So I haven't written in a loooong time, but for some reason today felt like the day to do it. it was one of those days that starts out lame and just keeps getting more lame and then turns around and has a late in the day come back that just makes you think wow these are the moments that brought me here.
It started off with me brooding over the fact that I had a bummer of a weekend. The kind of weekend that makes you kinda depressed and irritated and well, really pissed. Not all of it was bad, there were moments that were really fun actually like when i went to see how the Grinch stole Christmas put on by a couple of volunteers in the cabezera, Toto. SOO cute, and i'm really impressed with how much work must have went into the production. Also, i had a great time at my friend's house cooking a delicious dinner of tortilla soup and pineapple upsidedown cake. But other than the highlights it was a weekend filled with miscommunication which ended up with me not being in the mood to celebrate/party. kind of a bummer which carried over to today (monday).
I woke up and was didn't have any ganas to do anything. I knew I should either go to the Puesto or clean my room and really neither got done (although I did organize a little). But finally I decided to grow a pair and get myself out of the house. I called my friend (Laura, i know go figure) and we decided to go check out the celebration of the Diablos in San Cris. That's when my day turned around, or should i say afternoon, because i didn't get out of my house until after 2pm.
the strangeness of my day included a man in a mexican sombrero following me and laura around serenading us. It was less creepy than it sounds, although come to think of it it was kinda weird. Then being hugged by teenagers in sequenced panties and black body paint and masks and then on the way home being serenaded again by an evangelical on the bus while striking up a conversation with a mormon who has family in hawaii. the whole experience made me reevaluate the important things as silly as it all sounds and now i'm back on track.
i'm still more than ready to take off for a week or so for some vacay. I've pretty much checked out of my job. My counterpart has been out of the puesto since the middle of last week so theres not much of a driving force to my work schedule. he'll be on vacation untile the middle of january. Last week i did do some work though and it felt good, recharged me for another period of laziness. shouldn't it be the other way around?
anyway, i helped out with a day camp in Laura's site. it was really cool to hang out with the kids. one day i taught english class and arts and crafts and then another day i helped out with arts and crafts, teaching about the environment and dance class. they were a lot of fun. then i had an HIV workshop with the medical students who are doing their practicum at the puesto. that was fun too. It was a bit frustrating because it was a week late (i wanted to do it on world AIDS day but my sitemate and i didn't get our butts in gear until i found some motivation).
So next week i will be home. so excited. i already have a list of places and things i want to go/do. woohoo. hope i have time to do it all.
one love.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Guatemala is bad ass
Ok, so i know that i may be a little bias but i think Guatemala is bad ass. I feel like i'm living in the wild west of Central America. Ok, not really. I actually feel really safe here, just about as safe as i would feel in any large city in the US. Never the less, my fellow PCVs (peace corps volunteers) keep telling me how they think our post is this close to being shut down. I don't believe them, i mean Guatemala has stayed open for almost 50 years. if you don't know your Guatemalan history (don't worry i didn't either til i came here) that means that the Peace Corps has been operating her even during the Civil War! and it was not a quiet war either, we're talking about young men's soles of their feet being cut off before they are beaten to a pulp and covered in gasoline and burned to death. I say if PCVs could handle being here during that than who am i to run away scared.
Where is this coming from you ask? well a few weeks ago i got an email saying that all non-guatemala PCVs are restricted from traveling through Guatemala for a period of time due to safety reasons:
“Heavy rains affecting Guatemala have damaged the road infrastructure, causing several sections of main roads to collapse and/or wash off... Another important event occurring in September is the Presidential, Congress and Local Authorities General Elections; which will be held in every town in Guatemala on Sunday September 11th. Due to these threats to PCVs Safety, Peace Corps Guatemala has temporarily prohibited PCV’s from other countries from traveling to or through Guatemala. This prohibition starts August 29th, 2011 and is expected to be lifted on October 3rd, 2011”.
cool right? ok, so it may be partly due to the rainy season which is no joke, but even less of a joke is the elections. they get nutz here for that.
second crazyness going on here was friday or so THE POLICE STATION IN MY MUNICIPIO WAS BLOW UP!! what!!! yea so i guess there are two versions of the story and i shall tell my preferred version (also check out http://www.prensalibre.com/totonicapan/Vecinos-Policia-San-Andres-Xecul_0_544745661.html if you read spanish or have it translated). So these two people steal a cell phone from a kid. the two people are arrested and then transferred to different police station because the neighbors are pissed and they "want to handle the culprits themselves" aka, lynch/burn/do generally bad things to them. the police don't turn them over so what do the people do? duh, blow up the police station, breaking windows and the gates and motorcycles. as far as i know no one was hurt. btw, the police here in guate are kind of a joke. much respect for them, but the general consensus is negative.
third crazyness that happened in the past week was that on saturday my friend and i were enjoying an afternoon in Xela, grabbing lunch and we were on our way back to site (well before dark) and we were on a micro (kinda like a big minivan used for travel within the city) and the crazy driver cuts off this other car. the driver was kind of an ass btw. anyway, we pull up to a stop and i hear this loud bang (no gun shot i promise). it was the pissed off driver of the other car. he got out of his car and pounded on the driver side window and was yelling. but that wasn't enough, he crossed around and started yelling through the open passenger side window, but that wasn't enough, so he climed aboard and started yelling at the driver to his face. he was so close to starting a fist fight, i was kinda scared (for the driver - a small skinny dude). best part was the angry dude! he was straight from the 80s, super long mullet all the way down his back with tight black jeans and an over sized white button up tucked in, complete with cowboy boots. but this was no ordinary mullet, it was the kind where the sides of his head were actually shaved clean. So great!
so to recap: guatemala is the shit! i love it. its dirty and grimmy and crazy in the best ways possible. but it is also amazingly beautiful with the rich culture (minus the mullet dude) and diversity. to counter all the crazyness i would like to finish with a story of how beautiful life here can be. so today i was at an intercambio (exchange/sharing) of girls groups. it was overall pretty boring, but whatev. this group is intended to help girls, especially those in rual indigenous communities with their self esteem and self empowerment. this one girl gets up to talk about her experiences with the group and how it has helped her. i kid you not, it was the most beautiful speech i've heard in guatemala yet. it was so positive and she spoke with such confidence and eloquence. she has had one of the toughest stories of any of these girls and she has come back from that to become one of the leaders/mentors for the younger girls. she aspires to be a lawyer so that she can come back to here community and help the other women find and practice their rights. how awesome is that? so cool.
