To be honest, in these first couple of months I've asked this question myself a lot of times. Things are finally starting to come together, though, and I'd say I more or less have four main work areas.
1. Like my program says, my technical title here is a Sustainable Community Tourism Facilitator. We're working on getting funding to build a visitors' center in our communal forest and staging a cleaning campaign to make an interpretive trail in a really pretty area people use right now to throw their trash. Sometimes I do other random things with tourism too-- for example, a group of girls from Xela came to help clean up our hot springs area on Sunday and so I coordinated that.
2. Environmental Education. I still work in one middle school twice a month teaching environmental ed. We're also recieving books for elementary school teachers and workbooks for all elementary students from a Swiss NGO-- 3,000+ students! I presented a plan for implementing this at a meeting of all the school directors on Friday and am going to a a workshop this upcoming Friday to get the books and learn how the NGO wants us to train teachers to use them.
3. Trash management. Our office is working hard to set up recycling and a sanitary landfill in Cantel. My program director at Peace Corps knows more about trash than anyone else I've ever met, so he's helping us out quite a bit. The mayor seems receptive, which is great, and I think more than anything else this would be a big help for Cantel. It's still in the veeeeery beginning stages, though, so we'll see how it goes.
4. I haven't actually started yet, but on Saturday, a youth group that my counterpart is involved with is having its last workshop with middle school kids on citizenship participation. Our idea is to get these kids to form an environmental group. We could do summer-camp type activities, leadership, etc. I'm hopeful about this too and I think it could be a lot of fun.
Other than that, I still spend a lot of time cooking with people, hanging out with my host family, and teaching English to kids and to a guy in town who won a scholarship to Canada but doesn't speak much English. It's crazy to think that I've been in Cantel for almost four months now and am glad to see that work is finally starting to come together.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Comida Chapina
I realized that besides mayo, I haven't really talked about food here in Guatemala. Here is my take on the normal diet, at least in Cantel.
Breakfast-- Eggs or beans. Sometimes soup instead. Always tortillas or tamalitos which are hunks of ground up corn mixed with water and steamed.
Lunch-- The biggest meal of the day. Usually includes rice with some form of meat and sauce. For example, chicken with tomato sauce. Alternatively, it could be some type of soup with meat and veggies. More tortillas and/or tamalitos.
Dinner--Coffee made of toasted corn and some combination of eggs, rice, beans, and even more tortillas/tamalitos. Served with sweet bread.
People of corn is not an exaggeration for Guatemala. In my K'iche' class, I have a whole section of vocab words just related to corn-- from the seeds to the plant to the cob at all different stages of growth. It's interesting.
I've tried a lot of new foods here and also found some favorites.
Some of the wierdest (to me):
-avocado ice cream
-white bread soaked in jello and layered so that it forms a cake-like substance-- it's odd.
-tongue
-raw eggs in fresh squeezed orange juice. I actually couldn't try this one, it seemed too bizarre to me. People here say its good though.
Some of my new favorite foods:
-papaya, mango, or banana licuados, which are like smoothies that either have milk or water, fruit and sugar. Yum!
-enchiladas. Here enchiladas are tostadas topped with ground chicken, beef, beans, or vegetables, sometimes with onions and a little bit of hot sauce. One of my favorite ladies who sells them at night (and gives them to me for free!) lived in St. Louis for a year so we talk about that a lot. She likes toasted ravioli too!
-fresh squeezed orange juice WITHOUT raw eggs.
-coconut ice cream dipped in chocolate and peanuts.
I'm also still enjoying cooking new things too. I made a ¨Peace Corps Oven¨ which consists of a giant pot with an empty tuna can inside. Then you put your baking pan on top of the can and put a lid on the pot. I made Guicoy Bread (basically just like zucchini) to share with my host family the other day and they liked it a lot.
In more general news, I was sick with amoebas last week so I guess the amoebas are still sharing my food too. I'm taking medicine though and feeling much, much better now.
I got invited to a wedding today that's happening in two weeks and am very excited for that! I'm also looking forward to Peace Corps' All Volunteer Conference and Fourth of July Party, a week-long reunion with my training class for more info sessions and Spanish classes at the end of July, and for my family to come visit during Cantel's fair in August.
Congrats to everyone who knew that Guatemala's national instrument is the marimba-- which is sort of a xylophone type thing. They are big fans here. Does anyone know if we have a national instrument in the States? Or does each state have their own? These are the things I wonder about when I have too much time here.
