La Navidad en Guatemala

The Christmas celebrating here started in the afternoon on the 24th. I began with the ninth consecutive Posada (See video in other posting of a Posada), which is a re-enactment of Jesus and Mary searching for a place to stay. This night for the Posada, instead of processing from one house to another house where celebrations would occur and Joseph and Mary would stay for the night, we went to the Church where after the Posada, midnight mass was celebrated (for the first time, midnight mass was celebrated at 9pm – I was thankful for Padre Victor´s mandate). The service, since there was no priest, was held outside. People brought their candles for light along with hoards of loud fireworks (there only purpose was to make noise), firecrackers, sparklers, and fountain fireworks. Firecrackers or things that explode loudly are used for any festive occasion here – birthdays, independence day, whatever. Sparklers, fountains, and
candles were extra things to celebrate Jesus being born, the light of the world. All these things were used throughout the service with kids constantly running around jumping through fountains of ¨fire¨ or carrying sparklers or gazing where the loud bang occurred. For me it probably was the most distracting service or mass I have been too. I mean, how am I supposed to put my attention level to super (something necessary for me right now while listening in Spanish if I want to understand) with so many giggling kids and pretty lights while a homily is going on? After seeing the kids during the service, I also understood while there was a national campaign to keep kids safe from burns during the holiday season.

So as I said, I did not get much from the homily itself, but a significant thing for me was something that was done when the service ended. Everyone blew out their candles and ceased the fireworks and everything else so that there was complete silence and darkness. Then after a bit, lights were turned on and everything relit as the baby Jesus was brought out to accompanyJoseph and Mary. After a veneration of the baby Jesus, and placing the Holy Family in the Nativity, the celebration ended and moved to the homes where the traditional meal is tamales and hot fruit punch.

The family with whom I am staying killed a turkey for the Christmas Eve dinner, which occurred at 1:00 AM on the 25^th. They also used part of a pig for lunch on the 24^th. Unfortunately for me, I paid my respects by eating everything, almost all which was foreign to my stomach whether because I had never tried it before or because my stomach was now used to the bean and tortillas diet.. Well I paid dearly the next day and I suspect the culprit was the 8 pieces of chicarón, which are deep-fried chunks of pig fat, however I am sure that the factory cookies, turkey, and loads of hot fruit punch did not help.

My plan for the 25^th, Christmas Day, was to go to San Carlos to spend it with Padre Victor and other guests. I still went feeling bad, but I think I visited more with the toilet and my hearty piece of bread, rehydration drinks, and guisquiles (their like thorny potatoes that grow on a vine) were not exactly was I was expecting to eat when thinking about the meal the days before. I was actually really thankful. The people at the Church took care of me very well. Not that I was that bad off, but it was reassuring to have them help me. Plus the Church had a toilet, hot shower, a couch, and even a TV which added that touch of relaxation needed when you not feeling good. By the next morning, I was feeling better, but would not start eating normally til the weekend. I know it will be easy to remember next time not to eat pig in my town again.

Until I talked with family and realized people were together at Gee Gee's or Uncle Ben's or Aunt Deb's or that Charlie and Katie were taking the younger cousins to the movies on Christmas Day, December 25^th did not seem like Christmas. The religious aspect was there, but where was my Christmas Eve mass at St. Pete's? Where were all the family gatherings we have? Where was the cold and the snow and the Christmas songs which I could not find on the radio and missed so much? Most importantly, where was my family? For me, I guess I don't know if Christmas happened. It´s not necessarily something sad or happy, but its as though Christmas was left out of the calendar for 2007 and that I need to wait longer.

Something which did not exactly put me in the Christmas spirit during this time was a surprise I had. It was something for which I was praying I would avoid but still thinking at the same time when it would come. The surprise came after felling something crawling on my in my bed while sleeping and then examining my bed after now being able to sleep from crawling and bites. The bites, though, did not hurt, which made me think it was something like a bed bug of some sort. When I took off my sheets, however, I found hoping tiny monsters – AKA fleas. I spent the day washing everything from my clothes to my bedding, going to San Carlos to buy a bug killer and to wrap my wimpy mattress in plastic, and spraying and thoroughly cleaning my room. Upon cleaning my room, I realized 2 things. There is a lot of dirt and dust that is coming from outside into the room through the space between the wall and ceiling. I also realized other bugs were entering in my room too when to my surprise after and hour after spraying the all purpose killing agent, I found a dying scorpion under my bed. Although I don't really like using this poison, it just might be a preventative spray if I see another scorpion.

Finally, to update you all to where I am today, I´ll let you know how New Years went too.

So after a relaxing weekend where I went off my all-vegetable diet (due to me being sick earlier in the week) to the normal food I was used to eating, I was convinced to go to Lake Atitlan to a tourist town in Sololá for New Years. There nearly all the new volunteers would be meeting to bring in the new year. I hit the road on the 31^st bright and early at 5:30 and made it to Panajachel by 2:00pm. I think I am getting used to long, crammed camioneta rides as I was not that beat afterward. The town was quite warm, warmer than my site which felt really good, and was filled with North Americans and Guatemalans alike.

