Yesterday I talked the kid who works at one of the used American clothing stores in town down from 60Quetzales (about $6) to 25Q ($3) for a pair of Steve Madden ballet flats. I told him no one else had feet as big as mine in Uspantan and therefore I was the only potential client for the shoes.

Total win.

So many changes.

First off, I had a wonderful New Year´s on the beach with my sitemates and then a fabulous visit from my parents. Then my Peace Corps service came crashing down (a little over-dramatic but it stays).

Two of my closest friends left Peace Corps and Guatemala and last week we received the news that Peace Corps Guatemala needs to cut its number in order to stay open. The reason the volunteer numbers need to be lowered is that Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala (the northern triangle) is the most dangerous region in the world not currently at war. Apparently this doesn´t come off well to our Congress. Understandably so.

A couple weeks ago the volunteers in Honduras were all pulled out while Washington takes a month to assess the security situation and will decide whether or not the volunteers will be allowed to return. El Salvador and Guatemala will go under security reviews after. Instead of pulling out the volunteers, Washington has decided to lower numbers. The way they have decided to achieve this has been by implementing an early COS (close of service) for the groups of volunteers closest to their original COS date. The group that swore in before mine (March 2010) will have to leave a month early and my group (July 2010) will have to exit Guatemala 4 months early. Also, any other volunteer has been offered an early COS- meaning, even if the volunteer has been in this country for 3 months, he or she will have all the same standing as a volunteer who has completed the full 27 months. It has been a tempting offer for many.

In addition, volunteers are being pulled out of various departments and consolidated in the northern highlands. Luckily, my beautiful department of El Quiche will not be affected by this. Peace Corps will be providing a shuttle service for volunteers so that we don´t have to use the Inter-American highway and minimize time on the chicken buses, where the majority of crime against volunteers takes place.

Basically, I now have less than 8 weeks to wrap up everything I thought I would have 5 months to complete. I need to get the committee of the village receiving projects legalized, get my grant application in, graduate my health promoters, transfer my work to my replacements, say my goodbyes and return states-side. I am fortunate that I will have volunteers coming in to oversee the construccion on the latrines and stoves but also heartbroken that I cannot be here to see the final product of the hardwork that has gone into training the 25 families receiving the projects in health and healthy home infrastructure.

There are many critiques of the way that Peace Corps has approached this decision and the way that they are choosing to reduce our numbers but the decision is not negotiable so I, and the other volunteers affected by all this, will just have to keep moving ahead and try to get as much done as possible in the drastically less time than we had thought.

Already missing Uspantan.

The Christmas season in Uspantan basically consists of church services

Tons of fireworks and firecrackers

And Christmas lights that play music non-stop

It's a mix of fun, solidarity and utter horror.

Whether you learned about the butterfly effect in Literary History 101 or from the great Ashton Kutcher film, we are experiencing our own butterfly effect here in Uspantan.

Cardamom is a spice used in Asian and Middle Eastern cooking and drinks. Often considered a delicacy when infused in teas. Guatemala is one of the worlds largest exporters of this plant, most of which goes to the ME. The majority of cardamom plantations in Guatemala are located in the northern region of Uspantan, the Zona Reina. From October to January, the men of this region work 7-day weeks harvesting the cardamom and selling to exporters who dry, package and ship the spice. Speaking with the health promoters that I work with in this region, I have found that the majority of a family's yearly income is made during these 4 months of harvesting.

Last year a pound of freshly cut cardamom was sold for 15 ($2)Quetzales to companies that would then dry and export. This year the price has dropped to 3 Questzales (.40 cents). Thus leaving the families of the Zona Reina essentially 4/5th poorer than they were last year.

This sudden and devastating drop is due to various factors affecting the market. First, because cardamom has been so profitable over the past years, production, especially in India, has consistently risen to meet demand. Thus Guatemalan cardamom is competing with a much closer producer of the spice. Secondly, and most importantly, the unforseen uprisings in the Middle East have disrupted the market and demand for cardamom. The Middle Eastern market has been flooded with an abundance of the spice but there are few interested in buying.

And there we have our butterfly effect. Egypt's Facebook revolution set a series of events into play that have landed an entire community here in Uspantan struggling to make ends meet this year.

Walking to work the other day I noticed that the first stop light has been put up in town!

A couple problems: red, yellow and green are all on all the time and it is made of cardboard. I'm not really sure what its purpose is but it's a start.

The most appropriate word to describe life over the past month. It also happens to be the 'state' in which Guatemala finds itself at present. The government of Guatemala declared a 'State of Calamity' on Monday due to the devastation of the roads post- tropical storm 12E. I cannot think of a more unorganized word to describe one's country than 'calamity'. Love it. So appropriate.

On September 11th, Guatemala held national elections. The Presidential race was narrowed down to 2 for the runoff in November, house representatives were elected as well as mayors. In general, mayoral elections tend to cause the most violence and tension. This was certainly the case in Uspantan. The current mayor was reelected to the dismay of many. He did not win with a majority but had the highest percentage of all candidates... as is typical procedure for democratic elections. However, this did not sit well with supporters of the losing parties.

Here comes the fun part! Elections were the 11th and Independence Day was the 15th. Since everyone has the day off work and school for Independence Day (which includes a day or two before Independence Day as well to 'prepare' for the grand celebration)protests against the election outcomes were conveniently postponed until the following Monday, when everyone was sure that Independence Day had been properly celebrated and should have been returning to work. How nifty!

Independence Day parade ending at the soccer field.

Some of my English students:

Girl in traditional Uspantan traje (on the right with the fun head gear)

Fun Independence Day tradition- greece up a pig and whoever can catch it can keep it. This kid won and walks away with his prize.

Other greece event: teams of men try to climb a pole covered in pig fat. There is an envelope at the top with money and whoever reaches the top keeps the money. No one won.

But it was fun to watch...

So basically, 8 days after the elections and after all the Independence Day celebrations were done a group of angry Uspantekos gathered in front of the municipal building and declared that the mayor had not won the majority of the vote (true) and therefore was illegally and deceptively accepting his reelection (completely false and not how elections work). The crowd was angry and tense but disbanded around lunch time leaving the threat of another such showing on inauguration day.

Moral of the story, I got the heck out of Uspantan and went to the United States of America. Best country ever. I met my family in Florida for my cousin's beautiful wedding to his stunning bride and basically laid out in the sun for 4 days and relished in the fact that I was not the tallest person in the vicinity and babies did not cry when they looked at me. In fact, there were very few babies. Which was awesome.

I then popped up to New York for 9 days to annoy all my friends with real-people jobs and force everyone to hang out with me. I could go on and on about the luxuries and conveniences of America but will limit the list to a few: drinking water from the faucet, trash pick-up (that doesn't then take the trash to the side of a mountain), grocery stores with everything you could possibly want, food, ohmygod the food, public transportation that involves few children, is reliable and everyone respects your personal space. Incredible.

Florida Keys

Hung out with the pops

Hung out with my mom

My dad's idea of vacation: a view and a cigar:

Beach time with the cousins

My ma breaking it down at the wedding with her sisters

.

Last night in FL. Dinner with the whole fam as we send off Jason and Suzanne on their honeymoon. The restaurant brought them a congratulatory fish cake. It was weird.

NYC

So I took the majority of my NY pictures on disposable cameras because the outcome is more fun that way... but is less sharing-friendly. Sorry, guys.

But I have made my way back to Guatemala, possibly at the worst time climate-wise. I landed on October 12th on the 2nd plane that was allowed to land in Guatemala City that day due to weather (yeah, it was a great flight). Guatemala was hit heavily by rain due to the tropical storm 12E. Roads have been washed out, there are countless landslides, many cases of flooding and blackouts. Thankfully I missed the brunt of the storm but was stuck at the Peace Corps center for 3 days after arriving before being cleared to travel back to site. It is my personal belief that tropical storm 12E served the sole purpose of eroding away all the political party posters covering the rocks and mountain sides of Guatemala. Did I mention billboards aren't a thing here? Candidates just paint their names and party emblems on rocks, houses, mountains or anything else.

Now I return to this 'State of Calamity'. We are not allowed to travel until further notice while this country figures the road situation out, I suppose. Which is fine because I need some down time after the ruckus that was the past 4 weeks.

Please note that since I made the above statement that America is the "best country ever", I found out that this song is #1 on Itunes:

It's October.

I have been a terrible blogger, but I look to redeem myself.

Since my last entry I have been to 3 new countries, had my dog escape/stolen, welcomed 6 new healthy homes volunteers to the villages of Uspantan, witnessed the army helicoptered into my town, saw the police get kicked out of town, saw the police come back, have been woken up to blasting campaign music countless times, celebrated over a year of being in site and have started my countDOWN of service.

In May Sheila and Jenny came to visit. Wonderful! We went around Guatemala and Honduras, down to the bay island, Roatan, and then through Copan to see the Mayan ruins on our way back to Guatemala.

