Puro Cobanero

So it has been a couple of weeks since I've written anything, so this post may be a little lengthy...apologies in advance. So I have changed the template of the blog. I thought this one gave a global, more sophisticated look. Matched with the comical title about bucket baths, I thought it was a good balance. I obviously have some time on my hands to play around with how my blog looks all the time. Anyway, JUNE! I can't believe it is already June. In a couple of weeks, we will hit the three month in-site mark. Just a reminder that I need to seize the day and start getting projects done or else I'm going to blink and my service will be over. Okay, well it doesn't go that fast, but it does take Guatemalans a long time to get the ball rolling on projects.

So what's been going on lately?! Well, I found out that one of our spanish teachers from training, Eduardo, and his family had their house destroyed in the storm. I tried talking with people from Peace Corps and a current trainee that is living with my host family, but really didn't get anywhere with how I can help. Maybe I'll learn more in July because I'll be headed down to that area for a fourth of July party and meetings. Anyway, he is the nicest man and apparently no one at PC even knew until days after the storm. He was too proud to ask for help or time off. I can't even imagine... Anyway, I'm sure his family and many others in Guatemala still need your thoughts and prayers after the destruction of Agatha and the volcanic eruption.

Whew, that was heavy stuff. On to some lighter stuff, I went with some friends to a pool at a local hotel and got sun burnt recently, well a week ago. Still peeling. It was bad and did have huge blisters on my shoulders. Lesson learned: must wear sunscreen in the Guatemalan sun. I got a bicycle recently from a volunteer who had left it at his site after completing his service. So it was at my co-op and one day decided I would ride it home. I had been dreaming about finally having a bike and being able to ride it back and forth from the house to the co-op and cut travel time in half. Well, let's just say it was a disaster and I haven't touched the bike since that day. I started down a big hill from my co-op, the brakes barely worked so I went flying down the rocky road. Everyone in the road was, I'm sure, feared for my life because I had no control over the bike. While flying downhill, the chain fell off of the bike and I acquired raw thumbs from trying to regain control. It was rough. I'll have to get the bike to a workshop in the city for a "tune-up".

This month we've had a couple of big things. We had our monthly meeting of our governing board where we had to present what we did the last month and what will we do the next month in our tourism office. I showed the group our website, since most of them don't have computers or internet access and hadn't seen it yet. I think overall they were pretty pleased. During this all day meeting that is in the local mayan language, q'eqchi, people get really bored. I decided to take note of what some people did to pass the time (I know this sounds horrible, but it literally lasts from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm). One guy I noticed like to rest his pen on the table and then position his face closely to the table and blow the pen in circles. Some people, myself included, like to play games on their cell phones. My counterpart and I had a Snake competition. I won, clearly. Some of the men will just get up, frequently, and walk around the room, sometimes standing in random places in the room. And my personal favorite, which I observed two men doing, was to take their watch apart and do an annual deep cleaning. I imagine watches get pretty dirty with all the work in the countryside here. Anyway, the meeting itself might not be very entertaining but I thoroughly enjoy watching how other people pass the time- and they can actually understand what is happening in the meetings.

Also at the beginning of this month, there was a national tourism meeting at a hotel near hear. My counterpart participated and I feel like made/reinforced some good connections within the tourism community. A group of journalists that was in town for this convention visited my site one day to do a write up in some of the local publications. I invited Evan and Kelsey, other PCV's, to visit the tour that day so the journalists would have some gringos to seem like tourists in the photos. I have some photos I took in my Picassa album. Speaking of photos and promotion, we also had another Viviente Verapaz meeting and should be getting ready to produce a catalog of all the different tourist sites in this region of the country. One of the major potential donors is ending their operations in Guatemala in September so we are hurrying to get that done soon!

And last story, sometimes when walking down the road in the country where I live, people will be nice and offer you a ride. Other times, you see someone you know, or don't know, and wave to get a ride. This happens often. Well today I was walking to work, which is only 20 mins away from my house. Some guy pulls over and asks if I want a ride....mmmm of course I want a ride! So we are chatting it up about where he lives, where I live, what he's doing, what I'm doing, and then he asks what the name of my country is...which I thought he was about to ask my name. So I say the US and he says, "oh I thought you were from France". Oh I love the randomness of Guatemala. I am obviously not from France, but this poor guy probably has not been exposed to many white people. Gotta love it.

Anyway, the title of this blog is Puro Cobanero, which means like you are purely from Coban. Since we live near Coban, we are all considered Cobaneros. I enjoy telling people that I am purely from Coban when I get a chance. That's how I responded to my gracious driver this morning. I said, "I'm from the US but now I'm purely from Coban." He loved it and said he was too. As you can probably tell, things are going well here and ridiculous daily occurences are still humorous...good sign.