Earth Day Activities

The week of April 19th, Pachalum observed Earth Day for the first time with a variety of events geared towards the youth of the town. While it was rather stress-inducing experience, I learned a lot and the events were well received. To start the week off, on Monday April 19th I went to the town center elementary school with a few of my coworkers to put on a skit about the importance of taking care of the environment. In the skit, I play a river that is born in the mountains and I have a bucket of clean water. As I go down the hill, I meet with four different people – a man putting pesticides on his crop, a lady washing laundry in the river, a kid eating a snack and throwing the bag into the water, and then a man who drinks my water and get diarrhea as a result – and each person contaminates me. The idea is that the river is contaminated by different people and by the end of the skit the kids can see how gross the river is and how this is reflective of the contamination of the environment that is all around them.

Earth Day skit at Urbana

After the skit, we took the fifth and sixth graders (around 120 students) to different points around Pachalum to do some trash clean-up and discuss the importance of cleaning up around Pachalum. Here in town we have the benefit of trash service on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but it costs Q25 a month and some people rather than paying choose to keep their trash and throw it in informal dumps along the roads. I went down to one of the most polluted rivers right outside of town with the two sixth grade classes and the kids were really enthusiastic about picking up trash filling up 10 huge trash bags with everything from sandals, snack bags, to broken tools. This river is apparently where 25 years ago people went to bathe, but the smell that exists there now along with the disgusting amounts of trash ensures that nobody tries to get near the water today. It was a really good morning activity and hopefully the kids will stop throwing trash around during recess and when they are walking down the streets since the evidence of the consequences is nearby.

On Tuesday, April 20th, all of the middle and high schools in town (4) were invited to participate in an Environment Parade. Tiara, my site mate, came up with the idea and I helped coordinate it in the municipality. Of all the activities we did for Earth Day week this was the largest success with over 500 students participating and attracting the attention of the rest of the town. Each high school class made a poster about a different aspect of saving the environment and each school was given a tuc tuc to decorate. One of the schools also invited their band to play along the parade route.

Tuc Tuc decor

Flowers in the parade

The week of April 19th was also the last week that Ina, a German volunteer, was in town. Ina is a 20-year old German student who plans on becoming a special education teacher and she came to Pachalum for two months to volunteer in the Special Education center. We had a good time together making earrings out of seeds and going to the river and pools around town, so I was sad about her leaving. In order to deal with the pain, we had a goodbye lunch on Thursday since food, especially ice cream, makes everything better.

Chocolate and peanut dipped ice cream=very delicious

After lunch, we headed down to the elementary school to set up for the Earth Day Fair. The initial idea was that we would have a large fair with various stands of local vendors selling environmentally friendly products (like food in recyclable packaging), while music played and children from the Non-Formal Education school classes did presentations (like my flamenco class for example). Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, this plan did not pan out. The idea of having music and presentations was shot down since right next to the elementary school is a middle/high school that has classes in the afternoon and we could not be disruptive, and no vendors wanted to come sell. So that left us with a nice poster that I made with Juanita and the arts and crafts class with seed earrings that Ina helped them make. Since the basketball championship for women is every Thursday we figured we had our built in audience, and indeed we did have a fair amount of people come by and earrings were sold, but it was by no means a big fair and the message about saving the environment was not projected to as wide of an audience as we would have liked, but it was also a lot less stressful than the parade.

Kick ass Earth Day Poster

Selling seed earrings

After a week of hard work, the last weekend in April I was invited along with the rest of the ladies from the muni to go to the beach with the mayor in order to celebrate Secretaries’ Day. Given that only a grand total of three or four of the 10 or so women who work in the muni are secretaries, I did think it was a bit odd that ALL of us were invited, but I am not one to turn down a free trip to the beach. Around 20 of us (including children) went to a private house on the Pacific Coast south of Puerto Quetzal and north of Puerto Itztapa. We left on Saturday morning at 7am, arrived at the beach around midday and stayed through Sunday at 130pm. In order to get to the house, we had to take lanchas (little boats), and the beach we were on was private (ie deserted) since all the houses are vacation homes. I stuck mostly to the pool in the house since it was surrounded by palm trees (read: SHADE!!) and also because when I went out to the beach I saw Puerto Quetzal to the north with a tower spewing out black smoke and I figured some of that pollution must be getting into the water as well.

Feet in Hammock

Shells

The coast is unbelievably hot, actually not too much worse than Pachalum of late, but around 530pm in the evening it gets pleasant and that is when we went out to the beach to collect shells. A few people on the trip had never been to the beach before, so they went nuts picking up shells to take home with them.

Part of the Pachalum Crew reppin in Escuintla

On Sunday morning I once again hit up the beach with Clari and her son to go on a walk to the nearby town. Supposedly Itztapa is only a twenty minute walk from the house we were staying in, but we walked for at least half an hour and the town was nowhere to be found. We were later told that we did not miss much since people on the Pacific do not really do artesanía (I wanted to get coconut shell earrings) and the town was nothing special.

