My Life Lately...

So as I sip my boxed red wine in my ‘log-cabinesque’ room on the coffee co-op, listening to the sounds of crickets, frogs, stray dogs, and the loud speaker system of the evangelical church in the distance, I am writing to everyone that reads this blog to inform you that I am alive and have no real excuse as to why I have not updated in over a month. Lo siento mucho. However, you are all in luck because I am bored to tears and promised Mom that I would update this thing before the weekend.

It has been pretty busy around here lately. In an attempt to keep this post short, I’m going to bullet point the highlights of the last month and a half. Here goes nothing…

· * My dream of starting a women’s artesian group in my site has taken off, but with quite a few complications. A friend of mine who lives near my site offered to come teach the women how to make their first product: bags and earrings out of recycled chip bags. She has come several times and recently completed her workshops. The women loved getting to learn how to make these items, but it took some convincing and I’m still not sure the 5 of 20 who completed the workshops will be motivated to make enough product to sell in our store to tourists. However, it’s a process and we’re starting that process NOW! The major problem with this project has been the president of my co-op. There was a big misunderstanding with her and everyone who works with the tourism project. However, I later learned she has a personal problem with my counterpart…It is like a segment from the talk show ‘Maury’ so I will spare you all the details. Needless to say, September and October have been drama-filled months…In more ways than just this issue with the president.

· * Another big, dramatic event was the separation of our PCV friend Brent from his service. He broke a rule and was basically forced to quit. The details surrounding this were very disturbing for the volunteers in my region because it made us feel the administration just didn’t have a heart. I also would like to spare you all the details, but you can check his blog out here. Long story short, Brent shouldn’t have had to leave, it was unfortunate he did leave, we are going to miss him a lot up here in Alta Verapaz, we already do miss him, but we know we will all be friends after we all finish our work here and know Brent will go on to do great things! Funny story: Brent was leaving and I had planned to go into town to tell him goodbye, or as we say here, have a despidida for him. Well, naturally, pun intended our river overflowed for two days and I couldn’t leave my site…or could I?! Well, I had heard there was a sketchy way to walk through the military zone near my site. So it was pouring down rain, the road was closed, and I was determined to be there for Brent’s despidida. So I started walking. It was a very unmarked path that went by the dairy farm, past the cemetery, through a barbed-wire fence, passed by armed men in guard towers, through a LOT of mud (thankfully had my rain boots and gear on), past the grenade practice grounds, by the military dorms from where I heard in the distance what sounded like missile practice or something, over the almost flooded bridge, and then a bus ride to town. It was one of the more adventurous things I’ve done here!

· * Over the last couple of weeks, I have really enjoyed partnering with other PCV’s for projects. Evan and I made, painted, and put up signs here at my site together (see pics in Picasa albums). These were mainly aimed at going up before a big event we had at my site for our tourism alliance, but also to help all tourists find the co-op more easily. Also, I went and did a dental class with Evan and Kamille at one of their community’s schools. You can check out more about that on Evan’s blog, here. Then, just this week, my friend Kamille came and did a barista class. This was DELICIOUS. So excited about the opportunities with these new beverage options. Pictures to come in the picasa album from this day. Overall, I love working with other volunteers and doing fun projects!

· * I went to the Peace Corps headquarters for a week in September for Spanish classes. I mainly wanted to have a chance to have a language ‘expert’ give me advice on what to work on and what were my main weaknesses. Since I came with a low conversation level and most people in my site limited Spanish, I thought this could be advantageous to get some extra help. It didn’t really go as well as I anticipated, but I did get to stay with my host family during this time and see several friends from other regions that I rarely get to visit. When it was time to head back home, all the volunteers in the region were put on ‘Standfast’, where you basically must report where you are and cannot move until further notice. For once, I was in the right place at the right time. I was finally going to be on Stanfast with friends in a fun place, Antigua. Well the reason for the standfast was threatening weather, which has been pretty bad this hurricane season, but it only lasted a couple of days this time.

· * So the main event that happened this past month, which took most of my time, was a big launch party for a catalog that presented all of the information from 11 different community tourism sites in this region of Guatemala. The event was at my Co-op, so we especially put many hours into improving facilities, planning logistics, organizing displays, and so much more. The event was an opportunity for tourism operators and other people involved with tourism to come to one event, learn from different displays what each site had to offer and then have in hand a catalog with all of this information to sell our sites to tourists. This event was the first of its kind in this region and a big step for our alliance. Our PC boss was very impressed and excited about what we are doing up here in this region. Our PC director even came, the first time of my knowledge that she came up to this region and not for a security meeting. It was clearly a big event and I would say we had a great time!

As you can see it has been a busy month. Sorry those bulleted points ended up being so lengthy…definitely not what I intended. Whew! I’ve also been cooking more lately. With some spices my mom sent, I recently made some delicious pasta salad. With the spices SEAEDD sent I have been making some great chicken and vegetable dishes. Thanks everyone for the care packages. Spices and tastes from home are always awesome! Well I’m going to try to update this blog more often, especially with funny stories because I cannot really recall any off the top of my head now. Hope all is well stateside!