Breakfast-- Eggs or beans. Sometimes soup instead. Always tortillas or tamalitos which are hunks of ground up corn mixed with water and steamed.
Lunch-- The biggest meal of the day. Usually includes rice with some form of meat and sauce. For example, chicken with tomato sauce. Alternatively, it could be some type of soup with meat and veggies. More tortillas and/or tamalitos.
Dinner--Coffee made of toasted corn and some combination of eggs, rice, beans, and even more tortillas/tamalitos. Served with sweet bread.
People of corn is not an exaggeration for Guatemala. In my K'iche' class, I have a whole section of vocab words just related to corn-- from the seeds to the plant to the cob at all different stages of growth. It's interesting.
I've tried a lot of new foods here and also found some favorites.
Some of the wierdest (to me):
-avocado ice cream
-white bread soaked in jello and layered so that it forms a cake-like substance-- it's odd.
-tongue
-raw eggs in fresh squeezed orange juice. I actually couldn't try this one, it seemed too bizarre to me. People here say its good though.
Some of my new favorite foods:
-papaya, mango, or banana licuados, which are like smoothies that either have milk or water, fruit and sugar. Yum!
-enchiladas. Here enchiladas are tostadas topped with ground chicken, beef, beans, or vegetables, sometimes with onions and a little bit of hot sauce. One of my favorite ladies who sells them at night (and gives them to me for free!) lived in St. Louis for a year so we talk about that a lot. She likes toasted ravioli too!
-fresh squeezed orange juice WITHOUT raw eggs.
-coconut ice cream dipped in chocolate and peanuts.
I'm also still enjoying cooking new things too. I made a ¨Peace Corps Oven¨ which consists of a giant pot with an empty tuna can inside. Then you put your baking pan on top of the can and put a lid on the pot. I made Guicoy Bread (basically just like zucchini) to share with my host family the other day and they liked it a lot.
In more general news, I was sick with amoebas last week so I guess the amoebas are still sharing my food too. I'm taking medicine though and feeling much, much better now.
I got invited to a wedding today that's happening in two weeks and am very excited for that! I'm also looking forward to Peace Corps' All Volunteer Conference and Fourth of July Party, a week-long reunion with my training class for more info sessions and Spanish classes at the end of July, and for my family to come visit during Cantel's fair in August.
Congrats to everyone who knew that Guatemala's national instrument is the marimba-- which is sort of a xylophone type thing. They are big fans here. Does anyone know if we have a national instrument in the States? Or does each state have their own? These are the things I wonder about when I have too much time here.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Quinceñeras
I got to go to my neighbor Yadi's Quinceñera yesterday and it was just as good as I had hoped. In most of Latin America, 15 is the biggest birthday for a girl. When she turns 15, it's the birthday that ends her childhood and makes her an adult. Sort of like Sweet Sixteen in the States, but an even bigger deal. Needless to say, after watching several My Super Sweet Sixteen episodes with Quinceñeras I was pretty excited when I got my own fancy invitation that just said "Señorita Rebeca". Sandra, Yadi's mom, told me she was very sorry, but she still didn't really understand my last name.
I spent yesterday morning helping prepare food for the reception. We cut up a LOT of carrots. Instead of having the meal catered, the family hired someone to come direct the cooking and invited lots of friends and family to come over and help prepare everything. We made rice, rolled hamburger meat with jam and cheese inside, and a vegetable salad with cooked carrots, peas, and mayonaise-- which is definitely Guatemala's favorite condiment. No sandwich, salad, hotdog, etc. is complete without being completely covered in it.
At the actual ceremony, Yadi wore a very, very poufy dress and there was a cake with a fountain on top. There was a part of the ceremony where her aunt changed her shoes from ballet flats to some of the rediculously high heels that girls wear here all of the time- even when they're playing basketball or hiking up mountains. She was also presented with her ¨last doll¨ wearing a replica poufy gold dress.
After the ceremony, we ate dinner, cake, and sang ¨Happy Birthday¨in English with a distinctly Guatemalan accent. It was all a lot of fun and I'm really glad that I got to go.
I don't know whether it's made news in the States or not, but the other big thing going on here is the video that Rodrigo Rosenberg made three days before he was assasinated, accusing the president Alvaro Colom of being responsible. It's a pretty crazy story, and I can't help but think about how much it sounds like a Law and Order plot. Today there were big demonstrations in the capital both supporting the president and calling for his resignation. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. This week's trivia question: What is Guatemala's national instrument?
