Happy Spring! Or is it summer...

Finally got the picture uploading to work again, so here are a few pics from Mom and Uncle Gus' visit.

I’m still not used to only having two seasons. I got here at the beginning of winter, and now we’re in the beginnings of summer. But…it’s still pretty much the same. Only that it’s a bit warmer, and it’s supposed to start raining in May. On the radio they’ve got all kinds of ads for summer stuff- sunscreen, vacation destinations, etc. Pretty weird, I mean, it’s only may! Growing up in rural NY has really made me love the change of seasons, the distinctions between all four. Here, they just kind of blend together. And they’re not very different. Hence the nickname Land of the Eternal Spring, I guess.

So most of last week I spent in and around the Peace Corps Office, for a workshop called Project Design and Management. It was designed to help PCVs and people in their communities better prioritize the needs of their community, how to organize a project, how to solicit funds from government agencies, and how to supervise and evaluate projects. The previous volunteer in my site helped complete a latrine project, and over 160 families were able to build latrines. While I’m definitely benefiting from that, it’s kind of put the pressure on me to “bring” another project to the community. While I’d be glad to help, I’m a bit hesitant because there’s a lot of other work that I’m expected to complete. I was able to bring two community members to the workshop, both of whom are motivated individuals as well as pretty influential, so I’m hoping that if we do end up starting some kind of project (they’ve got all kinds of ideas, from an ambulance to water storage tanks to improved cooking stoves), that they’ll be able to play big roles in it.

When I got back to my aldea, there were all kinds of surprises waiting for me. First, there’s no water. The water pump that pumps water to all of the houses in the village every four days (each house has one spicket), is broken. There’s been no water for a week, and the community meeting to figure out how they’re going to fix it (I think basically money-wise) isn’t until Saturday. Super. Until then, everybody has to walk to springs to fetch water. (By everybody I mean the women, of course). Luckily though, we had a pretty good rainstorm yesterday, which filled up the tanks at our house. I don’t mind washing my clothes by hand…but I’m not exactly excited at the prospect of walking a mile to wash them in a stream.

There’s also some pretty good gossip in Soledad this week. While I was gone, three girls “went” with boys, which makes a total of six this month. I was surprised to find that not everybody here gets married by the Catholic church here, despite being such a religious community. However, it seems pretty normal for guys to llevar, or bring a girl home, often a secret girlfriend. When talking about the girl, they say se fue, or simply, she went with him. Generally the guy brings the girl home, and then a day or two later goes with his girl and his parents to the house of the girls’ parents, where they arreglar, or make sure there aren’t any hard feelings between the parents. At first I assumed that this was kind of a last minute thing, that only happened when the girl got pregnant. But now I’m finding that it’s pretty normal. So they move in with the guy’s family for a year or two or more, till they can afford a place of their own. Sometimes they get officially married in the church later, sometimes not.

The sad part about all of this is how young these kids are. Word on the street is that one of the, well, boys, is only 15!!!! A 22 year old guy llevared a 16 year old girl. Another girl who’s 20, and by far the best player on our soccer team, se fue a week ago. I was talking to my host mom about all of this, and said “I wonder if she’ll keep playing soccer”. She said “Oh of course not! The way it is here, as soon as a girl officially moves in with a guy, that’s it. It doesn’t matter if she played soccer, loved to dance…once she moves in with a guy, he doesn’t let her do any of that anymore”. How sad!

On a happier note, I bought an oven yesterday! I’ve been contemplating it for a long time, and finally did it yesterday. It was expensive, Q1,565, but will be well worth it…once I get my gas tank refilled. It ran out last night. Somehow I’m not very good at gauging when it’s almost out, and there’s no indicator. Bummer. But my neighbor told me to send it to town to get filled with one of the buses that pass the house every half hour or so. So I handed the tank and Q120 to the ayudante, and hopefully the bus will turn up soon with a full tank of gas for me.

Guess that’s it for now, happy spring!

Fíjese...

I figured what with internet and all I’d be keeping up with my blog better, but my life really hasn’t been slowing down lately!

So about the visit from my family, which I said I’d expand on. Basically, it was WONDERFUL! Getting to hug your mom for a week after not seeing her for seven months is a pretty good birthday present! We spent most of the week in my site, so Mom and Uncle Gus really got an idea of what my life is like here. One day we went to a meeting with my women’s group, another day we took an hour long hike to where my host dad’s family lives. There we helped shell corn, and ate way more food than any of us wanted to! People are just too generous here sometimes, right Mom? The next day we went to another aldea where we made bread- including two of Mom’s favorite recipes, including potato rolls- mmmm! They were a success and people are asking for them again already. The last day in site we helped one of my neighbors build a box for her worms (for composting), and then headed to the eco-park, where we met up with my PC friends that live in the area. Despite it being VERY cold that night, we had a good time, including a bonfire and s’mores! The weekend we spent in Antigua, just relaxing and enjoying the good weather. All in all a great week!

