Lots to catch you up on...

This is a shout out for Ben, my awesome sitemate who lived in Zunil. He decided to wrap up his service and head back and it was sad to see him go, It was great to have him closeby, like a crazy older brother. Zunil's gonna miss ya pal!

Also please note my finger in this pic. Yup, you see right. Medical tape. Funny story of the week: I fractured the knuckle playing basketball with the teachers in my district. That meant guatemalan hospital and lots of radiation exposure. Worst of it? we lost.

I finally got my traje (the word they use for the women's dress here). After more than half a month's income and lots of patience, it is finally done! Now to give you a little background, the women here wear this everyday. The shirt, called a guipil, is handwoven and the design is specific to Almolonga. The skirt, called a corte, is made in another town but has to be sown together here.

The neckline was hard to decide on. Women here often have an embroidered collar, but to be honest it comes out super expensive. So I decided to do some simple bling and call it a day.

The guipil comes as two pieces of woven cloth and then it's sown together with embroidery to cover the seam. It's looong! But only the patterned part shows when you wear it. (more pics to come when I sport it throughout this year!)
Here is Pia, the lovely pup that has warmed her way into my heart. Her previous mama was a peace corps volunteer who was incredibly mature and decided to look for a good guatemalan home for her rather than let her live the American life.
Precious, right? She and I take long walks in the fields every afternoon, where she rips apart every single trash bag she finds. Everyone asks me if she bites. At first I thought this was so strange. I mean, what was I going to say, 'Yes, I enjoy taking my vicious dog out into the streets where she can prey on young children'. But dogs serve a purpose here, they stay tied up in the houses and bark. Job description: scare the living daylights out of everyone, friend or foe. So as if I wasn't enough of a freak, add a dog on there. And yes, she sleeps in my bed!

You wanted to know how you could help make a difference in Almolonga....

HERE'S YOUR CHANCE!

Earlier this year I worked with two of my schools (two that share the same building) to apply for funds through an organization called 'Water Charities' to get some more faucets built at the school. Our project just got approved! The great thing about Water Charities is that they work exclusively with peace corps volunteers and prefund all their projects- we'll be getting $555 to construct faucets, add a water deposit and fix the toilets.

If you would like to help, check out the project here.

This week has been filled with a deep saddness as I and all of PC Guatemala mourns the loss of my boss, Director of the Healthy Schools proyect, Dr. Sergio Mack Rivas.

I had much respect for Dr. Mack in his guidance over my project, he was the mastermind and devoted 14 years to the project. He was one of the few Guatemalans that I found inspiring, one that was dedicated to making his country a better place. Dinamic, professional and an expert in development and public health.

The funeral was last friday in Guate, I went with the other healthy schoolers and PC staff. The services were hard and emotional for us, but demonstrated the impact that Dr. Mack made in this world. There's just this whole, this void, as I think of his beautiful family (three older children and wife) and the hurt they are going through.

I know that you don't know them but if this happens to recross your mind later today please keep the Mack family in your thoughts and prayers...

rough week... but such is life. no matter where on the planet you make your life. and i guess i'm learning these things bit by bit. but at the end of the day, the heart of life is good.

news:

1.) dog! her name is pia and she is a two year old mutt that eats meat and is completely content to sleep all day on my bed.

2.) work is a bummer. somehow i thought that this year would be easier. or rather that i would hit the ground running from where we finished last year. i. was. wrong.

3.) i may have broken the window on a bus. yeeaaahh...

4.) my wonderful aunt leslie came to visit last week! we had a fun time around almolonga and enjoying each other's company. i can't thank her enough for coming

for those thinking of coming- watch this video and you will be convinced!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9cCPQVPv8o

sometimes it hits me that i live in guatemala:

-i am now a plumber. well, not really. but i fix toilets. and i know all the lingo. in spanish.

-hairblowdryer? why bother. just jump in the back of a pickup truck

-marriage? easy. the woman who sells me potatos is helping her 18 year-old son pick out my ring (no gracias?)

-no toilet paper? dude, that's what old newspaper is for.

-trash. oh, the battle against the trash.

-fried eggs.

-almolongan coffee- delicious but more like sugar water than coffee. but, it. is. gooooood.

-i bought a traje! yup i did. and it is going to cost me around what i make in a month. totally worth it.

-there is this smell that hits me sometimes in the street, not a foul smell, but not exactly agreeable either. and when i smell it, i know that im home.

and it's all of these things. and all of this still matters.

on a serious note i was thinking this week (shocking right?) about what i want to stand for. my core. my center. because sometimes we spin wildly around and never quite get there.

i want the world to be a better place because i was a part of it.

whatever i do, where ever i go, it has to come back to that.

whiplash is my curse here. it's like everyday is a thousand days with a billion little moments in each one. this up and down. me beaming. literally like fool with a smile that i can't get rid of. or me just wanting to curl up in bed with a book and forget the world.

the year has had kind of a rough start. just being pulled out of almolonga for meetings ect. and feeling behind in my work. but this week i got things back under control (wait a sec, who am i kidding, well as much control as possible here).

