Just a warning, this entry might be a little boring right now because I feel like I have so many descriptions to give so that you might understand just a little bit what it is like here.
I spent my first 3 days in the same city as the training center for the Peace Corps. There, I was paired with a host family. I thought I was pretty lucky since some had to stay in a hotel. Thursday and Friday, August 30 and 31, I spent my days at the training center. It was a lot of introductory stuff that I cannot really remember specifically, but what I do remember and what the best part of training was is that the training center was next to a school and at that this school were all kinds of students preparing for the Independence Day parades by practicing their musical instruments and marching. All the morning thus so far at the training center since I have arrived have been filled with drums and something close to a xylophone and countless other instruments. In a room built to fit about 50 people at max, people had to use a microphone just to talk.
Friday, August 31 began what was very good day. At training I got placed in the highest group for Spanish which I figured would allow me to really expand what I was learning during my 2.5 months of training. (So far that is the case, but I sure am working hard with all the vocabulary). Also during the training, the band played as normal and the sun seemed to come out warm up the place more than normal. (On a side track, the weather here is basically the same every day. Each day has times when the sun comes out, mostly before noon and then again for a bit in the evening. The rest of the time during the day there are clouds and the isolated heavy downpours which occur about 1-3 times for as much as a few hours but usually an hour or less. The night is the same in respect to rain. The temperature though is even a bit cooler then I expected. I would call it mid-October whether for Michigan, except for the fact that we receive so much rain. During the day in my city, the temperatures can get up to the 70´s only when the sun is out, but the majority of the day I would say it does not get above 60. I have worn long-sleeve shirts or sweaters everyday. At night, the temperature drops significantly… I would say to about 40. I have my 4 blankets, long underwear, pajama pants, shirt and hooded sweatshirt that I use to try to keep warm during the night since there is no heating system. Most nights have been comfortable, but I have told that the coldest temperatures are still to come from December to about February. We'll see where I am come December, because depending on the area, there can be a big change in temperature. Just 15 km away are cities that are significantly warmer just because they sit at a lower elevation).
When training was done, a few volunteers and I decided to play some Frisbee on the training grounds. I got their first after going to my house and found some people from the city playing soccer. I ended up playing cutthroat soccer with them for a few hours and with the other volunteer that finally showed up. After that, the day went down hill. I could not eat dinner, and went to bed immediately after shaking all over from cold flashes. After an hour of this and it not going away, I called the nurse for fear of a reaction from my rabies vaccination that I got that day and or the malaria medication I took at dinner. Luckily it was neither, but the entire night I spent restless shaking the entire time with a fever, headache, and feeling nauseated. The morning came, and I still needed to pack to leave for my new home of 2.5 months and go to the training center, but luckily I was able to spend over half the day sleeping in the infirmary in between using the bathroom every hour to half hour. In the morning began the diarrhea which unfortunately occurred with great frequency and volume until I was finally treated on Tuesday. I did not do anything Sat but sleep, and walked around for a little bit with 1 of the 3 other volunteers (Abi, Laura, and Pablo) that are in my city, San Bartolome on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday, I attended the beginning of my Spanish and technical classes as normally as possible, but without saying too much, I was very thankful to have brought lots of toilet paper… like in Ecuador, tp is not really found in bathrooms. Luckily by Tuesday from a stool analysis that was done really quickly, it was determined I had bacteria in my gut. I started taking the medicine Tuesday night and that was the end of that. Wednesday through Friday, September 5-7, I spent attending my 6+ hours of Spanish classes at the municipal building where the city employees and mayor work. Since there is just the 4 of us volunteers in the class (the same 4 who live in the city), it is kind of hard to not pay attention for even just a little bit. Thus, I am learning a lot, though vocabulary seems to slip right past my brain and out my ears. By the end of the day, by brain is so tired. The amount of focus that I need to have in order to comprehend something is just so much in these beginning weeks. Still, though, with the patience of my family, I spent the rest 3+ hours each night with my host family in the kitchen after dinner (this is where we would eat since this is where the wood stove would be to give us heat). I am quite thankful for these chats since I am learning a lot, they are sure to improve my Spanish, but most of all because they give me a chance to really know the 10 people that live in this house.
When training was done, a few volunteers and I decided to play some Frisbee on the training grounds. I got their first after going to my house and found some people from the city playing soccer. I ended up playing cutthroat soccer with them for a few hours and with the other volunteer that finally showed up.
