Hi family, meet Guatemala

Life. It's interesting.

I'll start with updating ya'll on the past month (Christmas in Guatemala, family visit, etc.) and let that settle in and next time I write I'll update you with the future. Yes, I have a time machine, and a hovercraft, actually. The hovercraft came in very handy while my family was visiting. But we had to return it to Thrifty so I no longer have it.

It was beyond wonderful to see my family again after nearly a year apart. We toured around Guatemala in the hovercraft: a day in Antigua to get acclamated, traversed the treacherous streets of the capital and headed north through Rio Dulce to get to Tikal (the Mayan ruins). There we awoke to howler monkeys and then spent the day climbing temples. We made it to Chahal for New Year's Eve. Jen and I went to the Catholic mass in San Agustin, then we dragged Chris to the mass in San Fernando. (Chris loves churches.) And the whole night was filled with fireworks and gunshots. Quite restful, and a good first impression of Chahal for my family.

We only had a couple days in my site, so I dragged them to the park and out to a village for lunch. My dad played handy man at my house to make it more liveable. He even built a little dog house for Patita.

After Chahal we looped back to Antigua through Coban where my siblings experienced a Guatemalan discoteca. It was the first time all three of us had gone to a bar together because I turned 21 only two years ago and we don't live in the same place and haven't for quite awhile. Chris played protective big brother and scared off creepy guys and Jennifer was proposed to. I don't know why she declined.

10 days wasn't long enough for the family to really get to know Guatemala, but it was a good introduction. I did realize, however, that I planned the trip from the perspective of already living in Guatemala for a year. I allowed my family to have a 1-day acclimation period before heading out. No wonder they got tired and cranky :)

----

Rewinding now to Christmas -- I spent it in my site, which was fun, a little dramatic, but a good experience overall. The tradition in Guatemala, and most latin countries, is to eat tamales on Christmas Eve and hug at midnight. I visited various families that I'm friends with and at midnight was with the family that I used to live with. We hugged and set off fireworks. The next day I visited my other host family and also ate tamales with them. I was trying to see how many tamales I could eat for Christmas. (They're big and laced with animal fat.) I ate 4. I was relatively impressed with myself, but I think next year I can do better.

After my family left, I headed back to Chahal and spent a couple relatively unproductive weeks in site -- my counterpart was on vacation. I tried to get some work done -- I built some trails and guard rails in the park with the workers there and did the legwork for starting environmental education in some villages. It's hard to work alone, though, which is as it should be. Peace Corps is focused on sustainable development. The work I do is not sustainable if I'm not working with a host country national to capacitate him or her to continue the work when I leave. Thus, I wasn't too perturbed by the lack of work. Life was tranquila --- I spent a weekend chapeando the monte in my yard (i.e. mowing the lawn with my machete), which was very hard work, but a lot of fun. Also, my roommate and I started a basketball team with 8 - 13 year-old girls, so I wasn't completely bored.

Oh yeah, and I passed my year-in-country mark this month: January 9th! About 14 1/2 left. And I'm coming home to visit in April/May. Flying into see my sis in California on April 24th, running the Big Sur, then road-tripping up to Oregon after a few days. I'll be there until May 8th, so I hope to see as many of you as possible!

I'll write again soon; there's a lot more to share, but poco a poco.