¡Feliz Navidad!

I have now spent more than 10 months in Guatemala and these ten months have brought me tremendous happiness as well as abundant opportunity to learn a thing or two.  So, here are  10 lessons learned from my 10 months in Guatemala:

1.    You can not rationalize the irrational.  You just can't.
2.    Good people exist everywhere.
3.    No one is going to stand up for you if you don't stand up for yourself.
4.    It's better to do your dishes as you go along and not let them pile-up.
5.    You never stop missing hot showers.  Don't ever let anyone tell you that you will.
6.    Sometimes, the best thing you can do is close your eyes and repeat to yourself, "This is fun."
7.    Having fleas is the absolute worst.
8.    There is no replacement for being flexible.
9.    It's okay to do nothing once in a while.
10.  Families are created and exist in the strangest of places.

Here is a picture of my Peace Corps family.  Christmas came a little early to Cajolá when 12 of my favorite Peace Corps Volunteers came up to celebrate!  With a little bit of teamwork, we ate 2 stuffed chickens, 5 pounds of mashed potatoes, 2 dozen carrots, 2 pounds of green beans, a squash casserole, 40 dinner rolls, a strawberry-chocolate cake, and brownies!

I can't believe I've only known these fools for ten months, because I have never been closer with a group of people in my entire life...

P.S. We actually are happy; we're just using our Guatemalan picture faces.  They almost never smile in photos!

Merry, merry Christmas to all!  I hope that you enjoy celebrating wherever you are and whoever you're with!

A Camp in Cajolá!!

Last week was one of the craziest of my life because my sitemate and I pulled off a camp for the boys and girls of Cajolá!

This process started about 3 months back when we approached the health center and told them about the idea for the camp.  We asked the health educators if they thought it would be useful and what health problems they thought we could target with the camp.  They enthusiastically responded that they wanted to bring a camp to Cajolá and they wanted to give girls and boys the tools avoid adolescent pregnancies.  (There is currently an effort in Cajolá to end pregnancies in girls younger than 14 years - yes, that is a major problem.  Cajolá has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in all of Guatemala.)

So, we decided that we would have a week long camp geared towards kids ages 11-16.  Girls would come in the morning for four hours and boys would come in the afternoon for four hours!  Over the next few months we worked with the eleven health educators to solicit funds for the camp, invite participants, and plan the lessons.  Each day was designed with a different theme and each educator was assigned to a specific day.  The health educators were responsible for attending their assigned day and designing the lesson plans.  The results were varied.

A few educators took to planning with gusto; they scouted for resources, asked questions, and prepared materials.  A few other educators didn't show quite the same initiative and left my sitemate and I scrambling to prepare materials at the last minute.  All in all, we were more happy than frustrated with the participation of the educators and very pleased to receive such support from their boss and the coordinator of the health center.

The week before the camp started, Whitney and I put on a two-day workshop for the educators titled, "Effective Strategies for Teaching Health".  This is definitely the part of the camp process that I am most proud of.  The workshop covered everything from the learning cycle to preparing for lessons to gender equality in the classroom.  I hope to repeat this workshop with my teachers sometime during the school year and I hope that other volunteers have the opportunity to replicate the workshop in their sites.  Here is a picture of the coordinator of the health educators leading a session on the "learning pyramid:

Finally, it was time for our camp to start!  We didn't know quite what to expect and tried to prepare ourselves for anything that may happen.  The theme of Day 1 was "Our Camp".  We played games, got to know one another, talked about self-respect, and drew flags to represent ourselves and our futures (pictured below).  The surprises of the day included the fact that the kids who came were younger than the kids we expected and the boys were way wilder than we expected.  My favorite moment of the day was when a health educator was talking about self-respect and one of the Cuban nurses shouted out, "If a boy tells you you are ugly, you tell him he's ugly!"

So, we adjusted our lesson plans to suit younger kids and decided we couldn't ask the boys to stay engaged in any one activity for longer than 15 minutes.  (Hence, many capture the flag breaks like the one pictured below.) 

We got excited for Day 2, which had the theme "Our Values".  We talked about leadership and put on skits where the girls and boys acted out situations that gave them opportunities to be leaders (pictured below).  We talked about respect.  The boys created some rules for the camp that we relied on for the rest of the week and really helped them to be more respectful campers.  The girls created flowers that showed how different each of us really are (see picture below).  We also learned about teamwork through some really fun games.

However, Day 2 was not without it's struggles.  A boy got bit by a dog while we were playing basketball and we had to take him to the health center to get vaccinated for rabies.  He was a real trooper and continued to come to the rest of the camp.  Also, on Tuesday afternoon, many of the health center staff find out, that at the end of the year, they are getting laid-off or transferred to a different health center.  This really killed morale and the health center staff stopped coming to the camp, with the exception of the a nutritionist and two amazing Cuban nurses (one of whom is pictured below) who came everyday.  This was a big, big downer for Whitney and I who had invested months in the health center staff and had really seen this camp as a collaboration between Peace Corps and the health center.