I spent yesterday morning helping prepare food for the reception. We cut up a LOT of carrots. Instead of having the meal catered, the family hired someone to come direct the cooking and invited lots of friends and family to come over and help prepare everything. We made rice, rolled hamburger meat with jam and cheese inside, and a vegetable salad with cooked carrots, peas, and mayonaise-- which is definitely Guatemala's favorite condiment. No sandwich, salad, hotdog, etc. is complete without being completely covered in it.
At the actual ceremony, Yadi wore a very, very poufy dress and there was a cake with a fountain on top. There was a part of the ceremony where her aunt changed her shoes from ballet flats to some of the rediculously high heels that girls wear here all of the time- even when they're playing basketball or hiking up mountains. She was also presented with her ¨last doll¨ wearing a replica poufy gold dress.
After the ceremony, we ate dinner, cake, and sang ¨Happy Birthday¨in English with a distinctly Guatemalan accent. It was all a lot of fun and I'm really glad that I got to go.
I don't know whether it's made news in the States or not, but the other big thing going on here is the video that Rodrigo Rosenberg made three days before he was assasinated, accusing the president Alvaro Colom of being responsible. It's a pretty crazy story, and I can't help but think about how much it sounds like a Law and Order plot. Today there were big demonstrations in the capital both supporting the president and calling for his resignation. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. This week's trivia question: What is Guatemala's national instrument?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Pros and Cons to life in Guate
I've been in Cantel for about a month and a half now and little by little, I´m discovering the things that I like and don't like about life in Guatemala. Here are some of my favorite and least favorite things
Things I like:
-Market Day on Sundays. It's crazy, with all sorts of tomatoes, bananas, chickens, broccoli, etc. I feel like I'm finally getting bargaining down and I like the organized chaos of it all.
-Learning to cook, like Peace Corps volunteers around the world. Last night I made pita bread which turned out really well. If anyone has any ideas for stovetop recipes that use simple ingredients I would be very greatful.
- Giving random presentations to people in the waiting room at our town health center. In the States, I was never a huge fan of public speaking, but here I'm learning to just go with it. People don't have anything better to do than listen anyway.
-Learning to decorate cakes and practicing English with my friend at my favorite bakery. I'm working on icing roses right now.
Things I like less:
-Missing out on life in the States. I wish I could be there to watch everyone graduate this week. Congrats to you all!!
- Still trying to figure out exactly how this tourism project could go and what I should be doing to help it along.
- THE RAIN. The rainy season here lasts from now until November and it pours just about every afternoon.
Since it's Tuesday, here is a Guatemala Trivia Tuesday question for you. What two condiments are the favorites of all Guatemalans? Let me know what you think and I'll post the answers soon.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Life Lately
After getting some angry phone calls and emails about my lack of posts lately, I thought it was probably time to update my blog. Tim told me to do a Guatemala ¨Trivia Tuesday¨, but seeing as it's Wednesday and I can't think of any particularly interesting bits of trivia, I think that will have to wait until next week. Here are some of the things I have been up to since Semana Santa:
-Going to a two-day trail making workshop at a nearby municipality. The goal for our communal forest is to make an interpretive trail so Orlando and I went to learn all about the specifics of trail-building. We're going back for another three days next week.
-Making three cakes with my host family on May 1, Guatemalan Labor Day. At first, we tried to follow the recipe in "Qué Rico", the Guatemalan Peace Corps cookbook, but it was a bit difficult without any measuring cups or spoons so we just guessed and used different amounts in each cake. We don't have a working oven, so we took all three to a nearby bakery and asked if they would please bake them for us. I was pretty nervous that they weren't going to turn out and my family was going to be very disappointed with me. Luckily, though, every single one came out delicious, proving that you can't go wrong with butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.
- Starting English classes on Saturdays with a group of about 8 kids. So far, we've worked on the alphabet, greetings, my name is, and "I like____".
-Going to a music festival in Xela with a huge group of people from my training class.
-Attending an AIDS workshop that the other Peace Corps volunteer in my town put on for school directors and teachers to learn how to lead one myself.
-Starting environmental ed. at a middle school with presentations on inorganic/organic trash and how to reduce our trash output. I'm really excited about this and am actually going to another school this afternoon.
- Preparing a presentation on domestic violence for a parent meeting, only to go and have the meeting be cancelled because it was a teacher's birthday. Oh, Guatemala.....