With Paulo Felipe on the beach

Overall my trip to the beach was a nice change of pace. Truth be told, if I was coming to Guatemala for a short trip I would not include the Pacific Coast as one of my stops, but nevertheless it was a nice visit and I was able to enjoy the weekend sunburn free!

Getting Around

My mom left Guatemala on the first day of Semana Santa (March 29th), leaving my lonely and with no work for the week. Semana Santa, the week leading up to Easter, is a big deal in Guatemala, with most people taking the week off in order to go to the beach, Lake Atitlan, Antigua, or other tourist centers. I initially thought that I would stay in Pachalum to avoid the crowds on the buses, we were informed that it is truly one of the worst times to travel, but at the last minute I decided to go out of site to visit a fellow volunteer in the department of Sololá and it was a great decision.

My fellow volunteer, Brian, lives in a 95% indigenous site a 15 minute bus ride from the capital of Sololá. Brian lives in a small town and works in the middle schools there as a Youth Development volunteer. The first thing I noticed on the way to Brian’s site is how very very green everything is there. Sololá obviously does not have as many water shortage issues as Pachalum, where we are now in fire season and have yellow hillsides, and all the fields on the rolling hillsides are covered in green crops. Along with the amazing scenery, Brian’s site has very interesting practices as many of the indigenous people pray to Maximon, a popular saint of some sort who looks like a Spaniard.

Maximon hanging off the front of the church

Maximon is a saint that cofradías, brotherhoods, usually have a statue of and give offerings to (cigars, alcohol, candles of different colors to represent different prayers). The interesting thing in Brian’s site is that when we went to the town center and looked at the church, there was an effigy of Maximon hanging in front of the church, and the whole Maximon worship is not at all approved by the Catholic church. On Good Friday after mass, everyone cleared out of the church and the effigy of Maximon was dragged up onto the balcony and stripped of all clothing until only a bundle of twigs remained. This bundle was then dropped from the balcony and men from all over the village began fighting over it as they tried to tear it apart. The men dragged the bundle and fought for a good half-hour, pushing and shoving in an attempt to drag the bundle to the south and to the north. I found out after the fact that the men pertained to two different neighborhoods, so they were trying to get the bundle into their neighborhood in order to split up the bundle into small pieces for every man in the neighborhood to have good luck. While the men were fighting over the Maximon twigs, the procession of Jesus Christ and the banners from the church went around town with prayers, a really interesting juxtaposition to see – popular Catholicism versus officially sanctioned Catholicism.

On Saturday, Brian and I went to visit Panajachel, and it was more packed than I have ever seen. People were in the lake, national and international tourists were in all the stores, and I had a hard time bargaining with the vendors who were all ready to take advantage of the influx to charge higher prices.

In Sololá

Kids in Panajachel

On Sunday I returned to Pachalum in record time, despite it being considered one of the worst travel days of the year. I had a lot of luck getting onto buses, but I think another key to good travel experiences is heading out early before the masses wake up.

Back in site and with no more guests or visitors to distract me, I re-dedicated myself to my work and began planning for more serious projects. One of my biggest challenges as a volunteer has been collaborating with my counterpart and other people in the office, and I know that this is a struggle that I have to fight in order to make truly sustainable changes. One of Peace Corps’ three goals is to promote collaboration and a transfer technical abilities and skills to people who volunteers work with in order for them to continue the work long after the volunteer leaves. Unfortunately for me, sense of urgency and efficient usage of time is not really shared by others, so I often feel like I am not exploiting opportunities. Rather than despair, I had been doing more work on my own and looking for a variety of people to work with in order to spread out my energies and not be too overbearing on any one person. For April 7th, World Health Day, I collaborated with the Health Center doctor, who came on as a special guest on the radio program to discuss how to make changes in our lives to improve our health, and then with the Physical Therapist I went down to the elementary school to lead the kids through some exercises during their recess.

Dia de Salud in the Urbana

One of the more challenging projects I have been working on lately has been organizing events for the week of Earth Day. I have learned that everyone agrees that projects or events sound like a good idea, but when it comes time to showing up to meetings and helping plan, it is hard to count on people. The more I work on events, however, I figure out who is dependable and who to work with in the future.

