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!
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