We are approaching my favorite time of year in Guatemala…mango and avocado season! I heart mangos! I really have no idea what I will do when I cannot eat a fresh mango for breakfast, again for lunch and as dessert for dinner. I had never tried a mango before coming to Guatemala. Even if I had I don’t think that buying one in a grocery store in Indiana would have prepared me for the deliciousness of the mangos in Guatemala. I will admit I have become incredibly spoiled with the fresh fruit that is readily available everyday in the market. I have honestly asked myself if the fruit will be as good if it has to travel thousands of miles and days to reach my kitchen, will I ever enjoy fruit like this again!?
Avocados…I think I could end my paragraph with that one word. I do not know one Peace Corps volunteer who does not wait for this time of year. Guacamole galore! Avocados are so cheap here sometimes I feel bad paying so little for them…just for a moment! Today I bought six for Q3 which is roughly, $0.36. Now for those of you who buy avocados in the states you know that getting one for a dollar is a pretty good deal (at least in Chicago/Indiana), this is the reason I feel bad (a little I said) for only paying $0.36 for six! But for how bad I feel, I still haggle for the cheapest price I can get (where is the fun if you don’t haggle!).
If you couldn’t tell my life revolves around the seasons of food. Along with mango and avocado season it is lettuce season followed by apple and jocote (a fruit here in Guatemala)! But really my life is divided into two parts, rainy season and dry season! It is funny because I think that right now, the next month or so, is my favorite weather while, June and July are the prettiest times. Right now, the weather is just starting to get really warm (as in my clothes dry in two hours). The cloudless sky and is an amazing color of light blue that when you look at long enough begins to look almost fake. It is that time of year when you plan your day around sun because if you go anywhere midday you will be smelly when you get to where you are going, so that means market, work or errands first thing in the morning, with the rest of the day for what nots around the house or office. The only draw back of this time of year is that everything is turning brown because we are coming into the last few month of the dry season. It is ugly, dusty and downright blah! But I have got to say, I still love it!
Work has been interesting lately. I have been focusing this month on working with the Board of Directors for the new cooperative that is forming. This week I gave a talk on how to set goals, how to achieve those goals, and why planning is important. When they first wanted me to give this talk I thought they were joking, really you need someone how to teach you to make a goal and a plan, but in reality, yea they needed my guidance. The setting of the goals for the first year was quick but deciding on the actions needed to reach those goals was another thing. They had a hard time understanding why setting a goal wasn’t good enough, why the needed objectives stating how they would achieve the goals. I had a hard time explaining this because I never realized how I automatically make goals along with objectives on how to reach those goals. It was one of those experiences where I could look at the education system in the United States and say, thanks, you did a great job!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Home, Sweet, Home
I have finally settled in after my long Christmas break. I have to say it feels amazing to be back! The following is going to make my mom cringe but honestly this feels like home now, surprising right! The smells, the noise, the food, the people, everything felt like I was coming home. I never thought, even six months ago, that I would ever think about San Martin as “home” but honestly I was ready to come back. I was ready to see my friends again, slept in my bed again, go to the market and to get to hangout with my women’s group!
As most of you know I was (I still am) raising money for a stove project. I am happy to announce that out of the first eight, we have completed three. It was an amazing project to take part in. Everyone in the family got involved, the kids would help carry the supplies, the women would mix the cement and help lay the brick while the men would help teach the women how to use a level or how to wet the brick before so it doesn’t soak up all the water. It was amazing to watch the women go from timid and unbelieving in their abilities to taking charge and helping each other while we stood by and watched. If I have achieved nothing before this and achieve nothing after this I would still think that my Peace Corps service was a success for the sheer fact that those women, even if for a day, felt they were equal to the task of men!
