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!

Food in Guatemala (aka Tortillas)

            So mealtime is simultaneously my biggest stressor and my favorite times of the day.  It’s definitely a stressor because the food is “strange” to me, I’m a picky eater, everyone is talking at the same time, and it would be really easy to offend someone by not eating/saying the right thing.  However, it is also a great time because after dinner I just sit around and shoot the breeze with my family.  I can jut listen to them or they’ll wait patiently while I stumble through a story.

            First of all: carbs on carbs on carbs.  It’s not unusual for a meal to include bread, potatoes, rice, and tortillas.  EVERY meal includes tortillas, bread and black beans.  And I mean every meal – breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even afternoon snack.  I understand why people here like bread.  It’s always clean.  It’s cheap.  It’s easy.  However, it’s sad to see all of the nutritious fruits and vegetables people bring to the market to sell, so that they can have money for more bread and snack foods.  I forget the exact figure, but the malnutrition rate here is incredible, so expect more posts on this topic.

            The fruits and vegetables here are really incredible.  Even the watermelon here is really delicious and actually has a taste.  I had a mango yesterday that was probably the most delicious thing I’ve ever had in my life.  This type of mango was  pretty soft and then they cut a small bit off the top of the mango.  Then they squeeze all of the juice from the mango through the hole into their mouth, like a juice box.  It was amazing.  Also, it's avocado season.  Yum.

            I told my family that I was a vegetarian.  Which is more of a stretching of the truth than an outright lie.  In the States I’ll occasionally eat meat, but eat vegetarian whenever possible.  However, I’m trying to know my limits and I definitely know that I’m not ready to eat just any type of meat that they put in front of me.  My host mom is very kind and said that she doesn’t mind me not eating meat. 

She added that she and most members of her family have diabetes, so it’s good for her to eat more vegetables anyway.  When I asked her how she treats her diabetes, she said she just takes a pill with her meals.  When I asked her how she got diabetes, she said she has no idea.  She doesn’t understand how eating so much bread affects her blood sugar, since it’s not sweet.   Needless to say, there’s a lot of work to be done here.

Also, coffee.  Everyone here drinks coffee all the time.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner and in between.  They even give the thirteen-month-old I live with coffee, at every meal.  One part of Guatemalan culture that I really love is the “cafecita”, which is a cup of coffee and a snack in the late afternoon, because they eat dinner so late.  I’m definitely bringing that back to the States.

            Although I am really looking forward to having more independence once training is over and being able to cook my own meals, eating with my Guatemalan host family has offered me great insight into why the malnutrition and stunting rate is so extraordinarily high.  The water can make you sick.  The fruits and vegetables are a pain to wash.  Families are big and need to be fed cheaply.  One of the primary goals of the Healthy Schools program I am working in is to teach nutrition, so I am chalking this up to an important learning experience, but once I get out to site, I’m making myself a BIG, CLEAN, SALAD!!

Volcano Pacaya

On Saturday, we got hike Pacaya, one of the active volcanoes in Guatemala!  The activity was led for trainees by a few current volunteers.  I know I've been posting about a lot of fun things, but really most of my time is spent wrestling with Spanish (namely, the subjunctive).  So, it's a lot of fun to just hang out and be touristy and relaxed for a bit.  Plus, its always neat to talk with real, live volunteers and hear their perspective on the things we're learning in training.  The best part of the day was that we got to cook marshmallow's at the top, using only the heat of the lava!!  Although, in Spanish, marshmallows are "angelitos" (little angels), so it's a bit bizarre to talk about cooking them.  Anyway, here are a few pics from a great day!

Community Mapping with 6th Graders

In our technical training, we've been learning about Participatory Activities for Community Action (PACA) Tools.  The idea is that, as Peace Corps Volunteers, we are supposed to understand a community's needs and resources before helping the community chart their own course of action.  Last Friday, we got a chance to test out our new skills in a local 6th grade class!  The results were... interesting.  (Would you expect anything less?)

We had a carefully crafted script, but it didn't exactly go as planned.  However, the reason it didn't go as planned is because the kids were SO INTO IT.  We split the class up into boys and girls.  (I worked with the boys' group.  There's a pic of us below.)  Each group was supposed to draw a map of their school and community.  Then they were supposed to mark the things that they liked and didn't like on their map.  Finally, they were supposed to draw in things that they would like to see in their community.

