About Me

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I'm living Guatemala for 2 years to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This blog is to stay in touch with family and friends about my adventures. It does not reflect the beliefs of the United States government, Peace Corps, nor the people or government of Guatemala.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Wonderful Birthday




Well considering yesterday was my first of three Guatemalan birthdays I can say it was pretty awesome. I received many hugs and lots of love from my new friends and family! It was so special. My family gave me a really pretty orange shirt and all of my fellow healthy schoolers wished me a happy birthday right. I had pepian for lunch which is a special Guatemalan treat! Then my family shared cake with my fellow townmates. The evening was topped off with a phone call from home and I'll I can say is that it is pretty wonderful to feel loved on your birthday! and I most certainly am.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A Few more Photos


Just what I see on a clear day... How can I not love Guate?


The plaza in my town...


Brent and Kristin my townmates... we're pretty cute huh?



My two beautiful friends Kristin and Betty.


You know just a church in Guate... jealous?

Happy Early Birthday to ME

Well it is the day before my birthday and I'm sweating bullets... I know I shouldn't complain because I know most of you are freezing but please bear with me. I can't wear shorts... It's hard to wear jeans in 80 degree weather. My 2nd complaint is that my ipod touch is broken completely. I would like apple to know that they really should make products that don't break in less than one year. It is incredibly frustrating to have something wonderful break... but the brightside of that situation is that my friend here happened to bring 2 ipods to Guate and she was sweet enough to give it to me. So it is a wonderful birthday so far... Honestly if these are my two biggest problems we can say life is pretty good. Yesterday marked our 7th week of training. How exciting. 4 more weeks until swear in. I can't believe the date is getting so close. It is very exciting but very nerve wracking at the same time. I think that within the next week I will be finding out who my 2 year partner is... talk about stress. But I'm excited and super ready to find out more about my new life. Being in this limbo stage is crazy... It's exciting but as the time gets closer, the nerves keep building and my patience is getting thinner... not really patience but just my desire to know what is going on! In other news, I can't believe tomorrow is my 23rd birthday and my first of three in Guatemala. I know that my family is planning on buying a cake to share with my townmates... We also have technical training in the morning so I will be able to see most of my friends. Mom, I got the toby birthday card... Super Cute. Saturday I think we will come into Antigua for a nice lunch and afternoon to celebrate my birthday with more people. Anyway, thanks for all the love. I really miss you all and I'm so glad to know that I have so much love... especially on my birthday... Aunt Susan, no card yet, but maybe next week... Oh which reminds me of my 3rd complaint... the mail system here takes forever... But please keep sending me letters because whenever I hear from anyone... It rocks my world. love love love

