I hate you Tigo, so much...

So my mother thinks my list for December is a little ambitious...perhaps she's right.  But it's good to push yourself every now and then-otherwise you'll never know what you might be capable of. ....right?  (love ya, mom)

My counterpart Verney and I got started on one of my goals -trail work and improvement- yesterday with a grueling 5 hours of trail maintenance-re cutting in trail edges, cleaning off the leaf litter, putting signs back in their appropriate places, re-leveling picnic areas after the rainy season.  Wow, it was just really difficult to think of those words in English, since all the trail stuff is conducted in Spanish generally.

I returned to find that my internet service provider, Tigo, is completely incompetent at figuring out one minor issue I had with billing 2 months ago.  They gave me the wrong acct number to pay my account in September, and I have talked to at least 6 or 7 different customer service reps on the phone and in person who have assured me they would fix the problem.  When my internet modem was disactivated again yesterday, I almost lost it.

I realize this seems unreasonable but i use the internet to stay in touch with friends and family on skype, read the news (ok i'm joking, i don't really read the news), work, ... ok i've become admittedly attached to my internet connection to pass the long lonely nights (sob).  So when Tigo hasn't been able to fix the problem and keeps toying with my emotions by temporarily re-activating my modem and then turning it off unexpectedly in the middle of the week, it makes me a little upset. 

Ok, enough ranting about that.  The good news is that I had to come into the office to use the internet here, and got to show and tell the CUTEST salamanders that we found yesterday in the park.  Also took measurements and lots of photos with the muni's high res camera hoping to ID it (or not, they find new species here all the time).  I also took one of them around to the different offices doing a little informal education about amphibians-everyone is afraid of creepy crawly type creatures here so every opportunity for them to see and touch them is a step in the right direction.

Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen??

Today the Swiss NGO Helvetas ProBosque, who helped start our park project and ended their involvement last December, came to see how the project is progressing.  They were pleased by the follow through by the local community, as well as the growing enthusiasm and support in the town for the trail and outdoor recreation opportunity.  They had the same concerns that I do about a lack of local guides and personnel in the park and suggested we look harder for funds to pay a few more people to be dedicated full time to the educational programming, guest services, and vigilance of the park and its installations.  My counterpart and I are advocating and looking for funding for additional personnel, hoping for a change with the change of government in January. 

In other news..... Planning to hike Tajumulco one day next week, ran 3 kilometers without stopping on Wednesday, saw Breaking Dawn (no spoilers but it was pretty awesome) with my host sister, and thought of another thing to add to my personal goals list-drink 2 liters of water a day.  I'm reading Omnivore's Dilemma and it is super depressing, at the same time making me not want to return to the proximity of processed foods and high fructose corn syrup in the US and appreciating the availability and affordability of 'whole foods' here in Guatemala.  It makes me want to boycott food altogether-but is motivating me to be more adamant about buying at farmers markets, etc. once I get back to the States. 

This has been sort of a random mishmash of thoughts and updates today but I realized that even though it felt like I blogged a lot in November I only had 8 or 9 posts..... I am working harder to bring you the news and the weather (or something) in the life of this Peace Corps Volunteer. 

Ciao