities for meeting with the welcomes, thank yous, and closings. Men can speak at length about really any topic, without really saying anything sometimes. Generally it starts out with "Very good welcome to our lovely town. We hope that you like it and feel at home here. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to thank...." and then ends with "The doors are always open here and you are welcome at any time. If you should need anything, we are at your service. Gracias....gracias...gracias..." Its all very nice to hear and Im sure its well meant, but sometimes I wish we could just cut out some of the fluff in every meeting that is had. Men in general speak much more than women and women are expected to wait for their turn to speak. This is evident both in formal situations and at the dinner table in various families. After all the talking and thanking, which was very nice but seemed to go on for hours, we were fed a nice meal consisting of corn in various forms. (Savory tamales, sweet tamales). For our last night in Xela we went out and had a good fun rowdy time filled with salsa and reggaeton.

Saturday we were supposed to go to these cool hotsprings on our way home, but due to heavy rains and landslides around the country, the road there was blocked and alas, we couldnt make it.

Now we're back in Alotenango with less than a month left in training. I cant believe that the time has gone so fast. We find out our sites in like two weeks and we're all getting very anxious to know our fate for the next two years.

A couple other random things...One day we went to the "Pacas", the giant sale of used clothes in Antigua. Its basically appears to me to be all the reject clothes from Goodwills in the states. Prices are ridiculously cheap and there are tons of American brands. One particular table we were searching through seemed to be straight from Texas since most of the t-shirts had some sort of Texas team or some relation to it. I found a great American Eagle t-shrit of the exact same size and style of one that I had at home that was one of my favorites and bought it for about 50 cents. Most of the hanging clothes are on Old Navy hangers, which makes sense with the fact that Old Navy makes a new hanger for every clothing item that it sells and doesn't recycle them in their stores, so I suppose Guatemala makes a good market for getting rid of them. Its so weird to see all those American clothes and people walking around with no idea what their t-shirts are saying. For example, a young girl sporting a nice piece of apparel that stated, "I've got game." It makes you think about all the crazy connections in this world and how when you drop your clothes off at Goodwill, you never think about them again and don't think that some random Guatemalan will be wearing your hand-me-downs. I keep waiting to find one of my old soccer shirts with "McKee" pasted on the back.

We've had the opportunity to do some interesting cultural activities in Erica's house. One day, her host mom taught us how to make tortillas (literally the verb is tortear, meaning "to tortilla.) We went through the whole process of putting the corn in the grinding machine, forming it into a ball of dough, then slapping little balls of it between our hand repeatedly to attempt to form round circles. The pancake like pieces are put onto a comal, a heated piece of clay over an open fire. Many people cook with open fires in closed in areas, which results in lots of lung problems for the women who are in the kitchen with the trapped smoke all day long. Lung disease and early death from years kitchen fire smoke exposure are unfortunately common. Its a lot harder than it looks to make a good tortilla and ours definitely weren't as rico as the Guatemalan experts. The family handed us a few ripe avacadoes and some salt to enough the fruits of our effort with.

Another thing we did at Erica's house was participate in the cake baking class put on by a local NGO that works with skils training for women. They have these cooking and sewing classes in her house several times a week for income generation projects and we've seen them working during our Spanish classes. Now that our Spanish classes are over since Peace Corps says that we have a high enough level of Spanish, we have some time for "self-study" for language, cultural, and technical things. So today we participated in a cake-baking class where we make pastel de almendras - Almond Cake. It was absolutely divine with a creme filling and merrangue topping and if any of you know how much I like almond extract you can imagine how pleased I was. It was a cool opportunity to hang out with the group of about 25 women (plus babies on backs) and see the working of the organization.

Something scary that I just found out in an email from a friend from the states who came down here to study abroad...after being in Guatemala for like 3 days and on their way back from visiting Tikal to the capital, her microbus van was stopped by a group of men with guns, they were forced into a pickup, taken into the forest, tied up, had all their valuables stolen, and then the guys took off. Other than being very emotionally shaken, everyone was okay and they made it back to the capital. Very scary stuff. The security situation here is very frightening, but the bright side is that if you do get robbed and you willingly give up your stuff, usually they dont hurt you. Gotta keep it positive.

