The site swap, Coban, and more

Finally some long promised pictures. No reflections today, just some pictures with comments.

When my friend Brian came down, one of the things we did was go kayaking near Coban, the same area where I ran my half-marathon. Wow is this area absolutely beautiful. I am so glad I made it up there before I leave Guatemala. The river was a bit rough at parts. There were very challenging rapids (hence the helmits) but there was one class 4 or class 5 rapid that was especially hard. It consisted of a rapid that went over a giant raised rock, fell down 3 or 4 meters, and then immediately rebounded up because of a lower giant rock that was immediately ahead of it. The danger especially was the second rock and the raft flipping on it or a person banging up against it after the raft flipped. The guides studied it for about a half an hour literally and came back to tell us it was up to us but that it was dangerous. Since we had the raft with an experienced Guatemalan guide and a former guide from the US who was with us (who thought we could do it), we all said let's do it. We made it through OK, and so did the second raft, but the third raft did not. Instead of avoiding going directly over the dangerous rapid, they went straight over it and all got shoved out. Unfortunately for the person in front, he went right for the rock and ended up parting his upper lip and smashing his teeth back and smashing his nose. My stomach just sank. Luckily we were able to pull everyone in and we got the guy on the road to the hospital. We still finished though, contrary to what my stomach was feeling.


Taking a picture while the guides were studying the rapid


Getting close to that dangerous rapid
Working hard against the currents to avoid all the rocks
Here's all the volunteers that went with us that day rafting.


The next pictures are also of Coban, but when I went in late June for the half-marathon.



Before the race at 6am...I'm ready to conquer this.
After the race.... ummm, I can't lift my legs let alone feel them.
The lone casualty... this was the first time I ever had a blister that caused me to lose my nail.

This apple came in first place. I had the notion that I would eat it during the race but only ended up holding it the entire time so that it could earn a spot in history...the first apple to run a half-marathon in Guatemala, maybe the first in the world?


After the race, it was only relaxation. We went to some natural pools for a swim (and to stretch our muscles).

Where I am sitting, the water was springing out of the mountainside. It was nearly the amount of water that flows in Indian Mill Creek behind my house.

The next set of pictures are when I and Lauren (she is also the one who ran the half-marathon with me) did a site swap. She went to live in my site for a week doing my work and I went to her site for that week. I had already been to her site before and had met many people from there through out product exchanges that we had done many times between our sites, so I fit right in. The only thing I was not too excited about was the cold. I slept in long johns, pants, a sweater, fleece jacket, hat, and scarf with 4 blankets and I did not even sweat. She lives in the highest part of all Eastern Guatemala so of course it is going to be colder. I spent the whole week with an unstoppable runny nose (to my defense I came to her site already sick, I just could not get rid of it at her site). Lauren get's my vote for the iron woman award for Peace Corps. And the thing is, it gets much more cooler in December and January. Her clothes have frozen before in those cold months. And to top it off, it ended up that she had fleas. I got bit a few times sleeping which luckily now does not wake me like it did. I only noticed them when I washed my clothes and found a bugger in my sock. (I have gotten to be an expert and spotting and finding them). I felt bad and thought I had brought them only to find out that Lauren had had them for months but though that it was some other insect out of her control. It is lucky that fleas don't like the cold otherwise they may have really multiplied.

So besides weathering the cold, I got to plant broccoli seedlings, help milk some cows, makes some dewormer, make twice-baked potatoes and pineapple cookies, and give an AIDS talk. Here are some pictures:

Harvesting carrots in Lauren's site. This picture is actually from another time I was visiting her.


Here you can see some of us putting the broccoli seedling into the soil. We ended up planting 2000 that day. Unfortunately for me, I forgot my sunscreen and only brought a winter hat so I end up having to wear my rubber rain jacket to protect me. I did not get burnt, but boy did I get hot. I had to wring out my shirt when I got done just like when I am washing my clothes.Tossing the seedlings into the holes.

Here the person is throwing processed chicken poop into the hole as fertilizer. Processed chicken poop costs 55 quetzales the sack, chemical fertilizer 300 quetzales.

This is what I ate one night: noodles, garbanzos, lentils, eggs, and lots of spices. It actually is good. And when I say one night, I mean every night, since I ended up making a hug pot at the beginning of the week which lasted me til Friday.
Here we are making a dewormer for chickens from moonshine and native plants.
Here's a rare spotting of Jack. I found him up in Lauren's site. Ever since he brought Gee Gee part way up the volcano he has escaped and has been wandering the streets.

