s'mores

I love having visitors because they always give me a new perspective on my experience in Guatemala.

This weekend, I saw Lori again, but in my site this time. To have someone visit who hasn't been living here for a year and a half reminds me that maybe life isn't as easy or as "normal" as I have grown accustommed to thinking. Or at least you have to learn to roll with the punches.

The plan was that we'd go learn to moler queso (final step in making fresh cheese -- grinding it on a rock) with a friend of mine; get the pizza dough ready for dinner (some other PCVs were coming over); go to a youth group campfire/marshmallow roasting activity; make the pizza. While we did go to moler queso, on the walk home it started pouring which soaked my blankets that I had hung out to air. Thus leaving us short on night-time warmth for the group. Next, when we went to buy flour, the power went out indefinitely. Thus no baking pizza in my toaster oven. (Also no showering -- electrically-heated shower -- and I hadn't, and still haven't, showered for a few days.) I also recently lost my headlamp; my normal flashlight is almost dead; and my candles suck. We came home to make some tea. Gas tank empty. No way to cook food. Stores closed by this time. We made the dough anyway, just in case, then prepared for the marshmallow-roasting extravaganza. It started raining. S'mores = cancelled. The outlook for the night became: sit in the dark and eat carrots and apples. And to top it off, my friends coming out specifically for these activities were almost here; too late for them to turn around. But we just laughed and laughed. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. It felt good. It also felt good to remind myself that things go wrong here, a lot, and you just have to deal with it. Why get frustrated? Why not just laugh?

In the end, we got lucky. My neighbor agreed to let us use her gas oven to bake the pizzas and take some firewood to make a bonfire on my patio. Then the power came on! So it was actually a spectacular night. Delicious home-made pizza, s'mores and good company. Plus, the neighbor boys experienced their first s'mores ever!

I never know what to expect with each day presented to me here, but I know that with a positive attitude, it always turns out okay.

Queso Fresco

Even though I have nearly 8 months of service left, I still find myself contemplating what I will miss when I leave (subjunctive) Guatemala. Here's one: people coming to my house to sell me things. I guess I realize we have door-to-door salesmen in the States, but not as much as we used to, and they're not selling products that you really want. What do they sell? Vaccuum cleaners? Knives? No thank you. I'm talking about really useful things, and things you didn't even realize you wanted/needed.

Yesterday I was relaxing in my hammock after a long day at work. Didn't expect to interact with anyone else for the rest of the day, except for maybe the neighbor kids. But here comes a woman selling cheese (fresh, homemade cheese from her own cows, probably made that morning) at Q12 ($1.50) per pound! Well shit, Q2 cheaper than every other place in town. How could I not buy it? Plus, I didn't even have to leave my house. And it's delicious.


So that is something I will miss: Guatemalan-style door-to-door salesmen. And Sija's queso fresco. I've almost finished the pound. Maybe I should've bought two?



Other things that I will miss:

- Saying "buenos dias" and "buenas tardes" to people I don't know and receiving a very warm reply back.

- The market, and haggling there... my sister tells me you don't haggle at farmer's markets in the States. Strange.

- Walking to work and coming home for lunch.

- The beauty.

- Spanish.

- The "ease" of transport on chicken buses.



Things that I perhaps won't miss:

- The "ease" of tranpsort on chicken buses.

- Bolos (drunks) wandering the streets at any time of day, or even showing up at meetings. For example, at my meeting with the city council and my Peace Corps program director today, the inspector from the health center showed up drunk. Seriously dude?

- Washing my spinach (and other veggies) with bleach then having to dry it completely.

- Not being respected because I'm a woman.

- Being alone.

- The running situation.



I still have 7 1/2 months left, though, plus all my post-PC traveling through the rest of Latin America. So really, no need to worry; I have plenty of time to soak up all of the good stuff and get really really tired of the bad stuff!

Tire gardens and being happy

When I first moved to Sija, I thought that I would never be able to stay a full week without leaving. I was lonely and comparing it to Chahal, where I would go swimming in the river, have lunch with the family, go out to someone's finca, etc, and didn't see those options in Sija. Those don't necessarily exist here (I will not be swimming in the sewage that is Rio Samala), but I've found other diversions. I've made more acquaintances in town and have taken on projects of my own like expanding my cooking repertoire, building a tire garden, and milking a cow for the first time. (I've decided to make my own little "bucket list" and start checking off things I've never done before. Sometimes it's not even something on my list until after I do it and realize that it should've been on there.) Even without being able to run this month, I've been happy. I stayed here in site all of July (except a couple day trips to Xela for lunch) and was overall content. There are always moments of despair, but I've learned that those pass quickly and thus don't dwell on them.