Where is this coming from you ask? well a few weeks ago i got an email saying that all non-guatemala PCVs are restricted from traveling through Guatemala for a period of time due to safety reasons:
“Heavy rains affecting Guatemala have damaged the road infrastructure, causing several sections of main roads to collapse and/or wash off... Another important event occurring in September is the Presidential, Congress and Local Authorities General Elections; which will be held in every town in Guatemala on Sunday September 11th. Due to these threats to PCVs Safety, Peace Corps Guatemala has temporarily prohibited PCV’s from other countries from traveling to or through Guatemala. This prohibition starts August 29th, 2011 and is expected to be lifted on October 3rd, 2011”.
cool right? ok, so it may be partly due to the rainy season which is no joke, but even less of a joke is the elections. they get nutz here for that.
second crazyness going on here was friday or so THE POLICE STATION IN MY MUNICIPIO WAS BLOW UP!! what!!! yea so i guess there are two versions of the story and i shall tell my preferred version (also check out http://www.prensalibre.com/totonicapan/Vecinos-Policia-San-Andres-Xecul_0_544745661.html if you read spanish or have it translated). So these two people steal a cell phone from a kid. the two people are arrested and then transferred to different police station because the neighbors are pissed and they "want to handle the culprits themselves" aka, lynch/burn/do generally bad things to them. the police don't turn them over so what do the people do? duh, blow up the police station, breaking windows and the gates and motorcycles. as far as i know no one was hurt. btw, the police here in guate are kind of a joke. much respect for them, but the general consensus is negative.
third crazyness that happened in the past week was that on saturday my friend and i were enjoying an afternoon in Xela, grabbing lunch and we were on our way back to site (well before dark) and we were on a micro (kinda like a big minivan used for travel within the city) and the crazy driver cuts off this other car. the driver was kind of an ass btw. anyway, we pull up to a stop and i hear this loud bang (no gun shot i promise). it was the pissed off driver of the other car. he got out of his car and pounded on the driver side window and was yelling. but that wasn't enough, he crossed around and started yelling through the open passenger side window, but that wasn't enough, so he climed aboard and started yelling at the driver to his face. he was so close to starting a fist fight, i was kinda scared (for the driver - a small skinny dude). best part was the angry dude! he was straight from the 80s, super long mullet all the way down his back with tight black jeans and an over sized white button up tucked in, complete with cowboy boots. but this was no ordinary mullet, it was the kind where the sides of his head were actually shaved clean. So great!
so to recap: guatemala is the shit! i love it. its dirty and grimmy and crazy in the best ways possible. but it is also amazingly beautiful with the rich culture (minus the mullet dude) and diversity. to counter all the crazyness i would like to finish with a story of how beautiful life here can be. so today i was at an intercambio (exchange/sharing) of girls groups. it was overall pretty boring, but whatev. this group is intended to help girls, especially those in rual indigenous communities with their self esteem and self empowerment. this one girl gets up to talk about her experiences with the group and how it has helped her. i kid you not, it was the most beautiful speech i've heard in guatemala yet. it was so positive and she spoke with such confidence and eloquence. she has had one of the toughest stories of any of these girls and she has come back from that to become one of the leaders/mentors for the younger girls. she aspires to be a lawyer so that she can come back to here community and help the other women find and practice their rights. how awesome is that? so cool.
Friday, August 26, 2011
lazy day.... week
I'm hanging out here in Xela today. No work got done. I tried (not real hard, but the effort was there), but my counterpart and most of the puesto staff is gone again. they're at the demonstraciones down in 4 caminos. the government isn't paying them what they said they would be paid and so they're going on a strike sort of thing. not quite a strike as we know it in the states because they'll come to work sometimes. So my counterpart has been to work about 6 days of the last 3 weeks. it's kinda hard to plan things cuz i never know if he's going to be there. I even tried to schedule some health talks and school visits with the health educators and they show up sporadically too. i know that what they're doing is important because it sucks to not be paid (i assume, i've never worked a job that didn't pay me what i was owed - i even had a job that over paid me for months, but that's another bitter story for another time).
its just hard to get into a working rhythm here, its just easier to run away to Xela and eat a burger and drink coffee in a starbucks like coffee shop. its hard when you don't know when the people you schedule things with will show up and i'm totally not comfortable going to the schools by myself yet. I've just had a week of not showing-up-ness. only one health promoter of 4 showed up to give his health talk and my kiche teacher wasn't answering her phone (no service i think...) so basically this week has just been me hanging out. which isn't a bad thing, i just feel like i'm wasting my time and your tax $ (assuming you are a tax paying american). It has just been a week of directionlessness.
now i have to turn in a monthly calendar to my project specialist for the month of september and i don't know what to put on it because i haven't talked with my counterpart to plan the month. i'm tempted to just fill it in with what i think could potentially happen because its not like the actual calendar is going to be up-to-date for more than a week anyway.
ok, enough downer speak. things in my little corner of the word are going pretty well beside all that above. i'm starting to feel more comfortable with the health post staff (when they're there). we're starting to form a new group of health promoters so i have something to focus my energy on. we have 3 promoters from the old group that we're going to use as our co-trainers, so i have to figure out what that means. they were the 3 (out of 20) who were consistently there and prepared and ready to go. we just have to find a way to utilize their energy and focus it in a productive way.
A friend suggested that i read a book, Switch: how to change things when change is hard, and i bought it and started reading it. really good book and really applicable for my work here (Check it out). anyway, these pilas (on top of it) promoters would be considered "bright spots" and we should use them to model the desired action. so my plan is to tweak them and use them to capacitar the new promoters. sounds like a plan huh? we'll see. ok i think its about time to take off. i wanna go buy some bread, soap and beans before i head home. love you all! wish me motivation!
its just hard to get into a working rhythm here, its just easier to run away to Xela and eat a burger and drink coffee in a starbucks like coffee shop. its hard when you don't know when the people you schedule things with will show up and i'm totally not comfortable going to the schools by myself yet. I've just had a week of not showing-up-ness. only one health promoter of 4 showed up to give his health talk and my kiche teacher wasn't answering her phone (no service i think...) so basically this week has just been me hanging out. which isn't a bad thing, i just feel like i'm wasting my time and your tax $ (assuming you are a tax paying american). It has just been a week of directionlessness.
now i have to turn in a monthly calendar to my project specialist for the month of september and i don't know what to put on it because i haven't talked with my counterpart to plan the month. i'm tempted to just fill it in with what i think could potentially happen because its not like the actual calendar is going to be up-to-date for more than a week anyway.
ok, enough downer speak. things in my little corner of the word are going pretty well beside all that above. i'm starting to feel more comfortable with the health post staff (when they're there). we're starting to form a new group of health promoters so i have something to focus my energy on. we have 3 promoters from the old group that we're going to use as our co-trainers, so i have to figure out what that means. they were the 3 (out of 20) who were consistently there and prepared and ready to go. we just have to find a way to utilize their energy and focus it in a productive way.