-Going to a two-day trail making workshop at a nearby municipality. The goal for our communal forest is to make an interpretive trail so Orlando and I went to learn all about the specifics of trail-building. We're going back for another three days next week.
-Making three cakes with my host family on May 1, Guatemalan Labor Day. At first, we tried to follow the recipe in "Qué Rico", the Guatemalan Peace Corps cookbook, but it was a bit difficult without any measuring cups or spoons so we just guessed and used different amounts in each cake. We don't have a working oven, so we took all three to a nearby bakery and asked if they would please bake them for us. I was pretty nervous that they weren't going to turn out and my family was going to be very disappointed with me. Luckily, though, every single one came out delicious, proving that you can't go wrong with butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.
- Starting English classes on Saturdays with a group of about 8 kids. So far, we've worked on the alphabet, greetings, my name is, and "I like____".
-Going to a music festival in Xela with a huge group of people from my training class.
-Attending an AIDS workshop that the other Peace Corps volunteer in my town put on for school directors and teachers to learn how to lead one myself.
-Starting environmental ed. at a middle school with presentations on inorganic/organic trash and how to reduce our trash output. I'm really excited about this and am actually going to another school this afternoon.
- Preparing a presentation on domestic violence for a parent meeting, only to go and have the meeting be cancelled because it was a teacher's birthday. Oh, Guatemala.....
Monday, April 13, 2009
Semana Santa
Guatemalans take Holy Week pretty seriously. It started off on Monday when a group of teenagers came into the DAPMA office because they were interested in the environment and want to help in some shape or form. I´d really like to work with them so I hope we can make something happen. While they were here, we got word that they needed help controlling fires in the communal forest. I got to go with the teenagers, Orlando-- my counterpart and the director of the office, and some of the park rangers to help make divides so that the fire wouldn´t spread. It was pretty exciting and I think Smokey the Bear would be proud.
Tuesday was pretty relaxed. My host family has ten kids who range in age from 19 to about 40. Five of them live at our house, but lots more were in town for Semana Santa with their families. The kids all really liked learning English and juggling, so I spent a lot of time doing that all week.
On Wednesday I went with a Catholic youth group to deliver traditional Guatemalan sweet bread to families in need. People here eat a LOT of bread to celebrate Semana Santa. My friend who works with me in the Muni invited me and it was a really good way to meet people. Afterwards we had lunch and watched ¨St. Ralph¨, a Canadian movie dubbed into Spanish.
The week´s real events began on Thursday. People had been telling me since I got here about how exciting things were in our town square. Honestly, I still don´t really understand exactly why these events happened or the Biblical stories behind them, but nonetheless they were interesting to watch. On Thursday was the ¨Running of Judas¨. Two different groups of about 100 guys each (one from the center of town where I live and another from where there used to be a textile factory until it closed last year) dressed up as Jews and competed to see who could catch someone portraying Judas. Pretty much the entire town came out to watch. Interesting, no?
On Friday there was a fight between the Centurians and the Jews. I kept asking people why they were fighting but no one could really give me a good explanation. This made even less sense to me because the Centurians were on horses and the Jews on foot. Essentially, everyone just kind of ran around in the town square while we all watched. Unfortunately my digital camera wasn´t working so I couldn´t take pictures but I have some on a film camera that I borrowed from my host mom.
After the fight, there was a procession all around town. My family, who is Evangelical, told me that I needed to wear something dark colored. I said, okay, that was fine, but then they got really excited and decided I should borrow a traditional blouse and corte to wear to the procession. I got a lot of double-takes from people in the community when they realized the gringa was wearing traje tipica (traditional dress). Different groups take turns carrying floats and made ornate carpets out of colored sawdust for the procession to walk on all around town and eventually wind up in the cemetary. I was going to post pictures, but it looks like my camera battery is dead. I´ll put them up soon, I promise. I walked with the procession from about 5:30-8:00 when I went home for dinner, but the rest of the group continued until 11:00pm. Dedication!
On Saturday I met up with Mark and Kyle, two of my Peace Corps friends from Magdalena, in Xela. It was really good to see them again and great to get to have a McFlurry with Cadbury eggs to celebrate American Easter. When I got back to Cantel, they were burning a doll figure of Judas.... which made me remember that I really am in Guatemala after a day of speaking English and eating McDonald´s.