The evening of the 31^st we had a nice dinner, danced and celebrated and then for midnight some of us went to the lake to watch people shooting of fireworks. I thought this was a much more peaceful option to where we had been where people were lighting off what seemed to be sticks of dynamite. Their explosion was so loud my ears were still hurting the next day. I would call the thing a US quality firework explosion (like what you hear when the big fireworks are exploding in, for instance, Grand Rapids) except that it did not leave the ground leaving those around the ¨bomb¨ deafened.

New Years Day was filled with relaxment including wearing shorts, eating lots of peanut butter sandwiches and oranges (a family from my town gave me 40 to bring on my trip to Sololá), walking the beach and walking through the city and all the vendors, and finally going swimming in the lake. Unfortunately I did not take my camera, but there is a picture of the lake in a previous blog.

Here was the little altar the family made in their house for Christmas
Here is the unlucky turkey with his feathers in the plastic container. To our defense, he was mean to people who tried to enter into the coop.
Here was one of my new friends I found in my room. I found this guy after treating my room for the fleas I had in my bed and then after sweeping the floor. In this stage, the scorpion is pretty close to dead
Here is a picture of the posada for those of you who can view the video.

Here is the Nativity in the Church. No pine trees were used, but they did use a bunch of green plants and flowers as you might be able to see in the picture. This picture is still from before Christmas so Mary and Joseph and Jesus are not in the Nativity
Here is a picture of the church in my aldea
And here is a picture of the Church from the outside
This is one of the tiny school building that is in the aldea. Also in it is the main playing court of the aldea where soccer is played. Soon there will be a basketball rim set up. You can see it resting in the right of the picture. I cant wait as I am the equivalent of an actual good basketball player down here when compared to everyone else. I guess my height might have something to do with it.Here are future tortillas . It is corn dried on the stalk and thrown on the ground in front of the hosue. It only needs to be dehusked and then the kernels needed to be removed from the cob. From there you cook the kernels in water for a day. Then you grind it all with calcium to get your dough to form your tortillas. In the back right, you can see the black plastic wall which represent 1 of the 2 walls I use when bathing next to the pila. Although you can see the actual pila I use, another pila , which is blue, is in the photo on the left.
More future tortillas

Constructing a house -- Instead of using adobe like most of the house, these people are constructing their house with concrete brick. I got to help with some of the work.

Congratulations Grandpa D!

Congratulations my dear Grandpa

For retiring this January two

There is no turning back now

As I already wrote this poem for you

No more meetings upstairs

Where they urge to buy Meijers

No more sleeping in a loading trailer

When during the day you get tired

No more fighting with Bertha

Or other Meijer employees

You’ll pass the days with Gee Gee

Now bothering her as you please

No more frustrations caused by bosses

Like Kent or Dan or Jay

Now sporting events and mowing

Will fill your summer day

You won’t get to go to the circus

And get paid each time you go

But now you can spend your golden years

Watching your grandkids grow



We are proud of you Grandpa

And all the things you do

And lastly not to forget

We sure do all love you

Video - La Posada en mi Aldea

Here is a video of a posada that took place in the village in which I live. It is a reenactment of Joseph and Mary looking for a place to stay before giving birth to Jesus. (See more information on Posadas in other blogs -- just click the word Posada in the list of links on the right of blog screen). In the video you can hear people singing and can see but cannot hear instruments like the flute and the turtle shell which are used to play more traditional songs. Finally you can also here firecrackers, somethings used for any point of celebration

Merry Christmas Video

Merry Christmas!

Primer mes en mi sitío

This Sunday will mark the beginning of my 2nd month in my new site and as an official volunteer. Just 2 more months of what they say are the hardest months of your service.

I think one hard thing here is that by being North American, I am given many stereotypes, one being that I am extraordinarily rich and that literally in the backpack I carry around I have wads upon wads of dollar bills (they have said this almost exactly many times). Because of this there are those who try to take advantage of you when you are buying something since there is hardly ever prices listed. Luckily most people will not take advantage of you and also that I have a pretty good memory for some of the prices. Another stereotype which is not so bad is that I, as a person from the US, have an education and expertise in any area and that I have knowledge or nearly everything. For example, I found myself one day passing by some engineers working on widening the dirt road that I use to get from the capital to where I live (They tell me that in 2 years, there will be asphalt, but I guess they have been ¨widening¨ the road for many years – but actually I believe them and am excite that their at least filling in the giant crevices in the dirt road.). After saying hi, they asked me ¨Hey, you’ll be able to help us with this project if you want.¨ I replied, ¨Well, I don’t really have that expertise.¨ ¨What do you mean? You aren’t an engineer¨ they said a bit stunned that I wasn’t an engineer.

Being the person who is thought to have all the knowledge, I also get asked a mountain’s worth of questions, some funny and some basic:

I heard in a song that the earth has poles? What poles are they talking about?

Korea and Spain are part of the United States, right?

Men and Women both get menopause right?

Sometimes it makes me laugh, but it also makes me become a bit saddened knowing that there are some many people that just have not had the opportunity to have much of an education or one at all.

So since arriving, I have visited lots of families to meet them, see some possible problems they have, and mostly build confidence with them. I also, as you know, accompanied the medical staff from Spain and near have nearly finished my gigantic wooden shelving unit which should hold all the stuff in my suitcases and more. This project to build it, though, was probably the toughest project that I have done so far, partly because I had to haul the freshly cut pine wood up about 1 mile of mountain several times and then stripped the bark off, sanded the wood and cut the wood with a hand saw. Luckily though, there was a person in the village who fell the tree for lumber and gave me the scraps, which were still quite usable, but had bark on one side (see the pictures below).