A friend suggested that i read a book, Switch: how to change things when change is hard, and i bought it and started reading it. really good book and really applicable for my work here (Check it out). anyway, these pilas (on top of it) promoters would be considered "bright spots" and we should use them to model the desired action. so my plan is to tweak them and use them to capacitar the new promoters. sounds like a plan huh? we'll see. ok i think its about time to take off. i wanna go buy some bread, soap and beans before i head home. love you all! wish me motivation!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Small victories
So its what... the third week in site? I was freaking out for the first one and a half weeks or so... i think i'll be ok. the town is quite a quiet town. i have started to get to know some people and it seems like everyone is interested in know who this gringo (le gringe in kiche btw) and what is she doing here/what is she going to give us.
that btw is something that has been bothing me a lot since i've been here. the whole, what project is this gringo going to bring culture. i was talking to one of the health educators today as we were doing some house visits and she totally agreed with me. she works for this governmental program called mi familia progresa and they just recently handed out a bunch of vegi seeds to the families for them to grow their own vegis with the hope that they will provide a more balanced diet for their families. anyway, the educator was saying that yea, there was another program that handed out seeds but the stipulation was that you had to use only organic fertilizer and some other rules which led to a bunch of families dropping out because the organic fertilizer is difficult to make/maintain. she told me that a lot of people here want these things, like free vegis or in my case latrines, water tanks, improved stoves or cement floors, but they don't wan to work hard for it. its what they call the project culture, and i guess it happens in a lot of "developing" nations. places like the US and Japan etc. come here and dump projects on the people and then they leave. on the surface it sounds like a win win, these people get stoves and the americans get a sense of pride. but what does that do for the guatemalan sense of self determinaiton. they didn't have to work for these project and the are essentially getting hand-me-downs or excess from the providers.
its something that i really don't want to do, so when people ask what i'm doing here i focus on the education portion of the work i'm doing, but they all know that i am a potential project for them. bummer dude. while talking with the educator i was telling her that i don't want these families to change their health practices while i'm here just to get a project and when i'm done or they finish the project they can just go back to pooping on the floor or eating corn and beans all day. you know what she told me? yea that will probably happen for the majority of families. WHOMP. But, she said that maybe a few will actually change their habbits. one can only hope.
other than that not too much going on here either. this week has actually be a lot better than last week. i've been keeping pretty busy all week. i've been going out with the health educators and doing some house visits to families participating in this government program for poor people. its pretty interesting to see the poorest of the poor here. the less fortunate families have houses made out of adobe (bricks made of mud and straw) and have no cement floors or flusing toilets etc. the animals just run around doing whatever they like. yesterday i remember i went to visit a house and there was a little girl around 2 or 3 and while we were talking with the mom i hear this farting noise. i turn to see what made the noise and it was the girl popping a squat, taking a piss and poop right in the middle of the patio. that's not even the hardest part though. there's one familiy (not sure if i told you about them) that has two little boys 3 and 4 years old. they are so malnourished its insane. a lot of kids here are malnourished becuase they're so poor and because all they eat is corn and beans, but these kids are crazy sick. the 4 year old only weighs 15lbs and is 70cm tall and the 3 year old weighs 15lbs 12oz and is also 70 cm tall. it just blows my mind.
the good thing is that the health post is keeping a good eye on them. this week they are getting a visit 3 times, although we'll see what good that does. they also get packets of nutrient boosing peanut mush. its all the kids eat. the packet is about the size of a deck of cards and sometimes the kids won't even finish the whole package in one day. i think there must be something else worng with them.
anyway. other than house visits i've been sitting through some meetings. yesterday there was a meeting of midwives and that was interesting (and by interesting i mean incredibily boring). it was about 3 hours long and i didn't understand a word because it was all in Kiche, but it was good to be there and the ice breaker i did with them really seemed to tickle them. speaking of kiche, i had my first lesson on monday. its such an interesting language and i'm really excited to learn more of it. i'm trying to pick up a few phrases here and there outside of the class. like today i learned the difference between saying good bye to someone you know and a stranger. i also learned how to say esta bien (its ok/very good). small victories i guess.
that btw is something that has been bothing me a lot since i've been here. the whole, what project is this gringo going to bring culture. i was talking to one of the health educators today as we were doing some house visits and she totally agreed with me. she works for this governmental program called mi familia progresa and they just recently handed out a bunch of vegi seeds to the families for them to grow their own vegis with the hope that they will provide a more balanced diet for their families. anyway, the educator was saying that yea, there was another program that handed out seeds but the stipulation was that you had to use only organic fertilizer and some other rules which led to a bunch of families dropping out because the organic fertilizer is difficult to make/maintain. she told me that a lot of people here want these things, like free vegis or in my case latrines, water tanks, improved stoves or cement floors, but they don't wan to work hard for it. its what they call the project culture, and i guess it happens in a lot of "developing" nations. places like the US and Japan etc. come here and dump projects on the people and then they leave. on the surface it sounds like a win win, these people get stoves and the americans get a sense of pride. but what does that do for the guatemalan sense of self determinaiton. they didn't have to work for these project and the are essentially getting hand-me-downs or excess from the providers.
its something that i really don't want to do, so when people ask what i'm doing here i focus on the education portion of the work i'm doing, but they all know that i am a potential project for them. bummer dude. while talking with the educator i was telling her that i don't want these families to change their health practices while i'm here just to get a project and when i'm done or they finish the project they can just go back to pooping on the floor or eating corn and beans all day. you know what she told me? yea that will probably happen for the majority of families. WHOMP. But, she said that maybe a few will actually change their habbits. one can only hope.
other than that not too much going on here either. this week has actually be a lot better than last week. i've been keeping pretty busy all week. i've been going out with the health educators and doing some house visits to families participating in this government program for poor people. its pretty interesting to see the poorest of the poor here. the less fortunate families have houses made out of adobe (bricks made of mud and straw) and have no cement floors or flusing toilets etc. the animals just run around doing whatever they like. yesterday i remember i went to visit a house and there was a little girl around 2 or 3 and while we were talking with the mom i hear this farting noise. i turn to see what made the noise and it was the girl popping a squat, taking a piss and poop right in the middle of the patio. that's not even the hardest part though. there's one familiy (not sure if i told you about them) that has two little boys 3 and 4 years old. they are so malnourished its insane. a lot of kids here are malnourished becuase they're so poor and because all they eat is corn and beans, but these kids are crazy sick. the 4 year old only weighs 15lbs and is 70cm tall and the 3 year old weighs 15lbs 12oz and is also 70 cm tall. it just blows my mind.
the good thing is that the health post is keeping a good eye on them. this week they are getting a visit 3 times, although we'll see what good that does. they also get packets of nutrient boosing peanut mush. its all the kids eat. the packet is about the size of a deck of cards and sometimes the kids won't even finish the whole package in one day. i think there must be something else worng with them.
anyway. other than house visits i've been sitting through some meetings. yesterday there was a meeting of midwives and that was interesting (and by interesting i mean incredibily boring). it was about 3 hours long and i didn't understand a word because it was all in Kiche, but it was good to be there and the ice breaker i did with them really seemed to tickle them. speaking of kiche, i had my first lesson on monday. its such an interesting language and i'm really excited to learn more of it. i'm trying to pick up a few phrases here and there outside of the class. like today i learned the difference between saying good bye to someone you know and a stranger. i also learned how to say esta bien (its ok/very good). small victories i guess.