June and July were hectic with the arrival of the 2011 Healthy Homes group of volunteers. As I was to receive quite a few in my municipality, admin had me help out during their training: hosting field based training and the visit of 2 trainees for IDA (Individually Directed Activity), a week of HIV workshops at the office near Antigua and finally site visits. I am happy to report that all 6 are doing well and I am super happy to have their support in 3 of the villages in which I have been working!

My reward after all the stress and travelling of June and July was a visit from Jackie. We stuck to Guatemala and mainly hung out in my town. She got to see me in English-teching action, we translated for US doctors who were doing a surgery drive at the hospital, and she was actually here in Uspantan when the army was helicoptered in to arrest 2 drug lords who were travelling through. Not something you get to see on just any vacation!

Last month I had in-service trining and a project design workshop with Peace Corps and my counterparts. Now in my second year, I am looking to do infrastructure projects in 2 of the villages where I have my health promoter groups. In the coming weeks and months, my health promoter groups will be graduating the year-long program of health trainings and will begin to give their own workshops in their communities. As a reward for all their hard work and initiative I want to do latrine and cement floor projects in these villages and so am begining to look into all means of funding for this. The idea is that as these health promoters have been receiving trainings this year on improving health and well-being they would now be able to lead as examples of healthy habbits and home infrastructure!...we shall see.

After the workshops I went to visit Charlotte in Nicaragua! Charlotte spent the summer doing a fellowship with FINCA, accumulating data on the success of micro-loans that had been given out last year throughout the country. It was amazing to see her and have her show me around Nicaragua! We then spent a night in San Salvador and then she came back to Guatemala with me. It was so nice to have her in Uspantan and to be able to show her my program, my health promoter groups and, of course, take her to some English classes.

Now I find my self in September, getting ready to graduate my first group of health promoters, counting down the days until the end of the school year, and hoping that the elections pass without any violence or tension. Elections are this coming Sunday the 11th and so far it seems like everything should be fine but we have been getting mixed speculations from people here in town. Our mayor is a somewhat divisive figure and if re-elected will spurr quite a bit of discontent. The plan: Hilary, Stephen and I are going to stock up on food, water and rum and wait it out in one of our houses.

Last but not least, I am going back to the United States of America for this first time at the end of the month! I have been so busy and have been fortunate enough to have so many visitors that I almost thought I wouldn't feel the need to go back but the second I bought my ticket I realized how much I am looking forward to this. If for nothing else, to take a breather and regain some perspective before launching into grant writing and infrastructure building. I will be spending a few days in Florida with the family as my cousin is getting married and then up to New York for 9 days! I am beyond excited and cannot wait to see all your beautiful faces!

I had 3 interesting conversations on the street this week- one cute, one funny, one creepy. Monday evening when I was walking Mojito a little girl stopped me and asked if my fingers hurt. I asked her why and she said 'Because you walk the dog on a leash.' Adorable. She thought holding the leash was straining my delicate fingers.

The second wasn't so cute but much more entertaining. On Wednesday I left the hospital to go to lunch and as I was walking out the front gate a man stopped me. This man proceeded to tell me that he had had a horse that kicked him in the chest so he killed the horse. Confused about where this conversation was going and somewhat assuming he was seeking medical attention, I continued to listen. He then asked me, 'Would you like to buy the carcas?' Completely unsure of how I should answer this question I asked him why he thought I would want to buy his dead horse. He explained that he heard that Cubans like to eat horse meat and since it is well-known that Cuban doctors work at the hospital he thought he would swing by and check if anyone was interested. This man was not only misinformed about Cuban delicacies but also thought I was Cuban. Points for my Spanish?

Finally the creepy conversation. Today I was walked back to the hospital from lunch and ran into one of the ambulance drivers. This particular driver likes to get completely wasted and wander around town. When he is not on shift he is always in state of utter inebriation. It is quite impressive. Anyhow, he walked right up to me and in his slurred Spanish he said 'I think I'd like to steal me a white girl!' More amused than offended I responded 'Oh yeah?' He said 'Yeah, I could put her in my backpack and carry her around!' and then pointed to the small knapsack on his back, laughed, said (in English) 'I just kiiiiidding' and walked away. He is completely harmless and I doubt will even remember the conversation tomorrow.

Basically, it was a fun week.

I think holiday season has finally come to an end here in Uspantan. First was Semana Santa- holy week- which is the week leading up to Easter. In Guatemala there are celebrations and processions nearly every day of holy week except Saturday and Sunday. It is customary to have a field day on Saturday when families spend time outdoors together eating food and playing games. And absolutely nothing is done on Sunday. Exact opposite of the states!

The processions are beautiful. In the days leading up to Good Friday the statue of Jesus is carried around town and on Good Friday, the Catholics pull out the big guns. In the morning the route that the procession takes is covered in alfombras- carpets- which are made of dyed saw dust, pine needles and flowers. Families that live along the route take responsibility for the section in front of their houses. The alfombras are incredibly intricate and beautiful. The procession then walks over the alfombras as it carried the statue of Jesus and the cross from the Church to the Calvario- the station of the cross. Jesus is then mounted on the cross and remains there through the afternoon.

In the evening the statue is then taken down and a second procession, following a different route, carries Jesus back to the Church. Once again, the route is covered with the alfombras. It is a beautiful tradition that families take so much time and effort into creating though they only last a few hours.

The best part of being in Guatemala for holy week and Easter was explaining to my English students what the heck Easter is. I never really thought about it but saying, out loud, that once a year an over-grown, egg-laying, bunny rabbit comes into our homes and hides eggs, candy and Easter baskets sounds completely derranged!

The procession making it's way from the church.

The street from the church to the calvario.

The cross.

The procession entering the calvario.

Hilary and me helping make an alfombra.

How the alfombras are made. Dyed saw dust.

Reenactment of the capture of Jesus.

The alfombras after the procession passes over.

I spent the week after holy week and before Uspantan's feria doing HIV workshops. There are now 250 teacher-track students who are hopefully completely afraid of contracting HIV!

The feria here in town was a blast. Every town in Guatemala has a patron saint and every town has a 'feria' to celebrate the day of the patron saint. This day of celebration usually extends into a week of activties and not-working. Funny fact about Uspantan: the full name of my town is San Miguel Uspantan which, clearly, means our patron saint is San Miguel. The actually day of celebration for San Miguel is September 29th. But September is one of the rainiest months of the year so Uspantan took it upon itself to change the feria to May, when the weather is much less rainy and more manageable. So smart!

Anyhow the feria kicked off on May 1st with an annual rance which I actually participated in. It was fun! Then the 5th to the 9th was full of dancing, beauty contest, bull ridding, cock fighting, motorcross, horse racing and carnival games and rides. This sounds a bit fancier than it actually was but I got to bet on horses with the vice-mayor and the mayor's brother, watch drunk men get thrown from bulls, I had the opportunity to be appalled by the reality of cock fighting and played fusbol with some of my students. In sum- success.

Dancing in front of the church

The indigenous princess. One of my English students!

Girls in the parade. Wearing traditional Uspanteko traje.

At the Ladino beauty pageant.

Bull ridding.

Soccer game.

Fireworks show in front of the municipal building.

Mojito enjoyed the feria with some carnival corn on the cobb:

I think holiday season has finally come to an end here in Uspantan. First was Semana Santa- holy week- which is the week leading up to Easter. In Guatemala there are celebrations and processions nearly every day of holy week except Saturday and Sunday. It is customary to have a field day on Saturday when families spend time outdoors together eating food and playing games. And absolutely nothing is done on Sunday. Exact opposite of the states!

The processions are beautiful. In the days leading up to Good Friday the statue of Jesus is carried around town and on Good Friday, the Catholics pull out the big guns. In the morning the route that the procession takes is covered in alfombras- carpets- which are made of dyed saw dust, pine needles and flowers. Families that live along the route take responsibility for the section in front of their houses. The alfombras are incredibly intricate and beautiful. The procession then walks over the alfombras as it carried the statue of Jesus and the cross from the Church to the Calvario- the station of the cross. Jesus is then mounted on the cross and remains there through the afternoon.

In the evening the statue is then taken down and a second procession, following a different route, carries Jesus back to the Church. Once again, the route is covered with the alfombras. It is a beautiful tradition that families take so much time and effort into creating though they only last a few hours.

The best part of being in Guatemala for holy week and Easter was explaining to my English students what the heck Easter is. I never really thought about it but saying, out loud, that once a year an over-grown, egg-laying, bunny rabbit comes into our homes and hides eggs, candy and Easter baskets sounds completely derranged!

The procession making it's way from the church.

The street from the church to the calvario.

The cross.

The procession entering the calvario.

Hilary and me helping make an alfombra.

How the alfombras are made. Dyed saw dust.

Reenactment of the capture of Jesus.

The alfombras after the procession passes over.

I spent the week after holy week and before Uspantan's feria doing HIV workshops. There are now 250 teacher-track students who are hopefully completely afraid of contracting HIV!