In general things are going very well and its crazy how fast you get used to things and how I dont even think twice about most things that struck me as odd at first. There was this house in Alotenango that Ive walked by many times, and I just noticed that walls are made of corn husks and the fence around it is made of the side panels of an old school bus. Ive been running and doing yoga and trying to stay in shape. Im very comfortable with my spanish now and my host mom commented to me this morning how how much it has improved just in this time. The rainy season is supposedly coming to an end, but its making a good show before finishing up. Its been three days and my washed clothes still arent dry. Several times a week my host family asks if Im coming back for Christmas. Id like to, but Ill have to see how far out in the boonies my site is.

Coffee plantation, tech training, and birthday celebrations

Yesterday we had the privilege of visiting the "terrenos", or land, of Kelly´s host dad. He owns several acres outside of Alontenango so we all piled into the back of his pick-up truck for a trip to the "campo." He grows coffee that we sells in the raw form to an intermediary which de-husks it and dries it, which then sells to Starbucks which roasts and sells it. It was a huge learning experience for me to hear about the entire process first hand from the guy who plants the seed himself. He talked about the difficulties with the prices on the world market and the poor prices that the intermediary pays to him. In turn, he cant pay a good wage to his two helpers that work with him. The intermediary makes the greatest share, but Starbucks pays a lousy price. The coffee grown in the this area (available at Starbucks as the "Antiguan Blend" - ask for it) is supposedly world-renowned and very unique due to the special growing conditions of a high altitude of 3000 feet and the fertile volcanic soil. He talked about blends of different beans that he grows that are mixed together to obtain the desireable blend. "Aroma, cuerpo, sabor..." meaning aroma, body, and flavor. It actually seems a lot like cultivating grapes for wine in some ways. Coffee likes to grow in the shade, so there are lots of other types of plants growing in with the coffee trees. limes, bananas, poinsettas, avacadoes, and jocotes (a small bitter fruit with a giant pit that is very popular here to eat with salt). Right now the coffee is almost ready to be harvested...it is bright green and big and some of the pods are starting to turn red, meaning they are ready. We bit some open and took out the white beans inside which are covered with "honey". Unripe, untoasted beans are not very tasty, FYI. But is was absolutely fascinating to see the process and talk about it...at the source!!! He invited us back in December or January during the harvest to hang out for a day and pick with them. I hope to take him up on that, depending on where my site is, of course. We wandered around his property for a awhile down to the river and we talked about the problems of deforestation (due to people depending on firewood to cook over open fires) and contamination (Guatemala has virtually no water treatment and everything from the toilet goes directly into the river in Alotenango. Not the swimming type river.) Before leaving, we sucked honey out of bright red flowers and he gave us some parsley, jocotes, and carrots to take home to our families. Very kind.

In case is sounds like Im having too much fun here and Im not working....dont worry, Im working very hard. Every day we have four hours of Spanish class in the morning and in the afternoons we have technical trainings or we work on projects.

In the afternoon yesterday we led our womens group meeting on The Importance of Women in the Community. I led a participatory activity on self-esteem and we all played a part in a skit where I had a baby doll on my back like a local woman. They thought that the ginga carrying a baby like that was hilarious and they generally enjoyed the whole presentation I think. This was a practice run of sorts and we will give it again for a different group of women during our field-based training next week.

Today we received our first formal GIS (Geographic Information Systems) training and went around Antigua gathering GPS points. We can get ArcView (the GIS program) for free from an organization if we prove that we will actually use it in the municipality. So that is cool. However, the data in Guatemala, as you can imagine, is not of the highest integrity...so it can be rather challenging. The different government agencies use different projections of the flattened world, so their data doesnt match up. Such is life in the developing world. Still, its a great opportunity to be able to use GIS both for the municipality and for my own professional development.