The problem was that they took soooo long to draw the map.  They used tons of colors, outlined first in pencil, and even used a ruler to make every line straight.  We couldn't bear to hurry this kind of craftsmanship and creativity.  So, we let them take a long time drawing and then, while they were drawing, engaged them in a discussion about what they liked, didn't like, and wanted in their community.  Finally each group presented by having each person say one thing about their map.  We ended by discussing the similarities and differences between the maps and talking about why it was important to think about our community.

The kids wanted some really practical things: more trash cans, less alcohol, and a library.  They also wanted an avocado river.  Across the board, their favorite things about their school were the soccer field and the computer room.  I was most impressed that so many kids mentioned that they didn't like how dirty the river was.  They noticed it smelled and looked bad.  In a few weeks, we are going to return to the class to teach a lesson and we're hoping to teach about how proper trash disposal can affect the river, since this is something the kids clearly care about.

All and all, the kids were great.  They had a lot of energy, but they really channeled it into helping us understand the community we are living in!

¡Un Papa Nuevo!

I got to share a really cool moment with my host family on Wednesday.

We were eating lunch and all of a sudden the church bells began to toll.  Immediately, my host family knew that this meant there was a new Pope.  We all ran into the bedroom with the tv and stood around for the next 30 minutes or so, waiting to hear the announcement!  There was a lot of excitement.  (Also, my host family was also extremely nervous that the next Pope would be black, and they were certain this would mean the end of the world.  I'll expand upon race in Guatemala during a later post, when I'm a little less angry about it and I know how to do it correctly.)

When the Cardinals announced that the next Pope was from Argentina, the first Pope from Latin America, there was a palpable sense of pride in the room.  When he began to speak in Spanish, everyone stepped towards the tv, trying to be just a little bit closer to this new, historical Pope.  There are a lot of devout Catholics in Guatemala and throughout Latin America.  This Pope represents the Church's embrace of their devotion and has filled my host family with happiness.  It has been two days and they're still talking about it constantly.

As a feminist and a volunteer for a marriage equality PAC, I have my bones to pick with the Catholic Church.  However, in this moment, I was extremely grateful for my Catholic religion because I was able to share in this celebration and to cross a language and cultural divide simply by saying, "I am Catholic, too."  I was happy to celebrate this historical Pope in Latin America.

I bought a newspaper the next day as a memento of the historical moment and of my more personal moment with my host family.

Stories and Musings from the First Few Weeks

I don’t have any great thoughts for a cohesive blog post, so I figured I’d just share with you a few of the stories that I’ve collected over the first couple of weeks.

•  So, the first day Kendra and I woke up and got dressed, super excited for the first day.  Then… we realized… Guatemala is one hour behind our East Coast watches.  So, we awkwardly laid back in bed, fully dressed, waiting for an hour to pass so that we could have breakfast and actually start our day.  Lesson learned.
•  Our second night here, some volunteers and neighborhood kids were playing cards.  I teamed up with a little boy to play Go Fish because he was too young to play by himself.  Another volunteer asked if he had any pairs and he replied “We’re a pair!”, pointing to me.  This made me more confident in my ability to interact with kids here, despite my poor Spanish.
• My host family decorated my room with balloons and this flower below before I came.  They are really lovely people and I can’t wait to tell you more about them!

• Everybody says hi to everybody.  Walking down the street, every person you see, you say Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening (depending on the time, obviously).  It doesn’t matter if you know the person or not.  It’s really nice.
• People here often buy clothes from “Ropa Americana” stores, which are basically things passed down from Goodwill stores in the US.  So, people here sometimes have quite eclectic wardrobes.  I saw a Guatemalan man the other day proudly wearing a green hat that said “Kiss Me, I’m Irish”.  I guess it really is a small world.
• After training, the group from my village and a few other volunteers near by went to the park to play Frisbee.  The ten of us were right in the middle of the park in a big circle, passing the Frisbee.  Then we heard these loud cracking, gun shot sounds.  All of us gringos, ducked and covered our heads.  Then we realized that they were these little crackler, fireworky things that the kids like to use.  We looked incredibly stupid and everyone in the park was laughing at us.
• There was a Walk for Peace in town.  Here’s a picture of the flyer below.  There was about a thousand people that participated, mostly churches and schools.  Everyone wore white.  It was very inspiring because it was such a sincere attempt for these people to improve their own lives.