The feria here in town was a blast. Every town in Guatemala has a patron saint and every town has a 'feria' to celebrate the day of the patron saint. This day of celebration usually extends into a week of activties and not-working. Funny fact about Uspantan: the full name of my town is San Miguel Uspantan which, clearly, means our patron saint is San Miguel. The actually day of celebration for San Miguel is September 29th. But September is one of the rainiest months of the year so Uspantan took it upon itself to change the feria to May, when the weather is much less rainy and more manageable. So smart!

Anyhow the feria kicked off on May 1st with an annual rance which I actually participated in. It was fun! Then the 5th to the 9th was full of dancing, beauty contest, bull ridding, cock fighting, motorcross, horse racing and carnival games and rides. This sounds a bit fancier than it actually was but I got to bet on horses with the vice-mayor and the mayor's brother, watch drunk men get thrown from bulls, I had the opportunity to be appalled by the reality of cock fighting and played fusbol with some of my students. In sum- success.

Dancing in front of the church

The indigenous princess. One of my English students!

Girls in the parade. Wearing traditional Uspanteko traje.

At the Ladino beauty pageant.

Bull ridding.

Soccer game.

Fireworks show in front of the municipal building.

Mojito enjoyed the feria with some carnival corn on the cobb:

Last month I had an amazing visit from Sarah and Meredith! It was much needed and a great time. Hard to believe I lived with those girls for 6 years and hadn't seen them in almost a year(It was exactly 1 year ago I left New York on the 15th of April)!

I greeted by my estranged roomates at the airport and to my great delight they were donning this season's hottest ponchos- no really, apparently ponchos are 'in' this summer. Only minutes into being in Guatemala and already making such efforts to integrate! We spent their first 2 days in Antigua and I, being a drill seargent of a host, took them to climb Volcan Pacaya on their first full day in Guatemala. It was beautiful...and surprisingly cold for a volcano.

Setting off on the hike.

At the top of Volcan Pacaya with Volcan de Fuego in the background.

We then travelled up to Alta Verapaz to Semuc Champey. Alta Verapaz was the region of Gautemala under a State of Seige for 2 months last December and was lifted in February. The purpose of the State of Seige was to find out drug lords and drug rings in the region but because of the suspention of civil rights, Peace Corps Volunteers were evacuated from the region and were not allowed back until the seige was lifted. This took quite a toll on the service of many volunteers as well as tourism to the region. So we did our part to support the resurgance of the tourism industry in the region...plus I have been really wanting to go. Semuc Champey is a national park and literally translates to 'Where the water hides under the rocks'. There is a large river that runs through the park and in one area the river flows under caves until surfacing again. The park has hiking and water pools, swimming, tubing, candel-light cave exploring and is gorgeous.

Tubing down the river.

At the top of the Mirador.

We stayed at a great hostel, El Retiro, in Lanquin, about 40 minutes outside of the park. In Lanquin there is an amazing cave tour. The cave is not only huge but home to thousands of bats. Every evening the bats fly out of the caves at the same hour to hunt. We went with our guide and explored the caves, saw some nasty-ass spiders and then as we were leaving at dusk, witnessed the bats leaving the caves. In sum, we were not only trying not to slip and fall into the cave's abyss but also hoping that a bat wouldn't fly into our faces. Our tour guide asured us that this has never happened but we were very skeptical. Meredith probably still believes she has rabies.

Touring the bat caves.

Hoping not to get hit in the face by a bat. Please note the bat flying right next to my head.

I then took the lovely ladies to my site. Sarah and Meredith went with me to my English classes, out to one of my villages for home visits and hygiene talks and we ended the fun with an STD workshop at the local teacher-track school. Magical!

Out in one of my aldeas.

Sarah taking creepy photos of me talking about SERIOUS ISSUES- i.e.genital herpes and gonorrhea

We ended the trip in Antigua. This past March Peace Corps celebrated its 50 year anniversary. The Ambassador of the United States to Guatemala had a beautiful reception at his home in the capital to commemorate this. Needless to say this brought the majority of Volunteers from all over the country to Antigua for the weekend so the city was a bit over-run.

We ended the trip with a visit to a macadamia plantation and a coffee finca just outside of Antigua. Then Sarah and Meredith were off back to New York leaving me with my NYC visit count-down- 6 months to go!

Obligatory Arch Street poses:

America!

Come back!

Life has been pretty busy as I try to cram in all my obligations before Sarah and Meredith come to visit. Nevertheless, everything has been moving along and time has been flying much more quickly than I ever expected from my Peace Corps experience. I was expecting long days and now I can't find enough time! Of course I prefer it this way. Better to be busy than bored!

My promoter groups are doing well. I am continuing monthly workshops and now moving into home visit phases with my groups to check that each participant is implementing the healthy home-habbits we discuss in the trainings. I just started in one of my 6 commities that has the health promoter program and so far I am pretty satisfied with what I have seen. It is amazing the efforts people make to change for the better with what little they have.

English classes are coming along. I am now more convinced than ever that teaching is the last profession I am cut out for and I now understand every time a teacher flipped out or cracked in class. Teaching is hard and I am glad to have the expereience and at the same time cannot wait for it to be over. My sitemates and I started our bi-monthly teacher workshops this months as well. Twice a month we are teaching teachers how to teach English. This way our efforts in the schools will be more sustainable.

Workshops in the schools are also going well. So far we have been working self-esteem and HIV and Sarah and Meredith will have the pleasure of accompanying me to an STD workshop. I am really enjoying working in the schools because now I know every student in Uspantan...and they all know me. Which is a little scary but makes me feel much more safe and well-known in town. I can't walk from home to work without at least one of my students screaming 'Good morning' or 'Good night'...in which case I then have to correct the student.

But I am enjoing life in Uspantan and really appreciate the quiet weekends I have in town. Even though life is quiet here it still has its bizarre moments: Last Sunday as I was walking to the store and a very very drunk man followed me down the street and into the tienda. I tried to ignore him but he kept stummbling after me. I walked up to the store owner who I know pretty well at this point and nervously laughed 'This man is following me. And he is wasted.' The drunk man then sputtered 'p*ta' at me and walked out. No idea who he was and probably will never see him again but he apparently thinks I'm a b*tch! Ohhhh Guatemala. I got a good laugh out of that one.

On Friday afternoon I took Mojito out to the soccer field to run around a bit. As we were out there a funeral procession went by. You can spot a funeral procession because the there are 2 pick up trucks driving slowly followed by a crowd of people. The first pick up carries the speakers which obnoxiously blast melancholy music and the second carries the coffin. An hour later as I was giving an HIV workshop in one of the high schools, the procession went right past my classroom window...to make a serious topic even more grave. Rather selfishly, this funeral procession was now getting on my nerves as the blasting music droned out my presentation. As I left the high school and walked past a popular restaurant in town there was the coffin-carrying pickup truck from the procession parked in front and a big group of people, I can only assume they were participants of the procession, standing around the truck snacking on chips, french fries and sodas. The best part of this whole scenario: the coffin was still on the back of the pickup truck and now was being used as a table for the midday meal. Priceless.

Finally, happy be-lated international women's day!

(A woman marching for International Women's Day in Uspantan- classically holding her banner, walking and breastfeeding at the same time)

For the past couple months someone is my apartment building (Yes, I live in an apartment building. Only one in town!)has been OBSSESSED with Justin Bieber's album...specifically the songs 'Baby' and 'Somebody to Love'. Every morning, afternoon and evening, if I open my windows I can hear these songs on repeat. It is a bit rediculous but doesn't bother me too much because I can drown out the music by putting on my own.

This week the obssessee has finally learned all the words to the songs! It only took almost 3 months of non-stop Bieber, but the culprit of this noise violation has at last memorized the lyrics and is now able to sing along, in his or her (I honestly can't tell) loudest voice.

It is quite magical.

Baybee baybee baybee owwww

I'm going to start with some great news- on Tuesday my program director came up to Uspantan for meeting with my counterpart, the head doctor here at the hospital, the technicians and myself. I presented the work I have been doing and a proposal for continued work by new Healthy Homes volunteers in villages where I am working. The new cycle comes in April and will be placed in July (when I celebrate my 1 year anniversary in Uspantan). The idea is if I can get support in some of my villages I can narrow my focus on a few villages just outside of Uspantan, the hospital staff trainings and the youth program while the new volunteers continue with the Health Promotoers I have already started training and expand in their respective villages. And my director completely agrees and I will be receiving support in 3 of my villages! I am pumped! The villages that I proposed are a bit far away and have a lot of participants. The location makes it difficult for me to visit the villages more than once a month, when I give th trainings, and the size makes it difficult to get to know the participants and the necessities of the communities on a more personal level. Having PC Volunteers actually livings and working in these communities will be of great benefit to the project, to the participants and, I think, for the volunteers who receive the sites.

Moral of the story- I have been putting in a lof of hours in the hospital preping this presentation and coordinating the meeting on top of my work out in the villages. This morning, as I had nothing planned, I decided to have a relaxed morning, make coffee and spend time with Mojito. I got to the hospital about 9. A bit later my counterpart comes into the office and our dialogue goes as follows:

Counterpart- "We were waiting for you to start the meeting but you didn't come so we just had it without you."

Me- "No one told me about a meeting or I would have been here earlier."