Tuesday and Wednesday I put on a workshop for all of the schools I work with (14 total). The workshop is called 'Project Design and Management', basically it gives the leaders at each school the tools that they need to plan out a small infrastructure project in a systematic way. And the kicker- it went really well!!!!! who woulda thought? Anyway, it was so encouraging to read their evaluations (i think im going to hang them up in my room, nothing like 'we love you samata/samanda/shamata to get me out the door in the morning'). It just made me so pumped for the school year, people are starting to get it, starting to want to make positive changes in their schools.

in other news:

1.) a friend loaned me a guitar and it has drastically improved my quality of life (although the songs ive written of late are a bit 'rage'ish)

2.) earthquakes FREAK ME OUT! just cuz im not used to them... when the cabinets start shaking i get nervous. (but the best is being on the phone with my dad... me 'whoa an earthquake' my dad 'GET OUTSIDE NOW') that's love.

3.) i want a dog. yes. yes, i do.

4.) i visited a school and a little girl shyly opened the door, i asked to come in, she stared at me for a while and slammed the door shut. then i heard 'Seño, Seño, there's a señora out there with blueish green eyes'. priceless.

i like to make my day planners mine. you know, add some spice. for 2012 my wonderful mom brought me a fancy 'adult' agenda. and i set out to find the perfect quote to set my mind straight everytime i open it.

'another i is beginning'

2012. guatemala.

going back to cleveland for the holidays was amazing. exhausting, but good. i felt so busy, but i wasnt really. shower, drive to meet people, drive to run errands, eat lunch, ect. just a different type of busy i suppose. but it was fun to see everyone and share that time together. i felt like the luckiest girl in the world...

and i did come back to guatemala (i know you had your doubts). just in time to celebrate our one year anniversary in-country. i reread my journals and it's just so incredible how much we can grow in such a short time. we are so adaptable (if we choose to be).

but the year has started out a little rough. some of you may have heard about peace corps making some changes in central america- mainly honduras, el salvador and guatemala mainly related to security concerns. without going into depth about the exact situation here-i had a few anxieties about joining the peace corps and they mostly related to working for a federal agency. go figure, it's a frustrating place to be at times. the end of the totem pole, that is. but i made my choices and i'm here in guatemala. and i'm not going anywhere.

here's to: knowing where home is.

almolonga my friends. almolonga,

quetzaltenango,

guatemala,

centro america.

All the superlatives come up short as you try to describe the beauty of Lago Attilan. In reality it is a 20 mile wide volcanic crater, but you don’t realize it because within the crater itself rises 3 immense volcans that add a surreal feeling to the place, almost like a painted backdrop. They were described to me by a local ex-pat as pimples on the face of the true volcan, but incredibly unique to those of us who don’t experience volcans in our daily experience. The shoreline is steep, yet dotted with five or six villages. While it should have been a national park, the land has been lapped up by expats who have found their version of paradise and some who build multiple for vacation rentals as extra income. The home we rented came with a challenging climb especially with luggage but with the help of our ever helpful property manager,Ramos, we arrived to an incredible property/incredible views/incredible jardins/incredible birds/incredible shower(enjoyed after several that were not so hot),incredible weather. There is a tension that comes with foreign travel: language issues, security issues, logistical issues, so it was nice to have somewhat of a break from that while basking in all that the area offers : roaming quaint villages, kayaking in the shadows of volcans, swimming in a 900’ deep lake(although they say the water is dirty as it is a catch basin with no outlet so whatever they put in there stays in there). Sam is so engaging with the Guatemalan people and they respond so well to her that we enjoyed regular visits from Ramos and his hija who Sam befriended. We even got regular visits from their perros who would knock on the door and make themselves at home while enjoying a little snack. So Thanksgiving dinner was in my mind a 50/50 proposition. High altitude, propane oven, and then the EXPLOSION!! The burners had igniters but not the burners in the oven, son Donna turns on the gas expecting the oven to light. When it doesn’t, she lights a match, not realizing the gas has built up in the oven. Picture a ball-of-flame leaping out!!The sound was a bit like lighting your gas grill x100. I was glad the door was open or I’m sure I would have been buying a new Guatemalan stove (I can just see me carrying that to the boat) Ramos got us some help in lighting the thing and it all went off without a hitch after that. Pumpkin pie, mashed papas, green beans, pollo breasts, muy bien. A thanksgiving to remember!! I didn’t mention the boats. The only way around the lake is by boat. These are converted fishing boats, well kinda converted for people, but you never know what you might be sharing space with. It is nice that this has been maintained as a small business for the locals with few larger tour boats. This was a special time for us as we all relaxed and good conversation flowed, great sleeping with naps, books were consumed. Guatemala!!!

