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Monday, June 28, 2010

Rain, Rain Go Away! I need clean towels…

Rain, Rain Go Away! I need clean towels…

I had every intention of doing some laundry and burning some trash today after having cleaned my room in a very aggressive manner…but the weather has again chosen for me to stay inside, drink tea and fool around on my computer. What can you do?

More food triumphs…

-I am currently still recovering from a rather intense food coma that I entered into last night and enabled to continue this afternoon. My darling Claire came up for a visit and in honor of her travel we made a particularly delicious, Mediterranean meal.


The menu consisted of Pita bread, falafal, assorted raw vegetables, tatziki sauce, hummus, rice tabouleh salad and this experimental sauce that was spicy and quite wonderful; all made from scratch.
I had to take pictures to document the immense quantities of food that we made and ate. A wonderful time had by all.

Presentation is everything…

On the confianza (trust) front…

-I made a new friend! She’s 22, Guatemalan and not married! She just moved to Jacal from another department to work with the Centro de Salud (Health Center). Though I will admit that I still don’t fully understand her job (despite her efforts to clue me in) I have gotten the impression that she goes out to the Aldeas that are far away from the Centro de Salud and she meets with pregnant women and children up to age 4. She weighs them, charts their growth and sees if they are healthy and if not makes referrals to the centro de salud and local pharmacy…so she’s like a nurse, I think, which is pretty neat. It’s cool because we’re both so new to Jacaltenango that we don’t really know what people do here…like for fun. So we’ve resolved to explore the possibilities together.

It was a storybook romance really…

We met on a camioneta back from Huehue To Jacal. We both arrived right at the time that the Jacal Camioneta is supposed to pass when an Ayudante of another bus told us that the direct one had already come and gone and we should get on his bus. Well, this news concerned me as I’d never gone up to my site on anything but the direct bus and I didn’t want to have to fool around with changing busses a bunch of times. So, this girl was standing there and she said that she’d call her friends who were on the bus we needed to take to see if they’d really already gone by. Turns out the Ayudante was a liar and was just trying to get us to get on his bus because he wanted our fare. So we waited and got on the right bus towards Jacal. At first I was sitting next to an older man with a gruff expression that said “I carry a machete” because the bus was pretty full but then some people got off and there was an open seat, the girl I’d talked to at the bus stop snagged it and asked me if I wanted to sit by her. Admittedly, sometimes I really like my quiet time on the Camioneta. Don’t get me wrong- meeting people is great but sometimes people just want to talk your ear off and ask you lots of questions and 4 hours is a long time… but I was feeling like taking a risk so I went and sat by her and we chatted, shared what music was on our play lists, what we did for work, what places in Guatemala I’d visited etc. and then towards the end of the trip she asked me if I wanted to hang out sometime, maybe go up to Pana (the lake) or Mexico with her and her friends. I said I’d love to, she took my number and I arrived home feeling high from having made a potential new friend, my first female friend anywhere near my age…it was great.

- I also went to the pools with a group of teacher’s to celebrate dia del maestro (teacher appreciation day). There are these new pools that just opened up in cuatro caminos about an hour and a half away from here. Its kind of weird actually because although the construction has not been completed and right now they only have one pool up and ready for business, the park is still open. I had a moment while I was swimming in the pool where it really hit me, sort of a “we’re not in Kansas anymore toto” type thing. I was swimming around and when I came up to get a breath of air it all smelled and tasted like dirt. I opened my eyes only to see an enormous tractor redistributing dirt in the construction zone about five feet from the edge of the pool, and I thought, “never in America would this be happening.” Tons of children running around through the construction zone and jumping into the pool…that would just not be happening. So there was that and then there was the issue of appropriate pool attire. People just don’t wear bathing suits in this country; it’s not that weird that men would be wearing athletic shorts (or speedos…bleh) in the pool, I’ve seen that in the US but it is so odd to me that the women do not wear swimsuits. I cant tell you how many women I saw swimming in jean shorts and tank tops, or trouser shorts and party tops. It’s so…so different from anything I‘ve ever seen at any pool/lake whatever.. It’s like they’re ready to go for a hike, or head out to the club but instead they’re wading into the chlorinated water (that will definitely bleach those trouser shorts…take note ladies). It’s very different. I was one of the only women in the pool that was wearing an actual bathing suit…I felt really silly.

