A little off topic

My favorite song is, and always will be, Flo-Rida’s Club Can’t Handle Me.  Granted, it’s not really a good song, but it’s my favorite because it was the first song I heard when we landed in the airport in Guatemala.  It will forever and always remind of that wonderful, crazy, terrifying feeling of walking out into a country I had never been to and was going to spend the next two years of my life in.  It’s such an exhilarating feeling- stepping out of your comfort zone and into the unknown!  The feeling that something really, really, really BIG is about to happen and that your life will never be the same.  It will always remind me of moments like walking into the hotel in Washington, D.C. to begin staging for Peace Corps with a room full of people who were to become like family, and when my counterparts whom I had met for a couple of days were driving me down a sketchy, bumpy road to my new home, Santa Maria Visitacion.  Maybe that's why once I started traveling it's been hard to stop...maybe I'm addicted to that stepping-out-on-a-ledge-without-looking-down feeling.  That song reminds me of all the reasons why I joined Peace Corps, which for some reason, when written down, just seem corny and fake.  And so to get out of my year and a half slump of serving in Santa Maria, August has been all about Flo-Rida and getting out there and doing things I’ve never done before.  Which, is actually not that hard!  They don't necessarily have to be huge actions to change up the routine.  From eating half a watermelon for dinner to singing Alleluia while planting beans with Lucia, doing things I hadn’t done before was very simple and a breath of fresh air.  I went to some hot springs, I changed up my running route, I had an open discussion with a Catholic Guatemalan about religion, I put my corte on all by myself without any help, it's just been a great month!  So while yes, July was tougher than most months due to various reasons (3 of my best friends came to visit in June which was AMAZING, but of course that meant they had to leave after that, and then I got lice), August has turned out to be much better!  So thank you, Flo-Rida.  Also thanks to Ricky Gervais, Steve Merchant, and Karl P. for their ridiculous and hilarious podcast.  Side note: my second favorite song is actually the Titanic song, because it seems like EVERYONE knows it no matter where you are.  I’ve heard it in Spanish, a techno remix, played on recorder, on the chicken buses, in the muni, you name it!  Which was why I was so bummed when the movie came out in 3-D and I couldn’t go see it.

Pictures from the past couple months/feria in Santa Maria

1. Learning how to make chocolate from cacao beans with the girls!

 2. During feria, diferent town "queens" from all over Guatemala came in their best traje to participate in the crowning of our new queen, or Rukotz'ij Tinamiit (Flor del pueblo en tz'utujil= town flower).  It was the most beautiful pageant I've ever seen...and there wasn't even a swimsuit competition!

 3.  Some of my students from the basico, or middle school, before the parade in their brand new uniforms.

 4.  Me and one of my students in the parade

5. Cheerleaders from the basico in their new uniforms.  

 6.  Glock girls!  Man walking on those streets in heels was hard...don't know how the women here do it!  I had to walk home barefoot.

March, April, May

Last night I was visiting my friend Dina and her son Roberto and Dina started showing me Mayan artifacts that she found here in Santa Maria.  Then I started thinking “How the hell did I get here?”  No matter what happens in Peace Corps, whether I am at a down point or a high point in my service, I am so lucky to be in Guatemala.  Last week I went to a training and stayed at a hotel with a t.v.(!!) and on the National Geographic station was a special on the Mayans and they showed a Mayan ceremony in the mountains of Lago Atitlan.  It was so weird!  Life is so unpredictably wonderful- I never, in my whole life, imagined I would have the opportunity to live in a place and experience a culture that is in a National Geographic special!

Anyways, things have happened since I last wrote!  Projects, I moved houses, earth day, more diarrhea, reforestations, lots!  It’s been so long I almost forgot what my blog was called.  One thing that I really enjoy is working with one of the women’s groups in town.  The president is an older lady named Dona Lucia and who is missing a lot of teeth and has a leaky house.  We have craft time a lot because we learned how to make bags, earrings, purses, and even baskets out of chip bags together, and her group is learning as well.  They have improved a lot on earrings and are now experimenting with colors and beads.  The baskets are a mix of the pine baskets they already make with chains of chip bags woven together.  It’s all very exciting!  The ladies, however, are very eager to sell even though a lot of their things aren’t high quality yet.  Poco a poco!  They did get a very large order for pine baskets so they have a lot of work cut out for them!  Lucia has a lot of experience working with Peace Corps volunteers and works extremely hard, always.

In other news, it’s rainy season again.  Which means more drying my underwear in the toaster oven!  But, I have to say, rainy season is MILLIONS of times better in my new house.  I don’t have a leaky kitchen, or mold on my walls to fight, and I have a huge patio where I can hang out and there are no horses outside- the air is much fresher!  I don’t have to be inside in the dark ALL THE TIME now.  I actually spend most of my time on the patio now.  I don’t have a shower, though, so I take bucket baths and wash my hair in the pila.  I’ve gotten used to that though!  I also have a much better relationship with my old host family- my host mom still washes my clothes sometimes, and she comes over to visit as well.  She saw my tampons in the bathroom and was curious so I even had the pleasure of explaining how tampons work to her.  She was very perplexed!  They do kind of sound scary when explained in gringa Spanish.   