Since then I’ve been keeping busy, as usual. I’ve had a couple of successes, too, I think. One, I started working at the middle school in my town. It’s a bigger group of kids- about 40! I think it’s going to be interesting working in two schools. A difference I noticed right away is discipline- the teachers in Pino Dulce are very relaxed, let the kids do pretty much whatever they want, and then scold them later for bad behavior. Also, despite me very pointedly telling them that I want them in the classroom when I’m teaching, they left for home during at the beginning of my first class! I had some words with them the next week, and they’ve more or less paid attention since then. Well, they haven’t left the school again, but they’re not always in the room. In contrast, at the beginning of my first class in Soledad Grande, the teacher gave a huge lecture to the kids about how I’m always to be treated with respect; they’re to take what I teach them seriously and to always pay attention, etc. etc. In general it just seems much more formal. But that was only the first class, so we’ll see how things go from here on out. Both groups of kids seem really great- I think the teachers may end up being the bigger challenge.

Another possible success is that I had a very positive meeting with a group of women in Miramundo, the aldea where 0/150 women showed up for my meeting. But I think I mentioned that one woman invited me to come to their microcredit group meeting? I went a few weeks ago, and we agreed that I’d go again this past week. So I did, I timed it just perfect to get there at 3, the time they told me to come at. However, as I was nearing the meeting house, I noticed that a lot of women were walking away from it. One woman said “fíjese seño, but we’ve all left, since you didn’t show up”. Wonderful. Why did you tell me to come at 3 then? It was even before 3! They had a meeting that started at 2, which apparently ended pretty quickly, and they didn’t feel like waiting around for the punctual gringa. Huh. I was able to convince 10 or so women to go back, where I did a demonstration on how to make a treatment for a cough that chickens get, “soco”. You mix a chopped up onion, a head of garlic, a lemon and some salt with a pound of raw tortilla dough (cooked, ground, corn). And we had a good discussion- they seem very interested in anything to do with keeping their chickens alive. So next week I’m going back again, hopefully to meet with the whole group. Poco a poco!

This week I’m heading to the Peace Corps Office with two community members for a workshop on community project design and management. Should be interesting!

Hope you New Yorkers are getting a good taste of spring- looks like things warmed up quite a bit last week!

Let's get organized here...

Phew, what a month February has been! March looks like it should be a little smoother, so I'm happy to be getting myself organized. The 16th I attended our Reconect meeting at the Peace Corps office (roughly a 5 hour trip by chicken bus). Since I had a dentist appointment scheduled for the Monday, I went for the weekend, which was wonderful! A lot of my friends from training were there too, who I hadn't seen in over 3 months, so it was great to catch up and share experiences, in the relaxing atmosphere of Antigua:) Reconnect was good too. The idea is to get everybody together with our program directors after our first three months of service to talk things over, get new ideas, ask questions, teach us about paperwork that we'll soon need to be handing in, etc. It was a long day (8am -6pm sitting in hard plastic chairs is kind of a rough adjustment for ag volunteers), but well worth the time.

The next day I headed back to Jalapa, but instead of to my site, I went to the city to help translate for American doctors here on a medical mission. It was kind of crazy- as long as I've spoken/studied Spanish, I've never translated that much. But in two days there I probably translated more than I ever have in my life, and it was a challenge! But a good one, b/c I guess now I know that I'm halfway decent as a translator. As for the medical side of things...it was sad, seeing so many hurting people. And a little unsettling to see how little basic knowledge campesinos know about their bodies and how to stay healthy. And some things were just hard to see- a little baby absolutely covered in scabies, a 30-something year old woman who'd suffered a stroke and is now parapalegic and wasting away, and a man with a huge thyroid tumor, to name a few. The doctors, mostly from the Chicago area, worked tirelessly, and were genuinely able to help people. All were enthusiastic and compassionate, and it was great to have the change to work with them. Hopefully I'll be able to help again next year!

After a short weekend break at home, I headed to Guate to pick up Mom and my Uncle Gus, who came to visit for a week! One of my neighbors, who owns the eco park down the road, offered to take me to pick them up in his truck. Thus they were saved the bumpy, sweaty, three hour chicken bus ride from Guate to my site:) I'll expand on their visit later this week (it's getting past my bedtime). And yes, that's right, I'm on the internet at 9:30pm, in the comfort of my own home! I finally broke down and bought internet, and it's WONDERFUL! Ok, maybe this is Peace Corps light, but I'm over worrying about that:) Besides keeping me better connected to the world outside of Soledad Grande, it'll be helpful whenever I need to do some research for work.

Night everyone! To those of you in NY, hope you're surviving the snow!