It was December 1st and I had rolled over to my alarm promptly at 2:30 AM. I was to meet my host brother, Juan Fernando Alvarado Villatoro, outside at 3 AM. He had assured me in the upcoming days that we would leave promptly at 3 AM on the dot. However, I, having now lived two years in Guatemala, knew that he would be late. It’s as if Guatemalans strive to be on time but for some reason always end up late. In my time in Guatemala, I’ve waited for up to two and a half hours for a teacher to come to a Healthy Schools workshop. Thus, only having to wait 30 minutes was like Juan Fernanado arriving early. It was a cold brisk morning in the western highlands of Guatemala and Juan Fernando and I were headed to the nations capital. We were headed to the US embassy to be exact. About a month earlier Juan Fernando had set up a cita or appointmen with the US Immigration services in hopes that they would finally grant him a B1/B2 tourist visa. This would be his 4th time applying to get a visa. His brother Miguel and his father have had visas now for quite some time. They go to the US about once a year to see family, friends, and simply enjoy the land of milk and honey. The trip from my small town in the department of Huehuetenango to the capital in camioneta or Guatemalan chicken bus takes about five and a half hours. Although, we were lucky enough to make it in about four hours in Miguel’s pick up truck. We arrived in the capital around 730 AM but didn’t make it to the US embassy til around 830 due to traffic and finding a place to leave Miguel’s pick-up. Juan Fernando is a Huehueteco and was born in Malacatancito. However, he knows his way around the capital city of Guatemala better than most that live there. His knowledge of the capital city was a plus as it is one of the most dangerous places in our hemisphere in terms of deaths per capita. As we approached the US embassy more and more people with manila folders seemed to appear. They were all there for the same reason. They had come from all parts of the country with their paperwork in hand, the land of the US and family members abroad on their mind, and about a two minute interview in front of them that would have them walking down the cold granite embassy stairs in tears of sorrow for what could have been or with a smile of relief for what’s to come. As we stood in line to enter the embassy I noticed that I was the only one who didn’t have a manila folder in my hand and a nervous look on my face. I needed only my US passport to gain entry into the embassy. My host brother on the other hand had to present his ID and a receipt declaring that he had in fact paid the 1,500 quetzales fee for the visa interview. 1,500 quetzales is about 200$ US dollars and in Malacatancito is more than the average month’s salary. Needless to say, in order to apply for a US B1/B2 tourist visa you have to have some money. You not only have to have money in the bank, but you must have a compelling story at the immigration interview window that makes it seem that you have reason to return to Guatemala. After entering the steel gates of the US embassy we passed through a reception room where we were informed of what we would need to do once inside the actual US embassy doors. We had to wait in line for fingerprints and then continue on, according to the number we were assigned, to the actual interview. Juan Fernando’s cita was for 9:30 AM and we made it through the fingerprint process by about 9:15. From this point on it was a waiting game. We were seated in front of 4 glass windows like one would see at a local bank. Behind each window was a gringo or US citizen who worked in the embassy administering and denying peoples visa requests. We waited patiently for about 15 minutes until finally it was Juan Fernando’s turn. Those were some of the longest minutes in my life. I can only compare it to being a goal up in a big game where the minutes seem to drag on. This was going to be his 4th time trying for a B1/B2 tourist visa and I might have been more nervous than he was. Our interviewer was a middle aged American woman and the interview lasted a total of four minutes. This may seem like a short period of time, however it was in fact longer than the average interview that we were able to see from the waiting area. (A friend of mine, who went for his visa about two years ago, said that he was rejected immediately after about a minute and a half simply because he had no children and wasn’t married. He owns his graphic design company and does fairly well for himself, although in the eyes of the US embassy he didn’t have enough to come back to in Guatemala, so they rejected his visa request). The interview consisted of a multitude of questions from marital status, amount of children, work salary, job position, bank statements, personal assets including property, autos, etc and finally reasons for wanting to go to the US. It was at this point of the interview that Juan Fernando presented the woman with a letter of invitation that I had written in the previous days along with my US passport and Peace Corps ID. She glanced over the letter for about five seconds and then continued to ask me why I wanted Juan Fernando to visit the US. I simply told her that I wanted to welcome him into my home as he has so graciously done for me. His family has been a vital part of my PC service and I simply want him to have the opportunity to get to know my family, country, and culture as I have got to know his. I also added that his brother and father have B1/B2 visas and have come and gone without any problem multiple times a year since receiving their visas almost 10 years ago. It was at this point when she asked Juan Fernando about how much he made and what kind of job that he had. He answered all of these questions to the best of his ability and presented her with the family’s business diploma, which, in essence, certifies that the family local transportation business is real and recognized by the National Transportation Authority. It was around this time of the interview where I started to get very anxious. We had been at the interview window longer than anyone else that I had seen that day and I could only hope that she would see Juan Fernando a fit candidate for a visa.So, it was without any further to do that she granted Juan Fernando a B1/B2 tourist Visa. As we were walking down the steps leading back into the reality of Guatemala City, there was a tranquility around him as he leaned over and said to me that those were the most beautiful words he had ever heard. He was referring to the end of the interview when the woman told him that “su visa ha sido aprobado” or “ your visa has been approved”. It was the 1st of December and I may never really know what that visa will mean to Juan Fernando. Hopefully, I’ll have a better understanding of what that visa means to him when I see him one day in the US. In the future, I look forward to showing Juan Fernando, his brother Miguel, and their father Don Willy around the Northeast.

