the party van
mayan prayer ceremony
the whole healthy schools groupTuesday, February 24, 2009
FBT visual style
Just a few photos from FBT...
the party van
mayan prayer ceremony
the whole healthy schools group
the party van mayan prayer ceremonythe whole healthy schools group
Monday, February 23, 2009
Field Based Training
Field Based Training
The Peace Corps is really into acronyms and we just got back from FBT (field based training) in Totonicipan with our APCD (Associate Peace Corps Directory…our boss). Sunday morning PC picked us up in their microbuses, unfortunately they aren’t techno-colored VW vans and we drove four hours up into the mountain highlands. For the first time since we arrived in Guatemala we all stayed together in a hostel. Needless to say some serious bonding went on, and we plan on challenging the Eco-tourism group to a dance off now that we’ve gotten a good week of practice in. Think America’s Best Dance Crew meets Dancing with the Stars meets Sabado Gigante.
Anyhow, we got a lot of work done on the trip and I feel like I’ve finally got a really understanding of exactly what I’m going to be doing for the next two years. Basically we will be working as Public Health Facilitators in the Escuelas Saludables (Healthy Schools) program. Escuelas Saludables is a joint Peace Corps and Guatemalan Ministry of Education program and we are in the process of incorporating the Guatemalan Ministry of Health into the project. Unlike most PC programs, the Escuelas Saludables program is actually in the process of creating and passing legislation to include the right to health education into the Guatemalan educational system.
Each volunteer will be responsible for several schools in the area surrounding their site. Most schools will be within two hours of where the volunteer lives and are accessible by foot, bus, or pick up truck. The roads to the schools are not paved and are either incredibly dusty in the dry season or pure mud in the rainy season, but the schools in rural areas have the greatest need and thus we’re going to have to learn to love the adventure this challenge presents. Within the school the volunteer is responsible for certifying the school as a Healthy School. There are many requirements for certification, the basics include latrines or flush toilets, faucets and sinks for a hand washing, some form of running water either through a rain catching system or a pipe system, a working kitchen with a functioning stove and ventilation system, a full curriculum of health lessons taught three times a week and basic personal hygiene of both students and teachers.
Currently most of the schools we will be working with don’t have water, many use open fires for cooking and there may be one latrine for over 100 people and no sinks to wash hands. These poor health conditions create a myriad of problems: malnutrition from lack of both access to healthy foods as well as no nutritional education, respiratory problems from cooking over an open fire without any ventilation system as well as every digestive system problem imaginable caused by lack of purified water for drinking and lack of any sanitation system. We’ve got two years to initiate and motivate the school, the community and the municipal leaders to plan and complete several construction projects, train the teachers in health education and establish basic hygiene habits in the children. The primary goal of the program is to create a sustainable health program within the school and a broader knowledge of healthy habits and practices at the community level.
Despite the incredible challenges of Peace Corps service, by no means are these tasks insurmountable. The sixteen volunteers in my group are incredibly motivated and have experience in teaching, social work, and medicine and collectively we’ve completed over a decade of community service work. We’ve been educated at the best universities in the country; Johns Hopkins, Yale and UC Berkeley to name a few. Everyone has previously studied Spanish and many speak other languages including German, French, Portuguese, Hebrew and Creole. We have an incredible language training program for both Spanish and the various Mayan languages spoken in our communities. Our training program covers everything from cultural understanding and integration to specific technical training in grant proposals, culturally appropriate teaching methods, public speaking and organizing and presenting community meetings. Returned Peace Corps volunteers, Guatemalan and American Healthy Schools program leaders, Guatemalan educated doctors and current volunteers in the Healthy Schools program as well as other Peace Corps programs train us and we have the opportunity to work in local schools throughout this training period.
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~Nelson Henderson
The Peace Corps is really into acronyms and we just got back from FBT (field based training) in Totonicipan with our APCD (Associate Peace Corps Directory…our boss). Sunday morning PC picked us up in their microbuses, unfortunately they aren’t techno-colored VW vans and we drove four hours up into the mountain highlands. For the first time since we arrived in Guatemala we all stayed together in a hostel. Needless to say some serious bonding went on, and we plan on challenging the Eco-tourism group to a dance off now that we’ve gotten a good week of practice in. Think America’s Best Dance Crew meets Dancing with the Stars meets Sabado Gigante.
Anyhow, we got a lot of work done on the trip and I feel like I’ve finally got a really understanding of exactly what I’m going to be doing for the next two years. Basically we will be working as Public Health Facilitators in the Escuelas Saludables (Healthy Schools) program. Escuelas Saludables is a joint Peace Corps and Guatemalan Ministry of Education program and we are in the process of incorporating the Guatemalan Ministry of Health into the project. Unlike most PC programs, the Escuelas Saludables program is actually in the process of creating and passing legislation to include the right to health education into the Guatemalan educational system.