On an ongoing basis I continue to work with three women’s groups, all concentrated in the northern part of Pachalum, the more moutainous and indigenous part of the municipality. In Cipres I, where I have a girls group, I have been working with Juanita teaching business basics and how to make earrings. Juanita, the técnica in the office, is from Cipres I, and that is why we decided to go back to the community to work there despite not having much success back in December. Once again, however, there is a lack of interest, so we are looking to finish up our work at the end of April after two and a half months to go on to another community where there is more desire to participate. In Cipres por el Campo the women’s group is strong as ever, with at least 10 women showing up to every meeting, and last Friday (April 9th) the Women’s Committee was officially sworn in by the mayor. The Women’s Committee is now an official group that represents the community and the hope is that the women will now be able to advocate for their needs with more success. In Cipres por el Campo we are working with the women to identify what their needs are, starting with defining integral development and then doing a SWOT analysis of the community, in order to collaboratively write up a project proposal for the mayor. My predecessor, Alejandra, worked with this women’s group and helped them write up a project proposal for Pilas, which we are still waiting for, but she did most of the writing on her own due to time constraints. Since I have a year and a half left to work with these women, I plan to walk them through the process so that they can follow up with more projects on their own.

Los Tunales is my newest community and it is the furthest removed from Pachalum, all the way on the top of a mountain. Los Tunales has around 50 families, all indigenous, with many women not even speaking Spanish. The community has no roads that are accesible by vehicle, so when we go once a week, we are left on the side of the road and have to run down the side of a mountain down to a stream and then back up the other side to the school. It is good exercise and simply stunning scenery.

Some kids in a tree in Los Tunales

In this community Juanita and I are doing the same charlas we are doing in Cipres por el Campo (Integral Development, SWOT Analysis, Needs Prioritization, making a project proposal) and it is amazing how different the experience is. In Cipres por el Campo there are only women in the meetings, and they are comfortable with each other and us, talking and interrupting us. In Los Tunales, both men and women have shown up to meetings, and the women all sit quietly while we talk and then one of the men translates what we have said and answers questions that we pose. It is possible that the women do not talk because of the men, but I suspect that they do not talk because it is difficult for them to express themselves in Spanish (they understand it but do not feel comfortable speaking it), so I am actually really thankful that we have the few men who do show up at the meetings because otherwise it would be a very tough crowd.

In Cipres por el Campo and Los Tunales the goal is to get organized groups to understand the system of getting projects (basically, getting money from the municipality) so their needs are acknowledged and hopefully met (a challenge given financial limitations). I am really excited to finally be doing something that is clearly in line with the Municipal Development program, and I have collaborated with the Planification Office and have their support to get these projects written up. Having Juanita to work with has also been a very positive experience. While I still write up most of the charlas on my own, all the materials I am drawing from are in English, we split up the presentations and she has gotten a lot better at speaking in front of groups and leading discussions.

With Juanita in Los Tunales

Along with work, I have also had some fun outside the office. On Thursdays I participate on the team for the municipality in the women’s championship for basketball. I am very excited to report that after my first game where I provided comic relief for the entire crowd (I made a basket but I also ran around completely confused for the majority of the game trying to figure out what zones are), I made a good showing in our second game. After some training with boys who play every weekend, I had a basic understanding of the rules, I guarded in my zone, had good hustle, and made a basket! The fact that I am a head taller than the other players probably explains my rebounding skills, and I am under no illusions that I am a going to the WNBA when I come back to the States, but at least I knew where the ball was going.

On Saturday April 10th I went to a surprise birthday party at one of the local pools for one of my friends, and on Sunday I went down to the river with a coworker and her family. I have now been down to the river twice since coming to Pachalum and I need to get myself invited to more outings since it is truly beautiful and there is no better way to beat the heat.

Meches´birthday party

With Emelin on the way to the river

My muffins are in Guam

From March 19^th to March 29^th, I had the pleasure of hosting my mom in Guatemala! Making an entrance in chapin style, my mom’s flight arrived an hour late and she left the airport one piece short of luggage. The piece of missing luggage, among other items, contained a special delivery of muffins for yours truly, and when my mom asked at the help desk about how to get her luggage, she was informed that usually late luggage would arrive on the next flight, but that rarely luggage meant for Guatemala was sent to Guam!! Luckily the bag was found on the next flight and after some delays, the muffins were safely deposited in my stomach.

Rather than letting my mom rest and enjoy her one week off from work, I decided to run her around on cobblestone streets would make her trip to Guatemala a memorable one. We started out with four days in Antigua and environs since I had a meeting at Peace Corps. In our first day and a half, Friday afternoon through Saturday, we covered essentially every ruin that there is in Antigua. On Friday afternoon we visited the Cathedral, Iglesia San Francisco and Santo Domingo.

In the old convent of San Francisco

I had visited both San Francisco and Santo Domingo before, but this was my first time going to the Cathedral and it made quite an impression. The ruins of the Cathedral are limited, but they give a sense of how very massive the building was before it was destroyed by earthquakes, and at only Q3 a pop, it is definitely worth a visit (also, it is conveniently located half a block from the main square).