• We visited the Maya ruins at I’xchmé and participated in a ceremony to bring us health over the next two years.  The ruins were beautiful and the ceremony was very interesting. I saw a chicken get its head cut off and then get thrown into the fire.  I guess I’ll add that to my list of firsts.
• On the Fridays leading up to Semana Santa (Holy Week), churches put on shows of different biblical scenes.  It is a HUGE production.  The scene itself is very intense and then there’s a carnival outside.  This makes me very, very excited for Holy Week.  People come from all of the world to experience Holy Week in Antigua.  I'm going to try to upload the video once I get better at this whole blogging things.

I hope to post soon about my family here, about food in Guatemala, and about Semana Santa!  There's lots of exciting things going on and I am very happy to be a part of it!

A School, A Hike, A Coffee Museum, & A Wedding

So, real talk... Peace Corps training can be... weird.  I have no complaints and definitely no regrets, but it's still an adjustment.  Two months ago, I was in college - living with my friends, eating what and when I wanted, and deciding how I spent the entire day.  Now, I eat three meals a day with my host family, I have to be home before it starts getting dark (6:30 pm), and I'm not allowed to go much farther than the town soccer field.  On top of that, there is still a significant language barrier between the locals and I.  All and all, things are great, but there is still feels a bit strange sometimes.

HOWEVER, this weekend has been AWESOME!  It all started Friday when we took our first visit to a school in an area largely inhabited by indigenous people.  The school had a Peace Corps Volunteer until last month and it was so nice to get a feel for what we'll actually be doing over the next four years.

Before stopping in the school, we visited the local health center and got a overview of the Healthy Schools program from the perspective of the Ministry of Health.  (Healthy Schools is a joint effort between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and they tend to have different perspectives.)  The man at the health center really seemed to emphasize the handing out of things to children... For example, giving weekly micronutrients (instead of teaching about nutrition) and giving biannual deworming medicine (instead of teaching about clean water).  On the bright side, he also emphasized the importance of involving teachers and trying to form habits in the children, both things the Peace Corps emphasizes.

Then, we went to the school!!!  We talked to the director (principal) and he gave us a tour around.  The school building was nice and the kids seemed happy, but the problems were also apparent.  There school had an enrollment of 142 kids... and three teachers.  One teacher was managing two classes in two different rooms, another teacher had two classes in the same room.  This meant that the kids spent their day copying things from the blackboard.  As a side note, every day I ask my five-year-old host brother what he did at school and he says "I watched a movie."  With a 1:50 teacher to student ratio, I can see why movies would be popular in schools.

I am very excited to learn more about education in Guatemala and to figure out how to make a health program work in a school with such limited resources.  Here's a pic of our group at the school!

On Saturday, all of the trainees went to the Museo de Cafe with our Language and Culture Facilitators (LCFs).  It was a nice break just to see each other and to be a bit touristy.  Guatemala is ninth in the world for coffee production.  As an American, I think it's a bit strange to be so proud of being ninth for something, but one of the reasons I'm here is to gain a different perspective.  We learned quite a bit about coffee.  For example, each coffee tree produces only about a pound of coffee (or 24 brewed cups) per year, which means that coffee is an extremely labor and land intensive process.  Also, 84 cents of each dollar spent on coffee stays in the country that consumed it - for transportation, advertising, etc.  Only 16 cents gets returned to the country that produced the coffee.  Most importantly, we learned "Nescafe no es cafe."  Here's  a pic of me and quite a few coffee beans.

Later in the afternoon, I met up with some other trainees for a hike.  We got a great bird's eye view of our town and we got to just relax.  A little fresh air is exactly what the doctor ordered.  The hike was a little bit dusty, but totally worth it.  I hope I get the chance to have adventures like that more often.  Here's a pic of my hiking amigos.

After the hike, I cleaned up, had dinner with my family, and went to a wedding with my host mom!  I wish I had pictures of the wedding to show you, but as soon as I take out my camera, I'm a tourist.  As the only gringo in the room, I wasn't exactly trying to create more barriers.  The wedding was different than I expected.  It was only a civil ceremony, because it is very expensive to get married in the church.  Also, the bride and groom looked very young.  We walked in and the bride and groom greeted us at th door and accepted our present.  The bride was wearing a very flashy white and silver dress.  Then, we sat in lawn chairs and chatted with people while food was passed around.  There was a band playing but very few people were dancing.  After about an hour, we said good bye and left.  Probably the best part of the night for me was when we got back, and I got the chance to sit with just my host mom and chat about marriage and family in Guatemala while we enjoyed a "cafecita".  Moments like that are exactly what I hope for as a Peace Corp Volunteer.

Now... off to a birthday party for a fellow trainee.  Life is good.