Here we are again (estamos aqui ultravez), another week down in the glorious Guatemala. Things seemed to have calmed down since last Tuesdays excitement, when a police officer, off-duty and "supposedly" on drugs shot a taxi driver 7 times, and the town's response to the incident was to burn the police station down, resulting in the police leaving Tecpan. NOT TO WORRY> i was safely in my home and didn't find out about the unrest until the following day when everyone was going about their usual daily business. Unfortunately this is a reality in Guatemala because the police and government are so corrupt that many times the people feel that they must take matters into their own hands so that they can see the results that they feel are necessary. There has been no retaliation or return of the police since the incident and Peace Corps is keeping a good eye on the situation, ready to pull us 3 tecpan volunteers out of the site if necessary, but I honestly do not think it will be necessary!
Otherwise I went to PDM (Project Design Management) last Wednesday-Friday with one of my fellow teachers at a school that we are hoping to give a water project to. It was very informative and my counterpart really seemed to enjoy himself and learning about how to approach asking for funds and executing plans for infrastructure projects. I was able to stay with one of the girls i got very close to during training which is always fun and we were able to talk about future projects and maybe trying to do a GLOW camp (GLOW camp is a worldwide peace corps initiative that focuses on empowering girls to go out and approach their dreams). So hopefully with school ending we will be able to do one of those in December.
After that it was back to site. I started an exercise program called "Insanity" and very quickly quit it. It just wasn't for me, so I am back to trying to run around town, I have found some dirt roads that get less motor traffic so it is easier to breath.
We have finally finished our surveys of all the progress within our schools and are taking it easier this month because of the election (no school for the friday and monday before and after the election day on Sept. 11) and the Guatemalan Independence day on the 15th which also means there will be no school the week of the 15th. But we are going to enjoy this time by traveling to San Cristobal de las Casa in Mexico for a couple of days and I have about a week of spanish class to keep me busy the last week of sept. SO no worries, I am sure between the elections and the 15th there will be plenty of stories to tell!
Hasta proxima ves!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Somewhere only we go....
Sorry again for the pauses in between post, I need to get back into the swing of blogging each week! Things have been going very well for the past couple of weeks in Tecpan. I am finally settling into life here, which has been quite a change from the toasty San Miguel. So far we have been able to visit the majority of our schools and do the surveys to see the progress each school has been making in the program over the past year. This has been very rewarding because I am FINALLY able to see what this program can do (in some schools) over a longer period of time than what Maggie and I had in San Miguel. I am enjoying my sitemates, Lauren and Betty. immensely we spend many dinners together either creating new and delicious creation or making old classics with what we can find in the market. Last week Betty and I made Black Bean,Sweet Potato burritos with pico de gillo- DELISH! Lauren and I have tried to start a Thursday night tradition where we cook something yummy, do yoga, and drink some wine. We have coined the evening Eat. Pray. Wine. Night, however because of conferences and meeting we all have a different times with Peace Corps, we have had to miss a couple of thursdays. But its nights like Eat. Pray. Wine. Thursdays and over indulgent Tuesdays that help the weeks pass quicker and make working much more fun.
I have switched around my living situation a little bit, I am now renting 2 rooms- so that I can have my kitchen in an actual room and not in the hallway that everyone and their mothers pass through on a daily basis- this makes things feel a little more at home, however I do think I am going to continue to look for another apartment that is a little bit more private- I know it seems silly, but it is the little things like having your own space down here that make life much more enjoyable.
I have discovered a coffee place in my town that serves REAL coffee, not that instant crap! it only opens from 3pm-9 pm so it makes a nice late afternoon treat!
Otherwise it is just the day to day living that I get to do in Guate. The second half of this week I get to go to a conference about project design and management which should be very interesting! it is being held in Xela so I am excited to spend some time with my friends that live around that area! I will definitely update next week- i am sure something hilarious/interesting will happen!
MISS YOU ALL until next time :)
I have switched around my living situation a little bit, I am now renting 2 rooms- so that I can have my kitchen in an actual room and not in the hallway that everyone and their mothers pass through on a daily basis- this makes things feel a little more at home, however I do think I am going to continue to look for another apartment that is a little bit more private- I know it seems silly, but it is the little things like having your own space down here that make life much more enjoyable.
I have discovered a coffee place in my town that serves REAL coffee, not that instant crap! it only opens from 3pm-9 pm so it makes a nice late afternoon treat!
