The other day I found out that my host padre spent approximately five years in the US to work and send money home to his family. First, I’d like to point out an interesting statistic that I learned during PST, approximately 50% of Guatemala’s GDP is made up of remittances (money that people send back home from the States). Can you believe that! They actually depended on this income as part of their budgeting! So you can only imagine what happened here in Guate when the US economy collapsed. I hope I can continue learning more about economic development while I’m here, I find it fascinating. Anyway, back to the point. So he was in the US for five years and while he was telling me this I felt a mixture of emotions ranging from feeling guilty to feeling in awe. In his first area that he lived he worked full time at a fast food restaurant and then as a cleaner in a hotel chain. Then when he moved cities he worked at another fast food place and as a janitor at a school after hours. Then he worked at another fast food chain restaurant and said that oftentimes he had to sleep in his car in the parking lot because he didn’t get off until 2am and then had to open up the store at 5am. They also made him dress up as a corndog in order to promote a special that the fast food place was advertising.
It made me think a lot about immigration in the United States, it made the topic hit home. I’ve only seen immigration from one side more or less. My mother’s half of the family are all immigrants and came to the States legally but we’ve definitely had friends and family members who didn’t come legally at first and have had to work around the system to finally become citizens. But I’ve never been exposed to someone who is working in the States with family back home, not personally at least. My host padre wanted to be home and would have much rather preferred to make his living in his own country but people here make $2 a day! TWO DOLLARS A DAY! Can you blame someone for thinking well shit, I can make at least $50 a day in the US and send that home so that my family can finally have the house we’ve always wanted, the kids can go to a good school, etc. I guess I’m posting this because I want to share this experience and maybe it too will make you think about the different situations and difficult circumstances immigrants in the US have to go through and what pushes them to come to the US at any cost. Before judging or discriminating against illegals or “lazy Mexicans”, perhaps people should think twice about what incredible sacrifices these immigrants ares making in order to help their families at home (two jobs, sleeping in cars, doing work that would otherwise be humiliating if they were doing it back in their homes). Whether someone is legally or illegally in the US, he or she is still a human being that deserves the same amount of respect you would give to any other US citizen. Can you really blame a man for trying to provide for his wife and kids? Really?
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
First week of training
This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions, learning experiences, and culture shocks. For some reason this weekend really hit me in terms of fully realizing what this Peace Corps experience will entail. I am not at summer camp! During pre PST training we were all located in the same town and were able to share ideas, thoughts and jokes every day, but then when we were dropped off at our individual houses for pre-service training (PST) I was alone. I hate being alone. Luckily, thank God, there are children at my new host family’s home and I was quickly able to play games with them instead of just reading or staying in my room. But I couldn’t help but think, okay, when can I talk to someone my own age, or when is dinner, or when will the time pass so that the weekend can end! I instantly started thinking of home, what my family and friends were doing, it was intense for me. When my new host family started asking me about home I kept tearing up and I’m sure they could tell that I was clearly home sick, they even bought me some corn candy that reminded me of fruit loops to cheer me up. That was Saturday, and even know when I start reminiscing about home or how hard it was to say goodbye (I tend to get these flashbacks of the exact moment of saying goodbye to various people and I instantly start to cry). But, of course, as time went on I’ve become more and more adjusted. We went to a family lunch on Sunday and it was nice to sit around with everyone and talk. Although I was super paranoid of getting sick from the food (PC has drilled in our heads how basically EVERYTHING must be sanitized or else we’ll get a horrible case of diarrhea so I kept thinking oh man, I bet that wasn’t sanitized, like a good ol’ paranoid American haha). At first I felt a little awkward just sitting in on people’s conversations and tended to stick with playing with the little kids, but then at lunch at sat at the “men’s table” and they were talking about starting businesses (my cup of tea!). I didn’t contribute to the convo b/c I wasn’t sure if it was kosher to speak when I wasn’t spoken to or whatever but my host padre brought up two interesting points:
1. A business cannot survive without the support of the wife, two heads are better than one and a married couple has to work together in order to support each other and their business, businesses that have both people working together will be sure to do better than the others
2. A husband must share his finances with his wife and they have to work together to achieve financial stability and transparency or else what’s the point of being married
Now this seems like sound advice, but I was taken aback and proud of my host padre for saying these things because I know that the Latino culture can be very machista and I saw these attitudes as pretty progressive, hell there are couples in the States that don’t do this. I also found out that my host padre cooks and cleans, which typically is a “oh hell no” for most men.