Sunday I got up early to go to Easter Mass in the cemetary. It was pretty neat and I´d post pictures if I could. I ran into some people from the youth group who asked me to come inflate balloons with them to release on the plaza. I think we blew up close to 400 balloons. Then there was another procession with more decorated carpets, bands, and floats. I got really sunburnt, but it was a good day. After the procession I went to a friend´s house for lunch, and at night went to a dance in the Municipal building to celebrate the end of Semana Santa. I had a really good time trying to learn to dance to Duranguero music-- which is no easy task! Mostly I just laughed at myself and at repeated comments about how I was very possibly the tallest person there.
Today it's back to work where I´m hoping to start making progress on getting things started. Peace Corps told us over and over that the first three months, and the first month in particular, are more about getting to know the community than about getting any real work done-- which is both exciting and frustrating all at the same time.
I promise, I really will post pictures soon. Hope everyone had a very happy Easter!!!!!
Tuesday was pretty relaxed. My host family has ten kids who range in age from 19 to about 40. Five of them live at our house, but lots more were in town for Semana Santa with their families. The kids all really liked learning English and juggling, so I spent a lot of time doing that all week.
On Wednesday I went with a Catholic youth group to deliver traditional Guatemalan sweet bread to families in need. People here eat a LOT of bread to celebrate Semana Santa. My friend who works with me in the Muni invited me and it was a really good way to meet people. Afterwards we had lunch and watched ¨St. Ralph¨, a Canadian movie dubbed into Spanish.
The week´s real events began on Thursday. People had been telling me since I got here about how exciting things were in our town square. Honestly, I still don´t really understand exactly why these events happened or the Biblical stories behind them, but nonetheless they were interesting to watch. On Thursday was the ¨Running of Judas¨. Two different groups of about 100 guys each (one from the center of town where I live and another from where there used to be a textile factory until it closed last year) dressed up as Jews and competed to see who could catch someone portraying Judas. Pretty much the entire town came out to watch. Interesting, no?
On Friday there was a fight between the Centurians and the Jews. I kept asking people why they were fighting but no one could really give me a good explanation. This made even less sense to me because the Centurians were on horses and the Jews on foot. Essentially, everyone just kind of ran around in the town square while we all watched. Unfortunately my digital camera wasn´t working so I couldn´t take pictures but I have some on a film camera that I borrowed from my host mom.
After the fight, there was a procession all around town. My family, who is Evangelical, told me that I needed to wear something dark colored. I said, okay, that was fine, but then they got really excited and decided I should borrow a traditional blouse and corte to wear to the procession. I got a lot of double-takes from people in the community when they realized the gringa was wearing traje tipica (traditional dress). Different groups take turns carrying floats and made ornate carpets out of colored sawdust for the procession to walk on all around town and eventually wind up in the cemetary. I was going to post pictures, but it looks like my camera battery is dead. I´ll put them up soon, I promise. I walked with the procession from about 5:30-8:00 when I went home for dinner, but the rest of the group continued until 11:00pm. Dedication!
On Saturday I met up with Mark and Kyle, two of my Peace Corps friends from Magdalena, in Xela. It was really good to see them again and great to get to have a McFlurry with Cadbury eggs to celebrate American Easter. When I got back to Cantel, they were burning a doll figure of Judas.... which made me remember that I really am in Guatemala after a day of speaking English and eating McDonald´s.
Sunday I got up early to go to Easter Mass in the cemetary. It was pretty neat and I´d post pictures if I could. I ran into some people from the youth group who asked me to come inflate balloons with them to release on the plaza. I think we blew up close to 400 balloons. Then there was another procession with more decorated carpets, bands, and floats. I got really sunburnt, but it was a good day. After the procession I went to a friend´s house for lunch, and at night went to a dance in the Municipal building to celebrate the end of Semana Santa. I had a really good time trying to learn to dance to Duranguero music-- which is no easy task! Mostly I just laughed at myself and at repeated comments about how I was very possibly the tallest person there.
Today it's back to work where I´m hoping to start making progress on getting things started. Peace Corps told us over and over that the first three months, and the first month in particular, are more about getting to know the community than about getting any real work done-- which is both exciting and frustrating all at the same time.
I promise, I really will post pictures soon. Hope everyone had a very happy Easter!!!!!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Some Swearing-In Pictures
Our entire Healthy Schools and Sustainable Community Tourism group at the ambassador´s house for our swearing-in ceremony.
Me, Crystal, and Sarah waiting for the ceremony to start.
Celebrating finally becoming real PCVs in Antigua.
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