Monday, July 18, 2011
At Post
I'm here finally!
I made it to my aldea (town) here outside of San Andres Xecul, Totonicopan. I was supposed to be here last night but when I got into Xela and called the volunteer who i'm replacing she was like oh yea, there's not camionetas (chicken busses) out there on Sundays. That's cool though, I stayed with her in the muni for the night and had an awesome dinner. We ate a chorizo scramble with onions and cilantro, with guacamol and tamalitos. I've come to realize that good food here is what's gonna keep me happy. I've just had a convo with the dona de la casa and we decided to share the stove. She asked if I wanted to eat with them but she's not that great of a cook (self admittedly). one night on site visit she gave me a chunk of meat, it looked ok, so i asked her what kinda meat is this and she just said beef. ok, so that was totally some kind of offal, we're talking liver, or kidney or something. it was very irony and strong. i was feeling a bit queezy that night to begin with so i took one bite and that's all i could get down. I'm sure on another night it would have been delicious. but that's what people eat here because its cheap. one night she did make some pretty tasty cauliflower thing.
anyway, so yea... today i got up early so that i could hike it up to the aldea. we had to take two camionetas and a pick up to get here but we made it. thank god the other volunteer was here to help lug all my stuff around. I HATE MOVING! have i said that before? i mean its hard enough when you have a car and a bunch of rollie bags, but when you have to lug ur stuff on a camioneta it kinda sucks. and this wasn't even that bad because most of my stuff was brought with me on site vist. luckily then i had some wheels for transport. but yea, all my stuff is here and now i just have to get settled in. its funny, the room in the house i'm in is empty (except for my junk). it has a cot and 4 white walls, no shelves, no dresser nothing. the only other thing in here is a picture of jesus. I don't want to stereotype, but that's so guatemalan! the first few questions you get asked is:
1. how old are you?
2. are you married/kids?
3. what religion are you?
mostly in that order. but i think its great. i like that i'm a 24 year old woman who is not married, because all the women are like really?! and i tell them that in the states people get married (or not) whenever they like, and that women can work and support their families if that's what they want. its cool. but then they tell me about their unmarried brother or uncle or whoever who is really nice (if ya know what i mean) and i become a little deflated.
as far as work is going, i was hoping that this week could be a take it easy week where i just try to settle in and get my room looking like a room, but i'm looking at my schedule now and it's pretty full. that's good though. i'm excited to start working! today i went to a meeting of some health vigilantes and midwives and it was interesting. tomorrow i'm visiting a school and doing a cooking class and that's pretty much how my whole weeks looks. i'm glad i'm keeping busy, it helps the time pass.
oh yea so i got a new address (check fb). please no on be a creeper and come stalk me and find me in guatemala because PC is kinda strict on who we give the address out to. i would love some mail though. the address if you notice doesn't have any street number which is kinda awesome. i guess people are well known enough here that i mail just makes it here.... hopefully. and with that i'm gonna take off, figure out what i'm gonna eat for dinner and head to bed or read some of Ruben Dario's Azul or Sherlock Holmes in spanish. I bought those books at book fair in Antigua right before i left for site. Awesome!
I made it to my aldea (town) here outside of San Andres Xecul, Totonicopan. I was supposed to be here last night but when I got into Xela and called the volunteer who i'm replacing she was like oh yea, there's not camionetas (chicken busses) out there on Sundays. That's cool though, I stayed with her in the muni for the night and had an awesome dinner. We ate a chorizo scramble with onions and cilantro, with guacamol and tamalitos. I've come to realize that good food here is what's gonna keep me happy. I've just had a convo with the dona de la casa and we decided to share the stove. She asked if I wanted to eat with them but she's not that great of a cook (self admittedly). one night on site visit she gave me a chunk of meat, it looked ok, so i asked her what kinda meat is this and she just said beef. ok, so that was totally some kind of offal, we're talking liver, or kidney or something. it was very irony and strong. i was feeling a bit queezy that night to begin with so i took one bite and that's all i could get down. I'm sure on another night it would have been delicious. but that's what people eat here because its cheap. one night she did make some pretty tasty cauliflower thing.
anyway, so yea... today i got up early so that i could hike it up to the aldea. we had to take two camionetas and a pick up to get here but we made it. thank god the other volunteer was here to help lug all my stuff around. I HATE MOVING! have i said that before? i mean its hard enough when you have a car and a bunch of rollie bags, but when you have to lug ur stuff on a camioneta it kinda sucks. and this wasn't even that bad because most of my stuff was brought with me on site vist. luckily then i had some wheels for transport. but yea, all my stuff is here and now i just have to get settled in. its funny, the room in the house i'm in is empty (except for my junk). it has a cot and 4 white walls, no shelves, no dresser nothing. the only other thing in here is a picture of jesus. I don't want to stereotype, but that's so guatemalan! the first few questions you get asked is:
1. how old are you?
2. are you married/kids?
3. what religion are you?
mostly in that order. but i think its great. i like that i'm a 24 year old woman who is not married, because all the women are like really?! and i tell them that in the states people get married (or not) whenever they like, and that women can work and support their families if that's what they want. its cool. but then they tell me about their unmarried brother or uncle or whoever who is really nice (if ya know what i mean) and i become a little deflated.
as far as work is going, i was hoping that this week could be a take it easy week where i just try to settle in and get my room looking like a room, but i'm looking at my schedule now and it's pretty full. that's good though. i'm excited to start working! today i went to a meeting of some health vigilantes and midwives and it was interesting. tomorrow i'm visiting a school and doing a cooking class and that's pretty much how my whole weeks looks. i'm glad i'm keeping busy, it helps the time pass.
oh yea so i got a new address (check fb). please no on be a creeper and come stalk me and find me in guatemala because PC is kinda strict on who we give the address out to. i would love some mail though. the address if you notice doesn't have any street number which is kinda awesome. i guess people are well known enough here that i mail just makes it here.... hopefully. and with that i'm gonna take off, figure out what i'm gonna eat for dinner and head to bed or read some of Ruben Dario's Azul or Sherlock Holmes in spanish. I bought those books at book fair in Antigua right before i left for site. Awesome!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Feliz dia de independencia!
Hey all. HAPPY 4th of JULY!