Also during this time, the small town had its patron’s day fair for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It was not too big, but nearly the whole town came out and there was lots of food (they made tamales and some soups as well as the typical beans and tortillas), given free to all the people. They had events like the child and dog (which are basically strays except they generally stay in someone’s yard and kind of belong to someone) race and the horse race where some rides a horse as fast as he can past a small loop dangling on a rope. The object is for the rider to pass his pen through the loop.

At the mass, Padre Victor talked about me a little bit at mass and then invited me to a lunch with some of the community Church leaders. I was very grateful for this (and surprised) that he did this because I know it will help people get used to me being here in the community. There are still some children who cry at merely seeing me and there are adults who wont address questions to me when right next to them – they will simply ask another person about me even though I politely say that I understand Spanish and that I would be happy to answer your questions.

Oh also, a little surprisingly, the water ran out or dried up at house that I am living at. Luckily for us, there is water still in the other older building up the mountain, but if that runs out, I imagine we will need to start going to other houses or buying it for awhile. I am told though that this is common during the dry season and that these outages do not last too long. Unfortunately for me and everyone around me, though, I saved my once-every-two-day bucket bath for today. Hopefully for all our sakes, water will return soon.Here is where are some people were cooking tortillas outside on the plancha. They probably made about 1000 that day to celebrate the end of the novena, the nine days of mourning and prayers they do when someone dies.
For the same event, here are some women working on the tamales made from ground up corn mass, sauce, and sometimes some meat (in this case they used mean -- pork!). Then enclose the tamales in the banana leaves which you can also see in the picture.Here is the memorial that the people made for the person that died. Here the people prayed for the soul of this person. As you can see it was full of hand-made decorations and flowers and pine needles (which are used here for celebrations)
Here is a picture of a sunken volcano crater that now has become of beautiful lake, I think called Lake Ayarsa. In the background to the right, you can see some huge volcanoes, 2 of which I think are active.


Here is a picture of much closer to the lake. In it is another volunteer.
Here is a strange dessert I have had a few times. It is a sweet green moosh from a squash type plant. Buried inside are hard shells which are actually pieces of the shell of the fruit which you suck on, and then spit out. In the distance, you can see the latrine I use to, well as one person said down here, to do what only I can do.

Here are some of the planks of wood that are drying after I had cut them to size and removed the bark. In the background is the house that I am living in.
Here is my working station, me, the wood plank, and the machete. I used the machete to cut off the bark. The plank is leaning on an old pila, which is what is used here in Guatemala as the faucet and sink and where dishes and clothes are washed and in my case, where baths are taking.
Here is my room. As you might be able to see, the house is nowwhere air tight as the metal roof is just layed on top of the bricks or adobe (adobe is much more common and this is actually the only part of the house made of brick).Here are 2 picture of my shelving unit almost finished. Its about 7 feet tall, 5 feet long, and 2 feet wide.

Día de Acción de Gracias y las primeras 2 semanas

So my first week in site was filled with all kinds of small stuff. I went to the capital of the department of Jalapa, also called Jalapa, to find out how much things cost and to get some offers on a bed and dresser and table. I also just spent a lot of time trying to find things like the grocery store or the ministry of agriculture or the hospital and orient myself as I will probably need to go here at least every 1 to 2 weeks. I also spent my time trying to clean my room which was really dirty and disinfect everything that I had touched within recent times. I was doing this because after telling a nurse over the phone my symptoms, I was told I had scabies. Scabies, is a lovely parasite similar to lice except these guys spend there time burrowing and living in moist areas in your skin. The result is not pretty --- tons of bumps and rashes and a terrible itch. Thus I used a special soap for bathing and used a special cream on my body. The most difficult part is trying to make sure there is not anything in your clothes or bedding. Normally a dryer would kill these guys, but since that is not an option I either have to put everything in boiling water or in a sealed bag for 2 weeks. Both things are not really options. Luckily the next week, after seeing that the cream or the soap were not working, I would ask the doctors from Spain (see below for information on these doctors) to help me out since I was with them in person. They told me I had a fungus. Thus, I have to wash everything over again and go back to Jalapa to get different medicine, but I would say having a fungus that itches is a lot better than scabies.

Thanksgiving broke up the first week as I travelled to the capital to have a dinner there. While the vast majority of the new volunteers went to the ambassador’s house, I along with my friend Abi went to the house of the director of Peace Corps in Guatemala. The director and his family prepared a delicious meal typical of the US (cranberries, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, etc.) After eating beans and tortillas and other Guatemalan foods for so long, it tasted as though I were eating at a 5-star restaurant. Even the Doritos were mouth-watering. I guess I did not realize how much I even missed the little things I was used to. I can only imagine what my Mom’s or Dad’s or family member´s cooking would taste like – hopefully it will only be til May when I find that out.

