getting into the swing of things...

The Future's so bright...

Well, April is almost over and May is on it‘s way. On the 5th I will have been living in Guatemala for 4 months and…it feels pretty good. Another notable benchmark in the wonderful month of may would be my 24^th birthday which (mark your calendars) will happen on May 22^nd.

…so if you’re feeling like doing something different from a facebook wall-post this year, you could send a card to:

Kristin Morton

Voluntaria/ Cuerpo de Paz

Oficina de Correos

Jacaltenango, Huehuetenango

Guatemala, Centro America

I’d adore it.That's a picture i took from my roof...random. but neat.

I am currently feeling the urge to start a diary in the spirit of Bridget Jones wherein I try and turn over a new start “on the eve of my 24^th year of being single…” Just to start documenting all of my adventuring and try and guilt myself out of my marshmallow eating (I just looked down and the bag was empty, I have no idea what happened…) I have this fantasy about becoming an awesome journal-keeper and someday looking back through it laughing at how silly and/or neat my observations were.

Step 1. Buy journal.

Step 2. Write in journal

Step 3. Take select info and update blog.

Step 4. Will stop eating whole bags of marshmallows.

Good Plan.

Cue music.

Here are some tidbits on what i've been up to...

I'm reading lots of books. I just inherited the 4th Harry Potter book IN SPANISH from my sitemate, Kristina so my life is pretty awesome.

I found a cockroach in my room, named him lenny and then killed him. feel a little sentimental about it after the fact...

I found out that in Guatemala the Disney Show, "Hannah Montana" is called "Fannah Montana" which i think was nice change...

I am possibly an awesome cook...i made a whole mediterranean meal from scratch right down to the pita bread, taziki, Hummus, Falafal and rice tabouleh. I can't spell any of these things but i did make them and they were TASTY. I also made an awesome vegiterian pizza from scratch that i must recreate as soon as possible...i ate the rest of it cold for breakfast this morning.

It has been really hot here, i took a picture of my clock to illustrate this insanity and color my blog a little... if you can read it...it definitely says that it's 90 degrees...in my room...at 5:26 in the evening... Those of you that know me well know how well i function in the heat... thumbs up moment haha.

This was a pretty big week for me in the world of work and play.

in the world of work:

My work-partner, Damian, and I finished visiting all of the schools and meeting all of the directors which was awesome. Then our counterpart had a meeting with all of the directors where we re-introduced ourselves and reiterated to them that we’re here to stay…well, for the next two years anyway. I really would have liked to have had more to present to them in the way of handouts and an introduction to a requirement for the program like Rincones de Salud (basically a corner in the class where the students can keep all of their toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, towel, etc.) but our counterpart didn’t tell us that she was having the meeting until the night before at 7pm…this was really unfortunate because it gave us no time to prepare copies of documents or print out pictures. Oh well, what can you do? I do think that it was helpful to see all of the directors again especially since our counterpart only accompanied us to 3 of the 24 schools. It was an excellent opportunity to be re-introduced by the CTA (the US equivalent =superintendent). I hope that being re-introduced by her will inspire some confidence and trust in us by the directors and foster cooperation with us in the implementation of the program.

We shall see.

This week my schedule is more relaxed as Damian and I are creating a schedule and gathering materials that we want to present in our second visit to the schools . In this visit we will perform a diagnostico (survey) to evaluate all of the schools on the same criteria to see what we’re really working with- e.g. where we are now and where we want to go with the schools in the program; goal-setting, etc.

In the world of play, My sitemate has just left us in Jacal to move back home after completing her service. I feel really lucky that we had her here for our first month in site. She introduced us to a lot of people in the community and was a great resource for where to find things, how to do things , how to say something in Spanish haha etc. etc. I miss you already Kristina! Thanks for all the furniture and Conejos y la amistad! (advice and friendship).

It was also my sitemate, Damian’s, birthday this week. He celebrated by going to Xela and meeting up with friends. I stayed behind on this trip and watched over his new puppy, Rico.

Puppies are a handful. I will say that after my first day with Rico I was re-thinking my ability to be a dog-owner even to the point of whether or not I am fit for parenting haha. I went and played with the dog outside in the yard for hours and then walked him back to my place where I had some laundry to do. I am standing outside at the pila (outdoor sink) washing my clothes and I look in though the open door just in time to watch the dog pee on the kitchen floor! I had to count to ten to react properly…I was ENRAGED, we JUST got back from a long walk…but that’s puppies for you. So after his rude behavior of peeing on my floor I decided that he was not a guest fit for my home. So I returned him to Damian’s house where he could pee all over the yard if he wanted. I left him there for a couple of hours while I finished my laundry and ran some errands and when I went back to check on him and give him his dinner I walked in on him with a RAT in his mouth!

I looked at him in horror and quickly ran over to try and get the rat out of his mouth (because god knows what diseases that thing is carrying) and as I have my hand around the dog’s neck to grab him I feel him swallow the thing, whole. SO GROSS. Then what does he do? He decides he loves me and wants to lick all over my legs and jump up on me and try and give me kisses. Well….I put food in his bowl, told him he was gross and went home to try and rid myself of the memories of the rat in his mouth and then the feeling of it going past my fingers when he swallowed it.

I still haven’t fully recovered. These were isolated incidents, yes, but combined with the whining and crying and yapping that puppies do when you’re trying to sleep, when you leave them alone in a room, when you tie them up outside etc etc. this dog-watching weekend convinced me that I don’t want a puppy. If I have a dog at any point in my life I think I’d just prefer for it to be a full-grown dog first…even better, a full-grown, well-trained dog. Yes.

Here’s a picture of the little scamp…

In other news…I have put my room together and I am finally feeling all nested and moved-in. I took some photos to show you all my new pad. It’s pretty choice and completely unlike any ideas I had about peace corps living. I am definitely in one of the more “posh” sites and I know I am extremely lucky. Of course every place is not without it’s quirks…The cockroaches and spiders really like what I’ve done with the place…

Here's my kitchen/living room/office/bedroom setup! I thin that my favorite thing in my room is the coffee table i made out of a cardboard box and my neat basket wall hanger that i made...I got a little OCD on making the baskets all equadistant apart so it took longer than it should have but it was great fun all the same...