Counterpart- "Oh, well we decided just this morning to have it."

Me- "Well what was it about?"

Counterpart- "Your schedule of activities for the rest of the month and for March!"

Me- "Why didn't you call me since the meeting was about my schedule?"

Counterpart- "Well we thought you would come and you didn't."

Me- "You should have called so I could have told you I would be a bit late."

Counterpart- "Don't worry, I'll catch you up this afternoon on everything we talked about."

So now I am waiting to meet with my counterpart to go over a meeting the team I work with had about the schedule I have had posted and organized since the beginning of the month. This should be interesting.

I miss efficiency and phone plans. (Note- there are no phone plans in Guatemala. You pay as you go. When making phone calls or sending texts, only the person making the call or sending the text pays, the recipient pays nothing. Which is why no one wanted to call or text me about the meeting. Because they did not want to use their own phone credit. Awesome, right?)

Sorry for the delay and brief disappearance...my gmail was accessed by someone in the Czech Republic which sent out spam to all my contacts and shut down my blog because of the suspicious behavior. But we are back!

As I mentioned my parents came to visit. The luxury of staying in hotels with hot water and water pressure was incredible!...it's the small things in life.

First we hit up Antigua for a counple days. We ate some great food, had some delicious drinks, toured the jade museum, a coffee plantation, visited countless artisan markets and sipped some great coffee in the park. Not to mention my dad went loco for the sudden access to countless Cuban cigars...

My parents in front of the Merced

From Antigua we rented a car and headed over to Lake Atitlan.

We stayed one night in Panajachel, the biggest town on the lake, and one night at a small hotel called Casa del Mundo- only reachable by boat and completely hidden away in the mountains surrounding the lake. It was insanely gorgeous and relaxing.

View of the lake and volcanos from our balcony.

From the Lake we moved north to Uspantan! My parents got a nice look at my life here- met my counterpart, toured the hospital and my office and even went out to one of my aldeas, Sicache, to sit in on a training. I think that my group of promoters felt very honored to have my parents there and even thanked God countless times for their presence at the training...maybe it got a little uncomfortable but it was a genuinely great experience to have them with me out in the community, seeing firsthand the type of work that we doing.

That afternoon Hilary took my parents and me out to a community called Laj Chimel. The village is located about an hour and a half north of Uspantan and is home to a beautiful cloud forest and incredible hiking. This village was hit very hard by the armed conflict, which many refer to as "la violencia" (the violence). We were given a tour of the forests that surround this village by a woman named Maria. This forest housed refugees during the war, including Maria. The resources and protection of the forest became the only means of survival for many during these years. I am afraid I would not be able to do her story justice by retelling it here...you will all have to come and visit me to hear it for yourselves!

Maria sitting at the top of the lookout spot

NYU Dad!...Cloud forest behind

Our next stop was Tikal, one of the largest archaelogical sites of the ancient Mayan civilizations.

A Mayan ceremony in the grand plaza, Temple 1 behind- view from Temple 2

The fam in front of Temple 1

View of Temples 1,2 and 3 from the top of Temple 4

At the lookout on Temple 4

I'm sure the pictures can speak for themselves. Tikal was amazing. From Tikal we hopped over to San Pedro, Belize for a few days of R&R... because thats basically all there is to do in Belize. It was perfect.

My dad and me snorkelin along the second largest coral reef in the world. It was insane- we saw not only the coral but also sharks, turtles, anemones and tons of weird looking fish (I'm not a fish expert)

We jumped back over to Guatemala to spend a night on lake Peten before flying back to Guatemala City where we had a delicious farewell dinner and my parents flew back to the great United States of America...and I went back to "roughing it" as my mother so kindly puts it.

Lake Peten

Sunset from our bungalow

View of volcanos flying into Guatemala City (Meredith and Sarah- you will see this in the LIVE in less than 8 weeks!)

The trip was amazing (if I haven't said that enough) and now I am back to my Peace Corps life- void of fancy hotels, airplanes and martinis. I have a very exciting year to look forward to though. My promoter groups are still coming along and this month I started a new training program with the nurses and educators in the hospital, representing all the Health Posts throughout the municipality- there are 12 all together. Every other month we will be doing trainings on how to give workshops using the dynamic and hands-on ideaology that I use in my own work. The hope is to present a new approach to teaching the basics of health and hygiene that will continue when my stint here is done here. Horray for sustainability! The idea is that after each training the participants go back to their Health Posts and give the same workshop to groups within the community. We shall see how the new methodologies work for them. Fingers crossed!

School started last week and sadly, as I have reported before, school funding is a very serious issue in Guatemala. This year nearly all schools were left without sufficient teachers. As a result three schools have asked for the support of the Peace Corps Volunteers in town to give English classes. Hilary and I will be sharing the responsibility of teaching 5 classes at one of the high schools and I will be helping a colleague from the hospital who is teaching English at another high school. It's a bit daunting but the options are: 1. Suck it up and teach the English classes, or 2. The kids don't get English classes this year. So obviously we got guilted into that one...But this year I am also helping with a new workshop series we at the hospital are implementing in the high schools. We will be working with sex education and issues of self-esteem and these English classes will certainly get me in good standing with the Principals. Personal incentives!

One last project to announce. Through a program called World Wise Schools, I have been paired with a Spanish teacher in Milwaukee and will be corresponding through Skype and photos with his students. I am excited to share a bit of my experiences with the students and the goal is to educate not only on the work that we do in Peace Corps but also about the culture and languages found here in Guatemala. Hopefully I'll be able to get some of my coworkers on Skype with the classes to teach them a bit of K'iche!

Go Steelers!

Since I brought Mojito back to Uspantan with me and started taking him for walks around town the number of dogs I have seen being walked on a leash has gone from 0 to 5. We are such trend setters!

Also, I have been a bit MIA this month. I just got back to town yesterday after spending the past 2 weeks travelling around Guatemala with my parents. Now back to work and looking forward to a very busy February.

Pictures of the Wines family tearing up the Guatemalan countryside to come...

From the bottom of my heart

(Students from my English class- My sitemates Hillary and Stephen make an appearance)

This is Mojito. Believe it or not, I did not name him. I adopted him on Sunday and one of the volunteers at the pound (probably the only pound in this country) had named him and it has stuck.

We had a rough first few days adjusting but he is doing much better...as in going to the bathroom outside! I get the funniest looks from people as I walk him around town on a leash. Using a leash is unheard of in Guatemala but I am hoping to start a new collar/ leash trend in Uspantan. We shall see if it catches on...

Work-wise, December has been busy without the crazyness that was my November. Every other day some Christmas-related festivity is taking place so people are generally a bit less motivated to do much work. I am starting to get used to bombas and fireworks going off throughout the night.

Last night was the celebration of La Concepcion. As I was leaving my house to take Mojito for a walk a large procession carrying a shrine passed through the street with children runnig ahead to light bombas and firecrackers along the path. Safety first! A few nights ago was the tree lighting ceremony in the park- fully equiped with a firework display and live marimba band. The Muni was giving away ponche (warm fruit, cider-type drink) and tamales which is the traditional Christmas meal in Guatemala. It definitely feels like Christmas around here.

My promoter groups are going well and I have started my second medicinal plant garden in one of my communities, Poblaj. The English classes Hilary and I have been giving come to a close next week which I am looking forward to. The classes were fun and helped me get to know a lot of people but it will be nice to take a breather. Still not sure where I will be or what I will be doing for Christmas but I am looking forward to some days off before the start of the new year!

This week marks my 5th month in site and by the end of December I will have been in Guatemala for 8 months...crazy!

Today when I got to the hospital someone (assuming a patient) had tied their chicken to the trash can at the main entrance. It reminded of me of people tying their dogs to street poles in front of supermarkets. Except it was someone's chicken. Tied to a trash can. In front of a hospital. A place of health and sanitation.

More impressive is that someone walked their chicken to their doctor's appointment and then was so concerned about losing it that they tied it up.

On a completely different note: huge shot out to my mother who turns one fabulous year older today!...along with Ms. Britney Spears. Which basically makes them the same person.

Some pictures from my Carribean Thanksgiving vacation.

We travelled out to Rio Dulce for a night then took a boat up the river to where it opens up to the Carribean and stayed in a small town called Livingston. Thanksgiving weekend happens to coincide with the celebration of National Garifuna Day. The Garifuna people live in the eastern part of Guatemala and are of West African and Carribean descent. Livingston is kind of like the capital of the Garifuna people

Livingston definitely did not feel like the Guatemala I have known for the past 7 months. The Garifuna culture is beautiful- tons of music, dancing and food!

Rio Dulce:

Jungle. Actually where they filmed Jeorge of the Jungle. Brendan Fraser was here!

Lilypads.

My sitemate, Hilary, and Jared, who lives in a neighboring municipality.

Livingston in the day:

Dancing in the street.

Cooking food in the street (with amazing hats!).

Livingston at night:

More music in the street.

More dancing in the street. This woman taught me how to shake.

