1 year in Guatemala!

This past weekend my training group and I celebrated our 1 year in Guatemala at San Marcos La Laguna, Solola. It is a little town off of Lake Atitlan. My friend Esther coordinated the whole trip and it was fantastic. Esther found this little hostel on top of a mountain totally wrapped in vegetation. The whole hostel just bathed tranquility, serenity and comfort. The hostel was much like a tree house where we all slept on 2 floors basically outside. You would wake up underneath a mosquito net and walk out onto an overhanged dock that looked out onto the beautiful lake. I would get up, walk outside, stand on the dock and just breathe in the fresh air and watch all the other early risers as they paddled away on their kayaks. I stayed 2 nights and each night I was able to share stories and enjoy the compay of my friends during an organically prepared vegetarian dinner that the owner of the hostel prepared and the other night, out-of- this world curry made from a Brit who built a restaurant at the lake in honor of his deceased daughter. At night we would all get together again, listen to music, enjoy the luxury of a cold beer and catch up. The last night we were at the lake I introduced a game called "garbage". On a trip I took to Florida with my girlfriends, my friend Katie taught me this game and since then I think its one of the greatest games to play when you have a lot of company. The rules: the group is divided into 2 groups. There are 3 rounds. Prior to starting the game each person fills out 3 pieces of paper (there is no rule on how many pieces you can fill out, the amount will dictate how long you would want the game to last). One the pieces of paper you can write anything you want. It can be a person, place, thing, description, something that doesn't make sense... anything. However, it is best to limit your thoughts/words to less than 5 words to each piece of paper. All the pieces of paper are then collected and placed into a bowl. A group is picked to go first and also a representative. This person has 1 minute to pick a piece of paper out of the bowl and get their team to guess what it says without using the words on the paper. When the minute is up, the next group goes. The round goes until all the pieces of paper are gone. Round 2: The same pieces of paper are folded and placed back into the bowl and this time a representative from the group can only use 1 word to describe what is on the paper and their group has to remember what the phrases/words, etc. were on the pieces of paper from round one. Round 2 goes on until all the pieces of paper are guessed. Round 3: This round you cannot speak, you have to ACT out what is on the piece of paper and your group has to remember what was said on each one of those pieces of paper. Round 3 is the most hilarious because some of the things that were written from each of my friends were completely ridiculous/hilarious. Examples: "Mr. Rodgers in a leotard", "Saggy Man Boobs", "Welcome to the Mustache Party", "Explosive Diarrhea", "Live concert", "Green Grass", "Twister on a Volcano", "Your Mom", "Airdale Terrier", etc. So you can imagine all the crazy/hilarious acting that went on that night. We were all laughing in tears!!

So now that I've competed a year... what are my thoughts? Well, I have a little more than 1 year left (15 months). I would have to say that my first year was really trying to get adjusted and situated. I was trying to find my niche. Have I found it, yes and no. I do predict though that this year will go by even faster and that my work load will expand. My goal for the next year is to be really busy. I think that was what was making the days go by and the thoughts of feeling like I wasn't accomplishing anything was due to the fact that I wasn't busy. I can sense the work growing and I am starting to feel like how I felt when I was in college working the the Student Foundation. I was constantly on the go, constantly working and I was so much more productive. I loved filling my days with work, having an adgenda and challenging myself. So I really do look forward to that. I think my experience will be that much more fullfilling.

This Thursday I give a big presentating to the mayor of my town about the work I am doing and the projects I plan on doing in the 3 communities that I've gone out to give a census on. I am not only presenting my data but I am also planning on asking him to give me money.... so we will see how that goes, eekk. I start giving health presentations to my familes this month and I was also able to get the support from a local NGO. They would like to help me translate my presentations from Spanish to Kiche to the women and have offered to provide learning materials based on the theme I want to present. So I am excited about that! I am also plannin on coordinating the with schools of these small communities. I would like to give little health talks to the children so that the health education is not only educating the women in their homes, but their children. This way my health education is more enforced and there is a better chance that the families with practice better health habits. I will also be doing house visits throughout the month to make sure the women are actually practicing the health habits I will be teaching them. I am excited about these because it will give me a chance to get to know the families on a more personal basis.

At the end of this month I have the pleasure of accompanying Charles to his best friend's wedding :) His best friend is getting married at Sanibel Island in Florida and Charles is the best man! So I get to look forward to seeing Charles again, celebrating a beautiful union and enjoying a nice weekend getaway :) Hopefully coming back to Guatemala this time from the States won't be nearly as hard as it was when I went home at the beginning of April.