The second week I was extremely lucky to be able to accompany and help 2 doctors and 2 nurses from Spain who were living in the parish rectory in San Carlos Alzatate and were working in the surrounding aldeas, including mine. I knew I had wanted to do this after meeting them the week before when I had dinner with them at the rectory after helping another Peace Corps volunteer translate during our free time for 2 people who came from the US (These people were visiting the parish since their parish back in the states was supporting this one in San Carlos) (I thought I would note that that meal I had has been the most delicious meal I have had here. It was a dish with tilapia and was made by the assistant of Padre Victor, the priest who is in charge of San Carlos. Her mother also knows how to cook well since with the other 2 American the other volunteer and I also got to eat lunch at her house.)

I was having a bit of trouble getting in contact with them and low and behold when I was searching for a ride to Jalapa while walking on the way to Jalapa (transportation is not that good where I am). I ran into them twice. Not only did I get the ride, but I was able to plan with them how I could accompany them. What luck – or better yet, what a Godincidence as someone I know likes to say.

So Monday and Tuesday I was with the nurses and doctors who were screening patients. I helped with the blood pressure, and the height and weight of the patients. The hardest part was surely writing the names of the patients.

After working and talking with the staff from Spain, I was able to realize that the level of malnutrition in some people is severe. They showed my pictures of people and I saw for myself some that look like they could be ones you would see on TV for a special documentary of Agency asking for money. Padre Victor told me there are 2 kids in my aldea that need to go to the hospital because of severe malnutrition but their parents wont permit it since one of them can’t leave work to accompany them at the hospital (which would be paid for by the parish).

The people from Spain were extremely friendly and really enjoyed seeing medical workers serving others in this type of environment. I couldn’t understand everything they say though, partly because I still can’t understand everything spoken in Spanish but also because they speak with a heavy Spanish accent. They ended their 1-month stay here yesterday. I really look forward to seeing them again in the future as the plan to give up more of the time in the following year to work in the same area.
Here is a picture of the staff from Spain that I had the privelege to accompany along with the other volunteer who came along as well.

Here were are playing some basketball. I have to say that the team I was on, which was at times out numbered 5 to 3, won all three times. The other person to in the picture all the way to the left is Clara, the assistant to Padre Victor.

Here is a picture of Padre Victor.

By the way, I wanted to note that I posted a video of the kite festival that occurred on All Saint´s Day. To see it, you need to go to the previous posts in November.

Fin del Entrenamiento y Juramento

Here is a picture of the posadas that took place in San Bartolomé. Look at a previous entry to remember everything if you have questions. In the picture, we(as in the public) are in a house and the statues of Joseph and Mary , which are in the back left of the picture, have already been carried in by procession.

So I’ll try to start where I left off, which was right after Dia de Todos Los Santos. That following week, I got to visit where I am right now, my current community in which I’ll be working for my 2 years of service. I’ll describe it a little bit, but with time and future entries, a lot more information will come out. The community is a small one, in the department of Jalapa. There are only about 500 families living in it and there’s a school, a Catholic Church without regular masses, and a building for people to come to when the nurse is in the town. For now, I’ll be living with a family with my own room without a door and at the moment without a dresser and a bed in which I fit. There’s no toilet, but only a raised cement structure to sit on with a hole. There also is really a good place to bathe. I just take a bath next to 2 walls of black plastic along side the outside sink, which is the only source of water that the house has. The land here reminds me of Colorado because there are mountains and pines and it is rocky and dry, which proves to be a challenge in growing gardens. The climate here is pretty comfortable and warmer than where I was living before. I would say it gets up to the 70´s just about every day and stays in the 50´s at night. December, January, and February are supposed to be the coolest days, so it looks like the weather only gets better from here. Also, there are lots of tropical fruit plants, including bananas and all the related fruit to bananas, papayas, oranges, lemons, limes, and whole bunch more of different fruits I have never even seen or eaten in the US. There is electricity in the house and there is water coming from pipes, although it still needs to be boiled before using it. They tell me that water does not dry up here, so that also is a good news as this is something that happens in some parts during the dry season.

The meals are very healthy and nutritious, so there is not too much worry about my health. I am going to have to get adjusted though to type of food I am eating. The community basically eats only what they raise. Some of the few things that they buy include salt, sugar, some other seasonings, and maybe some oatmeal. I eat whatever is put in front of me, with the exception of coffee. Meals generally include beans and tortillas with vegetable and the fruit that is in season. Dinner also might include an egg. I have also been served a vegetable soup and a spaghetti type meal too. Since I have been there, I was only served chicken a small portion of chicken twice, once for the first night that I arrived. I have yet to see them buy chicken or beef or another meat. I would imagine, though, that when a special occasion comes, they slaughter their animal that they have or buy the meat. I never leave the table hungry, but I am sure you can imagine why I don’t turn down food.

From what I have been told, the first 3 months at your new community after swearing-in are the hardest. Through this time, I am going to try to hang tough and try to get accustomed as best I can to my new environment.

Before I permanently moved to this community, I had to return back to San Bartolomé to finish up training. We took our Spanish exams (I don’t know my results but I know I passed without a problem), finished up homework, and made our visit to the Peace Corps HQ in the capital where we go to hear from the different government agencies working in Guatemala through the Embassy.

