Travels travels

This past week started out great, with a visit to my future site and meeting my counterpart (my Peace Corps' officially assigned coworker) and all the other colleagues in my office, as well as seeing the apartment I'm moving into. I am lucky to be replacing a really dedicated volunteer, as well as inheriting her amazing fully-furnished apartment. It has electricity, hot water, TV, two bedrooms - I got really lucky! I also got to meet the mayor and city council of the municipality. It is a really large municipality and I think that I will definitely have my work cut out for me, but I am looking forward to the challenge. My site is kind of far away from the capital city but in a really beautiful area of the country and also an area where there are a lot of Peace Corps volunteers. Eight trainees of my group of 32 alone are headed to Huehuetenango! So I definitely will be able to visit people in their sites and enjoy some visitors as well.

Unfortunately, I received news from home that my grandmother passed away while I was visiting my site. So I cut the trip to Huehuetenango a day short, took eight hours and six buses to get back to my host family's house, and flew to Boston the next day. I was in the US for three days, two in Boston and one in Philly, and returned yesterday to Guate. It was really weird to be back in the US after two months which feel a lot longer for some reason. But I'm so happy to have been able to go home and be with my family. My grandmother was a really special person and I am going to miss her a lot. Everyone at Peace Corps, both the staff and volunteers, were really nice and helpful which made me feel a lot better. An added bonus of the unexpected trip was stocking up on cold-weather clothing, since my site is in the mountains, it is really chilly at night, as well as seeing my parents, brother and sister in law, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and my friend Stefanie in DC came up to Philly for the night to hang out with me. So overall, a good trip even if it was for a sad reason. And now I'm back in Guatemala with one week left to go of training. I will be sad to be leaving all my training friends but excited for the next step - moving out to my site and officially becoming a Peace Corps volunteer!

Some of you have asked me about receiving mail in my new site - here is my new address! Feel free to send me photos to decorate my new house :)

Cara George
Voluntaria de Cuerpo de Paz
5 Calle 4-12, Zone 1
El Correo
Chiantla, Huehuetenango
Guatemala, Centro America

