So, firstly the usual apologies for it being nearly two months since I last wrote.  When things are slow at work I find little motivation to write about the monotony of my life, and September was REALLY SLOW. Anyways, the most exciting news is that the rain has finally stopped, and lately there’s been this [...]

“I can’t.” “Abby just do it¨ “It’s 30Q! That’s way too much. It’s too extravagant. I don’t need it.” “Okay Abby, let’s weight this out, how often do you think this would use it? ALL THE TIME. And it’s not like you use a ton, so it would last you a while. It’ll probably last [...]

So no matter how well you know a language or how long you’ve spoken it, there are always those moments when you find yourself completely in the dark.  Hell, it happens to me in English and I would consider myself mas o menos fluent in that category (although it has definitely gone down in the [...]

So it seems the entire country of Guatemala decided the month of June should consist of as little work as possible.  I still choose to believe it’s not a mere coincidence that it so nicely coincided with my birthday, although I’m going to say that hurricane Agatha was not my most favorite present ever… So [...]

okay, I know you are all deserving of a much longer update, but I don´t have time right now.  Rest assured I will later this week because we have no school throughout the entire country the entire week.  Why?  Well, in case you live in a hole or the US is too busy covering the [...]

I have this brilliant friend (I have many brilliant friends, but this one is especially exceptional) who recently introduced me to an interesting criticism by Ivan Illich on international service work.  Let’s figure out where my twisted and confused mind has been this past week, shall we? “You, like the values you carry, are the [...]

So last time I went on a rant about my love of cooking.  I believe some changes need to be made, primarily because I believe the previous article was extremely biased in its presentation of what appeared to be facts and did not adequately represent the Guatemalan viewpoint, so I will attempt to write this [...]

I love that question.  What does it really mean, anyways?  Can I put water in a pot and not burn rice?  Well, usually.  I get asked that question pretty much on a daily basis any time I whip out a knife or spoon (cereal does not require cooking, people) and always answer with a shrug [...]

So, its official, we’re finally volunteers.  We can cook for ourselves, stay out after dark (ish), and no longer have to call the second we leave our doorstep for somewhere other than Peace Corps headquarters.  I don’t even know what to do with all my freedom! Swear in weekend was our two days of pretending we [...]

So, as I recently learned, according to Peace Corps guidelines I am not allowed to put the name of my new home town on my blog.  Reasons?  Creepers could discover your local and go to the town and ask for the gringa and people would be easily able to point you out and then bad [...]

There are little things I fail to understand more than the celebrations that occur in Guatemala.  Being an incredibly Catholic country, there is some sort of fiesta every weekend, usually related to a huge moment in the life of Jesus that occurred no where near the time that the festival is occurring (See: Convite a.k.a. [...]

After returning from FBT last week, I expected to find my mail box at the PC Headquarters overflowing with letters, postcards, and chocolate (mostly the latter).  Of course, there was nothing, which leads me to conclude one of two things: 1) The Guatemalan Postal Service has a huge soft spot for TJ’s dark chocolate or 2) I [...]

This week marked the first big milestone in training which was our health presentations to the classes we’ve been working with.  I had major de ja vu of the group of girls I worked with in Nicaragua and got slightly nostalgic, but I decided to do  different topic than what I’d done before (especially because [...]

So it’s well known that respiratory infections are somewhat out of control in Guatemala.  I’m not surprised.  After the first week here it became a wonder to me that more people don’t die of lung related diseases.  Here are a few of the many potential sources: Black Death – I’ve spent [...]

Today marks one month exactly in Guatemala!  It’s odd…it feels like it’s been going fast, but it also feels like I’ve been here forever and I’m finally starting to feel at home here. Today was our first day visiting the schools where we will be working for the remainder of our training.  It was really exciting [...]

Apologies for not posting sooner…we’ve actually had work to do and I think this may be the first night that I’ve been able to just sit in my room in over a week. I realized that I have spoken very little of the town I live in or my daily life or anything of the sort [...]

This week our Spanish teacher, Chepe, decided to make class a little more fun by playing games instead of the usual boring vocabulary lessons. Apparently Chepe underestimated the cut-throat competetiveness of some members of our group (including yours truly, of course) and I think the effect was that we all have a tiny desire to [...]

address and phone update! Check the contact page and SEND ME PICTURES

So on Saturday we arrived in what is to be our ¨home¨ for the next three months.  We´ve all been split up according to our program and spanish level, an myself and four other volunteers are residing in Pastores, a town about 5 minutes north of Antigua.  We were fortunate enough to arrive on the [...]

and I am sitting on my couch, watching ellen degeneres, eating my last bowl of oatmeal (although I guess oats are one of those universal staples), and pushing packing to the farthest, most unreachable corners of my thoughts.  I must say that despite my relatively frequent travels this is the part of it that never [...]