Archive for October, 2011

September 11, Independence Day, and more

October 1, 2011

It has been raining a lot here, and really hard.  I still don’t think that it is as bad as last year, but considering the never really fixed the roads from last year, traveling is risky.  Plus the lightening is so close that the thunder comes at almost exactly the same time and shakes the ground like an earthquake.  Unfortunately the rain makes the water that comes out in the pila muddy.  It is pretty gross, but makes me appreciate the water treatment systems in the States and how the water comes out clear and clean.  The best part about the rain is falling asleep to the sound of the rain on my metal roof.  Sometimes it is so loud that I cannot even have a conversation on the phone, but I have gotten used to it and it is really comforting.
The last week in August I went to Xela for an environmental education, climate change and disaster preparedness workshop put on by Peace Corps.  I took one of the teachers from the school in La Gloria in an attempt to keep working with them.  It was really a great opportunity for him to meet other teachers around Guatemala and see a new part of the country on Peace Corps bill.
The workshop was very interesting.  We learned some great activities to help teach students about the ozone layer, atmosphere, and global warming.  I also learned a whole new vocabulary as I really haven’t done much work in this area.  Then we learned about the structure of Guatemala and how it has like five faults in such a small country.  Finally we worked on preparing disaster preparedness plans for each community.  La Gloria does not have a lot of risks for disaster, but if something were to happen they need to be prepared to take care of themselves because the chance of outside help arriving is very slim.  Over all is was a good time and fun to see the other volunteers and meet their Guatemalan counterparts.
I rushed back to Uspantan Thursday when the workshop ended so that we could work on the SPA paperwork on Friday.  SPA (Small Project Assistance) is the name of the grant we are applying for to build the playground.   It is a source of funds from USAID that Peace Corps volunteers can apply for to do projects in their sites.  Supposedly Marlin and Greis were going to work on the project all week while I was gone, so when I saw what they had done I was a little disappointed.  There were still so many holes and missing information, it seemed like they had barely worked on it.  The one good thing is that they finally started to see the budget in a more realistic manner and realized that we would not have enough money to heat the pool. (This would have required putting a pump system in the pool and buying super expensive solar panels to heat the water – this part alone is almost $5,000.)
I worked hard all day trying to fill in the blanks and complete the proposal.  Marlin and Greis worked with me in the afternoon, which is when I realized that they could work really hard they just needed direction.  Leaving them in charge of writing the proposal was too daunting a task, but if I gave them little jobs or pieces to work on, they did great.  Our other big problem was that it took forever to get our real final construction plans with realistic prices for construction workers and materials.  Cosme and Miguel went out to the local hardware stores with the lists of materials that I made and got quotes from three different places.   But we had to change our design a few times because originally they wanted to make the bathrooms and pool area super fancy with tile, but we realized that we also did not have the money for that.  So getting a realistic plan was a long process and we did not finally finish until Sunday night.  We worked late on Friday, but by 7pm Marlin needed to go home to her baby and we all needed a break.
One of the wealthy families in town just built a gym here.  The equipment is cheap and weird, but I love having a place to go and workout.  The lady Lorena is giving us free memberships if we teach classes.  Right now on Tuesday we are teaching hip hop aerobics and starting in October I will teaching gymnastics to children one afternoon a week.  After such a stressful day at the computer it was great to go and work off some steam.
That Saturday was Azul’s (Marlin’s baby) first birthday party which is a big deal here.  They rented out a salon, made tons of Mickey Mouse decorations, and invited over 100 people.  I convinced Mary to go with me, because sometimes it is really awkward to be the only white person at these events.  They had 3 piñatas; one for the little boys, one for the little girls, and one for the adults.  Of course they made me hit the piñata for adults, but I did not break it.  One guy got super confused (I mean after all he was blindfolded) and turned around and started swinging the stick at the crowd!  Luckily we stopped him before he hit anyone.