As since today is my birthday, Im spending the entire day in Antigua coincidentally for Spanish class in the morning and the GIS tech class for the afternoon, and coveniently hanging out here for the rest of the evening. Thus, last night was my Guatemalan family celebration. When I came home in the evening with my three other trainee friends, I was greeted at the door with of large number of my "cousins" (kids) all handing me flowers and singing some celebration song in Spanish. It was a adorable and very touching. My mom made hamburgers, french fries, and strawberry cheesecake! that we all endulged on. Of course everybody sang "Feliz cumpleaños" to me with some additional verses that translate as, "we want cake now, even though it may only be a little piece" and "and chocoate too." I received nice cards from a bunch of people and gifts of jewelry and underwear from my sisters and aunt. Overall, I felt very celebrated and appreciated and really part of the family. Im about to go meet up with a bunch of people for dinner and drinks for the rest of the evening. Happy birthday to me!

Feria in Dueñas, Volcán Pacaya, and other musing about the conditions in Guatemala

The big news this week in Guatemala is that Carlos Peña, a young Guatemalan chico guapo, won Latin American Idol!!!! Id been watching with my family after dinner and when they made the announcement, we all jumped off the couch and started screaming in excitement. It was a proud moment for the nation and that kid is definitely the talk of the country and the envy of the chicas.

I had a fabulous weekend of carnivals and volcanoes. On Saturday evening I had the pleasure of going to the pueblo of Dueñas for their "feria"...the festival-carnival of their patron saint. Every town has their patron saint that is usually part of the full name of the town which they celebrate every year...for a whole month in the case of Dueñas. We visited some other trainees that live in town and played some rousing card games before venturing out into the crowds. This intriguing event was complete with rusty and creaky rides that looked like they were from the 1940s and were turned by hand or with a foot pedal. The ferris wheel was going way to fast to look safe. You couldnt pay me to go on it. The streets were filled with carnival games and delicious but hygenically dangerous street food. We started the dancing in the middle of the crowd in front of the stage with a live band and danced with some old drunk Guatemalan men. Good times. I have never seen so many people drunkenly passed out in the street before. (Sara, Im sure it pales in comparison to your Oktoberfest experience). Those guys seriously just lay down wherever and sleep it off. There were shines set up with candles all over in honor of San Miguel and the streets were covered in pine branches for....something siginificant Im sure.

After that wonderful cultural experience we got up at dawn on Sunday morning to climb a LIVE ACTIVE volcano, Pacaya. After several hours on several camionetas chugging their way up the mountainside, we arrived at the national park entrace. Pacaya is the second-most visited natural attraction in Guatemala besides the ruins in Tikal. There is a Peace Corps volunteer who works in the ecotourism program who met us on the bus on the way there. To climb the volcano you pass through cool, moist, green jungle on a very steep path. All of a sudden the trees just end and you come out staring right into the black crater. After snapping some photos that do no justice to the beauty of the view, you descend INTO THE CRATER! and walk across the cooling lava. You can feel the heat through the bottom of your shoes and see the heat waves across the rocks. The cooled lava looks like the ripples of how brownie batter falls. When you touch it its sharp like tiny shards of class. We took advantage of the earths natural heat to roast marshmallows!!! Yes, thats rights, I roasted marshmallows over hot lava and made peanut butter sandwiches with them from the special Jiff I brought from home. ¡Qué rico! This was seriously one of the coolest things Ive done in my life. Its absolutely unbelievable to witness the action of MOVING MELTED ROCK up close and personal. Its a bit nerve wracking with every step you take across the lava field since some times it makes cracking noises under your weight and you just hope that its solid enough underneath. The lava just seeps out of below at different areas. Ive never been to the volcanoes in Hawaii, so I dont know how it is there....but it seems like one of those things that wouldnt be allowed in the US. (Like many things I come across in Guatemala). Or at least there would be a sign saying something about"...at your own risk" and dont sue us if you fall in. Anyway, it was cool.

Other things that Ive been doing....Kelly and I ran to Ciudad Vieja and back, about 10K (6 miles-ish) one day. There was a dead dog on the side of the road that we had to leap over which made me almost vomit on the spot. The street dogs here are in such horrible shape. Ive never seen such emaciated, diseased, bleeding sore-covered beings.

Weve finally gotten some chances to do some relaxing in Antigua and Im starting to get to know the restaurants, bars, and sites of this nifty colonial city. Its good to be able to spend time with other trainees and volunteers and have some down time and reflection time on everything that we are experiencing and dealing with here.