Luckily, in the true spirit of development workers, Whitney and I were prepared for just about anything and we had other Peace Corps Volunteers to help in case the health center staff fell through.  These traveled from near and far to help and share their expertise and we couldn't be more thankful. 

The theme of Wednesday, which was the most fun day if you ask me, was "Our Bodies".  The nutritionist came to talk about nutrition (pictured below) and we drew plates of a balanced meal.  We also played hygiene jeopardy.  Best of all, one of the other Peace Corps volunteers talked about exercise and led us in a Zumba class (pictured below).  All of the kids participated and it was an absolute blast.

The theme of Thursday was "Our Families".  While the younger kids played games (pictured below), the older kids talked about puberty, the dangers of adolescent pregnancy, and played a version of the game of Life, which highlighted the financial benefits of staying in school, having fewer kids, and waiting til later in life to have those kids.  It was a lot of information on some very heavy topics.  So, of course, we ended with some games!!  All of these lessons were very tricky to navigate culturally.  We could discuss the science of each topic, but had to be really careful about the opinions that we gave, especially concerning birth control.

Finally, Friday came, and with it the theme "Our Futures".  Both boys and girls attended camp together in the morning as we created our "life plan".  Each kid wrote one sort of exercise they wanted to continue doing, the career they wanted, something they wanted in their future family, three goals that they had, and they drew their future house.  Probably the highlight of my whole week was seeing that a little boy had written, "I want an intelligent wife".  Then, we celebrated with more games and finally had a diploma ceremony.  Pictured below are all of the graduates with their diplomas:

At the end of the day, like most things in life, the good outweighed the bad and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to share this experience with the kids of Cajolá.  They have been out of school since October, which means many of them have barely left their house in the past three months.  I am happy that together we learned, we danced, and we acted silly.

The health center in Cajolá was just ranked 320 out of the 334 health centers in Guatemala.  I am certainly not happy about this, but it did make me feel a little better that it wasn't just Peace Corps Volunteers that they are having a hard time working with.  Next year, with new health center staff and a few lessons learned in our back pocket, I hope that we can do an even better job creating a camp experience for the kids of Cajolá!

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: School Year 1 is over!

Instead of the usual cheerful pumpkins, crisp apples, and bright fall leaves this October brought something it never has before - the end of the school year!

During my first school year, I was concerned mostly with getting to know the schools and having them get to know me.  At each of my 14 schools, I completed introductory visits, school mapping with a class or two, and formal baseline evaluations. 

With all of this time in the schools, I learned that there is a lot of work to be done, but a lot of people to help me do that work!  I have begun to identify the movers-and-shakers of each school to help me put some plans into action over the next school year (which begins in February)

So, here is where the schools stand right now:

• Many schools have to burn their trash, often right in the middle of the children's play area.
• I did not see one kid wash their hands with soap and water after using the bathroom.
• Some of the school kitchens create a lot of smoke which often leaks into classrooms.
• Many of the schools have gym teachers, although I have some ideas about how to make gym class more effective and fun.
• Teachers are supposed to be teaching health twice a week, but this never happens.
• A few schools lack water, bathrooms, classrooms, or faucets to wash hands.
• All schools serve their children snack every day!
• Some schools have begun to cultivate school gardens!

In each school, the Healthy Schools program, which is national, government initiative needs to be strengthened by strengthening the administrators (principals and teachers) in charge of it.  There is plenty of room for growth and plenty of people who want to see that growth happen.  I will spend much of my school break planning for the "Year of the Healthy Students" which I will roll out in my communities next year!  Much of my job is just to provide the enthusiasm to focus some of the work that happens regarding the program!

Until February, my Peace Corps service is sort of a "create-your-own-adventure", so stay tuned for some of my fun in the Health Center and with the youth of Cajolá!

Here are a few pictures from my school visits!

Kids' Group

One thing that most people probably don't know about the Peace Corps is that it is about much more than "world peace and friendship".  While this remains the vision of Peace Corps, the way this goal is accomplished is through cutting-edge development work.  Like the rest of the development field, Peace Corps is setting its sites on SUSTAINABLE development.  For the volunteer, this means lots of reporting, monitoring, and pausing at every step to make sure that their work is sustainable in their community.  While the whole "sustainability" thing is the very point of Peace Corps and the reason I was attracted to this organization, it can make slow-moving work in a slow-moving country, go even slower.

So, every once in a while, you have to cut yourself some slack and do something because it is FUN.  That's where Kids' Group comes in.  I was lucky enough to inherit this awesome group of kids from previous volunteers who had worked with them in my site.  They are a happy, intelligent, kind group of kids and I love working with them. 

We meet one or two times a month.  I simply put a sign up on my door a few days before and they come to my house for games, cooking, and a little bit of learning thrown in.  Recently, I've been inspired to focus our activities around environmental education.  This is something that I think can be really fun, but right now there really isn't space for it in my primary project.  

