gracias...

yesterday was turkey day. i think the perception is that holidays are a really hard time to be away from home. so to try and avoid feeling sorry for myself i always opt to spend holidays away from home in a very unconventional way. this thanksgiving was no exception. myself along with twenty other recently sworn in volunteers got to share our pumpkin pie at the US ambassador´s house with him and his wife. they were very welcoming and the food was a nice treat. it was for sure a very (very) surreal day.

it started at about 2:00am. i woke up in my new place laying on a mattress on the floor (havent gotten hold of an actual bed yet...). i dragged myself to the busstop bleary eyed with my backpack in tote and a rock in my hand to ward off late night bolos (drunks) and chuchos (street dogs). i boarded the chicken bus (think of the big yellow things you used to ride to elementary school) and i was on my way. bus rides are full fledged sensory overload. despite it being the middle of the night the driver blared ranchero, probably trying to stay awake more than anything else. people are packkkkkkkked in. at one time there was five people in my seat, 3 adults and 2 children. not the most comfortable ride, but who can complain when you can do a 7 hour ride for 30 quetzales (about 4 dollars). i showed up at cuerpo de paz in a bit of a stupor and soon realized that i had forgotten to bring shoes. i had to wear green crocs to the ambassadors house... sorry mom.

we got there and it was beautiful. me and the other agriculture volunteers spent a good portion of our time scoping out the gardens which were amazingly gorgeous. we got to sip some fine wine, eat some traditional turkey and stuffing (at least the nonvegetarians - no they did not serve tofurkey), and swim in a heated pool. the highlight for sure was the pumpkin cheesecake. a nice change to have some comfort food from the states although ive developed a soft spot for pepian here.

paradox...

well the paradox here is pretty obvious. this is why i could never work for the state department. i understand the necessity of having this seperation between foreign service workers and the people (minus the really rich/powerful people typically) in country... i guess. the high walls, big gates and security guards. they´re all business, official, suit and tie, and their purpose in country is to promote the interests of the united states government. someones gotta do it. i´m just glad it´s not me in the tie.

to go from a congested bus in the poorest town in all of guatemala to a plush home in guate was a jolting experience. so much in this country, everything in this world is riddled with these paradoxes. thanksgiving was just a magnified, REALLY magnified, example of this.

it was a beautiful day.

both the bus ride at 2:00 am and the afternoon at the ambassadors house.

poco a poco...

so i started work last week as a full fledged volunteer (wooooohoooo!). let me be straight up... it was awesome, but it was hard as starting any new job is. it just happens that this new job is a little more intense, because of language barriers (havent quite mastered MAM yet), cultural differences ...and basically because i am not a guatemalan.

the organization i´m working for has been really successful from what ive seen at striking a good balance between serving the local community and serving the wants of international donating agencies. this typically means they´ve done a good job at doing studies of progress, and maintaining a certain level of transparency, a pretty spectacular feat in a country inundated with corruption

day 1 - i went to a workshop on gender. the organization has about 500 female members and only about 100 men. i personally see this as a huge plus, but they are trying to examine how to get men more involved. most men here wouldn´t be too enthused about getting involved in weaving projects here to say the least. finding ways to diversify projects so that men too could become involved was the basic focus of the day.

one of the great things about our organization has been its work with women. its a very empowering thing to see the work they are doing. the womens groups allow them to occupy the leadership roles they are typically denied in national and local politics.

day 2 - i built a house for potatoes. its an agriculture project a group of women is doing. the husbands tackled the labor while women did smaller tasks (carrying wood...). i contemplated taking up a hammer, but it was my first day and it was cool just to hang out with the women. they all spoke in MAM and when i first arrived i didnt even know if they spoke spanish. turns out they do! at least the younger women do. i got a lot of questions about the states (will you teach me english? how much does it cost to go to the states? how many dollars did your shoes cost?) which i tried...TRIED to artfully dodge with some degree of success. besides that, we spent a lot of time talking about family and boyfriends/esposos, and the projects they´ve been doing.

i felt shy and intimitated being the new woman, but it was a good day.

day 3 - workshop with coworkers on food security (hey! that´s my job here!). the secretary of "seguridad alimentaria" gave the talk and also some pretty disturbing stats about malnutrition in guatemala and our department. i´ll make sure to post them some time soon...

things are good, but it is for sure a process finding my place here... poco a poco.

i hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving stateside. much love.

p.s. i saw a pretty amazing movie narrated by rigoberta menchu about guatemala called "when the mountains tremble". definetely try and see it if you can get a hold of a copy.