A week of many highlights

This was a pretty awesome week. I climbed an active volcano, danced onstage at a concert, ran a 10 K with my fellow trainees, and received my site assignment. Pretty sure that Week Seven has been the best thus far. Read on for more details… The title of this blog was supposed to be “The most dangerous marshmallow roast of a lifetime” but too many good things have happened since then to write only about hiking a volcano. Last weekend, my entire training group planned a day trip to the Pacaya Volcano, one of the country’s many active volcanoes but the only one that actually has lava flows. This is something that I’d been looking forward to since before even leaving the US, and it was an absolutely amazing experience. The volcano is just under an hour away from Antigua so it was a really convenient trip. We began the hike up the mountain, along with a bunch of men trying to sell us rides on their horses. It was very green and lush, with a nice view of a volcanic crater lake along the way. We finally reached the top, super sweaty and tired, and saw what my friend Stefanie said “looked like the end of time”. Down below was a valley of volcanic rocks and ash. It was such a weird contrast to see next to this beautiful green hill that we were sitting on. You could see the line of where the lava flows ended and where the green part began. And as we’re enjoying a picnic lunch in this weird beautiful place, cool clouds would occasionally whiz by, making everything opaque and chilly, and then a moment later it would be clear and sunny again. From this point, we began our descent into the active volcanic part; climbing over big rocks formed by the lava and lots of volcanic sand. It literally looked like we were on the moon – all black and no sign of green plant or animal life anywhere. After about 45 minutes of hiking through the moon, we reached a point where the lava flows were. Seeing the lava with my own eyes was such an amazing thing – one of those times when you just feel like you need to pinch yourself and ask, “Am I really here!?!” And it was HOT. The wind carried the hot air off the rocks and at some points we could just barely tolerate the heat. We could even feel the heat below our feet at certain places. Then we whipped out the graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows and began making some pretty awesome s’mores. Our guides showed us how to find small vents in the earth where we could stand close by without feeling the heat as much, and then we used long sticks to put the marshmallows up to the vents. It was definitely an experience I will never forget, and something that I look forward to doing again with visitors! : ) Andrew and Steph, I was especially thinking of you guys during the hike and how much you would love it. AND one of the best parts was this stray dog that accompanied us during the entire four hours. She was sickly skinny but stayed with the group the whole way, even sliding down the sandy mountain and climbing on the lava rocks with us. I fed her about eight marshmallows, probably not the best food for dogs, but she seemed to really like them! This week in my town has been very exciting also because it is Feria! Every town in Guatemala has a patron saint, and the town has a special fiesta called Feria to celebrate the Saint’s birthday. There’s been a lot of live music and fireworks and amazing street food (the best part). Some of my training friends came into P-town to enjoy some awesome French fries, pupusas, churros, and other artery-clogging goodies. There was also a really rickety ferris wheel and merry-go-round which were controlled by an operator manually pushing them to make them move. I feel lucky that we happen to be training during the time of year to enjoy Feria in my town! On Saturday evening, a famous Guatemalan band, La Banda Vega, came to play. I felt rather awkward and uncomfortable in the beginning of the night, going to this party with my host family where everyone dances in pairs, sitting to the side with my host mom. Then some of my P-town sitemates showed up and it became a lot more fun. At one point, one of the singers gave a shoutout to P-town, and then to los extranjeros (foreigners) because a lot of non-P-town residents were enjoying the dance too. I screamed “Wahoo, extranjeros!!” and the singer heard me and signaled for me to come up on stage. So I went and danced on the stage in front of about 200 people while he sang a song. It was a hysterical and frightening experience but definitely made the night that much more memorable. It was also my first time drinking beer in public here in my community, which felt weird but liberating. I didn’t feel so self-conscious about it, considering my aunt woke up on Sunday morning hungover and throwing up. I, on the other hand, woke up and ran a 10 K race! There is a race every year for Feria and I had been looking forward to it for a while. A bunch of my fellow trainees from other towns came to P-town to run as well. Considering at this time last year I was just about to run the Marine Corps Marathon, I should have been more mentally prepared for this 10 K. And even though I regularly go running here, I was not prepared for the complete uphill for the first half. It was really hard but a really fun race too, being cheered on by all these people was a great sense of community and also made me realize how many people I’ve come to know here in this town over the last two months. And the MOST exciting part of the week was Site Assignment Day!! Never in my life had I felt so much anticipation, anxiety, and excitement. Every day for the last two weeks, I have been counting down (and even began the hourly countdown three days before). I had really loved one of the sites that we visited in Huehuetenango but I didn’t want to create false hopes or expectations for myself. Regardless, in my head, I was already living there. So, it was a huge relief and happy moment when Roberto, my boss, told me that I was being assigned to this site!! Roberto had gone to each of the four communities where we Muni volunteers are training, and we were the last. So of course the text message frenzy began each time he visited one of the towns and with each message I received began the process of elimination, so I was pretty sure by the time he showed up to P-town that this site would be assigned to me. On Tuesday, I will be traveling there for five days to meet my counterparts, get to know the office, etc. There have already been two Muni volunteers in this site, so I will be the third of the three volunteer cycle of which the Peace Corps operates. I am pretty excited about this because I am replacing a really great volunteer and will be able to jump start into projects much more quickly. As for my future housing, I will be taking over the apartment where this volunteer currently lives, which saves me a lot of money and hassle, and I should mention that her apartment is absolutely amazing – nicer than my apartment back in DC. It has two bedrooms, so plenty of room for when all you people back in the states want to come visit! A bit more info about my site – it is in the department bordering Mexico, one of the larger municipalities where they place Peace Corps volunteers (population of 80,000), in the mountains, very close to some Mayan ruins, has a famous church for the pure silver Virgin Mary. It is relatively colder than other areas of the country, but I am happy to sacrifice a few degrees for the place that I really wanted; plus, more cold = less bugs! Check out the municipality’s website for some awesome pictures of my new home: (http://www.inforpressca.com/chiantla/galeria.php) Can’t wait for you all see it in person : ) The gringos after the P-town race

The finish line

Guy with some goats crashing the race

On stage at the Feria concert

The end product of marshmellow roasting
Shielding my face from the heat off the rocks
Lava!
The descent onto the moon

I ended up with a mini volcano in my shoes
Some of the group on Pacaya
The awesome dog on the mountain
Where the green ends and lava ash begins
The dog that followed us along the way

Is it site assignment day yet?

