Below the belt

Sometimes here in Guatemala, you encounter challenges in places where you would never expect them. Recently I was in Katie's site, walking to her house along a path that is just a dirt trail in a maze of corn fields or what was a maze of cornfields now that it has been harvested. As I am walking along, I pass a house with a young man and a few kids standing outside, I greet them and continue walking. As I am passing the door to their home, a little guy no older than 4 comes storming out with an angry look on his face. I think nothing of it, move a bit on the trail for him to pass and just as he is passing me he reaches out with his tiny little fist and punches me. In the balls. Luckily there was not a whole lot of force behind this fist, but still the audacity that this little tyke had shocked me. I was honestly speechless, I looked back in amazement as he continued his march of terror down the path and just continued walking towards Katie's house. Needless to say, I am going to keep my guard up and approach all Guatemalan children with caution from here on out.

Good Times in Guatemala

Beautiful background, right? You ask, where can I find one of these for my next family photo? Well, this is definitely a Guatemalan original, and can be found at my town's feria. Once Katie and I saw this, it went without saying that there would be a photo, complete with the Guatemalan expression found in all photos--stern face, no smiles. This is what people enjoy, a true slice of vida chapina. 

Over the past week and a half, there has been quite a bit going on. In my town we had our feria, which is the annual festival honoring the patron saint, ours being San Juan Bosco. The feria is basically a chance for the town to have a party lasting a few days complete with band, ferris wheel and carnival food. It was pretty impressive, my town is usually very sleepy and it was strange to see it come alive for a few days. Also this week, I helped in Santa Cruz Del Quiche with a vision clinic put on by Luxottica, who owns Lenscrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut; among others. They travel to numerous countries and put on full vision clinics where they check sight, consult for cataracts and other problems, and give out free glasses to those who need it. The glasses are refurbished, the glasses that people donate when they no longer need them. Here are a few more pictures from both of these events. 

A picture of my town from the ferris wheel. The building below is the school and where all the people are gathered is the school basketball/soccer court where the band was performing. 

The band for the feria, complete with dancing people in costumes. Los Conejos was the name of the band, and for some unknown reason it is not satisfactory to have them up onstage performing in their lime green suits, we also needed to have about 30 people in a variety of costumes down below performing some type of choreographed dance. To be completely honest, it was a bit freaky. 

A view of my town from a hill above my house.

Another view of my town. 

The south entrance to my town, this is the main street into town. The poles with the bromeliads hanging from them are only for the feria. Gives it quite the festive feel, no? 

This is the organization that we volunteered for. 

Here I am with a Luxottica employee, who is from Twin Falls and lived in Boise for 8 years before moving to Utah, and an older lady who received glasses for the first time and her son. When she put them on, she told me that she felt as if she just took a couple shots of whiskey, that as long as her vision was like that, she might as well take a couple. It was pretty funny to hear this coming out of this lady's mouth. 

Here is Katie explaining to a kid that the pink glasses he got were the only ones left of his prescription. He was a trooper and took the pink glasses without complaint. 

Over the course of a couple hours, I became a highly skilled optician. Here, I am helping this young man fit into his new glasses.

Here is a young kid that I helped fit into a new  pair of glasses. Another pleased customer. 

Many of the kids didn't need glasses, but being kids, wanted to walk away with some type of glasses. Luckily, they had an endless supply of Ray Ban shades and the kids loved them.

Here is a young girl who got glasses and also a sticker right on her forehead. 

Here is a kid getting his eyes examined by one of the doctors. I would help translate for the doctors at this station, telling them to look forward, don't look at the light, etc. This kid was obviously a huge Kevin Bacon fan. Tough to argue with that. 

Here I am with a few of the many kids who we worked with over the course of the week. Good times. 