After a long radio silence, I thought I’d touch on what it’s like to be a volunteer or a United States citizen in Guatemala. Other than the Dominican Republic and Mexico, Guatemala is the closest PC site to the continental United States of America. This proximity to the US has its obvious cultural influences that can be seen in Hannah Montana backpacks, Justin Bieber posters, and people still listening to Nelly’s first studio album – Country Grammar. However, as I’ve come to find out in my 2 years of living in the western highlands of Guatemala, the US for many is a land offering opportunity and a way to advance one’s financial standing. Every week men and women leave for the border of the US with hopes of making a better life not just for themselves but, more often than not, their children. In 9 out of 10 cases men are the ones who attempt this grueling and dangerous trek through Mexico up to the border of the US. It often falls on the males of the household to try for “el norte” because the women have to stay and tend to the children. With that said, I know many adolescents in my PUEBLO that have never meet their father or older brother. On my local soccer team, more than half of the players have spent some time legally or illegally in the states. Once again, 9 out of 10 of them who have spent time in the states have done so on false papers and illegally. Of all the men I’ve known who have spent time in the states on a valid visa or on false papers, I can truly say that they all became more financially stable due to their time in the good ol’ US of A. So, how do we stop the flow of illegal immigrants from flooding our southern border? If I had an answer to that my post PC plans wouldn’t be so wide open. My time in Guatemala has allowed me to see and understand the immigration issue from a realistic vantage point. On the other hand, I saw the legal side of this same issue while interning at an immigration law office during my final semester in college. After seeing both sides of the equation, I can accurately say that there’s no quick fix, answer, or way of making the border issue any less hot of an international topic. I could go on at length on my opinions on the immigration issue but I don’t want to bore you more than you might already be. Instead, I'd rather tell you what the most beautiful words in the world are.

In the western highlands of Guatemala, everything seems to come to a halt around 10am. That's because it's snack time. The little boy seated to the right of Don Milo is his son. Everyday he brings his father snack and lunch(1pm). In this photo, he's drinking a home made rice milk out of an old plastic bottle.

During construction, we saved an estimated 800 quetzales(100$) by not having to buy expensive elbow connectors. Instead, we used man's oldest magic and bent the pipe using fire.

In this video, you can see how we were able to bend the pipe up to about a ninety-degree angle with only using some fire and water. Two men would hold the pipe on either end while Don Milo would move the tubing over the fire. After about a minute of softening the tube, the two men, on other side of the six meter tube, would pull the tubing in opposite directions. This would cause the tube to become weak and malleable. Enough so, that Don Milo could slowly bend the tube ever so slightly. This process would be repeated until the tube was at a desired shape and angle. The Tube in the video has about 17 small bends in it. Before beginning the process, I was the most skeptical of all. Each one of these tubes cost 230q and even the smallest mistake in the melting/bending process would be, to say the least, a costly human error. Although, as this video shows and as Kevin Garnett screamed in his notorious post game media conference after winning his fist NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008, anything is possible!

