My Town

So I know at least my parents have been waiting for this blog post. Here is a little more about my town. The Peace Corps tells me I can't say exactly where I live, but it rhymes with....just kidding it doesn't rhyme with anything. I live in the Department (like a state) of Totonicapan in an aldea (village) of the municipality of Momostenango. Because Guatemalans love to shorten words I live in Toto and Momos.

Both the beige-ish house and yellow belong to my host family (see picture below). It is definitely one of the biggest houses in my town. The two windows on the second floor on the lefthand side of the yellow house are to my room. The brown stalks in front of the house are corn that they cut down after harvest. Also between the corn field and my house is a little river.

What I see from my window (but taken from ground level)

View from my window of the river (the glass is tinted)

Even the kids carry heavy loads

Every once and a while they hold some kind of church service on the bank of the river

 And people walk their sheep through my town and along the pan-American highway that runs right through it

In the middle are 3 trees - my house is to the left of the middle one

A pig tied to a tree near my house

Corn drying on a roof in front of the school

So I don't really know what to make of my town. It is definitely rural as I routinely walk past livestock going to and from my house, but we are right on the Pan-American highway (which is two lanes - see below) and we have buildings with multiple (up to 4) stories right in the "center of town," which is only a couple of blocks. After that there are lots of corn fields and sparse houses.

Buying Eggs at the Market and the Father of the Bride Supermarket Hotdog Bun Scene

Father of the Bride (I and II) are two of my favorite movies of all time. I could watch them over and over again. One of the most memorable scenes is where George Banks (Steve Martin) is freaking out about the cost of the wedding and goes to the supermarket to buy hot dogs and hot dog buns for dinner. However, they sell hot dogs in packages of 8 and hot dog buns in packages of 12. Short story shorter, outraged he tries to remove the extra buns and only pay for the 8 he wants, landing him in jail.  

I highly recommend watching the scene here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYIHLUxzRr8

So what on Earth does this have to do with me? Well on Monday market days when I buy all of my food I buy my eggs (since I don't have a fridge they are one of my main sources of protein). At 1 Quetzal a piece they are super affordable (about 8 eggs = $1). In the U.S. they come in I think two size cartons, but here I can buy however many I want. Sometimes the vendors look at me strangely, but they will sell me any number. They normally come in a pack of 30, but usually I get 15 (see below). And if I want any fewer than that (for a while I was getting only 6 a week) they would put that number IN A LITTLE PLASTIC BAG. Anyway, I think that George Banks would appreciate this option. 

When I ask for 15 eggs they fold the big sheet in half, put the eggs in, then tie string around it to hold it together and make a convenient handle for carrying.

Artisinal Market in Chichicastenango, Quiché

Quiché is a department in Guatemala and is pronounced Key-che (not like the egg pie). They are famous for their artisanal market in Chichicastenango (Chi chi for short). It is about a 2.5 to 3 hour bus ride from my town. It was a really cool outdoor market with lots and lots to look at and buy. If you are a tourist looking for souvenirs or recuerdos to take home this is the place. I have even heard that it is a little cheaper than the even more tourist-y market in Antigua. I bought a bunch of Christmas gifts here.

A word to the wise - It is very overwhelming! If you don't handle crowds well stay away! Vendors have their stalls that line the pedestrian streets, but there are also people of all ages (mostly women and girls) walking around that will nudge you and try and get you to buy their goods. They can be very persistent. Also DON'T FORGET TO BARGAIN. They will give you the "precio gringo" the gringo/American foreigner price. Guatemalans also bargain for everything they buy, but my guess is that the prices for them starts a little lower. So act like a Guatemalan and be prepared to put in a little extra time if you want to buy anything and bargain! Don't feel bad. It is what you are supposed to do!

