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!!!!