Otherwise it is just the day to day living that I get to do in Guate. The second half of this week I get to go to a conference about project design and management which should be very interesting! it is being held in Xela so I am excited to spend some time with my friends that live around that area! I will definitely update next week- i am sure something hilarious/interesting will happen!
MISS YOU ALL until next time :)
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
what a crazy ride it has been....
Please excuse the long pause in between post, i know it has been close to two months since i have updated you all and for that i am sorry! Things of course have been nothing less than interesting here and I have been on the move for most of them.
For a quick recap:
May: finished up visiting my schools and settling into my apartment, there was a lot of fun goodbye parties in coban for the youth development volunteers that were leaving in the summer to return to the states. otherwise not too much to report for the end of may, just kind of adjusting to life as normal, trying to improve my spanish, things like that.
June: this is the very fun and interesting month. There had been a growing presence of military in my site, doing patrols and other things like this, so I had called Peace Corps to let them know and to see if this was normal. This resulted in a site visit from my APCD (or head of my program healthy schools) to check out security issues within and around my site, as well as get an update from my counterpart about the progress of healthy schools in San Miguel. The site visit was suppose to take at least 5 hours, but after a quick meeting with mine and maggie's counter part, Dr. Mack decided to pull us from site because of security reasons. We were given the next day to pack everything up and find another volunteer to stay with until a new site/situation could be made possible. I headed down to the department of Chemaltenango to stay with one of my good friend, Lauren Wert. It was a very nice slow week before my parents came for their trip, and it gave me a chance to see what can be done with healthy schools over a period of time (both she and her site mate swore in a year before me and replaced a volunteer that worked in a different phase of healthy schools for a couple of years). By the end of the week, we three emailed Dr. Mack and asked if i could be a permanent addition to their site and take over when they COS next march. I think Dr. Mack was relieved of this idea because it meant he did not have to look into starting a whole new site for maggie and I. So my new home became Tecpan Guatemala, Chemaltenango (a couple of fun facts: tecpan is the first capital of guatemala so it is over 485 years old, there are ruins right outside of town that George Bush visited during his presidency and the mayan priest are still cleaning because of his "bad energry" and there is a gym, pizza place, laundry place <which my clothes are very thankful for!>, and grocery store, it has over 80,000 people in the municipality, and its very cold.)
I finished up June greeting mom and bob at the airport for their vacation down here. I had a wonderful time with them, eating really yummy food in Antigua and Lake Atitlan, climbing a volcano, and spending a day relaxing at earth lodge right outside of antigua. the week they spent here seemed to fly by and it was time for them to leave, but i was fortunate that the same day they left, my good friend from studying abroad in Estonia came!
July: Morgan was here for 10 days, in which case we went to the pacific coast (black sands and coconuts) made our way to atitlan after a VERY long day of traveling on chicken buses, and finished up back in antigua. I had to return to san miguel to move all of my stuff out of my apartment, pay rent, and say my goodbyes on the last day morgan was here, but she also climbed volcano pacaya and i think she had a good time! It was so great getting to share my home with Morgan, Mom, and Bob and I can't wait to have more visitors come!
I am sure you are thinking Katelyn then returned to her new cold home and started work, which she has been busy with every since? not quite. I actually had my reconnect conference with Peace Corps starting that sunday (Reconnect is the first of four conferences that peace corps host to check back in with the volunteers after going to sites and give more training for certain things. Reconnect lasted 2 days and was followed by either mayan or spanish language training. my next conference will be IST <in service training> in november.) Reconnect was a lot of fun because i got to see a lot of volunteers i swore in with and got me excited about returning to work and starting water project and secondary projects. I only stayed for the two days of the actual conference and then FINALLY returned to site and started working and unpacking.
I am living in a small room now with a very nice family, i do have my own bathroom, although my shower is still on the fritz (i know i shouldn't complain....i have a shower in peace corps, but cold showers in tecpan where the high each day is 65 degrees, well is just painful!) but i am working on getting that sorted out. So far I have been trying to settle into my life here, going to new schools, meeting the directors i will work with for the next couple of years, and starting planning for projects that my site mates want to do before they COS in march. Some of the ideas we have are a bottle school (yes!) world map and accrediting 3 of our 18 schools for completing the first stage of healthy schools! (yay!)
