Just saw this posted on the blog Central American Politics with a great comment "Even if Peace Corps is cutting back in Central America, that doesn't mean that it still isn't a great opportunity."

There are some big changes going on here in the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras). I'm sure most have heard the volunteers (PCVs) in Honduras were pulled out for a reevaluation of the program (they say it's currently the country with the highest homicide rate in the world...) As for Guatemala and El Salvador the situation is not quite so drastic, however the number of volunteers is being significantly reduced (almost immediately), leaving many unlucky PCVs and communities in a lurch. Many volunteers cannot tolerate the idea of leaving early, even jus one to four months, and will be staying on their own dime to finish up projects and say goodbye. Others may end up leaving Peace Corps rather than face relocation to safer areas of the country.

While this has been quite a roller coaster ride for us, with varying opinions on those specific program changes, the one thing we can all agree on is that Peace Corps takes safety and security very seriously! I was super lucky to have been placed in such a wonderful community and have traveled all over the country with no major problems....though there was that one time my bus rolled down a ditch, throwing a my chile relleno (breakfast) and me around a bit...what's life without a little adventure? :)

Cooking caldo de marisco for Papa Chico and Mama Lupe's 55 wedding anniversay.

Carnaval El Novillero style: kids and youth running around with confetti, eggs and flour...

Hard at work teaching financial education to a woman's group.

Last procession before Semana Santa (Holy Week).

They set up a station in front of Papa Chico's house.

Making Easter bread!

So much bread but went faster using Papa Eugenio's brick oven.

Business plan workshop we put on for volunteers and their counterparts, in Corazón del Bosque.

Fellow volunteer Jesse's birthday party complete with a rooftop Mayan ceremony.

Relaxing trip to the lake :)

View from the lodge where we got to stay the night free, thanks Erin!!

Swings at the nearby "adventure" park.

Just a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Birthday party out in the campo.

Tiffany's visit! I'm so jealous how her height fits right in.

So great to be together again!

Tiff and one of my coworkers trying on new faces.

More pics to come of adventures in the jungle, making stoves, more workshops, random events and life!

Hello!!! So I have been out of touch this year. Pero exagerado (lit exagerrated...too much!) I think of things daily to put on this blog. For instance politics. This year is election year, unfortunately, since it literally turns the country upside down. Political parties go crazy painting houses, bridges, phone poles, trees and even rocks with their party colors and logos. There are rallies, meetings, and pickups that drive by with reworked famous songs promoting their fearless leaders. There are shameless handouts of food, goods and even money. And in rural cultures where you feel indebted to someone who gives you something, that doesn't quite equal a democratic process. Not to even go in to the people who try to be candidates (the current president's wife divorced him in order to run, but it seems they've finally prohibited that), a former military general from the time of the internal conflict, the former Guatemala City governor's wife and Nobel Peace prize winner Rigoberta Mencú (again) just to name a few. The general elections are Sept 11, with the presidental candidates being to reduced to just a few for the second round in November. I can't wait till it's over!!! And I cross my fingers that good democracy triumphs during the whole mess... Everyone keeps asking me who I think is the least bad, not who's the best.

Aside from that, I've been running around ever since I got back both at the park and with Peace Corps. Now that I´ll fully moved on to my duties as a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader, I´ve been giving workshops, helping with trainings, working on project documents and visiting volunteers in their communities. It's been great overall, stepping more in to the administrative world of Peace Corps as well as taking on additional responsabilities with our specific project development (sustainable community tourism) and supporting volunteers professionally and personally so that they have a better experience and greater impact. Upcoming events are currently centered around 3 workshops: the construction of chimney stoves to curb air contamination and reduce the use of firewood; climate change and the importance of emergency planning; and business planning for a community tourism destination. Never a dull moment!

I'll be posting pictures soon to tell the stories of my recent adventures :)

For all of you who have been scolding me...here's a quick visual update :) I've actually had these pictures set aside forever to upload, just haven't gotten around to it I guess. Was busy with school work, Easter in April, gall bladder surgery in May (surprise!) and the end of my thesis (and masters...phew). I'm home in North Dakota for a nice visit and was actually going to post some pictures of my time here when I remembered my prior lapse. So here's a usual random assortment!

Yum, avacados at the market.

Saw this picture and thought of a really easy where's waldo picture :)

This is actually from Thanksgiving, all my boys have since left!

But not without leaving some unforgettable memories...

Holiday meal Molly and I prepared in El Novillero...somewhat ND/MN style, and everyone loved it.

Day at the lake with extended fam

Fatima and the cakes I made for her 4th birthday. Tradition calls for taking a bite out of the cake :)

Close of service conference- We had a Guatemalan garb day, and this is our serious pose, can't you tell?

Oh the boys

Sarah dressed up like the young women in her town which is more ladino and not entirely indigenous, like mine....what a contrast!

My training group from January 2009!

Pine needle handicraft womens group- new members being trained.

Hike around Laguna Chicabal...a fantastic and mysterious place.

The view from the top.

One of my favorite costumes from the last parade, made from all recycled materials!

Doña María and her lovely grandson, Angel.

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Ceremony at the ambassador's house. Molly and I with Flavio, our program director.

Jamie and I with Martha, the country director, and Wendy, the director of programming and training.

To be continued...

Oh no. It’s March and I haven’t posted anything on here in 2011! Man do I have some catch-up to do… This year has been chugging along at an astonishing speed but overall it’s been really great. Life is good :) I’m still in Guatemala for those who may be remembering that I came now over two years ago. If I was following old plans, this would be my last month of work….crazy! However, I was offered a position as a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader. That means another year here, working half time with Peace Corps in the community tourism project, designing and implementing training tools as well as visiting individual volunteers to assist with projects and more specialized training. The other half of my time I will still be in Corazón del Bosque, although focusing on building capacity in a couple of the networks we are a part of along with continued administrative support at the park. That means I’m putting off the real world for yet another year. But it also means y’all have another year to come down and visit! But wait till after May… I also want to share that I am in the final stages of finishing up my masters, with my thesis set to be presented in just a few months. Chux...Just a wee bit stressful. Haha. But so far so good.

It’s always easier for me to share my life here through photos, so coming soon will be another picture update. Get ready for some good ones: pig heads, the cemetery, me in a diaper, attack of the rabbit, the ash Wednesday of eggs and flour, American bbq, dancing at the family parties and more. You better hold on to your seats.

It is no secret how much I love pictures...taking them, looking at them and interpreting them. Pictures take moments and make them last; they share an infinite number of stories; they convey emotions; they cause any number of emotions, good or bad, hehe; and last but not least, they share life, reminding us all of how precious and fleeting each experience in our lives really is. I have never had anything beyond a decent point and shoot camera and a basic knowledge of picasa to edit, but I take pictures mainly for me anyways so for now that is just fine. I post more pictures than words here because I like to let them speak for me (I am not always good at expressing myself through words). You would not believe how many pictures I would put up if I had a better internet signal!! To wrap up, many pictures that mean a lot to me do not get shared, so what better time than now to throw in some of my favorites (not necessarily the best I have taken, but ones that carry deeper meanings or represent changing experiences for me) from 2010. Enjoy!

HIDDEN SMILE

AGATHA´S WRATH

SOLDIER´S LOOKOUT

STORMY BLUE

GREY DAWN

BIRD!

CONQUEST

ADOPTED NIECE

FROSTING

FAIR BONDING

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Having just spent my first Christmas in Guatemala and soon my first New Years, I have to say that I just love the holiday season. It was bittersweet, to not be at my “home” home with my real family, but it was still a wonderful experience to learn new traditions here with my second family. Christmas in rural Guatemala centers on family, community activities, religious practices and food. I guess in those general terms, it’s like back home. How it plays out is a different story….I don’t even know where to start! In the weeks prior to Christmas we inaugurated the town Christmas tree, handed out 800 toys to area kids, gave out food baskets to needy families, had a duranguense concert/dance, had a Christmas parade, and saw a gorgeous fireworks show. On the family level, we headed out the 22nd to buy supplies in Xela: moss and colored sawdust for the big nativity scene, pine and apple strings to decorate, fireworks, tamal ingredients, new clothes for the big day, presents for the gift exchange, etc. I have never seen the market so busy and fun! We set up the nativity scene that night and the 23rd, I have pics below so you can see how it combined with tree branches and such to be quite the Christmas arrangement (instead of a typical Christmas tree). On the 24th we cleaned the house, I made Christmas sweets from back home, went to Christmas Eve mass and then we came home to start the celebration with a dinner of pork and chicken tamales and caliente (a hot drink made from coconut, apples, papaya, pineapple and cinnamon). The extended family came over after that to partake in a big gift exchange and then we all waited for midnight to come. That’s when we prayed over the holy family, went out in the streets to light off firecrackers, hugged all the neighbors outside doing the same thing, ate more tamales and opened out stockings (I brought those from back home). It was exhausting (going to bed at 2am) but so much fun! The 25th was spent visiting the other grandparents and I snuck out a bit to have an American Christmas lunch with the Catholic nuns that live in my town (tasty ham and homemade apple crisp!). We went to Christmas mass together and then spent the rest of the night around town hanging out, having wars with firecrackers and eating what else but of course tamales :)

The best way to start the party, with reindeer antlers and great friends!

Getting the car decorated for the parade...I contributed the tree on top, stockings and fake snow....and we won first place!

The ceremony giving out toys and food baskets.

Oh, so this isn't directly related to Christmas although I just wanted to show the frost that was on my blanket outside the morning of the 23rd, at 8am. The cold definitely reminds me of back home!

Fireworks in the street.

Eating tamales at midnight.

The nativity scene.

The extended family on Miguel Angel's side after the gift exchange.

Don't bother me. No, not you :) That's just one of the newest phrases I've learned in K'iche' and it's really fun to say (na k'inatz'ur taj...make sure you get the k and tz glottalized). Living in a house with 3 boys between the ages of 15-20 gives me the opportunity to use it often!

