Ok, i guess the trick is you have to put the pictures in before you start typing or you'll go insane trying to put the pics where you want to. Great. maybe i'll do better in the future. So here I am at a Tourism Faire/Expo that was held in the Central Park in Xela, the 'big city' down the hill from me. I accompanied people from my community, who sold the artesan cheese our town is famous for, and distributed publicity about our park. It was a great weekend, they sold a bunch of cheese, and we got to do some great networking with tour operators and other locals groups with similar projects.

My friend Tara also came to represent her community, had a booth right across from us, so we got to hang out a little too. Oh, and notice my new earrings-There was a guy who had a table full of awesome jewelry and I am notoriously indecisive about buying jewelry for myself. But as fate would have it, he had one pair of genuine dark amber earrings-so i had to get them.

I am getting way better about being a decisive shopper down here, by the way, because what you see one day will not be there the next, so you have to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. I think this will be good for me.....

The park where I work is a humid oak forest, and right now (and since May) there are awesome mushrooms everywhere. I would love to learn more about the edible and non-edible types while i'm here. These tiny bright red ones are probably toxic.

And here I am with my new bundle of joy....her name's Bella and Im hoping she grows up to be my ferocious guard dog. But right now she's just good company going up the mountain. here she is taking a break.

This is the parade in sija, where I live, the day before Independence Day. All the schools have been practicing for this parade for months. They all get into the elaborate costumes and really go the whole nine yards. You can also see all the spectators-the whole town turned out for the event, which was kinda cool. It was also excitng to watch 'my school' go by-i got excited waves from most of the kids!

Little drummer boys..

More parade goers-you can see the traditional mayan dress (called traje) on the girls and boys-its pretty uncommon to see men dress in traje in my region. But its a common sight to see women and girls wearing their traje. It is very expensive and they generally only have one or two sets of traje, and wear the same one most of the time.

Still here...

Ok... so i'm a lousy blogger. My last post was around the same time as my last diary entry-yes I started keeping a faithful diary/journal when i left the States, until about June. That would be about when I started boring myself to tears just writing about..me. And I guess I assumed the rest of you were equally bored. The truth is that I've been settling into my life here, and it doesnt seem so extraordinary anymore. Haven't really known what to write about.

Rather than try to catch you up on the goings on of the entire summer (I can't believe its almost October already!!) I'll just start with now.

I'm sipping the coffee that I bought from my next door neighbor-its grown in the neighboring county and only cost about 2 dollars for the pound. That's one thing I love about this country-it is a country full of entrepreneurs and buying local usually rewards you. These people have a spray painted sign outside their front door that says "se vende cafe, 15Q/lb" and I walked by it several times until just deciding to try it. It is delicious, cheap, and I will stop accumulating those little jars that the instant coffee come in. So, goodbye instant coffee!

Anyways, I just survived my first Guatemalan Independence Day(Sept. 15th)! Ok-it wasn't that bad... They are really into parades here, and school bands-the last 3-4 months have been a constant assault on the ears from the three or four elementary and junior high schools practicing for hours a day. And they all have big percussion sections. I will not miss the band practice-until they start up again preparing for our feria (Dec. 15th) and christmas. Oh joy.

So I sucked it up and went to show my Sija pride, accompanying my host family on the sidewalk to watch as the 20 or so schools filed by playing various renditions of the same few melodies. As you can see from the pics, they really go all out on the costumes; I'd say a good portion of classroom time for the last two months or more has been dedicated to preparation for these parades. After I'd had enough of parade-watching, I walked down the block to check out the street food that had arrived along with the festival. Pupusas, my favorite of the typical street fare, actually hail from El Salvador, but that doesn't stop them from making a damn good one here. They're basically corn tortillas filled with either cheese or chicharron(fried pig skin), fried, and topped with salsa. YUMMM....