On Saturday, mommy and I started our day with some coffee at La Azotea, a coffee farm and cultural center in the town of Jocotenango, right next to Antigua. I had gone to La Azotea in my first weeks of training with Spanish class, so the tour was old news, but I got a kick watching mommy’s face when she smelled the coffee roasting.

Old Coffee Roasting Machine

On the tour with us were a nice couple from Scotland and England and they recommended that we check out Antigua’s cemetery, which is just a few blocks from the bus station. Antigua’s cemetery reminded me of movies I have seen of cemeteries in New Orleans, with large family tombs, all painted white and covered in plaques. Unlike other cemeteries which I have haunted, I admit to being a cemetery buff, this one was very well organized, with cobble stoned walkways, regularly spaced planted trees, and a cleaning crew. It was really relaxing and impressive, so I also recommend checking out the cemetery when going to Antigua and then visiting other cemeteries in Guatemala to see the difference (jumbled tombs in various colors).

After our morning of coffee and cemeteries, mommy and I ate lunch at La Casa del Conde, a café on the plaza which came with recommendations but which besides the location, which was lovely, did not have especially memorable food or service. In the afternoon we visited the famous arch, the ruins of La Merced (which are skippable), and La Recolección.

Under the arch

La Recolección is a ruin of a church that has not really been excavated, so when you enter, you get to climb over the pieces of vaulted ceiling and walls that were once there. It is really massive and removed from the center of Antigua (it is also a few blocks from the bus terminal) so if you want to see some ruins without a museum or a lot of other tourists, it is a good place to go.

Sitting on the remains of the church, La Recolección

On Sunday morning I woke up early to see the alfombras, or sawdust carpets, that people put on the streets for the processions. Lent is a big deal in Antigua and while Palm and Easter Sundays are the biggest days for tourism, there are processions throughout the month. For an hour I walked along the procession route taking photos of alfombras and was impressed with the huge variety of designs, with lots of incorporation of fruits and actual plants on some of them. This one of Jesus was a personal favorite, as was another where Jesus’ beard and hair are constructed out of black beans.

Jesus Alfombra

When I got back to the hotel, my mom was awake and we headed out of town to San Antonio Aguas Calientes and Santa Catarina Barahona to visit Doña Estela and Mamatina. The visit with Doña Estela was a huge hit, despite not having a language in common, my mom and Estela had each other in stiches from the moment we arrived to the moment we left.

With Doña Estela and sons

On Monday I went to Peace Corps for training, and on Tuesday I took mom with me for the morning session, and then in the afternoon we got on the bus to Pachalum! Thursday was mommy’s big day going with me to the Muni building and then on to visit Cipres por el Campo. My mom was a big hit with the ladies of Cipres por el Campo, she laughed it up with all of them and kept me busy translating all afternoon.

With ladies from Ciprés por el Campo and some of their kids

On Friday mommy came with me to my make-up flamenco class, where only three girls showed up. Despite initial high enrollment, my flamenco classes have dwindled in students. I try to keep classes interesting, but quite frankly to learn the dances, repetition is clutch, so we have been drilling drilling and drilling. On Friday I worked a lot more on hand movements, called flores, with the girls and it was so cute to watch them move their whole arms around.

Dance Class

On Friday night mommy and I went down to Rosy’s house to try some of her mom’s tamales and to introduce her to my future husband Emilio. Emilio was in fine form, it seems like his new favorite pastime is getting into the car and pretending to drive. He moves moves the steering wheel around with his hands and his head follows the motions side to side as he bobs up and down, a most enthusiastic driver. Needless to say, my mom is in love with my future spouse, definitely worth the wait.

Driving his way into my mom's heart

On Saturday my host family took me and mommy to Mixco Viejo. We went in the late afternoon and arrived as it was closing up, but my host dad has cuello (literally - collar, figuratively – influence) and we got to go in and for an hour or so we had the park to ourselves.

Atop a pyramid with some of my host family

Mommy’s last full day was Sunday and I finally took her to visit the Tourist Center XEMAP, a place with pools, saunas, monkeys, zip lines, and now a newly opened restaurant. The location is amazing and I cannot believe that I went a full five months without visiting before! My new weekend hangout place will now be by the pools with SPF 70 by my side.

Worn out from the pool

Sunday afternoon mommy and I went to say goodbye to the future in-laws and tried torrejas, a sweet bread that is made specifically for Semana Santa. Torrejas are basically round breads that are deep fried in eggs, then boiled in honey/molasses. Since trying them the first time with mom, I have been given torrejas a few more times and have come to learn that there is a good amount of variety – some people make them with raisins and put cream in the bread, others just make a big moosh out of the whole mixture. Either way, with that much sugar you cannot go wrong and I plan to keep begging for leftover torrejas in the post-Semana Santa glow.

Mommy with Rosy's youngest sister, Heidy Michel, post-torreja consumption

Emilio with his dad and grandpa