So I'm not quite sure where to pick up, as it feels like forever since where I left off. Life has brought new things, stressful things, fun things, and random things as of late. Guatemala continues to march on as always, even though we had a time there where landslides were quite the danger in my part of the country (maybe you saw on the news? if not check here or here) and the rain seemed to never cease (10 days of no, I mean NO sun = my clothes taking forEVER to dry). Broke the record from the last 50 years; I thought I'd never be so happy to have dust instead of mud. Besides the crazy weather there have been the usual demonstrations interupting travel (protecting high electricity prices and columbus day), independence celebrations (Sept 15 is Independence Day), and the end of the school year. With the fam we've kept busy with an unending schedule of birthday parties, another wedding, babies, soccer games and so on. At work I've been busy giving trainings on trash management and recycling, general enviro education, working on a job function manual, presenting our products at an expo, colloborating on the business plan section for a community tourism manual, writing some project proposals and million other things that always seem to end up with me. As far as my masters, I've started another online class and getting some headway done on my thesis. Besides all this work stuff I still want to be investing in my relationships here so I've had to be super creative. Time is such a scarce commodity for me right now, I wish I could buy more :)

So you all know how much I love pictures and to not disappoint I've included enough to more or less depict my last couple months.

My neck of the woods. I live right in the middle, where you see the group of buildings. Where the clouds are is Lake Atitlán and you can see 4 volcanoes behind it.

At the mass for one of the cousin's 15th birthday party. My first time wearing my new corte (the fabric I have for a skirt)! I have it in the "short" style since I didn't add on...it's just that when I do I'm so tall I look more corte than anything else. With the extra fabric I'll get some aprons made.

Tanja, the German volunteer, and I with Fatima at the party.

Another cousin's birthday (16). Efrain is proudly showing his new shirt I got him :)

Mama Lena with her baby at the party...she's getting so big!

I love it when they smash your face in your cake! This time I experimented with colors to decorate the cake and it ended up looking like a mustache, nice, right?

This time it's a birthday gathering for Papa Chico. He's doing much better these days, back to his regal self!

Birthday dinner for Mama Lena...I had no idea what was going on in the rest of the picture.

Independence Day sports tournament. Our basketball team placed second, losing horribly to the most amazing team. I made all of the baskets in the championship game which isn't saying much. I'm tall but man these girls can push you around.

Watching the Independence Day parade. Not quite the same as Mandan, right Jana??

Our little cousin Frank in the parade.

I thought this little girl was so adorable, the princess of the preschool. It was super hot out and the walk long so it's a good thing they brought juice.

Tanja and I watching the festivities.

Champions again! This time in the municipality.

At the Expomueble/Expoforestal Xela 2010. Pretty much anything to do with forests, wood and furniture. We featured our tourist products and pine needle handicrafts.

The newest cousin, Cesia Lourdes, just days after her birth.

My dear friend Patty came out for a visit; always a fun time.

The world. I love that Alaska is a different color as well as the islands of Canada. At least the kids are being exposed to geography.

Jamie and I at the inauguration of a bottle school he built in one of the poorer communities in the area. They gathered over 5,500 plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash! Pretty cool stuff. And I have to throw a shout out to Patty and Molly for making the journey with me that morning (4 1/2 hours on 4 buses and in the back of a pickup). Worth it to support our hermanito :)

Goodbye party for some of our practicum students. They are super happy and smiley girls, which makes this picture pretty funny for me.

A new baby as well for the family in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Little guy came out just over 5 pounds.

Big birthday bash for Miguel Angel. He invited everyone in the extended family as well as some of my volunteer friends that have gotten to know the family.

Everyone loved watching the gringos dance duranguense.

Here's a picture from the grandparents' wedding, 50 years ago this Saturday. Of course there will be a big party to celebrate :)

Last pics borrowed from the Canadians...

Beautiful Lake Atitlán

The group

View of Xela's central park

Taking fashion to the extreme...your teeth.

A comedor in Sololá....cheap food fast.

Preparing a special lunch at the park.

Making pizza on the plancha!

Turned out fairly good...especially when adding ketchup, chile and mayonaise, haha.

Anyone need a restroom? Which kind?

I love the traje from Xela.

Shoe shiner.

Snack during a cultural interchange at the park.

The group after their presentation about Canada.

This mean welcome in K'iche' on the door of a nearby Pollo Campero...the largest fast food chain born in Guatemala offering none other than amazing fried chicken.

More to come soon on Independence Day (the 15th), birthdays and random life :) And I promise to write more too!

Going along the theme of my last post I would like to share more pictures with all of you, this time of my town, El Novillero. They're kind of random, but that's how it is :) Some quick facts: it's estimated that there are between 1600 and 2000 people who live in El Novillero; the overwelming majority are maya k'iche'; the town is a powerful force in the area, with banking centers, several hardware and supply stores, 3 internet cafes, 3 bread stores, countless "daily consumption" stores, a publicity business, real estate, post office branch and more. Yet at the same time it's super tranquilo and laid back. Best of rural life mixed with benefits of a more urban area.

The Canadians coming to my house for tea.

The view from the second floor corridor.

The view walking down the main street towards my house.

Coming from the other direction.

I love the mountains that surround us.

My favorite street dog hanging out in front of a store. He looks big and ferocious but is a big softy inside.

Pharmacy/mayan natural medicine store.

The old church, patron saints St. Judas Tadeo and St. Simon.

The uncle's family has a couple hot dog (chevere) stands...for Q5 (roughly $.60) you can get this lovely hot dog with your choice of toppings (cabbage, ketchup, mustard, mayo and pica mas) with a small cup of orange soda. I love how the bun is always gigantic with an itty bitty hot dog. When my little cousin Johnny is running it he'll give me a double at no extra charge, tan chulo :)

Kids from the school going to an activity...not quite as safe as a school bus, but that's how it goes.

Some of the kids at the local preschool/daycare center during snack time.

Small mouth for such a big apple!

Adan's store, one of the most stocked in town.

The path to the old woman's house who makes the most amazing old fashioned shecas (a type of sweet bread) on Mondays and Thursdays. When I speak my limited K'iche' with her she gets this big toothless smile and then gives me an extra sheca just to be nice :)

"Second Street"On the other side of that mountain in the back is our municipality, Santa Lucía Utatlán. And on the other side of the mountain from there is Lake Atitlán.

I love this time of year when we're completely surrounded by corn fields. After the harvest in November/December it all looks quite sad, empty lots of dirt. But at the same time less claustrophobic and scary (when one walks at night).

So there's a quick walk through town, hope you liked it enough to come see it first hand while I'm here!

Thanks again to Evelyn, Nikki and Brigitte for sharing pictures!

There are many things that form part of my every day life here in Guatemala that I forget aren't so typical in other parts of the world, especially back in my home state of North Dakota. One of those things is the market. Actually, I live close to several markets (though most of them operate on special days of the week). The two markets I frequent most are in Santa Lucía Utatlán, which is super close to my house, and Sololá, which is a bit further away but much bigger. I almost never take pictures when I do my market shopping because....I guess it would feel awkward, like I was taking pictures inside a supermarket back home. Luckily the Canadian volunteer group left me some of their pictures, which included trips to the market. This way I share with you all a glimpse of how I find, barter and buy my veggies, fruits and random household goods. (Thanks Evelyn and Nikki for the pics!)

Here is the side ally of the market in Santa on a typical Sunday morning.

The usual table of dried fish and unidentified smelly things.

Cute couple from Sololá selling produce from their garden.

The day this picture was taken I got my potatoes for Q2 a pound (about $.25).

Baskets at the market can hold a variety of things, sometimes still living, like chickens!

Just cause you're selling at the market doesn't mean you're cut off from the world.

So on market days the open air part is much bigger than the physical market, which is housed in a building. In Sololá there are many distribuidors in the market building that sell goods for daily consumption.

You can get your bananas and turn right around to get your meat.

To cook really good black beans a clay pot is a must have. Don't scoff. I'm serious. Maybe I've turned in to a black bean snob, but I can totally tell if you made your beans in a pressure cook and didn't add onion, garlic and apasote.

Need a pair of shoes? The fake tennis shoes are most likely from China and don't last very long.

Fajas...the belts that hold up the women's cortes.

Masks for any occasion...I'm pretty sure these represent the different mayan nahuales.

I'll never get tired of seeing the beautiful fabrics in this country.

And since the market can be overly stimulating at times, with so much to see and so much going on, just take a break and put your head down :)

Sometimes I feel like I don't have time to catch my breath. Especially these past few weeks. They've been super good, don't get me wrong, but just packed with...stuff. I've been involved with lots at the park, the normal and not so normal (we had a group of Canadians with us again this time for 5 weeks, I'll have to include them in the next post). I also finished up an online class for my masters which kept me on my toes more than I expected...as you'll see below that I had through it all more than my fair share of social distractions, hehe. A wedding, first communion and a couple birthday parties :)

Selvyn and Dina's WeddingPanajachel, Sololá

Some of you will remember that Selvyn was my counterpart last year (the person I worked most closely with at the park). He's moved on to a position in a different organization, however we still keep in pretty good contact. I was happy to be with him on his wedding day with a lovely girl from Cobán, Dina. It was a beautiful setting on the lake! However, the wind did something unfortunate to the cake...

My good friend Erin was also invited and showed off her traje from San Marcos La Laguna (where she was living). I have to brag that she did the embroidery for her corte (the skirt). I also get a bit jealous of her chapina stature, as she fits in so nicely here with the women!Selvyn and IDina, the bride in pink :)Here's a look at the wedding site from up above (it took place where the white tents are). You can also see on the mountainside behind the area where there was a landslide back a couple weeks. It washed away part of the already precarious highway in between Sololá and Panajachel. Luckily it happened early in the morning and no one was hurt. It did prevent me from getting to an important meeting, but such is life here- you never quite know what to expect.

Cats warming themselves by the fire at Grandma's house.

Bird feeders made from old plastic bottles....I helped out with a training for all the preschool teachers in my department (over 200). We gave ideas for lesson plans using recycled materials; my friend Molly talked about conservation of bird habitats and the different species endemic to the area while I gave instructions on the bird feeder and taught some games relative to the topic.

Staying with Patty the night before her brother Oliver's First Communion in San Antonio.I love the women who still wear the full traditional traje (including the súte on their heads). Couldn't pass up the chance to capture these six old ladies.The mass

Chico and Papa ChicoThe two birthday boys and the cakes I made them. They were happy, don't let their serious faces fool you!