La Hora Chapina

As far as adjustment to a new culture goes, I feel as if I have done well thus far. I enjoy the food, have friends in my town, am able to converse with the locals and am not making too many mistakes to offend people, at least that I am aware of anyways. I am enjoying Guatemalan culture and adjusting to the slower pace of life. When I say slower pace of life, I am referring to literally everything moving slower. People, traffic, meetings, all of it. There have been a few occasions in which the slow pace really presented itself to me in all of its glory. In Guatemala there is a phrase, La Hora Chapina, literally meaning, the Guatemalan hour. It basically means that there is real time and there is Guatemalan time. Needless to say, la hora chapina tends to lag a bit behind real time. This has become painfully obvious to me, if I was not fully aware of it before.

For the past few weeks, I have been trying to get water delivered to my home, as opposed to riding in the back of a pickup for 45 minutes, buying 5 gallons, riding back in the pickup to my town and then lugging the jug of water up the hill to my house. The water company here, Salvavidas, has a truck that goes through my town so I have been talking with them to coordinate a time for the delivery. After a few conversations, I finally got a call this week from a guy in a truck, saying he would be in my town around 730 pm and what is my address. This question caused some difficulty, as I do not have a proper address. After trying to describe where I live, he said that I could wait by the road around 730 and he would stop when he saw me. So, 730 rolls around, I stand there for about 45 minutes in the pitch black with an empty water jug and no one shows. I try calling him a couple times and still nothing. So, I head back up the hill to my house, waterless and a bit frustrated. It is getting close, if not past, my usual bedtime and although I want water, I also desire sleep. I decide that I will hang out in my yard, watching the traffic below to see if he comes by for another 15 minutes. 15 minutes is about up when I hear a truck, look down and there he is, driving past my house no less than an hour after he said he would. I call, he answers, with ranchero music in the background at about 150 decibels. I tell him I just saw him drive by, if he stops now, I can be there in a minute. He tells me he will wait for me in town, just a bit up the road. I grab my jug, head up and exchange it for a full one, price 15q, about two bucks. Of course there is no sorry for running late or anything like that, it is pretty much expected that one will be later than one says. He tells me for the future he will call when he is near my house and we can take care of our business. He also gave me a free calendar, which really made it all worth it.

Guatemalan Crime

As I reviewed my blog, I noticed that I have updated you all on my travels, a bit of work and training, and little else. With that said, I had a topic come up over the weekend that had an effect on my plans and is a prevalent one here in Guatemala. I am referring to the crime problem in Guatemala.

As some of you may have read, heard or even learned the hard way; Guatemala can be a dangerous country and has a fairly high crime rate. While I have yet to experience this, not counting the ayudantes trying to take a few extra quetzales here and there, it is a problem that others have had to deal with. This past weekend, Katie, myself, another volunteer named Sara and Katie's friend John from the States were planning on hiking Volcan Acatenango and spending the night on top. Sara's counterpart, a Guatemalan gentleman, was going to accompany us and he had made the trip before so we were assured that everything was secure. As we talked to a few people about it, it came to our attention that this volcano has been the location of numerous robberies, usually involving guns. So that was nice. As we talked to our security officer at the Peace Corps office about it, he said it was our call, but he would prefer if we had a police escort to the top, which always makes for a nice hike. Usually, I really enjoy having an armed police officer around me, but this just did not seem like one of those times where I would want that. So, we called the municipalidad (city hall) to see if they could provide one, they could not, therefore we decided to postpone our trip until either they can or we feel better about making the hike. It was a very strange experience to think that in order to go camping, I would need a police escort. So, it was dissapointing to not be able to make the trip, but encouraging that I still have all my possessions and did not have to hand them over at gunpoint.

After we decided not to do the hike, we went to Antigua for the day. We went to the bus terminal in Sara's town to find a bus to Antigua, when the ayudante told us that there were no buses to Antigua today, as the owner of the buses running this route had been killed. He obviously did not go into details, but just said that the always mysterious "they" had killed him. Here in Guatemala it is common practice for gangs to extort bus drivers and/or owners for money. If they do not pay up, then "they" kill them. While I am not sure, I believe this to be the case of why we could not find a direct bus to Antigua, having to travel 15 minutes out of the way and backtrack. It was odd how the criminal element could have an effect on my weekend, luckily not a direct effect, just by their actions towards others.

