Dia del Empleado

Every July 25th, Guatemala celebrates a holiday called Dia del Empleado (Employee's Day). It's specifically to honor municipal employees (and perhaps other governmental sectors). The 334 municipalities in Guatemala vary greatly in how they celebrate it -- trips to neighboring countries, trips within Guatemala, parties, lunches, day off, bonuses. Last year in Chahal they did a lunch and got the day off. This year in Chahal they're taking a trip to Livingston (Carribean coast)! And taking Monday off.

Here in Sija the mayor gathered us all up yesterday to tell us what our reward would be. It included three parts:

1. A trip to Pollo Campero (Guatemalan fast food) at the mall in Xela for dinner last night.
2. Thursday and Friday off.
3. Q400 bonus.

Everyone was extremely excited. I'd rather have the trip to Livingston personally.

So yesterday we all left work early and piled into some cars and drove the 30 minutes down to Xela. I jumped in the van with all the men I play soccer with, a pretty funny group. They all have animal nicknames (sheep, chicken, frog, donkey, etc.) and suggested giving me one -- either ardilla or comadrilla. Ardilla is a squirrel and they told me that comadrilla is a long flying animal, but I'm pretty sure it means godmother.

The big party was in the food court. They already had a long line of tables set up for the 40 - 50 employees. First everyone lined up for their bonuses (I didn't, obviously, even though they told me to...). Then we were served a fountain drink, fries, coleslaw, bread, tortillas, too much chicken (breast, leg and wing... we each ate half a chicken), and ice cream to top it off. The men at my end of the table all put in to buy a bottle of XL (cheap liquor) which we poured into our pop, and made the event a bit more fun. Then, as we were all leaving, the mayor came over and handed me Q300! I tried to tell him that I'm not his employee, that they don't pay me and thus that he shouldn't give me the bonus, but he wouldn't hear it and forced the money on me! Well, after getting Patita spayed, I could definitely use it, so I'm not going to complain!

I personally think Pollo Campero is disgusting, but all of my co-workers love it. They said they did the same thing last year for the Christmas party, so I guess I know how I'll be celebrating Christmas!

Market Day

Market day is a pretty big deal in Guatemalan towns, as I would imagine that it is in most towns in the developing world. It's the day that all the vendors in the region come to the chosen town to sell food, produce, clothes, house supplies, animals, trees, pirated CDs/DVDs ... pretty much anything, but the quantity and quality of products and vendors definitely varies depending on the town. In Chahal, it was Wednesdays, but I never really went. It wasn't very impressive, and the produce was disappointing. The main product was clothes: local traje and Chuck Norris t-shirts. Not really my look, even with my love for Walker Texas Ranger.

(Example of a vendor of local traje, but not Chahal's traje)

This is a reason why I like Sija. Market Day (I capitalize it because it's like a holiday) is every Sunday, and it's huge. Today was an even bigger deal than usual because Friday was the inauguration of the new three-story indoor market, thus it was the first Market Day in the spiffy new building. It was fantastic. The market still spilled into the streets, but it wasn't as crazy and filthy because the make-shift locales were gone so there was more space to walk and to see around you.

(Manuela, my vegetable lady, in her stall in the old market)

(The new market, the park, and the clock tower -- the setting for Market Day)

I particular enjoyed a few of today's vendors. First, there was a man walking around selling something that must have had to do with cats because he kept on meowing. Then there was a man offering one single remedy to cure anything from the cough to tuberculosis. The last one, and my favorite, I found on my walk home with a group gathered around him.

You see, there are some vendors that tell and/or show you why you want to buy their product. This man did an impressive job. The trick is that you don't tell the people what you're selling until the end. It's like a joke and its punch line. You allude to the identity of it by talking about the problems that a potential customer would fix with the magical unknown product, but you don't reveal it.

When I walked up, he was talking about how friends aren't friends unless they take you to Pollo Campero (fast food chicken). Then he attached a small red rag to a large shell and showed us that Coca-Cola will stain the rag. Alcohol won't clean it. Neither will water. Potato juice will.

During this process, he was talking about how hard the sun is on the eyes and how these friends of his that take him to Pollo Campero can't see very well. Then he squirted water into his eyes and said that it didn't clean them.

Can you guess what he was selling?

Eye drops.

Do you see the obvious connection between the red rag and our eyes? None of those other products could get the red out of the rag (except potato juice... I was waiting for him to squirt that into his eyes). But with the eye drops, the color faded noticeably.