After that, the day went down hill. I could not eat dinner, and went to bed immediately after shaking all over from cold flashes. After an hour of this and it not going away, I called the nurse for fear of a reaction from my rabies vaccination that I got that day and or the malaria medication I took at dinner. Luckily it was neither, but the entire night I spent restless shaking the entire time with a fever, headache, and feeling nauseated. The morning came, and I still needed to pack to leave for my new home of 2.5 months and go to the training center, but luckily I was able to spend over half the day sleeping in the infirmary in between using the bathroom every hour to half hour. In the morning began the diarrhea which unfortunately occurred with great frequency and volume until I was finally treated on Tuesday. I did not do anything Sat but sleep, and walked around for a little bit with 1 of the 3 other volunteers (Abi, Laura, and Pablo) that are in my city, San Bartolome on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday, I attended the beginning of my Spanish and technical classes as normally as possible, but without saying too much, I was very thankful to have brought lots of toilet paper… like in Ecuador, tp is not really found in bathrooms. Luckily by Tuesday from a stool analysis that was done really quickly, it was determined I had bacteria in my gut. I started taking the medicine Tuesday night and that was the end of that.
Wednesday through Friday, September 5-7, I spent attending my 6+ hours of Spanish classes at the municipal building where the city employees and mayor work. Since there is just the 4 of us volunteers in the class (the same 4 who live in the city), it is kind of hard to not pay attention for even just a little bit. Thus, I am learning a lot, though vocabulary seems to slip right past my brain and out my ears. By the end of the day, by brain is so tired. The amount of focus that I need to have in order to comprehend something is just so much in these beginning weeks. Still, though, with the patience of my family, I spent the rest 3+ hours each night with my host family in the kitchen after dinner (this is where we would eat since this is where the wood stove would be to give us heat). I am quite thankful for these chats since I am learning a lot, they are sure to improve my Spanish, but most of all because they give me a chance to really know the 10 people that live in this house. Besides the chats, I aslo taught them a few card games... for the kids I taught vaya pescando (Go fish) and for the adults poker. Now all that the kids here ask is to play that card game.
I guess now I will describe the house, which is on a small parcel of land. It is kind of like the houses we see in Covert, with a roof, size, and shape like Uncle Ben's large garage. This is where 7 of the 10 people sleep as well as where the kitchen and one of the bathrooms is. Not connected and about 10 meters up the mountain we are on is the other smaller house, where I and the other 3 people live. Next to my room, but none the less outside is a smaller building where the shower and toilet are… I found it strange that there was no sink.
Saturday, I woke up really early to leave a 6:30am to go to some land that Freddy, one of the people in the family owns. Below is a picture of us at the top of the mountain on the land he owns. Wow it is beautiful. We went hiking through his 6 manzanas (manzanas are a form of land measurement roughly equivalent to 1.7 acres each) to find his corn he was growing too.
After that, Freddy was gracious enough to show Abi and I the town of Antigua which is beautiful and warm and full of tourists. (On the way, which I thought was interesting, were landslides on the mountain road... there were construction crews cleaning up the mess much further down the road and were could get through on one side of the road, but who knows how long there were there.
That night I went with Abi to the center of the town to play Frisbee and hopefully meet some people. By the end of the night when we left, there were probably over 20 kids playing frisbee or another game we had to invent to keep all of them busy. That night began friendships with so many little kids. I´ll walk down the street and will be instantly hi-fived and said hi to by name. I´ll go to church and one of them will sit with me during mass. I think they ask me about 20 different questions everytime I see one of them, especially asking me for English translations. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun and have continued doing these activities as I could.. One afternoon was baseball. No one new how to play, and we had to use a branch for a bat, and my Spanish baseball terminology was nearly not existent... but I think these facts only made playing even more fun.
That Sunday, I finally go to go to mass. I got there a little after 8:30, but the 9:00 mass did not start til 9:20 ... the priest comes from another town, but I still thought it was strange.
Later that day, as a result of playing with the kids the night before and having met the parents in a store, we got invited to a birthday party. To get invited to a party from someone who knew little about us was very suprising but made me feel very welcomed. On a side note while buying a little doll for the birthday girl, I encountered a pure-bread golden retreiver that was taken care of and friendly. What a sight to see after seeing all the strays in the street and seeing how the dogs with home are treated. At the party, there were 2 piñatas with lots of little children and family and a huge cake. The cake was made with fresh fruits and the cake part seemed a lot less sugary and much more healthier than any other cake I had eaten in the US. Still, though, it was delicious.
Finally, for my last note, Sunday was also election day here. There were observadores in the town and more police than normal and unlike some predictions there were no problems thank goodness. The mayor´s primo lost (we got to meet him when we met with mayor earlier in the week to inquire abou the city) and the city got its first women mayoress. That night Sunday I woke up to firecrackers and people on a loud speaker yelling congrats to the mayoress ( firecrackers are very common here and are used at all times of the day to celebrate almost any occasion, including birthdays).
Miss you all.
A view of 2 volcanoes, one active, while Freddy, Abi, and I went hiking through Freddy´s land
The active volcane is one the right and is called Volcan de fuego.
