Dando Gracias

Before starting this week’s post with more stories about how great my life is here in Guatemala, I would like to take a moment to highlight the state of calamity that is gripping parts of Guatemala, specifically the ‘dry corridor’ in the East. Along with the many other blessings that I have received, I have been fortunate enough to be placed in a site with a surplus of food, but people in other parts of the country are not so lucky. The following are two articles from the Miami Herald with a few quotes I took out for those of you interested in learning about the crisis that is currently affecting the country.

10/16/2009 Malnutrition rises in drought-stricken Guatemala
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1285246.html: “Already a perennial concern in Guatemala, malnutrition has been especially visible in the country's southeastern region on the Pacific Coast -- also known as the dry corridor. With El Niño warming the Pacific waters, Guatemala has seen the worst drought in 30 years, which destroyed staple crops, exacerbated hunger, and claimed the lives of more than a dozen children in July alone…UNICEF reports that almost half of Guatemala's children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition, among the highest rate in the world.”

11/27/2009 U.S. tries to ease `state of calamity' by Ezra Fieser
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1353472.html: “Data from UNICEF, the United Nations agency on children, shows that Guatemala's situation is unique in the world: It's the only middle-income country with half of its children chronically malnourished. In countries with comparable incomes -- such as Paraguay -- around 14 percent of children are chronically malnourished. Countries with malnutrition rates similar to Guatemala, such as Ethiopia, are far poorer.”

If anyone is interested in donating food to Guatemala, there are many organizations that are spearheading donation drives. Below is a list of some websites of organizations that are providing services in Guatemala (though I must warn you that I did no background check on these organizations, so due diligence is still required).
http://www.foodforthepoor.org/
http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/
http://www.americares.org/

This week I continued to get used to my routine, which I am not sure if I have explained well or not, so pardon the repetitiveness if I have already spoken at length about it already. A typical weekday looks like this:
5:45am: Wake-up

6am-7am: Gym

8am-845am: Check emails (except for Wednesday when we have the radio show from 8-830am)

9am-11am: Art Class (Monday thru Wednesday) or research for the radio show and preparation of charlas for women’s groups

Art Class

11am-1230pm: Preparation of charlas for women’s groups, radio programming, organization of office materials

1230pm-2pm: Lunch at the office (Fridays I bring food for all)

2pm-430pm: Women’s Groups (four afternoons a week, Wednesdays are my day off and I either attend the communications workshop or plan activities)

Monday community from the road

Tuesday community with the angels we made this week

430pm-530pm: Wind down work in the office

View from the office on a Friday afternoon as the market gets set-up in the plaza

530pm-7pm: Go home or go to the corner store to hang out

7pm-8pm: Monday nights teach art class, otherwise, hang out at home

9-930pm: Bedtime

As you can see, it is a pretty tame life I lead, but I really find it agreeable. At first I was a little anxious in the office since I felt like I was not doing anything, but in a surprisingly short amount of time I have adjusted to the slower pace. It has been a month since I got to site on October 30th and not only have I not left once; I also feel no need to do so, I am perfectly happy with my routine.

This week did see a few changes in routine. On Wednesday night I subbed for my site mate teaching her Wednesday night English class when she went off for Thanksgiving break. It was less painful than I feared it would be, but I can confidently say that I will not be giving her any competition in the teaching English department, I will stick with art classes. After teaching her English class, I headed back up to the radio station and sat with two girls who showed me what the different buttons and computer program did, so as of next Wednesday I will attempt to run the machinery along with talking into the mike. Then of course there was the most obvious change in routine since Thursday was my first Thanksgiving spent away from family. Thanksgiving is one of two American holidays that Peace Corps allows us to take, so I took advantage of the vacation to make a big meal to share with my coworkers and did not go to work in the morning. For lunch I made: lentil soup, stir fried yams and potatoes with onion, and my mom’s recipe for beet salad.