Thanksgiving dinner:

November has been extremely busy. In a great way. I was, unfortunately, unable to celebrate Halloween this year and there is a great big gapping hole in my heart because of this. Best. Holiday. Ever.

On Halloween a group of Canadian volunteers from the Hearts and Hands Foundation arrived in Uspantan. They spent the week building eco-friendly stoves in 3 villages of Uspantan. Three other Peace Corps volunteers and I served as translators for the group as only 2 of the 25 volunteers spoke Spanish. Going back and forth between English and Spanish all day is pretty exhausting but it was great practice. And now I know how to build stoves! Life lessons!

Some of the work from the week:

Before

After (The family and our team: the Canadian Volunteers, Don Nataniel, a local leader in the village we were working, and Pablo a technician from the Muni)

Children coloring pictures of the eco-friendly stoves

Helper (JK- SAFETY HAZZARD)

Proud owners of a new stove. Note the black ceiling. The lady of the house had been cooking over an open fire for 25 years. Materials were dropped off with the families the week before we arrived and her son carried each piece of the stove from the road down the mountain to the house. The house is only reachable by foot.

Goat.

On November 1st we took a break from work to celebrate Todos Santos (All Saints Day). I went to the cemetary to eat lunch with a family that the Peace Corps volunteers are close with here in town. It's a beautiful and colorful tradition.

The cemetary.

Flying kites.

Remains of a Mayan ceremony (note the mix of Mayan and Catholic tradition).

I spent the following week at a Reconnect conference at the Peace Corps Center in Santa Lucia (near the capital). Everyone from my training group got back together for this. It was chance to review our first months in site and develop our work plans for the coming months leading up to In Service Training. The last few days of the week I spent in K'iche' classes. I am now on the hunt for a forml teacher here in Uspantan.

Finally, my program director came out to Uspantan to visit this week. We went out to the communities where I am working in the Zona Reyna. We did a full tour of the region, visiting the health posts and 24-hour health centers and meeting with the teams of nurses and educators that I work with out there. He also sat in on a couple of my workshops with my health promoter groups. Lucky for me one of the groups is one of my stellar promoter groups- participatory and energentic. I have found that the most receptive communities to my program are the most remote. It makes sense. When very few resources are offered, there is apparent enthusiasm to take advantage of any opportunities available. The enthusiasm also encourages me to make the treck every month (5 hours in car on the worst road ever!).

Getting the workshop started

Working with the educators from the hospital (I'm so huge in this country)

A nurse from the health post translating into Q'eqch'i

Game.

Some of the promoters presenting to the group.

Ending with an activity.

Now I have the Thanksgiving weekend to look forward to. My site mate, Hilary, and I will be heading out to the Eastern coast to chill out on the beach for the holiday. Finally, my first vacation since I got to Guatemala! While it can't beat Thanksgiving in Ohio with the family I'm pretty sure I will be able to enjoy myself...especially if I get to swap out turkey for margaritas.

I have been in Guatemala 6 amazing months now. I have been in 4 tropical storms, a flash flood, been evacuated from my training town, seen countless landslides, been stranded in Uspantan for weeks due to closed roads, I have seen dogs attack, micro drivers fist fight for passengers, I have been chased around a town square by a drunk man in traje speaking at me in Mam, and as of Friday I can add 'witness to civil unrest' to the list!

There are various mining projects and plans to construct hydro-electric plants throughout Guatemala. One of these hydro-electric plants would be constructed in the northern part of my municipality. There are also a few sites that are being looked at for mining. A large part of Mayan culture is the connection to the Earth...so the prospect of destroying it for profit is not sitting well with many people in Quiche. On Friday a municipal-wide vote was taken to decide whether or not construction of the plant and the pursuit of mining should move forward. Word of this vote sread through the department of El Quiche as well as the country.

Thursday evening the departmetal police as well as the national army rolled into Uspantan to prepare. Word on the street was that a large anti-mining group that has been protesting in other areas of Guatemala would be showing up for the vote. This same group took part in a demonstration that ended with the burning of a City Hall in one of the southern departments of Guatemala. Early Friday morning, as the police and army were putting on their riot gear, I got the hell out of town.

Thankfully, there was no violence. I hear the protest went on all day and that Uspantan was overrun with demonstrators but the tention never reached a boiling point. I am back in town and everything seems back to normal. Unfortunately, I do not think anything was solved on Friday and this topic will not be put to rest for some time. I am pretty certain that this issue will plague my entire Peace Corps service.

So as not to end on a sad note, enjoy the wonderful music (and mustache) of Diego Verdaguer:

San Vicente is one of my farther aldeas. I have 25 health promoters participating in my promoter program coming from 3 different communities in the area. It is a great group; very cooperative and enthusiastic. To get to San Vicente we drive about 40 minutes and then hike an hour. There is no road access to San Vicente. This is why I suspect the community is so welcoming to the promoter program- they just don't get a lot of outside support.

Last Monday I went out to San Vicente to present the 2nd of the 12 workshops that make up my promoter program. We kicked it off with the ground breaking of the community medicinal plant garden. I am working with the office of Mayan medicine to support communities that practice medicinal plant remedies. The garden, I hope, will be especially usefull to the people of San Vicente since the treck to the hospital for even basic consulations is physically and monetarily draining.

(Ground breaking/ One of my counterparts explaining garden up-keep)

(Women watching on)

(Squeezing her way through)

(Child being afraid of me)

With every health/ preventative health workshop I give, I also work with the Mayan medicine technicians to bring curative plants for the themed illness of the month. The goal is to give the communities resources to treat common illnessnes but also identify the warning signs of advanced or complicated illnesses.

The community is super excited about the garden and I think will take very good care of it.

(These girls had never had their picture taken before)

(Still excited by the digital camera)

(My health promoter group after we made soap)

(Leaving San Vicente)

(Starting the hike back. See those houses out in the distance? That's where the road is. It's a treck)

I don't think it's a secret that I enjoy shopping. Not going to lie, deciding which clothes to give away, which to put in storge and which to bring to Guatemala was difficult. Predicting fashion 2 years in advance is not easy.

Thankfully I am still able to see my clothes being worn by my friends back in New York via Facebook. Just last month my coral dress went on a trip to Austin. Thanks, Meredith!

But I have since discovered the wonderful land of Paca shopping here in Guatemala. It fills my retail void. Paca shops are used clothing stores, used AMERICAN clothing stores. I am still not sure how the clothes make their way to Guatemala but I suspect that Paca shop owners pay a set price for boxes of clothing that they then dig through and sell. It's like opting for the 'surprise' gift in the treasure chest at the dentist office. Never sure what you're going to get.

This 'used clothing from thousands of miles away' idea sounds a bit gross but, if one is willing to pillage, there are some jems amidst all the stained and worn pieces. Yesterday I found a Robert Rodriguez skirt in perfect condition and in my size! I payed the equivalent of $1 and 10 cents. It has been my biggest Paca accomplishment so far. Usually I walk away with a Target brand clothing item (which there is absolutely nothing wrong with- I very much miss Target) but every now and then there is an inspirational find. Like my Jones of New York sweater than I bargained down to the equivalent of $2 a few weeks ago!

The best part of all this is seeing what other people choose to buy at the Paca. Today I saw a young gentleman walking around town in a UCD sweatshirt- Go Aggies! Then there is the young woman who works in the tourism office and wears a shirt that says 'Happy Holidays' and has 2 bejeweled martini glasses on the front...if only she knew. But my favorite was the day a student came up to me at a tienda and asked me to translate his shirt. It said: "You can't cure dumbness but there is always duct tape" and had a picture of a kid with duct tape over his mouth.

In sum, Paca is my salvation and my entertainment.

I leave you with this song because I heard it 3 times today and it's stuck in my head.

Great news from my leading lady, Secretary Hillary Clinton. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/earth/21stove.html?ref=science

The effects of wood-burning stoves and open-fire cooking are detrimental and seen all over Guatemala. Passing through villages one can always spot the houses that do not have improved stoves- the walls of the houses are stained black all the way through to the outside.

While this project doesn't seem to include Central America (sad) hopefully the trend will catch on!

Besides the terrible news of our fellow volunteers at the beginning of the month and the dreadful storms, September has been a pretty solid month. I am already exhausted.

I failed to mention that September 3rd was national health worker day. All the health workers in the department of Quiche met in the cabecera (the capital of the department) to participate in a parade, soccer and basketball matches and a ‘Miss Health Center” competition. My dear friend Susan was the contestant from her Health Center and got to ride around Quiche on a HIV-prevention themed float. Fancy!

The events were pretty fun and ended with a huge dance with 2 bands to ends the festivities.

Susan as her float passed the church in the central plaza of Santa Cruz el Quiche.

Our float for Uspantan.

My fvorite float of all. What is with the ostrich?!

My work so far has been very encouraging. I just finished a few days of work up in Zona Reina presenting the health promoter program to over a hundred interested people! So far I have 6 groups of health promoters formed in 6 different villages and have started giving the health workshops. I kicked off the health promoter workshops in 3 of my communities this week and presented the program to 2 others interested communities.