This man decided to dig his part of the trench barefoot. His boots got so heavy with the mixture of pine needles and mud that he decided to take them off. Pine needles and mud are the two ingredients for making adobe blocks, which are still used, more often than not, in the construction of Guatemalan homes in the campo. My house is made of adobe.

Everyone who has child in either the pre-school or grade school in Piache was summoned to dig for a day. Many widows, like this woman, had to come and put in their days work. She was accompanied by her 6 yr. old son(on the left-side of the photo) and upon arrival many men left their own work and helped her out. It was nice to see chivalry in a culture dominated by the antiquated notion of machismo. Other widows simply paid a worker 50q(6 US$) to do their share. Fifty quetzales is a small amount of money for a days work under the Guatemalan sun, although something is better than nothing.

On the left are the old latrines. There are nine in total, although only 2 are not completely full. Due to their current state, many of the children refuse to use them. On the right is the InterVida constructed bathroom facility that since its inauguration(2007) has been left locked and unused.

It was 6:30 AM yesterday morning when my phone started to ring. It only rang once and then said I had missed a call. In the world of buying saldo, the amount of electronic credit one has on his TIGO Peace Corps issued cell phone to make calls, send texts, etc, it was clear to me that the caller was out of money, as my phone rang once and only once. This is TIGO’s way of letting the person without saldo contact another person to alert them of their insufficient funds and lack of ability to make an actual call. In essence, it’s like being paged in the year 2011. After looking into my missed calls log, I realized that it was my albañil, Don Milo. Albañil is Spanish for mason. Although, foreman better suits the role that Don Milo plays in my USAID funded SPA project. Regressing a little, I returned the call to Don Milo and it was only then that he began to share his unease about the weather. We talked for about three minutes after which it was clear to me that we would have to postpone the next chapterof the project due to the inclement weather. I’ve attached a link below that discusses Guatemala’s recent “state of calamity” brought on by weather patterns in the region. http://www.examiner.com/central-american-travel-in-national/a-state-of-calamity All weather aside, it was about three weeks ago that I received money from USAID to fund my SPA(Small Project Assistance) project. SPA funds are USAID’s way of helping PCV’s throughout the world develop, execute, and maintain projects that will be beneficial to the local community and sustainable for future generations. Since the financial backing comes from USAID, there is an extensive, before and after, amount of paperwork that surrounds each project. During the months of July and August, I met with community leaders in Piache, a local village, multiple times and worked with them for hours on end to fill out all of the required SPA paper work. While I may fuss about the amount of paperwork, USAID just wants to ensure that the SPA funds are used to make a positive, needed, and sustainable change in a community. Ironically, my particular SPA project will be, in some sense, cleaning up a mess that another NGO, InterVida – a Spanish organization that has donated thousands of dollars to Guatemala through school projects, left years ago. In 2007, InterVida constructed a bathroom facility fully equipped with flush toilets and hand washing stations for the children of the community's grade school. While InterVida succeeded in the construction of this new bathroom facility, it failed to properly install a functioning septic tank. Furthermore, we are now currently in the midst of using USAID funding to rehabilitate the pre-existing septic tank, which, once in use, will positively promote the practice of healthy habits and sanitary practices among the students, faculty, and community members of Piache. The rehabilitation of the septic tank will provide the students and faculty, of the grade school in Piache where I work, as well as community members with the ability to use the 2007 InterVida constructed bathroom facility. Once in use, this facility will provide six faucets (3 in the women’s room and 3 in the Men’s room respectively) for daily healthy practices like hand washing and brushing teeth. These two healthy habits, while they may appear rudimentary in nature, can truly better a child’s well being. The InterVida facility will also give the students the opportunity to use flush toilets instead of latrines. A picture above shows the very old latrines next to the InterVida constructed bathroom building. Currently, the overflowing and unpleasant latrines are the students’ only option for a restroom. I've also posted a diagram that outlines how we will rehabilitate the non-functioning septic tank. The plan is to run 4” PVC tubing from the pre-existing septic tank all the way to an absorption pit off school premises. In the 2-meter deep 2007 InterVida constructed septic tank, we will bore a hole in the side, facing away from the school, at a meter and a half in height that will then be connected to the 4” PVC tubing. As a result, when the waste material reaches the 1.5 meter level it will be drained into the 4”PVC tubing and taken 310meters down the hill, away from the school, and be deposited into an absorption pit with a depth of 15 meters. This will help to alleviate the septic tank and ensure that it doesn’t overflow. In the past, the waste material, especially during the rainy season which lasts six months out of the year, would overflow and spill out over the school property; thus, contaminating the children’s learning environment and making it impossible to hold classes. It is for this reason, that since being built in 2007 the flush toilets have remained unused and the bathroom facility locked. Returning to my Tuesday morning, the digging of the absorption pit was the main theme of my 6:30 AM wakeup. Don Milo reported that we were currently at a depth of 3 meters, which in my opinion is great progress. Although, due to the latest tropical depression, the pit has been filled to the brim with water and so stops our forward progress. After talking with other members of the community and Don Milo, we have decided to suspend digging and other project related activities until the rains let up. It was unfortunate news. The again, we’re already a month ahead of schedule and if they, the students and faculty of the grade school Piache, have gone this long without flush toilets and sinks for hand washing, what’s a couple more weeks? Since receiving the USAID funds for my SPA project almost 3 weeks ago, we’ve had little to no problems and so when the rains decide to let up I look forward to getting back to the task it hand.