Friday, November 16 was swear-in day. We went to the ambassador’s house in the capital. The house was beautiful and the backyard was huge. The house looked like a huge US house and the yard actually had grass and landscaped grounds. There was even a heated pool, sauna, and tennis court way in back. The best part thought was that I did not even feel like I was in the middle of the city. I couldn’t here the constant roar of diesel buses or the honking nor was I overcome by the horrible pollution that often takes your breathe away, literally.

The ceremony itself was fast and included the ambassador and others giving some speeches, us volunteers taking an oath virtually the same as someone working for the government, and us volunteers receiving our certificates with a professional picture with the ambassador.

To me, it was hard to believe I had just completed training, my first 12-weeks in Guatemala. From now the days count down from 2 years, I start receiving my real living allowance, and start accruing my vacation days and 2 days a month. (I actually get all Guatemalan holidays along with Thanksgiving and 4^th of July for US holidays too but can only use them while in Guatemala).

After the ceremony, the San Bartolomé group treated the host families out to lunch, we all packed, and headed for Antigua for a evening of celebration and a joint dinner.

Here is a picture of all the people I was living with while in San Bartoloé plus Abi and Lauren.

Here is a picture of the swearing-in ceremony. In the picture from the left is the US Ambassador in Guatemala, the director for Peace Corps in Guatemala, and the director of my training for Peace Corps
Here is a picture of all the people in my program (Sustainable Agriculture) while celebrating in the backyard of the ambassador´s house after just having been sworn in as official volunteers. Also in the picture are my 2 bosses, more or less for the program I am doing

Todos Los Santos Video

I thought I would try to post this video of All Saints Day. It is a short clip of the festival of the giant kites. You might want to read the previous post to refresh yourself. To help, the video takes place in the cemetary where there is a mass crowd of people watching the giant kites fly in the sky. People are running in this video with their rope to try to get their kite in the sky. For me, just to see people sitting on gravestones and people selling popsickles in the cemetary was pretty strange and at the same time funny.

Giant Kites and My Site

This past week was certainly a full week. Tuesday, as I mentioned would happen, we learned about out future sites. I was surprised when I got my site because all the talk was that Abi, the volunteer living in San Bartolome, was going to live there. I also knew that the town was asking for a woman volunteer. Furthermore, I thought I was going to the site where I visited a volunteer. Boy were we all mistaken about all the sites. Really though, I am happy with how the site was chosen. I asked for a site where I could improve my Spanish, whether that site be a place where only Spanish was spoken or site where Spanish and an indigenous language were both spoken (sites where 2 languages were spoken were very common unlike a site where only Spanish was spoken). Guatemala also has some sites where only indigenous languages are spoken, which I guess in essence I was asking not to go to. Well, I got exactly what I wanted to the full extent. In the site I´ll be living at for the next 2 years, only Spanish is spoken. I´ll be living in an aldea in the Department of Jalapá, in the SE of Guatemala. This aldea, which basically is another word for a really small town, has 3500 people in it. The climate is temperate ranging between 60F and 72F during the day with an average annual temperature of 63F. I am pretty sure the amenities are few, but I do know that there is water to house through pipe and that they do have cell phone service. I´ll be going to my site this Wednesday til Sunday to basically get to know people and where I´ll be working and the agency with which I´ll be working (volunteers always have a partner group/agency with whom they are working with and specifically one person from this agency/group works specifically with the volunteer) before I actually start working and living there on Nov. 18. After that I´ll fill you all in on what the site is like. Oh, I thought I should also note that my site is very safe. All the sites that Peace Corps picks meet certain security and safety standards, so there is no worry for anyone, but this site was secure enough for women volunteers to go to (some sites women cannot work in because of other dangers toward them such as sexual harassment). I am a bit nervous about changing towns since I have become accustomed to living here in San Bartolome, but I am excited and only hope that the people are warm and welcoming to the first gringo that will ever living in their aldea.

The next day, Wednesday, was the day our group in San Bartolome made our presentations to the people of the town and a group of women there learning about things like cooking, nutrition, and crafts. We had prepared since the previous week, but still spent the whole day starting at 8am going til 6pm preparing food, practicing the presentation, or actually doing the presentation. We did the presentation on nutrition and prepared 4 items to make a balanced meal. It was a lot like a TV show except that the kitchen was open to all the people and that in between explaining the recipes, were also explaining the benefits of the food and the importance of eating healthily. We were worried at first since the women in the group did not show up until 3:00pm (even though they chose the beginning time of 2:00pm – the concept of time down here is a big challenge for me – I´ll have to explain it in a lesson.), but the day ended up being a huge success. We made dulce de pera y manzana (apple and pear sauce), pan integral (whole wheat bread), raguu de verduras (basically a tomato based pasta with tons of local vegetables), and humus con verduras crudas (a hummus dip served with raw vegetables). The hummus the people had never eaten before and eating the raw vegetables was something bizarre to do. They all ate the food though, and actually liked it and asked lots of questions about how to make it and the nutrition of the things.