This is Don Domingo one of the technicians in the hospital. He is working with me out in one of my communities, Poblaj.

Children in Poblaj crowding around to watch a presentation on oral hygiene. These is the traditional ‘corte’ that the Mayan women wear.

Student's muddy shoes. (Side bar- I realize I have not been posting pictures of my health groups and this is because taking photos can be considered offensive. I am waiting to build a bit of credibility in my communities before I go around flashing my camera in people’s faces)

Thank goodness next week is feria in Uspantan. Every community has a patron saint and each saint has a day dedicated to him/her…which of course turns into a week of celebration. Our beloved San Miguel will be celebrated next week with carnival rides, vendor booths and pizza stands. As I type this there are men walking around on stilts in the town square. And since everyone will be at the fair, no one will be available for workshops which means I basically get the week off.

Speaking of feria, earlier this month I hopped over to Nebaj, a municipality close to Uspantan and home of the Ixil people, to check out their feria which was going on at the time. It basically looked like your standard flea market-meets-county fair but on crack. People, food stands, games EVERYWHERE. I will be sure to take pictures of our fair this coming week. One thing that did catch my eye however was a photo backdrop at which a man was charging people a few Quetzales to stand in front of while he took their picture. It reminded me of school photos in middle school where we chronicled our yearly growth and development for our families in front of fishing or beautiful flower bed backdrops. Except the people of Nebaj were able to pretend that they were magically transported to America! How fun! And this is the image of America that was chosen:

I wanted to hang a disclaimer next to the backdrop: “Please note: This is rather offensive and anyone who has read a newspaper in the last 9 years will know that you didn’t actually visit the United States this year. Thank you”

Ohhh Guatemala, never fails to entertain.

One of the many storms this month rollng into Uspantan. View from my window.

Hello everyone,

I know some of you receive the 'Friends and Family of PC Guatemala' newsletter (Sarah and Meredith you are adorable) and got wind of some very sad news. Last week 2 volunteers were involved in a tragic car accident. The volunteers are fine and in the US with their families. They were travelling with their health center staff for an outing to celebrate national health worker day. Unfortunately, the crash took the lives of their Health Center doctor and 2 nurses. Thankfully the Peace Corps Volunteers are well and recovering.

And, just to bring the tone down a little bit more right before I bring it back up, now the country of Guatemala is in a state of national emergency after this hot mess happened: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/09/flooding-guatemala-mexico-mudslides.html We are expecting more storms this week.

But not to fret. I am home in Uspantan just waiting it out. Trust me, Uspantan is a decently sized town NOT located on the side of a cliff- where, unfortunately, many people are forced to set up shop in Guatemala. Dirt+cliff+water= BAD. For the record.

Now for a sprinkle of good news- I got a call from my counterpart this morning to tell me that 60 people showed up to register for the health promoter program I am setting up in one of the 3 communities I will be working in out in the Zona Reina. That's a lot! And that is just 1 of 3! It can be difficult to mobilize communities to become involved in programs such as mine so when there is such enthusiasm shown it is very exciting. This particular community is in a lot of need; they have no electricity or water. Such a positive response on the part of the community is very encouraging.

There is certainly no lack of work in Uspantan. The staff at the hospital has been keeping me very busy which is so welcome and helps the time fly. It's strange to think I landed in Guatemala almost 4 months ago!

I realize I have neglected to share the actual content of my work (thanks for pointing that out, Mom). My Peace Corps program is called 'Healthy Homes' which was recently changed from the much longer but more descriptive title of 'Rural Home and Preventative Health'. I rather like the original name of our program though it is a bit long-winded and having to then translate it doesn't help. Basically I work along side Health Technicians and Educators in the hospital going out into the various communities of Uspantan to give preventative health capacitations. That is my primary objective.

The staff at the hospital and I have selected communities (there were 186 to choose from) that we feel will benefit the most from the capacitations and I have been going to each introducing myself and my program to community leaders and interested persons. The communities that I will be working in are very rural and mostly indigenous. It has been incredible for me to have the opportunity to work with these communities and learn, bit by bit, about the Mayan cultures however this comes with obstacles. Due to the political history of the Mayan people and the Guatemalan government, many people do not trust government institutions, including the health centers and hospitals, and thus there is a lot of resistance to visit health posts or allow government issued vaccinations and other medicines to be administered. Much work done by my counterparts has to do with education; educating about vaccines, the importance of visiting the health centers,importance of vitamins and nutritional and varied diets.

Guatemala has the 4th highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world (http://www.wfp.org/countries/guatemala). GASP. To combat this, there is a national campaign to suppress this figure by weighing every child, identifying malnourishment and providing vitamins and, in some cases, food. Thus much of my time is spent out in the communities with the educators. As they weigh and vaccinate children I am able to talk to the families and give nutritional, hygiene and other preventative health talks to those in attendance. It is useful to go with the educators on these visits so that I am seen working in the community and so that I am able to get to know the families and see first-hand the needs of each community for future capacitation topics.

Right now my main objective is to become a familiar face in the communities in which I will be working. I am working to form Volunteer Health Promoter groups in these communities who I will give workshops and capacitations to once a month. I am very excited about this. The communities we have chosen do not, in general, have very immediate access to health posts, centers, or the hospital so preventative health and knowledge of common illnesses is pretty crucial. This, of course, means it can take some time to get out to these communities on my end. One of the communities in particular has no road. To get there involves a 5AM departure time which then gets us to the start of our hiking path at about 6AM and an arrival time of about 730AM for the 8AM workshop. It's kind of a pain in the ass but then I try to remember that the people who live in the community have to make this hike any time they need a medical consultation even for something as preventable or treatable as diarrhea or fever.

I will also be working out in the Zona Reina. The Zona Reina is an area in my municipality that was severly affected by the Guatemalan Civial War and cut off from the rest of the country for many years. A road was built going out there only 6 years ago so development in the region has been slow. The drive is about 5 hours on a dirt, nausea-inducing road. I have been once so far but am planning to get out there at least once a month to give capacitations and any other workshops I can. There is a rotation of Cuban doctors who work out there as well so hopefully I will make some friends (lift that travel ban, Obama!). The needs of the communities out there are great but the pristine, untouched landscape is amazing. It is straight-up, off the grid, jungle country.

So in sum, I'm bouncing around all over the place but extremely excited to get started with my health promoter groups and to get to know the communities. I have 2 years to do it but it already doesn't seem like enough time.

I am very fortunate that my site has electricity and running water that is fairly reliable. Only a few light-outages and water-shortages from time to time.

Monday, however, my entire town was without electricity the whole day for 'maintenance'. As in absolutely everything and everyone was without power from about 5AM to 10PM. I'm not necessarily complaining so much about this as I am wondering about the logic behind it.

First off, no one could work because the lights, computers, etc didnt work, so why Monday was the chosen day for maintenance is beyond me. Second, this means that refridgerated goods, milk/meat and other perishables, probably went bad since refridgeration isn't very strong to begin with. Third, I would be very surprised if any store owner actually threw out said perishables. Fourth, it tends to concern me when the police, firefighters, jails and other important fixtures of society are unable to function optimaly.

In conclusion- if Uspantan can learn anything from Gray Davis and the California energy crisis of 2001 it would be how to operate on rolling blackouts.

That's all.

- Portrait a white Obama. It sort of looks like a strange Obama- Kucinich hybrid. Anyone with me on this?

This was hanging up in a bar in Huehuetenango. I have no explanation.

I've fallen a bit behind on this blog. Shocker. Last weekend was very quiet. On Sunday I went over to visit my neighbor volunteers in Cunen, Melissa and Kate. The basico school (junior high equivalent) in Cunen was having a very fancy beauty pageant. Each class had one girl competing in a series of activities which included speeches, in both indigenous languages and Spanish, indigenous-ware, formal-ware, a talent show, a dance and, my absolute favorite, the costume/ dress-up outfit.

First off, every town, school, municipality, church in Guatemala has beauty pageants so it's not an uncommon occasion. It's an obsession here. But the level of rediculous was off the charts (in the best way).

The speeches were pretty stanards, though I had no clue what was being said when the contestants addressed the audience in K'iche. The contestants then wore a traditional indigenous dress from various areas in the region. Each traje, which is what the indigenous dress is called in its general sense (i.e. The Guatemalan woman was wearing traditional traje.), was accompanied by a dance. These dances were performed to traditional marimba, the national instrument, music and involved various other students to depict a scene or customary pratice of the Mayan people. For example, one dance depicted the marriage ceremony in which a new bride is handed over from her parents to her husband. Another depicted the preparation of the crops which is very involved and spiritual in Mayan practices. My favorite, was the depiction of the arrival of the conquistadors. Below you can see a picture of this dance in which the Spanish conquistadors arrive and proceed to surround a young Mayan girl and take her captive. This part was a bit uncomfortable for all the white people in the audience...all 3 of us.

Now for the talent portion. I am not sure 'talent portion' would be the appropriate title for this as it consisted of the contestants dressing up in different sport paraphernalia and walking the catwalk. There were a few soccer players, a basketball player, two rhythmimc gymnasts, a boxer and a bull fighter. Maybe it was the 'assumed talen portion'? Maybe the audience is supposed to assume that the sports the candidates portrayed are the talents they are capable of?