Tuk-Tuk Chom Thoennes/RIP Jon Banks

I have a puppie. His name is Tuk (pronounced "Took") and his middle name is Chom which means gordo/fat in Ki'Che'. There are little taxis here called Tuk-Tuk's, but spelled Tuc-Tuc, anyways, when Chuck came to visit me he always made me laugh when he pronounced Tuc-Tuc, so that is where I came up with the name. So everytime I call Tuk, I can also think of Chuck :) Tuk is a Siberian Husky/Chow-Chow mix, so he took after his dad, who is a Chow, and is full of hair! So he is a very cute little guy. He keeps me company and he has already learned how to sit and lay down. Next is to get him to stop peeing in the house and chew on my shoes!! I am still shocked, me, Drea, who loved to live in tornado-styled rooms growing up... is maintaining a puppie. I will admit he was a complusive buy. I'm pretty sure I was thinking I could return him when he stopped being a cute puppie like a pair of shoes...oops. No, but he is a great puppie and he is a hit in my town! Everyone wants to buy him because he is such an interesting looking puppie. As I type this Tuk is currently licking my toes, thanks little man.

I just finished a week of Spanish class at the Peace Corps office, and I left poor Tuk by himself at the house and Zane my sitemate came and fed him. Let's just say I hope the room next door will air itself out from all the little surprises Tuk left in there thanks to all the rain that flooded my back patio. But, Spanish class went really well and I learned a lot! I moved up to an advance, basic level, so I moved up 4 levels since I arrived. So 2 more levels to go and I will be fluent (or somewhere around there), so I am really excited!

I am leaving for the states April 1st!!! I am beyond exicted, I am so stir crazy I just want this week to be over. The week after this one starts La Semana Santa (Holy Week leading to Easter Sunday), so there will be tons of processions and many blocked roads, so I am hoping I will not have any difficulties getting to the airport.

While I am home I am also going to be giving a presentation at my high school about the Peace Corps along with former PC volunteers who work as teachers at my high school. It will be held April 6th and will go through out the day with one big afterschool presentation for those students who are interested and weren't invited to the presentations during the day. Should be a long day...

I am bringing back handmade make-up/pencil bags and friendship bracelets. A minimum donation of $3 gets you a bracelet and a $20 donation gets you the little bag. All proceeds go towards the families I am working with to help build stoves in their homes. The stoves will prevent the many repiratory diseases that unfortunately kill many children in my town. For more information about the housing situations of my families check out my previous blog. I am brining back 120 bracelets and 20 bags, if you think you would be interested in buying any for friends, coworkers, etc. let me know and I can always bring back more.

Sadly, this past week the world lost a great man. I wanted to dedicate this blog entry to Jonathan Banks. I received a phone call Tuesday morning telling me of his passing and with his passing a part of my heart went too. Jon and I worked together at Brio and Jon was the Executive Chef. Jon came to work for Brio about a year or so from when I started working there and man, it didn't take long for the trash talking to start! Jon had a way of making sure you knew where you stood and if that meant making everyone feel completely awkward he knew he accomplished his goal... and he won that round. Every morning when I had to open the bar Jon never failed to say something totally sarcastic or totally inappropriate, or 9 times out of 10, both. He was the personality of the kitchen, and a personality that everyone knew so well at Brio. He might have been a strong force to reckon with, but Jon had a soft side. He started to date Jaime and you could totally see a different change. I remember he started to drink protein shakes, take vitamin supplements and compete with Bret and Tim on how many pull-ups they could do (and the eyes are rolling) and then I found out his little romance.... not saying the two were connected, but I'm just saying ;) Now knowing that he is gone it has been a rough week and at times a bit hard to swallow. Although I am not home and I haven't seen Jon in almost a year goes to show how much of his friendship made an impact on me. My heart goes out to Jon's family and friends and Jaime and know that my heart is hurting for your loss. No one so young should ever have to leave so early. My thoughts and prayers are for those affected that may God give you the strength to get through the pain and the wisdom to understand why God takes us away. Jon, I will always remember you, may you rest in peace.

And the work begins... Community, Chiaj

The picture was literally taken from on top of a cliff. We had to climb down, cross that little plank you see there and then climb up another steep mountain to reach some of these homes.

Chiaj home.

One of the families interviewed, she has 7 children.

One of the poorest houses I whitnessed here in Chiaj. Here your can see the lack of walls, the open flame used to cook, the dirt floors, and sadly a little girl breathing in this air.

The outside of the house that was shown above.