And later in the evening, as I had heard that the festivities down in Xela were awesome on the night before independence day, I agreed to go with my host mom, her friend, and daughter, into the city. Lttle did I know that we were going to watch....you guessed it....more parading. I couldn't manage to muster up any more enthusiasm, especially seeing how most of the bands were preceded by weird brigades of boys in high boots marching and yelling in a very north korea-esque manner. I am personally more partial to the dancing girls with batons and high heels-even if it is sexist. For a recently war-torn country, i just didn't get the hitler boys' appeal. It's probably (likely) some machismo thing that I don't get. The highlights of this trip were seeing the San Carlos Sija band play (my host brother plays trumpet) and the burritos we got at a street cart after the parade.

Independence Day came, and while going down to Xela for more parade-viewing was tempting, I opted to stay home and hike the mountain with my new best friend. Oh, perhaps I left that out? Well, yes, I went ahead and got an adorable puppy, named her Bella (shameless Twighlight fan), and she is dragging my butt out to hike on my mountain much more often now, i'm happy to report. So, we spent Independence Day hiking and then in bed napping and watching movies. Happy Birthday Guatemala.

After the week long hiatus, its back to work in a big way. I have lots of promising things happening, and will discuss them in detail next post, which, i promise, i won't keep you waiting for.

Peace and love,

Amber

oh, and im putting pictures up in a following post. I have spent the last half hour trying to put pictures in where i want them and i c ant figure it out to save my life. Which is why i laugh when guatemalans just assume i can help them fix their phone/computer/ipod/whatever. I'll probably break it even more, i tell them. Contrary to popular belief, all Americans are not technologically inclined.

Hello, Goodbye

Last week was filled with farewell/welcome parties. The time has come for my sitemate Audrey to complete her service and begin a new adventure in her life. She has definitely left some big shoes to fill and I will do my best to take care of Sija the way that she has. So just when i was getting used to having someone around to brainstorm with, bounce ideas off of, and generally be there to commiserate with, she's gone!
I guess I wouldn't want to get too comfortable here, yea? I am looking forward to taking over her awesome cute little house-on my own for the first time ! Although parting with my host family is bittersweet-I am ready to have my own space again, but sleeping in that big house all alone sort of makes me want to break into tears.... maybe i'll wait until tomorrow night......
And I'm only moving about two blocks away. It'll be fine...right?
Ok, so, here's some pics: Audrey, former =( sitemate, and I at the farewell lunch the teachers at the bottle school we are building made for us. Notice the bottles in the background.

Mmmmmm a little bit of home-meat grilling on a weber. They even made spring onions on the grill the way i like! And, check it out, teacher Rosi manning the BBQ !

The awesome kids of Agua Caliente pitching in on a mural that a Guatemalan artist came and designed. You can see her painting the yellow tree. I got to meet her and she is an awesome artist who likes to help out in communities, doing art workshops with children and murals. It was a great experience for everyone involved. You can see a bit of the wall of the pool in the lower corner. This used to be an ugly block wall the closed in a part of the hot spring-fed pools that the community operates.

Here is the sanitary landfill, all ready for trash! The idea of the sanitary landfill is that only non-recyclable, inorganic trash goes in it, thus eliminating the problems of disease vectors and bad smell. If the community of Agua Caliente separates their trash and uses this landfill responsibly, it should last them a long time. Here you can see some leaders of the community admiring their work. On the left is the new Volunteer who just arrived after 2 years in paraguay to do her 3rd year in Agua Caliente. I won't lie, i'm a little jealous =)

And our first load of trash. Notice the picture taken from the outside of the fence. Yes, in Agua Caliente the community members won't really let us get out hands dirty with the actual work-we're just there as technical advisers and moral support-which is actually the way it is supposed to work.

Audrey, Emily (new volunteer for Agua Caliente!) and I facilitated a workshop in the local elementary school for environmental education with its teachers. The teachers at this school are wonderful, and I look forward to working with them a lot during my service. Here they are making gardens out of used tires.

Rachel, Dona Lidelia's grandaughter, making flour tortilla quesadillas. The flour is whole wheat and is ground locally, the cheese is made locally, and the tortillas made from scratch. There I am rolling out the tortillas. We spent a Sunday afternoon making a huge batch of these flour quesadillas, which are the delicious traditional treat in sija. Yummmmm!