Well shit, if those eye drops can get the red out of a rag, they must be able to get the red out of my eyes! I'm glad I discovered them before I started pouring coke and alcohol and potato juice into my eyes.

People literally started lining up to have him squirt this miracle potion into their eyes and cure their "glass eyes" as he had referred to them. Did I? you wonder. I hate to disappoint, but no. I snuck away at that point before he could force them on me, thus I do not know how many bottles he sold to the crowd. But I can assume that he did pretty well today.

Not a bad Sunday. I'm looking forward to next week already.


What I bought today, to give you an idea of the possibilities:

1 pair of jellies (those cheap plasitic shoes from elementary school) -- Q15
2 lbs. chicken (chopped up right in front of me) -- Q22
1 oz. of a spice (not sure what) -- Q2
6 peaches -- Q5
1 lb. apples -- Q3
2 stalks of celery -- Q2
6 carrots -- Q2
2 guiskil -- Q2
1 lb. onion -- Q3
1 red pepper -- Q2
1 cantaloupe -- Q8
1 pair of used baby jeans (to patch my jeans with) -- Q5
2 hand towels -- Q10
1/2 lb. pasta -- Q3
1 large trash can (to make compost in) -- Q60

Total: Q144 = $18 (Q8 = $1)

Result: Homemade chicken noodle soup for the rest of the week, hole-free jeans, properly decomposing organic waste, cool shoes, the potential to dry my hands, and some fresh fruit to snack on. Can you do that for $18?

(Examining the fruit)

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!

Title change

As you may have noticed, I changed the title of my blog. It had been "Sigues y Triunfaràs" for the past year and a half, a phrase I had seen on a sign in my training park. "Continue and you will triumph." It seemed fitting. However, recently I realized that it makes it seem like there is a specific, tangible goal that will be my triumph, like perhaps finishing my service. But I don't feel that way. Yes, "continue" is good, but the triumph part sounds strange to me now. Who or what will I be triumphing over? Rather, the phrase "poco a poco" seems much more applicable. Everything here is a challenge and the general response to it all is poco a poco. Little by little you will find your way.

Kids at my house!

I'm finally feeling comfortable here in Sija. Well, actually about a month ago I was, but I haven't written a blog until now.

I made a comment to someone recently that in Chahal, the neighbor kids would show up at my house on their own accord to play but that kids here in Sija don't do that and probably won't. I was wrong!

This afternoon SEVEN kids came over to play. Patita is a magnet for them. Although Guatemalans seem to be wary of dogs, they love mine because she's actually clean and behaves herself. The kids went crazy. Running all over the house screaming like Patita was a monster chasing them. It was adorable.

When they showed up, I was pooper-scoopering the patio, tossing the turds into the wheel barrel. When I finished I asked, "who wants to dump the poop in the field across the street?" They all went crazy to be the one who got to do the job! Child labor, hmm.... I could take advantage of this.

Then they discovered my hammock. They were quite organized and formed a line, but I suggested we play an elaborate tournament of rock, paper, scissors called Evolution, to see who got to swing on the hammock first. Juan de Dios won. The only problem was when Rudy, the youngest of them all, started playing rough. When I tried to talk to him, he got very angry with me. So I had to banish him from my house. Afterwards I found out that the only discipline the kid knows at home is being whipped. No wonder he ran from me when I tried to talk to him. Poor thing.

I still don't think that Sija will ever have quite the feeling of community that Chahal had, mainly because Chahal is much more isolated, whereas Sija is a commutable distance from a city. But it's okay. I had my ideal experience in Chahal, now I have to be tough and make Sija a positive place, which as you can see, it's already becoming that.

In addition to having kids to play with, I'm getting a roomate next week (an environmental master's student from the capital). I enjoy living alone, especially with the move to the new house. I have windows!! But life gets boring, so the company will be appreciated. I'm also getting a site mate next month from the Youth Development program. In Chahal I wouldn't have liked that, but I'm not possessive of Sija. And I see potential for colaboration on projects.

Speaking of projects, I'm finally out in the field working more than I am in the office wasting time. We've started building the trail on the mountain here; planting 18,000 trees (Mexican weeping pine and fir) in a reforestation effort and for our sustainable logging project; and have begun the conversation about how to attack the waste management problem. However, there's not enough people out working on these projects to finish them in the amount of time alloted in the proposals, which is frustrating. They had these projects planned out before I got here so I just have to tag onto what they're doing; I didn't have a say in the planning process. Most frustrating, though, is that I seem to be the one most interested in all of these projects even though they are not for me nor my brain children. But I think that's a typical challenge of a volunteer: to make the locals realize that these projects are actually to benefit their well-being. So poco a poco voy. Just over 9 months left! 2/3 of my Peace Corps experience has past. Crazy.

