My dad and his dear friend Bill Beery a former PCV in Senegal and my most loyal blog reader at our home in Alexandria, VA

Friends in NYC

My Family, Princeton, NJ

June 1st I returned from a wonderful two-week trip to the U.S.  This was my first trip out of the country since arriving in Guatemala in April 2010.  I had an amazing time with friends and family in Alexandria, D.C., and New York, concluding the vacation at Princeton for my brother’s college graduation.  Returning to Guatemala I thankfully had some fun and exciting activities to look forward to.  My first weekend back was the 80’s themed welcome party for all the new volunteers from Totonicapán and Sololá in Panajachel.  I was happy to see friends I had not seen in a while.

Pana 80's Party

Trainees, Macario, and me in Xenajtajuyup

Last week was FBT (Field-Based Training) for the new group of Youth Development volunteers.  Time has really flown since my FBT one year ago.  Half of the group was based here in Toto so I guided them around and shared with them about my Peace Corps experience thus far.  I had a great time with them.  On Tuesday they did a teacher taller with my teachers.  I felt a little bad only 6 teachers showed up – all of them except one were from Xenajtajuyup.  My other schools seemed to drop off the face of the earth last week.  I scheduled a parent workshop for Wednesday in Xenajtajuyup and the attendance more than made up for the previous day – more than 70 parents turned up!  Luis Macario (my old counterpart/boss) came from the Ministry of Education to give a few words at the beginning.  I invited him to help give validity to our workshop and also he is just overall amazing at trainings and workshops whether it’s with students, teachers, or parents.  The PC trainees talked about family communication with the parents.  I was really impressed with them and am excited for this new group to be volunteers.

Parents in Xenajtajuyup

I’m now really delving into being a real second generation volunteer making big (yet gentle) push to get the teachers teaching the courses and focusing on parent and teacher trainings myself.  I did a very successful parent workshop in Nimapá just before vacation alongside a few of the teachers from the school.  Nimapá has gone from most unsuccessful school to school with the highest potential in barely over one month.  Amazing.  Patience and persistence seem to pay off.  I’m improving my relationship with my current boss/counterpart/CTA in Toto.  At first he was a bit of a let down after having someone like Macario, but I’m learning his work style and figuring out how best to work together.  I really feel I’m at a turning point in my Peace Corps service – figuring out how to work with certain people, how to make the most of situations, and how to spend my time.  I’ve recently formalized/solidified my relationship with the youth leaders in Population Council, committing to going out to Xesacmalja every Thursday.  I rescheduled my school schedule for Thursday to work with them and they changed the meeting day of the girls group so we can meet each week.  My school in Xantún sadly seems to be on a rapid decline.  The director has been MIA – I stopped by his office multiple times, called multiple times, and emailed him to no avail, so the students and teachers were unable to participate in any of the activities last week.  When I arrived on Thursday the students had exams and had been patiently waiting outside the school studying for 2 hours!  Yet again someone had failed to show up with the building key to let them in so they were sent away.  I’ve found most people to be inconsistent, some people to be consistently unreliable, and a golden few (very few) consistently reliable.