First "formal" training day

So right now I¨m in Ciudad Vieja...about a 10 minute drive in my host sister´s car to get to fast(er) internet.

I went to a birthday party last night of a friend of my host mom which was a great experience. There were tons of friends and neighbors, mostly children. We opened the door and it was basically a farm behind the door with chickens, horses, and many sacks of avacados. It was great to see all the kids (tons of them) hitting the piñata and so excited for cake and candy. My host mom made the cake which was a giant white cake with cream frosting and fresh strawberries for 60 people. She sometimes makes these cakes and sells them out of her store because she went to official baking school some years ago.

Last night I brought out my photos to show the family and they brought out all of theirs too. It was really fun to chat about everything.

Everyone in town seems to know everyone else and there is constant talk of what everyone else is doing. Some of our families are related of the 4 of us here, but they all know each other well.

Families have to pay some for high school and for university also. In the more rural areas it is rare to finish high school and most have more like a 6th grade education. Obviously in more urban areas more people finish high school and go to further technical training tracks or university. The gender roles here are quite rigid though for occupations.

The 30 of us that came to Guatemala together are from municipal development, food security, and agricultural marketing. 17 are municipal development. All four of us girls in Alotenango are municipal development.

So far the weather is great....but very humid and nothing (like my wash cloth) ever dries. It is usually sunny in the morning and then clouds up around lunch time and then rains in the afternoon. Temperature-wise it is quite pleasant.

Today we had our first "formal" Spanish class in the house of one of the girls here. It was very relaxed with the four of us and our wonderful teacher. We laughed a lot....which I do here in general a lot. We walked around town, bought snacks, and visited the cemetary. The cemetary is quite beautiful high up in town with a great view of the volcanoes and all the greenery around. It is also much more natural than cemetaries in the US which are so perfectly manicured. We each went to our houses for lunch, the biggest meal of the day. Then we met up with the other Municipal Development people (17 of us) from other towns in the "Muni" (the Municipalidad...or city office.) We learned slightly more about what we may be doing. For our time during training, we"ll be working with a community group to build their capacity and help with projects that they are working on. We are expected to give a series of "charlas" (chats, presentations) on different topics to them.

There is a watch for Hurricane Felix so Peace Corps is sending us back to the training center in Santa Lucia to wait it out. They are very cautious for our safety.

So far I"m still healthy. The only really annoying things are that the water is on some days, and some days not and that the internet is not what I"m used to. But so far so good and I"m loving getting to know this beautiful country and such nice and welcoming people.