2010 so far

Alright, so its been awhile and while I’m sure that no one is complaining (does anyone even read this anymore) I figure that someday I’ll look back at my Peace Corps experience and think, what did I do in 2010? So for posterities sake… here’s what’s been happening since I returned from an absolutely wonderful Christmas vacation in Lake Tahoe and San Francisco.

(view from my porch)

Chisec, while normally a very tranquilo place decided to spice it up a bit and a few campesinos were lynched, some fighting ensued over land and an elementary school was burned. The gente threatened to run the police out of town after torching two of their cars, but that didn’t happen so aside from a few traffic delays, a little bit of gossip in the market and a few concerned calls from the Peace Corps safety and security director, nothing really changed in my daily routine.

Teacher protests have delayed the start of the school year in several departments in Guatemala, (perhaps they’ve been watching the news on the UC and CSU protests in California). Classes should have started at the end of January but some of my healthy school coworkers find themselves with empty classrooms and no work. Fortuately (or unfortunately depending on your political perspectives) the teachers of Chisec are working. I actually got the nerve up to ask a few of them why they were showing up for work. Turns out the school district supervisor told them that if they didn’t teach that he’d find someone else who would (again, no political comment on this, I’m just happy that the kids are getting an education and that I’ve got work to do).

Healthy Habits!

I want to be able to carry stuff on my head like these women

Q'eqchi women working in their Tienda, thats a baby shes carring by her head...

Chisec from the front seat of the mirco.

So I’m almost half way through my Peace Corps service (march ’09-march ’11) actually a bit over half way through my entire time here in Guatemala counting the first three months in training. My friend Dave described the first 15 months as a lot like being pushed off the edge of a pool into the water and having to learn to swim in order to survive. Sink or swim, I guess. I definitely did a lot of sinking in the beginning but my head is finally above water and I’m really enjoying the experience now. I’ve gotten bossy enough with the bus drivers that I no longer end up shoved in the back with the chickens and old Guatemalan men falling asleep on me. They actually have started saving the front seat of the micro for me now. The cat calling has mostly stopped, I thought this was because the guys got bored of whistling at the gringa, but turns out that someone started a rumor that I’d gone home and gotten married to my big scary American boyfriend over Christmas and that he was gonna come down and beat up anyone that hit on me. (I’m just gonna roll with that one). Work in the schools is going very well. Despite some rough beginnings last year with the two school district supervisors, they’ve proven to me that they are really interested in the health of the villagers and I have a lot of confidence that they will continue to support the Healthy Schools program after I leave. Three of my four schools are very motivated this year, it’s the last year in the 4 year Healthy Schools program and they are working very hard towards getting their certification at the end of this school year or early next school year before I finish my service. Its an uphill battle for sure, we need to build a kitchen at one school, latrines and a stove at a second and a water tank at the third but the communities are behind the projects and the teachers are working hard to finish their grant applications so I am confident that we can accomplish the goals we’ve set out for the year. The last three months have really given me an appreciation for the Guatemalans that I live and work with. There have been some wonderful break through moments both professionally and personally in the community and I have to say I am loving my time here in Chisec.

(my teachers working hard during our training on project design and management)

More to follow later in the week, I still wanna update y’all on a lot of new projects I've been working on :)

Also count down to the quarter century of me celebration:

Bruce and Dorian's arrival: 18 days!

Vacation to Mexico: 22 days! (also my 25th birthday)

Tony comes to visit: 27 days!