It certainly got the attention of one guy…who told one of my teachers that he thought I was pretty and wanted my number. Naturally this teacher pointed him out to me later to see if she could give him my number and told me that he wanted to give me a job at the pools…

I declined.

I’m not looking for a much older boyfriend… and as I later realized, having put two and two together, despite my father okaying it before I left (kidding), I’m not looking to date a narco-trafficker; as it is common knowledge around these parts that the people who run the new water park are also running drugs as part of wealthy drug cartels. So…

Yeah.

I do plan to return however, when they’ve finished the wave pool and water slides…because I think that will be fun. I’ll have to buy some jean shorts before then…

Speaking of fun…

- I woke up early enough the other day to catch the sunrise, so I took some photos.

- I am getting really excited for my trip to Antigua for the Peace Corps Fourth of July Party and All-Volunteer Conference! I can’t wait to see all of my friends from training again and maybe even make some new ones (I’m on a friendship-making high right now…)

- a couple of little girls gave me some “nail tattoos” so…I looked pretty awesome for about two hours until they fell off during a routine hand-wash.

- Currently reading, Slaughterhouse V. I am undecided as to whether this is “fun” or not…


On the frustrating front…

- I suck at guitar still. It’s horrible.

- I bought a ton of food that is going to go bad if I don’t eat it before I go to Antigua…woof.

- My dvd guy did not come through with a playable copy of Hellboy I & II; I don’t know why I want these movies so bad anymore…it’s just the challenge of finding them that is keeping me hungry for the chase… (what!?)

- I have a whole bunch of soda (okay, some are beer) cans that I’ve been smashing and collecting because I heard that little kids will take them from you and exchange them for money…but I haven’t found a kid to do that for me yet so I’ve got like…TONS of them and every time it rains they get all full of water and heavy and animals start to live in them…and I don’t like it.

- I tried to kill a cockroach that was on my curtain in my room and so I swatted really hard at it, missed, and effectively catapulted it directly towards me. This resulted in hysterical movement resembling some really cool dance steps…I hope. I also found a cockroach in my wardrobe, hanging out in the cup of one of my bras. This was inconsiderate, rude, and awfully fresh behavior. This has resulted in me distrusting every article of clothing in my possession. I have since adopted a ceremonious shake-out of all of my clothes before putting them on…hours of my life will be wasted on this action…I am displeased.

-there is no school this week because it is the break in-between quarters. I am getting really antsy and really need to get to work, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything. I want to start really doing my job…like for real. I’ve met all the directors and now I just want to start getting stuff DONE! But alas…I wait.

- news of my boyfriend/fiancé has not reached the men in my town, who continue to harass me. I'm pretty sure that someone just said to me as i was out walking in the rain "you should take off your hood and then you would just burn the water" which is either because i'm really, like...really hot...or because i have red hair...it'd be nice to know that red-head jokes can cross the cultural divide ha ha. This tells me that I have apparently not done enough…the next step in the sequence for operation “trick people into stop giving me unwanted attention” is to carry around a photo of my boyfriend/fiancé and flash it at people from now on. You can send photos to me at

morton.kristin@gmail.com

All submissions will be considered, no nudity please.

That’s all for now, hopefully I’ll have some cool stories after the fourth of July party…Until next time, I miss you guys, hope you all are healthy and happy and that you have a GREAT 4th of July!

XOXO

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

I'M ENGAGED!

….okay, okay. I’m not engaged. Put the phone down, oh, and put a “stop payment” on that check to the catering company. Good. Crisis averted.

As a single woman, aged 24 years, living in Guatemala, I have to field questions about my love life (or lack thereof) all the time, usually from men. This is difficult. At first I was honest with people about my single status but, I quickly learned that honesty is overrated. If you let someone know that you’re single- even if they’re married, in more cases than not, they’re going to ask you for your number or think they have a fighting chance at taking you out on a date.

