i work in development.

yesterday my friend Juanita asked if i would go to a community to take some pictures of "abaniles" (stone masons), and a specific type of chicken our organization is working with.

sure, no problem.

i have visited jicaro a couple of times in the past so i had a general idea how to get there. somewhere along the say all the paths began to look the same and it became apparent that i was lost. i asked a woman along the route for directions.

you just go "mas alla" - more over there.

not exactly the response i was hoping for.

somehow what started as a path ended up being a cornfield on top of a small-mountain/large-hill. as i tried to edge my way out a pack of dogs came up with teeth gleaming. i had apparently crossed into their territory. i grabbed the closest rock in the process throwing my mayan language notebook in the air creating a rain of papers.

at some point during my panicked ungraceful retreat the owner of the dogs came out of her adobe house and they quickly subsided. wooooh. i gathered my papers feeling more than a little grateful, my heart still racing.

i got directions and was on my way.

i arrived at reina's house camera in hand. it turns out that one of the group member´s husbands died from drinking. the women were out gathering flowers. in addition no abanil´s were out working because it was "el dia del cariño" (i.e. valentine´s day). also, all the women had sold the chicken´s our organization had distributed in favor of the local "criollo" breed.

hmmm.

i have luckily learned a good deal of patience through traveling and living in latin america. the truth is as much as it would be great if things came together easily and people showed up on time here, i'm adjusting to the pace of life. if people are an hour late showing up, do i really have any pressing appointments later on in the day?

probably not.

these sort of inbetween times is when i get to get to know people and that is a big part of being here. i dont have these very clear goals in my mind as maybe i had in the past. more a sense of and a hope of an upward moving trajectory. as long as i am moving in the right direction, and i am making progress, however small, i make peace with it.

after my chaotic trip there i tried to take advantage of the time snapping photos of the comunity and a couple of chickens, and "chompipes" (turkeys).

so where is the progress in a seemingly wasted trip like this? i´ve got to find something to salvage from a "lost" morning.... next week i'm going to stop by the women's weekly meeting to introduce myself and hopefully i will be able to work with them.


...i work in development.

...mi horario

a daily routine is becoming a distant memory with each passing day here. there is no daily schedule as it existed in the united states. for instance right now i am getting ready for an incoming group of canadian dentists, trying to learn as much as i can about "papas" (potatoes) before helping with a "taller" (workshop) next week, and getting ready for a spay and neutering clinic for dogs and cats (a fellow volunteer suggested we may want to do the same for a few men in the community...).

also, i´m excited to begin corresponding with my friend, "Mrs. Sosnowski"´s, spanish class back in little rhody. i remember not enjoying spanish in high school. it seemed all about memorizing vocab and learning grammar. blah. it wasn´t until i got to travel that the material came to life.

language is a medium for reaching a culture. somethings simply do not translate from spanish to english (or english to spanish) and herein lies the beauty. using language here is how i learn what people value, think, feel, and do here. it is a way of gaining "confianza". i hope that having correspondence with someone actually living in a country where spanish is spoken (along with 21 mayan languages and garifuna) will help to bring the material to life to students.

so it is not so blah.

i have a new puppy and her name is amalia! apparently this is also the name of a woman on our board of directors who is not too happy to have a "chucha" (street dog) named after her. this may be the closest my parents get to grandchildren for a while...

the first three months...

are the hardest. that is what we were told repeatedly during training. still getting a hold on things in site, but it is beginning to feel like home. i´ve had the chance to give a couple of "charlas" with groups here, mainly consisting of classes on nutrition. it isnt planting season here til April-May so a lot of people havent planted family gardens yet.

what i have learned is that i should not attempt to cook here. the first reunion i had with a group i attempted to make banana bread while the women taught me how to make a diet staple here, tamales. while working on the tamales, one woman tapped me lightly on the shoulder and whispered that my bread was on fire. not the best manner of inroduction.

