Site Visit

I think this week of visiting Cantel has been full of more highs and lows than any other week since I've been in Guatemala and is probably only a foreshadowing of more to come.

On Monday, everyone's Guatemalan counterparts came to the Peace Corps training Center in Santa Lucia for a day of training together. Counterparts are the people we are most going to work with during our Peace Corps service. Two people came for me-- my actual counterpart, who is the Director of the Department of Protected Areas in Cantel, and one of the men on the Muncipal Council. They left at 4am to get to Santa Lucia by 8 and they both seem great. However, I'm still slightly unclear as to exactly what they want me to do here, seeing as the protected area that they told me they were interested in developing for tourism is approximately a 3 hour hike from the town. Then on Tuesday we all left with our counterparts for a four day visit to our respective towns.

Here are some of the ups and downs of my week:

-Saying goodbye to people from my training group, making me realize how much I'm going to miss everyone when we go our separate ways.
-Meeting a cat who won't eat cat food, but loves tortillas. I don't think you can get any more Guatemalan than that.
-Hiking all morning to see the protected area of the pinabete, a tree very important to Guatemala that is in danger of extinction.
-Learning how to make tortillas. I'm really awful at it, but the family I'm staying with was very encouraging.
-Finally finding a place to live. This was by far the most stressful part of my week.
-Introducing myself to various shop owners, ladies at the market, and kids on the street.
-Sitting around watching women embroider traditional blouses and chatting about life.
-Feeling lonely when everyone starts speaking Quiche. I am definitely going to have to work on this.

I think this is going to be a very interesting two years.