Marimba, Marimba!! Welcome to Xela (Quetzaltenango)yea xela is better, but just so you know, the quetzal is a muy bonita long tail bird (somewhat rare now), so the name means place of the quetzal. Anyway marimba (think xylophone, that spelling is not even close, with 3 guys playing it at once) so how do home- made marimba’s become a big thing? Must be a MAYAN thing!! This is what you say when you just don’t understand something about Guatemala. Must be a MAYAN thing! The people of Guatemala are the most concentrated indigenous group I’ve encountered with every area of the country (except guate) speaking a different Mayan language as its 1^st language, Spanish is second fiddle here, but all speak it. I hope the indigenous languages will not be lost on the next generations. Xela is the2nd largest city, but small by comparison. Yet this is where we met Sam’s familia de Guatemala, as it is not far to Sam’s village of Almolonga. We had dinner at the B4 mentioned Fried chicken joint (not the place to be with a queasy stomach). It was loud and crowded with marimba music flowing and they ONLY served fried pollo(chicken) Regardless it was wonderful to meet Jose y Maria y hija Elysa. It must have been a funny sight as we were the only gringos in the place and all 3 of us over a foot taller than any of them, but we had a grand time and it warmed our heart to see Sam so knit together with them. We were to spend more time with them in their home in Almolonga.

Sam of course fought all our battles for us. Bargaining hard for the best price, rejecting taxi’s who tried to take advantage of the gringos, protecting us in crowded markets, on buses, squeezing us into tuktuks, finding us wonderful hotels, helping us with menus (except as a vegan,(she wont like me calling her a vegan) she was lost when it came to cuts of meat. The poor waiter had to point to his body parts…oh you mean ribs?) The greatest joy for us was seeing her embraced by the communities where she lives and works. At 1^st Almolonga was hard for us. Dirty, smelly, congested. But then we started meeting all the people who knew sam. Warm smiles hugs kisses, excited conversation, excited to meet the parents of their Samantha. That’s right, they don’t plan to let her go. The children running by all greet sam, the girls give a hug. Away from the main street Almolonga settles down as it slopes down to the fields for which it is famous. Here there is a beauty and serenity that is hard to describe and you begin to understand, in a small way, what it is the people value. Down the road a ways is another village,Zunil, cleaner but only because they throw the garbage in the river, but a lovely place with lovely people who like all the rest work extremely hard through the course of their day. It was a sight as the women do their laundry by the river in the shadow of yet another volcan with the brightness of their faces reflected in the vibrant colors of the blankets spread out along the river bank. We had a short visit to a Almolongan church, and it is safe to say that the Hand of God is active here and His Church is alive.

Salsa, Salsa!!! Back to music. Sam surprised us with private samba lessons. OH yea we were surprised all right. Private meant one-on-one instruction in front of a room full of folks on exercise equipment. But what can you do? You roll with it!! GUATEMALA !!

What my Papi has to say about the first part of his trip...

So why in every airport I’ve ever been to do you have to walk a mile to get to customs? My visit to guate began with this great mystery, but our experience with Guatemalan immigration went smoothly despite all the Thanksgiving contraband in our luggage, including a can of pumpkin for what became an incredible pie baked at altitude in a propane oven, but I am getting ahead of myself and that is a story in itself. Like most Latin city airports there is a crowd of folks outside the doors. Its one of the 1^st things that your mind registers as different.

In the throng, we found our hija’s smile and long strong hugs were enjoyed, then into a waiting taxi and the streets of Guate (that’s Guatemala City for you gringos). We know the white lines on the road as lane boundaries, but here and in a lot of places those are motorcycle lanes inbetween the lines of cars, buses, trucks (mostly diesel gag/cough!!!). The city is alive though with people walking, on bikes, babies on back with large loads carried on heads, vendors, shop keepers; throw in a lot of dogs, chickens, goats, horses. The city sights were interrupted by an ambulance that decides to Uturn over the median in front of us. The car next to us was rear ended. Ah, Guatemala!

The ride to Antigua was lovely. Mountains sprang up even before we left the city and our travel for the rest of our stay was up&down and side to side. Hard on queasy stomachs, but what the heck, the food was good (except for the fried chicken place but I’m getting ahead again; can you say” necesito el servicio”). Of course nothing tops a “tuktuk” on the cobblestone streets of Antigua. Now I know how a Christmas tree feels when they put it on the shaker (tuktuk-a 3 wheeled scooter that carries passengers). It was fun though in a “how did I get here” kind of way. Antigua is a lovely Spanish colonial town, in the shadow of volcano Fuego. Shops and restaurants and street markets and of course the centerpiece is the park fountain with 4 bare breasted maidens, the water of life streaming from their breasts! Bonita old churches, young street vendors, candy señor? Flute? Necklace for the pretty lady? Woven bracelets, scarves, blankets. Gracias, no. Lo siento, no. Cuanto cuesta? The bargaining is on! (Sam, I still want the pecking chickens! 10 q only!!) A Buenos dias/tardes/noches from almost every passerby.

Hotel Aurora, muy bien!! Street markets are crowded, lively affairs with tight 2-way traffic in each isle. Tried a new fruit I had never seen before and wanted to buy a sombrero as I can never seem to remember to bring a hat on trips, but came up empty. Street markets are not the tourist markets (I dislike tourists) full of weavings in every form, carvings, bright paintings that all look the same, toys, leather items. I believe there is a large factory somewhere in South America (maybe China) that supplies all the markets around the world. It’s owned by WALMART!!!

Installment 2 next week