Thursday, Día de Todos Los Santos (All Saint´s Day), I went with a Catholic family (Abi´s family) to the cemetery to see what the family did on this national holiday to honor their loved ones that had passed away. In the cemetery, people were painting the above ground graves (unlike in the US, it is a lot more common to have cement structures above ground) and cleaning and putting all kinds of flowers and other decorations. There were no fiestas in this cemetery like in other communities, but there were people flying kites so to get close to loved one in the sky.
After the cemetery, we walked to Santiago where there was a kite festival known throughout Guatemala. It was unbelievable. The kites were huge and made with such detail. Furthermore, there were tons of people and all this took place in a cemetery. People were crowed all over sitting and standing on everything. Vendors were selling everything from pastries and popsicles to beer. Plus, there were ropes everywhere with people every now and then running through the crowds trying to get their huge kite made of paper machete in the air. While in the cemetery, you had to always be on the look out for these people along with kites that were falling from the sky. All in all, we had such luck since the sun was out, there was plenty of wind, and we had no problems.
Below I tried to post a small clip of what it looked like in the cemetary for the festival of the giant kites.




Later in the day on Thursday along with making traditional foods, Catholics go to the Church in the evening in memory of loved ones that passed away. In the Church, the pews were taken from the center and in their place were 6 long rows of 15ft planks of wood with sawdust beneath the planks of wood. Families came to this area and lit about 20 candles in one area on the board. The families would then pass their times sitting next to the candles or in pews (but always leaving someone with the candles). They would wait until the candles completely burned away, which took a long time to do. At this point when there was barely any candle left, a child would take the flower of the flor de muerto (marigold, which is the flower used quite often on this day) and put out the flame. Only when all the candles were out did the family leave.

Finally to note something else interesting that day, the Church bells were manually rung all day and night. I can attest to the night part as I got up to go to the bathroom and at 4:30, the bells were still ringing.

Friday, I finally bought a cell phone. I resisted as I enjoyed being a bit “free” but I know it will be important to have not that I am moving to my site. If anyone wants the number, send me an email. I also bought some things to prepare spaghetti with garlic bread and chicken marinated in Italian dressing for the host-family. They gobbled it all up and kept asking for the recipe and how I did such a good job. I just told them I cooked it without a recipe by imagining how my Mom would cook it from watching her cook it so much. (I know spaghetti is easy, but I did make it a bit complicated by using different herbs and all kinds of vegetables).

Sunday, after mass, I got to experience what the process was like when a person passed away.
When a person dies, the next day the house/family opens up to the public for 8 days, night and day (this is what I was told). People come in to visit the family and pay their respects. The body may be in a casket which is in a room in the house (I am pretty sure there is a law in Guatemala that the body can only be allowed to stay in he house for up to 48 hours. After this, it has to be buried or brought to a funeral home, which is not really done because of cost. People at the house pray, play cards, and eat among other things. The food and drinks are important, especially at night so to help people stay awake through the night. I am not exactly clear right now why something has to be done throughout the night. It is also typical for those visiting to give money to help pay for the huge costs that are incurred.
When I went to the room in the house where the casket was, I noticed the body was in a suit like in the US, but that the mouth and nose were stuffed with cotton. Also, something different was that when I first got there, the body was still in the room where the person died. The casket was brought in the house and the body was then place inside it. Basically, the house is the funeral home.

Finally later in that evening to cap off this week jam packed with Guatemalan culture, I attended with Lauren’s family something that is called the Posada, which recounts the journey that Joseph and Mary had to take when they fled from their home before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. To reenact this, the people of the town use 2 large statues of Joseph and Mary and these statues visit a different house each night up until Christmas (Usually something like this is only done for 14 days, but since there were so many people that wanted to do this, they extended the days. Now the town starts doing this in October and sometimes as early as the 7th and still end on Christmas Eve.). To go from one house to another, the process goes like this. First people go to the existing house where a rosary and other prayers are said with people from the town. Then people from the town take the statues leading a procession to the next house. All the while in the procession there is prayers said and sound sung which recount the journey Mary and Joseph took. Then after other formalities, the statues and people are let in the house where more prayers, the day’s readings, and blessings are said and then finally food is served to everyone. (I can only imagine the work in serving 50 people.) The statues stay in the house til the next day when in the afternoon the process repeats itself. I just wanted to note that there is no day of rest for this. Every day of the week this occurs. I am definitely hoping I can experience this again before I leave. I thought it was so good to see the whole family participating in this, from child to adult.

This picture was from the week earlier when we went to the most beautiful lake in Guatemala in the Departamento de Sololá. As you can kind of see, the lake is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. In the picture are the volunteers living in San Bartolomé.

Here is a picture of us during our presentation we gave on Halloween to the people of San Bartolome. You can see in the left-hand bottom corner the left overs from the hummus with platter of vegetables. You should have seen their faces when we told them that they were going to eat the vegetables raw! (They just dont do that here.) While we were giving the presentation, a group of people were preparing their giant kite for the next day, Día de Todos los Santos. They said they had worked on this for 2 months. I believed them as the detail is amazing. If you look close, you can see things like parrots.

Here is picture during Día de Todos Los Santos in the cemetary with a host-family in the morning. There are putting up flowers next to the gravestone of a loved one that passed away.

Here is another picture of them decorating another niche. You can see on the left another group painting an above-ground tomb.

Here is a picture of some of the kites in Santiago. This was the ¨launching area¨where people were trying to get their kites of the ground.


