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!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, February 2, 2009
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. :)
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. :)
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Climbing Pacaya
Okay, so I was all ready to post pictures today. I came with my camera and USB drive so that I could take them off my memory card and save them too, but it turns out that the computer I´m using is too old to have a USB port. This is all very disappointing because today I climbed Pacaya, an active volcano about an hour from Antigua. It was absolutely incredible, but words really just can´t do it justice. I suppose I´ll go ahead and try though.
One of the guys in our training class´s host dad is involved with running a guide service to the volcano. So, he organized it for us and at 7 am a group of about 25 (which is pretty impressive considering there are only 32 in total) met up in Antigua to take a van out to the volcano. The hike is pretty steep, but with lots of incredible views along the way to stop and enjoy. It took about an hour to get to the highest point we were able to go to. We had to stop where we did because the volcano0 errupted just three years ago, and so the rocks higher up are still a bit unstable. We ate a picnic lunch and our guide even showed us how you could start a fire by just poking around a bit in the ground with a stick that had dead leaves on the end. Awesome. We used this opportunity to roast marshmallows and I think it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. For anyone considering visiting, we will definitely have to go!
Yesterday, my group from Magdalena went to Antigua for the afternoon. I´m pretty sure the market there is in the book ¨1,000 Things To Do Before You Die¨, and it really is quite an experience. It is more or less divided into two sections: the tourist section and the Guatemalan section. The tourist section is the artisans´market which is filled with really beautiful woven goods and people using broken English to try and convince you to buy from them. The more Guatemalan section is filled with vegetables, tropical fruits, pirated dvds, and just about anything else you could imagine. It´s much more boisterous, and slightly overwhelming. I guess this split makes sense as you aren´t going to need to buy a woven bag at the same frecuency that you might need to buy oranges.
Bargaining is huge in the market and while it really stressed me out at first, I think I was much better at it by the end. It actually became kind of fun and made me feel very proud and happy when I got a price much cheaper than the first.... which I know is exactly what they want, but oh well.
What else has happenned since the last time I posted? I still have really awkward conversatins with my host family every day. I´ve watched Aladdin and the Little Mermaid in Spanish and gotten laughed at (good-naturedly) by my host mom for watching cartoons. We got to watch the Obama inauguration, which was pretty cool to see from abroad. I learned how to wash clothes by hand, which my host mom chooses to do even though we actually have a washing machine. She doesn´t think it gets them as clean though-- so by hand it is. Jeans are the hardest I´d say. Other than that, I have just been trying my very best to learn Spanish and also getting a little bit clearer idea of what it is exactly that I´ll be doing for the next two years.
One of the guys in our training class´s host dad is involved with running a guide service to the volcano. So, he organized it for us and at 7 am a group of about 25 (which is pretty impressive considering there are only 32 in total) met up in Antigua to take a van out to the volcano. The hike is pretty steep, but with lots of incredible views along the way to stop and enjoy. It took about an hour to get to the highest point we were able to go to. We had to stop where we did because the volcano0 errupted just three years ago, and so the rocks higher up are still a bit unstable. We ate a picnic lunch and our guide even showed us how you could start a fire by just poking around a bit in the ground with a stick that had dead leaves on the end. Awesome. We used this opportunity to roast marshmallows and I think it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. For anyone considering visiting, we will definitely have to go!
Yesterday, my group from Magdalena went to Antigua for the afternoon. I´m pretty sure the market there is in the book ¨1,000 Things To Do Before You Die¨, and it really is quite an experience. It is more or less divided into two sections: the tourist section and the Guatemalan section. The tourist section is the artisans´market which is filled with really beautiful woven goods and people using broken English to try and convince you to buy from them. The more Guatemalan section is filled with vegetables, tropical fruits, pirated dvds, and just about anything else you could imagine. It´s much more boisterous, and slightly overwhelming. I guess this split makes sense as you aren´t going to need to buy a woven bag at the same frecuency that you might need to buy oranges.
