The end of June

The end of June saw the beginning of feria/fiesta season here in Pachalum – schools began celebrating the mid-year holiday, anniversaries came and went, and the bridge that was washed away by the flooding of Tropical Storm Agatha was finally rebuilt in two and a half days to much fanfare (and my immense relief, the garrucha was a great experience for storytelling but not so great for travel efficiency).

In late June IMEBCE, the oldest middle/high school in Pachalum celebrated its 30-something anniversary. The celebrations included a beauty pageant for Ms. IMEBCE, singing competitions, handwriting/math/reading competition, and for the first year ever a cheerleading competition! The competition, which was called rhythmic gymnastics, was held between all the classes and I was invited to be a judge – my first time! – and I was SUPER excited. I figured if this went well that I would be able to start a career on the local beauty pageant circuit (update: there have been two beauty pageants and a primary run-off for a future pageant in town since the cheerleading competition and I have not been called once:/ is it because my number is unlisted?). The competition was held on a Friday afternoon and the other two judges and I sat beneath the stadium bleachers while classes went out onto the soccer field and jumped around, or sullenly went through the motions, to 1990s techno music. It was entertaining, and some of the classes did a good job with pyramids, but it was no Bring It On.

Judges pre-competition

Some of the gymnastics

When not judging cheerleading competitions, I kept myself busy making a new friend from the animal kingdom. A guy I know in town asked me if I would be interested in a free dog since one of his dogs just had a litter in late May. While I declined, not ready for that responsibility yet, I went to his house to check out the puppies and I fell in love with another dog of his that was not up for adoption – Beethoven. This dog is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen and has the best personality ever (wagging tail and attempts to lick my face= excellent judge of character). When he gets old enough to make some progeny of his own, I might reconsider my willingness to commit to a four legged friend.

Beethoven

Since Tropical Storm Agatha, it has continued raining just about every night and while that makes the roadways pretty unpleasant, it has made the surrounding countryside beautiful. All the corn crops are doing well, and there are now mini-waterfalls along the highway. This photo was taken one afternoon when I went on a walk past the Catholic Church into the countryside.

In my women’s groups I have had not had as much success as I was hoping for in convincing them that forming a legalized women’s group is in their self-interest. While most of the women agree that as an organized group they would have more sway with the mayor (and also would be able to apply for outside funding for projects!) none of them wants to commit to the responsibility of taking a leadership position. I was a little disappointed that my hopes of forming a ton of new women’s groups is not taking root as fast as I wanted, but then I remembered that the one committee I did legalize had gotten trainings from the previous volunteer for months and then worked with me for a few months before agreeing to hold elections, so expecting or hoping for results in a few weeks was not very realistic. I decided to drop the citizen participation charlas for a little while to give more variety of topics (like nutrition, self-esteem, leadership, etc). Paired with each talk, I always have an activity for the women to participate in, a hook for them to come. I started out doing arts and crafts, but my women wanted to do cooking. Since I have been known to make cookies and forget the flour (happened in 2001, but still), and have both burned beans and failed to cook them properly in a pressure cooker, I was trepidatious about starting a cooking series…so to ease into it, I decided to start with a fail-proof recipe from my dad – Pastel Victor.

This cake is a universal hit and the best part about it is that it requires no actual baking! The recipe is deceptively simple:

½ cup sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup wine

¼ cup milk

100 grams margarine (1 bar)

500 grams graham cracker (or any sweet cookie – I use María’s)

nuts/raisins al gusto

Take the first five ingredients and mix them up in a pot and bring them to a boil over low heat. Then smoosh the crackers and the nuts and raisins (the spanish verb for this is machucar). When the liquid mixture is heated up, pour it over the crackers/nuts in a pyrex and mix until all the cookies are covered, then pack it down and put it in the fridge to cool. When the cake is cold it tastes great and there are NEVER leftovers.

Making Cake in La Joya de Moritas

Putting the kids to work in Las Minas de Cipres

I paired this recipe with my nutrition talk (limit sweets…and now for the recipe of the day…) because people don’t get enough mixed messages in this country.

Some PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) from my site-mates project, Youth Development, came to visit Pachalum and I took them along with me to visit a women’s group and hold my nutritional pyramid while I gave out food items to group members and asked them to place them where they belonged on the pyramid.