The tire garden has been so much fun and rewarding. I'm like my dad: I love to putter, so this project has been fantastic for that. I needed something beyond just reading good books in my hammock. Many Peace Corps volunteers make these in their schools or with women's groups, but I had never personally seen one made before, so I didn't know what to expect. I got a little extra help from this website http://wuvie.net/tireplanter.htm. It's hardwork but simple. Find the most dilapidated tires that you can. Trace circles on one wall with a crayon or chalk. Then take a large, sharp knife an cut around the inside halves of the circles. Next is the hardest part: turning the tire inside out. I don't even know how to explain how I did it, but it requires knees, elbows, feet and finesse. To finish up, wash, paint, let dry, lay cardboard in the bottom, throw in your dirt and plant your seed! Hopefully you're not like me and have to hike up the mountain and carry the dirt back down!

What I didn't expect was that this project that I was doing alone, at my house, would attract so much interest. As you can see, my patio is visible from the street, so everyone who walked by paused to inquire about what I was doing. My neighbors even came over and made their own.
I took advantage of the "teaching moments" with those interested and talked about reusing trash, the importance of eating vegetables, the negative impacts of pesticides, and whatever else was relevant. Now I plan to do some tire garden workshops through the library and implement it in some schools as well. When I get done here, Sija won't have any tires laying around!

I was tempted to stay in site this past weekend to finish planting, but I decided that it was time for a little escape. I met up with Lori (a friend from college) and some Peace Corps friends at Lago de Atitlan for a relaxing couple days at one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. However much I like being in site, I can't deny that this trip was much needed, and so much more fun than anything I would have done in Sija!

And some exciting news to finish of this entry: I'm coming home for Christmas!! My parents surprised me on Friday night with the news that they'll pay for my ticket home! I used to think I was too tough to go home during my two years, but then I realized I was being selfish. My family has supported me so much and is constantly there for me; if I have the means to go home and spend some time with them, I should. So if you're in Oregon over Christmas, hopefully I'll be seeing you!

Lesson learned

As you may know, I've taken on trash (err, solid waste) as a project. The first step in our plan is to get all the vendors in the new market to separate their organic and inorganic waste so that we can start a municipal compost pile. The assumption is that most of the trash in the market is organic from all of the fruit and vegetable vendors. Thus, we can eliminate a large portion of waste being sent to the barranca (ditch) [which hopefully will be a sanitary landfill one day] and produce organic compost for the local crops... But we all know what happens when you ass-u-me something!

I started distributing materials about trash separation today which stirred up some conversations. I explained what I was doing to my fruit lady who stopped me cold when she said that she doesn't have organic waste. "Como?!" was my response. I was confused: the fruit lady should ONLY have organic waste. She explained -- she does have organic waste, but a woman with a pig takes it from her for her pig to eat. Hmm, okay. Does everyone do that?

I then chatted with my vegetable lady. Well, yes, she sells her organic waste for Q5 a box. Looks like we were quite wrong with that assumption we made. The waste from the market is mainly inorganic.

How did this happen? How did we completely miss this? We had analyzed it amongst ourselves in the office; I had mentioned the idea to my Peace Corps supervisor; we had talked with the trash collectors; and just by looking at the market, it had seemed obvious that the waste is mainly organic.

We didn't talk to the vendors, the people there everyday all day long. We were going to, but we wanted to have everything organized first. The plan was to teach them to sort their trash, then we would do a study of the waste produced for a week, weighing all of the organic material to see what size area we would need for the compost.

It should be frustrating that we completely overlooked this, but to me it's just funny. I'm constantly surprised here, but not always positively. This, though, was definitely a positive surprise. The people are already dealing with their trash problems, to an extent. Now we can tackle the market trash faster and move on to household waste a lot sooner. This just shows that when it becomes a necessity, people will solve their own problems and live more in harmony with the earth.

This experience is also metaphor of how international development can fail. Take the market as a small community. We went in from the outside, didn't get to know the day-to-day life, decided what project they needed, how we would do it, then told them what we were doing. Completely backwards. NGOs and other agencies need to meet with the people and get to know them, diagnose what they need together, then try to come up with solutions. Now, in my defense, the market is municipal and I am working with municipal employees on this project and we were specifically targeting the trash problem. It's not quite the same as going into a community with no local knowledge and throwing a project at them, but still a good lesson to learn.

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!