As I’ve written before, this can cause some really awkward times for me. Usually saying something about “not talking to strangers” or that “I don’t speak Spanish on the weekends…because the weekends are for resting?” (yeah, I said that), or another lame combination of excuses and uncomfortable mumbling.

Alas, I have turned to lying:

e.g. the formulation of my fake fiancé. Mi prometido/novio.

Now, had I made up a boyfriend in the US when I was living in the US I feel like my friends would’ve been…well… concerned. But here? I shared my shameful lie with another volunteer and was met with nothing but support and reinforcing examples of why it’s a good idea to lie to people about having a significant other sometimes.

Now I am faced with the task of spreading this information to the guys who hit on me in my town…

End goal? To stop being harassed every time I leave the house.

It’s probably because I’m really, really pretty and I’ve got a great personality… or, more likely, it’s because I’m white and American…and female.

Sometimes I don’t even want to leave my house because I don’t want to have to deal with the constant CH CH (that’s how they get your attention) and poorly strung together sentences in English. I think my favorite one so far is, “wow, baby, I love you.”

I like hearing that just about as much as I like seeing my own blood on my hands when I kill a mosquito. GREAT! VERY NICE! Not.

Meh. Cleansing breath…..

Changing music now…. HEY SOULD SISTER (Train)

Mood has improved.

I’m back.

So other than my little silly feminine struggles…

I’ve been:

battling the bugs.

- They’re EVERYWHERE.

I have noticed that the worse the weather gets outside the more bugs I find inside. This is nothing new, it’s how it works everywhere as far as I know but, the bugs that I’ve been finding in my room are…well, not what I was expecting. The spider population had a little spike as soon as the rain hit but I’ve maintained a relatively low amount of them with careful vigilance. The bug that is giving me the most trouble is the damn rollie pollies. I don’t know what they’re doing here-and they’re everywhere. They’re in my clothes, they’re on my towel when I get out of the shower, crawling in my bowls of freshly disinfected fruits and veggies, and landing in mummified little crusty balls on my pillow! I’m not afraid to touch them, that they’ll bite me or crawl on me in my sleep or anything like that after having spent a good portion of my childhood playing with the stupid things, I’m just… not sure what to do. I’m not really keen on playing with them now, though believe me, the opportunity is right here; it’s just so…curious and annoying. I guess though, I’ve really got to count my blessings on this one; it could definitely be worse.

Cooking.

-Culinary TRIUMPHS.

I made a particularly delicious batch of my mom’s pie-crust cinnamon rolls and Broccoli Soup this week.

Naturally, I devoured the cinnamon rolls in about a day…and continue to downsize the rest of the soup into smaller and smaller Tupperware containers.

Fending off thieves.

- LADRONA!

A woman tried to rob me in the market in Xela. She circled around me a couple of times and then bumped into me and as I tried to keep moving I grabbed for my purse only to find her hand in it! I felt so violated! So I got her hand out of there and called her a “Ladrona!” (thief). Boy, really got her there...

Oh well, I guess I learned an important lesson; A) That I don’t like thieves, B) even when I think I’m being vigilant I am still a target for crime and C) That I need to learn some meaner words to call people who try and rob me. Luckily she didn’t get any of my stuff, but man oh man, did she succeed in making me mad!

Jamming out

- Practice, Practice, Practice!

I’ve been pretending to be able to play along to Jack Johnson and John Mayer songs on my guitar…I can’t wait till I can actually play…that’ll be even better.

Stalking people (?)

- Hellboy?

So I went to the DVD guy who told me he’d get me Hellboy in English but, well, it looks like I’m not the only liar around here…

I’ve got a line on another copy from a competing DVD salesman….we’ll see how this pans out, I know how supply and demand works…

What am I talking about?

Okay. Well girlfriend’s gotta go now, I’m tired…and I think I’ve got a skype date with Dad soon. I hope everyone is doing well! I’m so proud of all of my newly graduated friends and family! Woop woop!