This week, we composted!!  We began by identifying organic and inorganic trash and talking about what we could do with each type of trash.  Then, we moved on to learning about composting and making our very own compost with California red worms!!  We cleaned up and enjoyed a well deserved snack afterwards!

It might not be the most "sustainable" or "important" aspect of my work, but spending an afternoon with these bright kids always feels like time well spent!

I Don't Want You to Make Me Feel Like I'm the Only Girl in the World

Rhianna might like that, but I've got news for you cat-callers - Females make up more than 50% of the population and, together, we accomplish an awful lot.  We bring the next generation into the world and, in nearly all cultures, we are responsible for raising and educating our offspring.  As if that's not enough responsibility, given the right opportunities, we make incredible contributions to the economy, to the sciences, and to government (just to name a few).  This is what makes us human.  This is what makes us goddesses.

The machismo that pervades Guatemala and many other parts of the world is about more than males thinking they are "better" than females; it is a failure to recognize the personhoods of women.  This makes for interesting academic papers and ideological debates, but it also shapes every moment of a woman's life in Guatemala.  (Of course "machismo" does not just exist in Guatemala, but it's all I can do to figure it out here and I don't want to simply generalize to other Latin American countries.  I would even argue that it exists to some extent in all countries, including the US, but to argue that would require the longest blog post in the world.)

Women are Guatemala's largest untapped resource.  Women are not expected to, or often even allowed to, contribute to Guatemala's formal economy.  Until about 15 years ago, it was a law in Guatemala that a woman had to have signed consent from her husband before starting work.  (Say WHATTT?)  Men allowing their wives to work is still viewed as a sign of "weakness" by many people in Guatemala, especially in the more rural areas where Peace Corps Volunteers work.  Without allowing and encouraging women to work and contribute to the workforce, it is going to be nearly impossible for Guatemala's economy to realize the magnitude of growth that is truly necessary in this country.  On a more micro level, only one working parent is rarely enough to raise healthy, educated children in Guatemala.

Don't get me wrong, there are women in Guatemala who do work.  My host mother works in the local health center.  A little more than half of teachers in my schools are women.  Many other women participate in a more informal way, by selling goods at the local market or out of their home.  Still, this is the anomaly and there doesn't seem to be a place for women in many professions where they could make important contributions.  Without any power in the Guatemalan economy or their family's economy, women have no decision-making power.

Because of this, machismo also has real consequences for the health of women in Guatemala.  Women everywhere face obstacles to receiving proper health care.  The common barriers to proper healthcare in many countries are are knowing the symptoms of illnesses, knowing where to go for help, and then having the resources to actually get to the help.  However, health workers in Guatemala talk about another obstacle - the husbands.  A woman typically has to be granted permission before seeking care for themselves or their children.  Because Guatemalan women rarely have realized economic value or even recognized value in the home, there is often no rush to get them the care that they need and deserve.

It shouldn't be surprising that the lack of understanding about the value of a woman also leads to security issues.  Guatemalan men who don't respect the value of a woman's individuality also do not respect their space.  The first time a town drunk came up to me and draped his hand over my shoulder, I wasn't really scared.  I was just angry.  I wanted to yell, "I HAVE A NICE MOTHER!  I KNOW ABOUT CELL MITOSIS!  I READ HISTORY BOOKS FOR FUN!"  I wanted to yell all of these things because his invasion of my space was a very obvious sign that he didn't know and didn't care about these things.  He saw me walking along the street and noticed nothing but the shell of my body and felt that he had a right to come over and touch it.  He didn't pause to think that the person inside the body may not want to be touched.

While I have had many "Ah hah!" moments about gender in Guatemala, I could spend the rest of my life here and I would never completely understand the experience of a Guatemalan woman.  My light skin prevents me from accomplishing that.  In the workplace, I find that my light skin can be beneficial.  Once I explain that I graduated university and am here to work, I generally get the respect needed to accomplish the work that I came here to do.  However, on the street my light skin can be a detriment.  Most Guatemalans know white women through music videos and movies, where the women are depicted as nothing more than soft porn stars.  We need to get some Eleanor Roosevelt and Hilary Clinton biopics playing down here.

The incessant cat-calling that I experience in the streets sometimes takes the form of a "chhh-chhh" sound that Guatemalans quite literally use to call cats.  Sometimes it takes the form of vulgar phrases in both English and Spanish.  It bothers me: it really does.  It hasn't gotten easier, but I really don't want it to ever be something that rolls off my back.  The problem is not my sensitivity; the problem is the lack of understanding for what women can contribute to our world and the failure to recognize that a feeling soul and a thinking mind lie within a woman's body.

Because these experiences have bothered me so much, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I can do for the women of Guatemala.  The best I can hope for is that my independence plants a seed in some young girl's mind that lets her know that her life has value and purpose.  Will it work?  Who knows.  Is it enough?  Definitely not.  Machismo culture affects each women individually, but will not be changed until the collective power of our half of the population is valued and respected.  Moreover, it takes more than women realizing their value; their will be no change until men also recognize it.  We might be waiting a while for that.