I helped out the fourth grade class organize activities for Environment Day. The kids all wrote down suggestions to help the earth and we hung them on a big tree in the courtyard. The next day my (former) sitemate and I took the entire school up the mountain to play games and enjoy
nature!

Thats it for now. I'll be sure to keep u posted on my progress flying solo down here.

Weathered the Storm

First of all, yes, i am safe and sound, having weathered my first tropical storm (Agatha).... ok actually i think she passed to the south of where im at, technically. But i was still a little anxious as we waited for it to hit, not knowing what would happen. However, i am marooned at Lake Atitlan for the time being. I headed here to visit a friend despite the heavy rain, in desperate need of a weekend out of site. Shortly after getting here, we got the news that torrential downpours due to a tropical depression would continue throughout the weekend and that we were not permitted to leave our current location.
So i have been imposing on said friend since friday afternoon. Today, and yesterday, the weather here has been sunny and downright pleasant. However, the standfast for volunteers continues, as road conditions are unsafe for travel in most of the country. There are, however, worse places to be stuck. The town sits a little above the lake so i have an amazing view. Also the town itself is beautiful, a lot of money has been invested in making it ´tourist friendly´ so there are beautiful murals everywhere, actual trash cans, a nice market.
Anyways, wanted to assure you all that i am safe and sound, and waiting to get the all clear so i can make my way back home.

The month of may..

has come and gone, it seems... quickly! Yes, i´ve been busy here, but also frustrated with the internet speed, which is why no posting. So this week, I went on a hike from the town center over the mountains and through the woods to an aldea we also work in. The hike is estimated to be about 35km.... and took us about 7 hours to hike. There were 16 members of the community that are taking a class about tourism. Eventually we would like to develop this hike to the point that they can guide tourists on the hike, which ends in the aldea complete with hot springs, which, yes, we took full advantage of upon arrival. Also, it rained buckets on us about four hours in, we were caught in a thunderstorm with lightning and thunder like right on top of us!

The next day Audrey and I facilitated a workshop on environmental education with the teachers from the schools there. we talked about trash, made recycled art, tire gardens, and then talked about the active learning cycle we use. in the end, they got into groups to make up their own lesson plans. it turned out pretty great. we´re thinking about repeating it in other schools.

In other news, progressing slowly but surely with the bottle classroom. I am very fortunate to see this project being executed so i can learn from its successes and failures. It is challenging at times getting cooperation from the community for this project. Because most of the bottles we received were not filled well, construction is going at the pace that bottles are being filled. This is not the most efficient of systems, and in the future it would be wise to ´approve´ of bottles as they are being collected. All things considered, our contractor is awesome and at the very least, he totally gets the project and is working his you-know-what off to finish the walls of the school. I am hoping to do some manner of bottle construction during my time here so it is a great learning experience for me.

Went hiking in our forest today for a long while, brought mybinoculars and did some birdwatching. i am sooo stoked to have a forest rich in wildlife, and solitude, and green, so close to me in a country that has lost soo much of its original forest cover. what luck,huh? now, if i can instill that same sense of gratitude and wonder in the townfolk here.... thatll be the trick. but already people are bringing picnics up in the forest, running the trails, etc. its great to see a positive reaction in the community.

I know, i know-it´s been awhile. In short, i´ve been busy getting to know the town, the people, the projects.. and this last week actually helped a school with some art projects (i know, me, art....??) so i was relieved when the paper mached globes actually hardened and became paper mache! we are participating in earth day with a local school. the kids are really great, as is the teacher. and it was a nice way to get acquainted with the school where i hope to continue doing environmental education.

Also, i am fortunate to have a park nearby (like.... 3 blocks away) where we are developing a trail so i´ve been able to hike several times in thelast few weeks.