Anyhow, on to the best part. The costume contest. These girls are not messying around. It looked like mardi-gras up in that school auditorium! I can't even describe this well enough to give it justice. See pictures below.

Welp, then they came out in formal wear and the winner was announced and we all went home. This weekend is the crowning ceremony and celebratory dance. I may just stop on over in Cunen again...

Speaking with a young computer processing student who interns in the hospital-

Student: Where are you from??

Me: California. Fairly close.

Student: Not as close as Arizona [factually disputable]. I've been there!

Me: Oh nice! How did you like it?

Student: Not very much.

Me: Oh that's too bad. Why not?

Student: I was in jail the whole time

WAMP WAAAA

The first community that I will be working in is Cholá. Accent on the ‘a’- it is not pronounced like ‘chola’, as in a female gang member…unfortunately. Cholá is very beautiful but my work is cut out for me. For starters, we have the issue of the health post, which is not really a health post but rather a rented room with no bathroom. The doctor and nurse, and now me, have no relief when working out there and just hold it until getting back to Uspantan! But the community felt it necessary to build a jail about 2 months ago directly in front of the health post which consists of 2 cells including one bathroom in each cell. The jail cells face the entrance of the Health Post no farther than 20 feet away. The facing wall is all bars and no curtain so while patients come for checkups, they can also check out who was disorderly the night before.

Basically, we are trying to see if we can either get a new health post built entirely or at least rent out one of the jail cells, when not in use of course, to use as a bathroom for the Health Post. Super classy.

So last night the nurse and I went to the meeting of community leaders of Cholá to present myself and such issues.

Each community of Guatemala has a group of leaders basically the equivalent of a City Council who meet to discuss problems and new initiatives. It is important to have the backing of the community leaders as they hold quite a bit of influence especially in rural communities where the motives of outsiders are heavily speculated. The nurse presented me to the community leaders and I presented my project and explained a bit about Peace Corps. It was hilarious and intimidating to say the least.

The meeting was held in the community hall of Cholá which is a large auditorium with terrible acoustics and birds flying all around. The leaders were seating around a long table on the stage of the auditorium. We walked up and presented ourselves to the table of all men donned in their best clothes, cowboy boots and ornate machetes. A very welcoming first impression. At the center of the table sat the president of the community leaders, the oldest man in the group. If there were a Guatemalan mafia, this man would have been the Godfather. Throughout the entire presentation he sat staring us down, hardly moving or speaking. The vice-president mostly spoke on his behalf. We presented the issue of the bathroom among other problems.

The most pressing issue however is that someone in the community is selling false immunizations cards to families who want to avoid a trip to the hospital. This super-genius, however, is dating the immunizations with dates that either have not yet passed (for example: March 2012) or a series of children are reported to have been immunized before he or she was born. To this the Don (no really, in Guatemala all married men are called ‘Don (insert first name)’ so my analogy continues to work!) explained that Cholá has a very efficient vigilante justice system and they would work to catch the perpetrator. To give an example of this magnificent vigilante justice operation he explained that just last week a young boy ran away from home after an argument with his father. When he showed up at a neighbor’s home to ask to stay the night they threw him in jail for disrespecting his parents.

I hope they catch this man because forging immunization cards for children is deplorable and it will be rather ironic when he is thrown in jail and the only view from his cell is the health post.

Anyhow, when the presentation concluded the men spoke amongst themselves in K’iche', there were some nods and a few grunts and finally the men agreed to help us with our fight for a new health post, our plight to form promoter groups and to catch the immunization card forger.

Then the nurse and I walked back to Uspantán is the dark (sorry mom) and I taught him some English along the way. He now knows how to say ‘I am scared’.

I am not going back for next week’s meeting.

I have been in site just over a week now. I moved into my new host family's house on Sunday. I'm happy to finally be feeling settled.

I've been spending time working out in the communities around Uspantan. It's important that people get used to seeing me around town and in the villages, mainly so they don't accuse me of trying to steal children. That has been a problem tourists have faced in the past. I have a great team of nurses, technicians and health educators to work with here so I am excited to get going.

The most exciting thing to happen: internet was just set up in my office in the hospital! It's not great so I'm having trouble uploading pictures right now. I'll try to get some photos posted soon.

Yesterday Hilary, one of my site mates, her friend who is visiting and I went out to a few waterfalls in Uspantan. The hike was a bit rough and muddy because the rain has been so bad this season. We basically climbed along mudslides to get a view of the waterfalls but it was gorgous and completely worth it. Hilary works in eco-tourism so we were doing 'research' for the tourism office. I plan on accompanying her on many of these 'research' outtings.

So far I have been pretty good about relinquishing my sense of personal space. I have come to accept that any time I take public transportation, I am more than likely going to be squished into a 2-seater with 3 other people. I am now completely ok with thigh-touching my neighbor on the camioneta. I even look forward to it. Forced intimacy is a great way to make unwanted new friends.

I was in for a rude awakening.

On the camioneta a few days ago on my way to the Health Center a woman sat in my lap. Not next to me. Not thigh-touching. She sat IN my lap. I have had my fair share of cramped bus rides and unnecessary body rub-downs but I never expected to spend my communte with a portly, middle-aged woman in my lap. I was only about 5 minutes from my stop so I sat there and took it...but really, REALLY?! IN MY LAP?!?

By far the most awkward exchange I have had since I got here: Woman sits in my lap- We ride like this for 5-7 minutes- Me to woman: 'Excuse me, I have to get off here.'- She stands up- I scoot by- Me to woman: 'Uhh, adios?'

When I got back to San Luis on Sunday from FBT it was the celebration of Corpus Cristi in our town.

Procession walking out of the church.

The Priest leading the procession.

Children dressed up as angels.

The church in San Luis las Carretas.

One more Catholic holiday down. Many more to go.

We got back from Field Based Training on Saturday. It was a long and intense week but amazing. San Vicente Buenabaj is insanely beautiful and waaaaay up in the highlands. Super cold. On Sunday we got to our hotel (I use the term ‘hotel’ loosely) in Sija as there is no where to stay in San Vicente. Sija is the strangest city. Nothing open before 8 and everything was shut down by 6….so not much to do.

Monday Samantha, fellow trainee, and I gave a charla to 25 women about natural disaster preparedness. First experience with Quechi translators so that was interesting. Tuesday we did a risk map of the Mercado- unsanitary practices etc.- Wednesday other volunteers in my groups did a nutrition/ cooking class to a women’s group and another presentation on hand washing/soap making. On Thursday we did a 4 hour HIV/AIDS workshop with 50 middle school kids. Reaffirmed the fact that I have little patience with kids. And finally, on Friday, I ended the week with a sexy charla on Diarrhea. It was amazing overall.

San Vicente Buenabaj. A lamb in a field.

Our cooking class.

Group shot.

Walking to the Puesto de Salud.

We got up at 5:30AM to watch the opening ceremony for the World Cup. R Kelly made it all worth it.

Finally, this song is awesome.

The week has been hectic getting back to normal after Agatha, classes and now Sunday we leave for Field Based Training. I will be San Vicente Buenabaj, Totonicapán until next Saturday. We are going to visit a current volunteer and will be doing workshops and charlas in her Health Center and in the community. Should be a full week and a good prep for what is to come in the next 2 years! Basically I'm going to be M.I.A. for a bit but I'll be back soon enough.

Today was our last day of language class. My group will be spendng more time in the Health Center and working with schools. We spent our last class at a coffee plantation in Jocotenango. The plantation is also the site of a Mayan music museum and the hasienda on the plantation is used for traditional Mayan texticle production. So it was a super cultural day!

Coffee!

Some bug just chillin'.

Mayan marracas.

Weaving.

Kimberly, Kelly and me

Funny joke the tour guide told:

Q: What do u call 'Repollo' in English?'

A: Re-chicken!

...get it?!?! Jackie, I thought of you.

As many of you may be reading in the news, Guatemala has had its fair share of natural disasters lately. Yesterday, after another earthquake and volcanic erruption, Agatha hit. My town has been hit pretty hard. After almost 32 hours of non-stop rain, I was evacuated from my site. 4 other volunteers and I were taken into Antigua late last night. We are waiting out the storm here, hopefully going back to San Luis las Carretas tomorrow. Yay first natural disaster evacuation!

It was pretty intense. The river that runs through the town (and directly behind my house)flooded and the main road through the town (that also runs directly in front of my house)was completely blocked off with water damage.

It was very interesting to observe how the town reacted to the storm. There was a tangible sense of excitement along with the concern. The storm and the damage will be the topic of conversation for many months to come. The beauty of small town life.

Spent the morning preparing the chipilin for lunch with Doña Susana.

Unclogging the main drain in the center of the house.

Brenda checking out the river behind the house. It rose 9 feet over the course of the night and morning.

Moving furniture out of one of the rooms in the house after water started leaking through the roof.

Street view of the house.