The Church through the crowded market

Male traje

The Harlem Shake Peace Corps Guatemala-style

We haven't all lost our minds, but we are slowly getting there...Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOAqLM3HiBE

Also, Happy holidays from Peace Corps Guatemala

The entrance to the main Peace Corps Office outside of Antigua
"Through these doors pass the worlds' finest volunteers"

Accidental Bidet…Yes it was as Unpleasant as it Sounds

This was maybe one of the grossest (if not THE grossest) experiences in my life. On the way back from Rio Dulce we took a boat to Puerto Barrios where the tour bus was meeting us. The water was really choppy and it made the boat ride a lot more interesting, fun in my opinion, and not for the weak of heart or stomach. Anyway, we made it safely to the dock and while we were waiting for our bus to pick us up I decided to go to the bathroom. This is where the accidental bidet comes in. You know the French appliances found in the bathroom next to the toilet for additional…cleaning purposes. First of all I had to pay 3 Quetzales to use the bathroom which just added insult to injury, but at least they gave me toilet paper with that. First of all I had to walk over milk crates to get into the stall because the floor was flooded. So as I was going to the bathroom I felt liquid splashing back up at me. Needless to say I was confused. It turns out that the toilet was connected by a very short pipe directly into the choppy water. So as I was using the bathroom all of that plus sea water was splashing back on me. I had no choice but to pee as fast as I could. It was terrible and needless to say I left there feeling dirty. (Other people used this bathroom too so it wasn't just me being gross). Oh well it makes for a good story.

Thanksgiving Vacation Part II: Rio Dulce

After spending two nights in Livingston we took yet another boat ride to Rio Dulce (Sweet River). We actually didn’t stay in the town of Rio Dulce, but rather in a place called the Finca Tatin which was basically in the jungle off of the river Tatin (a smaller river that connects to Rio Dulce).

Our hotel

The rope swing on the dock of our hotel

Our rooms...straight up jungle



The day we got there we rented kayaks and paddled to the nearby hot springs. It was an extremely funny / painful experience. This was just a part of the cold river with scalding hot water coming out of the hole which we are all gathered around. The result was us all crouching in the shallow water frantically doggie paddling to try and mix the scalding hot water with the cold water. As my good friend Kelley said: "Most painful experience of my life - made worse by the expectation of something enjoyable."It was good for a good laugh.

The hot springs

The group mid-hike (yes I'm in a dress and flip flops)

Riverside Church

The next day we took a hike through the woods to the Tiger caves. This was awesome! The tour guide didn't exactly prepare us for what we were going to encounter (what else is new) so I did the hike in flip flops. After we got to the entrance to the cave we walked for about two minutes down into the cave where we came to a ledge and the only way to continue on was to jump down into the water below (which we could only see with a flashlight and was probably about 40 feet below (total guestimate by the way - it was dark)). 

Entrance to the cave

Conquering my fears. You can only see the cave because of the flash. The caves were pitch black except for the two flashlights that we had.

From this point we walked/crawled for probably about 15 minutes down deeper into the cave over the stream and wet rocks.We finally ended up in the bat cave with tons of bats flying overhead. Terrible if you have a phobia of either the dark or bats, but really cool otherwise. All in all a VERY unique and memorable experience.

Thanksgiving at the Beach in Livingston: My New Favorite Tradition

To celebrate Thanksgiving a group of 26 Peace Corps Volunteers and three brave friends who are not in the Peace Corps decided to go to Livingston and Rio Dulce. (Middle right in the map right under the B for Belize). We were there for 4 full days (Wednesday-Sunday). It was super far away from the Western Highlands where we all live, but it was totally worth it. We did the trip in two days. First we all took the PC shuttle to Antigua (about 4 hours from my house) where we spent the night, then at 5am the next morning we all boarded a shuttle that took us to Puerto Barrios (about 5.5 hours away). From there we hopped on a 30 minute boat ride to finally end up in Livingston. Livingston was a cute little touristy town, although it did feel authentic and not overly commercialized. The area is probably best known for their African-Guatemalan population. There actually weren’t as many black people as I had expected (having been to Africa I think that I had unrealistic expectations), but there certainly were many more black people than there are where we live (approximately none).

On Thanksgiving we had the perfect weather for a beach day. It was awesome. First we took a boat ride to Seven Alters where we walked up a beautiful rocky river bed and ended up at a waterfall where we all took turns jumping off. This was my first time jumping off a waterfall! 

