you never know...

there are all sorts of clothes shipped down here from the states, but when i saw this one i had to take a picture...another favorite was an old man riding a bike with a t-shirt that said 'proud to be an american'. i even saw one the other day from the summer house in rehoboth beach, de where we used to go during the summers. crazy!

when i lived in my training site for 2 months my site mate and i would go running. you would not beleive how many stares we got - the only thing i could liken it to would be if in the states some guatemalans in traditional dress were running down the street, i am sure they would get some stares...

settling in

so i am getting settled into my new home and have found an apartment to live in. yipeee! it is very exciting to have my own space yet still be around lots of people. i live above a family and next to the sister of the father of that family and below a brother and sister-in-law, it is quite the family compound so there is never lacking anyone to chat with! the neighbor kids are always wanting to chat or play or do something; like look at my stuff!

i am also trying to figure out what exactly i will be doing here for the next two years. i will be working in the planning office and the women´s office. the women here are trying to gain recognition for the work of raising and supporting a family, as well as learning their human rights and trying to start projects in their communities. hard work for them, and especially hard work in such a machismo culture!

my new site!

i found out where i will be going for the next two years! woo hoo! it is in western guatemala in the department called huehuetenango. the town is called la democracia. here is link to the city's website, you may not be able to read it but you can see some photos of what it looks like.

http://www.inforpressca.com/lademocraciahuehue/

i will be working in the municipal planning office and the municipal women's office. more on all of that later!

my arrival in guatemala

I made it! I am here in Guatemala, gracias a dios, safe and sound. It has just been over a week since I started living with my host family here in parramos, a bit west of Guatemala City. Right now as I write, in between the sounds of the street, people talking, selling ice cream, radios in the distance, I hear the random moos of cows. The streets are always alive and today is the day of the national elections. the peace corps volunteers were advised (told) to stay in our towns and not go anywhere near the voting locations. Sometimes here people get a bit rowdy around election time, especially if their candidate doesn’t win!

So, I am the 8^th sibling in the family, I have 6 sisters and one brother. Stephanie is 2, Guadalupe is 7, Joseline is 12, Mariella is 13, Henry is 14, Jessica is 16 and Claudia is 17. Whew! They are all very eager to help me with my Spanish, which is coming along nicely!

I will stay in this community; there are about 10,000 people who live here, for three months. The peace corps has a community based training down here so I am taking Spanish classes for about 4 hours 6 times a week here in town, and then 2-3 afternoons per week I will have some sort of technical training for my municipal development program, thus far we have discussed the way that the government is set up, how the communities accomplish tasks, some key ways to find both positive and negative aspects of the different communities.

In order to get to the neighboring town there is public transportation. They are called camionetas and are old U.S. school buses decked out with shiny hubcaps and bright colors; they all have names and loud music blaring out of the windows. I believe that the goal is for them to fit as many people as possible into these busses, which also means that sometimes people are hanging on inside while their body is outside the door, whew! I wouldn’t do that; I prefer to be one of the sardines squished in the aisle or in one of the seats with the three other people who are sitting in one seat a well!

I just started to hear some rain drops on the corrugated metal roof; right now we are in the rainy season. Every day it rains – usually for a couple of hours in the afternoon and then again at night. It is quite a nice lullaby to fall asleep to… The mornings have been sunny and beautiful and I have been able to enjoy the view of green mountains in the distance beyond the roofs of the cinder block houses. There is even an active volcano that you can see smoking every now and again.

A few doors down from my house is the place where the women take their corn to be ground into corn flour and then to be made into tortillas or tamales or whatever else... There is a verb in Spanish tortillar – which means to make tortillas. I learned how to make them from my host mom and she is proud of my progress. Pretty much every meal we have tortillas, and I am impressed with the variety of foods that I have been served. I do hope to get some more fruit in the future! Every time I visit someone who has an orange tree I usually eat one or two!

All in all I am so happy with my decision to come here, I will get three months of practice living here, speaking, and working with the local municipal office and then will be off on the next leg of my journey. Once I am in my permanent site I will then begin some harder work and also begin writing my capstone (thesis) for school. Whew! Much work ahead but I am loving it.