Guate Halloween #2

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!!!

It's crunch time!

I'm back to site after a week away in Antigua and Coban. It wasn't quite a vacation, thus I'll be taking one of those in a few weeks hopefully. The next few weeks until then will be used to make sure that my projects get off the ground. (And that I don't take on anymore! Stop overcommitting yourself, Audrey!) I turned in our proposal for a sanitary landfill in the village of Agua Caliente last week, so now I must start training them in proper trash management before we build it in January.

The construction of the bottle room probably won't happen until January as well because we still lack enough funds and bottles. (If you haven't donated yet, please consider it!! http://audreysquires.blogspot.com/2009/09/novel-idea-for-trash-and-request.html.)

The trail is a constant theme, but something that I work on as I am able to. It's going to be a larger theme in the service of the next volunteer simply due to the phase we're in now (basic construction) and the phase we'll be in next year (designing the interpretative signs, among other things). But tomorrow I am hosting some expert birders to do a diagnostic of the potential of bird tourism here. Should be pretty cool.

Then, of course, we still have pending the construction/implementation of a recycling center.

I think that's enough with just over FIVE months left. I cannot take on anything else if I don't want to extend my service. (Which I still may have to do depending mainly on the progress of the bottle room and the landfill.) I basically won't get anything done in December with feria and a trip home. So really, I have about 4 months to start and finish these projects. Thanks Site Change. You've made my life stressful!

*Next post will be more exciting with pictures of awesome Halloween costumes from our party last weekend*

Aviso: Cantinas abren a las 10 a.m.

This morning while walking around town, there was a group of men standing around waiting on a random street. Strange. Even one sitting on the curb sleeping in the sun (kind of normal, but always funny). Then a door opened and they rushed inside. That's when I noticed the sign on the building: "CANTINA."

So in case you ever come to Sija and need a drink, the cantina opens at 10 a.m. FYI.

Projects update

The bottle school project is coming along. I visited the community today where they have about 1000 bottles filled. I dropped off 9 of my own. -- Last night the power went out, so after making a delicious dinner in the dark, I filled bottles by candlelight. Quite an exciting evening. Ideally we will start building in November, but it depends on how quickly the remaining bottles are filled and the funds roll in. We will likely end up building in January. (Nothing happens here in December due to the feria, Christmas and the New Year.)

(Some of the school's bottles)

(My bottles. Aren't they pretty? I was kind of sad to turn them in today. I'm also a dork.)

This week I will finish the proposal for another project: a small community-sized sanitary landfill for the village Agua Caliente. We will begin environmental education and training this month, the trench will be dug out next month, and in January we will line it with plastic, build the cement tank for liquid run-off, and place the trash cans around town. Piece of cake! Right? I hope so!

The trail continues to be a theme in my life. Last week we brought the final middle school for the year up to build trail. (School ends this month.) They did a great job, but we still have a ways to go. Everytime we bring kids up to work on the trail, it makes me wonder about child labor concerns. Just kidding! They're learning to about ecotourism and will better appreciate the trail when they use it in the future. But I do sometimes ponder on it when I am supervising a dozen kids working away with hoes and machetes just for a snack.

In another school we're looking at building a retaining wall out of used tires. This project, however, I am trying to distance myself from a bit... I only have 5 1/2 months left. I should not over-commit myself! (Me, over-commit myself? Never!) As well with an environmental summer camp that I've been planning with the librarian. I would love to do it, but I just don't know if I have time.

I talk of being almost done, yet sometimes it seems like I have a long time left! Such are the ups and downs of Peace Corps. Luckily my ankle is treating me relatively well and thus can be active again (mainly biking, hiking, lifting rocks and jump roping, but I am slowly incorporating in running and soccer, plus a new one -- karate/self-defense classes right here in Sija!), otherwise I would be miserable!

