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