Willy Got His Groove Back

Today I'm feeling like I got a second wind of motivation and energy, and since they call me "Willy" here, for Wilfredo, I'm saying today's the day I got my groove back. Things have been a little hectic here lately with work and stuff. The girls I work with are leaving in December so it is hard to plan for the future or motivate them to improve things or even get stuff done. Also, we haven't planned well how we are going to make the transition to the new personnel when they leave. However, today I feel like we all were energized and motivated after I met with the governing board. I got some new insight and am ready to be a change agent here. Peace Corps calls a change agent "someone who generates ideas, promotes new practices, models health behavior, draws attention to opportunities, and encourages networks to help people move forward in reaching their goals." This is exactly what I am here to do and I feel like poco a poco, I'm getting a better idea of how to be an agent of change here in my community.

So since I last wrote a post, I, along with several other community tourism volunteers, participated in a week-long national tourism conference in large hotel near Coban. It was pretty intense to say the least. There were very long days of power point presentations and lot's of information. The plus was that we got to stay in a pretty nice hotel for a few days with cable and very nice, hot showers. The very negative side was that I got sick again. After these two years in Guatemala, I am going to be a pro at pooping in Gerber baby food jars (that is what you have to do to give a poop sample). Anyway, better now so that's good. I did miss a Halloween party because I was sick, but I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry and sick.

So Willy definitely got his groove back with all of the marvelous chocolate that my mom and grandmother sent me. I think they paid a total of $80 in shipping alone, but I was a very satisfied American with Reese's, candy corn, oreos, and Peanut butter M&M's for Halloween! I will try to post a picture of the loot they sent in Picassa later.

Work, as I said before, is busy right now because we're trying to plan for the future and first of the year. This includes finding new personnel, making a more solid business plan, creating a more efficient operation, organizing a more formal sustainable artesian group, and SO much more. I got excited today talking with the governing board about how I could support the cooperative in business advising and efficiency analysis. I'm super excited about the prospect of increasing overall income from more sales of ready-to-drink coffee and the artesian store.

Whew, one aspect of my life here that I often overlook when writing here is just how exhausting daily life can be here, in comparison to my life in the states. For instance, yesterday I think I spent practically the whole day running errands. Transportation to and from my site is incredibly slow and unreliable. Waiting an hour or more each way for a ride to town is the norm. Walking everywhere around town when you get there also takes time. Carrying all your laundry on a bus to town can be exhausting. Then once in town, carrying everything you buy around can be cumbersome. Going to the bank for the fifth time to try to obtain online access to your account so you can know when you do/don't have money can be more than frustrating. Well, this wasn't meant to seem as if I am complaining. Instead, everyone who is reading this stateside should be thankful we have it so easy to run our day to day errands. When you get frustrated the next time when the red light is taking so long to change, or the person in front of you at the bank teller hadn't yet filled out their deposit form, take a deep breath and be grateful you didn't just pay a fortune to have your laundry washed and dried, only to be caught with it waiting for the bus for an hour in the rain.

Happy Thursday!