Us girls

So a couple weeks ago the extended family on Oralia's side decided to go down to San Marcos La Laguna one Friday night and stay at a place her brother owns...just an hour away but since we rarely do overnight trips anywhere it sounded pretty exciting. We were told the place had plenty of space for all of us, but in the end we only ended up being 17 instead of the whole 28. Good thing too, cause once we rolled in to town (with a trunk full of blankets, plates, Cream Soda (India K´iche', my treat, cause it's so good!), tea and bread) we found out that the 'house' was really just two rooms made from concrete blocks right next to a store that the other brother owns, meaning that it was currently being used to store a huge pallet of sugar, water and a stack of 20 foot long rebar for upcoming construction. There was a twin bed in the corner of the one room, a desk with one chair and enough spiders and random bugs to make this more of a camping experience (or jail cell), complete with a latrine out back with a sheet of corrugated metal as a makeshift two foot tall door that you had to move to go in and out. But the funny thing was I didn't even bat an eye, not surprised at all. We got to work grilling meat, tomatoes (to make chirmol, the sauce) and heating up tamalitos. Despite the rain, which caused us to grill under the roof out back, trudge through mud to get to the water and the proximity of everything which filled the house with smoke, we had a delicious dinner. The muchachos decided to go take a stroll through town with their uncle and I was privileged to be invited (instead of staying back with all the adults). I'm pretty sure we looked like an interesting bunch....5 guys between 12-19 years old and a 38 year old Guatemalan walking around with a tall blond, joking the whole time.

We get 'home' and its time to set up sleeping arrangements. Luckily I brought a thick sleeping blanket and this ends up being the mattress for me and two of my brothers on the cement floor in the room with the sugar and water, with our feet dangling over iron rods. Everyone piled on the floor in the other room in sections according to family (the grandma got the twin bed and shared it with the newborn baby some girl just gave to her a few weeks ago to raise). As I got comfortable in my corner, arranging my pillow and blanket, I tried not to think about the creepy crawly things that most likely were watching me from the rafters above, plotting their journey down the wall to join me in my slumber. Little did I know, those things would not keep me from sleeping, instead I passed the night listening to a chorus of snoring champions (who would have known the grandma would be the worst!?), the baby who cried and cried, which the grandma had no trouble sleeping through so Oralia would have to get up to take care of her, and tossing and turning to avoid the pains of concrete support. All this made it pretty easy to get up early, accidently wash my face with the water that's used to flush the toilet instead of the water out of the faucet (the basins were close to each other and I was tired...), and head down to the lake to check out the view. On our way we wanted some coffee to eat with the bread we bought, but since San Marcos is pretty touristy the only thing that we found open was a dingy hippie place that had some for Q7 a cup!! Super expensive but since we were a big group and the men were good at bargaining, they got it down to Q3 and good thing too cause it turned out to be pretty bad tasting and served in chipped, stained cups of all shapes and sizes. Oh well. The day started out pretty cloudy but cleared up and turned out beautiful!

The view from the rocks of San Pedro volcano.

Erin (a volunteer and good friend of mine who lives in San Marcos for now) took us around to the best spots.

Lunch! Crab soup, turned out puro utz' (really good)

The boys trying to fish.

Swimming....so the lake is still super contaminated (Erin, who has her masters in oceanography with an emphasis on fecal contamination calls it a gigantic toilet bowl since there are almost no functioning water treatment plants and all waste waters run directly in to it from the many towns and cities that lie on its edge and from the whole watershed itself). Apparently this area is less contaminated so she took us here and the boys hopped in a bit to cool off. Erin just shook her head.

Juanita (Oralia's sister) and her two little girls.

We came home dirty and exhausted but with big smiles on our faces :) Call me crazy but I enjoyed this much more than heading out with other foreigners for a weekend away (nothing against my fellow volunteers and other gringos). I've been fortunate to have traveled to many places and countries before Guatemala and my way of looking at things is very different from people who rarely get out. It's like the joy you get when you watch someone open a gift...you don't get anything material out that but the happiness is contagious. It's nice.

I didn't mention in my last post that the end of June I took a trip home to the States, returning to Guatemala oddly enough on Independence Day. Below you'll find an overview of my time in both North Dakota and Chicago...

*NORTH DAKOTA*

One of my best friends from back home, Tanner, got married to the wonderful Amy and I got home just in time to go celebrate with old friends :)

The cake cutters. Oh yeah, that cake had no idea what was coming.

The beautiful couple.

Me dancing with the lovely Lucy.

North Dakota at its finest!!! I know we probably all love our home states and believe with foolish pride that we come from the best part of the US...so I won't go in to my long and prideful description of ND's wonders, but see for yourself some of the great open spaces, animals and good people. Below is a view from inside Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Buffalo!!! We pulled in to a lookout point and from afar I totally thought it was a statue...really it had wondered in to the parking lot and was thoughtfully cutting the grass in front of the visitor's center.

Taking a walk around the farm on a gorgeous summer's day.

Me and some cousins at a family reunion...how I loved showing this picture to people in Guatemala- for once I'm not the tallest!

Being away makes it hard when you have friends back home raising kids (they grow so fast!) It was super fun to hang out with Jana and her cute kids (who knows where they got it from, hehe).

This picture is from a talk I gave to kids about life in Guatemala. I loved their questions: are there killer lions there? do you eat real food? I wish I could take them with me to see it all!

Bismarck is home to the Superslide Amusement Park, which offers a variety of attractions, our favorites being mini golf and the slide featured in the background. No visit home in the summer is complete without a race down! I'm pretty sure I would have beat Kaela had it not been for my skirt...

Jana and I having fun exploring Fort Lincoln State Park. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather spend a romantic sunset with...wait a minute. Oh well, we had a good time exploring the cementery (the headstones give causes of death such as froze to death, drank himself to death, gunshot, or typhoid fever) and climbing around on the old military blockhouses.

Hanging out with the 'rents.

*CHICAGO*

My brother Matt and I biked to the lakefront for a sunny picnic...yay for summer!

The afternoon included a walk through the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Conservatory.

Bachelorette Party for Jess! So great to reconnect with the old crew from IWU.

So Jess's wedding included many Indian traditions (since her husband is originally from there). Here's her hand soon after she had the Henna artist work on them (up to her elbows! 3 1/2 hours)

Beautiful bride :)

Part of the wedding ceremony. Her sister is to left, in a sari just like the rest of the bridesmaids. The officiant is seated to the left. He would explain parts in English but mainly did the ceremony in Hindi.

Another part of the ceremony where colored dust was put on top of her head.

"I now pronounce you man and wife!"

Kellie!! We met many years ago in a freshman Spanish class (we had an amazing corner, right kellie? jajaja).

Erika and I met in Miami when her study abroad group passed through and I came to visit friends of mine who were staff. A year and a half later we randomly met up again but this time at a bonfire in rural Illinois (Jess's mom's house). Such a small world! Some of you may remember that both Jess and Erika came to visit me last August in Guatemala.

Sarah and Tiff made the drive up from IN to hang out and catch up. Here's us enjoying the afternoon walking around Bucktown and the Ukrainian Village.

Danielle joined us soon after. We were roommates all four years in college until she got a new one (her husband). We have such good memories together and of course keep making new ones!

Great Cuban food for dinner. I even got my favorite- vaca frita! Tastes way better than it sounds, hehe. I have such great friends....here the jungle is only missing Steph and Yue'e.

I also have great brothers! I unfortunately didn't get a picture with Brad this time but here I am with Matt before taking off.

And that's all folks! Now I'm back to daily torrents of rain, lots of black beans, tortillas, washing my clothes by hand (I think I washed every day at home in the washing machine just cause I loved how easy it was), world cup final fever, traveling in camionetas and learning new things around every corner.

Yet again there's been a lapse in my blogging activities...whoops. Things (as always) have been pretty crazy with me, but life's good and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Kudos to Mama Lupe for helping me with my birthday bash. We toasted ingredients for my favorite dish, pepian de pollo. Below you'll see dried chiles, tomatoes, miltomates, bread, onions, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. It turned out fantastic! Oh I should mention that we started prep for this party on Fri May 28 (to have it on Sat), of course the two days that the tropical cyclone Agatha hit Guatemala hard. More on that to follow.

I am blessed to have such wonderful people in my life here. Juanita's not in this picture but she was so great that she went out during the storm to pick the leaves from the corn stalks so we could wrap up tamalitos in them!

Picture with the family

So many of you might know what happened during Agatha, but if not click here. The storm came just two days after one of our active volcanoes, Pacaya, erupted, and caused immense destruction throughout the country with flooding, mudslides and even a giant "sinkhole". Luckily my community was spared from losing any people, but the park sustained significant infrastructure damage. Here's what happened to the hydroelectric dam... I have a post back in April that shows what it looked like before.

Our entrance was completely washed away and one of our concrete arches is now falling down because the land underneeth it was washed in to the river.

Here's the turbine and generator buried under mud.

We didn't have any power at the park for 5 days, so we all pitched in a hand to clean up. I joined the men fixing the bridge and entrance. Here Don Martin and I are exhausted from shoveling.

Luckily the roads got cleared a bit and I was able to head to San Antonio for a visit. I love these kids!

Randomly hanging out with my co-worker's mom while making dinner. Each day brings surprises and new experiences.

Chico, Eddy and I took off on a Friday after work and class to hike up to a gigantic rock on the mountainside. Here we're taking a shortcut through someone's corn field.

My first baby shower in Guatemala. Exactly like the ones back home, except for the food (tostadas and tamales). We even played the guess the size of the mom's tummy game with string and the race to burst balloons between two people (below)!

We had the pleasure of hosting a group of Canadian tourism students for two weeks in the park. They were amazing volunteers and helped make signs, clean the trail, paint the office, plant trees, etc.

Fair in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Could not believe the men spent all day Saturday cutting huge pieces of plastic to make this decoration for their street. The design is a depiction of St. Anthony.

My dear friend Patty gave me this bag for my birthday. She tried to make it to the party, but like all of the volunteers I invited she also couldn't make it due to the storm, so we celebrated later.

Danika and Fatima all ready for their brother's birthday party.

So this was the craziest weekend ever...had a get together with the fam Friday night, took off Saturday morning for San Antonio to hang out with Patty and the old fam, left early Sun morning to get back in time for the baby shower, made cakes all afternoon and then spent the evening celebrating Johnny's 12th birthday. It was great :)

A while back I took a bunch of pictures of the park for an upcoming publication from CONAP (the National Council of Protected Areas) and thought I’d share them with you all. Also included are a couple photos a Canadian volunteer took and gave to us to use for publicity. It’s not a big park nor does it have crazy attractions (like incredible views, volcanoes, ruins, adventure activities etc.) but I’ve grown to love its simplistic beauty :)

Oops…I can’t believe how I let time get away from me this past month. If I would have been a bit more pilas (on top of things) I would have written some great play by plays because there’s been quite a bit of interesting things in and around the bosque. Since I strive not to be a long-winded person, I’ll give the quick summary…

BeachOk this has nothing to do with the craziness but I just wanted to share my excitement at the fact I was able to go to the ocean two times this past month! The first was down to Hawaii (just past the famous Monterico) for a combination lifeguard training, despedida (goodbye party) for a fellow volunteer and fabulous dip in the ocean (although the current was unfortunately strong). Accompanying me was the crazy duo of Jamie and Josh…talk about attention when you have three tall canches (blondes) walking around together! The second time was a day trip with the park staff to Champerico. The waves were strong here too so we just played a bit, ate some fish and spent the afternoon at a pool. Even with 3 applications of sunscreen I came home the lovely shade of a tomato.