Internet is back on, or well I guess on for the first time. I just bought my Tigo stick and I get 15 days of free high speed internet acess. Right now I'm in Xela. We just got in today. I'm here with a group of about 20. We're here to meet our Guatemalan counterparts and then we head out to our sites for a week. I'm pretty excited! My site is a small aldea or town outside of San Andres Xchul in the department of Totonicopan. I'm kinda nervous because the people of the aldea speak K'ich'e, which is a super cool Myan language, but we've only had one class for a few hours. The packet of info they gave me on the site says that most people understand spanish but everyone speaks K'ich'e.
I'll be the only Peace Corps volunteer in the town but there's gonna be a few volunteers in the near by city. It will be nice that I'm not alone alone and it will be nice that I get to work in my own little part of Guatemala too. We'll see how it goes.
Other than that everything is going great. I'm just sad that training is almost over. I feel like it went so fast. On site visit we took most of our stuff so we don't have to take it on a public bus when we go for good. it was sad when i took off from my host family this morning. they're so cool, yesterday we made an alfombra which literally means a carpet but it was a carpet made on the sidewalk outside the house. it was made of colored sawdust and it took like 3-4 hours to make and 3min to wreck. it was for the celebration of corpus christi. i took pictures, you should check out my fb site when i load them (which may be a while, may be tomorrow). So what we did was lay out a layer of colored sawdust and then put a stencil on top of it and put some other colors in the form of grapes and leaves and flowers. then there was a parade around the town and the preist had to walk all around (about 2 hours) and walk over all of the alfombras that the people had made. what an awesome tradition. take forever to make a decorative thing and then have people walk all over it and then sweep it up and do it again next year.
oh also, on saturday (july 2nd) we had our 4th of july party. there was a talent show and i daced hula. yay. it was so much fun and a great opportunity to meet other volunteers.
Internet is back on, or well I guess on for the first time. I just bought my Tigo stick and I get 15 days of free high speed internet acess. Right now I'm in Xela. We just got in today. I'm here with a group of about 20. We're here to meet our Guatemalan counterparts and then we head out to our sites for a week. I'm pretty excited! My site is a small aldea or town outside of San Andres Xchul in the department of Totonicopan. I'm kinda nervous because the people of the aldea speak K'ich'e, which is a super cool Myan language, but we've only had one class for a few hours. The packet of info they gave me on the site says that most people understand spanish but everyone speaks K'ich'e.
I'll be the only Peace Corps volunteer in the town but there's gonna be a few volunteers in the near by city. It will be nice that I'm not alone alone and it will be nice that I get to work in my own little part of Guatemala too. We'll see how it goes.
Other than that everything is going great. I'm just sad that training is almost over. I feel like it went so fast. On site visit we took most of our stuff so we don't have to take it on a public bus when we go for good. it was sad when i took off from my host family this morning. they're so cool, yesterday we made an alfombra which literally means a carpet but it was a carpet made on the sidewalk outside the house. it was made of colored sawdust and it took like 3-4 hours to make and 3min to wreck. it was for the celebration of corpus christi. i took pictures, you should check out my fb site when i load them (which may be a while, may be tomorrow). So what we did was lay out a layer of colored sawdust and then put a stencil on top of it and put some other colors in the form of grapes and leaves and flowers. then there was a parade around the town and the preist had to walk all around (about 2 hours) and walk over all of the alfombras that the people had made. what an awesome tradition. take forever to make a decorative thing and then have people walk all over it and then sweep it up and do it again next year.
oh also, on saturday (july 2nd) we had our 4th of july party. there was a talent show and i daced hula. yay. it was so much fun and a great opportunity to meet other volunteers.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
today was a good day
i had a pretty good day today.
it started off with me being fairly well prepared for a taller on HIV/AIDS that i was gonna give at 10am. at 8:15 the social worker said she was going to give a HIV charla to a group of people waiting to get tested and she was like do u wanna give it. i was caught off guard because i thought i'd have an extra 2 hours to finalize everything but i said sure why not. so i got up there with the help of two awesome companeras and we gave a fantastic charla. it was good because it gave me a chance to practice and perfect the charla for 10am.
then i had a meeting with the program director to see how i was doing and what i'm looking for in a site. we had a good talk and basically i told him i'm open to whatever/wherever/with whom ever. he asked who i couldn't work with and i gave a short list (in comparrison to the one one of my training sites mates gave) and he asked what kind of climate and i said i would prefer a calido, not too hot, not too cold but even that was not a requirement. Really, i'm here to serve so i feel like its unfair for me to put restrictions or stipulations on the type of environment i can work in.
after that i had a great cheese and herb sammi from a health food store in antigua which was fan-freaking-tastic. i had a chance to walk back to the health center alone which was nice cuz i'm hardly ever alone here. it was a bit of a sureal moment to realize that in about a month i'll be along A LOT.
when i got back i started to shadow a nurse who was giving vaccines. at first there wasn't much to do cuz no one was there and she was also the nurse who was in charge of the pharmacy so she kept going back and forth leaving me to hang out in the room alone. finally we were about to start a small project when some girl from the UK came in after being bitten by a cat. she got her pre exposure rabies shots and was there for a post exposure booster. she didn't speak spanish at all so i got the chance to be a translator. it was kinda awesome (for me not for her...). the only problem is that here in Guate they don't do pre-exposure vaccines, they only do a series of 5 post-exposure shots. the girl (who was in her first year in med school) thought there was only one universal kind of rabies shot, which i thought was a bit closed minded. the nurse didn't understad what it meant to have pre-exposure rabies vaccines but once i figured out all of that it was great. it ended up that the girl got one shot, was told to go back and get a second shot on saturday and in the mean time call her doctor and have him find out if she needs the whole round of 5 or if 2 is good. oh yea, and btw the cat probably didn't have rabbies and the bite didn't break the skin, but its always better to shoot up i guess...
oh yea and i forgot, i had chocolate panqueques (pancakes) for breakfast. yumm, not wonder i haven't lost much weight since i got here.
it started off with me being fairly well prepared for a taller on HIV/AIDS that i was gonna give at 10am. at 8:15 the social worker said she was going to give a HIV charla to a group of people waiting to get tested and she was like do u wanna give it. i was caught off guard because i thought i'd have an extra 2 hours to finalize everything but i said sure why not. so i got up there with the help of two awesome companeras and we gave a fantastic charla. it was good because it gave me a chance to practice and perfect the charla for 10am.
then i had a meeting with the program director to see how i was doing and what i'm looking for in a site. we had a good talk and basically i told him i'm open to whatever/wherever/with whom ever. he asked who i couldn't work with and i gave a short list (in comparrison to the one one of my training sites mates gave) and he asked what kind of climate and i said i would prefer a calido, not too hot, not too cold but even that was not a requirement. Really, i'm here to serve so i feel like its unfair for me to put restrictions or stipulations on the type of environment i can work in.
after that i had a great cheese and herb sammi from a health food store in antigua which was fan-freaking-tastic. i had a chance to walk back to the health center alone which was nice cuz i'm hardly ever alone here. it was a bit of a sureal moment to realize that in about a month i'll be along A LOT.