Silliness

My blog posts tend to be about serious things going on in Guatemala and in my life, but the truth is that there are still an awful lot of "normal", silly moments in my life.

For example...

Yesterday morning, I was in a rush, like usual.  (Why did I ever think that Peace Corps was going to be two years of meditating?)  The result of this rushing was that I locked my keys in my room and the spare key that my host family had made didn't work.  26 hours later, I finally got back into my room.

I just wanted to let you all know that for future reference, picking a lock is a great opportunity for cultural integration.  My host family and I joked about how we wish we knew robbers, because they'd be able to pick a lock.  Everyone from my five-year-old host brother to my host parents and my Mam* teacher took a whack at trying to open the lock.  I was freezing and my host sister lent me her favorite Angry Birds sweatshirt.  I stayed at my sitemate's old house last night because her bed was still there.  Finally, a carpenter came over this morning and took off the door knob.  (He couldn't come yesterday because carpenter's don't work on Sundays.)

I don't think I can overstate how unhappy I was being locked out of my room, but now that I'm back in, I know that I have a great story that my Guatemalan family and I will laugh about for a long time to come.

*Mam is the indiginous Maya language that everyone in my site speaks.  I am TRYING to learn it.  Stay tuned to see how that goes...

The Only Gringa

My life is about to change, a lot.

Since arriving in site, more than two months ago (where does time go???), I have had two sitemates.  They have helped me with everything from introducing me to their connections in town to telling me where to buy the best peanut butter.  In a very short time, they have become two of the best friends I have ever had.

This week, they both left.  One left and is going to be traveling for a month before coming back to Guatemala to work.  The other left more unexpectedly for medical reasons and is now happily enjoying hot water that comes from the faucet in Oregon.  I am going to miss them, but I am so looking forward to hearing about their adventures and I know that, thanks to the miracles of the 21st Century, I can still pick their brain for everything they know about Peace Corps and Guatemala and just life in general.

Without sitemates to eat with, chat with, and dance with, life will be quite different.  I loved having sitemates to work with and hope to be getting another one in August, but until then I will enjoy my extra time by working a lot, spending more time with my host family, and establishing my own routine here (i.e. running, cooking, setting up my apartment).  Most Peace Corps Volunteers around the world do not have sitemates, so I'm excited to give it a go for a few weeks!

School in Guatemala

School in Guatemala.  Where do I even begin?  There are so many differences between school in Guatemala and the US.    Learning exactly how schools work here has been one of my first and most important challenges. 

I have been working with fourteen grade schools, the grades are K-6, but some of the children are as old as 14.  The smallest school has about 70 children and the largest school has about 400.  Working in the classrooms has been way more fun and rewarding than all those boring things I have to do with adults.

The school day in Guatemala technically goes from 8:00am-12:30pm, but usually goes more like 8:30am – 12:00pm.  Snack and recess usually take up the whole ten o’clock hour.  This leaves about 2.5 hours each day of instruction.  The doors to the school are often left open, leaving stray dogs and small children to come and go as they please.

The teachers in the school are also the janitors, administrators, and cooks (the children receive a snack each day); as a result, the teacher is often not even in the classroom and young students are left to copy things from the white board as their only method of learning. 

Furthermore, student: teacher ratios are about 30:1 on a good day.  There are no aides or reading specialists.  If a child misses a lot of school or just can’t keep up, they can repeat a grade, but there are no IEP’s – just the hope that another year will do the trick.

Teachers rarely have more than a high school education.  Many people become teachers chose their profession simply because they do not like the other career paths offered at their high schools.  This being said, there are some really wonderful teachers in Guatemala.  I think it is especially impressive when teachers pursue a college education, given that there is no financial incentive to do so.

There are no libraries, computer labs, gymnasiums, or cafeterias in any of my schools.  Children do all their learning in one classroom and all of their playing on one dirt field (and a basketball court, if they’re lucky).   This set-up obviously has some serious draw-backs, but there are some really net things that come of it, too.

Kids of all grades interact and they interact very nicely.  Recess is typically a time where brothers and sisters check in on one another.  There is typically three or four games happening on the field at once, which appears to me to be chaos, but everyone is happy, so I don’t ask questions.

Children each have chores to do to keep the school running (i.e. retrieving snack, mopping classrooms, collecting trash, etc.) and they do them without complaining.  There is typically a fair degree of chaos inside the classroom with kids moving around and leaving as they please, but generally when the teacher does ask them to do something, they do it.  For the most part, kids are even respectful to me, the strange white girl who is still learning Spanish.

Teachers are required by the government to teach English, at least once a week..  However, the teachers don’t know English and the result is some bizarre pronunciation of English words: for example, pronouncing the “e” on the end of “blue” – “Blu-EEEE”. 