This all brings me to my last point for the blog post: the importance of family. I love how close families are here and it has really made me think and become excited about raising a family of my own someday. I love how at dinner time we all come together and talk about our days and laugh and none of the kids are whiney brats, they all genuinely love and respect their parents and enjoy being together. It’s amazing! Also, my host madre works a full time job in addition to teaching Mayan spiritual classes and the husband also works full time and actually spent 5 years in the States (more on that later). So each mother and father is also able to live their lives will still being able to come together with love. That’s what I want in life….really and truly.
1. A business cannot survive without the support of the wife, two heads are better than one and a married couple has to work together in order to support each other and their business, businesses that have both people working together will be sure to do better than the others
2. A husband must share his finances with his wife and they have to work together to achieve financial stability and transparency or else what’s the point of being married
Now this seems like sound advice, but I was taken aback and proud of my host padre for saying these things because I know that the Latino culture can be very machista and I saw these attitudes as pretty progressive, hell there are couples in the States that don’t do this. I also found out that my host padre cooks and cleans, which typically is a “oh hell no” for most men.
This all brings me to my last point for the blog post: the importance of family. I love how close families are here and it has really made me think and become excited about raising a family of my own someday. I love how at dinner time we all come together and talk about our days and laugh and none of the kids are whiney brats, they all genuinely love and respect their parents and enjoy being together. It’s amazing! Also, my host madre works a full time job in addition to teaching Mayan spiritual classes and the husband also works full time and actually spent 5 years in the States (more on that later). So each mother and father is also able to live their lives will still being able to come together with love. That’s what I want in life….really and truly.
Life as a Peace Corps Trainee in Guate!
So even though this seems commonplace to me, I figure most people are wondering what a typical day in the life of a Peace Corps trainee is like. Thus, this blog entry’s main purpose is to describe the details of what Pre-Service Training (PST) is like in Guate and what my living conditions currently are.
After the first three days, we were introduced to our new home during PST (for security reasons, I cannot say the location and for any family or friends that post a comment, please do not disclose this info). My new home is made of concrete and has a tin roof. Upon entering there is an open outdoor +process takes forever because it’s always raining!). There’s a little patio and on one side is the kitchen and on the other side is my room! I’ve got a good size room probably ten by twelve with a bed, table, shelves for clothes storage and another shelf for shoes and toiletries. There are two other bedrooms and then a couple of steps to go into a common room where the computer and toys are and then to the left is the master bedroom where my host padres and the two little ones sleep. The tv is in the master bedroom and sometimes we are all in there together watching whatever random movie is on, or if I’m with the little ones we watch “oso agente especial”, “los imaginadores”, “Olivia” or whatever else is on Disney kids network. I really wish little Luis were with me, he would have such a blast playing with all of us! As for the bathroom situation, there are two: one in the outdoor area and the other inside. The one inside has a bath with…wait for it…hot water! It can get pretty freakin hot too so that’s oh so nice. Also, as in any developing country, toilet paper goes into the trash not the toilet.
My family consists of a madre and a padre, three hermanos and one hermanita who is super precious. Ages range from 16 to 5 and basically the five year old boy and the 8 year old girl are my bffs. Every day when I get home from classes or on the weekend we’re playing cards, jump rope, hide and seek or whatever else we can come up with. If anyone has any thoughts on sweet kids games let me know, I have a feeling that the same games are going to get old after a while (especially hide and seek! There are only so many places a five five girl can hide haha or wait, I’m in Guate now so jaja). The family is awesome and I’m in love with the way we can all gather around the dinner table to talk about our days and also laugh at each other or crack jokes. The padre works with construction and specializes with iron and the madre is a medical assistant and also works as a natural healer after work on certain days of the week. I am so amazed by the madre as she does a lot at home and in terms of work, I’ve never heard her raise her voice to her kids (they are incredibly well behaved!) and she’s just got it going on, super fuerte. Momma I wish you were here so you could meet her!