Azul was dressed in traje for the first half of the party because Chino (the dad) is Kiche, then after the piñatas she changed into her princess dress.  They had a beautiful cake and after we sang Happy Birthday to her, they smashed her face in the cake!  I guess that it is tradition, I just for some reason thought that one year olds would be spared.  Overall the party was fun and it was nice to see people and be included in the event.  However it is a little crazy how much money they spent on the event, because it is not like they are rich or she is going to remember the party.
That Sunday evening we met up at Marlin’s house to work on the proposal and made some good progress.  The problems were that the more work that we did the more we realized that we had to cut out of the project in order to have a reasonable budget, plus we kept realizing more things that we needed to do to the complete the proposal.  We finally cut anything to do with the pools out of the proposal.  Then we moved and remodeled the bathrooms.  Now we are going to build a playground out of mostly recycled materials (like wood and tires), an event center, bathrooms out of bottles, and a septic tank because there is no plumbing out there (this killed our budget).
We worked until late on Sunday and then all day Monday.  We kept realizing we needed more agreements with the community, a business plan, and other documents that we did not have much experience making.  However we did it!  In an amazing show of teamwork and dedication, we sent the completed proposal to Peace Corps Tuesday morning.
Thursday I went out to the elementary school in Chola to do workshops with the students on trash management, and how to make bottles for construction.  The students are really excited about the idea of having a playground and helping collect the bottles.  I just hope that they come through as we only have about a month and a half to collect 3,000 bottles.
Friday I went out to Desengano.  As I was riding out on the back of the pickup truck I saw two students in a truck heading the other way.  I started to get the feeling that there may not be classes, although I had arranged the date with them ahead of time.  The problem is that they do not have phone service out there, so if things change they have no way of notifying me.  I decided to keep going.  I made the hour walk and when I got to Desengano I went straight to the school to find out that my hunch was right; there were no classes that day.  However the community was having a special event to commemorate the victims of the war from their town.  The actual day of their celebration was September 11 (adding a new personal meaning to the date) however due to the election being held on that date, they moved their event to that Friday September 9 this year.  The community leader, Jaucinto, said that they had told me to come that day because they wanted me to be a part of the event.  I felt tricked, but honored.
Jaucinto took me to a house close to the road and fed me breakfast of beans and tortillas.  Then we hiked up to the ruins of their cathedral (that the army burnt during the war) on the top of a hill overlooking the town.  Everyone was waiting for us there.  It was beautiful!  Breathtaking actually!  It felt like we were on top of the world.  The ruins were decorated with flowers and pine needles and filled with the people of Desengano dressed in their beautiful colorful traje.  The scene was framed by the view of the rolling green hills of the surrounding forest and the turquoise river running through the valley.  I cannot believe that I did not have my camera!
Two women knelt where their Virgin once stood, lighting candles and incense.  Some of the students lit off fireworks as we arrived to mark the beginning of the ceremony.  Then the local priest called everyone to the front to kneel on the pine needles and began his service.  Half was in Kiche and half in Spanish, so I did not understand everything, but it was ok.
They prayed for the victims of the war and that history would not repeat itself, so that their people would never again have to suffer like they did during this period.  People took turns telling touching stories about their experiences.  The army came and burned their whole village; some people fled to live in the mountains forced to survive off of what they could find in nature, others were captured by the army and put in concentration camps, and others were murdered.
They told their different stories of survival.  Those that hid in the mountains scrounged for food, eating wild herbs, sheltering themselves under trees and bushes, and sneaking down to the river at night to satisfy their thirst.  They stayed together in small groups in order to avoid being captured, but they sometimes met at night in their church to check in, pray, and gather strength to go on fighting.  The army noticed the footprints leading to the church and then burned it down.  An older man from the village looked at me when they told this part of the story and said, “What did they get out of burning down our sacred virgin?  I just don’t understand.”
Another guy told me how he was held in one of the army’s concentration camps for 45 days.  He said that they tortured him every day and every day he thought that he was going to die, but he didn’t.  He somehow had the strength to survive and escape.  However unfortunately he lost his father and his brother.