So, this week, I am beginning a class for teachers about teaching English.  The two hour class will combine English lessons and discussions on teaching methodology.  I am not particularly qualified to teach either of these things.  However, my 21 years of education were all about learning to identify a problem, find a solution, and presenting that solution.  Therefore, after a quite a few hours of research I am ready to get started.

If you, too, can think critically, please go hug a teacher!

P.S. Here are some pictures of a few of the awesome kids with whom I've been working!

First month in site!!

So, I have now been living in site for ONE WHOLE MONTH!  Some moments I feel as if I have been here for months, and other moments I feel as if it's my first day.  Here's a quick run-down on some of the things I've learned so far:

• There are dozens of types of mangoes, avocados, and bananas and I have a favorite of each.  These three foods comprise the majority of my diet here in Guatemala.
• I love salsa dancing.  I am still really, really bad at it, but I absolutely love it.  I'm sure it won't surprise any of you that I'm not too good at following a lead.
• If I accomplish nothing else in the next two years, at least my host sisters will be getting better grades in their English class.  I've been helping them out with their homework.
• I really love teaching.  I completed my introductory visits to each of the 14 schools I will be working with and am now returning to the classrooms to conduct an activity where the kids draw a map of their school and mark the things that they like and don't like about it.  I have found that when I am in front of a room full of kids, I really feel like my best self.
• There are things that I had always assumed I "needed", but am now doing quite fine without.  For example: a gym membership, a car, new clothes.  I've been working out in my room, riding public transportation, and buying my clothes at used clothes stores, and I've never been happier.
• However, I do still miss having electricity and running water 24 hours a day.
• An hour and a half commute to work isn't so bad if that commute is a beautiful hike.
• My head is quite literally in the clouds here.  We're at over 8,000 feet elevation.  
• Work comes in fits and starts.  I'm constantly evaluating if what I'm doing is actually working, so quite frequently my plan gets flushed and I have to start all over again.  Or, I get sick and stay in bed for three days.
• I prefer to work in a group.  I am the only volunteer in my project at my site, but there are two other volunteers working in different groups, so I try to tag-along with them or include them in my work as frequently as possible.
• Rainy season is super awful.  It rains EVERY SINGLE DAY.  This makes it incredibly hard to dry your laundry on the line or basically get anything done outside.  However, it is perfect weather for reading, of which I've been doing a lot.
• There are a lot of volunteers in the department of Quetzaltenango, where I am.  This has really been a lifesaver.  We get to relax together on the weekends, but we also get to work together (see the bullet on how I like to work in groups).  Every Peace Corps post has a different feel, and since PC Guatemala is condensed into a small part of the country, we've decided to take advantage of that and work together when it's possible.

Here's a few pics from my first weeks in site!!  Enjoy!

10 Things You Should Know About Guatemala

Guatemala is only about the size of Tennessee, but there is a lot going on here.  There is ancient history dating all the way back to the Maya civilization.  Now, there is a modern society with complex problems woven by corruption, malnutrition, and lack of education.

There are a lot of negative things on this list, but, hey, that's why there are Peace Corps volunteers here.  However, besides my actual house with my mom and my dad, I have never felt more at home anywhere.  The people are kind; the landscape is gorgeous; and there is a possibility of a very bright future for Guatemala.

Below each fact, I've put a link for an article with more information, on the off chance that you want to learn more, or you're just having a boring Tuesday night. 

Another volunteer, who works in a health center, noticed that they were handing out flyers of information with a bibliography.  The bibliography listed one source: "google.com".  Full disclosure, I did use Google, but I've included slightly more specific web addresses, in case you actually want to find the articles.

1.  A Gallup poll in 2012 ranked Guatemala as the 7th most positive country in the world.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/159254/latin-americans-positive-world.aspx

2.  Ríos Montt, former leader of Guatemala, was the first former head of state to face trial for genocide in a national court, as opposed to an international court.  He was found guilty this month.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/05/the-maya-genocide-trial.html

3.  Guatemala's gruesome, 36-year-long civil war ended in 1996.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/latin_america/jan-june11/timeline_03-07.html

4.  60% of the country's population is indigenous.  73% of the indigenous population is poor, while 35% of the non-indigenous population is poor.
http://www.iwgia.org/regions/latin-america/guatemala/868-update-2011-guatemala

5.  Guatemala's rate of malnourishment in children is the 6th highest in the world.
http://www.economist.com/node/14313735

6.  Guatemala's rate of obesity in adults is the 10th highest in the world.  How can one country be both obese and malnourished?? The answer is simple: carbohydrates.  Rice, bread, tortillas, potatoes, and corn are used to ward off hunger in the most affordable manner possible.
http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=351269&CategoryId=12394

7.  Some Guatemalans still claim that Belize is part of Guatemala.  The dispute may be settled as early as this year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belizean-Guatemalan_territorial_dispute

8. Guatemala is the world's second greatest exporter of high quality coffee, after Columbia.
http://www.avivara.org/aboutguatemala/coffeeinguatemala.html

9.  75% of the cocaine that arrives in the US passes through Guatemala and it has been estimated that 60% of the country is controlled by drug traffickers.  (Don't worry, Mom, not where I'm living.)
www.ghrc-usa.org/Publications/NarcoTraficofactsheet.pdf

10. Remittences in Guatemala are equivalent to 1/10 of GDP.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.html

Talk to you soon!  I can't believe I've been in my site for almost one month!  Time is flying!