Having said all of this, I want to make sure that I mention that my site is one of the safest places not only in Guatemala, but probably on the face of the earth. My biggest threat is chuchos rummaging through my trash or figuring out new ways to sneak in my fence. The volunteer before me has been in Guatemala six different times with Peace Corps (tough act to follow) and told me that he thinks this place is the safest he has been in Guatemala. So while crime is out there, it has not been a problem for me thus far and I intend to keep it that way. Still, crime is a major problem in Guatemala and has an effect on all of the people here in one way or another. It is a pity, but a fact of life here.

Also, there was an interesting 2 part series on NPR about crime and vigilante justice in Guatemala a couple of weeks back. Check it out here:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98614371

That is all for now, take care.

A completely random update...with photos.

Pinata carnage from above. This was definitely the safest place to be at that point in time. Getting between a Guatemalteco child and their candy can be an extremely dangerous proposition. 

More of the countryside around my house. 

Katie and I with her host brother, Hendrick, who is quite the kid. Usually, this kid can be found covered in whatever he happens to have in his hands at the time. This can range from suckers to peaches to an entire cantaloupe. Seeing him this sanitary is a sight that few have had the pleasure of, so I felt quite honored and was compelled to get a photo. He was cleaned up and dressed up for his birthday, he turned 5 and we were able to help out with and attend the festivities. Over the course of 2 days, there were 8 cakes prepared by Katie for the birthday and on the day of the party two pinatas were completely destroyed by a number of children. Good times for all. 

More of the festivities in Chichicastenango. These guys were paraded around town throughout the day. 

The church in Chichicastenango. This was when Katie and I visited during their feria, when the whole town celebrates their patron saint. There were supposed to be men flying from a 80 foot pole, "los palos voladores", but we never saw them. It was still a pretty wild scene with non-stop music, firecrackers and thousands of people in a space intended for hundreds. 

Riding in the back of a pickup to get tamale dough for Christmas Eve. I spent Christmas in Katie's town with her family and we went with them to get tamale dough, which was located in a town near Lago Atitlan. So, this was on 12/24, and it was a balmy 70 degrees--a bit different than the weather most of you are experiencing in the States I imagine. 

Yes, I have been able to locate a grill here in Guatemala. Very nice. I was having trouble finding charcoal, so I asked a person in the market in Quiche if he knew where I could track some down. He directed me to "la puerta azul, cerca la carniceria"--the blue door next to the butcher, of course how did I not know that. So, I knock on this random door, and lo and behold, the guy comes out and asks how much I want. I get a good sized bag for 3Q, less than 50 cents, and this has provided two meals off the grill. Excellent. Also, as there is no lighter fluid, we use something called "jocote" which is basically a pine tree that is super sappy and when it finds flame it keeps it. It is pretty handy stuff and can be found in just about any market. 

That is all for now, enjoy the photos. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year. Hasta 2009.

One Month In...

The view of the lake from our hostel. 

Hiking into a meadow for a break during our hike. 

A view from my "office" for the next couple of years. 

Ola a todos y todas. I am about one month into living in my site and while it has been an adjustment (it was pretty easy to get used to someone cooking and cleaning for me) it has been going well. Work is a slow process, I have been able to visit several communities and meet a lot of people who have interest in my project, but we are still working to determine when and how we are going to get started. A great deal of the work is just getting the people to feel comfortable with me and forming a trust there, so it takes a few visits to make this happen. I am settled into my house and am really enjoying it so far. While not having my laundry done and food prepared for me is a drawback, being able to determine my own schedule and having a bit of privacy is definitely a plus. A couple tidbits from the last month:

A couple of weeks ago I was outside at my house doing laundry when a man approached my gate. He told me that he was from a community close to mine, had family that lived up the hill from me, and that they had informed him that a veterinarian lived here—me. It seems that his cow was not producing milk, but instead had blood coming from her udders. He was in my town today and was very happy to discover that a veterinarian, a gringo veterinarian nonetheless, lived here now. After clarifying that I was not in fact a veterinarian, I invited him in and we began to consult some books given to me by Peace Corps about animal husbandry and health. While looking for information, he mentioned that he thought the illness was called mastitis and not 30 seconds later I happened upon a recipe for remedying mastitis in a book of homemade animal remedies. I wrote the recipe down, gave it to him and asked him to let me know how it goes. He asked me how much he owed me, which was nothing since this is what Peace Corps is paying me for. Plus, I don’t need a lawsuit for practicing veterinary medicine without a license, despite the apparent rumors in Guatemala of my qualifications.