WeddingYep, another wedding. This time it was Oralia’s brother who got married. We went to his civil ceremony on a Tuesday and I got to see and take part in several of the traditional customs (bringing food for the family, gifts, the outfit the bride will wear on the other wedding day- green corte, white lacy blouse and veil, and not to the mention the important advice part where all the elders share their wisdom with the couple- I have to admit I was a little offended when they were telling the bride that she better put the right amount of sugar in the husband’s coffee, iron his pants and shirts correctly, keep a separate soap ball for washing his clothes, etc but they seem like a more progressive couple than that so I shouldn’t worry.) As crazy as all that sounds, nothing compares to the actual wedding day. I don’t want to go in to too much detail, but let’s just say that as we’re sitting in the decorated church waiting for the mass to start, the priest comes out and says that the ceremony won’t be taking place!!! Everyone is shocked (just like in the movies). It’s a drama-filled story complete with an ex-girlfriend coming to ruin the day. I felt horrible mostly for the bride (she’s super sweet and of course was so excited for her wedding day). The party for 400 guests had already been arranged so that still took place (they were technically married anyways). Kind of hard to celebrate with everyone upset (mainly at the priest for listening to the crazy rantings of the ex) but there was still the meal, cake, live marimba, dancing and so forth.

FútbolThe World Cup is just around the corner!!! I’m getting super excited :) Lately I’ve had the chance to go to a few games (almost all in Novillero) but last weekend I made it to the Guatemalan finals and sadly watched the Super Chivos (Xela) lose horribly to a team from the capital (Municipal, aka the Rojos). We sat in the rain and cold all afternoon only to see them end the night with a score of 0-4.

Luckily the next day the boys played in the finals in Novillero and won 5-4!

BirthdaysI love birthdays. Mostly because it represents a time where everyone comes together to celebrate someone they all love. And also because it implies good food, cake, presents and if you’re lucky, a piñata….hehe. I am fortunate to live with a family that shares the same mentality; we are mad birthday partiers. Here are pics from the past two birthdays (Chico and Mama Lupe).

I made chocolate cake for Chico and the most amazing brownies (got the recipe from the US ambassador here) for Mama Lupe.

My favorite customs from Semana Santa in El Novillero:

Baking baskets full of "semana santa" bread (a sweet bread sometimes made with milk or raisins) that gets exchanged among families.Constructing "arcos" which are different sized arches made from fruits, breads, plants, etc and are placed in homes, in front of churches or businesses to celebrate holy week (see bottom left).Holy Thursday: in the morning there is a traditional breakfast with the family of semana santa bread, hot chocolate and a garbanzo/plátano sweet dish; in the morning all the god-children stop by to visit and exchange food (usually fried chicken and a veggie salad); lunch is also had together at home and includes way too much food (the food dropped by and more); and a mass takes place late afternoon with neighboring communities.Holy Friday: a procession starts mid-day from a community up the mountain, which carries down the image of Jesus carrying the cross, stopping at altars ("rugs" made from colored sawdust, flowers, fruit and pine needles, check top left) in front of several homes to pray (we joined half way down, walking "procession-speed" for a couple hours) till we arrived back in El Novillero joining up with other processions for a huge mass in the soccer field. After the 3 hour mass Jesus is taken off the cross (bottom center and right), put in a coffin-like box and there is yet another procession through town, ending up at the old church...crazy long but fun day!Sábado de Gloria (Saturday of Glory): families go out during the day to have picnics, visit relatives or just hang out together (at the park we had over a thousand people enter!) There is another mass in the evening (with a bonfire outside and everyone enters with candles); many things take place such as confirmations, baptisms and this year there were 5 weddings too :)Domingo Resurrección (Resurection Sunday): although this day is often the biggest day of holy week in the US, here it is the calmest, with a normal mass either early in the morning or in the afternoon.

Russian Proverb:If God does not bring it, the earth will not give it.

Chinese Proverb:Don't depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load.

During training to become Peace Corps volunteers, we went through several sessions on cultural differences. The purpose was to help us understand the thoughts, motives and actions of others so we could effectively carry out our work in a context quite distinct from that which many of us were accustomed to. One topic that stuck with me was locus of control. A person who has a high internal locus of control believes that they have the control to change events based on their actions and behaviors. Someone with with a high external locus of control relies more on fate, and believes that chance or some higher power determines events. North Americans generally have a high external locus of control, believing that if they study enough, work hard and don't give up they can achieve their dreams and be successfull. Even those of us who believe in God still lean in the direction that we were given the capacity to look for or create our own opportunities. The tendency in Guatemala is definitely more passive, noted with a high use of the phrases "si Dios quiere/manda" (if God wants/wills) or "primeramente a Dios" (first to God, used in my region when talking about if something will happen or not). For me it's been interesting (and perhaps frustrating at times!) to see how this plays out in work and social situations. Generalizing a bit, I can many times trace a lack of initiative, lack of future planning and the inability to own up to responsibility to this cultural trait.

Going back to the two proverbs above, maybe that explains a bit of the difference between the Russians and the Chinese...

Where do you find yourself on the spectrum?

I had the privilege of attending two weddings during the month of March. The first was a mix of the indigenous and ladino cultures of Guatemala, set outside the country’s second largest city- Quetzaltenango. The second took place near San José, Costa Rica and was also a mix of cultures, with a bit of the US, Costa Rica and China.

Here´s the recap:

Chuck and Laura

I like this story a lot. It begins just over five years ago, when I decided to study abroad a semester in Costa Rica. I was placed with a wonderful host family that had three daughters, one son, and was half tican (Costa Rican) and half Chinese. Only the youngest two still lived at home, Beiy Sim who was a few years younger than me and Chuck Jun who was slighter older. There was another girl in the same program that lived just down the street from us and we became fast friends. She would come over to the house often, and we would go out with my host brother Chuck and another study abroad friend, Steve. By the end of the semester Laura and Chuck had definite chemistry, but alas, she had to go back to the States. Luckily, Chuck ended up going to San Diego the next year for a few months to study English….Laura just happened to go to college in San Diego as well :) From there their story goes back and forth from Costa Rica, her Peace Corps stint in Bolivia, being relocated to Costa Rica, being together a bit in her home state of Washington, etc. All this to say that this couple has traversed (and is currently exploring!) the hemisphere together, they love each other deeply and I have absolute confidence that they will make it work no matter what. It was such a blessing to be able to join them on such a special day!!! Better pictures can be viewed at http://blog.theyoungrens.com/

The old host family and I back together again!

Claudia y Maynor

Claudia is one of my favorite cousins of the family on Miguel Angel’s side. She’s such a sweet person, 22 years old and studying marketing in the university. A couple of my favorite memories here that include her are the time we all went camping on the mountain and the training I went through on how to kill and defur(sp?) a rabbit. She had been dating Maynor for several years before joining him in marriage at his family’s home outside Xela.

Their version of the dollar dance....women pinned money on Maynor and the men on Claudia :)

Doña Oralia and I

For those of you who read Spanish, here's the link to an article that came out in the Prensa Libre about the hydroelectric plant we now have at the Corazón del Bosque, which is pretty exciting!

Click here: Reserva genera su energía

They say it'll cover about half of the park's energy needs, 2.5kW, 250 L/s max flow. We're currently using the power for the administrative office and the dormitory/salon.

I find it pretty impressive that from a small waterfall on the edge of the park's property clean energy can be produced, not only lowering costs but it also serves as an example for community members and visitors.

So for those of you have keep up with my random blog posts know that they are just that: random. Partly because I like to share a bit of everything that's going on in my life here, from work projects to family, adventures to daily life stuff. And partly because I feel like that makes this mode of communication more interesting....you never know if you're going to get a brief on work in the park, photos from a trip to who knows where, stories from rural Guatemala or thoughts on life. To not disappoint now, I thought I'd share a sad (but in a funny way) story from last week.

So I was at the park in the morning when I got a text message from Tigo (the main cellphone company here) saying it was triple day (this means that when you buy x number of credit for calls/msgs, they give you triple the amount you actually buy...it gets a bit complicated when you factor in how much that credit is worth on certain days, experation, etc, but I do my best to work the system). Anyways, so I decide to head in to El Novillero to get some credit when I run in to the little old chicken lady as I'm exiting the corn fields. As usual she's barefoot, her smiling face overflowing with wrinkles and carrying a basket with 3 creole (cage-free?) chickens inside. She asks me as usual in a mix of K'iche' and Spanish if I want to take one home. Now I always say no, that's there's no money but that day I had some extra besides paying Tigo and thought it would be a great thing to have in time for Semana Santa (holy week). So we do some bartering and I end up with this nice black chicken for Q50 ($6). He had a good weight, and I just love pollo criollo (it may not be as juicy or tender as normal chicken but that's because normal chicken isn't really normal...so many hormones!) so I walked home with my chicken pretty content. Oh and I should mention that although I've witnessed many chicken purchases, this was the first one I had done all by myself and half in K'iche' :) I untied my chicken, put it in the pen out back and headed to work. Imagine my distress when the next day Doña Oralia informs me that my chicken has a cough and she had to quarantine it! When I went to go see, sure enough he was coughing just like heavy smoker. We fed it tomato, hoping this old remedy would help....but alas my chicken did not make it. I'm sure most of you know you can't eat chickens that die from sickness so my excitement and money were all for not. To make matters worse, he had infected another chicken in the pen and she died too! Sigh. Such is life. To end on a happier note, we got a hold of some more chickens and ate them at lunch yesterday to celebrate holy thursday (delicious!)

There's a lot to mention regarding holy week, but I'll have to wait to post on that (along with updates from the past few weeks). Had a fun mass last night, after lunch today we have a procession and mass, tomorrow there's another mass in the afternoon and Sunday too. Inbetween all that time at church we eat lots of good food, watch reenactments, visit people, make arches out of fruits and plants, create amazing "rugs" from colored sawdust and flowers and watch old movies like The 10 Commandments and Quo Vadis. Fun times!

Hope everyone's having a good Easter!