The weather here is like Seattle in the winter I’m told (in my pueblo I’m the only volunteer that’s an east coaster). So slightly cold but nothing out of this world (a sweater with some layers and a rain jacket is sufficient) and it always rains. Apparently there’s a tropical storm going on right now so it’s raining more than usual, but you should always carry a rain jacket with you because it can be sunny in the morning and then rain buckets a couple hours later. The sun sets around six thirty and we have to be in our casas by sunset. HUGE no no to be out after dark, which makes sense, I don’t think I’d want to be out after dark anyway (unless it’s clubbing in Antigua which we’re not allowed to do anyway so it’s all good). I tend to go to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 and get up at 6:30 unless its training day (Tuesdays) and I get up at 5:30. What’s crazy is that it’s not a big deal waking up, I feel like in the States it was torture to wake up at 7:45, but here I’m chillin. It’s awesome when it rains a little at night because the rain on the tin roof is incredibly soothing (reminds me of HPS!) and that also means that dogs don’t bark non-stop! When it’s a festival day or weekend, these fireworks go off at all hours of the night to celebrate which is what happened the first weekend I arrived and scared the living daylights out of me because it sounds like a bomb going off. Also, Sundays at 5 am you can hear the church ceremony. Apparently they think it’s a good idea to let everyone know that mass is going on and instead of just keeping the sermon inside the church, it’s on super loud speaker phone so the whole community can hear it. It reminds me of the call to prayer in Tanzania, eventually I won’t even hear it. I also thought the bed was super rock hard but I’ve gotten used to it and it doesn’t bother me. My pillow is also slightly hard, you could feel every oversized cotton ball, but I’ve also gotten used to that.
So what the heck do I do all day? Basically, Monday through Saturday I have Spanish classes either from 8-12 or 8-3 with a one hour break for lunch. After Spanish we either have tech training (which is where we learn about municipal development, what that entails, and tools we will need to do our job). Tuesdays are training days where we have to go to the main Peace Corps office and learn about health issues (thus far, focus is how to avoid diarrhea and what to do when it strikes…which will happen inevitably at some point). We also discuss culture and the core expectations of Peace Corps and what it means to be a volunteer, PC’s view on international development which focuses on capacity building, and more info about Guatemala! PC believes in capacity building which I think is right on, we’re helping people help themselves instead of just coming in, “fixing” a problem, and then high-tailing it outta there. Every idea has to be from the community and our primary role is to serve as a facilitator in the process and sort of as a trainer in the experiential learning process that goes on in a community. Guatemala is very used to receiving gifts for free and so instead of earning something, they’ve just received free improved wood stoves, free new houses, etc and this doesn’t help them in the long run. That’s one reason why we’re not allowed to receive big donations from someone in the US for a specific project we’re working on because the idea is for them to connect with resources themselves instead of a gringo coming in and magically a bunch of money appears. Eventually, when Peace Corps leaves, the population needs to have the tools, resources, knowledge and training to develop on their own. Anyway, Tuesdays are long days, but it’s good because we get to see our entire class. We were separated into various communities based on our Spanish level. Thus, I only have three other people in my pueblo and only get to see everyone else on Tuesdays.
So this post is INCREDIBLY long now, but I hope this helps answer some questions that you may have about what it is that I’m doing. I miss home incredibly but I know this is where I’m supposed to be so for all friends and family just know that I’m going to go through some incredible highs but also some incredible lows and when I hit a really low point, the best thing to say is “it will all get better soon, hang in there, call me if anything” PLEASE don’t talk to me about “oh well you can always come home”…that’s not an option I want to pursue because this is going to be an amazing experience!!!
Anyway, lots of love to all and hope to post more soon!
After the first three days, we were introduced to our new home during PST (for security reasons, I cannot say the location and for any family or friends that post a comment, please do not disclose this info). My new home is made of concrete and has a tin roof. Upon entering there is an open outdoor +process takes forever because it’s always raining!). There’s a little patio and on one side is the kitchen and on the other side is my room! I’ve got a good size room probably ten by twelve with a bed, table, shelves for clothes storage and another shelf for shoes and toiletries. There are two other bedrooms and then a couple of steps to go into a common room where the computer and toys are and then to the left is the master bedroom where my host padres and the two little ones sleep. The tv is in the master bedroom and sometimes we are all in there together watching whatever random movie is on, or if I’m with the little ones we watch “oso agente especial”, “los imaginadores”, “Olivia” or whatever else is on Disney kids network. I really wish little Luis were with me, he would have such a blast playing with all of us! As for the bathroom situation, there are two: one in the outdoor area and the other inside. The one inside has a bath with…wait for it…hot water! It can get pretty freakin hot too so that’s oh so nice. Also, as in any developing country, toilet paper goes into the trash not the toilet.
My family consists of a madre and a padre, three hermanos and one hermanita who is super precious. Ages range from 16 to 5 and basically the five year old boy and the 8 year old girl are my bffs. Every day when I get home from classes or on the weekend we’re playing cards, jump rope, hide and seek or whatever else we can come up with. If anyone has any thoughts on sweet kids games let me know, I have a feeling that the same games are going to get old after a while (especially hide and seek! There are only so many places a five five girl can hide haha or wait, I’m in Guate now so jaja). The family is awesome and I’m in love with the way we can all gather around the dinner table to talk about our days and also laugh at each other or crack jokes. The padre works with construction and specializes with iron and the madre is a medical assistant and also works as a natural healer after work on certain days of the week. I am so amazed by the madre as she does a lot at home and in terms of work, I’ve never heard her raise her voice to her kids (they are incredibly well behaved!) and she’s just got it going on, super fuerte. Momma I wish you were here so you could meet her!
