First week at site

This week has been very busy but very interesting!  I’m getting to know my community little by little, which helps a lot.  On Monday, I helped paint some trash barrels to put in the schools and got to know my counterpart a little better.  It’s very difficult because we have to remember that our views are seen as the views of the Peace Corps as well, and so when people ask us difficult questions we should defer them.  For example, my counterpart was asking me what I thought of Barack Obama, immigration in the United States, and drugs.  It was very hard not to state my opinions, but I got to know Elmer more and he’s a pretty funny guy.  He’s never at the office, which is sometimes hard, but at the same time makes it easy for me to make my own schedule.  There’s another guy who works in the same office, Santiago, with CONAP.  He’s only here on Mondays and Fridays to deal with land issues and then the rest of the week he walks the forests, looking for people who are illegally taking plants and animals.  The law here is for every tree you cut down, you have to plant 10 more.  It’s a good law, but hard to enforce!  Santiago is awesome- he seems like a pretty tough guy on the outside, but on the inside he’s a funny marimba loving family guy.   

On Tuesday, I went with Grace, another volunteer in my site who’s working with health in the schools, to some schools in the more rural areas of Santa Maria.  We had to go in picop, or pick up, and ride in the back holding on for dear life.  I thought chicken buses were crazy, but that was before I rode in a pickup!  The roads are in terrible condition too- I definitely won’t be going on those roads during rainy season.  We went out to a Kiche only speaking community and went to the school there where she did an activity with the kids in Spanish and the teachers translated that to Kiche for the kids.  It was a fun morning and then we went to the market in Santa Clara, our sister town, where the market is bustling on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  I’m starting to slowly gather stuff for my house and hopefully this weekend I’ll get a toaster oven.   

That afternoon I went to a meeting with my counterpart (for three hours!) and got a better idea of what the muni is trying to do in terms of the environment.  They are currently building a landfill and recycling collection center so that they can start doing a trash pickup and have placed bins in the schools to separate trash into inorganic and organic.  I volunteered myself for something at the health post here just to get to know the community without actually knowing what I was volunteering for.  I was surprised to find out it was a gynecology clinic where they were giving PAP smears!  It turned out to be really fun though.  I worked with Santiago all day there, taking down the names and information of the women who did the exam and Santiago translated from Kiche to Spanish for me.  It was a challenge writing down all the names of the indigenous women!  For example, some last names I had to spell were Tox, Itaix, Tzaj, Chavajay, etc.  And I’m pretty sure I even spelled those wrong, but what made it even harder was that some of the women didn’t know how to write so they couldn’t tell me if I was spelling it right or not.  Santiago helped a lot though, and I got to know the nurses and some ladies from the Women’s Office in the muni.   

Today (Friday), I want to talk to my counterpart.  I will have to get him to give me a copy of his schedule so I know when he is going to be in the office and when he isn’t.  From what I have gathered so far, most of the time it will be me taking the initiative to introduce myself to the schools and other people I will be working with and developing my own projects, and then running it by Elmer to make sure I have his support. 

Things with my host family are a little awkward - the mom sells Avon products, and so she wants me to buy some of her things.  Who knew that Avon now sells kitchenware and sheets!  The excuse that I don’t have a lot of money doesn’t work because to her, I have a lot and I am looking to buy things like pots and silverware.  I just can’t afford Avon brand pots!  So that’s been kind of difficult, but other than that things have been fine.  I talked to the other volunteer who lived there about it and she said that that’s just how the situation is, that instead of integrating into the family like I did in Ciudad Vieja, here it is more of a renter-landlord relationship.  I came back and the grandmother is raising turkeys now to sell and there’s a cute kitten who always tries to get in my house.  My addiction to pan dulce is now very serious.  One day I didn’t have it and I was craving some sweet bread so bad!  I have had to limit myself to two a day.  I am still eating with the family, but that has turned into them serving me in the living room and then they stay in the kitchen.  I think after this month I will start cooking for myself so I can try to have a more balanced diet, or at least just eat more dairy because now that’s pretty non-existent in my diet.  I’ve been getting used to powder milk though because I can’t drink the raw milk that people sell.