Sunday, February 21, 2010

End of a Great Week

So, I am back in Antigua again after a long week of traveling and learning. We really learned a lot this past week. Visiting lots of schools, seeing other volunteers and getting a glimpse of what our life is going to be in the next two years. I think it is finally time for me to explain as much as I can at this point about my program. In Guatemala there are 6 different volunteer programs and mine is called Healthy Schools. It is a program that partners with the Guatemalan Ministry of Education to go into rural schools in Guatemala to create healthier health practices. It can be anything from infrastructure projects to help schools get water, to teaching basic hygiene lessons such as when to wash your hands or how important it is to brush your teeth. It started in 1996, so it has been around a while. It also is going to start partnering with a healthy homes program, meaning a volunteer goes into a rural community to help back up the practices children are learning in schools to be re-enforced in the home. What is super super cool about these programs is that the money Obama has given to expand the peace corps will be applied to three programs worldwide, in order to make a larger difference. One of the money programs is "Health" in Guatemala. So this year there were 27 people in Healthy Schools, next year there will be 40 and when I close my service, there will be 60! In health Schools and Healthy Homes, so there will be 120 Health volunteers in Guatemala in 2012! How exciting and crazy!
So now I can explain more about how Healthy Schools works. For the first 13 years, volunteers would be assigned alone to work with 2-4 schools and after 4 years they would hopefully become certified as healthy. There is a pretty detailed profile about everything that a school needs to become healthy, involving adequate water for drinking, clean school, clean bathrooms, clean looking students who wash their hands, etc. The idea is that when students are healthy they learn better and are overall better people. So anyway, with that said, they feel that working with 2-4 schools, they were averaging at certifying 10 schools per year and there are 18,000 schools in Guatemala and with an end goal of certifying all schools, that would take a while. So they have created 2 new phases that my group will be beginning to pilot and hopefully direct the future of the Healthy Schools program. So phase 2 has had a few volunteers before (like 6); however the majority of my group will be doing this program. What this means is that with a partner you work to certify all of the schools in a county. So that could be anywhere from 20-40 schools. I will most likely be doing this phase and what is nice about it is that you get to have a partner to work with as well as see your work on a larger scale. Then there is Phase 3, which is working with all of the schools in a department (or state). There are 2 volunteers doing this phase right now and there will be 4 from my group. It is really an exciting time to be learning about these new projects and be starting something new. Everything we have learned this far tells us that we will be making our job and get to learn as we go! So that is very exciting.
Now that I have addressed at least the tip of what Healthy Schools is you guys can have an idea of what my life will be like. The past week was spent seeing what life is like for the few volunteers that are working in Phase 2 and Phase 3 right now are doing and how we can take their experiences and apply it to our own. Also, we spent time really getting to know each other. It was nice to spend some time away from home, even though I missed my host family and was definitely ready to come home yesterday. We really got to bonding as a group and I've really met some great people here. We also had a general info about where we would like to live here in Guate... like we have any idea! We also get some input on who are partner is for the next two years?!? Talk about pressure. Two years is a long time, but I've got some good prospects and I'm just really excited to get started. As far as I know I will be receiving all of this info on March 11 so that's d-day for now. As for this week, just more work in the schools, my 23rd birthday and my madre's birthday as well. Just adjusting back to the life of a PC trainee. Anyway, love and miss you all lots and love hearing from you. As for now, life is great and I'm enjoying the hot weather here! love love love

Monday, February 15, 2010

FBT

Well, we are in the begininng of our field base trainning week and so far things are good. We are seeing the lives of real volunteers while getting to know each other better and finding out who we want to be our job partner for the next two years! It´s big stuff. Yesterday was a lot of driving and getting to see some of the guatemalan country side. It was cool. We stopped for lunch and 5 of us ate at a comedor, which can sometimes be sketchy. For 4 out of 5 of us... it was sketchy. My fellow lunchmates spent the majority of last night in the bathroom. Somehow I have evaded sickness for now and I can just say I´m pretty lucky. Some have equated my luck to the Cuban background.... hahah, who knows.
In other news my family was sad to have me leave yesterday and they told me they were going to call me this week to see how I was doing. Aren´t they the cutest? I´m just so happy with them and lucky to have them to take care of me. They gave me gifts for valentine´s day and are super excited for my return so we can have a bread making lesson. It´s pretty sweet.
I feel like I should have more things to say but life is pretty great. I think at the end of the week I will post more about all the wonderful things I have learned and how excited I am about my new job. Right now the exciting things are free time and real showers! love love love for now.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Dia del Carino

Well, hello from my netbook in Antigua. I'm sitting in McDonald's and let me just describe it. It has a beautiful courtyard and I'm sitting in a booth outside with lots of pretty plants. It's pretty sweet. I realized that yesterday I forgot to mention what we did in Spanish class this past week. We watched the movie "Sin Nombre" and I highly recommend it. It is pretty violent and sad but it is really educational about gangs in central america. It was made in El Salvador and I really found it interesting and educational.
This morning I cooked stir fry for my family for lunch. It was pretty successful and they told me that it was delicious. I hope it was, I tried to get the flavor right. Also tomorrow is Valentine's day, which is a huge holiday here. It's kind of funny. Everyone buys flowers, chasky gifts, and candies. It's kind of cute. It's such a big deal, we didn't even have school yesterday. Today my host sister, who works in a flower shop, came home and brought me some roses for "el dia del carino". It was so cute, I have to organize them when I get home today. It was really sweet and just made me realize how happy I am to be living with my host family.
Anyway, I'm in a bit of stimulation overload, lots of people here in McDonald's. Life is good and tomorrow begins our week of field base training. Hope to speak soon! Love and miss you all lots!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Busy Week

