Helloooooo! Anybody out there?

Welcome back to my Guatemalan life. Other than pure laziness, I have no valid excuse for not writing for the past…. uh, four months. Sorry. I don’t think a “fíjense que” can get me out of this one.

Where to start…? I suppose from where I left off. To give a quick rundown of the last four plus months, I suppose the best place to begin is, or was, should rather say, a very important milestone in my Peace Corps experience: my parents’ visit.

My parents came for just over a week towards the end of April, which included a brief visit of Antigua, where they experiences everything a Western tourist could want in the third world: beautiful landscape, cobblestone streets, and… let’s be honest: cheap beer. Because there’s truly not an awful lot to see in Antigua, other than the decadent Semana Santa (Holy Week) processions they have (which are truly quite stunning), we headed out to the Western Highlands to visit my site, my Guatemalan reality.

Since we rented a 4 x 4, it was a much more comfortable ride, though I must say my Dad was quite perplexed when I said that we would be getting there faster had we taken a bus. After a handful of chicken buses cut us off on the two-land, two-way highway, he understood why we would have gotten there faster.

Albeit the rough traffic and rough roads, we made it to my site in one piece. We spent two days in my town, during which there was a ridiculous amount of noise being played at ridiculous hours, the water was inconsistent, and electricity kept on going off. It was perfect- I mean, I don’t think I could have planned it better myself had I tried. My parents truly got the feeling of what it is like to live here- even if they only got to experience it for just two days- it was great.

They also got to meet a few of the ladies who I work with, which meant a lot- both for the ladies and my parents. I think it gives a better idea for the both of them as to where I come from, from the ladies’ point of view, and what I am actually doing, in my parents’ point of view. That was probably the most important part of their trip for me, and I’m for them as well.

After spending some time in my site, I made sure to take my parents to Xela, about a three-hour trip away, where we soaked ourselves in Fuentes Georginas, and then headed to the lake for a serene three nights, which was a fantastic holiday for both them and me!

About a month after they came and visited, I went back home for quite a short visit- a "long" weekend. I barely had time for anything, but the real reason I went was to be at my second cousin Tony’s wedding. My family might be small, but there is definitely a lot going on. Tony, Lebanese-Hungarian, married Sonia, Japanese-Peruvian. The wedding was a blast, and totally worth going home for, especially since I saw many relatives whom I hadn’t seen for over 10 years, or baby cousins whom I had just first met then.

For the majority of June and July, there were two engineering students from University of Dayton, Ohio, who came for a summer internship to do community service type of work. Not quite knowing what they were going to be doing, they ended up building stoves, with one of the appropriate technology PCVs (who finished his service about two months ago in July). Also wanting to get in to this, I helped with some of the coordination between the office, who was helped choose the community and families that were to receive the stoves, purchasing of the materials, and of course, the actual building of the stoves. But before building was started, the families had to attend a workshop where it was explained to them why they were receiving these stoves, what the health benefits are (these stoves are smoke-safe wood burning stoves, which use less wood than open fires, and have a significantly less amount of smoke that enters the cooking area), and why these health benefits are important, how they will be positively impacted by this.

In addition to the stove project, I also got to participate in an HIV/AIDS workshop, which was given by a PCV who has done an impressive amount of these workshops. Though I only got to participate in one, so far, I’m really looking forward to starting to get a little more involved with the health side of things.

On the artisan side of things, I have been making a lot of progress with my counterpart’s computer literacy. It’s really refreshing and rewarding when you can actually see someone using the knowledge you have shared with them, having them ask you questions, wanting to learn, and you not feeling like you are forcing yourself on someone to try to help them- they want to help themselves. That is one of many things I have learnt about being here; you can have all the enthusiasm, knowledge and will-power in the world about helping people, but what it really comes down to is whether or not they want the same for themselves.

August was a pretty uneventful month- the first week I spent doing a lot a research on administration workshops, among others, and trying to put some material together before I left for the states for 15 days. As long as that may sound, I felt like I was running around the entire time! I saw a lot of people, but did not get the chance to spend as much time with everyone as I would have possibly have wanted to… but I suppose that’s how it goes. Nonetheless, it was absolutely wonderful to see everyone, and I am really happy I got the chance to go back for a longer break this time around.

Right now I don’t believe I’ll be going back before I finish my service at the end of next October- a few friends have said that want to visit, and I also would like to visit one of my best friends, who is also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua, so I will have to start using my vacation days wisely and try to plan out everything.

As for the month of September- B-U-S-Y. I am giving a workshop on administration almost every day these upcoming weeks, and I will also be shadowing my site mate as she gives her health and nutritional workshops to the artisan groups. She will sadly be leaving in November, so I want to get a feel of what and how she does her work, so that I can help orient the new PCV, who will replace her, as well as give some of my own health and nutrition talks to the artisans.

Well, that was a hastily written update, but I hope that it gives you all a better idea of what I have been up to these past few months. I have definitely been busy, and it seems to be getting even more so as time moves on… things with my primary project (artisanal work) has really started to pick up, which I am over the moon about. There are still problems with the administration of my organization, but I am doing my best to work around that. I butt heads a fair bit with my director, because I see things should be done differently, both administratively and what I give workshops on in the communities… but time will tell. I’m trying to stay positive about it, which is the only thing I can really do. Thankfully, though, this is the worst. I feel fortunate to have such a great counterpart to work with.

I hope all is well with everyone. My apologies for such a delayed, and now as a result of that, LONG blog entry… but I will make an effort to keep a better tab on my blog entries!