Yummy. Fresh, warm milk. I tried milking for a few seconds, but could only get a squirt out. I am sure it takes practice to get a good technique down without harming the cow.
Storing the milk to sell. 1 cup of milk costs 1 quetzal or 12.5 cents of a dollar. I would imagine that these containers sell even cheeper in bulk though. Unfortunately for the farmers, the price has gone way done. The previous president used to buy milk for school children. This lifted the price of milk and got people buying their products. People actually started buying more cows to produce more milk to deal with the demand. Then came along the new president who decided instead of buying milk for school children, he would buy incaparina, a soy drink. It just so happened though that a big backer of the president was also the owner of incaparina. Hmmm. So now there is low demand for milk and a big supply from all the additional cows on the market. So if you studied your economics, you know that low demand and a big supply spell out trouble for sustainable prices. These cows that I helped milk could produce up to 10 L if there were fed with feed. Instead to save money, they are just pasture fed and I think produce 4-6L. I might be a little off with the figures, but the basic point is is that there could be a lot more milk supplied if the price were ok. The crazy part to think about is that areas in Guatemala are suffering from a drought and that there is widespread malnutrition. There are children who are dying. There are many things that could help including milk. Unfortunately, when all your crops fail like in some areas, you can't even pay the 1 quetzal because you get your food and money from your harvests. Thankfully, the public is starting to do something after the story went out that more children than normal were dying. They recently did a large food drive. I just hope it will be enough to last til next year's harvest.
Birthday party in my site. Thanks Betty Crocker.
Here is a picture of the confirmation mass that was held in my site. I would dare say 120 people came from all around to receive the sacrament of confirmation. Instead of having the mass inside the tiny church, it was held outside and a special stage, canopy, and decorations were made.
This critter was fluttering around in the street when I found it.
Baking banana bread using a wood stove. Instead of putting the bread inside the stove, we did it on top. First we filled some sardine cans with water. When the water was boiling, we put the sardine cans filled with batter on top of the sardine cans filled with water. Then, we flipped a giant pot over it all and in 40 min came out moist banana bread!

Running Around

The end of June came like nothing and that meant my next challenge was knocking at the door – the Coban half-marathon. We did not get to be an official participant, but thankfully that did not exclude us in any way from participating. Some people might be wondering what I did for training. I must sheepishly say that I didn’t technically, and I have my logical reasons for doing (or not doing) so:
There are dogs that bite where I live, and they especially enjoy attacking large, fast moving objects.
Roads are full of rocks and pits. That is not exactly fun on my knees.
I already do a lot of physical activity including riding my bike, walking miles up and down mountain sides, and agricultural work.
I was not running the marathon to get a good time (I would leave that up to the Kenyans); I was there to try something I had never done before and see if I could finish. Just by showing up, I had won. And I’ll tell you showing up was a little hard because I did get nervous even with my sound logic that training was not necessary.

Lauren joined, for the third time, in this joint challenge. She is the volunteer that lives quite close to me. If you’ll remember, the other two challenges we have done together were:
Ride our bikes up the mountain from my site to her site. The altitude change is about 1 km or so.
Ride our bikes to Esquipulas. 13 hours of biking brought us to our goal.

On a side note, we are thinking of a possible 4th challenge if it’s possible before we leave, but we’re still unsure of what to do.

The day of the race was absolutely gorgeous. Nieces of the family with whom I stay with in my site brought us to the starting line (we actually stayed with them too – thank goodness for them since all the hotels were booked). We stretched and warmed up for an hour and then the race started. The Vice President of the country was there at the start to send us off. The race started off slow since so many people were packed together on the narrow street, but once the people started to spread out, I really got to enjoy what I had never enjoyed before in a competition. Throughout the entire race, people of all ages lined the streets clapping, cheering, and giving us much needed water and support. The best part for me was that I stuck out like a sore thumb; this seems ironic because there are many times when it is not so beneficial to stick out. Whenever I went by a crowd, the crowd got that much louder and cheered, “Go Blondie!” or “Go American!” or “Go United States!” At that point, it definitely felt good to be different.

The race overall went well. I physically had the power to run, but toward the end my legs stiffened up (especially in my knees) and I thought that I was running on peg legs. I barreled on though as steady as I could. I finally arrived at the stadium and finished in 2 hours and 17 minutes (The winner did it in half my time!). For me, it was a very proud moment – I had run a competition without stopping. I had completed my goals.

Once the race was finished, it was all about recovering. I stretched and stretched and even was given a leg massage by a volunteer fireman. We walked an hour (slowly) to get back to the house, had an amazing lunch, and spent the afternoon swimming in a river with small falls. I was definitely sore afterward. Walking down stairs or even a descent was dreadful. After 3 days and some anti-inflamatories, though, that was over. The only real casualty I would have was a huge blood blister that was on my middle toe and equal in size to it. It actually worked its way under my toe causing for the first time in my life for me to lose my nail.

The weekend after the race was the Peace Corps 4th of July party, the only time all the staff and volunteers all get together. It marked the 3rd 4th of July in the last 4 years that I have been out of the country. The festivities included a basketball tourney, a soccer competition against the ambassador and staff (it was very unusual for the ambassador to come; he surely is a man that is not too proud to be with normal people who are not high-ups) a lunch with American food, a dance, and talent show. I also got to meet Lauren’s parents who treated us out to an amazing dinner.

Oh, did I mention I also completed another personal goal of mine – growing out my hair for year. It’s cut now, but I have to say that when it was at its peak length, it was not quite bad.