This was not a good week for camionetas. There was two accidents along the highway that we go on to get to get to the training center in Santa Lucia. Lots of people seriously injured and some fatalities, I think. The drivers just have no sense of physics when they rip around those mountain curves. I find myself crossing myself like the little old catholic ladies, even though Im not even close to being Catholic, but somehow it makes me feel better since theyre doing it. Peace Corps called us on our cell phones to make sure that we werent on the bus that crashed since we hadnt arrived at the center yet. We had passed by the accident on the way and called our host families to let them know that we were okay before the town gossip of the news got to them. The other horrible thing about these accidents is that the drivers and their helpers flee the scene so as not to be held responsible. Very, very sad. And then today on the way to Antigua to go to the bank and use internet right now, there was smoke coming into the bus from under the dashboard. We debated whether we should exit the bus and I asked the helper if everything was okay before I paid. But generally in these situations I look around and see how the locals are reacting. If they think the situation is nornal and no cause for alarm....generally its okay. Hopefully.

In our group in Alotenango weve been busy planning our presentations and activities for the womens groups. This week weve been working on our "charla" on self-esteem and the importance of the role of women in the community. It been fun and challenging coming up with good participatory activities for the topics, but I think it will go well. Were doing a practice session with the womens group in Alotenango before we give the official one to a womens group during our field-based training upon which we will be evaluated.

Today we met with the coordinator of the Municipal Planning Office for the first time and got to know the different offices and departments of the municipality. It was a good experience and I think he means well, but the focus of the department is on big construction projects that people can see. The muni´s main concern is reelection of the mayor, which didnt happen in Alotenango, which they hope will be accomplished by the people seeing the completion of big projects. There is little thought to long term planning, or even planning of the year. When I asked, there is NO PLAN that exists for the municipality, even though they are techinically required by law to have annual opperating plans. Coming from the perspective of having read and studied so many comprehensive plans of cities in the states, its hard to see the lack of long term planning. This is an area that hopefully I can help the muni in which i will be working in my site.

Yesterday in the training center we had a very intriguing guest speaker come from Infopress, a infomation service provider active in Guatemala. The guy is an American who has live in Guatemala for like 25 years working in the media here. He also works a lot with cooperatives. They provide news bulletins to mayors and municipalities and has a very interesting perspective on international development. They also do trainings for communities and municipalities on corruption, political issues, and citizen participation. He made some very thought-provoking points in the course of his talk and according to him...

-Salaries in Guatemala are so low that people cannot purchase what they produce. In Guatemala only 25% of the people make the per capita GDP of the country, where in the US it is 60% so people have much more purchasing power in the states i.e. Fords idea of paying the workers enough of a salary so that they could buy the cars they were making.

-Planation owners often pay for the campaign costs of the mayors in order for exemption from taxes when they are elected. Sound familiar?

-In Guatemala you would have to pick 300 lbs of coffee to earn enough money to purchase one pound of coffee in the United States.

-Producers of products make very little money (semicolon) intermediaries make the bulk.

-The rich control the mainstream media, which supposedly controls corruption, which supposedly controls democracy. Thus corruption is rampant here. Hmm....

-One of the problems with international aid, is that it encourages "supply-based collectivism" where people come together in groups because there is money or stuff to be had, and disseminate when that source dries up. He thinks that collectivism only works SUSTAINABLY when it is demand-based, meaning that there is a reason or advantage to working together. In this way capitalism can generate collectivism. It is interesting to muse where Peace Corps fits into this and how we can promote demand-based collectivsm rather than supply-based, and if that is possible. This seemed to tie into William Easterlys book that I read on international development titled The White Mans Burden. The reason why "big plan" development has consistantly not worked, despite the billions of dollars being thrown into it. Local grass roots projects seem to have more "success", maybe because they are demand-based instead of supply-based. When tons of money or stuff is thrown at a country, there is no accountability of the people who provide the "development service" to the people receiving it. Thus, inefficiency, wastefullness, laziness, administrative problems or whatever hinder it from working because the client cant demand it to be any different.

Some good things to think about.

