Last week I went to the Peace Corps Center to do my MID SERVICE MEDS!!! That means I am half-way through my Peace Corps experience! It is a trip to remember that at this time last year I was nervously waiting for my site placement and concerned about my ability to hold out for a whole two years of service. While there is a long way to go still, I feel like I have accomplished something by making it thus far. At my midserice meds I also found out that despite concerns, my teeth are cavity free (quite an accomplishment, a lot of volunteers get cavities since there is a lot of sugar in food and no flouride in the water supply). I took advantage of my trip to the Peace Corps Center to go by and visit my old host family and friends in my training site. Mamatina and her family are doing well. They were very excited to see me and insist that I return in a month for one of her granddaughters’ graduation from high school. It is a little odd to go back to my training site, I remember how long the three months I spent there felt, but now it seems like a lifetime ago.
Doña Estela also got a visit and we flew kites with her two sons. In the month of October, strong winds start up, marking the end of the rainy season, and kite-making and flying becomes a popular passtime for children in their last days of school and then during vacation.
When I returned to Pachalum last Wednesday, I brought along with me a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) from the new Municipal Development Group. Janet is one of only three older volunteers who will do her service in Guatemala. She is an urban planner and came with me to spend a few days to see what life as a PCV is actually like. On the day we arrived, Kati, one of my host-mom’s grandkids, was celebrating her 7th birthday and we were invited to join in on the festivities. It was a really tasty party, complete with chocolate cake from Guatemala City (for some reason, you cannot get it in the bakeries here) and lots of family.
Janet went with me to the office and I took her along as well to two womens groups where I have been teaching a course on business basics called Fundamentos Empresariales along with teaching arts and crafts and/or cooking. The idea was for the women to learn how to make something and how to sell it for a profit, hopefully in time for the Feria (which is coming up in a little more than a week). The business course is really well done, it is interactive and entertaining, but none of the women have united to make a product to sell together (though some women are making earrings and jewlery and sell it on their own). In the past few weeks I have been teaching how to make earrings and necklaces with materiales from Antigua. The women LOVE making jewlery, so it has been a lot of fun teaching them.
For a good two weeks now we have had no rain, so I have started watering my radishes again (it took me a week of no rain to remember that I actually have to water my plants since I never had to before). On my first day of watering, I found my first fully formed radish! They are small, I will chalk that up to excessive rain and not enough sunlight and not negligence, but they are the finest bilingual radishes in Pachalum! I plan on saving them up until I get a little bunch ready to make radish salad.
Next week I will be wrapping up with my four womens groups, so this past week I have been wrapping up the business talks and arts and crafts instruction. In another community I taught how to make photo frames out of recycled cardboard and magazine cut-outs.
The next post will probably be post-feria, so I will update you all about the festivities in town and my plans to work with youth for school vacation (first project: World Map!!). I hope everyone has a happy October and feliz Día de Todos Santos:)
1 comment:
Congrats on your radishes! That one looked pretty plump (and multilingual) to me! And congrats on reaching your half-way point! Guess this means I really DO need to come visit you soon...
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