Here is me in front of the massive kites. They did not fly, but were stood upright by the wind and rope. The detail on these is even more than the kite we saw during our nutrition presentation. Be sure to click on the picture so to really get some of the details. These kites, I think were about 15 meters or more tall!
Here is picture in the cemetary at Santiago showing people pulling a rope to keep one of the giant kites upright. As you can see below on the ground are mounds, where people are buried. For me, it was certainly strange at first to see so many people running over the graves.

Here comes the sun

Well the weather had been crummy with rain and cool temperatures for quite some time. This definitely did not help my cold which seemed to have grabbed hold of my body which is still fighting the new things in the environment, the weekly malaria pills, and the barrage of vaccines. Even my things could not really get dry (there is no dryer) in this weather. But hope was around the corner as I would find out.

Saturday, (Oct 20) was the longest night I have been out, as well as that of any other volunteer in my town, without my host-family and with friends. Can you guess what time that was? ---- 7:00. It sure does not seem like much, but it was nice to have a smidge of independence. Will we stay out that late again? Probably not, since we caught the last bus leaving Antigua and they graciously charged everyone the same price, which happened to be 2.5 times the fare than what we normally paid. It was a pure lesson of supply and demand. Either way though, I had fun and got to play darts, foosball, and scrabble in español not to mention spend time with lots of trainees outside of training. Oh while there, I got to have some peanut butter for the first time since I came here. It was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bananas. Wow did that taste good. It is surprising sometimes the little things that you miss too.

The week before Saturday beginning on Monday the 15^th, we got to begin our independent Spanish study. I would miss the teacher, but definitely looked forward to the new opportunities I’d have, such as focusing on topics that I would want to study and going to place that I or the group would like to go to learn about our program or the culture among other things. Oh, I forgot to mention another good part, that this would all be covered with the Peace Corps’s purse.

One of the places I am thinking about spending a some time at is the seminary here in San Bartolomé to hear some good stories. When I was looking for it and having a hard time finding it, I stopped and asked someone for directions – he ended up being an Oblate at the seminary. I still have not gone yet, but the priest I met was in the mass the next Sunday. For the first time ever, it was not the same priest (consequently half the town was late as the mass started on time). It made me feel so good when he remembered my name when he came to me to give me Peace during mass. (It seems like so many little things are meaning more to me now).

That same Sunday, the San Bartolomé group ate a Puerto Rican meal which Abi and his host-mother cooked. It was deeeelicious. The fried plantains reminded me of Ecuador

Monday the 22^nd the ambassador came to talk with us. He was definitely a diplomat but not a political ambassador (meaning he was not appointed by the President for doing things like political favors). Knowing that he earned his job, I was able to feel respect for him and what he said. Some interesting facts he told us included that:

• 1 million Guatemalans currently reside in the US (this is about 10% of the total Guatemalan population)
• $4 billion in remittances (money sent by family or friends from the US to Guatemala) are sent per year.
• In recent months, 2000 Guatemalans are deported monthly from the US
• Guatemala is the 2^nd largest source for adoptions averaging 4000 per year

Most interesting though was that he announced that he will swear all the trainees in on November 16 at his residence (instead of having it at a hotel done by an assistant or something) and that he’ll also organize something for us for Thanksgiving with the embassy families.

Friday and Saturday we went on a mini trip to do some work out in the field with some current volunteers. I worked with some others with a group of indigenous families who lived literally in the middle of a corn field. With them, we made some vegetable gardens so to hopefully provide food during the dry season. I say hopefully because there needs to be 2 added things. The indigenous need to water the plants well and moreover, there needs to be water available, which sometime there is not in the dry season.

I worked with 2 women, one who could barely understand Spanish since her primary language was one of the 23 indigenous languages that are here in Guatemala. When we all finished, the invited us into one of their homes, a one-room house with a dirt floor which was dark and a bit dingy. There, they gave us a glass of pop and bread to show their thanks. The buying of the pop was a huge deal since it is so expensive for them. It is probably something they barely ever do for themselves.

While there, we also actually go to visit the most beautiful lake in Guatemala, which is surrounded by volcanoes and mountains (my host-family say the most beautiful in the world, but I say that they have yet to see the lakes in Michigan). We got to swim in it for awhile, but I stay ashore as I was still recuperating from the same cold I mentioned earlier.

Getting to this place and getting back, though, was not that fun. We took the Central America Highway, which, well, runs through all of Central America and is THE highway in Guatemala. You would think just maybe that it would resemble something close to a highway in the US, but it definitely did not. Getting there we spent an hour stopped because of construction. We were not just going slowly like in other parts, but we were just sitting there. On the way back, we spent an hour and a half stopped. As I mentioned, there were many parts that rough which were either like dirt roads or road in appearance to Scribner Road in Grand Rapids.

Finally, as I alluded, the season and my cold would change. Like a switch, the season was now dry… the days were sunny and windy with clear, cooler nights. The temperatures at night still stayed above freezing, but I was definitely thankful for having moved from my old room to my new room in the sewing room which is connected to the larger part of the house and most importantly the kitchen, which provides some heat. My cold would finally go and take with it all that green and brown gunk that had been filling my sinuses for some time.

Tomorrow is the day I find out my site!

Lesson #1

Lesson #1 – Why are there more educated men here than there are educated women?