Peace & Love!

p.s. sorry there's no photos...the internet won't load them...also...i didnt take any. AH. sorry. haha. next time. I'll do work on taking my camera around. XOXO!

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

I think i've seen this movie before...

I apologize in advance for how long this is…I will try and write in shorter installments in the future.

“I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers”

Guatemalans are really quite friendly people. Walking to schools I often ask around to make sure I’m going the right way. The last thing I want to do is end up in some remote area by myself because I was too stubborn to ask for directions. Not here. No sir.

More often than not (not being when they don’t understand what I’m saying to them…) I have found that people are very willing to show me the way. However, when it comes to time…well…it’s better not to rely on what people tell you. Depending on what you’re trying to do should either subtract or add at least half an hour.

Times when it’s a good idea to subtract a half-an-hour:

- anytime you need to wait for a bus/microbus.

Ex: someone tells me the micro leaves at 6:30 AM.

So…

The next day

6:20 AM rolls around, Kristin is in front of the park/bank/place where the micro leaves from….

6:30 AM Kristin goes up to every micro that passes and asks it if it’s going where she needs to go.

6:50 AM Kristin is still waiting

7:00 AM Kristin asks other person if there is a micro coming soon for the place she is going.

7:02 AM Kristin finds out that the micro left at 6:15 AM

7:20 AM Kristin is back in her house calling the teacher’s to reschedule and see if she can go to a different school instead.

9:00 PM Kristin set’s her alarm for a half an hour earlier to try and catch the micro again the next morning.

Times when it’s a good idea to add a half-an-hour:

- any estimation of time it takes to get somewhere.

- meeting time with a group of people.

- what time dinner/lunch/etc will be served.

Ex: someone tells me it takes 40 minutes to get to a school.

So…

I get on the micro and…

35 minutes: Kristin starts really paying attention to the signs on the side of the road, scanning for her stop.

40 minutes: Kristin reminds the driver what stop she needs to get off at.

45 minutes: Kristin is getting all worked up looking for something familiar to go off of.

55 minutes: Kristin re-calculates how long the trip has been in her head…

1 hour, 10 minutes: Kristin is sure she’s missed her stop and tries talking to the micro driver again, he says a name she doesn’t recognize and becomes further convinced she’s missed it.

1 hour, 22 minutes: Kristin sees the sign for the school she needs to visit, feels really relieved, gets out & pays the driver.

So…there’s that.

“it’s my party and I’ll barf if I want to”

Oh, I turned 24 this month.

That was fun; let me paint a picture for you.

It’s Friday morning (the 21st) and Damian and I are waiting for a micro at 6:00AM (because we missed it the day before and we were determined not to miss it again).

6:40 rolls around and the micro comes, no big deal.

We go to the schools and since there are no micro’s that go from that aldea back to our town until mid-day, we walk down this secluded trail that leads down to the highway. Damian decided that he had to pee, so I walked on and as I’m walking down the hill my favorite thing happens- wild, ravenous dogs emerge from the side of the trail and decide they want to eat my face.

Now, I know from my EXTENSIVE experience in dogs trying to eat my face, that if you bend down and pick up a rock, more often than not the dogs will think you’re going to throw it at them and then they’ll leave you alone. Unfortunately, my experience has also taught me that dogs can sense fear- and I was scared. So I shuffled away from the dogs further down the path and picked up a rock. The dogs were not amused or scared by this and continued to come towards me with their teeth bared. So I did what any person would do, I turned around with the rock, showed it to them, and yelled, “No.” This did not dissuade them either… I debated running away but I was sure they’d run after me. I also debated throwing the rock but was afraid that once I threw the rock (feeling insecure about my throwing-accuracy) then I would have nothing in my hand to defend myself with and that it would most-likely make them angry and more-likely to attack me. As i'm weighing the options Damian emerged from further up the trail, threw some rocks at the dogs and they retreated back into the woods. This was good news …especially considering that he just finished telling me that if anyone tried to attack us on the trail that his high-school track instincts would kick in and he would leave me for dead. How comforting. My hero.