The weather here is like Seattle in the winter I’m told (in my pueblo I’m the only volunteer that’s an east coaster). So slightly cold but nothing out of this world (a sweater with some layers and a rain jacket is sufficient) and it always rains. Apparently there’s a tropical storm going on right now so it’s raining more than usual, but you should always carry a rain jacket with you because it can be sunny in the morning and then rain buckets a couple hours later. The sun sets around six thirty and we have to be in our casas by sunset. HUGE no no to be out after dark, which makes sense, I don’t think I’d want to be out after dark anyway (unless it’s clubbing in Antigua which we’re not allowed to do anyway so it’s all good). I tend to go to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 and get up at 6:30 unless its training day (Tuesdays) and I get up at 5:30. What’s crazy is that it’s not a big deal waking up, I feel like in the States it was torture to wake up at 7:45, but here I’m chillin. It’s awesome when it rains a little at night because the rain on the tin roof is incredibly soothing (reminds me of HPS!) and that also means that dogs don’t bark non-stop! When it’s a festival day or weekend, these fireworks go off at all hours of the night to celebrate which is what happened the first weekend I arrived and scared the living daylights out of me because it sounds like a bomb going off. Also, Sundays at 5 am you can hear the church ceremony. Apparently they think it’s a good idea to let everyone know that mass is going on and instead of just keeping the sermon inside the church, it’s on super loud speaker phone so the whole community can hear it. It reminds me of the call to prayer in Tanzania, eventually I won’t even hear it. I also thought the bed was super rock hard but I’ve gotten used to it and it doesn’t bother me. My pillow is also slightly hard, you could feel every oversized cotton ball, but I’ve also gotten used to that.
So what the heck do I do all day? Basically, Monday through Saturday I have Spanish classes either from 8-12 or 8-3 with a one hour break for lunch. After Spanish we either have tech training (which is where we learn about municipal development, what that entails, and tools we will need to do our job). Tuesdays are training days where we have to go to the main Peace Corps office and learn about health issues (thus far, focus is how to avoid diarrhea and what to do when it strikes…which will happen inevitably at some point). We also discuss culture and the core expectations of Peace Corps and what it means to be a volunteer, PC’s view on international development which focuses on capacity building, and more info about Guatemala! PC believes in capacity building which I think is right on, we’re helping people help themselves instead of just coming in, “fixing” a problem, and then high-tailing it outta there. Every idea has to be from the community and our primary role is to serve as a facilitator in the process and sort of as a trainer in the experiential learning process that goes on in a community. Guatemala is very used to receiving gifts for free and so instead of earning something, they’ve just received free improved wood stoves, free new houses, etc and this doesn’t help them in the long run. That’s one reason why we’re not allowed to receive big donations from someone in the US for a specific project we’re working on because the idea is for them to connect with resources themselves instead of a gringo coming in and magically a bunch of money appears. Eventually, when Peace Corps leaves, the population needs to have the tools, resources, knowledge and training to develop on their own. Anyway, Tuesdays are long days, but it’s good because we get to see our entire class. We were separated into various communities based on our Spanish level. Thus, I only have three other people in my pueblo and only get to see everyone else on Tuesdays.
So this post is INCREDIBLY long now, but I hope this helps answer some questions that you may have about what it is that I’m doing. I miss home incredibly but I know this is where I’m supposed to be so for all friends and family just know that I’m going to go through some incredible highs but also some incredible lows and when I hit a really low point, the best thing to say is “it will all get better soon, hang in there, call me if anything” PLEASE don’t talk to me about “oh well you can always come home”…that’s not an option I want to pursue because this is going to be an amazing experience!!!
Anyway, lots of love to all and hope to post more soon!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
First email home!!
Hello everyone!!! I'm sorry for this mass email but I've literally got ten minutes so I just wanted to let you know that all is going great and I love it here! When we arrived we went straight to the Peace Corps office in Santa Lucia. We've got a sweet view of some volcanos and the office is very pretty with lots of natural plants. We've gone through a bunch of safety and training sessions, the biggest challenge for PC Guate is security so they told us that the only time we're allowed to be "elevada" (absent minded) is when we're in our house with all the doors locked. But for all the hype about Guatemala City airport, it was totally fine, nothing scary at all...to be perfectly honest the airport and subway system of NYC scares me more haha.
