Field Based Training

I just got back yesterday from Field Based Training. FBT is where all 16 ectourism volunteers traveled to visit four different current volunteers at their sites. It was great to see what people are actually doing and get some hands-on practice at some of the things we might be working with.

We left on Sunday for Totonicapan to visit Kate, who works with a park mainly used for environmental education. There we got to stay in some pretty sweet cabins, have campfires every night and help improve some of the trails. We learned all about proper angles, erosion, and making signs. Because their park also focuses on birdwatching tourism, a group of us got up early one morning to go for a bird watching hike. I wasn´t very good at it and mostly just felt like I was playing a giant game of Where´s Waldo, but it was still interesting.

On Tuesday, we spent the morning working with the town´s elementary school on making recycled crafts. I taught second graders how to make flowers out of plastic bottles and chip wrappers. It´s an interesting experience trying to explain to kids who have no idea what recycling is why it´s a good idea to use trash to make crafts. I really liked working at the school and am definitely planning to make environmental ed a focus at my site, wherever it may be.

Wednesday we left Toto to visit Justin, whose park has an incredible view of Lake Atitlan and also has the longest zipline in Guatemala. Atitlan is a beautiful lake surrounded by volcanoes, making it all the more amazing. Even better, we got a special deal to do the zipline for only 20 Quetzales, which is a little less than three dollars. The first time, we all did it normal zipline style, but the second time there was an option to go ¨Superman¨, which means being hooked in by a cable on your back and basically being able to fly through the air. I think I screamed the entire time but it was a lot of fun.

That night, we hosted an ecocamp with a group of highschoolers. They came for about 4 hours where we did some icebreakers, an investigation on trash management, ate tamales, and had a sort-of dance party. During dinner, I played the Cedarledge game of Chinese Numbers which the girls at my table loved. It was great to hang out with them and definitely one of my goals to learn to dance salsa, meringue, etc. while I´m here.

Yesterday we went to see another volunteer who had made several different playgrounds out of recycled materials, mostly tires. He was also involved in constructing more fuel-efficient wood burning stoves, which is a huge need here. These stoves have chimneys so that women cooking and the babies on their backs aren´t breathing in smoke the entire time and also burn less firewood. Respiratory disease and deforestation are both huge problems in Guatemala and so these stoves help with both issues. It´s yet another thing I´d love to get involved with during my time here.

Oh, and I almost forgot on Valentine´s Day (the Saturday before we left) we went to help build a school out of plastic bottles stuffed with plastic bags and chip wrappers. These are stacked between two pieces of chicken wire and then covered with cement for an end product that looks just like a building made out of cement. It was pretty awesome too.

So I think that´s about it. Things are still going well here-- definitely busy-- and I still love hearing from you all. Happy Mardi Gras!

My birthday!

First, I just want to thank everyone for all of your birthday messages and e-mails! I can´t tell you how much they mean to me and how happy I am to hear from all of you. I´ve been really lucky and have had a wonderful birthday. It all started yesterday when my friend Kyle wrote ¨Cumpleañera¨or ¨birthday girl¨with an arrow pointing to me on the dry erase board that we use for Spanish classes and carry to wherever we´re going to have Spanish the next day. It was embarassing but also really sweet to get lots of ¨Feliz Cumpleaños!¨wishes from people in my town.

This morning, I then woke up and my host mom gave me a bunch of really pretty roses for my birthday. I didn´t have much time in the morning because my Spanish class was going to an organic macademia nut farm that´s not too far from us. At the farm, we learned all about the medicinal qualities of macadmias and got to try lots of free samples. My friend Erin and I even got facials with oil from macademia nuts. They promised us that it would take 15 years off of our skin... I´m not so sure about that but it was definitely very relaxing. I bought some chocolate covered nuts to take back to my host family and they are delicious.

We then came back to Magdalena for lunch and my Spanish class came over for birthday cake and coffee. It was a banana bread type cake very, very tasty. It was just my friend Mark´s birthday on Tuesday so instead of Cuerpo de Paz we´ve decided we might have joined the Cuerpo de Pastel (cake in Spanish) instead-- and we´re okay with that!

Then we had a meeting in the Municipal Office about the Annual Operating Plan we´re helping them write for the park. I finally feel like we´re getting somewhere in this project which is a really good feeling. So far, I´d say being 22 is off to a good start.

Fruit and coffee in Guatemala

Just a quick observation that it is very difficult to try and remember all of the names of fruits and vegetables in Spanish when you are also being introduced to about 30 new varieties of squash and tropical fruits that you never even knew existed.

In regards to coffee, Guatemala is very interesting in that it is one of the biggest exporters of coffee but that almost everyone drinks instant. Then they add a LOT of sugar-- and on more than one occasion have told me they thought I was crazy for preferring it black. My host brother looked at me in awe and asked me where I learned to drink it like that. When I told him from my mom, he just shook his head. Coffee is also served almost every night at dinner, around 7:30. I think this is very interesting that it is considered more of a nightime drink than a morning pick-me-up.

Other than that, I learned yesterday that duck, duck, goose also exists here (pato, pato, ganso) and played with some of the kids on my street. We also played some hand clap games, soccer, and what I thought to be a more complicated version of dodgeball. I´m pretty excited to be making Guatemalan friends, even if they are only nine years old. :)