Almost a month has passed since I’ve graced you all with the presence of a new post and the reason can be summed up in a single word: research. It’s been a while since I’ve written about my studies (that I’m in the Master’s International program, getting a master’s while serving in Peace Corps). I completed two semesters before coming to Guatemala, and then spent the last year getting to know the people here, the culture and digging in to my work. Earlier this year I decided on a direction for my thesis, which is the next part of the degree and will be consuming my time this next year :) I’m always interested in the economic impact of development initiatives, but since working at an ecological park I’ve also been hooked on conservation so to combine my passions I’m going to try to take a look at the economic impact of conservation activities in community tourism (comparing 3 community tourism sites in Guatemala, one of course being Corazón del Bosque, where I’m working). Unfortunately I don’t have much formal training in this field, so I’m doing quite a bit of catch-up. If anyone happens to know of any good resources or has some input please send it my way…I’d be very grateful!

Now moving on to life stuff…the beginning of February I helped translate and such for the National Birdwatching Encounter, which took place in San Juan La Laguna. The object was to increase awareness of Guatemala as a birding destinantion in the international market. I'm fairly new to the whole birding world, but since last year I've learned quite a bit and have grown rather fond of going to check out birds :) A while back I compiled a list of birds found in the park (from studies by biologists and practicum students)- we have over 70 species, 20 of which are endemic to the area. Birding is a great product for us to offer, as it's a low impact activity with high economic returns...so far it's been difficult for the park to capitalize on, although we do offer a basic guided bird tour through the forest. Anyways, here are a few shots of the event, the first is me with two other members of the Red de Turismo Comunitario de Solola sharing different tour packages with an international tour operator.

Birds!

I had the chance this last weekend to hang out with some good friends at another volunteer’s site. Jamie works with a municipality close to the Mexican border in their park (El Refugio del Quetzal) which is around 90 hectares of dense forest with lush vegetation that houses Guatemala’s national bird, the quetzal. It’s an incredible bird, and although we only saw its tail for the better part of an hour, our patience was rewarded with the glimpse of it majestically flying through the air. I don’t have pics of that unfortunately but you can check some out on google: link to quetzal pics Below you'll see Jamie swinging on a vine, which I attempted as well with more dramatic results... And also an artificial nest they put in the park, with the male's tail sticking out. He's a modern man, taking care of the eggs while the female is out looking for food. The beautiful park and friends:

Remember when I lived in San Antonio my first three months in Guatemala? As part of training I worked with a group of women weavers. One of their products is the traditional San Antonio huipil (woven blouse) but it’s also one of the most expensive because of the designs/time it takes to make. Ever since I lived there I’ve wanted to have one of my own, so I saved up and made payments from July to January to the aunt of the family where I lived….and now I have one! Here’s a pic of me wearing it for the first time, with Doña Oralia’s mom. My brand-new huipil:

I have to admit that since living here I’ve grown skeptical of many things…people tell tall tales more often than short ones? But I always listen and respond with the appropriate, “ah, sí?!” So when last month my family tells me they heard about a Catholic church not too far away where a miracle had taken place, shown by floor tiles that lifted up in the form of a cross, my first thought was that someone was playing a joke. However, the next day we head over with the grandparents to check it out and hear the story from the people first hand. A couple weeks before a couple from a town 15 minutes away had come to the church to pray because the husband was sick with a terminal illness, and the doctors said there was no hope for treatment. While at the altar they felt strong tremors of an earthquake. Scared, they began to make their way to the exit when the tremors suddenly stopped. But what they saw in front of the entrance shook them more than ground moving….the floor tiles had raised to form a peak in the exact form of a cross. When they went outside to tell the people what happened, they found out that outside of the church, no one had felt the earth move. Shortly after, the man’s health began to improve and people from far and wide began to frequent the little rural church, praying for healing as well. Everyone began to praise God for this miracle. Maybe you’re like me and have a hard time believing in miracles in today's world (where we use science and rationale to explain everything), but I’ll honestly tell you when I saw this with my own eyes there was something I felt…The bizarre:

I am so thankful for the life I have and for what makes it up: the unique experiences, the wonderful people I'm blessed to have around me and the incredible lessons I continually learn.

The view from my tent in the early morning, camping with the family on the mountain near where we live.

Enjoying the night eating and talking by the fire. A little cold but way worth it :)

Picnic by the river! We decided to make grilled chicken, salad, guacamole, etc outside one Sunday afternoon as a sort of goodbye party for Eddy and one of the cousins, before they took off for other cities to start school. Here we have Fatima and Danika...my favorite girls!

Doña Oralia making lunch with me in the shade.

I taught the boys how to throw an American football...super fun! Now we head out occassionally to go play.

Before I headed home for Christmas, we were visited by April (the volunteer who was here before me). It was a grand surprise that I struggled keeping for several months. In honor of the visit we of course had a party :)

Found this huipil from Santiago Atitlan super cheap at the market and wore it celebrate the birthday of the Virgen Guadalupe.

My dear friend Patty from San Antonio Aguas Calientes made the trek out to visit me. Unfortunately it was one of the coldest weekends in December and we stayed outside till late watching the fireworks/firecrackers in Santa Lucia Utatlan for their fair!

On a random trip down to San Marcos La Laguna with Selvyn and his family...the new baby (Mariajose) is absolutely adorable!

Eddy was the only one who'd go on the ferris wheel with me. I think I've determined that half the fun is the movement of the wheel and the other half is the rush of wondering if it'll fall apart.

Fatima's 4th birthday. My favorite is when they make them take the first bite out of the cake.

Mayra (on the left) came to El Novillero from the coast to work for a time with her sister. Mama Lupe and I put her in traje to take pictures to remember her time with us.

I know it's late, but here's a pic from Thanksgiving. We have Molly, me, Luis, Beberly and Erin- good times, good food and good friends.

The first of November there's always a huge festival in the town of Sumpango, with giant kites intricately decorated.

Chico, Oralia, Braulio and Luis hanging out at the marimba concert during the fair.

Again during fair week, watching Braulio play soccer again a team from the capital. Marta (our accountant at the park) lent me this pink traje (for those of you who know me well will be surprised, as I am definitely not a pink person!)

Corazón del Bosque is part of the Red de Turismo Comunitario de Sololá (the Community Tourism Network of the Department of Sololá). Last November the majority of the members sent representatives to visit Ak'Tenamit (http://www.aktenamit.org/), a developed site of community tourism (one of its many programs) on the eastern coast of Guatemala, in Livingston, Izabal. One other volunteer (Erin) and I were given the opportunity to accompany the group with the goal of learning all we could from the interchange to improve not only our own sites but to strengthen the network overall. It was a quick 4 day trip (two days of travelling!) that included several meetings, a visit to their fair-trade store, restaurants, a community stay and a stopover in Rio Dulce. Here's most of us visiting the Castillo San Felipe.

This is the view we had on our boat ride from Livingston back to Rio Dulce- it's almost breathtaking to see the cliffs covered with trees that plunge down to the water's edge.

We hiked two hours to a community, spending the night at their "hotel", sharing a meal with community members and ending with a marimba concert/dance party. The community's called Plan Grande Quehueche (http://adrenalinatours.com/comunitarytourism/aldea-maya-plan-grande-quehuecche.html) Don't worry, I didn't hike in my skirt...this was on the way out, which was in a pickup.

The ceiba, Guatemala's national tree.

One of the many interesting bugs we found in the jungle. It was great to explore a different ecosystem and be reminded of how diverse Guatemala is. It felt like a different country compared to my neck of the woods (all mountains, and pine/oak forests).

So I don't have a picture yet of the finished product, but here's a little taste of the playground we started building last fall. It's made of recycled tires and wood from the forest. They went a bit crazy on the colors, but what can you do. Now we're only lacking a few finishing touches, benches and flowers. I'll post when that's done (hopefully soon!!!).

Another project we started last fall was a course on making handicrafts. We started out teaching a group from the community, mainly women, on how to kill rabbits and cure the skins to use the fur. I would have included some of those pictures but wasn't sure how people would react...especially my animal rights friends! I have to admit it still makes me a bit squeamish...I'm much better at murdering chickens. But anyways, after we finished learning about furs, we moved on to making baskets, jewelry and such out of pine needles.

Here are some examples from one of park workers, Don Martin. Absolutely beautiful and 100% natural pine! If the group gets a little more formal I'll start helping them make contacts, as there's already a domestic and international market for such products.

My two families together! Crazy to see the cultures of North Dakota and rural Guatemala meet up; it definitely says something for globalization :)

My parents hanging out in the corn field on my walk to work.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel for a couple days on the lake...incredibly refreshing (except for the 100 stairs we had to climb up the mountain to reach our room!)

Matt and I kayaking on Lake Atitlan.

My family looks like giants compared to my old host family in San Antonio!

I never thought I'd be the one to end up teaching my mom how to do laundry...but then again it changes things when you don't have a washing machine. I wash my clothes at the pila (the cement basin) almost every weekend...super fun...

We hiked up Pacaya with a guide and were fortunate enough to see the lava! It was spurting out slowly, and they grey you see on top is the lava cooling. Although I wouldn't by any means call it cool; the air was thick with heat.

El Volcan Payaca

My poor mom going up the volcano on horseback...I don't know if she'll ever forgive us!

We stopped on the way to my house for a quick visit to the ruins at Iximche.

My dad and brother at the top of Cerro de la Cruz, overlooking Antigua. The volcano in the back is the Volcan de Agua.

