Amazing...

You know how your parents always asked you “If your friends jumped off a cliff would you?” Well this past week I did just that, I jumped off a 10 meter cliff because my friend did! We were at Semuc Champey which might be one of the most amazing, beautiful and tranquil places I have been! Semuc is in Alta Verpaz about 3 hours from Coban and is an amazing natural wonder. It is located in this huge gorge and I don’t know how to exactly explain it but it is a river that actually runs under this limestone plateau. The plateau has a bunch of natural pools, waterfalls and great places to jump off cliffs!

When you first get into the area you hike up the side of the mountain that forms the gorge, I mean straight up, it was hard but so worth it! When you get to the top, there is an amazing view of the whole gorge, the pools and the river! The hike down was a lot easier and you could hear the water rushing under the plateau, which was incredible! We then spent the next 4 hours lounging, swimming and exploring! At the end of our time there, our guide took us to where the plateau ends and he had us climb down this rope ladder to the cave like area under the plateau! You could see the river’s strength and how fast the water was moving out from under the plateau, it really made wonder how things this powerful and amazing exist because it is so unreal! So after the terrifying experience of climbing down the ladder, he took us to a spot where you can jump off into the water below, not my type of thrill but my friend and I decided to take the plunge after 10 minutes of building up courage! So he told me if I jumped he would, so I told him ok, you go first! The next thing I knew he was jumping and it was my turn, what was I thinking! It turned out to be an amazing adrenaline rush and cool experience! I am so glad that I did it!

The rest of my weekend consisted of PACA shopping, which I am proud to say that I came away with a new pair of jeans for Q10 (Q $1.30) and two new shirts! I love the PACA shopping here, anyone who visits, I promise will love it too! I also got to hangout with a bunch of people from my training group, most whom I have not seen since New Years! All in all this past two weeks have been great! My farmers are doing great with their processing and the coffee market is soaring, the highest it has been since the 1980’s!!! All in all things could not be better!

Finally...

In recent days I have received many anger messages for not updating my blog so here it is…

Work is keeping me busy, which has been good and bad! I love what I am doing so I enjoy most days but I have not been able to read and relax like I would like too! Sometimes I feel like I am back in the States working because it is a constant go, go, go, attitude in my office! This past week my organization signed a contract with a cooperative here in Guatemala to sell our coffee for Q 800 (about $100) per hundred pounds of processed coffee! This is a really good price because it is about Q 50 ($6.45) more than Free Trade price, yay! My groups also started harvesting full force this past week; one of them processed about 700 pounds of coffee in about 3 hours, which is about Q 1120 ($ 144.50)! So 700 pounds seems like a lot of coffee but really it is not all that much because 470 pounds of “uva” or the red fruit that contains the coffee beans only equals 100 pounds of actually coffee beans, so what this means is that you need a LOT of coffee fruit to equal a small amount of actually coffee!

This month and next month my communities will be processing about 40,000 pounds of coffee, wow!

Other than work I have been reading (keeping up on my favorite politician, O’bama and I recommend the book Three Cups of Tea), cooking (a southwestern black bean soap , attached if anyone wants to try it), and watching tons of DVDs! You may think it odd that I watch tons of movies but when you have a store that sells them for Q 10 ($ 1.45) you just have to stop and buy some every time you pass. I am really lucky too because they are normally not the bad versions that were filmed in the theaters but are good quality (meaning no reflected heads, no moving, etc.)! I highly recommend the current hit, Juno, very different, humorous and enjoyable movie!

I have also been able to travel a lit bit this month. After being in site for almost a month, which will make anyone go crazy, I went to Quetzaltenango or better known as Xela ‘shayla’ a K’iche Mayan word that means, 10 ideas or 10 wise men! It is the Guatemala equivalent of Chicago, I think! It has a very modern scene, lots of young professionals and also a wide variety of ethnic food, Indian, Middle Eastern, and even sushi! It is also very close to many ecotourism sites, an active volcano, the highest point in Guatemala, and other incredible hikes, which will be ventured upon by myself hopefully sooner than later (Brandon get in shape)!

There is not a whole lot of exciting things happening here, other than the fact that our new Mayor has decided to paint our Muni building, a bright blue! Also it rained here the other night for the first time since mid-December, which was highly appreciated on my end because now the dust will some what be dampened, YAY! I won’t have to do as much laundry this week.

I will try to be better about updating my blog but please be patient with me, I am a workin girl now, lol!

You never know what you are gonna get...