Miguelito(little Michael), son of my host brother Miguel and older brother of Angelou, shows off his newly acquired skills. Miguelito is 8 years old and loves FC Barcelona. I've spent countless hours kicking the ball around with him in the family's patio area. In this short video clip he's quoted saying - " It's hard being a good soccer player like me!"

In the entry iSad, I talked about how great it is to watch a child play in the rain just for the feel of it all. For the past week we've been experiencing a tropical depression and so it has been raining almost 20 hours of the day. This inclement weather has given me the opportunity to catch some of this innocent curiosity on camera. This is a video of Beto, son of my host brother Juan Fernando, playing in the puddles on my patio.

It’s been a week since the passing of Steve Jobs, so I thought I’d put together another entry. All this talk of technology has lead to me wonder how our world will look in 2050? As we advance in technology, our ability to turn once thought impossible inventions becomes more and more a reality. A good example of this is the new concept for the iPhone 5. It has a holographic element that evokes a George Lucas’esk Star Wars way of leaving messages. It makes me wonder if one day we’ll leave holographic 3D messages instead of the old annoying boring voice mail. The link below is to the youtube video that shows the new and ridiculous features of the concept iPhone 5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzsBwnv_dAgI’ve compiled a list of things that I believe could possibly be extinct or completely out of use by the year 2050. While some of the items below are already on their way out, others are slowly starting to vanish due to advances in technology and people’s access to high speed Internet. Only time will tell as to whether some of these things have the ability to survive the world and its’ technological advances. Mail Men and Women In the entry entitled Technology, I talked about how the decrease in snail mail will have a direct affect on our government’s postal service. Last year alone, physical mail went down an astonishing 22%, which has left many postal workers unemployed. In the years to come, if snail mail continues to decrease in annual volume I think it’s only a matter of time until mail men and women are completely fazed out of our mail system. When was the last time you mailed a letter? Does the milkman seem like a foreign and outdated idea to you? Books, Newspapers, and Magazines In the year 2050, will there still be books, newspapers, and magazines? In 2007 Amazon released the Kindle, which is a tablet that gives one the ability to search, buy, and read all kinds of media electronically. The kindle enables you to search, browse, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media. The iPhone and iPad, two other very popular devices, allow you to connect with electronic media such as newspapers, magazines, and blogs. So, I think it’s just a matter of time until these three inventions diminish the demand, but not completely, of books, newspapers, and magazines. I think that they’ll still exist, although I don’t think that they’ll be as prevalent as they are now.The green revolution will also contribute to the increasing amount of people who would rather “save a tree” or “a buck” and read the N.Y. Times on their smarthphone, iPad, or electronic book. Movie Stores The movie Be Kind Rewind(2008) was, in my opinion, a 102 minute obituary or send off to movie stores in America and the world as we know it. In Beverly Massachusetts where I grew up, we had a local movie store, VideoSmith. VideoSmith had the feel of a “mom and pop” business, always had the newest releases and many other classic titles. However, it’s been years now since VideoSmith has been in business. It was larger chains like Blockbuster, which carried more titles and gave longer rental periods for the same price, that eventually helped to do away with local owned video stores like