A Month in Site

(My wonderful hammock!)

I left home and arrived in Guatemala in January; I moved to my site at the end of March; and now look, May’s here. How did this happen? My friends back home are finishing up the track season and the school year; my Yellowstone buddies are moving back to the park; my parents are looking forward to a summer full of fishing and dogs and getting rid of the snow that is strangely plaguing their garden; and me? Well, I’m adjusting quite well to life in rural, sub-tropical Guatemala.

(My current house)

May, and the ensuing summer months (they call it winter here due to the prevalence of rain, even though we’re still north of the Equator), should hold some excitement, but not too much, as I also enjoy the tranquility of just being in site.

* This weekend, I’m back at the training center and Antigua for the Gender and Development committee meeting, during which, the new trainees will just be arriving. I will be a wise, experienced volunteer in their eyes, or at least I’ll pretend.
* Next week, I’m going to visit a project that other volunteers in Uspantan, Quiche are working on: a bottle school. It’s built out of plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash and lined with cement. I’m interested in constructing a similar building, but as a Visitor’s Center for Las Conchas.
* May 18th is the International Half Marathon in Coban. It’s huge. I’ve been training hard and I cannot wait to race again; it’s been a year since my last, dreadful race – when I pulled my hamstring in the WU Invite and hobbled off the track. This will be my first half marathon, and I plan to kick its ass.
* A week later, my town has its annual Feria, with rodeos, dances and who knows what else. Probably a lot of tasty, slightly dangerous, street food. Yum!

Another New Home

In the midst of all this fun and mayhem in May, I will be moving, before planned, but it’s time. It’s not me; it’s not them; it’s the water. Doña Edna and I had a chat yesterday and she said that they just can’t support me there for much longer. There’s already 14 people in the family (living in 3 houses), and we haven’t had water for a week. It’s just too much of a strain on the family. After being here for even a short time, it’s almost impossible for me to imagine turning on a faucet anytime of the day and always having water, and drinkable water at that. In San Fernando, where I’ll be moving, there’s reliable water, I don’t have to commute to work, I have more friends, and I don’t have little kids screaming and yelling and asking me incessant questions in my house all day long. (It’s not that I don’t like these kids, they’re adorable, but I just don’t like living with them; I will go crazy if I don’t get to hang out with people my own age more.) Also, I thought that I would become great friends with the two girls in the house that are around my age because they’re into sports, they study at the university, and they’re not married. But whenever I talk to them, it seems more like they’re patronizing me. I’m finding better friends in San Fernando, the town I will be moving to.

(The pila)

The house I’m likely going to move into belongs to the mother of one of my coworkers. Technically, she lives in the house and I’m just renting a room, but she’s rarely there, usually visiting family. The house is completely furnished, which means I can spend my move-in allowance on a dog. Plus, the backyard is plenty big enough for my future best friend, as well as my garden-to-be and a hammock in the shade. So I may move as early as next weekend, or as late as the end of the month. I’m excited … I’m ready to cook my own food!

The one problem is the son that is the co-worker. Total sketchball. He’s married, but makes passes at me all the time, just like half the guys I work with. I am fed up with it. I think I will talk to the mayor about this. These men need to understand that I’m a professional, not just an easy gringa or a ticket to the States. The other day I ran into a guy I know that works in the health center. He offered to buy me a pop; I accepted because it’s rude to decline, but I think he interpreted as a date. Then the next night, he sent me a message that said, “Hola, I hope have a wonderful night and that you dream with the angels.” I did not respond. Why can’t I just make platonic friends?! Gosh.

Success as a Volunteer

After only a month in site, I feel like I’ve been pretty dang successful. My counterpart and I have developed a great working relationship as well as friendship. We completed a proposal with the Hispanic American Development Foundation, an NGO from Los Angeles. The proposal is for a multi-million dollar project to build a market in Chahal. We worked really well together and finished it in time, but it was a very frustrating process. It was supposed to be the mayor’s project, me solely helping as a facilitator to urge the process along. However, he did not do a damn thing to help us in completing it, and we didn’t know the details of the project to properly fill out the forms. As well, right before it was due, when we had a million questions, he left to the capital. I wanted to scream or cry or both. But somehow we managed, and hopefully in the next year I will see a new market built in town.

On Monday, my counterpart and I drove out to Las Conchas and finally formally met with the park administrator. We walked the whole park, taking note of problems and formulating ideas for new projects. Then we sat down and hashed it all out. We came up with some great ideas, and they’re both really gung-ho to work! (Assuming we can get the mayor’s approval, and he actually has time to talk to us) we’re going to build a suspension bridge to the other side of the river and construct an interpretative trail (probably about 2km). I’m also really interested in building a visitor center out of plastic bottles (some other volunteers built a school out of bottles) and putting a museum inside as well as working with the women’s associations to sell artesanias in it. Since my counterpart is the forestry technician for the municipality, we’re also planning on making a tree nursery and selling the trees at a symbolic price for reforestation projects. I could go on and on about my ideas, but I’ll leave it at that for now, and explain more when I start realizing them.

Daily Life

Not quite daily at my house, but pretty often, we knock some coconuts out of the tree, hack them open with a machete, drink the water out of them, then grab the machete again to split it in half and get the fruit out. I’ve tried twice and am really no good at it, but I want to learn, both how to handle a machete, and how to quickly and cleanly break into a coconut. When we were having our coconuts the other day, the 1 ½-year-old boy knocked the 3-year-old girl in the head with the machete. The lack of discipline and the lack of concern is absolutely ridiculous, but no worries, he didn’t do any damage. The other excitement was when we were knocking the coconuts out, a strange growling sound came from high up in the tree. The whole family freaked out, some yelling at the animal to get away, others screaming in fright. I don’t know the name of it, it’s a small mammal, supposedly it eats their chickens, but I don’t think it would eat anyone in the family. I personally thought it was pretty cool – my first wild mammal in Guatemala (except squirrels and bats). But just as with the barba amarilla snake in the park, they tried to kill it. Luckily, this time, it was a failed attempt.

All in all, I’m happy. Life can be a roller coaster here, but I could never even imagine ETing (early termination), because I know I would get home and think, “What the hell was I thinking?!” I love the moments when I’m walking down the road, and remember, “Hey, I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer and completely on my own out here.” I love it. Sometimes, though, it’s rough because I’m in a new site, I get hit on by co-workers and any other machisto guy in town, work can be frustrating, and the closest volunteer is 2 hours away. But I’m making friends with the locals, and I think I’ll be really happy in my new place – I’ll have much more freedom. And once I find myself a puppy…! As well, the river will be a short bike ride away, and won’t be a trip for doing laundry!