Each volunteer will be responsible for several schools in the area surrounding their site. Most schools will be within two hours of where the volunteer lives and are accessible by foot, bus, or pick up truck. The roads to the schools are not paved and are either incredibly dusty in the dry season or pure mud in the rainy season, but the schools in rural areas have the greatest need and thus we’re going to have to learn to love the adventure this challenge presents. Within the school the volunteer is responsible for certifying the school as a Healthy School. There are many requirements for certification, the basics include latrines or flush toilets, faucets and sinks for a hand washing, some form of running water either through a rain catching system or a pipe system, a working kitchen with a functioning stove and ventilation system, a full curriculum of health lessons taught three times a week and basic personal hygiene of both students and teachers.
Currently most of the schools we will be working with don’t have water, many use open fires for cooking and there may be one latrine for over 100 people and no sinks to wash hands. These poor health conditions create a myriad of problems: malnutrition from lack of both access to healthy foods as well as no nutritional education, respiratory problems from cooking over an open fire without any ventilation system as well as every digestive system problem imaginable caused by lack of purified water for drinking and lack of any sanitation system. We’ve got two years to initiate and motivate the school, the community and the municipal leaders to plan and complete several construction projects, train the teachers in health education and establish basic hygiene habits in the children. The primary goal of the program is to create a sustainable health program within the school and a broader knowledge of healthy habits and practices at the community level.
Despite the incredible challenges of Peace Corps service, by no means are these tasks insurmountable. The sixteen volunteers in my group are incredibly motivated and have experience in teaching, social work, and medicine and collectively we’ve completed over a decade of community service work. We’ve been educated at the best universities in the country; Johns Hopkins, Yale and UC Berkeley to name a few. Everyone has previously studied Spanish and many speak other languages including German, French, Portuguese, Hebrew and Creole. We have an incredible language training program for both Spanish and the various Mayan languages spoken in our communities. Our training program covers everything from cultural understanding and integration to specific technical training in grant proposals, culturally appropriate teaching methods, public speaking and organizing and presenting community meetings. Returned Peace Corps volunteers, Guatemalan and American Healthy Schools program leaders, Guatemalan educated doctors and current volunteers in the Healthy Schools program as well as other Peace Corps programs train us and we have the opportunity to work in local schools throughout this training period.
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~Nelson Henderson
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Culture
So a quick recap of the night and a few observations, first off, one of the first things you lose here is your sense of expectation. I have to stop myself from trying to figure out whats going to happen next because I don’t have the cultural or language skills to ask properly, and even when I know where Im going, my images of what that will be are completely wrong. This also means that when I hear weird noises at night, like roosters, fireworks, people talking, weird things on the roof, that I just ignore them. I have no idea whats a safe noise and whats something to be alarmed of so Im giving up on the alarm part because I could drive myself crazy worrying if the thing that keeps crawling across the tarp on my ceiling is a rat or a bat. Heres hoping its just the cat and her fleas.
So in the light of all this danger and unrest here in Guatemala there is a ray of hope. The prayer service I attended the other night was packed full of people who genuinely want to see change and peace in Guatemala. If St Peter is deciding who gets a key to the pearly gates based upon sheer volume then Spanish might be the official language of heaven. It’s kind of like a contest, if I can sing louder than you God will hear my prayer first.
After this prayer service, my host family and I went to a wedding reception. Needless to say I can now blame my parents for my complete inability to dance as they totally neglected to raise me in a Latin American discothèque. Here in Guatemala people don’t have babysitters, there are no events that childen don’t come to, and as such, they attend all the big parties and fiestas starting at birth. These people can dance, my five year old host brother can dance better than I can. I do have one up on the Guatemaltecos, Crystal and I were rocking out during the little American music remix they had going on and we were the only ones really getting down to the Twist, although I guess its easier to do the dance when you understand the words to the song…
So in the light of all this danger and unrest here in Guatemala there is a ray of hope. The prayer service I attended the other night was packed full of people who genuinely want to see change and peace in Guatemala. If St Peter is deciding who gets a key to the pearly gates based upon sheer volume then Spanish might be the official language of heaven. It’s kind of like a contest, if I can sing louder than you God will hear my prayer first.
After this prayer service, my host family and I went to a wedding reception. Needless to say I can now blame my parents for my complete inability to dance as they totally neglected to raise me in a Latin American discothèque. Here in Guatemala people don’t have babysitters, there are no events that childen don’t come to, and as such, they attend all the big parties and fiestas starting at birth. These people can dance, my five year old host brother can dance better than I can. I do have one up on the Guatemaltecos, Crystal and I were rocking out during the little American music remix they had going on and we were the only ones really getting down to the Twist, although I guess its easier to do the dance when you understand the words to the song…
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Photos
Volcan Pacaya
volcano s'mores 
Tony, Me and Adrian at the Monoloco
volcano s'mores 
So training, as it turns out, is jam packed with activities. Besides regular classes in spanich,culture and technical training we'veclimbed Volcan Pacaya, visited several volunteers in various sites around the country, started working at our schools and we leave in a few weeks for a week of training in Totonicapan. Anyhow, I'll post more later...here are a few photos from our Superbowl Fiesta on Sunday and climbing the volcano.
Tony, Me and Adrian at the Monoloco
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