It is incredible how fast word travels in a small town (much like rumors fly in high school). By the second week of the project 10 other people from the community had inquired about how to get a stove. This is one of the hard things about Peace Corps, limited funding. I had to tell them that I only had enough for these women but that I could provide a materials list along with instructions but also that three masons had learned how to build them so they could inquire with them. As much as I would like to give everyone who needs one a stove I feel that teaching the women and men how to build them is more sustainable than continually giving the stoves away. The more active part someone takes in building a better future for themselves and their family the more of sense of pride and achievement they feel.
This project has also brought me closer with the women I have been working with. When you spend a whole day 8 am to 6 pm with a family you begin to see who they are. I learned that most of the women, contrary to popular belief, want to know more about birth control and that many of the women watched their brothers, parents, and friends slaughtered in front of them during the war and I also learned that they have a long list of suitors lined up for me to meet (because I have to marry a Guatemalan so that I will stay here with them)! The generosity of Guatemalans is extraordinary. They would make my friends and me huge lunches that probably stretched the family budget for the week. In one instance, the program director of my friends came to visit to check out the project and they would not let him leave without having lunch. The “amable” or kindness that they show towards strangers has made me re-evaluate the kind of person I thought I was and the kind of person I want to be. I hope that one day I can invite people into my home and share with them the way that the Guatemalan women have shared with me.
As I enter into my final nine months of service, I realize the things I am going to miss the most are the things that I was the most scared of in the beginning. I was scared to live life without, now I am scared to live in a society of continuous wanting. I was scared that I would not be accepted, now I am scared I will never be accepted for just being me. I was scared I would never be able to survive without my family and friends, now I am scared I will forget how lucky I am to have those friends and family. I was scared that I would not feel content with life without the constant go, go, go, now I am scared that I will never feel this kind of contentment with my life again.
As most of you know I was (I still am) raising money for a stove project. I am happy to announce that out of the first eight, we have completed three. It was an amazing project to take part in. Everyone in the family got involved, the kids would help carry the supplies, the women would mix the cement and help lay the brick while the men would help teach the women how to use a level or how to wet the brick before so it doesn’t soak up all the water. It was amazing to watch the women go from timid and unbelieving in their abilities to taking charge and helping each other while we stood by and watched. If I have achieved nothing before this and achieve nothing after this I would still think that my Peace Corps service was a success for the sheer fact that those women, even if for a day, felt they were equal to the task of men!
It is incredible how fast word travels in a small town (much like rumors fly in high school). By the second week of the project 10 other people from the community had inquired about how to get a stove. This is one of the hard things about Peace Corps, limited funding. I had to tell them that I only had enough for these women but that I could provide a materials list along with instructions but also that three masons had learned how to build them so they could inquire with them. As much as I would like to give everyone who needs one a stove I feel that teaching the women and men how to build them is more sustainable than continually giving the stoves away. The more active part someone takes in building a better future for themselves and their family the more of sense of pride and achievement they feel.
This project has also brought me closer with the women I have been working with. When you spend a whole day 8 am to 6 pm with a family you begin to see who they are. I learned that most of the women, contrary to popular belief, want to know more about birth control and that many of the women watched their brothers, parents, and friends slaughtered in front of them during the war and I also learned that they have a long list of suitors lined up for me to meet (because I have to marry a Guatemalan so that I will stay here with them)! The generosity of Guatemalans is extraordinary. They would make my friends and me huge lunches that probably stretched the family budget for the week. In one instance, the program director of my friends came to visit to check out the project and they would not let him leave without having lunch. The “amable” or kindness that they show towards strangers has made me re-evaluate the kind of person I thought I was and the kind of person I want to be. I hope that one day I can invite people into my home and share with them the way that the Guatemalan women have shared with me.
As I enter into my final nine months of service, I realize the things I am going to miss the most are the things that I was the most scared of in the beginning. I was scared to live life without, now I am scared to live in a society of continuous wanting. I was scared that I would not be accepted, now I am scared I will never be accepted for just being me. I was scared I would never be able to survive without my family and friends, now I am scared I will forget how lucky I am to have those friends and family. I was scared that I would not feel content with life without the constant go, go, go, now I am scared that I will never feel this kind of contentment with my life again.
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