I am also announcing here that I am training for a half marathon!  That way, I have to keep up with the training schedule so as to not disappoint everyone!  I am still on week one, but it’s exciting because I actually get up early in the morning (gasp!) to run, which is a really good way to start the day.  Yesterday, however, I made the mistake of running before the reforestation we did.  So I went for the run, came back, bathed, and then went to the reforestation.  Which meant hiking two hours down to the river and then up the mountain on the other side, and then hiking back.  I was so tired and sweaty, I could barely move.  But I couldn’t bathe either because there was no water in the pila and water doesn’t come to the house until 7 at night/7 in the morning for about an hour each time, so I just drank three cups of water and lay down on my exercise mat to sleep.  I woke up STARVING and had nothing in the kitchen except an egg and some bread, so I ate that, and then went and bought some more food and ate that. 

Last Saturday as well, my friend Dina and Roberto came over to give me a German Shepard puppy.  The gesture was really, really sweet because Dina had actually bought the dog for her son, Roberto, but Roberto wanted to give her to me because he was worried about me being all by myself (he’s 6 years old).  The cat however, did not like him and wouldn’t let the dog come near the house which was a relief, because I am not ready to have a puppy!  Part of the reason Roberto wanted me to have the puppy was that I had a seizure in March in one of my classes.  Ever since then, all the teachers and students have been super supportive and helped me explain epilepsy to the other students who didn’t know what happened.  It was really weird though- in February, I went to a Mayan ceremony to celebrate the new year and the priest at the very end said that someone there was suffering from epilepsy and that they should talk to him afterwards.  I assumed it was one of the students there at the ceremony, but now I’m not so sure!  Definitely gonna listen to any more advice he gives from now on.

I can’t believe it’s June.  My mind just won’t let me believe it, and I’m behind on all this work because I keep on thinking I have more time.  But it’s June 5^th!  I miss June in the States!  It always meant summer, no school, watermelon, hiding out and eating cherry tomatoes in the garden, birthdays, and vacations.  Here June means deadlines, freakouts about Peace Corps going by too fast (what am I gonna do afterward?!?!?!?!), flooding, roads getting worse and worse, and preparations for feria.  Speaking of what I’m gonna do after Peace Corps, any suggestions?  I thought that Peace Corps might help me figure that out, but it’s only made me more confused.  It’s made me realize that I love living abroad, and that I can do it, but that I really miss family and friends back home.  It’s also made me realize that I love dancing, the beach, Spanish, Central American food, and teaching kids outside but NOT in a formal setting. 

Okay, well I guess I should get back to work, but I love and miss everyone at home and Santa Maria is still waiting in case anyone else wants to come visit!

December/January

January’s motto: Be open and ready for whatever happens!  This month has been just a whirlwind of activities, both good and bad, and another Peace Corps rollercoaster of emotions but it’s ending on a positive note.

First of all, Peace Corps Guatemala has been going through a lot of changes due to security issues in northern Central America.  So, this month has been stressful just learning about the new changes, but given time to think about them and as I’m not nearly as affected by them as other volunteers are, I’m okay with them.  And they are to keep us safe, which is definitely necessary.  I got a new counterpart (YAY) because a new administration came in and fired everyone from the old administration.  He’s awesome!  He actually wants to work with me and we have much better communication.  I also finally know more or less what I’m doing, which is so nice.  Only took 9 months!  But I’m working with women’s groups, making jewelry and purses out of old chip bags for them to sell, teaching English again, working with the teachers in the middle school to make gardens in the school, and teaching the Agroforestry class once a week.  It’s pretty crazy too- I just got a call saying I have funds and a group from the states who are willing to come down and help build a recycling center for the municipality.  This would be a huge project, but I would be really stupid to refuse funds and free labor.  Hopefully the mayor’s up for it!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

Let’s see…interesting things I have done…I went to the beach!  Which was so wonderful!  It made me realize that I am meant to be at the beach, no matter what.  I love Santa Maria and couldn’t be any luckier to be near Lake Atitlan, but the beach feels so comfortable.  My happy place is always St. Teresa beach in Florida so whenever I'm stressed out, I just close my eyes and pretend I'm there.  It helps a lot!  Our family vacation was SO GREAT too!  I’m moving next month too, which is going to be a relief.  Hopefully no more back problems once I get a better bed!  I will also be inheriting a cat from the other volunteer, and even though she’s a sassy cat who does what she wants, it will be nice to have a pet!

THINGS I HAVE DONE IN THE PAST YEAR OF BEING IN THE PEACE CORPS THAT I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD DO 

1.       Pick Coffee

2.       Teach a class on the carbon cycle in Spanish (hard!)

3.       Dry my underwear in a frying pan on the stove (=burnt underwear)

4.       Dry my underwear in the toaster oven (=success!)

5.       Look forward to my cup of instant coffee every day

6.       Learn how to sew a collared shirt

7.       Spend Christmas at the Earth Lodge overlooking Antigua

8.       Meet so many amazing, talented people (whether artists, musicians, dancers, writers, weavers, Guatemala’s got talent!  And it provides so much hope in spite of all the violence and drugs)

9.       Heard the national anthem of any country so many times (I think I’ve heard the Guatemalan Himno Nacional more than the national anthem of the United States)

10.   Learn to like beets and crave Moon Pies

11.  Go to a Mayan ceremony/be in a Mayan site for December 21, 2012, the beginning of a new era!

12.  Sleep in my sleeping bag for 10 months. (don't worry, I wash it a lot)  

13.  Be away from home for over a year (this one I don't like so much)

14.  Wear traje