Ok well it has been a busy week. Starting with Sunday and watching part of the superbowl. It was kind of a surreal experience; it was like being at home but then being in Guate. What I have to say about that is Go Saints!
In other news, the week has been full of lots of classes, homework, school practicums, and Spanish. My mind goes into overload occasionally but things are great. We are also getting ready for our week excursion into the field. Where we will meet and see real volunteers and learn all about our job. I´m really excited for this learning opportunity and hope I will feel much more clear and excited about what the next two years really entail for me.
Yesterday, we had a small field trip to two organizations that are working in Guatemala to improve the quality of life of people here while also helping the environment! It was a pretty neat and inspiring afternoon. Our first stop was a water filter factory called ecofiltros. Their website is www.ecofiltros.com and I highly suggest you check it out. A guatemalan invented a filter that is made of a mixture of clay and pine sawdust that purfies even the nastiest of waters and makes it drinkable. It is really pretty impressive. The company just donated 1000 filters to Haiti and they have distributed over 60000 within Guatemala. They are also the leader in this form of potable water technology and have about 14 other factories that are attempting to implement this filter in other places in the world where water is not accessible. These filters only cost 25 US dollars to make! Doesn´t that blow your mind? I was very impressed and even more excited about being in Guatemala. I think 80% of water in guatemala is undrinkable or unsanitary! That´s crazy.
Our second stop was a tech training site where people learn how to make latrines, stoves, wells, and lots of other environmentally useful materials. We learned that we can use this center as a resource if in the future we want to take on secondary projects of this nature. It´s pretty cool to see that you could make a ¨well¨, that holds rain deposits that you can then pump from and use the water in the non-rainy season!
Anyway, yesterday was very interesting and everything is going well. We are learning so much and life here is so exciting. Got to jet back to spanish and the busy life of a pct. Lots of love. Miss you all lots!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

More Pics


Kristin and I at the ruins yesterday. Pretty cool!


These are my super cute host siblings!


These are my community members and our spanish teacher oscar.


Re-inacting a volcano erruption duh!

Super Bowl

Well,it´s offical.ONE MONTH in GUATE! How exciting. Yesterday we went to a Mayan Ceremony and it was so interesting. We got to participate and ask for blessings in our two years of service here. How exciting, we are part of history. It was so neat to see how mayan culture still exists today and to partipate in something new and exciting. Today is a day for relaxing and possibly trying to find a way to watch the super bowl. GO SAINTS!!! In other news, I can´t believe I have been here for a month. Things are still going well. I love my family here but I really miss you all too!! I feel like I should have more to write and describe but life is life here. I get up around 7 every day and go to bed around 9. Speak a lot of spanish and am just enjoying my life right now. Lots of times I just question myself and I can´t believe I am in GUATE. I am so lucky and I really am learning a lot.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Picture Attempt



This is my shout out to mom and aunt shirley. I saw the elephant ears and I just had to try it for myself. Miss you guys and hopefully more pictures to come!


These are some hot rocks... No lava but hot rocks!



Me with a volcan view... Pretty sweet

Trabajo

So we have had a busy week as we have started working in the schools. Let me just say that school here is crazy. Only for half a day and with little structure. Class can be stressful. We are practicing techniques that we will be using once we get our sites in march, which means observing the schools to see if they practice healthy habits. For example, is there water, is there clean water, do kids wash their hands, brush their teeth, what are the bathrooms like? It is interesting because our school is pretty healthy but they are not certified as a healthy school. What that means is that Peace Corps has combined with the Minestry of Education here to create a set of standards that makes a school healthy, which betters the lives of children and their communities in more rural areas.
Next week we will be teaching a health lesson to our students. I´m in a first grade class. We also will be working on creating a place in our classroom where all hygiene things can be located ¨rincon de salud¨or health corner if you will. So we have our work cut out for us during training. It isn´t all fun and games... Another fun tidbit about my class is that my teacher is one who loves the americanos that come, so she spends a lot of time choosing which kids are the lucky ones that get to perform for the gringos who spend thirty minutes in my small town for cross cultural experience. Anyway, it is all a learning experience and I´m glad to have the chance to learn more about education and how important it is. We really are lucky in the US to have such a great system. EDUCATION REALLY IS THE FUTURE.
In other news life is going well. Monday we have a mid session spanish interview. I´m a bit nervous as I don´t feel I have improved much but I´m sure it will be ok. Also tomorrow we are going to some Mayan ruins for an authentic Mayan Ceremony! I´m excited. Life is good. In one week we will be going on our heaving training trip, which is where we will learn a lot about our program. It is exciting. I suppose that´s all for now. Pictures soon! love love love

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

whomp

so i just tried to post some pictures and it isn't working and I'm really annoyed. In other news life is good and things are going well. I had all of these neat posts planned with pictures but they didn't work. Maybe next time. I love and miss you all and things are going well. Guate is great! no complaints. lots of love.