A Very Guatemalan Evening

I haven't blogged yet about my site and my work, but it's not because I haven't wanted to or even because I accidentally downgraded my internet...  again.  My problem is simple: I just don't know where to start. 

Everything about my life has been totally changed over the past three months.  I have made incredible, new friends.  I live with a new family in a new country.  I eat new food.  I have a new job.  I speak a new language.  How do I begin to transmit this amazing, rich experience with a few sentences and some pictures?  Welp, I have no idea.

So, I have decided to cut myself a little slack and start sharing  anecdotes as they happen.  I am going to start with thie of my Thursday night, which very accurately captures the spirit of improvisation and new experiences, that sums up my first few months here in Guatemala.

It all started Wednesday night at about 9:00pm.  I was in bed reading and not too many minutes away from falling asleep when my phone rang and the person on the other end of the line was Seño Gloria, my host mom.  She asked me to come downstairs to talk.  I really thought I was in trouble.  Luckily, she was just inviting me to her daughter, Ruby's, birthday dinner.  Ruby was turning 15 and even though it wasn't a formal quinceañera, 15th birthdays are still a really big deal here for girls.

So, the next afternoon, I got her a bracelet as a gift and got ready for the birthday dinner.  I still had no idea what to expect.  Slowly, family started to arrive and pretty soon there was a group of about 30 at the house. 

All of the sudden, Gloria says "Let's go!" and we all start to walk out of the gate that surrounds the house.  Lo and behold, the bus that my host dad drives was parked outside of the gate.  So, all of us loaded onto this bus and set out for the birthday dinner.  I'm sure everyone else knew what was happening, but I hadn't been filled in on the details and was totally confused about why I was on, what essentially amounted to, a Guatemalan party bus.

After about a thirty minute ride, we arrived at Pollo Campero, a Guatemalan fast food chain that exclusively sells fried chicken.  Guatemalans LOVE Pollo Campero!  After taking a few turns around the block because we couldn't find anywhere to park a huge bus, we unloaded and headed in. 

The huge group sat along a long table and waited for the meal to begin.  However, there was one problem - Pollo Campero does not serve tortillas and Guatemalans do not eat without tortillas, EVER.  Luckily, this was a prepared group and they had brought their own tortillas.  I am not kidding.  They each pulled tortillas out of the purse and were ready to go.

After a prayer and a few words about the birthday girl, we ate our meal, tortillas included.  Then, we headed back out to the bus.  However, the bus would not start.  After about thirty minutes of unsuccessfully turning the key in the ignition, the two mechanics on board decided they could help and fixed the bus in about twelve seconds.  So, we headed home where we opened presents and said our goodbyes!

While there is not a birthday party every night, there does seem to be some adventure every day.  Everything is new and usually takes me six times as long as I expected and always includes a surprise.  I am yet to go to bed thinking, "Well, that was a normal day."

I hope that by sharing some of these stories with you I can stitch together a virtual quilt of my life here and transmit it via blog.  If you want the 3-D experience, you can always visit! 

Also, if there is something that you would like to know about please shoot me an email at kelley.scholl@gmail.com with any questions that you have!  I would love some guidance about what to write about and would be elated to share more of my experiences with anyone who is interested.

Also, Happy Mother's Day!  I don't want to put any ideas in your head, but Mother's Day is celebrated on Friday here in Guatemala and mother's don't have to work...

Our Goodbye Party

During our last weekend in our training sites, Peace Corps gave us a little money to throw our host families a goodbye party!  The three people in my training town and six of the people in the town next to us decided to pool our money to throw a big pizza party for our families!  It was... interesting...

We made a few faux pas, but hey, it was our first time throwing a party in Guatemala!  First, one of the families arrived about ninety minutes late, which isn't unusual for Guatemala.  The problem is that everybody else refused to start the party until they got there.  So we sat and awkwardly looked at each other for a significant amount of time.  I can't believe in a country where it is totally normal to be an hour late, that people wait for each other, but they apparently do.

We finally convinced the families there to eat some chips, but we had them serve themselves, which my host mother told me soon after was very shameful.  It's important to always serve your guests.  Oops.

When the last family arrived, we learned that they wouldn't eat until we had done the pinata.  Thank goodness we had a pinata, two actually.  So, we were finally able to start the party.  It was about two hours later than expected, but we each said something nice to our host families and they said something nice to us.  Then we did the pinata, finally ate the very cold pizza, and relaxed.

Our reason for wanting to have a pizza party was to do something nice, simple, and informal.  It didn't exactly turn out that way because Guatemalans don't like those type of parties.  Lesson learned.   I think that our families at least know we were grateful for their hospitality and that was the whole point, anyway.  Plus we have some good stories.