So I know it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted, and for that I apologize. It’s not that there’s been a lack of things to share; just so many that I haven’t taken the time to sort them all out and share. But now the hard part is where to begin. So let me start with a brief refresher: I’m still in Guatemala, (it’s not been just over a year since my arrival). I still call El Novillero home and have grown quite used to life here (except for the cold that sometimes comes and leaves me frozen to the bone…for example it was 45 degrees inside my room when I woke up this morning). Work in the park has been good, keeping busy in the office trying to implement better procedures, increase marketing, improve the products and services, do client studies and monitor conservation. One fun (albeit difficult) project we’re completing is a playground out of recycled tires and wood. I got a manual from a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and it turned out pretty good, I’ll have to post pics. I’m still living with the family and enjoy it more than ever. They’re a joy to be around, love me like family and are super fun overall. One of my more recent adventures with them was taking them camping for the first time (well, the two oldest boys had gone before, but not the parents, the youngest and some cousins). One thing you might not know about Guatemalans is they NEVER go camping (who wants to sleep outside on the ground when we have a perfectly fine house and beds?) Well I wanted to go so I got together some tents, my dear friend Molly and s’mores materials. We hiked up to some land Miguel Angel owns and camped at the top of mountain with the most gorgeous view (in the morning the sun rose over the volcanoes- amazing!) Although it was cold, we all loved it :) Besides that, there never seems to be an end to family get-togethers, movie nights and cooking experiments. The last few months of 2009 also brought me some important visitors; my parents and brother were able to stay for a week in October. It was great showing them around (although for those of you who know my mom, you can believe she kept me busy translating!) and sharing a bit of my life, mixing my two worlds. Highlights include hiking up Pacaya (my mom on horse), hanging out in Antigua, visiting ruins, kayaking at the lake and hiking around Corazón del Bosque. And now everyone understands why I’m so tall (they still talk about Matt…) Thanksgiving was spent at the lake…beautiful view, friends and food. I have to admit it was a little cheesy buying deli turkey breast and heating it in the toaster over. But at least the stove top and package gravy made a good combo with the chive mashed potatoes. The best part of the meal was Molly’s gift to us of squash pie (tasted just like pumpkin from home!) And there was enough left over for breakfast :) Christmas I decided would be a good time for me to head back to the States and be with family and friends. My girls from college picked me up a snowy night at the airport in Chicago- it was quite interesting to experience the extreme cold again, walk on carpet, have hot water come out of the faucet and turn on the heat. Things I don’t spend time missing in Guatemala but definitely took advantage of when I was home. I only had two weeks in North Dakota and they flew by- so much to catch up on (sometimes I feel like I forget other peoples’ lives keep going even though I’m not there!) After having my fill of Christmas goodies and old fashioned consumerism I headed back to my life Guatemala (which feels now so comfortable and simple), arriving in time for my welcome-back party at the house (how I missed caldo de pollo criollo and tamalitos!). The best part is I’m excited about 2010. We’ve already started some new projects at work, I’m working more on my master’s thesis (I’ll get in to that later), learning more K’iche’ and livin’ it up. I hate catching up so briefly when there’s so much that’s taken place….so I’m setting more goals for myself to post. Keep checking in and don’t feel back to nudge me when it’s been awhile!

Participating in a workshop on marketing and photography at the park. I wanted to put this first so it would be clear that I do work as well, because all the photos that follow are of my random adventures...

My friend Marie from Miami took the trip down to see me and I of course had to take her the lake where we kayaked (or moreso I kayaked and let her enjoy the ride :)

Going out for an afternoon boat ride on Lake Peten Itza.

Climbing temple after temple at Tikal.

Tikal was just as beautiful as they all say.

Overlooking the ruins...gives you an incredible feeling!

The temple of the Jaguar. Even more impressive in person.

Eddy's 14th birthday party. Probably the most exciting one yet with traditional dances, merengue, duranguense, marimba and then we joined in with some line dancing, the cupid shuffle and even the dance from Slumdog Millionaire (thanks to Jess and Erika)!

My family had never heard of smores before so of course I had to fix that. We didn't have Hershey's and graham crackers, but Chiky's work just fine. Here's my host brother Chico using the stove to make his.

One of my good friends here Molly celebrated her birthday by inviting my family and I to her family's humble abode in the mountains overlooking Totonicapan...quite the party :) Molly and I pulled off a descent Guatemalan lunch and she treated us to a pumpkin-like pie.

Tiff came to visit and we definitely took advantage of her time by traveling around my area, including the ruins at Iximche.

On our way to the Nature Reserve in Panajachel (cute trail with lots of monkeys, butterflies and a waterfall).

Traveling with the two of them is quite the adventure. I have to say we make quite a group- the American, the Frenchwoman (Chloee) and the Indigenous Guatemalan woman (dona Filomena)- I love it!

We look like quite the cave explorers, don't we?

When my friends Jess and Erika came to visit I dragged them on quite the tour, one of our stops being the zip-line at the park Chuiraxamolo.

Semuc Champey. What can I say- it's one of the most beautiful sites I've been to so far in Guatemala. Limestone pools with caves, an underground river and surrounded by lush jungle.

We spent a day white-water rafting with the association of a fellow Peace Corps volunteer (www.guaterafting.com). It was quite exciting as it was my first time and we conquered a few class 5 rapids...

My "second family" here invited me to the wedding of their son (second from right). Chloee and I of course arrived in style with traje from Santiago Atitlan :)

Chloee and I decided one Saturday to hike up the nose of Rostro Maya (Indian face). It's the tallest point in the photo below. The trail was a bit challenging but worth it to walk through the coffee fields, corn, forest and so forth. We began in San Juan La Laguna and ended up in Santa Clara La Laguna.

It feels so amazing to be on top of the water in kayak...with an incomparable view. Sigh.

So these past few weeks I've felt this guilt on my shoulders about not writing here to let you all know how life is going. Sigh. I feel like I'm always so busy and am beginning to think that it's me, overcommitting as usual. But life is good and I'm happy. I have various projects at work, the main ones being our marketing plan (we've already joined facebook and are about to upload to youtube...I'll post it here soon) and putting together business plan workshops for other community tourism projects. I'm also teaching English and environmental ed in the elementary school each week which has been an interesting challenge. It can definitely be fun and now I have little friends to talk with every time I walk down the street :)

As far as life stuff goes, I had my 25th birthday the end of May (I can't believe I'm already a quarter of a century...) My family here threw me a birthday dinner, complete with magic candles thanks to Molly and a dance. My co-workers at the park also surprised me with a birthday lunch; I felt quite loved :) June flew by, and at the end I had my first visitor from the States. My old college friend Tiff and I did a 5 day whirlwind tour of Antigua, Solola, Panajachel, San Marcos La Laguna, Santa Clara, the ruins at Ixmche and of course El Novillero. And then there was the 4th of July, which means a huge party for volunteers. I have to admit I really enjoyed our barbecue of hamburgers, hot dogs and potato salad. And then the next week my family and I took a road trip to visit my volunteer friend Molly in Toto for her birthday...it was super fun and well worth packing the six of us in their small car!

And on the occasional day off I've gone hiking with Chloee our French volunteer, kayaking on the lake, more birthday parties, cooking with friends, movies with my little brothers, exploring small town fairs and so on.

Last week I went back to the Peace Corps headquarters for a two day Reconnect conference. It was pretty interesting to hear from my fellow volunteers about their experiences (aka crazy stories) and discuss how we are all handling the seemingly endless cultural differences. Every time I travel or spend outside of the US, I seem to learn more about where I come from and what makes up how I see the world; you come to understand that we all have very different "eyes". But oh how I love it!

Volcano on Lake Atitlan...

Teaching high schoolers about taking care of the environment and the importance of reforestation.

My tree I planted in the forest!Walking the trails and climbing up Tikalito- 192ish stairs up the mountain.

Rachel taking a break.

Mama Lupe's birthday party (she's on the right). My host mom (Dona Oralia) is on the left and my host dad (Don Miguel Angel) on the right.

I have seriously neglected my blogging duties lately and for that I apologize.  Life has just been flying by at a crazy pace, and I don't even know where to start from to catch you up.  Here's a list of some of the major points: Work - Two grant proposals were submitted this past week, one for a World Bank competition on climate change, and the other through National Geographic and Ashoka's Changemakers for Geotourism.  You can check out the second one online at: http://geotourism.changemakers.com/es/node/24572 It's in Spanish, but for those of you who are able, look it over and make comments; it'll help us out! - I've been participating in regional meetings for community tourism and sustainable tourism, getting to know strategic partners and the current alliances we have. - We're trying to improve the signage in the front of the park, so I got a hold of a router and we've been making wooden signs to guide the way. - I've also been collaborating quite a bit with Chloee, the French volunteer here doing a practicum in tourism, trying to improve kitchen processes and quality.   - I worked with a group of students that came last week to learn about reforestation and then plant trees; we added over 120 pine and cyprus trees to our forest! - I've also been busy with fun stuff like running diagnostics, cost analysis, and starting a marketing plan... Life - Lots of visitors have come my way to spend the night at my house, both fellow PCVs and friends :)  Thanks to Erin, Molly, Natalie, Chloee and Rachel for brightening my days!  I hope Rachel will forgive me for the craziness we went through trying to get home from Panajachel...  I've never scolded anyone in my life like I did that taxi driver who tried to leave us off in the middle of nowhere at night. - There have been parties galore: in a week and a half I went to 5 birthday parties (my middle brother Chico, one of the cousins, the grandma Mama Lupe, the son of my coworker Marta, and Dona Filomena, my co-worker Selvyn's mom) and we ended up having a big mother's day party too.  It's so much fun to get together with the extended family, make tons of food, laugh, share stories and even throw on music to dance :) - I've been doing lots of baking and cooking, highlights include chocolate cakes decorated with strawberries, chocolate chip cookies, the most delicious granola and prize winning lasagna.  It's amazing the things you can do with a toaster oven.- It's rainy season.  That means I spend a lot of time in the rain or trying to avoid it.

So that's just a smattering of life.  Each day brings new experiences and of course, many surprises.  I wouldn't have it any other way...

We've been working on putting together a quick history for new menus, pamphlets, etc and I thought I'd share it with you all.

La Historia…

Bienvenidos a El Novillero, un valle con rica historia, donde en tiempos lejanos venían los novillos a pastar. Ahora es un parque ecológico que se llama Corazón del Bosque (Uk’ux K’achelaj). Esta iniciativa local nace de una asociación de la comunidad K’iche’ que se llama La Asociación Agropecuaria y Artesanal Para El Desarrollo “La Guadalupana", las raíces de la misma vienen de una cooperativa que durante la década de los '70 fue modelo de desarrollo en Guatemala y Centroamérica.

Corazón del Bosque cuenta con diversos objetivos y esperanzas: Ofrecer una nueva alternativa de sana diversión al turista nacional e internacional, enmarcada en el turismo ecológico, comunitario y sostenible. Propiciar una cultura de protección y conservación del medio ambiente. Promover el manejo forestal sostenible y proteger nuestra flora y fauna, únicos en nuestra región (ubicada en la parte alta del área protegida de usos múltiples Lago Atitlán) como alternativa a la deforestación que sufre actualmente el medio ambiente de Guatemala. Mantener un proyecto que beneficie a nuestra comunidad, promoviendo la igualdad participativa, el aprovechamiento sostenible de nuestros recursos naturales, junto a la valorización y rescate de nuestra cultura maya K’iche'.