So far, being in Guatemala confirms and strengthens my love for the United States and its institutions in a non-holier-than-thou way. But it also shows me that the way we do things is not the only or best way to do them.

Volunteer site visit

For the past few days i had the pleasure of visiting another Municipal development volunteer in her site in Poaquil, about 2 hours from Alontenango. We had a fabulous time and it was wonderful to see the volunteer life in action. We met up with several other volunteers in the area as well so I was able to see a variety of housing situations and chat with people about their variety of work situations.

She has a wonderful house....with two bedrooms, a bathroom (with a hot shower!), kitchen-dining room, and patio. This is not roughing-it-Peace Corps-life. She has made it really cute with decorations and furniture built on request by local carpenters. She has a fridge, gas stove, and even a mini food processor. She took me to the Municipal building where she works and I got to meet her counterpart and other office employees.

We took a good like 45 minute hike through the countryside to a nearby smaller settlement and met a family that shes friends with up there. The mother was away for breast cancer treatment in the nearest city of Chimaltenango, so I didnt get to meet her. I heard great stories about the work that shes done in the community and it worries me to think about the type of treatment that shes receiving at the public hospital. The little girls showed us around their property to their apple trees, crazy tropical fruit trees, corn, and medicinal herbs. The property had beautiful views of Poaquil down below and green mountainsides covered with cornfields for as far as you could see. Stunning. I also met Rosa, a dynamic young women who lives up there who is the only indiginous women to attend law school in Chimal. She was incredibly friendly and showed us all of her flowers and fruits that she cultivates in her spare time to unwind from the stress of school.

We went on a beautiful and memorable run that was all up hill that kicked my butt in a good way. She has run several marathons and has been running at this altitude for two years now, so I was challenged. We went in late afternoon with some dark coulds in the sky and some rays of sunlight poking through. There was mist beginning to settle in the little valleys of corn fields and the views were breathtaking as we climber further up the hillside. (The whole experience was rather breathtaking with the combination of running up hill, at altitude, with the occasional camioneta or large truck belching out black fumes in its wake).

One of the great lessons of the trip is that cooking on your own in Guatemala can be fun, nutritious, varied, and tasty. I was treated to such delicacies as green curry with market fresh veggies, pizza with homemade sauce and dough, pancakes with fresh marionberry sauce, tofu phad thai, AND....homemade rice krispies treats two nights in a row!!! I was in heaven and am actually getting really excited about cooking when I get my own place. Some of the specialty items like sesame oil and green curry paste were from the capital, but other stuff is handily available around town such as fresh ginger root and marshmallows.

She also took me to the ruins outside of Tecpán called Iximché. Ruins of ancient Mayan town. Very cool. It took us about 45 minutes to walk there from where the bus dropped us off, so it was also nice to walk through the town along the way. You can climb up on the old stone steps and look out over the whole settlement of stone structures and wide open grassy spaces in between. In the back there is an area with people still do traditional religious ceremonies and we stumbled upon the embers of some recent fires that thousands of bees were swarming around what we think was something sweet added to the fires. The smouldering embers and buzzing of the bees gave off a very mystical sensation.

We walked around town on market day to take in all the colors, sounds, and smells that market day in Guatemala has to offer. There is a huge abundance and variety of fresh fruits and veggies. There is also everything you need for your house in plastic form. Lots of fake Puma and Abercrombie clothing to be sold, alongside brightly colored traditional intricately woven skirts and tops for the women.

Another trainee and I relished fresh liquados while waiting for the bus back home. A liquado is a fresh fruit smoothie blended with milk right before your eyes from piles of bananas, strawberries, and pineapples. Heavenly. You just try to focus on the yummy flavors and not the unknown handling of the fresh fruits with bare hands.

Overally the site visit was a great way to see what "real" volunteer life is about, ask TONS of questions, and get the low down on Peace Corps. It was great to be treated to yummy meals, hot showers, and movies. It was very nice to meet their Guatemalan friends, neighbors, counterparts, and familiar people they interact with every day. I feel much more ready to head out to my site armed with some ideas for creative things to do with my house and my food and with a good realistic attitude of what to expect from work and the whole experience.