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