On Friday June 18^th, the bridge was finally rebuilt. It had taken a while for all the materials to be brought in, but once they arrived, volunteers rebuilt the bridge in two and a half days. There is a famous story of a bridge somewhere on the coast called the Bridge of the Slaves. Apparently under Ubico (in the 1940s) these people were trying to build a bridge and every night the work that was completed during the day was undone, until finally the desperate builders sold their souls to the devil in order for the bridge to be completed. Once their souls were sold, the Bridge of the Slaves was completed in 3 days. In Pachalum, with God on our side, we beat the record and in order to commemorate our accomplishment, President Alvaro Colom came on his first visit to Pachalum to inaugerate the bridge on June 24^th. All of Pachalum, the governor of Quiche, and lots of mayors from around Pachalum showed up for the event, and we waited in the hot hot heat for a few hours until the president arrived in his private helicopter around midday.

Ready for the President

Señor Presidente Alvaro Colom

It had been planned that the President would cut a ceremonial ribbon on the bridge after his speech, so I ran to the bridge to wait there rather than listen to him talk. At the last minute it was decided that he would not cut a ribbon, but he crossed the bridge in a car and then walked back across surrounded by media. Before getting in his car to go back to his helicopter, he touched my hand and called me Señora! I was simultaneously excited to touch a President’s hand, and shocked that my application of sunscreen on a daily basis was not having its desired effect since señora is a term of respect for an older and/or married woman! In any case, I do not know of anyone else who got to touch the President’s hand, so I am pretty pleased with my experience.

Guarding the bridge before the President crossed over

I finished up the month making my dad’s cake once again for a friend’s birthday. The folks in this picture are the kids I usually hang out with when not working. I am hoping that my cake baking serves as an inspiration for more food related get-togethers in the near future, because besides eating cake on the curb on a Friday night, the nightlife in Pachalum is how my parents describe Bucharest on a Monday night.

Damned Cute Kids

Hi all,

Since the excitement of the flood and clean-up effort, life has returned to its normal, slower pace. I have continued to work with my three women's groups, I went to Quiché to give a workshop on HIV/AIDS, and I have hung out in town with little desire to go anywhere since roads are pretty unpleasant this time of year. My women's groups are going really well, unfortunately though, the two newer women's groups that I work with, while interested in the idea of forming Women's Committees formally do not have any volunteers for leadership positions...so my master plan of having a network of Women's Committees is still in its baby stages with only one that I have helped form so far...but hope springs eternal...and I have a little less than a year and a half left in site to continue to fight the good fight. Next week I will be going back to Peace Corps for a week of meetings and trainings and the famous 4th of July Party. Until then, I figured I would share some of my many photos of unbelievably cute children that I meet on a regular basis through work and friends. Enjoy and an early happy 4th of July!

Emmelin and Paulo Felipe - a coworker's little sister and baby. Paulo Felipe is working towards a modeling career, which is why he hardly ever smiles.

The three kids in my house:

Samuel, "El Gallo Pinto," 5 years old and the most entertaining of the bunch. He is super cute and entertaining, but hell hath no fury like a Samuel scorned, when he is upset it is known.

Kati número 2 (as my mother named her), Samuel and Leonel's cousin, she was my biggest cheerleader when I went to play bball with the boys and was very excited when my mom came to visit and she learned they had the same name!

The oldest of the little kids, Leonel, 8, who is the calmest of the bunch and enjoys playing chess! He and Kati both requested English lessons, which I started with cards of farm animals in a lottery game...but then we started playing chutes and ladders and English lessons stopped...

Cute kids by Lake Panajachel

Emmelin eating green a green mango on the roof of her dad's car

A rare photo where Paulo Felipe does not look angry, on the beach near Puerto San José

Kenia, the Mayor's Secretary's youngest daughter

Freshly bathed Emilio

Children in Los Altos watching 'A Bug's Life' after we did the talk about saving the environment

Two daughters of one of my women in Ciprés por el Campo

Two children in Las Minas de Ciprés who come hang out when I talk to their mom. They are always smiling and giggling - especially when I first get to the school, a good 20 minute walk straight up a mountain on a dirt/mud road, a walk that always leaves me bathed in sweat and short of breath for 5 minutes.