We reach the highway, and catch a micro back to town where I pack my bags and head to the park to catch a bus to Huehue for the weekend.

As I’m sitting on the curb reading while waiting for the bus to come, my favorite (read: overly-friendly) taxi-driver comes by and decides to shut off his car and chat with me for an uncomfortable amount of time. Based on the rule of (add/subtract 30 minutes) I have arrived to catch the bus a half-an-hour (lets be honest 45 minutes) early and have fallen victim to looking lonely and having no where to go to get away for 15-20 minutes. So I sit on the curb and pointedly keep looking at the pages of my book (reading: Kite Runner) and he is just not getting the hint. People are coming up to his taxi and asking for rides and he’s actually turning them away in favor of sitting and talking to me instead. Just when I think I have talked about the weather and other inconsequential things for just about as long as I can, he gets out his phone and asks me for my phone number. Uh oh.

So, here i am, being stared at, surrounded by all of these people who are waiting for another taxi to pass because the taxi that is right there in front of them was not "on duty." At first their stares were more on the glare side of the spectrum because the driver wouldn’t take them where they need to go because he’s talking to me (uncomfortable) and then, post-number asking they began to shift towards curious/interested glances. I get a sympathetic look from an indigenous girl about my age. As this is the first time this has happened I did not have a stock answer for him and I ended up speaking in broken Spanish saying something about not talking to strangers…? Haha. Defeated he banged his head down on the steering wheel and then asked the people waiting on the curb where they needed to go. They all piled into his taxi and as they drove away the indigenous gal threw me a conspiratorial smile out the back window of the van. It was great; I think we may be friends.

As soon as they drive away, another young guy in a wheelchair comes up to me to strike up a conversation but I had to call it quits, I was maxed out on persistent, Guatemalan men for the moment. I walked up the hill and found the bus getting ready to leave and unknowingly picked the most uncomfortable seat on the bus to have for the next 4.5 hours.

It’s not really fair to say that it was the seat’s fault. You see, I hurt my tailbone in a rather lame way. I was sitting at my desk the previous evening and I heard my phone ring. Well, since my phone was in a tangle of covers on my bed the natural reaction was for me to jump up out of my chair and dive onto the bed to find my phone. Well, I did, and I found it and confirmed that I was going to Huehue the following day and hung up. I noticed when I got up off the bed and sat down at my desk that I had tweaked something but only once I was seated on the camioneta en route to hue hue did I realize the extent of how severely uncomfortable my injury was. This was of course, aggravated by the unfortunate circumstance that that particular bus’ route is through all of the Aldeas (surrounding villages) and then goes on to Huehue, translation: rutty, bumpy, dirt roads. I can laugh about it now because I am feeling much better and , naturally I would hurt myself doing something stupid that would make a 4 ½ hour trip feel like forever. Of course.

So I arrived in Huehue sweaty and limpy and went directly to the happiest place on earth, McDonalds.

I bought myself a treat and sat (gently) to wait for Claire to meet up with me so we could head to our Volunteer leader, Katie’s place together. After a satisfying M&M McFlurry we were on our way and made it without complications. That night a bunch of Healthy Schools Volunteers were staying at her house in order to go and see some libraries that she had made at her schools during her service. It was a nice opportunity to see people who live farther away from me that I wont get a chance to visit because of a pesky 3-hour rule (I would explain it but it’s just too much right now, maybe later). So we all got together and ate pizza and exchanged stories and descriptions of our different sites and all slept on the floor, slumber-party style.

The next morning we woke up and ate some French toast and piled in the micro bus to head to the schools. The libraries were really cool. Did I think that I’d be visiting libraries at schools in a developing country on my birthday? Not so much, but it was pretty neat nonetheless. I had forgotten how great school libraries are with their stuffed animals on top of the shelves and glossy pictures in the books, posters of famous people up on the walls with quotes about how cool reading is (anyone remember the one with Kirk Cameron from grade school? Lake Grovers? Well, they didn’t have that one; but there were posters…). Anyways, it made me wonder about the possibilities of making a public library in my town…but then I started to think of all of the requirements and I felt a little bit in-over-my-head. Luckily it was still in the planning stages in my head and I could stop that from overwhelming me by not getting anyone in my town excited about me making a library for them. Phew. Dodged a bullet there.