Everyday here is so unpredictable! For example, I have been trying to go to my post office for the last two weeks! I would pass by about three times a week, always in the morning because I knew for sure it was not open in the afternoon, and it was never open. I was thinking to myself that people must never get their mail or mail things to other people because how do they do it! This week I told myself I would go by everyday until it was open and if it was not open at all this week I was going to find out what was going on from the Municipal! Well to my luck it was open, finally! I introduced myself to the guy that works there and told him I needed to find out what my address was so that I could have my mail sent here. This conversation led to another about what I was doing here, what Peace Corps was, what was my state like in the US, did I like living here, and what did I think of the Mayan culture, random, don’t ask! I proceeded to tell him that I was learning Kaqchikel, the indigenous language spoken here and that I wanted to learn more about the history and culture. He then pointed to a Mayan statue that he had on the counter and told me about it and then gave it to me as a gift! I tried to insist that he did not need to do that but then it was forcefully put in my hands and I had not choice but to take it with me! I am continually surprised by the generosity and giving nature of most of the Guatemalans that I encounter, never would this have happened in the States!

Like I said before I started Kaqchikel classes this week! Wow, that is about the only word to describe my experience! The language is beautiful when spoken correctly, which means not by me! For many of the words you have to use your throat, a lot, but it is also kind of fun learning a language that is so unique. It is also difficult because they do not have a lot of the words that they have in Spanish and the verbs do not have one nice, simple conjugation but instead each one is different! All the guys in my office speak Kaqchikel and are so excited that I am learning it, finally! It also surprised a lot of the groups I work with that I would want to learn it because many of the adults my age do not know it and refuse to speak it if they do know it! It has helped my site mate’s community because now people who never spoke it or did know it are learning it because if the gringo is learning it I should learn it to!

More coffee picking continued last week. I helped pick coffee three more time and I am telling you all that I have never been so tired in my life! I do not know how they do it. If they are women, they get up make the fire, breakfast and dress the kids for school, pick coffee all morning, make lunch, take the coffee to be processed, go to the school to make the snacks for the kids, come home, clean, make dinner and put the kids to bed and somewhere in between do laundry and other things around the house! I am just tired picking coffee for an hour, there is no way I could do everything that they do, they are superwomen!

Coffee Picking

This month has already been busy…a whole week of planning and meeting about the upcoming harvest! I felt like I was back in the United States working because my guys wanted to work from 7 in the morning to 7 o’clock at night, can we say loco! I didn’t know that signed up to work til I could work no more! All of the other people in my group keep complaining that they do not have any work, they have nothing to do, I on the other hand can barely make dinner at night because I am so tired!

I spent this past weekend out at my sitemate’s house! While she was home for Christmas, someone donated a solar oven for her to bring here, so we invited some of the women in her women’s group over to bake some bread! When they saw the oven they were really skeptical but thankfully the corn bread and zucchini bread turned out fabulously! The women were amazed, they could not believe that it worked! Now they are asking her how much she would charge them to use it! It is funny the things that happen haphazardly are the things that work out the best here!

Today I picked coffee for the first time, it was interesting! I can see why people do not have a lot of coffee because it takes so long to harvest. We picked for about a half an hour and my coffee barely covered the bottom of my basket! You have to handpick every bean and you have to feel them all to see which ones needed picked! You have to pick the soft, squishy ones because they are the most ripe and ready! After my adventure picking coffee we tried out the desulpador (the machine that takes the shell off the coffee bean. It was really cool to see how in less than 10 minutes you can take the shells off almost 10 lbs of coffee fruit (which means an increase of about Q 200 for the farmers)! I cannot wait until the harvest really gets going, I think it is going to be exciting!

Tomorrow I am having breakfast with the Director of the Peace Corps! He is going to be in country for 4 days and he is traveling around meeting all of the volunteers! It should be interesting to get to talk to him and hear what he has to say about his future plans for the Peace Corps! I know that his main goal is to increase volunteer participation for adults 50 years and over!

Happy New Year

HAPPY 2008!

I hope that everyone had a great New Year and rang in 2008 with style! I was in Panajachel (sp?) which is on Lake Atilan for the new year! It was a lot of fun, hanging out at the lake, swimming, shopping, and getting to see everyone from my training group! I brought in the new year with a bang…food poisoning! I was sick all night and the whole next day, what a way to start a new year!

