Six Months Already!?

I can't believe that I have been in Guatemala for six months now (well, on Friday, I will have arrived in country six months ago). It's amazing to think of how much I've learned and how much my life has changed since I arrived here, but also how much I still have to do/learn/accomplish during my time here, which is really flying by (although some days sitting in the office here, I wonder if I will even make it until lunchtime!) 21 months left to go now... :)

I recently started my literacy classes, which are going well. After Wednesday, my students will have learned all the vowels :) Some of the women have had some schooling, and others absolutely none. There is an older woman in my class who can barely hold a pencil. But she and all the others are trying so hard, which really encourages me as well. The literacy program teaches by means of a socio-political method, so that the students learn about important themes along with the letters. For example, I taught the letter "A" by discussing "A for Amor (love)" and what constitues a healthy relationship. And the letter "I" for "Igualdad (equality)" and discussing equality in gender roles. It is really nice to feel like I am "doing something", as compared to many other days during which I literally sit in the office and the women gossip and read the newspaper.

Another fun distraction in Chiantla has been the Feria, which is formally a week long, but there are still vendors and rides even though it ended over a week ago! The Feria is to celebrate the Virgen de Candelaria, who lives here in the Chiantla church :) and all week there are food vendors, games, rides, music, and fireworks going off every night (every night, ALL NIGHT, I should say. It was reallllly annoying) I enjoyed lots of street food, like milkshakes, french fries, pizza, churros, tacos... and went on the giant ferris wheel once which was a terrifying and exhilirating experience.

The best part of Feria was: on Saturday, my boyfriend and I went out for a jog, and this guy starts running alongside next to us, and telling us that on that Tuesday, there would be a 12 KM race, which they do every year on the most important day of Feria, and that they needed more women to enter in the race. Even though I have not been running hardly at all since New Years due to cold weather and laziness, I decided to give it a shot, for lack of better things to do on my day off :) So on Tuesday morning I show up to run, there were only two other females in the race of about 25 participants. The flag went down indicating the start, and everyone took off sprinting. Well, being the "seasoned runner" that I am, I figured they would all run out of energy after a few minutes. That was completely not the case - I was behind the entire time, lost sight of everyone, and the only one that followed me was the muni ambulence guy, who had to follow the last person in the race. So after a little over an hour, I came across the finish line, where the race directors and all the participants were waiting for me to finish so that they could conclude the race. But the best part was that despite finishing the absolute last place, I won THIRD PRIZE for the womens' category!! This included a 50 quetzal cash prize and a huge boost to my self-esteem - plus a good story to boot. And 50 quetzales (about six dollars) may not seem like a lot, but it's enough money for me to eat a nice dinner here, or travel on the bus to Antigua, or spend a night at Lake Atitlan, so it was kind of a big deal!

So what else...I recently found a sweet pool in my town, only 15 min away, which will be nice now that the weather is warming up a lot. I also had a party for the Superbowl with other Huehue area PCVs, which was fun. We pigged out on lots of junk food and watched the game with Spanish commentary. Since I never cared too much for football, it was disappointing that the Guate channel aired mostly Mexican commercials, so I couldn't even enjoy those like I usually do. But it was fun to hang out with everyone regardless. This month will be much busier with work, travel to Antigua for meetings at Peace Corps, a weekend beach trip coming up, and my parents' arrival at the end of the month!

This blog post is dedicated to 1) Fiorella and Alex, who booked their tickets to come visit in April, 2) Aaron Weiss, who is always demanding more frequent blog entries, and 3) Alaina, Stefanie, and Aaron, which whom I video-chatted with this past weekend. A great way to keep in touch and it's FREE - so anyone who has a computer and camera and/or microphone, let's make a date!



On the Feria Ferris WheelKeeping on the family tradition of Superbowl wagers
View of the Cuchumatanes mountain chain from the top of the Ferris Wheel
The kids of the women of my Literacy class. They decorated posters of the "letters of the day" while their moms looked in the newspapers for the letters to identify and circle
Feria treats for sale
The inside of the church with a million candles lit for the Virgen de Candelaria
Selling candles outside
My race number and prize money!