when i got back i started to shadow a nurse who was giving vaccines. at first there wasn't much to do cuz no one was there and she was also the nurse who was in charge of the pharmacy so she kept going back and forth leaving me to hang out in the room alone. finally we were about to start a small project when some girl from the UK came in after being bitten by a cat. she got her pre exposure rabies shots and was there for a post exposure booster. she didn't speak spanish at all so i got the chance to be a translator. it was kinda awesome (for me not for her...). the only problem is that here in Guate they don't do pre-exposure vaccines, they only do a series of 5 post-exposure shots. the girl (who was in her first year in med school) thought there was only one universal kind of rabies shot, which i thought was a bit closed minded. the nurse didn't understad what it meant to have pre-exposure rabies vaccines but once i figured out all of that it was great. it ended up that the girl got one shot, was told to go back and get a second shot on saturday and in the mean time call her doctor and have him find out if she needs the whole round of 5 or if 2 is good. oh yea, and btw the cat probably didn't have rabbies and the bite didn't break the skin, but its always better to shoot up i guess...
oh yea and i forgot, i had chocolate panqueques (pancakes) for breakfast. yumm, not wonder i haven't lost much weight since i got here.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
FBT
Just got back from field based training (FBT) and i had an amazing time. I think i got stuck with the best group ever! i love every single one of them. We went to visit a volunteer in a pretty rual area. she was working in a tiny little village that speaks mam and they have this super cool way of greeting people. my group adopted it as our secret hand shake. there we did some follow up home visits to the houses of the poeple who received new floors and that was cool. i also got to give a charla to a group of health promoters on how we evaluate an activty. that was rough. it was a difficult topic, and during the charla the rain started to pour on the tin roof of a cement room and there were babies and cell phones and yea... i had a hard time with that one.
its ok though because i got to give another charla a few days later to a group of women about sanitation and i think that one went really well, which is good because that day our program director decided to drop in and see how FBT was going. the only thing with that was that i had a translator with whom ive never worked with before and i totally forgot to talk to the translator before i started the charla (my fault) so there were a few times i had to look at her and be like ur turn and i'm pretty sure i forgot a few times. So that was awkward. it was also kind awkward that the women's group already knew all the info i was presenting them. however, i like to think that i imparted some new info on them, if maybe only a tid bit. after that, we had an HIV taller which was kinda a bomb. that was super funny to watch but i won't go into it (i'm kinda bummed out about the whole thing). But in the end the group really came together and we pulled out a great taller. Oh yea, and the day before some group members were to give a charla to preteens/teenagers about sex (i know brilliant idea right). these kids had so much freaking energy, and they let us know. i was originally going to just be a sign holder for one of my group members because i didn't want to intrude in her charla, but when i saw she was struggling i had to jump in and help her. She did awesome, i was so impressed. i almost gave up on the first group but she kept with it. props to her.
all in all it was a super eventful trip and i haven't even hit the highlights. but i'm happy to be back and in my own bed with a hot, high pressure shower. it was sooooo cute, when i got home i got hugs from my host family and they put balloons and streamers in my room and the set off some firecrackers when i walked in. its kinda a tradition to set off firecrackers for peoples birthdays and celebrations and stuff, so i felt special. anyway. yea. that's all i got right now. i'm trying to download iTunes now because theres some music i want to download and i can't without iTunes i guess. its taking forever because of this slow connection but hopefully by tomorrow i can get 'er done. whatev.
its ok though because i got to give another charla a few days later to a group of women about sanitation and i think that one went really well, which is good because that day our program director decided to drop in and see how FBT was going. the only thing with that was that i had a translator with whom ive never worked with before and i totally forgot to talk to the translator before i started the charla (my fault) so there were a few times i had to look at her and be like ur turn and i'm pretty sure i forgot a few times. So that was awkward. it was also kind awkward that the women's group already knew all the info i was presenting them. however, i like to think that i imparted some new info on them, if maybe only a tid bit. after that, we had an HIV taller which was kinda a bomb. that was super funny to watch but i won't go into it (i'm kinda bummed out about the whole thing). But in the end the group really came together and we pulled out a great taller. Oh yea, and the day before some group members were to give a charla to preteens/teenagers about sex (i know brilliant idea right). these kids had so much freaking energy, and they let us know. i was originally going to just be a sign holder for one of my group members because i didn't want to intrude in her charla, but when i saw she was struggling i had to jump in and help her. She did awesome, i was so impressed. i almost gave up on the first group but she kept with it. props to her.
all in all it was a super eventful trip and i haven't even hit the highlights. but i'm happy to be back and in my own bed with a hot, high pressure shower. it was sooooo cute, when i got home i got hugs from my host family and they put balloons and streamers in my room and the set off some firecrackers when i walked in. its kinda a tradition to set off firecrackers for peoples birthdays and celebrations and stuff, so i felt special. anyway. yea. that's all i got right now. i'm trying to download iTunes now because theres some music i want to download and i can't without iTunes i guess. its taking forever because of this slow connection but hopefully by tomorrow i can get 'er done. whatev.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
poopie
No, I'm not gonna write an entire blog about my poop (although i totally could and if you wanna know please ask!). but i was sick and it did suck. I guess it was a necessary step to becomming a PCV (for those of you who aren't down with the lingo that's Peace Corps Volunteer). I was not up to par for about a week but it was the last two days that really turned me out. I had a temp of 39 C (102 F) and i was not keeping much down. but i'm over it.
oh, lets talk about my first charla! So for my progam i have to give so many charlas which are these educational talks about whatever topic to whatever kind of public. I've heard from many the PCVs of the horror stories of their first charlas in training. They talk about how they didn't know much spanish and how their audience didn't want to be there etc. and every time I think, ah that won't happen to me because i already know a pretty good amount of spanish and yea i won't have any cool first charla stories... HOLY CRAP was i wrong!
setting up the parameters of what i was given for my first charla:
it was for a healt fair at the local health post
it was to be given 3x throughout the day (9a, 11a, 2p)
it was for a group of 35-40, 15-17 year old girls
it was to be about 35-40 min long
so me and one of my site mates, Katy, prep for the above so we can give the charla together.
ok so. come 9, no one shows up... 9:30 nothing then at 10a stream of 75-80 girls (i swear to god) come into the little grassy area that we set up for them. But don't worry, our supervisor was like oh its cool we'll split them into two groups and u can give ur charla twice. So now i'm thinking ok how do we cut out 10 min from our charla so that we fit both groups in before the 11am group gets there, whatever we'll wing it. we we're going through the first half of the first group and we're almost done, we split the girls into small groups and they're working great on a small skit. then our trainer shows up and i'm excited to show here how great our charla is and how flexible we're being with the curve balls. when all of a sudden 2 CLOWNS (again, swear to god) and a nurse show up and high jack or charla. they're like "ok, everyone come over here and get tetnaus shots and vitamines!" we're like WTF seriously. our trainer was about to flip and start a beat down on the clowns but luckily boss lady showed up and was like "oh so u guys are done with the first group?" and we told her no we were high jacked. She set us in the right direction again.