So yea we stayed with a host family for three days and they were great! So much love! I know there are a lot of things that Guatemala doesn't have when compared to the US but let me tell you there's a whole lot of love here, everyone is so incredibly welcoming and friendly it's amazing. The first night my family asked me if I wanted to go to a bachelorette party! haha granted it's incredibly different here. We arrived at their friends house around 8 and it was a mix of guys and girls and we just played really cute silly games and absolutely no one drank, there wasn't even alcohol offered and everyone was having a blast. I was quite relieved by that b/c I was a little nervous about people drinking b/c I've heard so much about domestic violence and all that jazz but my family is pretty religious so it's a great home. Anyway, at the end of the party the man proposed to his wife and they were both crying and I almost started to cry it was so beautiful! Simple things in life! (I also burned my thumb on a match...Dad you gotta get these people onto some bic ligheters! We had to burn matches and give advice to the newly engaged couple...seeing how I've never been married I just stuck with the "loveis a beautiful thing" theme)
I went to church last night with my family...quite an interesting experience. It reminded me of those black churches where everyone is shouting and praising mid speech or prayer with lots of standing up and well I guess it's just a very active congregation. Despite the intresting cultural experience, the sermon spoke about love and also not to judge others because we're all guilty of something in our lives and then forgiveness.
What else, we demolished a barney pinata y esterday, pretty awesome seeing people beath the crap outta the big purple dinasoar
Today I get to go to my new host family's house in San Antonio Aguas Calientes (apparently the Aguas Caliente - hot water - is a misnomer b/c there is no hot water there haha). It's supposed to be an indigineous town about ten minutes from Antigua by bus. So curious! I hope there as awesome as my first host family. When I left this morning the kids had made me a bracelet and a little bag with my name on it (Carolina here) and a note that said "te queremos mucho". It brought tears to my eyes (haha once again I'm such a softy). I'm so blessed and happy to be here...it's going to be really rough after training is over and I'm sure I'll be really lonely but for now, I'm loving it! I know I'm where I'm supposed to be :)
I probably won't have internet access til Tuesday, if that, but know that I'm doing well!! If you don't hear from me it's not because I don't miss you dearly, it's just hard to get interenet and there a million things that need to be done!
So yea we stayed with a host family for three days and they were great! So much love! I know there are a lot of things that Guatemala doesn't have when compared to the US but let me tell you there's a whole lot of love here, everyone is so incredibly welcoming and friendly it's amazing. The first night my family asked me if I wanted to go to a bachelorette party! haha granted it's incredibly different here. We arrived at their friends house around 8 and it was a mix of guys and girls and we just played really cute silly games and absolutely no one drank, there wasn't even alcohol offered and everyone was having a blast. I was quite relieved by that b/c I was a little nervous about people drinking b/c I've heard so much about domestic violence and all that jazz but my family is pretty religious so it's a great home. Anyway, at the end of the party the man proposed to his wife and they were both crying and I almost started to cry it was so beautiful! Simple things in life! (I also burned my thumb on a match...Dad you gotta get these people onto some bic ligheters! We had to burn matches and give advice to the newly engaged couple...seeing how I've never been married I just stuck with the "loveis a beautiful thing" theme)
I went to church last night with my family...quite an interesting experience. It reminded me of those black churches where everyone is shouting and praising mid speech or prayer with lots of standing up and well I guess it's just a very active congregation. Despite the intresting cultural experience, the sermon spoke about love and also not to judge others because we're all guilty of something in our lives and then forgiveness.
What else, we demolished a barney pinata y esterday, pretty awesome seeing people beath the crap outta the big purple dinasoar
Today I get to go to my new host family's house in San Antonio Aguas Calientes (apparently the Aguas Caliente - hot water - is a misnomer b/c there is no hot water there haha). It's supposed to be an indigineous town about ten minutes from Antigua by bus. So curious! I hope there as awesome as my first host family. When I left this morning the kids had made me a bracelet and a little bag with my name on it (Carolina here) and a note that said "te queremos mucho". It brought tears to my eyes (haha once again I'm such a softy). I'm so blessed and happy to be here...it's going to be really rough after training is over and I'm sure I'll be really lonely but for now, I'm loving it! I know I'm where I'm supposed to be :)
I probably won't have internet access til Tuesday, if that, but know that I'm doing well!! If you don't hear from me it's not because I don't miss you dearly, it's just hard to get interenet and there a million things that need to be done!
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