Life

I updated my blog a lot more often during my first year of service, probably because everything was a novelty and seemed worth writing about. Now, it's simply my life; it doesn't make much sense anymore to write, for example, about the people preaching on buses. It's normal to me now. But I suppose there still are things worth writing about, so I'll do my best to do a review of my recent history. And hopefully, I'll start to write more regularly from here on out.

Running --

My running has been going well here in Sija. Originally, I ran with the doctor, which was great to get me feeling comfortable here. In May, though, I started running alone in the mornings and have felt perfectly safe, and super happy. The only people who have bothered me are men shoveling sand out of the river (a job I would not like to have), but I doubt they are going to put their shovels down to come after me. The only reason they have the confidence to yell at me is because they are in a group and 75 meters away. Solo, they've got nothing.

(Rosie, Liz and I pre-race)

My training was aimed at the Coban Half Marathon (which was postponed due to swine flu). I never got in a 2 hour training run, and really, my training wasn't that great. But I had to run it. It's a super fun race. The whole city turns out to watch it and cheer the racers on. I did pretty well. 1:49:51 / 14th place. 5 minutes and 18 places better than last year. Still not a fantastic time, but I gave myself a pat on the back considering my circumstances.

Alta Verapaz --

I returned to my beloved A.V. to run the half marathon. (This was June 28th.) Alta will always be where my heart belongs in Guatemala. I was really excited for the possibility of seeing friends from Chahal. Even though it's 4 hours from Coban, many of my buddies talked about coming to see me run. Sadly, only one made it: Hugito. Still, though, it was fantastic to see him. His family has a house in Coban and let me, Rosie, Dave and Liz stay there. After the race, I took a few vacation days and headed into the jungle with some Peace Corps friends to go rafting on class 5 rapids. Being in the jungle and getting to speak a bit of Q'eqchi' again made me oh so nostalgic for Chahal.

4th of July --

Peace Corps knows how to celebrate our country's birthday. Both this year and last year have been much more exciting than any 4th I've spent in the States, but what do you expect when 200 Peace Corps volunteers get together?

Thursday and Friday there was a conference about post-Peace Corps options (grad school for me, by the way) and making contacts with NGOs that work in Guatemala for our work. Friday afternoon was the departmental basketball tournament. 10 minutes into the first game I went to save the ball from going out and sprained my ankle. It swelled up so quickly. By the time I looked down at it it was huge, and guess what my first thought was? "Crap, now I can't run." They didn't get me crutches until the next day, so I got around by hopping and bumming piggy back rides.

Saturday was the Staff v. Volunteer soccer tournament. I was going to play, especially sense I've been honing my skills in site, but obviously it was no longer an option. I piggy-backed up to watch the game, where they gave me crutches (old-school wood ones that became so painful). Then, all afternoon was the barbeque/party. I didn't let the crutches hold me back. I managed to carry beer while crutching and even dance on one leg. I also put on a very patriotic shirt that I found at the second-hand store while Oliver sported some sweet partriotic cut off shorts that I made him buy (see foto). I had a lot of fun and I think my positive attitude really shined through. Can't let a little sprained ankle get me down, eh?

(Oliver and I sporting Q10 patriotic garb)

(I mastered one-leg dancing; Jareau was my favorite dance partner)

(Uncle Sam and I)

Sunday I headed back to site after 10 days away. The bus trip was quite difficult on crutches, but luckily Becca was there to help me. In Xela, we sat on a bench in front of a food vendor in the terminal to wait for my bus. The woman got very upset with us that we were blocking customers, but she let me stay because I was "malita." While sitting there, I started taking off my shoe to loosen the ace bandage, but she yelled at me that I couldn't, that she was selling food there: "Seño! Estoy vendiendo comida aqui!" We didn't follow her logic though, because I'm pretty sure her food was dirtier than my foot.

Sija --

This week, obviously, hasn't been very productive. I don't think building trail is possible on crutches. But I did have one key success: composting. My new roommate Astrid and I are working together on developing a plan for solid waste management. We're starting with composting of the organic waste from the market. We elaborated the plan and presented it to the Concejo (city council) and got their approval! Next week we're going to train the vendors how to separate their trash; for 2 weeks we'll weigh how much organic waste they generate so that we can determine the area needed for composting; by August, we hope to be composting all the organic material from the market!! If it works there, we will expand it to all of Sija. Organic trash supposedly makes up about 70% of all waste generated; if we can eliminate that from the dump and do something positive with it, that's a HUGE step in cleaning up the town. This project excites me much more than that of the trail because I have ownership of it. I'm planning it from the beginning.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I'm feeling at home now in Sija. I'm a bit more lonely than I was in Chahal, but I have a roommate and a site mate now and I'm going to simply force myself out there to make friends. In fact, tonight, my neighbors brought me to a family dinner! I'm an idiot though... today was my first day hobbling around without crutches; I went to kick a ball while in their house and instead kicked the leg of the bed. My ankle hates me now. I may be back on crutches tomorrow!

Thanks for checking in! I'm going to try to update this more often so that the entries will be shorter. We'll see if that happens! Miss you all!