Although starting over in a new site is hard, actually it is a lot harder than i thought it would be...for the first time in 7 months i have been homesick! I am really thankful that i have the sitemates i do and this site. I feel that i will be able to accomplish something here, even if it is small and I am looking forward to the challenge.
No worries, it won't be 2 months before i post again, look out for one next week!
For a quick recap:
May: finished up visiting my schools and settling into my apartment, there was a lot of fun goodbye parties in coban for the youth development volunteers that were leaving in the summer to return to the states. otherwise not too much to report for the end of may, just kind of adjusting to life as normal, trying to improve my spanish, things like that.
June: this is the very fun and interesting month. There had been a growing presence of military in my site, doing patrols and other things like this, so I had called Peace Corps to let them know and to see if this was normal. This resulted in a site visit from my APCD (or head of my program healthy schools) to check out security issues within and around my site, as well as get an update from my counterpart about the progress of healthy schools in San Miguel. The site visit was suppose to take at least 5 hours, but after a quick meeting with mine and maggie's counter part, Dr. Mack decided to pull us from site because of security reasons. We were given the next day to pack everything up and find another volunteer to stay with until a new site/situation could be made possible. I headed down to the department of Chemaltenango to stay with one of my good friend, Lauren Wert. It was a very nice slow week before my parents came for their trip, and it gave me a chance to see what can be done with healthy schools over a period of time (both she and her site mate swore in a year before me and replaced a volunteer that worked in a different phase of healthy schools for a couple of years). By the end of the week, we three emailed Dr. Mack and asked if i could be a permanent addition to their site and take over when they COS next march. I think Dr. Mack was relieved of this idea because it meant he did not have to look into starting a whole new site for maggie and I. So my new home became Tecpan Guatemala, Chemaltenango (a couple of fun facts: tecpan is the first capital of guatemala so it is over 485 years old, there are ruins right outside of town that George Bush visited during his presidency and the mayan priest are still cleaning because of his "bad energry" and there is a gym, pizza place, laundry place <which my clothes are very thankful for!>, and grocery store, it has over 80,000 people in the municipality, and its very cold.)
I finished up June greeting mom and bob at the airport for their vacation down here. I had a wonderful time with them, eating really yummy food in Antigua and Lake Atitlan, climbing a volcano, and spending a day relaxing at earth lodge right outside of antigua. the week they spent here seemed to fly by and it was time for them to leave, but i was fortunate that the same day they left, my good friend from studying abroad in Estonia came!
July: Morgan was here for 10 days, in which case we went to the pacific coast (black sands and coconuts) made our way to atitlan after a VERY long day of traveling on chicken buses, and finished up back in antigua. I had to return to san miguel to move all of my stuff out of my apartment, pay rent, and say my goodbyes on the last day morgan was here, but she also climbed volcano pacaya and i think she had a good time! It was so great getting to share my home with Morgan, Mom, and Bob and I can't wait to have more visitors come!
I am sure you are thinking Katelyn then returned to her new cold home and started work, which she has been busy with every since? not quite. I actually had my reconnect conference with Peace Corps starting that sunday (Reconnect is the first of four conferences that peace corps host to check back in with the volunteers after going to sites and give more training for certain things. Reconnect lasted 2 days and was followed by either mayan or spanish language training. my next conference will be IST <in service training> in november.) Reconnect was a lot of fun because i got to see a lot of volunteers i swore in with and got me excited about returning to work and starting water project and secondary projects. I only stayed for the two days of the actual conference and then FINALLY returned to site and started working and unpacking.
I am living in a small room now with a very nice family, i do have my own bathroom, although my shower is still on the fritz (i know i shouldn't complain....i have a shower in peace corps, but cold showers in tecpan where the high each day is 65 degrees, well is just painful!) but i am working on getting that sorted out. So far I have been trying to settle into my life here, going to new schools, meeting the directors i will work with for the next couple of years, and starting planning for projects that my site mates want to do before they COS in march. Some of the ideas we have are a bottle school (yes!) world map and accrediting 3 of our 18 schools for completing the first stage of healthy schools! (yay!)
Although starting over in a new site is hard, actually it is a lot harder than i thought it would be...for the first time in 7 months i have been homesick! I am really thankful that i have the sitemates i do and this site. I feel that i will be able to accomplish something here, even if it is small and I am looking forward to the challenge.
No worries, it won't be 2 months before i post again, look out for one next week!
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