Beach Party!

This past weekend 21 of the 31 Volunteers made a trip to the Ocean! We went to the Pacific side, got burnt and got repeatedly smashed by the wicked rip tide. Do not mess with the Pacific; it will kick your butt. I was merely standing at the edge and the recession on the wave completely knocked me on the ground and the force of the wave sucked me into the ocean, it was insane! 3 years ago a married couple, after completing their service, took a trip to the ocean only to have the wife drown due to the intensity of the tide. Anyway, we were all careful. Today was Memorial Day in the States! (Sorry for the terrible transition) We made a trip the capital, Guatemala City, and as we were looking at the US Embassy, a fellow volunteer mentioned that today was Memorial Day… I thought of a pancake breakfast, marching bands, and being able to swim for free at Thornton Park. The only thing I miss is the pancake breakfast. The city is a pretty unsafe place to be. We were advised only to bring the necessities. So I wore nothing of value and I stuffed money in my shoe and bra. You wouldn’t think that it would be dangerous in the morning, well that was proven wrong. A new tactic in the city is for motorcyclists to drive by and snatch the purses or bags off of pedestrians. Well it happened to one of our Spanish teachers, thankfully she was able to hang on to her bag and nothing was stolen, but she went away with some bad bruises. A little scary but you have to be on guard at all times. I don’t know if I mentioned the truck accident down the street from my house. The breaks went out on a truck carrying a shipment of lime. As it went off the cliff it took a car with it and a little child died in the accident. I was able to walk by the accident after it was cleared and I took some shots of what was left of the truck. Well, gee, sorry to be such a Debbie Downer with this entry, I didn’t intentionally want to freak you all out. Ehh… Happy Memorial Day J

Chuchu´s Lullaby

There is so much noise all around me. Thankfully I love to sleep so I don’t have a problem tuning all the outside noise off. Tonight was probably one of the most peaceful nights I’ve had here in Guatemala. My host dad plays the guitar and helps lead his church’s worship service every 3rd Sunday. Every now and then he plays by himself in the kitchen, which is right by my room. The sound has become very soothing for me. Tonight, it was raining and the dogs were barking and the children were running around. He started to play and slowly the rain settled, the kids went to bed and the dogs (or chuchu’s, which are stray dogs), stopped barking. Slowly, in the calm of silence his wife started to sing. In the background you can hear the cars pass by, and the rain slowly dying away. Then you can hear my host parents singing a slow Spanish melody that magically intertwined with the outside noise. I felt like I was in a movie. I felt my heart skip a beat because it wasn’t a movie, it was real and I was there. Through their voices I could picture my host mother’s smile. Her smile is the heart and soul of the people of Guatemala; warm, loving, and generous. I started to rub my feet and I feel asleep to a foreign lullaby, of words that have no meaning to me yet, but have the power of calming any passerby, even chuchus.

El Mercado

Today’s Spanish class was in Antigua to learn about shopping in the street markets. There is a section for everything, but what I found funny was that there could be 10 stores in one section and they all sell the same thing. There are even sections to buy livestock. The market, or the Mercado, is jammed with people, jammed with stores, and full of bartering and shouting. It is a mad house, especially on Saturdays. We went Saturday but we were there pretty early and some stores were not open yet. We stuck out like a sore thumb. Imagine a 6’4” blonde male, an Asian, a while girl and a Latina girl who dresses funny – all of whom are feet high than everyone else in the market. The only person not looked at funny was our Spanish teacher who is native and about 4’11”.

Mother Nature Kicked My Butt

It is the rainy season here. There hasn’t gone a day without there being rain. Some nights it rains so hard if someone were trying to scream for their life I don’t think anyone would hear them. There is a part of my town that is downhill. When it rains too much, from some unknown place in the mountains, there is rush of water that makes its way downstream. Eventually the drainage system (if there even is one) overflows and the water takes to the streets. I came home after a day of Spanish class and saw there was a group of people watching a street up the hill get tossed with water. I didn’t think too much of it until I came back 10 minutes later to cross the street again and it turned into a sewage river. There was no way I could cross without either being completely dirty or getting sucked into the river. Thankfully a bus helped me cross but it was crazy! Later that night the little river was still there, but not at fast. There was no one to help me cross so I had to walk through this stream of “poop”. Prior to my poop crossing I was caught in a torrential downpour and I was soaked through. When I came home my host mother nearly freaked out. I was soaked with water, my pants were rolled up but from my knees down I was covered in mud. I definitely looked like someone kicked my butt; mother nature.

No Mas Animales

Last Friday the 3 other people that live in my community: Ryan, Anna (The Asian), and Kiki (the American with the awful Spanish accent, but hilarious), went to our assigned health post. It is a clinic in the town next to our town, San Luis Las Carretas. The clinic is next to a school. We had the privilege to help the clinic nurse de-worm all the children in this school. The medicine came in little bottles and we had to tell them it tastes like strawberries. If I knew I was drinking that my first thought would not be strawberries, probably along the lines of poison with a hint of nastiness. A few kids were dry-heaving; I was trying hard not to laugh. Before the nurse had us pass out the medicine she gave a little talk about why they need this medicine, why the Americans were there, and if you don’t take the medicine you will start to grow animals in your stomach. She also went even further by saying that we are going around to each of their houses to inspect how clean they are…. awesome. There were probably 500 students in that school. I’m hoping she was kidding.

Welcome To The Peace Corps!

I have been In Guatemala for over 2 weeks now. I still can’t believe I am in a different country. I’m not sure if I feel like I’m on vacation or in a different town in Ohio. Today was the first day all Peace Corps Trainees met at a local bar/restaurant called Mono Loco. We are told this place is a popular hangout spot for Peace Corps Volunteers. I ended up leaving early because I wasn’t feeling well. That morning I remember feeling really tired and then my muscles started hurting. Later in the day I felt dizzy and even more tired. By the time I met everyone at Mono Loco I felt like total crap. I felt drunk (which I wasn’t) and I wanted to puke. I left knowing I wasn’t going to get better and then taking a 20 minutes bus ride home was an adventure all on its own. First, I had to flag down the bus which was leaving, and they don’t stop, so I ran like an idiot American to the bus. Once I got on all the seats were full and everyone stared at me trying to see if I would make them squeeze into their seat. It is totally common for 4 people to squeeze into a single school bus seat and then have someone sandwiched in the aisle with the other 4 people squeezed in the seat next to them. Anyway, I found a seat with a mother and her 2 kids. The whole time, while I was trying not to get whip lash from the driver’s need for speed, I was trying not to ram my head into the baby sitting on its mother’s lap. I finally got off, and for a split second I forgot I was sick due to the thrill of being off that bus. I went home and crashed. It is hard being sick in a foreign country due to the language barrier. In the states I can say I’m not feeling well and I’ll go to bed, here they ask a million questions and when you’re sick the last thing you want to be thinking about is trying to explain to them if I have had diarrhea, thrown up or how long I have been sleeping. I’m pretty sure during that conversation I started talking to myself in English. I’m feeling better today, but I’m still tired and my stomach still hurts. I think I’m going to have to brace myself for a big bout of diarrhea. My favorite.