Nuestros servicios:

Restaurante de gastronomía típica

Cabañas rústicas de madera

Temascales (baño sauna tradicional)

Senderos interpretativos

Observación de aves

El tikalito: un reto para los que aman el deporte

Santuario y altar maya

Día de campo

Eco campamentos

Vivero forestal

Aula de la Naturaleza: para eventos y capacitaciones

The History…

Welcome to El Novillero, a valley rich with history, where in times past "novillos" (great steers) would come to graze. Now it is home to an ecological park, Corazón del Bosque (Uk’ux K’achelaj) which translates as "the heart of the forest". It is a local initiative that was born in this Mayan K’iche’ community through a group of active citizens called La Asociación Agropecuaria y Artesanal Para El Desarrollo “La Guadalupana", whose roots stem from a cooperative begun in the 1970’s which was the model of community development in Guatemala and all of Central America.

Corazón del Bosque has a diverse array of objectives and guiding principles: To offer an alternative form of entertainment to national and international tourists, by way of sustainable community tourism; to initiate environmental awareness; to promote sustainable forestry by taking care of the region’s flora and fauna (located at the highest point of Lake Atitlán’s protected area), in order to mitigate the deforestation that has been damaging Guatemala’s environment; and to maintain a project that benefits the community by promoting equal participation among its inhabitants, sustainable management of natural resources, along with an effort to conserve and preserve the culture of the Mayan K’iche’.

Our Services:

Restaurant with typical cuisine

Wood cabins

Temascales (mayan saunas)

Interpretive trails

Bird watching

El tikalito: a challenge for those who love sports

Sanctuary and Mayan altar

Camping

Picnic area

Plant and tree nursery

Nature salon: for events and trainings

As I pass the four month mark here in country, I’ve picked up on some interesting cultural tidbits I thought you might all find interesting… Being indirect is always preferable. If I generalize, Guatemalans tend to shy away from direct communication.  Even if the news is positive, confrontation is avoided at all costs.  What this usually amounts to is a string of words and phrases, painting a picture of the general idea the person wants to communicate.  For those who speak Spanish as a second language or are unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the culture, this means getting lost in the forest of vague explanations and unclear directions.  Fun times. Yes often just means no…in a nice way. People here hate saying no.  When asked to participate in something, many people say they will think about it and get back to you.  For me this has always, always turned in to a negative answer.  I’m not sure why “no” isn’t just said in the first place.  But even better is when people commit to going somewhere, doing something or give you permission….when they really won’t go, won’t do, or don’t want you to do what you’re doing.  Fíjese que… So this phrase has turned out to be the bane of my existence in Guatemala.  It doesn’t have a good direct translation, meaning something like “look here”, or “fix on this”.  But my problem isn’t with the phrase itself, only what comes after it- always some type of excuse.  Like, fíjese que I would have finished cleaning but someone suddenly came in or fígese que we ran out of half the things on the menu.  My co-workers have caught on to my dislike and now use this to torment me, but I have noticed many have stopped giving me crazy excuses...

This is the view on my new commute to work...it's so peaceful to walk through the fields and enter the forest as the day begins.

Here we are at swear-in day (March 27).  Saying goodbye to Dona Maria and Don Enrique was not easy!Our ceremony took place at the US ambassador's house in Guatemala City; my host parents were thrilled to not only be at his residence, but also take the following picture with him.

Here is our entire training group (16 sustainable community tourism volunteers and 16 healthy schools volunteers) along with our country director, Martha (on left).Hanging out with Rachel in Antigua after the swear-in...unfortunately we won't be able to get together as often now that I'm moving away!

So as time flew by so fast, I didn't have time to finish my tejido myself; lucky my host mom Maria wove the birds and the patterns at the top.  It's now proudly hung on my wall!

Here´s where you can now reach me:

Corazón del Bosque

Brittany Sickler

KM 145 Aldea El Novillero

Santa Lucía Utatlán, Sololá

Guatemala, América Central

And my phone number is still 011-502-4034-5514

So the last news I shared with you all was the basic info of my new job. The two weeks I’ve been doing the typical things: learning all I can about the organization, its expectations, my co-workers, my new host family and the community of El Novillero. It’s been a little overwhelming but exciting at the same time. If you checked out the website you’ll know that Corazón del Bosque is the main project of a community association (La Guadalupana) which has been in existence for almost 20 years. It was first formed to get back forested land that was lost during Guatemala’s civil war. To this day they are very concerned with forest conservation and reforestation. But since then they have diversified with many other environmental and tourism projects: a recycle center for the area (since there is no waste management); a tree nursery for reforestation and sale; an interpretive trail through the woods; a restaurant; cabins and dorm rooms; a meeting room for environmental education and activities; an internet café; an area for Mayan ceremonies; a Mayan sauna; and a large green area for families to come and enjoy.

What I’ve been asked to do is help the association keep these projects sustainable through increased quality control, promotion and networking so that the community can not only reap the benefits of the income generating activities, but also conserve their land and resources for future generations. I’m sure there’ll be many challenges along the way, but I am very lucky to have solid support from the staff at Peace Corps here, from my professors at SNHU, and also from my fellow volunteers (several of which are in the area).

As far as life things go, it’s also been pretty hectic. I’ve moved in to the room where the previous volunteer April lived, with a wonderful family that has 3 teenage boys. There was overlap with April which was such a help, as she was able to pass on helpful tips, strategies and lessons learned.

The strange thing about where I am, is that it doesn’t quite feel like the Peace Corps experience most people typically imagine (a mud hut in the middle of nowhere, without water and electricity). But then I have my own little adventures: I’m always washing my clothes by hand, I’ll sporadically find myself in a cold shower, I’ll pack in to an old US school bus with three times as many people as should be there, I’ll dream of something shaking and wake up to a little earthquake, and I have yet to get tired of beans and tortillas :)

So this week I've been busy finishing things up before I move out of San Antonio for good. It's so hard to say goodbye to all of the wonderful people we've been working with these last months. The week before last we met with the women's group for the last time, and tomorrow we have a meeting at the muni with the mayor and other offices we've been involved with. If it's this bad after three months I can only imagine what it'll be like to leave after two years! Maybe I'll just stay and avoid all that :)

So there's so much to write about the ecological park where I'll be working....since I'm short on time I'll direct you all to their website to check it out:

http://www.corazondelbosque.com

Oh, and swear-in is this Friday, when I actually become a true Peace Corps volunteer...pretty exciting!

Yay! Just found out where I'll be working the next two years- the beautiful site of Santa Lucía Utatlán in the department of Sololá close to Lake Atitlán! It's actually one of the communities we visited during our field based training. I'm super excited but have a healthy dose of nervous anticipation, as next week I go to visit and set up my living situation. I'll be sure to write more details about the project later.

Can't wait to have visitors....

What a rollercoaster we’ve been on this past week and a half! When I mentioned the Cultural Day last, it was a completely different idea than what actually came to pass. Instead of afternoon activities with mainly Spanish school students, the Muni and women’s group decided to make it a huge 2 day affair open to the general public. With only a week and a half to plan, we thought it would be almost impossible. But even after weighing the risks and challenges, they still wanted to go for it…so the four of us took deep breaths and pledged our support.

Imagine trying to plan and promote a huge fair complete with exhibitors, food, entertainment, activities and vendors- with only 7 days (excluding the weekend) and in Guatemala, where things aren’t always as cut and dry as we’re accustomed to. I lost count of all the meetings we sat through trying to figure out who was doing what, who wasn’t doing they were supposed to, and just overall damage control (as our trainer David calls it). After hours and hours of stress and hard work, in collaboration with the Muni and women, we pulled off a nice event which included: a Mayan Ceremony; 20 women selling their textile goods; 8 exhibitors of products and services such as eco-parks, coffee farms, my friend Rachel’s NGO Camino Seguro http://www.safepassage.org/, and the new bank that’s coming to town; a traditional folk dance; the game of Pelota Maya; the Departmental Band; traditional food served by the women’s group; and activities such as making tortillas, grinding coffee and taking photos in traditional dress. Although we didn’t draw a huge crowd, the tourists that came loved it and it was an enjoyable learning experience for the women (and us as well!)

We’ve also had some fun times lately, such as going to the beach (beautiful black sand!), watching the first procession come to Antigua during Lent, and having lunch with the US ambassador to Guatemala.

Sometime this week I’ll hopefully be posting very exciting news: I’ll finally find out which community I’ll be working in these next two years!

My old friend Matt from study abroad, who's just finishing up his PC term- crazy to run in to him each other after so many years.

Juego de Pelota Maya

Procession in Antigua

The beach at Monterrico

I can’t believe how fast the days are flying by- there’s so much to catch up on! Each day seems to bring a variety of experiences and cultural lessons, both with our host families and in our professional environment as well. As we get to know the women’s group more and more, they have been sharing not only their struggles, but their wisdom as well. I’m amazed at how much they do each day! While most men work from 8-5, these women are at it from at least 5-9, taking care of their families. A few weeks ago they gave us an entire afternoon to do various workshops. The topics were divided up amongst the four of us: working in teams, attending to tourists, promotion/marketing and understanding the costs of production (which is what I discussed with them). After guiding them through various exercises, I came to fine that most of them don’t take in to account the amount of time it takes them to do their weavings, and in the end are paid very little for the work they do. We discussed strategies to decrease costs and increase profits, but it’s very difficult for them to alter their traditional ways. It was undeniably a challenging seminar to give (particularly to indigenous women in Spanish!)

One thing I’m pretty excited about is an upcoming Cultural Day we’re helping to organize with both the women and the Municipality. We’ll be inviting students from the Spanish schools in Antigua to come to San Antonio and see traditional dances, hear marimba, learn how to make tortillas, grind coffee, eat typical foods and take pictures in the local clothes. We are also targeting regional residents by offering live music and a demonstration of the pelota maya. Our purpose is not only to share the culture of the town with tourists, but to give the women a taste of what it could be like to diversify their income sources. With only a few weeks left to work here, we want to leave them not only an annual operating plan (a POA) with a budget, but also the determination to see it through.

Our work was interrupted last week for field based training where the 16 of us in Sustainable Community Tourism spent a week together visiting different sites to learn more about the environmental segments of our program. Here’s the brief overview:

· Stayed the first three days at the park El Aprisco outside of Totonicapán. It was so cold, even wearing 5 layers to bed with my sleeping bag and two blankets didn’t help! If you think all of Guatemala’s hot, you are dead wrong. And here I thought I was pretty tough, coming from North Dakota. But it was a beautiful place, and we had some great hands-on training (for park management/eco-tourism). We were also able to visit a local school, teach the kids how to make crafts out of recycled materials, go bird-watching and have some crazy campfires.