The main road, not a river.

Wilson is not amused.

Last Sunday we had our first free day in Antigua! It was nice to finally have a day off and spend time with the other trainees out of the training setting. Antigua is a great city....very tousity but lovely.

The Sunday group.

Melissa is on site in San Luis with me.

Yesterday I experienced my first Guatemalan earthquake. It was really small and pretty uneventful...but still!

Also, Volcan Pacaya errupted. It´s cool though. I´m pretty far from it. Apparently the capital is covered in dust and ash and traffic surrounding the volcano is horrendous. Schools in the area have been cancelled until further notice which means I get to hang out with the twins while my workshops on HIV and Hep A are on hold. Schedules should go back to normal early next week though.

Women´s Day on Wednesday was a huge success! My training group presented 2 workshops at the Health Center in Antigua for National Women's Day: HIV/AIDS and Intrafamiliar Violence. The Center provided free doctor consultations, vaccinations, check-ups, psychological counseling and familiar planning all day.

Presenting ourselves.

Participation!

My awesome white blood cell activity.

Kimberly encouraging protection.

Kelly and Cathleen present on Interfamiliar Violence.

Group shot with our Profe and former Spanish teacher's mother!

Went to Santo Domingo Xenacoj today. The town is mostly of Cakchiquel Maya decent. Beautiful city!

Cemetary

Overlooking San Luis- my hood

Ronnie ran over one of the chickens with his moto...1 down, 7 to go.

Celebration song, it´s super popular here and I love it! Jam out:

I have been very busy with training. Last week we went to visit a volunteer on site in Santa Apalonia. She took us to meet with one of her women´s groups so it was great to see someone in action! It was very encouraging.

My training group is now getting ready for national Women´s Day which is this coming Wednesday. We will be giving some workshops at the Health Center in Antigua on HIV and domestic violence....basically everything got really intense really quickly. But in a great way! And this forces me to work on my public speaking in Spanish.

In other news, I went to a wedding today. A family friend´s uncle. Yeah, I felt pretty awkward being there but it was super fun! The groom was a prime 22 years of age and his bride was 14...and pregnant. ESCANDOLO! The groom was the uncle of one of the local police officers in my town. Everyday some 2-8 police officers (depending on who is on duty) eat lunch at my house, and sometimes come back for dinner. It´s rather odd but I suppose it makes me feel safer? They don´t say much to me, just throw their guns on the table and chow down for 30 minutes then leave. My life is a tad rediculous right now.

Also, Guatemala loves Leona Lewis. I hear her everywhere...the buses, the mercado, the internet cafe where I am currently typing this. Neil, this is the country for you.

2 weeks down and some 115 to go. I am settling in well and have a good routine going. Usually wake up sometime between 5:30 and 6:30 depending on whether I want to get a morning run or trip to the market in before class. The day starts at 8am and ends about 5:30pm. While in training we are not allowed to be out of our houses after dark, unless we are with the host families, so that gives us some ‘free-time’ of about an hour before dusk hits at 6:30. Super sexy lifestyle. I’m usually asleep by 10 ha. Monday was Dia de la Madre here in Guatemala and it is a very big event. The mariachis (las mananitas) started making the rounds in the neighborhood about 1am on Monday morning. Then fireworks were set off all through the night and into the morning. You can always tell when there is a celebration or birthday in the town because it is a custom to set off fireworks first thing in the morning….like 4 or 5am. If it’s a birthday, the fireworks are left just outside the birthday boy/girl’s bedroom door. It’s like the reenactment of the Civil War is just outside your door! Happy Birthday! Noise is a constant here. Music is always blaring, cars and buses are loud, and people are always screaming and singing in the streets. I also have 4 daily alarms: if my watch and traveling clock fail me I have the rooster who gets going at about 3am and Wilson usually has at least 1 or 2 crying sessions a night. Noise is kinda a way of life. Wilson has been sick the past week. Doña Susana and Brenda have been very attentive to him and took him to the doctor and followed all necessary precautions and what not but on Sunday night Doña Susana shared with me the family secret for curing children. In a frying pan, a healthy pour of Jaguar rum is heated up over the stove. When the run reaches a warm temperature, a piece of bread is placed in the pan and soaks up the rum. The bread is then wrapped in a piece of cloth. Additional dabs of the Jaguar are placed on the cloth and then placed over the affected stomach. The clothed is wrapped into place around the child’s torso. The additional Jaguar is then rubbed behind the ears, on the legs, arms, armpits and hands of the ill child. Then a full lime is taken and peeled back a bit to reveal some of the interior and the lime juice is squirted all over the child. First in the shape of the cross, then all over the child’s body: back of the head, arms, knees, bottoms of the feet, fingers. The lime, along with the bad energy of the illness, is then thrown far from the house (into the river behind the house). And so the child is cured and will sleep….well yeah! The child was one mint leaf away from being a walking mojito! I’d be fast asleep too! Awesome, awesome tradition. Charlotte, this reminds me of something your mother would pull. Tallys to date: Chocobananas: 2 Tortillas made: 4 Tortillas eaten: (aprox.) 20 Days Sick: 2 ( one bad reaction to meat and one bad reaction to malaria medication) Funerals attended: 1 Babies held: 2 (Sarah- I know, I’m lagging) Times I’ve heard Justin Bieber on the camionetas: 3 Nearly being hit by a camioneta: 2 Beans eaten at a meal: EVERY Books read: 3 Seasons of Weeds watched: 2 and a half

Sorry for the delay. Peace Corps has kept us very busy.

We landed about a week ago and immediately went to Peace Corps headquarters for language testing and training sessions. The first 3 nights Marlaine, another volunteer, and I stayed with a host family in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas, just down the street from PC. On Saturday we were placed in our host communities where we will be for the next 11 weeks during training.

I am now living in a small town just outside of Antigua, San Luis las Carretas. There are 4 other volunteers in my town. We meet 4 times a week for language training, go to headquarters 1 day a week for skills training and spend 1 day a week at our 'partner' medical center for health training and operations. Tomorrow will be the first day we visit our assigned Health Center and meet the staff. Sunday is our day off. I live with Don Gavino and Doña Susana who are fabulous. They have a beautiful home and run the adjoining local tienda. They have 5 children and one grandson who all live in their house...it is a bit overwhelming.

The run down: Brenda is the oldest and has one child, Wilson, who is 2. Doña Susana very awkwardly pointed out to me that she is a single mother- How do you respond to that? 'Ohh que bien!'?- I think Brenda is about my age. Next are Julio and Ronnie (cannot help but think of Jersey Shore), who I think are about 20 and 19. Obviously no one has explicitly told me everyone's ages. The youngest are the twins, nicknamed 'Las fotocopias', Mauricio and Luis. Telling them apart can be difficult. They are 14 and are going through puberty- their voices crack at every other word. Im working on a mix for them. They are really interested in 'American' music. I am tempted to throw a Tim McGraw album at them and see what happens. Or maybe Tupac, we will see.

And the kicker, their pets: 8 chickens, 2 turkeys and a rooster. Of all animals....poultry. I am very fortunate though- we have running, hot water and electricity, unlike quite a few of the volunteers.

Some photos:

Church in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas. My host family the first few nights was very devout Catholic. Marlaine and I attended La hora de la Santa on Friday night with them.

Santa Lucia Milpas Altas.

Barrio la Cruz. Brenda, Wilson and I went to visit her Grandparents (Don Gavino's parents). San Luis las Carretas is the valley below.

Don Gavino's father walking the cows down from the mountain. The calf is only 25 days old...this was a big BIG deal.

Julio and Ronnie played in a soccer match on Sunday. This field is also the only place in town where I am allowed to run.

And finally, some of the pets. They wander around the house grounds as they please.

It's time. I've made my rounds and called my family. I just got off the phone with my Grandpa and he definitely thinks Guatemala is Cuba. Hmm...

Anyway! Miraculously, everything fits and I am not over the baggage weight limits. So many feelings. It is all best expressed by this song:

Next time I check in I'll be in Cuba (Guatemala)!

I also finally caught up with the rest of the world and got Skype. Find me! I want to see all your pretty faces! mary.frances.w

As promised, here is the blog where I hope to share with you all my experiences, hardships and accomplishments (fingers crossed) over the next 27 months. After quite the farewell week in New York, I am now home in San Jose organizing my life and buying terribly ugly hiking/rain boots.

I leave on Monday the 26th for staging in Atlanta. Mama Hiebert along with Katie's twin and younger sister will be meeting me for dinner my first night! Katie, I'll be sure to get full updates on your brother's new business venture.

On the 28th I fly to Guatemala with all the other volunteers in my group. I will be in Antigua for the first 3 months in language, skills and cultural training. You can send me mail! Do it. Send it here:

PCT Mary Frances Wines Cuerpo de PazApartado Postal 66Antigua GuatemalaSacatepequez 03001Guatemala

Central America

Props to Alysha for coming up the awesome title of this post.Also, please note that my mother will take my phone and my phone number when I leave. So please, no drunk dialing Mrs. Wines.

Peace, love and fist pumping.