Here is a picture of all the guests at our party!

WE DID IT!!

So the big day finally happened, we were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers!  Impressively, all 29 of us that started training together were sworn-in.  That doesn't usually happen, but we're a pretty awesome group.

The first step of the Swearing In ceremony was cleaning ourselves up.  We'd become a little dirty in our time here, but we had to look real nice in order to meet the ambassador!  We were told that we had to rise when the ambassador entered the room, could not eat before he ate, and were lectured in the appropriate way to address him.  You think with all of this warning, I would be ready to meet this VIP, but, alas, I found a way to embarass myself...

After saying taking the oath, we were each called up to get our certificate, and go have our picture taken with the ambassador.  I got my certificate, shook my Program Manager's hand, and headed over to the ambassador... where I proceeded to put my hand around his waist as if he was my best friend or my boyfriend.  Immediately, everyone started laughing and my face turned bright red upon realizing the error I had just committed.  Plus, I forgot to hold my certificate up because I was so distrated by the fact that I had just made an advance on the ambassador.  I haven't seen that picture yet, but I'm sure it's a doozy.

Anyway, all is well that ends well.  I appologized to the ambasador afterwards, and he was really cool about it, telling me, that everyone experiences "awkward advances" in Guatemala.  All in all, it was a great day!  We took lots of pictures of our cleaned up selves and had a lot of fun celebrating our accomplishment!

Oopsie Dasies

So much has happened over the past few days that I have been dying to blog about.  The only problem is that I accidentally downgraded my internet.  (Why is it an option to downgrade your internet??  I do not have the answer to this very important question.)  Anyway, I am going to try to post a few blogs right now, while I am in the office.  I just wanted to let you know that I understand that posting three blogs at once isn't exactly ideal blogging technique.

Drum roll, please...

I am going to ***!!  We got our site assignments on Thursday and I am going to the place where I had field based training.  I am so excited about this for so many reasons!  Here's a quick list:

• There are already two great volunteers there!  They are working on different projects, but they'll be able to show me the ropes around town.  They also happen to be very good cooks.
• The site is surrounded by mountains and absolutely beautiful!
• It's about an hour outside of Xela, Guatemala's second biggest city.  So I'll be able to enjoy the modern comforts in the city.  Still, it's a very peaceful Mam village.
• I'm going to be working on Monitoring & Evaluation and Peer Education, two things I find super interesting!
• There are already established kids and women's groups that I'll be able to work with.

After this great news, we finished up training on Friday!  (SO WEIRD!!)  We ended training by having a cookout at the hot spring nearby.  The water was very, very warm and it was a great afternoon.

Plus, we did not have class this weekend, so we all got to hang out in Antigua!  We took a salsa class, ate some really good food, played a lot of Spades (my new favorite card game), and hiked up Cerra de la Cruz.  Here's a pic of myself and the three other girls from New England at Cerra de la Cruz!

We swear in on Friday... does anybody know where the past two months have gone??

Note to Self

Tomorrow I will be finding out my site - the place I will be working and living for the next two years!  This is exciting and scary and a million other things!  Because there is about to be a big change in my life, I've been thinking a lot about the future and about my expectations for my service.  So, I took time tonight to write a letter to my future self.  I will be a few days shy of my 24th birthday when I COS (Close of Service); this letter is for the Kelley of 2015.

Dear COS-ing Self,

I hope you have enjoyed the past two years and taken advantage of as many opportunities as possible.  I hope you have created big adventures you’ll talk about for years and small memories that you will think of fondly in the quieter moments of life.  I’ve started to think a lot about the person I want to be two years from now and have decided to record some thoughts.  If it changes, that’s okay; it’s life.  Still, I think it is important to remember how I feel in this moment.

First of all, I hope you’re a softer person.  I am always concerned with justice and fairness, but sometimes I forget to look at the person next to me, smile, and strike up a conversation.  Everybody needs kindness, and while it would be nice to influence that on a policy scale, it’s just as important to provide it to the people you see everyday.  (Well, actually, it’s probably more important.)

I hope you picked up some sort of a local skill – whether it be dancing, or weaving, or something in between.  I am both a learner and a teacher here and learning a new skill would be a constant reminder of that.

Speaking of learning, I hope you have used these past two years to become truly bilingual.  There’s something so beautiful about speaking to a person in their own language.  It seems like the greatest way to say that your ideas and needs are so worthwhile to me, that I learned your language to better understand them.

I hope I’m still blogging.  I really believe that my decision to join the Peace Corps was not one that I made solo and that is motivation enough to keep sharing.  My parents were cool enough to smile and say “I think it’s great that you want to spend two year in a country plagued by natural disasters, drug cartels, and political unrest.”  My friends were great enough to assure me that they’d put up with my whining about latrines and would still be around when I returned.  The amount of support I have received amazes me and one of the ways I can thank all of these wonderful people is to share my experiences with them.

I hope you’ve read a lot of books in your free time.