We got back from visiting the libraries around lunchtime and went into the city to an excellent Mexican restaurant. There were two choices: chimichanga or burrito; I couldn’t decide so another gal and I decided that we’d get both and share them. EXCELLENT CHOICE. It was probably top 2 meals I’ve had in Guatemala, 1st being Toko Mediterranean food in Antigua (I’m talking falafals in pitas with the most delicious sauce…ever made, I‘m hungry just thinking about it). So lunch was a real success followed by shopping at Pacas where I found my new birthday outfit. It is a vintage ¾ sleeved black dress with shoulder pads and a hot pink/blue geometric pattern around the neckline. I thought it was appropriate that I wore something that would fit in in the year I was born (1986). I accessorized with sequined ballet flats and despite the fact that I looked a little ridiculous and no one else dressed up…I felt pretty good about my choice. After shopping we returned to Katie’s house to relax a little and since everyone was still too full from lunch to get dinner we ended up eating some cake at Katies house and then going for a drink at a bar called “Biblioteca” (Library) which I thought was very appropriate given the activities of the day. We got kind of a late start because we were all really wiped from the day so we all enjoyed a drink and chatted and then agreed that we were exhausted and it was getting late so we walked to the park to catch a taxi and hopefully get a bite to eat (since people were just starting to come out of the food coma’s the Mexican place had put us in earlier). A few people opted for the taco stand in the park, but my guard was down (I’d had a margarita, it was my birthday…so many things) and I set my sites on a hotdog stand.

Later as I was throwing up as quietly as I could manage in the bathroom I regretted the hot-dog decision. I can’t help but laugh about it now. Picture this: I am sitting on the tiled floor in the bathroom, watching a cockroach walking around the drain in the shower, on the verge of tears, throwing up as quietly as I can to not wake the others who are sleeping on the floor outside the door. What a cool way to end a birthday. Haha. I mean, I have thrown up on my birthday before but… that was from alcohol, I was asking for it. Of course…I was probably asking for it by eating street food. That’s like the number 1 no go. The next day when I was recounting my tale of silent barfing (I didn’t wake anyone, I win) I admitted that it was my first time eating street food and my friend brought up an important point- why on earth would you make your first street-food experience a hot dog? Those will make you sick if you make them in your house here. Touché, mom, touché.

So the next day I felt a little rotten but I got it together, went by the Maxi Bodega (supermarket), bought some Cheese and a DVD player (it was on sale, had to do it) and hit the road.

I arrived back in Jacal (my tailbone a little worse for the wear from bus rides and sleeping on the floor), came home, hooked up my dvd player, put in my bootlegged copy of Madagascar and took a nap. It was excellent.

but enough about me...gosh! My friends and family sure are great!

And now….some thank you’s!

THANK YOU

Bri: New Moon* and HP and the HBP! How’d you know? Snickers- also a big win, but the homemade card hit it out of the park! You know how I feel about them… just perfection.

Nunez: the swim-coverup/nightgown/shirt and slippers are so IDEAL. Thank you so much! (also, thank you for the airline bottles of gin, they’re adorable and I love them).

Mandi- all I can say is every time I make a burrito I am like 100X happier when I can compliment it with the taco bell hot sauce and follow it up with some twix…(the twix are all gone…and the room is so quiet without the sounds of me unwrapping them) haha.

Lauren: I love the Cds (they are very much your taste in music and I am enjoying them immensely) also…I am possibly more on team Jacob now after seeing him in New Moon*…

Soucie: Your card was EXELLENT, truly… it was PERFECT. Where on earth did you manage to find such a wonderfully appropriate item? Oh and thanks for indulging the 14-year-old twilight-addicted girl in me*…embarrassing…

Linda (Lauren’s mom): Thank you so much for the card and the crossword/sudoku puzzles. I loved the little bit about the Happy Birthday Song as well. I will be sure to pull out the origins of the song and pepper it into an everyday conversation soon :).

