As promised, here are some pictures of an always hilarious, Peace Corps Halloween.
The theme for our party was "Superheroes and Supervillains," but I had already found this wedding dress in my market for Q5 (63 cents), so I went as the token damsel in distress. I also had brief weddings with Super Mario, Batman and the Aspiring Guatemalan Narco.
We celebrate early here because Halloween weekend is an important local holiday: Dia de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Day. Most volunteers want to spend the day with their local families having a picnic in the cemetery or take advantage of the long weekend to travel. Last year I stayed in Chahal for the weekend and went to a lunch at a family's finca (ranch) out by the river. But this weekend I'm heading out to Todos Santos, Huehuetenango for their big celebration of the day, which is marked by the horse races (where the riders are typically drunk, thus is dubbed "the drunken horse races").
Visiting Todos Santos during it's feria is something I've been wanting to do since I came to Guatemala. And now it's time to make sure I do everything on my list!
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Today was a great day. After feeling down the last couple of days -- alone, useless, not in the right place -- today I had a fantastic day (it really is true that in the Peace Corps you can go from your lowest low to your highest high in a blink of an eye). My counterpart and I went out to Agua Caliente (where we're building the sanitary landfill) and worked with a group of TWELVE community leaders to define the regulations of the solid waste management system that we're implementing! That's a big step on the way to a successful implementation of this project! Then, on the 8th, we're going to have a community meeting to approve it and to elect a committee to be in charge of the project.
I was feeling worried that these last 5 months would pass and I wouldn't finish my projects but, for the moment, they seem to be rolling along well. It also looks like we'll finish the trail and the park infrastructure before I leave! Actually, next month! The NGO is giving us money to contract 10 laborers to get it done in 2 weeks!! Plus, for the used tire retaining wall that we're building, the school (on their own) has collected more than 500 tires! And for the bottle school, we're still working away filling bottles, but I continue getting reports about more donations. In about two weeks I'll receive another deposit, so we'll see how close we are!
This is all a big sigh of relief because I don't feel like extending my service... I have exciting plans for April and beyond! And I have cool trips that I want to do to use up my remaining vacation days... like Mexico in 2 weeks!!!
2 comments:
Hey Audrey! Just found your blog from the PCJournals twitter. I was an environmental PCV in San Juan La Laguna, Solola from 2001-2003. So it is great to read your posts as I can completely relate to the good and the bad and it actually makes me "homesick" for San Juan; I would love to know if there are still volunteers there. I wish you the best in your last months of your service and look forward to reading more of your posts!
Hi! Thanks for checking out my blog. I don't know how to write you back, so hopefully you'll read this... There was a PCV in your site this year, but not anymore.
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