December is upon us and with it some very cold days and nights. While I have not been overwhelmingly busy I am feeling the need for a vacation. I am thinking how nice a vacation from Guatemala would be at this point. Not that I don’t love it here, it’s just certain things can take a toll on you and overall life can just be a little frustrating and exhausting. To offer some examples, I went on a 5 mile run today and felt amazing. Then I come home to find there is no water to bathe, let alone wash my face. I pay Q130 for internet every month, and yet I have not had internet in my house pretty much all month. Last Friday I went on a beach trip with the Department of Education. There were about 75 of us in all. We went to the beach Champerico, about three hours away in the department of Retalhuleu. The climate was a welcome change – hot and humid. It was much like Monterrico in Santa Rosa except the water was swimmable, although still very rough. We took two buses, but on our return, about 20 minutes from the beach, one bus broke down so we had to squeeze into one bus. My mind I think is breaking down, too. Yesterday I got a sandwich from a really delicious sandwich stand in town. I had not been there in a while but it was mid-day and I had not eaten all day and was starving so got a sandwich. Last night I was in bed with the lights off taking a sip of water before sleep when my mind started to wander and I wondered where I had acquired this water bottle. Then I realized I’d bought it at the sandwich stand and then I realized I hadn’t bought it at all. I hadn’t paid for anything. I’d just left! I was instantly awake and felt terrible and was really embarrassed. I decided I’d have to go back today, but today is market day and the buses and regular stands all are in different locations to accommodate all the out of town vendors so I have to prolong my vergüenza for one day more.
Our house here is very festive. We have a Christmas tree, nativity scene, lights, bows, and lots of decorations. Rosmery’s sister and brother-in-law and four kids have been staying here and Alejandra has been enjoying the company of other kids. We have a new niñera (babysitter/housekeeper). I was trying to count the other day and I think she is the 7th since I’ve been here.
I am curious as to how the new year and new school year will pan out as I really get started in my first full year of work in the schools. We had a mandatory meeting a few weeks ago. Mandatory, as it was stressed, for all the directors from all the schools in the department of Totonicapán who have a Peace Corps volunteer. My boss from Peace Corps attended and co-led it with my counterpart here in Toto. All six Toto Youth Development volunteers came along with most directors, even those from far away. Only one of my four directors made an appearance. Pathetic. And the one who did show arrived an hour late and talked on his cell phone and sat with a scowl on his face the whole time.
Cooking club regulars with fruit and vegetable salads
At least the kids are reliable. I like to think I’m training them well or perhaps helping them avoid the terrible problem of lateness and unreliability that their teachers and directors model for them. Yesterday the cooking club and I had our seventh meeting. Our recent recipes of pasta primavera, pasta carbonara, and sweet potato pound cake have been hits with them. For this week they wanted to make salad so they brought all the ingredients for a fruit cocktail and I brought everything for a vegetable salad. They mixed pineapple, papaya, watermelon, banana, sugar, cream, and marshmallows for a super sweet delicious fruit salad/dessert. We also mixed up corn, red bell peppers, jalapeño, cucumber, onion, cilantro, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper for salad. The kids asked if I wanted to see a movie about the Mayans, their ancestors, hundreds of years ago so we watched Apocalypse while we ate. Apparently it’s a Mel Gibson movie that came out several years ago in the States, but which I obviously missed. It was an incredibly violent and historically inaccurate movie with graphic scenes of cutting out people’s hearts and decapitating them, then throwing their heads down the steps of the temple in Tikal. At the end, after barely surviving the conquest of their village by another indigenous group, a family ends up on the beach where they see three ships come sailing into Guatemala. I thought it was supposed to be a tragic ending because after surviving one internal war, another was about to begin, but the kids said no that this is a happy ending because the gringos arrived to help.
Me & Christina, Lake Atitlan
Last Saturday we finally had our welcome party in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan. The welcome party for our group of volunteers in Toto and Sololá (the department where the lake is) was scheduled for September, but because of all the terrible weather was cancelled. So instead the party was joined for our group that swore in in July and the group that swore in at the end of October. But really it was for anyone who wanted to go so there were new and old volunteers from half the departments of Guatemala, plus volunteers from other countries and other non-Peace Corps programs. There were delicious food, dancing, drinking, rooftop desserts, and a murder mystery game. It was quite fun, nice to meet new people, and again I’m always astonished by how within just a few hours from where I live the weather can change so drastically.
Casa de la Cultura
My intro English kids really tested my patience today. I feel bad for the mature, more serious students who are actually learning because they try and want to learn, but have to move at a snail’s pace because the little ones can’t pay attention, ask a million questions about what we’re doing without actually paying attention, and take longer to copy vocabulary words off a white board than I ever thought possible. But I have to admit they are really cute. Today I had us play a game outside which involved a little bit of English and lots of running around. The intermediate class on the other hand has really impressed me. The majority of them nailed their exam last week.
Principiantes English Class in the Casa de la Cultura
Today is the day where people burn effigies of the devil. There are lots of fireworks and bombs going off in the streets. Today I got my first package to arrive in the post office in Toto! All the way from San Diego, California: delicious cookies from the Hotel del Coronado. They made my day.