Agatha

On the last weekend in May, Tropical Storm Agatha passed through Guatemala, leaving a wake of devastation worse than both Tropical Storms Mitch and Stan. Here in Pachalum, Agatha did not affect most of the 30-odd communities, however the two that were affected suffered immensely. Tropical Storm Agatha was essentially non-stop 72 hours of rain, at times weaker and at times recio (hard!) starting on Friday and going on through Sunday morning here in Pachalum (in other places it rained longer). All Peace Corps Volunteers were sent text messages on Saturday telling us that the first phase of our Emergency Action Plan was going into effect – we were all on Standby (meaning, stay put, listen to the news, be prepared to possibly consolidate in regional meeting points). While I stayed in my house trying to stay dry, the river that marks the border between Pachalum and the municipality of San Martin Jilotepeque in Chimaltenango, Río Montagua, got bigger and bigger, threatening houses in the communities of Tamarindo and San Vicente on the Pachalum side of the river, and the community La Vega de Godinez on the other side. While I was sitting tight in my house, tons of people from Pachalum were down by the river, some helping people evacuate their houses and many others just watching as the river grew higher and higher until it reached up to the level of the bridge. Around 8pm on Saturday night, the river washed out the bridge entirely and houses in Tamarindo were flooded. San Vicente and La Vega de Godinez were hit even worse, with houses literally full of mud and other houses completely washed away.

On Sunday I was still not aware of what had occurred in the houses, I had just heard that the bridge was washed out, so I went down with all the other tourists to see the remains. When I got down there I saw and heard about the destruction that had taken place. Starting on Monday, I began going down to the river every day to help in the clean-up efforts. What follows are some photos that I took over the past week to convey what happened in Pachalum. While the destruction in San Vicente is pretty terrible, there are many other parts of the country where there was even worse damage (the Fuentes Georginas, for example, where I went with Devon were destroyed entirely, and many towns around Lake Atitlan suffered a lot of damage and many dead due to mud slides). As of the last time I checked the news, Agatha has left 156 dead in her wake. Here in Pachalum, 8 homes were completely destroyed/washed away, leaving 8 women, 5 men, and 12 children homeless.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/world/americas/02guatemala.html?ref=americas

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/world/americas/31guatemala.html?ref=americas

Sunday

The highway in Tamarindo right before one gets to the bridge was covered in trees and rocks and dirt left by the river.

Looking at where the bridge used to be

On Sunday the river level had already fallen a lot from its peak on Saturday night, but it was still unbelievably violent and very high compared to when I waded in just two months before.

On Sunday afternoon, the first lady of Guatemala came to Pachalum and promised that our bridge would be rebuilt quickly and that the 8 families that lost their homes would have new homes built for them on higher ground.

Monday

On Monday I headed down to San Vicente along with a majority of Pachalum’s teachers and other muni employees. Some cleaning had occurred on Sunday, but not too much, so the remains from the storm were evident all around.

The Catholic Church of San Vicente

When I got to the church the Saint – San Vicente – had already been removed, but I was told that when it was found it was still on its pedestal – despite all the water and mud that entered the church the saint remained untouched.

Hanging Bridge

Work began by the hanging bridge that used to connect San Vicente to La Vega de Godinez. A cable that used to connect the bridge was salvaged and strung across the river to create a canopy-like contraption (on the first day people were tied to a rope and pulled across, by day two a cable-car type contraption was put together so two people could cross at the same time).

Dolls on furniture that was later taken up to the school to be salvaged

On Monday we helped take off the lamina (corrugated tin) roof and the wood rafters, stripping the house for its useful parts for when the family attempts to rebuild a new house.

The river rose so quickly that one man did not have a chance to drive his car up to higher ground (the river was already crossing the highway). In order to save the car, he shut it up in the garage, where it was covered completely in mud. The back of the garage had to be broken down and then we helped dig out the mud around the car so that a tractor could come and pull it out. The car has now been moved to higher ground but figuring out if it still runs is going to have to wait until water comes back to San Vicente so that they can finish cleaning it.

House and store that got completely covered in mud and trees

This house was the last house in San Vicente and it was not fully built – a woman in the United States was sending money back to have it built.