The stories were so horrible, personal, and real.  It is amazing to realize what these people went through only 30 years ago and how they have survived and rebuilt their village and their lives.  Many people simply try to forget the war because remembering is too painful.  But I admire them for remembering and teaching their future generations, and commemorating the victims and the heroes.  I was the only outsider invited to the event and I felt very honored.
After the service we hiked down the hill and through town to their new church, built of wooden boards with a dirt floor.  The Padre from Uspantan came in to do another sermon in honor of the day.  We all crowded in to the tiny building and sat on the simple wooden benches and the Padre gave another two hour sermon.  This one was mostly in Kiche and less personal, so it was a little hard to follow.  Plus the room was filled with smoke from the incense, but I did my best to pay attention and not to fall asleep.
After the service we went back to the little house on the road where the women of the town had made a special lunch for the priest and his entourage, caldo de res.  We had lunch with some of the community leaders and then I road back to Uspantan with the priest.
Sunday September 11 was Election Day.  The whole process here is very interesting.  People paint everything they possibly can with the logos and colors of their political parties, and there are tons of political parties – at least 20.  People paint rocks, trees, walls, houses, fences and more, to the point that almost every surface was covered with a political logo by Election Day.  Peace Corps had heard that unrest was possible during the elections so they asked us to stay away from the voting centers and the government buildings, but the truth is that the town was oddly silent this day.
Everyone I know voted.  They were proud to exercise their right.  In Guatemala everyone who is registered with the government and over 18 years old can vote, even if they are illiterate!  For this reason every political party has a logo and the people who can’t read, just select the logo representing the party that they want.  There were four voting centers around the town, plus various centers in different regions of the municipality.  After someone votes they have put their finger in a purple dye that lasts for 36 hours, as a way to ensure that no one votes more than once.
They wait until everyone has finished voting and then begin counting the votes manually.  At 5am fireworks went off signifying that someone had won.  When I asked people around town how I would know who won, they said it depended on where the fireworks came from because the winner would light off fireworks.  Unfortunately I still couldn’t tell from my house, so at 8am I called Juanita and found out that our current mayor, Victor, won again.
Monday was a holiday, because people have to vote in their hometown so people needed the day to travel back to where they are living.  I found out that Victor won, but some people were unhappy with his win (big surprise), and threatening to protest.  The idea of protesting the results of an election (although he won by more than 2,000 votes in an area of 20,000 voters) seemed a little crazy to me.  I mean of course you are not going to be happy if your candidate looses, but someone has to loose or it wouldn’t be a competition.  In order to win for President a candidate needs to get 51% of popular vote.  Since there were over 20 candidates this was nearly impossible.  So now the two candidates with the most votes are having a runoff election on November 6.
Tuesday I went back out to Chola to do bottle workshops with the classes at the elementary school that I did not have time to do the week before.  Wednesday I went back out to Desengano for English classes.  During recess I hiked up to the cathedral on the hill to take pictures.  It was still beautiful, but not nearly as powerful as when it was filled with all of the people from the town, incense, and candles.
In the afternoon Wednesday, we started our celebration of Independence Day.  The tradition is that the people from the aldeas come into the capital to light their torch and then they run back to their town.  They set up the torch in front of the concha shell in the central park.  It was very festive with a marimba band and cultural acts in between the lighting of the torch for each school.  It amazed me that they had children as young as 5 and 6 carrying lit torches as they ran through town, but it was beautiful.  Then they had a ceremony to raise the Guatemalan flag.  As soon as they finished, it started pouring rain and everyone quickly scattered for their houses.
The next day was September 15, Independence Day.  The town celebrated with a parade.  All of the young people participated.  Each class had a theme, but generally everyone wore traje, even the boys.  The little kids are so cute in their traje.  There was also one class that did a Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs theme.  The parade ended in the soccer field with speeches, music, and dancing and all of the kids got ice cream.  After all of the turmoil for the elections it was nice to see everyone celebrating together.