I hope you’ve made friends that are going to be your friends for a long time, whether they are other Peace Corps Volunteers or Guatemalans.

Lastly, I hope you’ve thought about what you want to do next.  And I hope that it’s something that you really want to do, not something that someone told you you’d be good at or something that you think is the right thing.  I hope that two years of roughing it in Guatemala has given you the courage to examine your talents and figure out how best to contribute to the world in a way that makes you very, very happy.

Love,

The Kelley of April 10, 2013

An Overdue Easter Post

Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Lent in general are difficult to put into words here in Antigua.  So, I've made a video to share with you all of the crazy and wonderful things that I've seen over the past few weeks.  (The video is on Facebook.  I'm having trouble uploading it here, but I'll keep trying!)

The most impressive and famous part of Lent in Antigua are the alfombras and the processions.  Each Sunday during Lent as well as each day of Holy Week, processions occur (often more than one at a time).    We even went to a procession at 3am on Good Friday!

Before the processions, families make huge alfombras on the procession route.  The alfombras (or blankets) are made out of flowers, fruits and vegetables, colored sawdust.  Basically anything goes.  After the alfombras are all ready, people walk around for a bit and "oooh and awww".  Then the procession begins.  Nobody is allowed to walk over the alfombras until the Jesus float passes over it.  It is a very big honor to carry the Jesus float or any other that float.  Immediately after the procession passes the alfombra is swept up and the family starts talking about what they're going to make next year.

With all this lead-up during Lent, I was expecting a great Easter Sunday!  But... nothing happened.  There was no acknowledgment that it was Easter.  Even the more religious families didn't go to church.  When I asked what we were doing for easter, they replied that they were going to rest.  It was all a bit strange.

Luckily, we didn't completely miss out on the Easter fun because my sitemates and I had purchased supplies to teach our host families how to dye Easter eggs!  This was a great opportunity to show our families a bit of American culture and to do something nice for them, since they've been taking great care of us.  

I hope you all had a great Easter!  Talk to you soon!

Field Based Training

Last week I spent five days at Field Based Training (FBT).  This was an opportunity to see what volunteers actually do, because, as you may have guessed, we don’t sit in language classes and cultural trainings for two years.  So, it was so refreshing to get out and see real, live volunteers and their work!

We spent Wednesday, Thursday, and half of Friday in a small community in the Occidente (Western Highlands).  A volunteer, Elana, showed us some schools that had really excelled under the Healthy Schools program with which we will be working.  A few teachers really excelled at incorporating the participatory learning strategies the Peace Corps helps to teach.  Additionally, it was touching to see how deeply the teachers and principals cared about the health of their students.

However, we also saw a few schools where things weren’t going as planned.  One school in particular left me with the chills.  They were an afternoon school, which meant that a different school used the same school building in the morning.  However, there was absolutely no cooperation between the morning group and the afternoon group.  For example, the parents in the morning group had helped to build handwashing stations and each day, they locked them up, so the afternoon kids couldn’t use them.  As a result, we saw children spitting in their hands to wash them and also using the spit to wash their hair.  Furthermore, many of the children were malnourished and, because of this, had tiny bodies and the faces of middle-aged men and women.

This is the school where I gave my first “charla”, or mini lesson.  I talked to the children about the importance of brushing your teeth and we sang a toothbrush song together.  When I asked the kids in the class what they brushed their teeth with, all of the kids responded in unison, “Colgate!”  Colgate does a lot of philanthropic work down here and has apparently cornered the toothpaste market.  Anyway, I was super excited that my Spanish was good enough to give a whole lesson and that the children actually understood!  Yayyy! 

However, this excitement was dampened by the fact that there was no teacher when I arrived in this class of thirty first graders and there was no teacher when I left.  The children were simply sitting there with a few words to copy off of the board.  We never got a completely straight answer as to why there teacher was missing, but it did not appear as if she was going to return that day.

After our 2.5 days in the field as a group, we were split up further and were sent to farther away places to live with a volunteer for two nights.   Miyaunna, another trainee, and I were sent to an awesome site just about an hour outside of Xela, Guatemala’s second largest city.  The site was beautiful and rural with a very large indigenous population.  We stayed with a volunteer, Kathy, and we spent the whole weekend talking about what it’s really like to be a volunteer, eating great food (not tortillas), and just generally relaxing.  On Sunday morning, we slept til 9am, which is definitely the latest we’ve slept since leaving the US…. AND Kathy brought us coffee in bed.  It was GREAT!  

The other great thing that we did was to help Kathy with her kids group.  There’s a pic of us below.  The kids group was super low key and fun.  We taught the kids about Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day by making shamrocks, putting on a leprechaun skit, and eating Irish soda bread.  The kids were so excited about learning traditions from other parts of the world and they totally adored Kathy.  I can not wait to have a kids group of my own when I get to site!

Today we had interviews about what we would like our site and work to be like… Only two more weeks until we find out this very important part of information!  Let the sleepless nights begin!