yesterday i had a reunion with a different group that had asked me to teach how to make an egg torte (spanish tortilla-omlett). their set up was cooking over an open flame. the smoke was intense and yet again i burnt the meal. i definetely understand why we are doing the stove project here. many women cook over open flames inside. they, along with their children receive the affects of daily smoke inhilation and i cant imagine what their lungs look like. hence the prevelancy of respiratory disease in rural areas of guatemala.

afterwards we made some better looking egg omlettes, and i gave a little talk on nutrition. the cooking fiascos have been more than a little embarassing, but i have learned a valuable lesson: i should stay away from food unless it is growing in the ground.

na'b'l...

i have spent a lot of time just trying to get acclimated. learning mam (the local language) is not a luxury, but a necessity for daily communication with women in rural areas. more than anything it is a very isolating feeling to be surrounded by people and not have a clue what they are saying. i will definetely return to the states with a deeper sensitivity for refugee and immigrant populations (whether legal or not) and their struggles with cultural and lingual acquisition. last week i started mayan language classes with Mariella, a woman from our organization. i cant believe she is only 22 years old. she is widowed (her husband walked off a cliff while intoxicated), the mother of two children, and has the maturity of someone double her age.

mam is not easy.

tquqbil q'aq' .... that's how you say stove.

for the most part, i have been enjoying things. life is decidedly "tranquilo" and i'm enjoying the slower pace. the volunteers had an ugly christmas sweater party last week, i got to have oreos and fresh milk yesterday (my first glass since august!), i hike to work, and i'm going to a birthday party this weekend. also i may be getting a puppy very soon. hopefully he-she gets along well with my cat.

new years sunset: lago atitlan
windblown
everything is going well here... just havent had a lot of time to write. had fun spending christmas with my host family and new years on the lake. hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season!

food poisoning...

i guess it´s bound to hit when moving to any foreign country, but prior to wednesday i had been spared. the day started out with a "taller" on malnutrition. we were training community members on how to weigh and measure children under the age of two using an infantometro.

reading the scales proved to be understandably difficult for many of the participants, many of whom are iliterate or have a basic reading level. i worked with a woman named aurelia. she struggled with the scales, but i think she got it in the end (keeping my fingers crossed).

for lunch we headed to comedor rosalinda, and i got the caldo served with tomatillos. caldo basically is soup with a watery broth, usually cooked with meat and veggies (i gotta just remove the meat... it´s not always easy being a vegetarian in guatemala).

felt a little funny afterward, but my reaction did not start until later that night. if you´ve ever had food poisoning you understand. basically i spent about twentyfour hours over the toilet wanting to die. i felt pathetic and alone. i called up my mom just for sympathy points. i basically just needed someone else to feel sorry for me so that i wasn´t only feeling sorry for myself.

i´ll spare you all of the graphic details of the sickness. more difficult was just struggling with being sick, and not having anyone to take care of me. this is all part of the experience here. many volunteers told us prior to swearing in that dealing with the solitude and loneliness is the most difficult part. i have been in site so short that i havent yet developed a system of support that i can go to when i am struggling (or pissing out of my ass).

luckily i have a pretty awesome sitemate and she brought me some pan frances. i curled up on my mattress on the floor and slept it off best that i could.

too tall to play...

my friend dan, another PCV, sent me a text the other night asking if i would like to play in our towns basketball tournament. at first visions ran through my mind of my embarrassing performances on the basketball as a (very) uncoordinated adolescent. still, i thought, this may be a good opportunity to meet some new people.

i showed up at the court tuesday afternoon promptly at 3:30 ready to play. the other women showed up one by one. i approached the guy who appeared to be in charge and asked if i could be possibly placed on a team. he kinda mumbled something under his breath and told me to wait a few. i took a seat in the cement bleachers and watched the women gather and put on their uniforms. a few minuntes later someone came over to break me the bad news... i am too tall to play basketball, and i{m not on the list.

prior to this i saw my height being the only advantage i actually have on the court. apart from that i am an unaggressive, uncoordinated mess, still not completely sure what to do with my own limbs at times. ive gotten used to towering above pretty much every "chapin" (guatemalan) i meet and most of the time i just forget about my height.

i would have been sad about the news, but more than anything i just thought it was funny.... (hopefully theyll find a space for me on a team next season:-)