so then. the second half had to go super fast because of the extra commotion caused. it was mostly uneventful. but as soon as they were done and walking out we're like fantastic, we get a little break. but nope the 11a group shows up right on time (since when did guatemalans decide to be on time!).
again it was a group of like 75 at least. here we go again. luckily we got the clowns in line this time and we didn't hear an unwanted peep from then. there was just the creeper old dude with one of those mustasches that go all the way down the chin, leaning on a car looking at all the underage girls. *shudder* we do run a bit long with the first half so some authority figure (i'm still trying to figure out who she was) comes up and whispers to us that for the second half we have to cut it down to 15 min (15MIN!!!). Of course we do! so we run through it and we're like ok whatever. Luckily the girls had fun and i like to say they leard something.... maybe... i sure did.
it was awesome!!!
i just want to say that i love my group mates because Katy was awesome and the other Laura, who didn't have to help, came running to help when she saw the massive wave of girls coming our way.
oh and btw, there was another Laura who helped out too. talk about confusing. she's a social work student who works in the center and she randomly showed up to the first charla. she was like oh i just want to say a few words to introduce you guys... and ended up staying the whole time watching us like a hawk. but she's super cool too! LOVES it!
now i'm prepping for a charla on Friday to a group of 25 (or so they say) teachers. i have to give a half hour talk about the different types of accute respiratory illnesses that are common here and affect their students. I'll keep you posted.
lastly, much love going out to SARAH KNAACK who just set off as a PCT (peace corps trainee - like me!) in honduras. hopefully we can share fun stories!
oh, lets talk about my first charla! So for my progam i have to give so many charlas which are these educational talks about whatever topic to whatever kind of public. I've heard from many the PCVs of the horror stories of their first charlas in training. They talk about how they didn't know much spanish and how their audience didn't want to be there etc. and every time I think, ah that won't happen to me because i already know a pretty good amount of spanish and yea i won't have any cool first charla stories... HOLY CRAP was i wrong!
setting up the parameters of what i was given for my first charla:
it was for a healt fair at the local health post
it was to be given 3x throughout the day (9a, 11a, 2p)
it was for a group of 35-40, 15-17 year old girls
it was to be about 35-40 min long
so me and one of my site mates, Katy, prep for the above so we can give the charla together.
ok so. come 9, no one shows up... 9:30 nothing then at 10a stream of 75-80 girls (i swear to god) come into the little grassy area that we set up for them. But don't worry, our supervisor was like oh its cool we'll split them into two groups and u can give ur charla twice. So now i'm thinking ok how do we cut out 10 min from our charla so that we fit both groups in before the 11am group gets there, whatever we'll wing it. we we're going through the first half of the first group and we're almost done, we split the girls into small groups and they're working great on a small skit. then our trainer shows up and i'm excited to show here how great our charla is and how flexible we're being with the curve balls. when all of a sudden 2 CLOWNS (again, swear to god) and a nurse show up and high jack or charla. they're like "ok, everyone come over here and get tetnaus shots and vitamines!" we're like WTF seriously. our trainer was about to flip and start a beat down on the clowns but luckily boss lady showed up and was like "oh so u guys are done with the first group?" and we told her no we were high jacked. She set us in the right direction again.
so then. the second half had to go super fast because of the extra commotion caused. it was mostly uneventful. but as soon as they were done and walking out we're like fantastic, we get a little break. but nope the 11a group shows up right on time (since when did guatemalans decide to be on time!).
again it was a group of like 75 at least. here we go again. luckily we got the clowns in line this time and we didn't hear an unwanted peep from then. there was just the creeper old dude with one of those mustasches that go all the way down the chin, leaning on a car looking at all the underage girls. *shudder* we do run a bit long with the first half so some authority figure (i'm still trying to figure out who she was) comes up and whispers to us that for the second half we have to cut it down to 15 min (15MIN!!!). Of course we do! so we run through it and we're like ok whatever. Luckily the girls had fun and i like to say they leard something.... maybe... i sure did.
it was awesome!!!
i just want to say that i love my group mates because Katy was awesome and the other Laura, who didn't have to help, came running to help when she saw the massive wave of girls coming our way.
oh and btw, there was another Laura who helped out too. talk about confusing. she's a social work student who works in the center and she randomly showed up to the first charla. she was like oh i just want to say a few words to introduce you guys... and ended up staying the whole time watching us like a hawk. but she's super cool too! LOVES it!
now i'm prepping for a charla on Friday to a group of 25 (or so they say) teachers. i have to give a half hour talk about the different types of accute respiratory illnesses that are common here and affect their students. I'll keep you posted.
lastly, much love going out to SARAH KNAACK who just set off as a PCT (peace corps trainee - like me!) in honduras. hopefully we can share fun stories!
Friday, May 13, 2011
guateguategute
I took a trip to the capital city today. it was sweet, but fing expensive. we went to the mall there that had all the comforts of home. I split a fat salad and some tacos with a friend which was like almost the whole day's worth of walking around money. then i went to buy some black flats because i need "closed toed sandals" in order to look professional. i bought a pari in phili but they're not black and they don't quite fit super comfortably. i need black flats because since i've arrived there have been 6 deaths of people i've been conected to (did i mention i live in a small town where everyone knows everyone). so yea. i'm going to a 9 days after someone died mass tomorrow.
oh yea, and i don't think my nose likes guatemala. i think its trying to run away or something because it hasn't stopped running for basically 4 days straight. poor me huh? i'll get over it. ok now to some homework and dinner.
oh yea, and i don't think my nose likes guatemala. i think its trying to run away or something because it hasn't stopped running for basically 4 days straight. poor me huh? i'll get over it. ok now to some homework and dinner.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
pucica
INTERNET, YAY!
i just borrowed my neighbor's USB modem. She's another PCT (peace corps trainee) and i decided it would probably be better to pay her a few quezales here and ther to use her modem rather than buy one for myself because i really dont need one that bad if i can use her's once or twice a week. Saves me money - see mom i'm learning!
so hangin out here in a TINY town here in Guate (that's what the locals call it, they cut off the mala). My town is pretty small, we're talking like a quarter mile long, with one row of houses. I like it though. my fam bam is pretty cool. my "mother" is pretty young (less that a decade older than me) and her and her husband live with their two young kids (8 and 4) and the parents of the dad in a small house. They are super nice, and they keep offering me more food, which i guess is a norm here in central america. But mom and dad you can tell grannie that she has been my excuse for not stuffing my face everytime i eat. I told my host mom that my grandma told me before i left that i should only eat half of what i'm used to eating in the states (i think she was trying to tell me something :-D).
