Hungarian, Japanese, Guatemala

I’ve been doing a terrible job at writing in my diary since I’ve been at my site, which I’m starting to regret, but I will definitely set aside a couple days during my break from work to try to account for all the interesting things that have happened since the beginning of November.

Thanksgiving weekend was a blast. About two-thirds of our training group met up at Lake Atitlan and stayed at a great hostel, complete with a Thanksgiving feast, a gorgeous view and a great atmosphere. It was the perfect opportunity to catch up with the volunteers in our training group with whom we hadn’t had the chance to talk to since swearing in. We took advantage of the cheap kayaking and went out to the middle of the lake where we all dipped in for a swim- a bit chilly, but absolutely worth it.

Just to clear up things- when I wrote about fleas in my previous entry, I did not mean that I will put up with them! It was just a joke, the more the merrier… fleas and mosquitoes seem to love my blood, but rest assured, the feeling is not mutual! Hanging my clothes and sheets out in the sun have seemed to do the trick for the time being, so unless the problem persists, I will stick to the tried-and-true method.

As an end of the year treat, everyone from our office will be taking a road trip. Because people don’t really travel here out of pleasure, this is a real extravagance for coworkers. When everyone in the office was trying to decide on where to go, everyone wanted to go everywhere… and that’s pretty much how it will be! We will only be staying overnight, but will be visiting four cities in western Guatemalan, Xela, Panajachel (both of which I have already been to) and then Chichicastenango and Quiche. A bit too much for barely two days if you ask me, but then again, why the hell not? It should prove to be an interesting and friendship-forming time, so I’m sure it will be well worth it.

Since being in Guatemala for four months, I have searched far and wide for Hungarians, I have come up with nothing. Even having my training site close to one of the most popular tourist destinations, Antigua, nada.

So, what do you do? First, go to one of the most remote sites in Guatemala, then you find me. All right. Second, put a Japanese volunteer in one month after you put me in. Doesn’t sound good? What if this Japanese volunteer happened to major in Hungarian linguistics? Sound too farfetched? Well, then I don’t know what to tell you. The guy speaks pretty well, I’ve gotta give him that much. After my counterpart, Isa, asked me what, not where, is Hungary when I first met her, this has given me more hope that she (along with my other co-workers) will understand more about me and know that “my” language is something other foreigners actually learn (oddly enough).


One of the most exciting things I have done since I’ve been here I accomplished this past weekend. Though I hadn’t planned it, another PCV in the next town over mentioned a few weeks ago that he and some other PCVs were planning to climb Tajumulco Volcano, the highest volcanic point in the Western Hemisphere, measuring at 4220 metres, or 13,845 feet in height. Not what you would call a walk in the park (although it technically is a park… har har).

Luckily for me, it is only about a 2 hour trip from my town, which is really quite short considering the roads to get to my side of the country. We arrived at the foot of the volcano around noon and didn’t get to our camp site until 4ish. Let me tell you, I will work out for at least a month before I climb that again! Justin and Laura were kind enough to lend me some fleece pants and wool socks, which were a great deal of help in keeping me warm up at that altitude. We made a campfire, which kept us warm for a few hours until we went to bed.

In order to catch the sunrise, we all woke up at 4am and continued the climb to Tajumulco for another good hour until we reached the summit. If my site isn’t cold enough in the mornings and evenings, this was the icing on the cake- my WORD was it COLD! I don’t think I’ve ever been as cold in my entire life, but leave it to Guatemala to make it that place! Some other PCVs, along with me, suffered some altitude sickness, but we all managed to get up to the top and wow- I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful before. The view was stunning. On one side of the volcano you could see Mexico, and the shadow of Tajumulco once the sun rose, and the other side about eight other volcanoes in Guatemala, as if lined up right next to each other, were visible as the sun rose behind them.

Whenever anyone comes to visit me and is up for this expedition, I am more than game to do it again! It was definitely the most difficult climb I’ve done as of yet, and even have the benefits of the aches and pains in my legs and knees to remind me of my accomplishment. 

One month in

Hard to believe, but December is already here! This means a number of things:

1. Time at site: one month
2. Thanksgiving weekend was spent with Peace Corps friends at possibly the most beautiful lake in the world, lounging in hammocks and kayaking for hours
3. I missed all those great deals on Black Friday; but most importantly, I was even further away from all those crazy shoppers
4. I’ve made a conclusion on fleas: If you can’t beat them, let more join you
5. Despite what some of you may think, I will not be dreaming of a white Christmas, but still will be freezing my butt off (2300 m. altitude)

Out of 24 months of service, I’ve completed one month thus far, or 4% of my service. I’m still not quite settled in; I will be moving in to my permanent place in January, still with a family, just a bit of a different set up. I’ll actually be sharing a place with one of my work colleagues, Heidi, who is the same age as me, so it will also give me the opportunity to speak a lot of Spanish and get to know a Guatemalteca my age. Heidi is really cool, and the family she/I rent(s) from is super nice as well, so it seems like the perfect set up!