Playing with Bees

You would think I would have learned my lesson in high school when on two different occassions I was stung on my face by bees. Both stings resulted in ginormous swollen lips. The first sting resulted from playing with a bee's nest during cross country practice freshman year. After pulling out a stick that a teammate had shoved in it so that my dad/coach wouldn't see that we had disobeyed him, they swarmed me. One caught my lower lip. I was going to hide it from my dad until it became so large that that was impossible. Amazingly, though, I ran a fantastic race the next day. I wonder if bee stings are a form of doping? Anyway, the second one wasn't my fault. I was just running down the bike path by Autzen Stadium and out of nowhere, a bee flew into my upper lip. Lucky me, team pictures were the next day.

Take that into account as I tell you about my day.

I was sitting in the office working away when Don Armando rushed in and frantically started telling me about bees and cows and dogs. I was lost and asked him what he wanted me to do. Since I am "la encargada de medio ambiente" (the one in charge of the environment), he wanted me to come see the bees that had attacked these animals to determine what species it was. I told him that I'm not a bee expert. He told me to come anyway, that maybe I could help. Might as well, I thought, it'll get me out of the office.

We hopped into the truck and drove up the mountain. Along the way we picked up a semi-hysterical girl who had been stung by the bees. Once we got to the house it was clear to me that I was of no help. There were bees everywhere; the owner of the house had a least a dozen swarming around his head. The men went at the bees with brooms, buckets of water and Raid. I got out for awhile but then thought better of it and went to wait in the truck.

Supposedly one dog had already died from all the stings and the cow was in pretty bad shape after being stung by "thousands." The men walked the cow down the hill and dumped water on her. Intrigued, I cautiously opened my window and watched at a safe distance... or so I thought. Ten minutes passed by uneventully sitting there reading my book. Then BAM. A bee flew in fast, straight to my face and stung me in the cheek. I just laughed at myself. When will I ever learn? Not even solely with respect to bees, I just like to put myself in dangerous situations. That's what adventure is though, right?

Luckily my face didn't swell up this time, although it could be a great look to fend off creepsters that like to whistle at me.

Futbol

Back to playing soccer with my co-workers today. It was clear that even with how much I've already played with them, they are not used to having a woman around as they all were stripping down to their whitey-tighties right there next to me. I did my best to keep my eyes forward. That is not something I care to see! But eventually I got up and did laps around the field while waiting... my ankle felt great!! First time that I've had a full stride since June! Of course then, in the game, I tweaked my good ankle and am now limping again. Maybe I should stay away from sports with balls. (Even though I scored a picturesque goal!)

I'm Superwoman. Street food cannot harm me.

Yesterday, after a lovely hike to Laguna Chicabal, I got back to my site craving street food. A woman I know sells pupusas (corn tortillas filled with cheese and/or chicharon (fried pig skin)) but only on Saturdays, so I was stoked. Sadly, though, no one brought her chicharon, so she didn't make them. I would've been more than pleased with just cheese pupusas (actually, preferrable), but she didn't make those either.

Instead she made empanadas: cheese, apple and some milk thing. I went for cheesy and was told it'd be 5 minutes. To kill time, Patita and I strolled through the park (where she pooped, how embarrassing!). When we came back, she was still making them, so we chatted about the murders reported in the newspaper while I waited. I got less and less excited about my empanada as I waited, though.

She and her children who were helping her were coughing and wiping their noses. Then she said to someone, "Como me esta afectando la fiebre." Translation: "This fever is really affecting me." Crap, I thought, I am for sure getting sick from this. Last time I had pupusas (in another town) I ended up with amoebas. But I don't learn. At this point it was too late to cancel my order so I cringed as I continued watching them make my food. When it was served to me, I ate it. It would've been rude otherwise. Food is a very sensitive subject in this country.

Turns out, it was pretty delicious and I just thought about that as I ate it.

I was fully expecting to be throwing up with diarrhea today, but *knock on wood* I am feeling healthy, and, typically, food-borne illnesses hit within 24 hours (I should know). Thus, I am superwoman. On another note, the neighbor boys call me "superchica" because I can turn tires inside out.