Bargaining is huge in the market and while it really stressed me out at first, I think I was much better at it by the end. It actually became kind of fun and made me feel very proud and happy when I got a price much cheaper than the first.... which I know is exactly what they want, but oh well.
What else has happenned since the last time I posted? I still have really awkward conversatins with my host family every day. I´ve watched Aladdin and the Little Mermaid in Spanish and gotten laughed at (good-naturedly) by my host mom for watching cartoons. We got to watch the Obama inauguration, which was pretty cool to see from abroad. I learned how to wash clothes by hand, which my host mom chooses to do even though we actually have a washing machine. She doesn´t think it gets them as clean though-- so by hand it is. Jeans are the hardest I´d say. Other than that, I have just been trying my very best to learn Spanish and also getting a little bit clearer idea of what it is exactly that I´ll be doing for the next two years.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Corazon de Agua
On Friday, my group finally got to see Corazon de Agua, the park that we´re working with during training. Basically it is at the top of a mountain and although getting there is difficult, the views from the top are some of the most incredible I have ever seen. From the park´s five ¨miradors¨ or lookouts, you can see Guatemala City, Antigua, five volcanoes, Lake Matitlan, and you can even sort of make out the coast. On Sunday, we went back to the park to try and do a sort of survey with tourists there and also just to take pictures. I promise to post some soon, it´s just a bit difficult with the slow internet connections here.
Today we went to Guatemala City because of it being MLK day and thus a Peace Corps Training Center holiday. We saw the embassy and the hospital we use if we ever have an emergency, but the most exciting part was probably getting to eat lunch out at any number of American chain restaurants. I chose Subway and it was delicious. Guatemala City reminded me a lot of Mexico City. Basically large and sprawling with CRAZY traffic.
On Friday morning, my group also took a quick trip to Antigua which is only about 30 minutes from our town. It´s very true what they say, the number of tourists there is pretty incredible. It´s really pretty though, and I´m excited to go back and actually spend some time there.
Tomorrow we go to the training center and are going to get to watch Obama´s inauguration address. I´m very excited and glad that it works out on a day we can see it.
Alright, I have to go meet my group to work on our project a bit more because we are presenting tomorrow. Hope things go well for everyone starting classes tomorrow!
Today we went to Guatemala City because of it being MLK day and thus a Peace Corps Training Center holiday. We saw the embassy and the hospital we use if we ever have an emergency, but the most exciting part was probably getting to eat lunch out at any number of American chain restaurants. I chose Subway and it was delicious. Guatemala City reminded me a lot of Mexico City. Basically large and sprawling with CRAZY traffic.
On Friday morning, my group also took a quick trip to Antigua which is only about 30 minutes from our town. It´s very true what they say, the number of tourists there is pretty incredible. It´s really pretty though, and I´m excited to go back and actually spend some time there.
Tomorrow we go to the training center and are going to get to watch Obama´s inauguration address. I´m very excited and glad that it works out on a day we can see it.
Alright, I have to go meet my group to work on our project a bit more because we are presenting tomorrow. Hope things go well for everyone starting classes tomorrow!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
My first post
Hello everyone! I´m sorry that it´s taken me a while to get this blog started, but hopefully I´ll become a better blogger as time goes on. I´ve been in Guatemala for about a week now and it´s already been full of adventures.
I first went to Washington DC for a very quick staging event to meet the other 31 people who would be in my training class here in Guatemala. Half of our group is working with the Healthy Schools program which works with kids in elementary schools and the other half of our group is working the the Sustainable Community Tourism project, which is my group. Basically the aim of the project is to generate income for communities through tourism while also protecting the environment and educating people about environmental issues.
In D.C. I got to meet up with Angela, one of my best friends from grade school and high school, which made being in Washington and the whole prospect of leaving much less terrifying. I also got to go out for a really good last dinner of pasta and salad in the states with a group of people from my training class.
We then had to check out of the hotel at 1:30 am in order to get to the airport in time. Yep, that´s right, we were only in DC for a little over twelve hours. We flew first to Miami and then to Guatemala City, which is only about a two hour flight.