CAFÉ Por Favor!

Well Friday for Spanish class we went to Jocotenago, a small city right outside of Antigua to go to the Mayan Instrument Museum and Coffee Finca. We saw so many cool things, it was really neat. I’ll start with the instruments. They call this museum the Casa K’ojom and they have authentic Mayan flutes and instruments. We went on a tour where we learned about all the kinds of flutes and instruments the mayans would use during their religious ceremonies and that they still use today, because the Mayan/ Indigenous culture is still existing and practicing here. That’s why I really do see people wearing authentic indigenous trajes walking with people in American Eagle shirts with jeans. It’s really cool, the mezcla between history and current trends. Anyway, they used instruments made out of shells, and horse bones, other animal bones and it was interesting to see how the Spanish influence adding things like the guitar, violin and the marimba; which is the national instrument of Guatemala. We also watched a video of Mayan dances and it got me excited because next week we will be going to a Mayan Ceremony and I will probably have the chance to see a few others during the rest of my service. Plus I really want to go to the Mayan ruins, I mean they are so cool but more on that later.
Anyway, this instrument museum is also on a coffee farm where you can take tours and learn all about Guatemalan coffee. Now it’s time for me to get on my soapbox a little bit… Alright first of all, Guatemala is number 7 in coffee producers for the whole world, and considered 3rd in terms of best flavor, although our tour guide said we were really number one! Ha! Anyway, did you know that coffee plants have to go through 5 stages of processing before we can drink the delicious nectar? Also the inventor of coffee, a farmer in Ethiopia, discovered the coffee plant because his goats were eating these red berries and then they couldn’t sleep. So he ate the red berries to see what was up, and he couldn’t sleep thus the discovery of coffee… ha ha. Anyway, back to the 5 processes. Coffee must first be harvested as a red fruit. It’s really small. Then you peel away the red coating and inside are 2 green slimy seeds. These seeds are then washed off. Then they lay them to dry out for 1-2 weeks!
Then after it dries out, they bag it up and the coffee will maintain its flavor for about 2 years like this… I think. This is also the stage that most coffee manufactures buy the coffee in. Because it is cheaper because the coffee still has to be roasted and ground… Although these 1st three steps are hard work. Anyway, after these the beans can be roasted and then ground up and served deliciously. You can however, eat straight roasted coffee beans. You can also suck off the green slimy coating when you remove the red part of the coffee plant. It tastes pretty sweet and nothing like coffee. The roasting process determines how strong the coffee will be and how dark etc. There is a saying about coffee roasting that goes like this “El café debe ser negro como la noche, fuerte como la passion, dulce como el amor y caliente como el infierno.” Meaning Coffee should be black like the night, strong like passion, sweet like love and hot as hell. I thought that was pretty funny! Now for the soap box, before going to this finca I always thought fair trade coffee was a good idea but it was not something that I felt really passionate about, however I didn’t realize that basically coffee manufactures do their best to pay as little as possible meaning that for every dollar you spend on a cup of coffee only 16 cents goes to the coffee farmers and the big guys make 84 cents on the dollar. So I hope that this will make you think the next time you buy coffee, that you really can help the little guy by buying things that are fair trade. One coffee tree plant only makes 40 cups of coffee per year! Isn’t that mind blowing? But I think what we can conclude is that coffee is delicious and wonderful and we should totally help out our little Guatemalan coffee farmers that make it possible for us to have such a delish breakfast beverage. Also just fyi, most Guatemalans do not even get to drink the good stuff because it is so expensive, instead when you ask for café, it is Nescafe; which basically means it is hot water with a lot of sugar and a hint of coffee flavor. So next the time you go for the Guatemalan blend make sure it’s fair trade so you can support the little guys! Oh and size it up for me!