La Granja

In La Vega de Godinez, Pollo Campero has a huge granja, a farm where chickens lay eggs that are then sent to other farms to grow and then be killed to make the Guatemalan equivalent of KFC. A lot of people in Pacahlum are employed at the granja, including my counterpart’s husband, and a few lost their houses when the river rose. Along with loss of houses, I was told that up to 13,000 chickens were lost to the river.

Helicopter landing

A helicopter arrived on Monday afternoon bringing víveres – or food essentials – for the affected populations of San Vicente and Tamarindo.

Helicopter Leaving

Handing out Viveres

Along with goods left by the helicopter, tons of community members donated basic goods and clothing.

Tuesday

On Tuesday morning I headed back down to San Vicente but found that there were tons of people waiting around to help and pretty much no shovels. Rather than sit around and watch other people work, I got onto the muni truck and went around giving out water to all the families in San Vicente. Along with the bridge and some houses, Tropical Storm Agatha took away all the tubing, leaving San Vicente without water. As a result, every day both the muni truck and the firefighters have gone around handing out water.

Giving out water

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning I started out in Tamarindo helping clean out the thin mud sheeting covering the floor of a woman’s adobe house. On the way from Tamarindo to San Vicente, I stopped by the remains of the bridge again and got a better shot.

Remains of the bridge

On Wednesday I helped participate in the church clean-up. Along with the teachers from Pachalum (who were obligated to come down and help every day – they took role call), teachers arrived from Joyabaj (a neighboring municipality) after hearing about what Pachalum had gone through on the news. I would say that the mud was at about thigh level, but with lots of people collaborating and three wheelbarrows we were able to clean it out by midday. In the background of the photo you can see how high the mud and water got during the storm.

Cleaning out the church

By Wednesday the garrucha/canopy had been fixed up with a ski lift chair. In order to cross the river two people would be seated in the chair and then men on the other side of the river would pull on the ropes to drag them across. On Wednesday afternoon the ski lift chair was replaced with a cage that could fix four people at a time.

La Garrucha

When I went across the garrucha on Wednesday, there was a humongous line since one of buses from Guatemala City had just arrived on the other side of the river. The bus situation in Pachalum right now is that buses come in and out from Joyabaj, but rather than continuing on to Guatemala City, they turn around and head right around. In Pachalum a few men have made good business driving people down to San Vicente for Q5 in the backs of their trucks. Once people get to San Vicente, they wait in line to cross the river, and then get onto the bus that is waiting there to go to Guatemala City.

Thursday

On Thursday most of the teachers headed to the garrucha to cross over to La Vega de Godinez to help clean out the houses there. Since I had my women’s group in the afternoon to visit, I did not want to get stuck on the other side, so I went to the last house left in San Vicente to clean out, and this house was a doozy. The two story house with tons of trees pushed against it that I took a photo of on Monday had been cleared of all the tree debris, but the inside of the house was still covered in mud. This house was beautiful, being built by a woman who lives in the U.S. and has been sending money back, so it was still not complete, and maybe because it did not have doors yet it had the highest level of mud I had seen. Given that five days had passed since it flooded, it also smelled rank, but luckily there were a good amount of us working together to clean it out and we made really good progress.

With one of the teachers who helped clean out the house. We had a really good system with four of us shoveling dirt into two carts and then two teachers taking the dirt out to dump it. When we got tired I went for the phtoo op just to show how high up the dirt was. In my 3.5 hours working in the house we cleaned out the main entryway and were halfway finished with the room that I am standing in.

More teachers from Joyabaj and students arrived a little later in the day and made some progress on the bathroom.

By Friday the clean-up efforts were complete and the work that was left to do was to get started on building the new bridge and figuring out how to get water and electricity back to San Vicente. The repartition of water and basic goods continues, however my shoveling days had to come to an end. While this past week was a very difficult one for all of Guatemala and tragic for the families that lost their houses and worldly possessions, I must admit that it was probably one of my best weeks since I started Peace Corps. Instead of sitting behind a desk in an office, I was able to make a tangible difference cleaning up houses, and I also got to observe the strength of community as all of Pachalum came together to help out their neighbors in need.