AV & UB: Thanks so much for the bathrobe and shirt! I love them very much, they are the perfect material for this hot weather!

Dad & Kathleen: You guys are the greatest; thanks for the sheets (I promptly made my bed and took a nap) and the books, magazines and clothes! Love you guys!

KC: Thanks so much for the dried-fruit and tea and misc. other items. I like to make the passion tea and mix it with lemonade and pretend I just got it from starbucks…just something I‘ve been doing…I don’t miss home at all (sigh) haha.

Claire & PC Peeps who came to Huehue for my birthday: Gracias for the cake! It was very tasty and I had a wonderful time with you guys!

*yep, my friends know me too well. I received 2 copies of New Moon…I love you guys.

On to other things…

Indigenous women in bi-focals = adorable

This week I was lucky enough to spend half of my time translating for a group of missionary/doctor types, giving reading/sun glasses to people and the other half of my time going to schools.

At first I was a little worried about my whether or not my Spanish was really good enough to be a “translator.” I quickly realized that it is easy to communicate with people who want to communicate with you and that when it comes to people’s health, (in this case the ability to see well enough to read/sew etc.) people are happy to meet you half way. They had a lot of patience with me as I was checking to make sure the glasses didn’t make them dizzy and that they could clearly see the pamphlet in front of them. Not only was it an opportunity to help people see more clearly, it was an opportunity to get my face seen in the community and talk with people that, no doubt, had seen me on the street before and explain to them what I’m doing here; I feel it was an invaluable confianza-building (trust-building) week for me.

I also went to schools. As the meeting with our program director approaches Damian and I are determined to finish our second visits to the schools. It has been a little bit of a challenge with Deportes (sports tournaments) and holidays taking the kids away from the schools but as of now we only have one more school to visit! All I can say is…it looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us. I have to keep myself from going off and making idealized plans of water and infrastructure projects and stay grounded by setting achievable goals. Right now I am focusing on Rincones de Salud (areas where the kids keep all of their hygiene materials) in every aula (classroom), an established system for washing hands and brushing teeth, and getting the teachers to include health lessons in their weekly curriculum. Not the most exciting of goals but, in reality the most reasonable goals for the schools who lack the infrastructure requirements to certify.

“oh the weather outside is frightful…”

How about that weather?

Let me start with saying, don’t worry, I’m safe & sound!

On the volcano, Pacaya:

It blew up a little bit, just some ashes, no big deal until…

Tropical Storm Agatha:

Basically, VERY heavy rains that were compounded with the volcanic ash that blocked drainage systems together producing a lot flooding and landslides, also a really impressive sink-hole in Guatemala City- google it. We volunteers were put on “standfast” which translates to, “stay where you are” while monitoring conditions of the roads, threats of landslides and flooding. A couple of my fellow volunteers were actually evacuated from their sites and moved to consolidation points and out of harm’s way. A couple other friends were stuck away from their homes and in hostels until the weather blew over and the standfast was removed. I am happy to report that as far as I know all of the volunteers weathered the storm without too much trouble. The aftermath of the storm is that travel is restricted due to washed-out roads and landslide damage and the selection of produce at the market is noticeably scanter (more scant? Can I say that?) Also, the Ministery of Education has cancelled school for the rest of the week so…I can’t go anywhere…including work; of course. As for now, the sun is back out and I am happy to report I even got a load of laundry dried before the next bout of rain arrives.

Based on my experience with bad things happening, I know them to occur in sets of 3. So…I’m waiting for next natural disaster to hit…I’ve heard rumor that Guatemala is due for an earthquake…so…I’ll have my duck and cover ready.

In other news…

When I am not in the schools, eating PB&J with missionaries, or staring longingly out the window at flooding streets, I am doing any number of the following things:

- Playing/learning guitar: I am currently working on building up the calluses on my fingers to play for longer periods of time but so far I can play the melodies to, “Yankee Doodle,” and “Ode to Joy.“ Pretty neat really. Here I am playing a “d” chord… one of the three chords necessary for the Colbie Callait song I’m learning… may or may not have tried to record a video of me playing the intro to the song…may or may not have failed miserably…so here’s a still.