speaking of, the food is way better than i thought it would be. Although, i must say CARB central! last night for dinner i had beans (with a bit of cheese), bread, and a tamalito (corn masa wraped in a corn husk) and for dessert i had a bit of a small root plant that tasted like sweet potato. it was tasty but yea. whoo, lets just say i'm pretty regular. They have been pretty good about providing a balanced diet, there's not as much meat as we're used to in the states, but i really haven't minded that much. I thought i wouldn't like the beans, rice or corn tortillas (all the main staples of a guatemalan diet) but when they're cooked well they are yummy.
oh i also have to note that today for lunch i had "arroz china" or chinese rice. I told my host mom that i was eating the food of my people. btdubs, it wasn't as good as my fried rice, but i'll let this one slide.
k, i don't want to type your ears off, but i did also want to say that i start work tomorrow with the municiple health post. im traveling down to a larger city near by to start working there with their health educator. it will be practice for when i actually start at my site. i'm not exactly sure what we'll be doing but i'll try to keep you posted. My spanish prof said that my group will probably be working with the post more than other groups because since we're at a pretty high level of spanish we're only gonna have another week or two of spanish classes so the teacher can be freed up to tutor struggling students in other groups. we won't be learning a myan language though until later when we find out where we're posted because there are more than 20 myan languages and they don't want to start teaching us one and then find out that we'll be placed somewhere else... yea...
i just borrowed my neighbor's USB modem. She's another PCT (peace corps trainee) and i decided it would probably be better to pay her a few quezales here and ther to use her modem rather than buy one for myself because i really dont need one that bad if i can use her's once or twice a week. Saves me money - see mom i'm learning!
so hangin out here in a TINY town here in Guate (that's what the locals call it, they cut off the mala). My town is pretty small, we're talking like a quarter mile long, with one row of houses. I like it though. my fam bam is pretty cool. my "mother" is pretty young (less that a decade older than me) and her and her husband live with their two young kids (8 and 4) and the parents of the dad in a small house. They are super nice, and they keep offering me more food, which i guess is a norm here in central america. But mom and dad you can tell grannie that she has been my excuse for not stuffing my face everytime i eat. I told my host mom that my grandma told me before i left that i should only eat half of what i'm used to eating in the states (i think she was trying to tell me something :-D).
speaking of, the food is way better than i thought it would be. Although, i must say CARB central! last night for dinner i had beans (with a bit of cheese), bread, and a tamalito (corn masa wraped in a corn husk) and for dessert i had a bit of a small root plant that tasted like sweet potato. it was tasty but yea. whoo, lets just say i'm pretty regular. They have been pretty good about providing a balanced diet, there's not as much meat as we're used to in the states, but i really haven't minded that much. I thought i wouldn't like the beans, rice or corn tortillas (all the main staples of a guatemalan diet) but when they're cooked well they are yummy.
oh i also have to note that today for lunch i had "arroz china" or chinese rice. I told my host mom that i was eating the food of my people. btdubs, it wasn't as good as my fried rice, but i'll let this one slide.
k, i don't want to type your ears off, but i did also want to say that i start work tomorrow with the municiple health post. im traveling down to a larger city near by to start working there with their health educator. it will be practice for when i actually start at my site. i'm not exactly sure what we'll be doing but i'll try to keep you posted. My spanish prof said that my group will probably be working with the post more than other groups because since we're at a pretty high level of spanish we're only gonna have another week or two of spanish classes so the teacher can be freed up to tutor struggling students in other groups. we won't be learning a myan language though until later when we find out where we're posted because there are more than 20 myan languages and they don't want to start teaching us one and then find out that we'll be placed somewhere else... yea...
Monday, April 25, 2011
Hello Phili
First Blog post. This is weird for me. I'm not sure I like having a blog with all my thoughts just out there for everyone. I always make fun of people who post on their FB and Twitter and whatever all the info they should keep to themselves and now I may be turning into one of them... we'll see how this whole thing works, it may be a short experiment.
I am currently sinking into the middle a bed that is too soft for my liking in a hotel in Phili. I have a great view of a parking lot, but after traveling for 14 hours I am way too happy to have both. I guess the first leg of my trip is complete. The hotel I'm at is hosting a few Peace Corps staging events so as I was checking in I met a few other trainees. They're headed to Georgia (not Guatemala) which is kinda good because as you could probably tell, I wasn't quite in the meet and greet mood.
I do have to give some ups to the American Airlines staff. I did have a fairly pleasant trip. In Honolulu I didn't have an assigned seat when I checked in. I asked for a window seat because I can't sleep anywhere else and on an 8 hour flight overnight I need to sleep. They gave called my name and when I went up there I said I'm getting a middle seat aren't I? The lady said yes. I said something slightly sassy and walked away, two min later she called my name again and gave me a window seat. Then in Chicago while waiting for my Phili flight some lady was laughing and talking with some other passengers. I put my head down to rest and when I woke up the same lady was at the desk crying her eyes out to the gate agent about not getting a seat. How rediculous! The agent told her to calm down and he would work on getting her and her daughter a seat. He made it happen (AND they got the bulk head with extra room). The whole situation made me laugh.
Anyway, I haven't gotten a cheese steak yet. I had a roast pork sammi though. That was tasty. My hotel is literally a block away from redding market so I took a walk around there today. If I lived here I would totally be there everyday. Loves it.
Ok, wish me luck and I shall update when I get the chance.
I am currently sinking into the middle a bed that is too soft for my liking in a hotel in Phili. I have a great view of a parking lot, but after traveling for 14 hours I am way too happy to have both. I guess the first leg of my trip is complete. The hotel I'm at is hosting a few Peace Corps staging events so as I was checking in I met a few other trainees. They're headed to Georgia (not Guatemala) which is kinda good because as you could probably tell, I wasn't quite in the meet and greet mood.
I do have to give some ups to the American Airlines staff. I did have a fairly pleasant trip. In Honolulu I didn't have an assigned seat when I checked in. I asked for a window seat because I can't sleep anywhere else and on an 8 hour flight overnight I need to sleep. They gave called my name and when I went up there I said I'm getting a middle seat aren't I? The lady said yes. I said something slightly sassy and walked away, two min later she called my name again and gave me a window seat. Then in Chicago while waiting for my Phili flight some lady was laughing and talking with some other passengers. I put my head down to rest and when I woke up the same lady was at the desk crying her eyes out to the gate agent about not getting a seat. How rediculous! The agent told her to calm down and he would work on getting her and her daughter a seat. He made it happen (AND they got the bulk head with extra room). The whole situation made me laugh.
Anyway, I haven't gotten a cheese steak yet. I had a roast pork sammi though. That was tasty. My hotel is literally a block away from redding market so I took a walk around there today. If I lived here I would totally be there everyday. Loves it.
Ok, wish me luck and I shall update when I get the chance.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)