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!
Friday, February 12, 2010
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
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!
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!
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