The following day I went to Antigua early.  I had a meeting in the office and I had to take art work from a few different artisans to Siggy for the Central American Crafts fair.  I had a nice relaxing weekend in Antigua staying at the Tres Gracias and enjoying a bit of first world comfort and meeting interesting people who came to Guatemala for the art fair.  That Sunday I had lunch with Gloria and Paudilio and we celebrate Kennedy and Esua’s birthdays.
Monday I had to travel to San Marcos for a workshop on creating business plans.  I traveled to Los Encuentros where I met up with Maria from Laj Chimel and Julio from Soch, so that I could bring them to the training.  It was in San Raphael Pie de La Cuesta, which was only half an hour from the Mexican border.  It was beautiful there, lush green volcanic mountains of the boca coasta with the views of the highest point in Central America, Volcano Tajumulco.
The training was at a relatively nice hotel in town.  This was nice for me, but can you imagine how Maria felt!  She lives in a small town with no electricity or running water, and now she was staying at a hotel with tvs in the rooms and two knobs on the faucets; one for hot and one for cold!  I was happy to have her there with me and be able to give her that luxury.  She told me, “The water comes out so hot that I to turn on the other knob so that I could get in the shower.”  I think that this was her first time experiencing this.
The workshop was interesting and very informative.  We basically went step by step through a business plan and then working on creating the necessary pieces for our tourism sites.  Luckily for me, my friend Jesse did not have a local counterpart, so he worked with Julio while I worked with Maria.  While the workshop was informative and helpful it was a little bit difficult for Maria to understand the concepts, as she only has a third grade education.  I guess that when you are living in the woods with no house or food, the importance of education takes a back seat to survival.
One day we visited the Quetzal Reserve near the town.  It was a nice hike through the beautiful reserve and we got to see the Madre Quetzal, however I really want to see the male with his long beautiful tail.  We did find some of their beautiful feathers on the trail, which was cool and proves that they live there.  Apparently February is the best time to see them because it is their mating season so they stay near their nests and are easier to spot.  I think that I am going to have to go back then.
On the way home I stayed in Xela for a night to break up the 10 hour trip.  We went on a tour of a small family chocolate factory where they gave us lots of free chocolate and told us the history of the cacao bean in Guatemala.  The Mayans used to use cacao beans as money, centuries ago.  The lady was so nice she even put my jacket in her dryer during the presentation.  We got caught in a down our on the way to the tour and were soaking wet when we arrived.  Then we went to a great yoga class and a nice dinner.  The next day we climbed up a mountain near town called El Baul, which had amazing views over the city.  Unfortunately it was cloudy so we could not see the volcanoes.
I got home on Saturday to a dinner party at my house with some of the other nearby volunteers who wanted to use my oven.  It was nice to come home to dinner, anyway.   Sunday I caught up on life, doing laundry and cleaning (which takes all day when you have to wash everything by hand).  Monday I worked in the office all day on a report I had to do for Peace Corps.  Tuesday I taught English at INEB.  Since it was the second to last class, I bought candy and gave it to people who participated.  I am not saying that bribery is good, but sure works and made the classes much easier to handle.
Wednesday was the first day of our two day feria.  We have two a year, because the actual day of our saint (San Miguel) is in September.  However it always rains in September, so they moved our main feria to May, but we still have a small on in September.  It was really hard to work in my office because it is right in front of the central park and they had loud music and tons of fireworks all day.  I enjoyed watching the Convite and walked through the feria with Juanita and the kids, but I was not very into it this time.  However I did go and watch the torritos (metal structures filled with fireworks that are worn by people who dance around as the fireworks go off) on Thursday night.  It is such a crazy and unsafe tradition, but so much fun!
On Friday I finished my weaving on the back-strap loom.  It only took me two months!  It came out pretty good and we made three placemats and three little coin purses out of it, but I am definitely not going into business as a weaver.
It has been raining now for two days straight.  Everything is soaked and the streets are flooded.  Hopefully this is one of the last good rains of the season.  The rainy season is supposed to end at the end of October so we only have one more month.  I also only have six more months of my service here.  It is hard to believe that it is almost over.  The big question now is what’s next?

Posted in Peace Corps | 3 Comments »