“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
That's a picture i took from my roof...random. but neat. 
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…
I walked around and took some pictures of these "alfombras" (rugs) and then went down to the church to watch the beginning of the procession which consisted of a large homecoming-type float with a religious scene on it being walked through the town by a group of men in robes along the alfombra; effectively destroying it...followed by a crew with brooms who then sweep up all of the sand, flowers and beans.
It is kind of amazing to me that they spend all of this time on making these alfombras only to be walked over and ruined in an instant...of course it's no stranger than my obsession with those sand bottles that i had as a kid- you know the ones where you stack the different colors of sand in the bottles and make art with them...once the bottle's full the fun is over because you can never get the different colors of sand apart to try it again...don't act like you didnt have a sand art set haha. To each his own. 
I am living in a house with a teacher who works in one of the schools that i will be working with. It is really nice to have someone to practice my spanish with and even nicer to have access to a kitchen! I have been enjoying getting back into cooking and hopefully back into eating healthier now that i am not at the mercy of whatever's put in front of me. Turns out that cooking without a microwave is a real pain but i'm up to the challenge. I have access to all sorts of fresh vegetables and fruits which is really nice; the trick of course is going to be learning to disinfect and prepare them all in delicious ways...i'm optimistic.