For Thanksgiving, I was not able to celebrate due to a meeting with my Junta Directiva on Friday morning, but after the meeting I was able to meet up with a group of other volunteers in my group at a hostel on Lago Atitlan and stayed there for the weekend. The lake was pretty amazing, on Saturday we rented kayaks and paddled out to the middle for a while and took a dip. 

One of the communities that I am working with is about a 2 hour hike, after a 25 minute ride in a pickup, from my house. There is a road in from the back, but from where I am, it is a hike. While that may seem like a bit of a chore, the scenery on the way there is amazing. So much so, that when a friend of mine visited a couple weeks back we decided to make the hike on a Saturday afternoon, just to check it out. She took some pictures which are posted above. Actually, all the photos on this blog are credited to Katie, as I forgot my camera on these trips. 

Well, that is about all for now; I will try to get more updates/photos on here when I can. Enjoy the photos and if I don't get back on here in the next few weeks, a happy holidays to all. 

Swearing In and Moving Out

A couple of the kites in Santa Maria Cauque. 

The youth of Santa Maria Cauque preparing for the kites. 

Dona Anacleta, myself and Don Francisco at the Ambassador's house. 

The Food Security group with our trainers on the left, David and Jacobo. 

All of the volunteers that I came to Guatemala with. 

All of the volunteers of Santa Maria Cauque and our families. 

Myself and one of the technical trainers David Castillo, who is quite possibly the funniest man on this planet. 

Being sworn in as volunteers by the US Ambassador. 

So, after three months of training, we were sworn in as volunteers on 10/31 at the Ambassador's house in Guatemala City. That was a great event, the home itself was amazing and the Ambassador was very welcoming. All of the families that housed trainees during our training were able to attend also, which was great.

On 11/2 we all parted ways for our respective destinations in Guatemala. I made it to my aldea on Sunday around noon and was able to track down my landlord and get the key to my house. Unfortunately for me, the well that my house is on was out and remained so until Wednesday afternoon. I was a pretty dirty guy for those few days, but it seems like a fairly appropriate start to Peace Corps I guess. Once I got there, arranged a few things and began to settle in, it dawned on me that I was going to be here for 2 years, the closest volunteer is at least 1 hour away and I am not sure how to get ahold of this person. The closest Americans I do know are 2-2 to 3 hours away. Training was definitely much easier than adjusting to life on your own in Guatemala, without Americans around to converse with, a family to do your cooking and cleaning and Peace Corps to schedule everything for you. So far, so good though. I have my house in some semblance of order and was able to get out to some other aldeas in my area to meet with people who are interested in my program. On Wednesday, my counterpart and I went out to an aldea, which was about a 2 hour hike from my aldea, passing through mountains covered in pine and oak trees. It was very scenic and I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. I will have plenty of opportunities in the next two years though. After we worked in the village all day, we headed out a bit late and got to the main road as it was getting dark, 5:30ish. We began walking back, about an hour or so, but luckily were able to find a ride in a pickup. However, the pickup was filled with wood, so we had to ride on the bumper, holding on for dear life for the remainder of the trip. It was quite a day and I was beat by the time I made it home. I am very excited about my work and my location, I am sure things will get tougher, but for now, everything is going well. 

Also, on 11/1, All Saints Day, the towns of Santa Maria Cauque, Santiago, and Sumpango have a tradition of constructing enormous kites for display and some for flying. We were able to check them out and they were pretty impressive. I have attached some pictures of the ones for exhibition, they were all built by kids and looked great. 

If anyone wants to get in touch with me, I have a cell phone and you can call me from the States on www.skype.com for 10 cents/minute. My number is 502-4091-9468 and I believe you have to dial an international code to get out. I am sure you all can figure it out. That is all for now.