When it rains, it pours

Unfortunately, things here in Chiantla have been rather difficult and depressing lately. One day about a week and a half, as I was taking my sweet time getting ready in the morning, I get a call from my counterpart telling me to come to the muni immediately, and to bring my rubber boots because we had to “rescue some little girls from a river”. Having absolutely no idea what she was talking about, I grabbed my polka-dot rain boots and ran out the door. Turns out, with the tremendous rains that we had a few weeks ago, one of our communities called Paquix, located 45 minutes away in the summit of the mountains, was becoming completely flooded. Upon learning more about the situation, many families had to evacuate their homes and were currently waiting out the storm in “safe spaces”.

We were still down in Chianta, warm and dry, while my coworkers were making huge efforts to get us up to the community and provide these people with some help. Unfortunately, the authorities that run my municipality said we that they were unable to provide us with the muni vehicle for lack of funds. Long story short, it took two hours of fighting and phone calls before we finally made it up the mountain to this community. When we got there, the water that was collecting up there was unimaginable, and people were crammed into dry buildings to avoid the flooding. Some of these refuges were rather unsafe, as the 35+ families crowding in them were without food, water, and dry clothing since the night before. of these spaces was an unfinished schoolhouse, which had walls that reached only to shoulder height and no windows or doors. I should also mention that on the summit of the mountains, where the majority of Chiantla’s population lives, it is COLD. Even on a normal, sunny day that I visit communities up there, I wear a down jacket and long johns. So these families were literally sheltering themselves in a room where the wind was completely blowing through. Even when we finally reached the community, the chaos continued, with frantic phone calls going back and forth between Chiantla’s health center, the mayor, the national disaster agency. I felt so helpless watching this chaos occur, and so frustrated that I felt there was nothing I could do about it. Eventually, some food and help made it up to the community, after more than 12 hours since the families first evacuated. By 6 pm that same day, we were back in Chiantla and I was able to go home and rest. It was truly the most difficult day I’ve had here, not only to see the people suffering and some having lost their homes, but seeing the inept and dysfunctional system that prevents things from happening when people are in moments of true need.

However, there is a positive note to all this. During the day while we were up in the community, the local radio was blasting news about everything that was happening, and members of the community sprung to action. When I returned to the muni building later that same day, there was a mountain of trashbags filled with food and clothing donations for the victims of the flooding. When people down in Chiantla’s town center heard the radio news, they literally ran to the muni to drop off supplies. I found this act of community support to be so uplifting, that people will help their neighbors in times of need, even if those “neighbors” live 45 minutes away on top of a mountain. Plus, my two sitemates who live in that same community were evacuated to my house, even though luckily their homes were fine. So, it was nice to have two gringos that I could vent to, while having a beer and eating a wholesome dinner of chocolate bars.

And you know the expression, “when it rains, it pours”? Well, that day really epitomizes it. Because on the same day of the flood emergency, the muni employees went on strike. Basically, there is a lot of discontent with the municipal authorities and misuse of muni funds (without getting into the sticky details, my muni is in debt by 3 million quetzals….that’s $415 thousand dollars. You can imagine what I’m alluding to here). The muni employees went on strike for an entire week, until one of the city councilmen agreed to open a dialogue. So since then, they have been in dialogue and the muni employees are back to work for the time being. I think I actually remained surprising calm during all this mess, probably because I realize I have no other choice. But besides the interpersonal issues that I’ve had with the women in my office, it makes me realize that I need to find other ways to work besides only in the muni. While I do have my literacy class on the side, I know that I need to be able to focus on other areas to make a sustainable impact because things in the municipality are too volatile sometimes and I can’t depend on that type of environment to accomplish my goals. Luckily, there are institutions and NGOs that work in Chiantla, and one of them happens to be run by a friend of mine. So, this past week, I gave my first cooking classes to two different groups of women through the NGO’s community centers. And it was so much fun! With both groups, I taught them how to make Banana and Incaparina pancakes; they had never eaten pancakes before and loved it. Incaparina is this government-produced corn powder that is super enriched with vitamins and minerals for malnourished children and is commonly used to make hot corn drinks, called Atol, which are very popular here, but it can also be used in substitution for flour. I think that by teaching cooking classes to these women will be a great way to earn their trust and then support and train them in other areas.

It is funny how life in the Peace Corps can take you in so many different directions sometimes. If you had asked me prior to August 2009 whether I’d want to teach English and cooking classes when I arrived to Guatemala, I probably would have answered with a big NO. But now, these are two of my favorite things. I have learned that I need to be open-minded to different situations, because they can result in really positive outcomes. And hey, the activities that actually fit my “job description” as a Municipal Development program volunteer aren’t always easily accomplished, especially when the institution for which I work is suddenly hundreds of thousands of quetzales in debt, so finding alternatives is kinda necessary sometimes.

Back to the subject of cooking, it is something that I have grown to appreciate and love while here in Guatemala. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I have a LOT of time on my hands to experiment making new foods. I have learned to make some yummy dishes, like Guate-style Pad Thai, chocolate cake from scratch, yogurt from scratch, and gnocchi from scratch! The gnocchi was inspired by a trip to Antigua, where one can find mostly any desired food item for a highly elevated, beyond Peace Corps-budget price. So I found freeze-packed gnocchi one time, and then cooked a yummy dinner for friends. I suddenly felt inspired to look up a gnocchi recipe online, and seeing that it only involved water, potatoes, flour, and salt, I thought, how hard can it be? So I attempted making it from scratch and it turned out delicious. Plus, I churned out enough gnocchi for at least 6 meals, for the total price of 6 quetzales, as compared to the small package that I’d bought in Antigua for 40 quetzales.

Another new initiative that has been exciting lately is applying for a small grant through USAID to do a project in one of our communities. This particular community is rather small (200 habitants) and has an awesome women’s group. They also happen to live on the summit of the mountains, where water is extremely scarce in dry season. During half the year, they have community faucets where they go to fill up large jugs of water to bring back to their homes. But in dry season, these faucets no longer have water and the women have to walk two hours every day to collect water and bring it home. So we are soliciting a water tank project and I am keeping my fingers tightly crossed that it comes through!! We are in the final stages of submitting the mountain of paperwork but I am hopeful that it will be successful…I’ll update the blog with (hopefully) good news in the next few weeks!

The Municipal Development Program cycle is now at the point where there are new trainees who are soon to become volunteers, my group is now at the mid-year mark in our service (or will be at least on October 29th), and the year before me is finishing their service and leaving. It is weird to see the faces of the new trainees and think that that was us, just one year ago. And to see that the group the year before me is now heading back to the US. It makes me realize that time really will fly by, despite the occasional/not-so-occasional long or bad days, and that I need to take advantage of my second year to really accomplish my goals (and take some MUCH needed vacation).

On another positive note, I am looking forward to the upcoming visit by my Aunt Patti, Uncle Kenny, and two cousins Michelle and Jeff; and then by my friend Stefanie just a few days later!! I cannot wait to share Guatemala with them and enjoy some fun travel and vacation as well. And finally, I am happy to say that while rainy season certainly went out with a bang this year, it has not rained since the flooding a week and a half ago. So dry season (or “summer”, as Guatemalans call it) is officially here and I am so happy to retire the raincoat and umbrella until next year.