Another example of what the kitchens look like here in Chiaj.

Starting this month I will be going around to 5 different communities around Santa Maria Chiquimula to conduct a census. The point of this census is to collect data on the living conditions in these poverty stricken communities and also to place on record where exactly these families live. The first community is called Chiaj (Chee-aah). There are about 40 families that live in this very remote part of Chiquimula. All of which are very poor. Thankfully, the municipalidad (town hall) has been gracious enough to provide transportation for myself, my counterpart and a representative from the muni that can help translate. Otherwise, we would be walking upwards of 8 hours to get to the community and back. And the sun is treacherous! It's not humid, it is just so hot. I am covered from head to toe so I don't literally bake in the sun (making sure I mention this so my mom doesn't worry). Also, to get to these houses you have to climb through the most interesting pathways... pathways carved out of the stone mountains, climbing up steep hills, walking through thick woods. It makes you wonder how these homes were built in the first place!

We still have about 8 more houses to cover and then we can start the selection process. I will be choosing 30 families in this community to give health talks once a month for close to a year to help educate them on health prevention. Ojala (God willing), I will be able to raise money for these families to build estufas mejoradas (better shoves) and the reason behind choosing only 30, not all the families want to participate and, more than 30 is too much for one person to train. Right now, with the exception of a few homes, all the families cook in an open flame inside their home. Due to this health hazard, there are a lot of respiratory illnesses especially in the young children that live within these homes and unfortunately some of these children die due to these preventable infectiones. Many of the homes we went to interview have upwards of 12 children living in a small, cramped, home made out of dirt and sheltered by laminated roofs. A lot of the children were very filthy, without shoes and were dressed in very tattered and worn-out clothes. Some of the families didn't even have bathrooms or running water.

I was very grateful to have my counterpart and the help from the muni because the people in these communities are very protected of their privacy and are very hesitant to give out information in fear that they are putting their family at risk. This past week has been a wonderful and sad experience. Knowing that in some way, small or big, I can help these families to the best of my ability and bring awareness to the poverty of Guatemala, but also the great sadness that there are people in this world that do live like this. So, I look foward to each day I can bring some sort of happiness to the poverished families of Santa Maria Chiquimula.

One community down, 4 more to go, 120 families that can be educated in health education and prevention. It puts a smile to my face :)

The BIG Town Fair

Valerie, my sitemate and I enjoying the parade from the stands.

The town gathering in the soccer field.

Reflextion from Val's sweet camera.

The beginning of the prosession, somewhere in that first group is the mayor... haven't met the man yet, lol.

Have to have clowns, a Guatemalan staple in parades.

The long line of floats waiting for the parade to start.

Another view from the other side.

I love this photo... little adolecent boys as cheerleaders! They were loving it! You would never see that in the states!

One of my favorites, a little drill team. So precious :)

The 10th of January until the 16th was Chiquimula's big town fair. It was basically the same as the town fair that happened in September, but everyone more or less made an appearance. There was a huge parade where all the schools participated and the parade ended in the soccer field. For 4 days/nights there was live music. If I could skip anything in the fair it would have been the live music. They start playing at 6 am and don't stop until about 2 am! My house is located on one of the main roads, and I am not kidding, my house was vibrating because the music was SO loud. Not one live band, but 3 in one plaza in front of the Catholic church. Is it necessary for 3?! I was very mad at myself for losing my ear plugs...

Looking forward 'til September, for more sleepless nights....

Soccer League

Zane giving "Argentina" their winning medals

Winning team, "Argentina"

Right before the penalty kick that made Argentina winners.

Zane, left; Stephen, right

My sitemate, Zane, who works in the town hall of our site, had an idea to start a soccer league with the children around Santa Maria Chiquimula. The league ran from November until December 21st. Zane, Myself and my other sitemates, Valerie and Stephen all helped to pull this league together. There were 4 teams and 4 games every week. Let's just say once the championship was over, I think we could all take in a deep breath of fresh air! Adolescent boys are a handful!! There were many a time when I wanted to wash their mouth's out with soap, but I won't get into that :) I love other people's children :)

The final game was actually pretty sweet. There was a tie and both teams had to take penalty kicks. The team favored to win actually lost and it was a very exciting finish!

Our next group project is a World Map. We plan on painting a mural of the world on a wall outside of the health center. Zane also wants to start the town's first library, so that will definifely help keep us all busy!!