Well there is no easy answer to this, but one reason is that some girls here only go through school up to the equivalent of 3^rd grade and after that their parents pull them out to do house chores or to help in the field (this happens outside the bigger cities). Boys, are at least generally allowed to stay in school until the equivalent of 6^th grade. After that, continuing education can be costly and be denied to both genders. Without the education, it is definitely a lot harder to break the cycle of poverty.

Looking for Dog Poop, FBT Part II

After Church in San Carlos Alzatate, we went to Cobán, a city in the middle north of Guatemala. There it was much warmer that I had been used to in San Bartolomé. Also, it was the first time in a long time that I slept without my hooded-sweatshirt and socks. (I would later pay for this warm weather because as the night I returned to San Bartolomé, I would feel extremely cold during the night and even might normal bundle of clothing and pile of blankets would not suffice--- I am going to have to start wearing my winter jacket now).

We stayed in a hostel there and unlike my host family, there was hot water to bathe in (and yes, I took cold showers all 5 days I was staying with the host family). That first night the water felt so good and the bed felt like a plume of clouds. I even walked around barefoot for awhile since the weather was so nice at night.

While in Cobán, I made my first school presentation with Mateo, another volunteer. I knew this would be a tough challenge for my Spanish since I would only be able to prepare so much and the rest would be thinking on my feet. We worked quite hard, Matt on his Spanish (because he needed more help in that area) and me on all the odds and ends. One odd was getting all the plants that repelled insects through their strong smell. Unfortunately, I neither had the money nor the time to get all the plants alive from the market so I found myself in a hotel with beautiful landscaping as well as in a florist shop asking for pedacitos de las plantas (small parts of the plants). These people were quite generous to give them to me since the typical thing seems to be to charge a gringo more for something. Another end was, well, getting dog poop. Yes, dog poop. We, well I, had to get dog poop because part of our presentation also included using 2 bottles, one thing with something nice to smell and one thing with something gross to smell. (Using the 2 bottles and having the kids smell each one, we would make the connection that like humans, there are smells the insects do not like as well. Our whole presentation was on natural defenses that can be used for vegetable in the garden, one being the plants and another being a natural pesticide composed of hot peppers, garlic, and soap.) Thus, I picked dog poop to be the gross thing since I figured it would be ample in the streets as it was in San Bartolomé. I was surely proven wrong. After 1.5 hours of roaming the streets, the market, and the city park where I knew dogs were, I found myself in the dark poopless. I nearly gave up and walked back to the street of the hostel when I went to drastic measures; I decided to start asking people for poop they might have from their dog in their home. I approached the first 2 people near a house I knew had a dog. I asked them if they had a dog and then carefully phrased my request for dog poop – I said it was for an experiment. They had no dog, but pointed me to a store which had a dog, but whose owner was unfortunately not in to unlock the house. I went back to the same 2 women sitting on the side of the street and they pointed me to another house farther down which was 2-stories tall. I first started and the neighboring house since they were people outside. The mother came to the door and once again I explained my situation. She cheerfully said no, but that the neighbors did. She went outside to the other house to the call monitor and asked for her cousin to come out (the neighbors were family). A cousin came out, tied up the dog and then we both look for poop. After a while more children came out from both houses to help and then even the dad who turned on the car lights to illuminate the yard. There ended up being nothing in the huge area in which we were looking, but luckily just as the dad was offering a time in the morning that would be good to come over to get some really fresh specimens, someone found our treasure. I was thankful that it was over since I was so hungry, but I think most of all, I was really surprised. What would a person do in the US to a stranger who looked really different and began talking by asking if there were any dogs in the house and if the stranger could get some dog poop. But I was met with smiles, some laughs, and enthusiastic help. When I was done, I passed by the 2 women to say thank you and proudly say, “ya yo tengo el popo”.

With the bottles and the 3 skits ( 1 skit was where I ate a defenseless plant and the other 2 included me running away disgusted from a vegetable plant which was protected from either the natural pesticide or plant which had a strong smell), the presentation was a success. There are still things to improve, but I enjoyed what I did and that day.

Finally, I found out a little bit about where the future sites will be for us volunteers. Some are hotter, some are colder, some are in tiny aldeas and some are in the mountains. There is going to be quite the diversity, but the common factors are that they are safe, that each site has an agency with which we will be able to work, and that the people in that site are asking for the help for which we are training. October 31 is the day I´ll learn which site in Guatemala I´ll be going. November 15 is the day I swear in as a volunteer and leave for the site. I feel I can hardly wait.

Before one of the lunches we had in San Carlos Alzataté, I helped make some of the many tortillas along with the family and Lauren, another volunteer. My tortillas were edible, but they sure were not round like the others. Look below to try to find one of the tortillas that I made. It´s a bit dark to see, but I´ll give you the hint that I was being patriotic to the state of MI.
Here are some tea plants that are just starting off. We visited this Tea cooperative in Cobán and got to tour the fields of tea plants, the building were the tea is dried and packaged, and here where new plants are being grown by sticking a leaf of a current plant in a small package of dirt.

Here I am with our guide. If you notice, he has a University of Maryland hat. Having US things is quite common hear since there are business that actually go to goodwills and other places like that and buy all kinds of clothes to sell down here. Who knew, hah? One sure I even found was an election shirt. On it was the current MI Secretary of State and Attorney General.