Once we arrived in Guatemala, we were placed with host families for the first three days in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas, which is where the Peace Corps training Center is located. I was placed with one other trainee with a super nice family who had two of the cutest kids I´ve ever met- Maria Jose who is 8 and Carlitos who is 4. His parents called Carlitos ¨terremoto¨or ¨tornado¨because of how much energy he has and I don´t think there could be a more apt description. His favorite thing to say is ¨Attaque Ninjas!¨. It was great to have such nice people to stay with for our first nights in country.
On Saturday, I moved to Magdalena with the three other people from my Spanish class. Guatemala practices Community Based Training, which means that instead of everyone in our training class staying in the same place and going to the training center everyday we are all split up in different communities. There, we have Spanish classes in each other´s houses and the Community Tourism group works on a project with the local park.
My family in Magdalena is very, very nice too. I have a host mom and dad, a host sister who is 19 and just started her first day of University on Monday, and two brothers who are 22 and 28. They are all wonderful, but I have to say that it is much more difficult to integrate into the family when there aren´t little kids who always want you to play with them.
So far, some of the most interesting things that I´ve done with my host family are go for a run in the mountains on my first day here which was VERY difficult when I was not yet used to the altitude, go to Evangelical church which is very loud and exuberant here in Guatemala, and yesterday I went to ¨una fogata¨which is basically an evangelical prayer service with a bonfire.
I think that´s about it for right now. I love hearing from everyone whether it´s through facebook messages, e-mail, letters, phone calls, or anything else. Even though it´s only been a week I miss you all already and promise to post pictures soon!
I first went to Washington DC for a very quick staging event to meet the other 31 people who would be in my training class here in Guatemala. Half of our group is working with the Healthy Schools program which works with kids in elementary schools and the other half of our group is working the the Sustainable Community Tourism project, which is my group. Basically the aim of the project is to generate income for communities through tourism while also protecting the environment and educating people about environmental issues.
In D.C. I got to meet up with Angela, one of my best friends from grade school and high school, which made being in Washington and the whole prospect of leaving much less terrifying. I also got to go out for a really good last dinner of pasta and salad in the states with a group of people from my training class.
We then had to check out of the hotel at 1:30 am in order to get to the airport in time. Yep, that´s right, we were only in DC for a little over twelve hours. We flew first to Miami and then to Guatemala City, which is only about a two hour flight.
Once we arrived in Guatemala, we were placed with host families for the first three days in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas, which is where the Peace Corps training Center is located. I was placed with one other trainee with a super nice family who had two of the cutest kids I´ve ever met- Maria Jose who is 8 and Carlitos who is 4. His parents called Carlitos ¨terremoto¨or ¨tornado¨because of how much energy he has and I don´t think there could be a more apt description. His favorite thing to say is ¨Attaque Ninjas!¨. It was great to have such nice people to stay with for our first nights in country.
On Saturday, I moved to Magdalena with the three other people from my Spanish class. Guatemala practices Community Based Training, which means that instead of everyone in our training class staying in the same place and going to the training center everyday we are all split up in different communities. There, we have Spanish classes in each other´s houses and the Community Tourism group works on a project with the local park.
My family in Magdalena is very, very nice too. I have a host mom and dad, a host sister who is 19 and just started her first day of University on Monday, and two brothers who are 22 and 28. They are all wonderful, but I have to say that it is much more difficult to integrate into the family when there aren´t little kids who always want you to play with them.
So far, some of the most interesting things that I´ve done with my host family are go for a run in the mountains on my first day here which was VERY difficult when I was not yet used to the altitude, go to Evangelical church which is very loud and exuberant here in Guatemala, and yesterday I went to ¨una fogata¨which is basically an evangelical prayer service with a bonfire.
I think that´s about it for right now. I love hearing from everyone whether it´s through facebook messages, e-mail, letters, phone calls, or anything else. Even though it´s only been a week I miss you all already and promise to post pictures soon!
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