The Start of a New Year

My parents came, and then they left :( They were only here for a week but it was such a breath of fresh air to see my family. It really didn't feel like Christmas. There was no snow, no Christmas music on the radio stations that started well before Thanksgiving, no Santa Clauses or Christmas decorations on every street or in every store, no Christmas light decorating wars between houses... there really was no Christmas spirit. So even though Christmas is a little over 11 months away, I am really looking forward to it! (oh the things I look forward to these days...)

I don't have any pictures from my parent's visit because my dad took all the pictures, but when I do I'll post a few. Along with my parents came my 82 year old grandmother. She really impressed my health center staff. They couldn't believe she was still alive, haha! It has been weeks since they left and they still bring up my grandmother, lol. My grandmother and her Bible group also donated blankets and baby clothes to my health center and as a family we brought them over to the health center. Everyone was very grateful.

My family and I did a lot of shopping. My mom, grandma and I walked around through all the artisian markets and tried to bargain down prices and my dad usually walked elsewhere to take pictures or wonder around. At least, so I thought. My dad is probably one of the funniest people I know. With that being said, my dad would walk around and see who would try to sell him something, and the majority of the time he really didn't want to buy anything, he just wanted to see how low he could get the vendor's price down. About a few hours into our browsing, my dad shows up telling us that he has this vendor down to $35 on a blanket and thinks he can get it lower and wanted to show us. We walk over there and the vendor is selling this blanket like you wouldn't believe and all the while my dad is telling him in his Spanglish he wants "No, No, No. trienta!" (30). Also telling him in English we are going to walk away, cracking jokes with the guy.... it was pretty hilarious. I guess you had to be there and also know my dad. We ended up getting the blanket for $30. When he finally agreed on the price he was talking so low because he didn't want the other vendors to know how low he was selling this blanket. I was very impressed with my dad! I think my dad was too, so much so I think my parents went home with about 5 or 6 blankets. It was a running joke through out the whole trip. "Hey dad, that guy over there is selling a blanket, I think you need one for the imaginary guest bedroom we have in the house"

My parents went home the 31st and I spent New Years in Antigua with friends.

Getting my life in order....

Baby blankets, stickers and toys for the babies and children at my health center.

This past week I had the chance to help my friend Kate, a PCV in my training group, with her camp. The camp was a week long with different themes everyday. About 450 kids signed up, so you can imagine the amount of work that needed to go into this camp. The camp was a great success and a lot of children benefited from participating. The last day the kids received t-shirts and there was a little party, unfortunately my bus broke down on the way to Kate's camp (go figure) and I wasn't able to go :( Overall, it was great to see other camps so I can get an idea of what I might want to do for next year.



I had my Project Specialist, Ana Isabel, come and visit me this past week. She had the chance to view the apartment I want to live in. The only problem is the cost. Even though I live in a pretty rural site, the amount of living here is almost ridiculous. Unfortunately, there are no places to live here in Chiquimula, so the cost of living here is doubled. So the plan is to move out the 1st of January. I know my host family doesn't want to see me leave, but I also need my space. I live in a really tiny room and I have no work space. There is also no place to wash my clothes because the sink is always filled with dirty dishes, so instead of taking my laundry to get it cleaned I can finally have a space to do it myself... mom would be proud :) Since this apartment is newly renovated I have to buy everything... bed, dresser, tables, chairs.... so I'll be broke for a while. For Chrismas, I asked my parents to buy me a bed... lol.



I received a package from my grandmother this past week. Granadmas really know what to pack, its like they have this sixth sense. Games, puzzles, magazine, chocolate, stapler (that was essential, I needed one!), clothes, socks, stickers, toys, key chain, hair clips.... everything I can use or donate. Also, my awesome grandma has been collecting baby clothes for my health center. Tomorrow I am going to present all the baby blankets I have so far to my professional nurse. They are building a new maternity wing to our health center. The baby blankets would be a great incentive for mothers to have their births here instead of having them at home.



This week I am really going to go full speed ahead with my work here. I think I have a pretty basic level of Spanish to start running my own groups, besides my Health Promoter groups. This week I am going to talk with my educators and have them pick out 4 groups they think would really benefit from my program, I am going to put up a flyer in the women's municipality office at the muni to see if women are interested in cooking classes, gardens, health projects, etc. I am goung to talk to the director of the health commission to see if he would like me to train men in small towns how to build stoves. I also really want to work with the midwives here. The past couple of months have been a bit stagnant, and my goal is to make 2010 a busy year! But we will see.... this is all in retrospect.



It is a beautiful, quiet, Sunday morning here in Santa Maria Chiquimula and it is going to be a blessed week!