For dessert I made baked apples, with Trader Joe’s fruit and nut mix filling (thanks mom!), which turned out really delicious and were far easier to put together than a pie in my toaster oven.


Despite an initial complaint that I had not bought tortillas (a meal is not considered complete without eating at least three), my lunch was a huge success with everyone eating at least two (or three!) servings, leaving me with few leftovers. Despite not being familiar with Thanksgiving, my guests grasped its essence– eating until you cannot eat anymore!

My guests

I made five baked apples, so I had ten pieces in total and I took the five extra I had after lunch to Rosy for her to share with her family. They really liked my baked apples, so I decided to make more for Saturday’s lunch at Don Boanerges’ house. On Saturday morning, I headed to the market and bought almost four pounds of apples to make baked apples and was able to bake them in two batches in the toaster oven. I made 20 pieces since I had counted 18 people at lunch the week before. This week, however, there were more people than usual at lunch since Don Boanerges’ niece was coming for a visit after not having returned to Guatemala in 21 years! Along with all the invitees from the week before, some of Boanerges’ siblings, nieces and nephews, and mother were at lunch, and later another family arrived as well!

Before all the guests arrived at Don Boanerges’

Lunch was the same as last week: beef soup with tons of vegetables, blood sausages and beef, tortillas, rice, lots of beverages, and great company. Since I have been in town for about a month I have started to recognize more and more people and seeing them at the table with me I found out that everyone was related (all the younger family members were cousins at least through marriage if not through blood on one or both sides). I was shocked at the sheer magnitude of these families, sitting at the table with me was Boanerges’ mother who had ten children, three of her offspring, and a few of her grandchildren, with many more not present. Given that I come from a quintessentially nuclear family, I could not fathom how many cousins everyone must have. Don Boanerges was quick to include me as a member of the family, what’s one more right?, and he said that we were among family and he now considered me a Velasquez (the family’s last name) and that we have a contract for me to come every Saturday these next two years. We sat around for a good two hours until a quarter of the guests left before my dessert was brought out for consumption. They were all really excited about it so I am now both congratulating and kicking myself for having set the bar high (I should have started just buying them sodas as a contribution and waited maybe 18 months or so before bringing homemade desserts).

On Sunday afternoon Rosy invited me to her house to eat some more ayote (I was also sent home with ayote after lunch on Saturday – if you are what you eat I will soon start resembling a squash) and malanga (a tuber similar to taro). When I arrived at her house Rosy was bathing, so I started chatting with her mom and was once again impressed with the insane amount of work that women in Guatemala do on a daily basis. Rosy’s mother has raised 7 children and currently cares for her grandson while Rosy works two jobs and studies on weekends. She makes tortillas by hand (6 pounds every three days) for the five children still living at home and her husband; on Mondays she makes chuchitos (like small tamales, see one of my earlier posts in San Antonio to see my pitiful efforts) and Tuesdays and Fridays she makes tamales to sell. The whole time we sat together she was working – first washing dishes at the pila while I sat with food in front of me, and then with a big pot of homemade cheese. She wakes up at 5am every day (except for when she feels lazy and does not get up until 6am) and basically works nonstop until 10pm. When Rosy came out we talked some more and we went to the kitchen where I was showed the oven that they never use (it currently holds dishes). I was invited to come over whenever to help make tortillas or bake, so I am excited about keeping up my tortilla-making skills and I am planning to make cookies on Thursday night as a test run for Saturday. Since Hannukah is also coming up, I told Rosy about it and she is interested in helping me make a typical meal at her house, so it looks like December will be a month of baking.

This upcoming week is going to be exciting for a few reasons: Tuesday is World AIDS Day and to commemorate we are holding a half-day HIV/AIDS workshop for the town youth, and next weekend I am thrilled to go visit a community two hours from here where one of my co-trainees has been working. This town is celebrating its feria next week and Rosy and her family are planning on going, so I am hitching my trailer to their wagon and getting out of site for a day!