We have been tearing our hair out in anticipation of site assignment day. I feel almost as excited and anxious to receive my site assignment as I did to receive my country assignment. While you may not think this would be such a big deal, given that this country is only about the size of Tennessee, the course of my next two years here will be shaped by the area of Guatemala in which I live – and you honestly would not believe the incredible diversity of this country! I could be living in the Western highlands in a Mayan village, out in the East where it is like the Wild West, or in a department bordering the Pacific Ocean. I still am keeping my fingers crossed for a particular site that we visited in Huehuetenango, but I will really be happy with anything, as long as it’s not too cold of a place…only five more days until we find out!

The one thing I am wishing for in my site, besides good counterparts to work with in the Municipality, a non-corrupt mayor, and a place to learn to play the marimba, is to NOT be in a house with roosters as my neighbors! The idea that roosters crow at the crack of dawn to greet the day is a total myth – they really start making a racket at 3 am, wayy before the sun even begins to rise. The roosters at my house are perpetually engaged in a screaming fight with the roosters next door. And Valentin, my host family’s dog, went into my room the other day (very against the rules!), knocked everything off my nightstand, and ate three earplugs. Luckily I have a small stash of this anti-rooster armor packed away and some more on the way from the US, thanks to my mom.

Thursday, November 1^st was “Día del Niño” here, which I was happy to celebrate with my fellow sitemates at my Spanish teacher’s house, where he gives a party every year to his little niece and nephew. There was a big Nemo fish piñata, amazing cake, and “elote asado” (the BBQ grilled corn which I am now addicted to). I brought a box of Jersey Salt Water Taffy and animal squirt guns, thanks again to my mom who sent me more gifts for people, which the kids loved. My teacher said that Guatemalans especially like gifts that come from “El Norte” (the North) because they’re supposedly made better, and are sometimes unavailable here in Guate. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the dollar-store toys were actually made in China, but was happy nonetheless that the kids enjoyed it!

I’ve been bonding more recently with Rodrigo, my six-year-old host brother. I was having a difficult time in the first few weeks because he is extremely hyperactive and his parents let him do absolutely whatever he wants. And it is sad because he is very intelligent but has nobody motivating him or encouraging him to do anything other than watch TV after school. Here, schools operate on a half-day schedule: kids attend from 7:30-12:30, and then go home for lunch and have the rest of the day free. So you can imagine the amount of hours that this kid spends in front of the television daily. Lately we’ve been having “homework competitions” to see who finishes their homework first, and he has “helped” with my homework by coloring in crayon on the posters I make for technical training presentations, and reading National Geographic for Kids en Español which my friend Alaina sent me. For el Día del Niño, I bought him bootleg DVDs at the market in Antigua. Watching “Snow White” in Spanish last night with Rodrigo and my host mom was a very entertaining experience, well worth the 10 quetzales ($1.25)!

While we are all starting to get kind of tired of training, we have also been doing some cool work lately. We are working with a women’s group in the community who are part of a Grameen community microcredit/microlending group. They are all small business owners who receive special loans from Grameen to begin and advance their own businesses. Only women are eligible to receive loans from this institution, as women are typically unable to have access to funds in the same way that men are. Some of them own little stores, others sell atoll (hot corn drink) or tamales on the street. So we did a presentation for them on how to maintain a budget and calendar, and how to beat the competition through location and diversification. We also participated in a fun activity with the OMM (Oficina Municipal de la Mujer – Municipal Women’s Office) which was an event celebrating the culmination of a series of courses that the OMM gave to 30 kids on health, identity, and domestic violence. It was at a really pretty park, really similar to Rock Creek Park or Alverthorpe back home. We played a million different games with these kids, Traffic Light, Hide and Seek, Duck Duck Goose, Cat and Mouse, Sharks and Minnows, Freeze Tag, you name it. It was an incredibly fun afternoon but secretly made me really happy to be a Muni volunteer instead of a Youth Development volunteer!

And in case you missed the last blog post – I’d love it if you want to mail me some photos so that I can display some reminders of home in my future new house! : )

Rodrigo helping me with my poster

Día del Niño - the kids asked for candles to put on the cake and sang "Happy Birthday" even though it wasn´t anyone´s birthday

With some of the kids at their end-of-classes party in an ecological park
My sitemate Bryan and his new six year old friend on the see-saw