- making really cool bulletin boards in my room with cardboard boxes and ribbon…don’t get too jealous.

- doing laundry….there is an added challenge as we shift into the rainy season as drying aforementioned laundry is nearly impossible; just about every surface in my room has something hanging from it at times when outdoor, line-dry efforts are sabotaged by the weather.

- cooking! This week’s task was cooking black beans from dry…I know it sounds like an easy task but have you cooked beans from scratch? It’s kind of a time consuming situation but, turns out they’re pretty tasty so they‘re worth it. My next culinary triumph will be something in the soup-region of food. I am thinking broccoli. Also, I had to include evidence of the delicious pizza I made a few weeks ago, it was very yum and I have been wanting to re-create it but apparently, the storm also knocked out the Carneceria’s access to mozzarella cheese, so pizza will have to wait.

- Becoming really good friends with the guys who sell bootlegged dvds. Having bought a dvd player last weekend I was really excited to watch some of the dvds I brought into the country with me as well as the dvds that my WONDERFUL friends sent me (say hello to New Moon, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!) but I was more than dismayed when the DVD player I bought in this country was UNABLE to play my US DVDs due to some sort of, “regional code” annoyance.

Just picture me for a second.

I receive AWESOME packages from my friends. (Tears happened when I read my birthday cards because I miss you guys so much, luckily there was chocolate in the package so I was able to drown my sorrows right then and there). I open my DVDs and take off all of that pesky packaging (why must they do that…) and then I slipped it into the dvd player only to be greeted with the message, “cannot play dvd, see regional code.” At first I stared in disbelief, ejected the dvd and tried again only to be greeted by that same message. Quickly I reached for the manual to the dvd player (which is in English) and searched for some sort of explanation. I found that there are regional codes on the backs of all dvds and that most dvd players are made to play dvds in regions 1-6 (so they have this little icon that says 1-6 on the backs of the players.) I look at the back of my US dvds and see that they are sporting the #1 logo, so I turn my dvd player around and what do I find? that it only plays dvds from region #4! I quickly scan the covers of all of the DVDs I have in my room, they all are #1s. It is then that I realize that the only reason I was able to watch Madagascar the previous night was because it was a bootlegged, Guatemalan dvd. Defeated, I lay in my bed with all of my newly acquired treasures (that I couldn’t immediately enjoy) and took a nap. I awoke anew and decided that it wasn’t that bad and resolved to watch my US dvds on my netbook and bootlegged dvds in my player. That being said, I had to expand my collection of bootlegged dvds ASAP.

The vendors explained to me that all of their dvds come in three language possibilities, Spanish (duh), English (like it), and portugese (why?) Well, I only had one question: do you have hellboy 1 &2? Sure enough they did and as I was leaving I also spied a disc with Harry Potter 1-5 which I also had to have. The dvd guy assured me that they were in English but that if they didn’t work that I could come back and exchange them.

…I’ve been back 3 times now and finally have acquired dvds that are able to play in English. As my choices dwindled down I elected for, fantastic 4 and night at the museum, then spider man 1, 2, &3 and Batman all of which would not play in English and finally, as of yesterday, have struck English-playing gold with one dvd that has all of the Scary Movies and one that has Transporter 1 &2. Jason Stathem is hardcore, he can stay.

The last time I returned with my dvds that wouldn’t play in English in my hand I actually told the vendor I was going to cry if I didn’t get a movie that worked soon. I think he believed me because then he told me that he would find Hellboy 1&2 in English for me by next week. So…I have that to look forward to; now I’m going to start working on a “frequent customer discount” wish me luck.

- Reading: I just finished, Kite Runner, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, and I’m currently re-reading Twilight. Had to pick something up when it was raining and the power was out...

-writing blog entries…that are apparently…VERY LONG…

Well, that does it. I’m finished for now.

Until next time, I hope this finds you all happy and healthy.

Peace & Love,

Kristin