Work has been going well- I have been to four out of the 10 communities and met the women’s groups in those communities. I have also met a number of women who have come into town during market days when they come into my agency’s store to purchase supplies, but there are so many that I know it will take a few months for me to be able to remember half of their names! I feel a bit bad, but it’s really quite challenging, and until I can put names with faces and communities with products, it will be a little more time until everything comes together. All together, there are about 110 women in the women’s groups. Each community makes different products, and each community is at a different level of progress in both their commitment and quality of the work that they do.

The “quality” issues are not anything that can’t be fixed, it’s mostly just consistency and “gringo-fying” the products so that they would sell better in an international market. Because the women work on most of the products while they have extra time at home, they don’t see how the other women in their communities are making the products. My counterpart and I are working on methods, handbooks and charts for the women to be able to refer to for product specifications so that each product can have more consistency.

Two main things I have been working on with my counterpart is cleaning up the agency store and teaching her how to use a computer. A couple weeks ago when Isa, my counterpart, and I were walking to a community, I started talking to her about the importance of using a computer and how it would not only benefit her in her work and personal life, and it would also allow her to gain her independency and not have to always rely on other people to type up things for her. She told me she was a afraid that only people who are educated can use computers. She said that because she has a 5th grade education. I told her that was absolutely not true: she can read, she can write, and most importantly she is a leader in her community and 110 women, raised eight children, and what struck her most is when I told her if my mother could learn how to use a computer, then anyone could learn how to use a computer.

I think that pretty much sealed the deal with her, because the next day, on her own, she told me we were going to work on the computer together. At first I thought this was her way of saying that I would be doing some computer work, which I was getting ready to come up an excuse for if she didn’t want to join me in the work, but to my surprise, she sat down in front of the computer and waited for me to tell her what to do.

Isa had never used a computer before, let alone type, but by the end of two hours, she was getting the hang of the keyboard and had written all of her eight children’s full names and even wrote out a few sentences. I taught her how to open a word document and save as, save; I was extremely proud of her the whole time, and she was even laughing at herself when she made little mistakes that she was actually using a computer. After we finished up, she told me and the two other girls in the office that now that she is learning how to use a computer there is one more thing she wants to learn. There is a machine in one of the communities that she doesn’t know how to use- the only artisan machine she doesn’t know how to use because she is afraid. But now that she is learning how to use a computer, she will learn how to use this machine too.

That was probably the highlight of my entire stay here so far. Though I know she won’t be typing out entire documents anytime soon, just her motivation and attitude really struck me. I was truly dreading that a year later I would still be pushing her to sit in front of a computer. Of course, there is still a lot of work to do, but I am very happy for both my small success but what will be a huge success for her.

The other “accomplishment” is the organization of the store. The store was quite disorderly, if you know what I mean. Since I didn’t really know what to do the first couple of market days, I just started sorting out some of the display cases and shelves, and then found myself reorganizing and sorting everything. It really was quite a bit of work since Isa works the store, but by the end of the day the display case was organized, extra products were put away a few other things were organized. I was half jokingly scolded her when I found some really cool products that were nowhere in customer sight, telling her that they should be out so that customers can see what we have in stock. The second market day I was reorganizing, I found a bunch of bags in another display case and was reorganizing them. The president of our association was also there, and when she saw one of the bags that was hidden underneath all of the other products, she took it for herself right away- and I told Isa that is exactly why we need to have things neat and organized, so that customers can see things they didn’t know were in the store and will have a higher chance of selling those products, and she seems to be catching on, which makes my job a lot easier, but more so, it makes me really happy that she’s starting to “get” it… now my job is to help her keep the organization so that inventory won’t take three days each time we buy more supplies! Great progress though, which I’m thrilled about.

That’s all for now… I will for sure write another update soon and keep you posted. Since some of you may be wondering what I’ll be doing for Christmas: staying in town. It will be quiet and nothing like at home, but that’s one of the experiences I came for. I still don’t have plans to go to anyone’s house, so perhaps I’ll just spend a quiet evening by myself, which isn’t as bad (or even sad) as some of you may think!

I hope everyone is well and isn’t taking the shopping and chaos of this year too seriously (or seriously at all), and remember that emails, letters or a short phone call are always greatly appreciated!