P.S. Thanks to Joy and Mara for coming to visit and see what my life is like here and help out with the projects. You rock!

"Racing" in Guatemala

As you all know, I have been racing basically forever, thus it is something that I attempt to keep up with here in Guatemala. When there's a race happening and I can make it, why not?

Last week my running partner, the doctor, informed me of a race happening this weekend in Totonicipan (about an hour from here). A 10k. Sounds great, I said. I'm in. Off we went this morning for the 9 a.m. start time. At 8:15, we finally found the start after almost driving down a flight of stairs. We were the first to arrive and the organizers (the 7th Day Adventist church) were still setting up the course and had to begin to take entries. Turns out it was actually a 6k, "campo travioso" (obstacle course). Sure, why not? We were already there. The entry fee was 2 Quetzales (25 cents) and the doctor bought me the race t-shirt as well.

For a bathroom, they opened up a neighbor's house for public use (that's more than I had expected), and there was even toilet paper! Then I tried to do the old WU cross country warm-up, but cut it a little short because the start time was nearing.

9 o'clock passed uneventful, the religious music still blasting away. By 9:15 they were ready to start... the 2-3 year-olds. They went group by group like that, granted, short races, but it was already passed 9, the supposed race time. Needless to say, my warm-up did not help me out much. By the time it was finally time for the adults to start, I had finished my warm-up an hour before.

At the start line there was still question of how long the race was. 10k? 12k? 6k? 7k? We settled on between 6 and 7k. (When have you ever run a race not knowing how long it would be? And the organizers not knowing how long it was either??) Then, literally 10 seconds before they blew the whistle, the announcer shouted that the men would turn around at the bridge and the women at the church! What?! How long am I running then? But there was no one to answer my question; I was running down the street.

I ran until they held up a red flag at me and made me turn around (about 9 minutes in). I wanted to keep going with the men, but I also wanted to win the race, thus I obeyed. I finished first. Yep, second race I've won in Guatemala, and this time there were actually other women in the race to beat! (About 7.)

I think the course ended up being around 4k, but who knows. With my crappy warm-up, lack of sleep, being sick, etc. I was not running like myself, so am not really sure. And as far as the obstacle course, I have no clue what they were talking about. We just ran on city roads. Perhaps the extra 2km in the men's course went through a corn field?

Waiting at the finish line I made lots of new friends who were all very curious about the strange, fast, white girl. (The event was very small and mainly just people from the church.) Then came the awards... "Andre Skeers," yeah, something like that. As they handed me my trophy, I climbed on top of four concrete blocks (the awards stand) which almost toppled over like when you stack the Jenga blocks too high. Along with my trophy, I won a magazine about God.

They asked me to say a few words, which I did. Something to the effect of, "Good morning everyone. Thank you very much for this trophy. This was a great event. I've been running my whole life, so it is very nice to be able to find races here to make me feel at home in a different country. Thank you. And congratulations to everyone!"

Cheesy, yes. But I meant it. Despite the craziness and poor organization of the race, it was super fun and just wonderful to see so many people, including girls and women, out enjoying running. That's rare in Guatemala.

My next race is at the end of June: the big Coban International Half Marathon. (This one's actually quite well organized.) It had originally been scheduled for May, but was postponed due to the one case of swine flu in Guatemala. I ran it last year; it was my first half. My training has been quite difficult over the past few months, but I'm still hoping to better my time from last year, which shouldn't be too hard since I was throwing up and fainting a couple days before the race!

A little dizzy

I think I jumped back into running too quickly here in Sija. I didn't realize that two weeks of running at sea level while at home would make me have to reacclimate to the altitude in Sija -- 9,000 feet mind you. Monday was okay (6 1/2 hilly miles); Tuesday was hard (5 hilly miles); today was dangerous. At the beginning I felt better, but at about 20 minutes the hills were killing me (it's impossible to avoid hills here, by the way). We ran about 6 miles and when we finished I felt dizzy and light-headed. I was definitely on the verge of fainting! But I made it home in time and managed to hydrate, eat and rest. Now I feel fine, but maybe I'll take tomorrow off?