· Went on to Corazón del Bosque, near Sololá- we were pretty excited to have running water, real coffee, and be a few degrees warmer! Continued our lessons on environmental interpretation and conducted an Eco-camp with local teenagers.

· Visited a volunteer at the Park Chuiraxamoló, overlooking Lake Atitlán, and learned the ins and outs of working despite local politics. Check out my picture below on the zip line!

· Visited another volunteer in Alaska, seeing various projects up close: stoves, wells, school gardens, and playgrounds made from tires and wood.

Here we are helping an elementary school in Baja Verapaz construct a building out of plastic bottles and trash. The kids went in to the community and gathered 4,000 bottles from the streets and river, filling them with around 100 plastic bags and chip bags each. After the bottles are placed together between the chicken wire, cement will cover the walls and there will be no difference in the insulation or durability.

This is the first plastic bottle building in Guatemala (the one above will be the second). You can see how they left some spaces so people could see how it was constructed.

This is a view from a volunteer's site, called Parque Chuiraxamolo, on Lake Atitlan. You can see some of the lake's volcanoes in the distance.

We were lucky enough to go on the zip line at the park, which is 400m long and SO AMAZING! We were able to go across the valley like superman, and it really did feel like I was flying.

One day during FBT we went to an elementary school and taught the kids about environmental education, including a craft made from recycled goods. Our kids made super cute flowers out of plastic bottles and chip bags.

Here's the first park we stayed at during FBT, El Aprisco, in Totonicapan. Incredibly beautiful and tranquil, with a great diversity in birds and trees.

Here's us learning how to build trails with our homemade creinometer (sp?).

Teaching English to some of the women from the group...I love it!

We were also fortunate to be a part of a traditional Mayan ceremony- it was such a great experience to learn more about this part of their culture.

This is my attempt at making tortillas...you can see the ones my host mom made are nice and round. Mine are a little off, but with practice hopefully I'll get there! I've even ventured out with some different shapes; the heart definitely got some good laughs.

Here I am grinding coffee beans. The neighbors across the street have plants in their yard, and after they pick them, they're set out to dry. My family buys the dry, green, coffee beans and then we roast them on the comal. After roasting they are ground on the piedra (which is what I'm doing). Then....we drink it!!! Talk about keeping it local; these beans don't go more than a 100 yards from home.

Weaving lessons are going good. Although I'm slow, it's been really fun to learn the process and understand more of what the women here do each day to earn a living. It is A LOT of work. If my tejido turns out alright, I'll post a picture when I'm done.

Let me tell you, it is SO fun to climb volcanoes! We hiked up Pacaya last week and were roasting marshmallows on a rocks that were from a 2008 lava flow. Yum :)

Settling in to life here has been easier than expected. I have the regulars I say “Buenos dias” to when walking through town; I’ve picked up some fun Guatemalan phrases (¡Un cachito por favor, cuate!); and I begin each morning with a wonderful cup of coffee, made from the coffee beans that grow across the street.

My group has gotten off to great start on our cultural tourism project. The other two girls in the group, Molly and Maria, bring environmental and tourism skills, while Jamie and I bring more business and economic development expertise. We will be working with the Municipality to assist a Mayan women’s weaving group so they can have a more sustainable way to create and market their goods. Last Friday we met with 32 of the 55 women for a focus group discussion, trying to find out what their assets are, what they want, and how we can help them achieve their goals. We are a bit overwhelmed with all we want to do in the next two and a half months!!

But it hasn’t been all work and no play….this last weekend San Antonio Aguas Calientes had a big festival to celebrate the Dulce Nombre de Jesus. I’ve never seen such a thing! Parades, processions, dancing, food, plays, mass, bands, Mayan games, endless fireworks and music don’t even begin to describe the three days of festivities. And my friend Rachel (from ACCION USA in Boston) is now living in Antigua and was able to come for the second day and check out my pueblo!

As we were watching the parade, Maria and I were standing against a wall (otherwise we block everyone’s view behind us) when a few Guatemalen men went past us on the sidewalk. The first one looked at me and then did a double take with a big smile. He looked semi-familiar, but I only gave him a half-smile just in case he was sizing up the gringa. Maria didn’t recognize him, but I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I knew him. It wasn’t until five minutes later that I realized it was the mayor! We had had a meeting with him on Wednesday where he pledged his support for our project. Ay, que cosa, hopefully he won’t hold our absent-mindedness against us!

Another funny thing happened the next night I went with Jamie and his host family to watch a play. Only I want you to picture it on top of someone’s roof in the middle of the block with hundreds of people gathered below to watch. The main actor was quite funny as he began to tell the story of the Dulce Nombre of Jesus. He went on to describe that no such festival is celebrated in the United States, thus the gringos have to come to San Antonio to see it…of course Jamie and I are the only two gringos in the crowd and every single person starts to look our way! There’s no hiding when you’re the tallest people around. It was all in good fun, and the upside is we’re now well known throughout town!

The main church and plaza

My pueblo- San Antonio Aguas Calientes

My family- Don Enrique, Clara, and Dona Maria

"Pelota Maya"- the ancient game played by the Mayans; this group will appear on the History Channel in March!

Part of the parade

Walking through the maze of buses in Antigua

Molly, Maria, Jaime and our Spanish/Cultural mentor Jorge

Rachel and I in Antigua

So if anyone ever feels the desire to send some cheer my way (hint hint) here’s how it’ll reach me in the near future:

PCV Brittany Sickler

Cuerpo de Paz

Apartado Postal 66

Antigua Guatemala

Sacatepequez 03001

Guatemala

Central America

And I just got a cell phone today...yay! The number is 011 502 4034 5514. It's free for me to receive phone calls, so no worries about ever giving me a call.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Guatemala for a week now. The “chicken buses”, widowmakers, tortillas and volcanoes have all come to be normal components of a typical day.

Last Tuesday I was in DC for staging, where I basically filled out paperwork and met my fellow trainees. We are currently a group of 32: 16 working on the Healthy Schools Project, and the other 16 of us working in Sustainable Community Tourism. It’s interesting meeting people you know you will be in close contact with for at least the next two years; bonding came fast. You could see most people were dealing varying levels of similar emotions: anxiety, excitement, fear, relief, etc.

Unfortunately we woke up at 1am on Wednesday to leave the States, and after a brief stop in Miami (where I got to see Andrea, Reg and Andre!) we landed in Guatemala City. Exhausted, we were given a basic introduction to the program, safety procedures and health guidelines. Then we set off to host families near the Peace Corps Offices in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas. Two of my fellow trainees and I had the pleasure of staying our first 3 days in the country with a wonderful Guatemalan family. I couldn’t get too attached because last Saturday we headed out to our communities where we will be training for the next three months. Split into groups of four based on language ability and project focus, I will be staying in a nice-sized pueblo about 20 minutes west of Antigua with another amazing family.

Although I stick out among these small women in traditional Mayan dress, I feel quite at home and am learning quite a bit about the local customs and culture. One of the Mayan languages, Kaqchikel, is spoken here and my lessons have so far taught me how to say “thank you”, which works out quite well. My host mom, doña María, has also promised to teach me how to make tortillas and how to weave…hopefully I can rise to the challenge these next few months!

Wow.  Some experiences have a knack for knocking you off your feet, and my short trip to China last week definitely proved that to be true.  I am so grateful to Yue’e and her family for being gracious hosts, giving us eyes and insights in to such a fascinating culture.We stayed with her brother and sister-in-law, in their three story apt in Fuzhou.  This “small” city (with estimates of between 5-7 million) has much to see and do, but remains off the beaten path for most travelers.  I have never been stared at so much in my life!  My friend Steph made the comment that she felt it was like we had two heads or something.  I rarely blend in when I travel (in Central and South America) but this was pretty crazy. There are so many stories to share but here are just some of the highlights:-Eating lots of seafood- eel, shark, squid, jellyfish, clams, crabs, mussels, oysters, shrimp, lobster, carp, and many more unknown to me-Learning Fujian customs for weddings; my favorite were waiting with Yue’e in an upstairs bedroom while Jackie proved himself worthy to come to her (he sang a love song, and shouted “I love you” in Mandarin and English-Going to two receptions, one with Jackie’s family out in the country (with a 12 course meal) and one in the city at a nice restaurant (with a 20 course meal!)-Bringing in the New Year with fireworks and dancing 13 hours early J-Visiting a Buddhist temple and monastery built in 867 AD-Seeing a thousand-year-old banyon tree-Relieving post-wedding stress at hot springs; sitting in bathes of wine, tea and ginger followed by a ten dollar hour massage-Chopsticks! Going to the market

All ready before the ceremony

At the first reception

Bouquet toss (Good catch Tiff!)

I truly grew to enjoy the little squid

Thousand year old banyon tree

Lunch

View from the apt at night

Buddhist temple

Merry Christmas everyone! (at least that's what I hope those characters say...) 

I have some exciting news: tomorrow I leave for China!  It'll just be a quick trip, which is unfortunate, since I have to be back to leave for Guatemala.  My dear friend Yue'e is getting married in her hometown of Fuzhou, on the southern coast across from Taiwan.  It should be quite the adventure since my Mandarin only covers "hello", "thank you" and "I love you".

I also have to share my excitement over the white Christmas we currently have in North Dakota.  We've had a record snowfall this December and it's beautiful outside.  The downside has been the frigid cold (lots of highs below zero).  Yesterday my brother and I went inner tube sledding, but only managed to last outside for half an hour before we froze.

Here are some pics from the last time I was in Guatemala:

So I finally have my own blog.  Most people wouldn't know, but that fills me with more anxiety and stress than it should.  I'm not the best writer (as I often write how I would speak, ha!) and the idea that people can go back and read my randomness is just...I don't know, intimidating?  But I will ask patience from those who will bear with me as I figure it all out.  Having a reliable platform for sharing stories and pictures is (in my opinion) much better than long-winded, rarely read e-mails.

So what kind of stories and pictures do I have in mind to share?  Well I guess that brings me to where I am in life.  A while ago I decided I wanted to go back to school, but I also wanted more international experience....so I applied to a joint program with the Peace Corps and Southern New Hampshire University to study International Community Economic Development.  I'm finishing up my second semester of school this week (hooray!) and then I head to Guatemala in January for the next 27 months to work on a project which will be my thesis.  I am VERY excited!

I really hope you all can enjoy sharing this experience with me.  Please leave comments/feedback and keep me up to date on your adventures as well!

Much love,Brittany