 

After spending a couple hours there swimming and jumping we got back on the boat to head to Playa Blanca (the white beach). Here we spent the remainder of the afternoon swimming in the warm waters, hanging out, drinking coco locos (crazy coconuts – a whole coconut with rum mixed in with the coconut water), and playing beach volleyball (my team was undefeated thank you very much). It was so sunny and warm. The water was calm and shallow, perfect floating and relaxing. No offense family, but I wouldn’t mind if I spent every thanksgiving sunning myself on a beach on the Caribbean Sea. We had Thanksgiving dinner at our hostel, Casa De La Iguana (House of the Iguana). This hostel was made up of little bungalows. It was cute and I had my doubts, but they actually prepared a really good Turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.  There wasn’t the usual quantity of food that is usually associated with Thanksgiving, but it was tasty.

Tapado soup

Tapado. Yum. This is a traditional dish from Livingston. It is a coconut milk broth with all imaginable kinds of seafood in it. Each soup had: a whole fried fish, snails, shrimp, the fish that live in Conch shells, and half a crab. ¡Que rico! I am positive that it was so rich that it couldn’t have been healthy, but I couldn’t have cared less. 

Livingston

Livingston

Livingston

Seven Alters

Our hostel

 

Beach Volleyball at Playa Blanca

Shucking Corn with My New Host Family

This week is our third and final girls camp! It is is San Andres Xecul, Totonicapan, and is about a 45 minute camioneta ride away from my house. When I got back to my house yesterday I found one of the rooms in the house filled with a mountain of corn that they had harvested that morning from their land. This corn was not for eating – it was left on the stalk until it was almost dry. They will use this for food for the pigs, to make tortillas and tamalitos, and to further dry for next year. So I spent an hour or so last night helping them to shuck the corn. This is apparently a woman’s job, so Minako, my host mom, three host sisters and I sat around the pile and got to work. This was a fairly complex process which I never really got the hang of. First there were two different bags into which we put the corn husks: the good ones for making tamales, and the bad/broken/dirty ones were to use as bedding for the pigs. There were also three different ways to prepare the corn: 1) take all of the husks off – these will eventually be ground up to make tortillas etc., 2) take all of the husks off and put into a separate pile – these were the bad corn cobs that were to be given to the pigs, and finally 3) take all but 2 corn husks off, pair that with another similar cob, and tie them together – these were then put out to dry for next year.

Corn, corn, and more corn

My new host mom

Hanging the corn to dry

Moving on up

This past month I moved to a new house. As it turns out my 12 year old host brother had been breaking into my room and stealing from me. It took me a while to figure it out, but he kept on getting bolder with his stealing eventually using a knife to pry open the mirrors on my locked dresser (I know this because he left my knife on the floor). Anyway all in all he stole my Ipod and over 500Q. When I moved out I got all of this back. Although I was out of my house and basically homeless for three weeks, it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I now live with this really awesome HUGE host family. I have been there for a couple of weeks now and I still haven’t learned all of their names or figured out how they are all connected. From what I have heard my host parents have nine children (not all of them live with us), but some of those who do have children so the age range in the house is from 55-2. So far my favorite is Princess (yes that is her name – it’s not even Princesa). She is three years old and adorable. I don’t have a good picture of her yet but I’m working on it.

I also live with a female Jika volunteer (Japan’s version of the Peace Corps). Minako just turned 40 and she is super nice. I really like spending time with her. It is also nice not to be the only one who doesn’t fully speak Spanish or doesn’t know exactly what’s going on all of the time.

I have a nice little room with four big windows, two of which look out over the little river in my town which runs next to my house. I am also going to have a separate little kitchen. Right now it is just a room with a wood-burning stove in it. There are no outlets in the room so I am going to have to figure something out for my electric stove-top and toaster oven. I still share a bathroom with the family, but THERE IS ELECTRICITY/LIGHT IN THERE! Also THERE IS ALMOST ALWAYS HOT WATER FOR SHOWERS. Posh Corps (not actually but it is a huge step up)! Pictures of the house and room to come. 

Genesis / Crystal

Minako is on the left