VideoSmith and the movie store in Be Kind Rewind. Yet, I believe it is Blockbuster’s turn to fall and for companies like Netflix to thrive and survive. It’s almost Darwinian in the way that I’ve seen the world of renting and buying videos change in my short 24 years. Netflix, a company that offers a DVD delivery system with flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping or handling fees, or per title rental fees has revolutionized the way we search for and rent videos. Internet video streaming is the latest addition to the Netflix Empire and allows users to watch live streaming feeds of a number of popular selected titles on Windows, Mac OS X, and other compatible devices.It was Blockbuster that did away with my beloved childhood VideoSmith, although now Netflix, and our ability to download movies illegally from the Internet or legally from places the like the iTunes store, will be the one who will do away with Blockbuster and the video store as we know it. Wallets - Credit Cards, Cash, License, Keys New programs like GOOGLE Wallet are essentially a digital way of organizing your everyday needs in an electronic format. Credit cards could one day be replaced by simply taping your smartphone on an NFC reader(normally marked by a PayPass logo) to process a payment. Keys could one day all be in electronic format and would use a similar method of the NFC reader. Licenses could one day be fazed out as well, although experts are saying that this will be the most difficult aspect of the contemporary wallet to do away with as its’ legal implications are serious and the need to have it approved by state and federal agencies.

Compact DiscsCD's, since the time I was in High School, have been on their way out. I remember listening to cassettes and thinking that my walkman was the coolest thing in the world. The first cassette I ever bought was Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise(1995). I remember it taking about 45 minutes for me to convince my mom, in the middle of Sam Goody, that the little sticker in the bottom right hand corner that said Parental Advisory meant nothing. Now, looking back on it, cassettes are old relics of an ancient time when one had to rewind tape or “flip a cassette” to find the desired song. How many of you remember rewinding a cassette with a pencil? CD’s did away with cassettes like DVD’s did away with VHS, although now MP3’s (electronic music files) have slowly started to usurp CD’s. I just wonder if in 2050 whether the youth will see CD’s as I’ve always looked at 8-track tapes?

Point and Shoot Digital Cameras Recently on cnn.com I took a test to see whether I could tell the difference between a photos taken with a classic point and shoot digital camera and those from an iPhone. Has it come to do this? Are we going to do away with point and shoot digital cameras? I don’t believe that classic DSLR’s will ever be done away with due to the photo taking community and professional photographers who demand the highest quality of photo, enjoy developing and augmenting their own prints, etc. However, I do think that one day the old point and shoot digital camera will be a thing of the past?Yes. The iPhone, for an example of a popular smartphone, comes equipped with an 8 mega-pixel camera which is 5 pixels better than my 3 mega-pixel Sony(2001) point and shoot digital camera. While my camera is 10 years old and very outdated, it still serves to show how a smartphone’s photo taking abilities could eventually leave the point and shoot digital camera industry on the fringes. Who’s going to carry a digital camera and their smartphone to a concert, a birthday party, graduation, or any other worthwhile-recorded event? The answer is they’re not going to carry the two and who would leave their smartphone at home? Especially, if it had replaced their wallet.In case you're in the mood for something old fashion, my address in Guatemala is as follows:Jarrett CarpenterMalacatanctio, HuehuetenangoGuatemala, Central America