After new years and feeling a little better, I ventured about 45 minutes north to visit my friend Natalie at her site! She is living with a family in an adobe house with a latrine and a tomas gall, which is the most amazing thing when you are sick! It is a small, sauna like thing made out of adobe! There is a small fire on the inside and a large bench where you site and bath! Natalie and I took an hour long bath/sauna session! It is those kind of things that make you realize that the Mayan people knew what they were doing way before we did! They knew how to live the high life!

On my way home from Solola, the department capital of the lake region I was one of many fortunate souls to get stuck in a “cola” You ask was a “cola” is, well it is a wonderful part of life here in Guatemala, a road block! When there is construction on the road they stop traffic on one side for an hour or two at a time while the other side goes! I was on a crowded bus, meaning I was standing on the steps of the bus because there was not where else to go, so I had a great view of when they let us through! It looked like the start of the Indy 500! There were three camionetas lined up to try to be the first out and behind them three more and so on! Let me tell the start did not just look like the start to the 500 but it also resembled it! As soon as they moved those cones, we took off and I mean took off! We were flying and racing around corners just to be able to be the first to pick up more people, yes more people! I honest had not been terrified of camionetas until then!

I have had a full year already, sick, terrifying camionetas rides and I experienced my first real tremor! It happened last night while I was in bed! My bed started to rock back and forth! At first I did not know what was happening but as it continued I realized what was happening so I jumped out of bed to head for the door! When I got to door it was still going on and then the lights in the street went out, and I freaked! I was totally freaking out and no one else seemed to notice it or care about it! I called my Dad to ask if I should go to bed on the second level, if I was going to die, etc…I am so glad that I did not grow up with earthquakes, I would have never made it through childhood!
Well I go back to work on Monday after a wonderful 17 days off work…relaxing, cleaning, laying out, you know all those fun things! I think I am going to need to rest because the coffee harvest starts in about 15 days and I have no idea what that is going to

A Christmas to remember...

A Christmas to remember...

First off as I said before I spent Dec. 23rd cooking tamales and then the 24th I cooked even more food! I am telling you that I thought that my family ate a lot of food! We ate apples and grapes, the big Christmas fruits and on top of that we had mega amounts of tamales and cookies and pastries!

The evening of the 24th is when all the celebrating is done! I went to a Christmas program and then to church and after church we went home and ate more! We were eating because we were waiting for midnight...midnight here is like the 4th of July in the US expect everyone lets off their fireworks at the exact same time, you can only imagine! It was cool though to look out and be able to see fireworks across the mountains, and the sky was lit up with some many colors and everyone was out on the streets huging and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! It was actually really cool! After midnight everyone goes to visit their family, I did not partake in this activity because I could not stay awak, it was way past my normal bedtime (9 pm)!

The 25th is just another day but without work, so we just lounged around the house and watched tons of TV! Although I was sick with the stomach flu which kinda made the day suck!

I am fine now and got it all out of my system, thank God! I hate having to travel on the buses with a sick stomach, not a fun experience!

Well I hope you all had a great Christmas and have an even better New Year!

Christmas in Guatemala

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


I have been so busy these last two weeks that I have not had time to update my blog, sorry! We were delivering the gifts to all the communities this last week and having lots of fiestas for the end of the year in the office, my boys love a reason to drink! Now that I think about they are kind of like college students and this time I am the responsible one, weird how things change!


I am in Magdalena spending Christmas with my host family! It has been nice so far being with a family for the holidays because it has been harder than I thought it would be to be away from my family! I miss the weirdest stuff, the cooking, the SNOW, the crowds at the mall, the fighting that always accompanys the holidays, the feeling so full you think that your button might pop off and most of all (other than my family) the candy and sweets!


So the first night I was here the posada was at my host family´s house so I got to see the ceremony of moving it from house to house! Here Christmas is still very traditional! There are places that it is more commericalized but here in Magdalena it is still very much what Christmas is suppose to be about, celebrating the birth of Christ! In the US we have forgotten why we gather with friends and family but here the people know why they are celebrating the day! But the festive atmosphere is still the same!







Yesturday I spent the whole day cooking with my host mom! I got to make the mixture for the tamales and the salsa! Then in the afternoon we actually made the tamales! You use the big leaves of the tree that produces pacya (a type of veggie here)! Then you put the corn mixture in the leaves with a piece of meat and salsa then you fold it up and then tie it with string made from some more leaves! That was my job the tying of the tamales! It was fun because it reminded me of making the chocolate preztels we make at Christmas time!


Today is the big celebration lasting I guess until 1 or 2 in the morning so I will be one tired girl tomorrow because my noramal bedtime is around 9 pm! It will be a different Christmas but also one that I will never forget!







Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!