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!