Not much else to report, just wanted to post some pictures from my town and my host family. Here we are at some pools near the pacific ocean.... They took me the first week i arrived. In the front is my host brother lemas, with Handy, who is friends with Cesi, the girl to my right. Cesi is my host sister. Everyone in the family, and friends of the family, have been so great about including me... the Guatemalan people are soo hospitable and have constantly shown it by inviting me into their homes, showing a genuine interest in who i am, where i come from, and what the helll i´m doing here in Guatemala..... most of them don´t understand why i wouldve left the states to come here. A majority of the people in town here have either gone to work in the states and come back, or have close family there working right now. I´d say a good deal of the town has been constructed with money coming from the states.... Its an interesting aspect of the culture here that i´m still digesting.

I´m getting to have a better idea of what i am going to be doing here for the next two years. One thing will be continuing with the second half of the trail that the volunteer before me started, and continuing to help with the construction of a playground-bbq area for families, birdwatching in the park, environmental interpretation for the trail... Another aspect of my work will be environmental education in the schools which i think is really important. Guatemala is a small country with big environmental issues... it might already be too late, but i think its still important to try to instill some values in the youth about caring for our earth while there is still some left.

On that same note, i will be continuing to try to do something with the garbage, countywide. One idea is to start a recycling center, continue to educate people about trash, and so on. The appalling thing here is that there is no national trash management program. The majority of the country either burns their trash or tosses it in a ravine somewhere. So here we have a truck that comes an picks up trash....only to then dump it off a cliff somewhere. The problem is that trash treatment plants are incredibly expensive...

So it looks like i´ll have my hands full here. right now am busy following the current volunteer, audrey, around like a lost puppy as she scampers trying to finish her projects here. I think i´m lucky to have her around for a little while to see how things work around here, to continue meeting important people, etc. and will be sad to see her go. I hope i can rise to the challenge of continuing with the great work she has started here. And below a couple of photos of the park, the trail and views of the surrounding area but i forgot to turn them and now i can´t find the delete key sooooo i apologize to your necks ahead of time. yikes.

its april!

geez, time flies. Ok i have arrived 'here' and haven't blogged for...a while. But I have a good reason! Its because.. well, the truth is that it was scary finishing training and becoming a Volunteer for several reasons. And, now i'm in a happy place. Why, u ask? Well thanks to my temporary site mate, i am using the internet in the comfort of my new bed, vs an internet cafe. Plus I am sunburned in places that haven't seen the sun in three long months. Relax, i'm just talking about, like, my shoulders and legs. Thanks hyper conservative Guatemala.
But today, today was different and muy alegre! My host family is awesome and have made it their mission to make me feel at home, welcome, part of the family...etc. I've actually met guatemalans my age and they actually are interested in why i'm here. BUt back to the beach... The whole family piled in the microbus (favored family vehicle here; picture the eurovan... like 15 person passenger van. oh yeah) at 7 am and drove to the beach! I saw my beloved Pacific Ocean, and guess what? The beach looks pretty much the same here. I mean, there are subtle differences... the sand is darker due to volcanic activity, the water is warm (like...bathwater warm), there are people selling all manner of things up and down the beach (but that's everywhere in Guatemala, it is a nation filled up with entrepreneurs). But... people playing in the sand and surf, enjoying the sun, pelicans. Yes. this i recognize.
So all in all, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I had an awesome day in the sun, I'm hoping that cucumber jasmine lotion will have some of the same calming effects as aloe?? And, more importantly, I got the feeling (how can you not??) that i'm going to be OK here. More than OK perhaps.
Also, sampled the ocean fare. It was incredible. I got shrimp mojo de ajo.... in a garlic sauce. My host mom wanted me to try the fried fish but I have to admit-i'm still squeamish about entire pieces of meat and fish. Even picking chicken meat off the bones of various parts of the chicken still really turns me off. Yet i have no qualms about eating ribs.. go figure.
We then spent the afternoon at some public pools, which harkened back to my youth spending whole days at the municipal pool. Why we drove four hours to the beach and then paid 15Q to pass the afternoon at a pool is beyond me-but i went with it. Jumped off the high rises, sunbathed, tested out my waterproof camera... (dont get too excited, pictures to come later...i don't have my usb cable) and played in the water and sun to the point of exhaustion.
Upon returning home, my host mom asked me what I wanted to eat... frijoles y huevos, of course! with her famous flour tortillas stuffed with cheese. A great end to a Great day.