Field Based Training moments

I thought I would share some stories that stick in my mind that happened during our Field Based Training (FBT) experience in Chiqimula (aka chiki chiki muulah!)
During one of the days we were going to experience our very first municipal community meetings. As one can assume with any governmental meeting, especially in Guatemala, we figured it would start late and go over schedule. Thus, we were prepared for the obvious (it started about an hour late and went two hours past schedule). It also is important to emphasize that the eastern part of Guatemala is what most American’s typically think of Central American weather: hot as hell. It was certainly hot as hell and we were certainly in a gym like room with very little ventilation and about one fan for a room full of about fifty to sixty people in it. I’m not even sure why they teased us with that fan. Anyway, the first presenter decides to take about forty five minutes to go into excruciating detail about the financial situation of the municipality and how the national government budget distributes funds to the municipality. This is not to say that the information she presented was not worth understanding, but the delivery of it needed some critiquing and it definitely didn’t help that she was sucking face with the microphone. Needless to say, by around noon, we were all dripping in sweat, totally zoned out, and unsuccessfully fanning ourselves with our agendas. Once lunchtime came around I was very excited for some sort of distraction to not only keep myself awake but to satisfy my incredibly hungry stomach. As I anxiously await my lunch I notice that they are distributing bowls to people. “Hmm, perhaps it’s a deliciously refreshing salad,” I think to myself. As the bowl is handed to me I look down and what else do I find but piping hot soup! Really!? It’s like a hundred degrees in this gym and you give me soup!? Is this a sick joke? I was incredibly hungry and said a little thank you for having the privilege of having a hot meal and thanking the municipality for paying for the meal (hot or not, you gotta respect every meal, especially a free meal). So that was my incredibly ironic lunch. Also about three people got incredibly sick from the soup…including our Guatemalan Spanish teacher.
Another meal related funny story deals with our absolutely delicious and friendly pizza store owners. Their pizza was awesome (actually understood that pizza equals a shit ton of cheese!) and we literally ate there every night. This particular night was two calzones for 30Q (a little over three dollars, which I split so basically a solid calzone for $1.50…but understand that my eating allowance is under $8 USD a day). As I’m happily biting into this savory piece of cheese heaven, I come to find a sweet flavor among the mushrooms and green peppers. “What in the world? Wait, why is my cheese pink?” I find a half of a maraschino cherry, like the type you find in a Shirley Temple. “Maybe they thought it was a tomato,” I thought to myself. I mean this place seemed to know how to make a pizza so clearly it must have been a mistake. In my entire calzone I find about 8 cherries. I meant to tell them that they should probably 86 (or is it 68? I’ve forgotten my restaurant lingo) the cherries next time. To top it off, a fellow trainee decided to add a couple cherries, chili, and picamas hot sauce onto his supreme calzone for kicks. Gag.
One of the afternoons we were supposed to make over a playground at a local orphanage with a fresh coat of paint. The first sad part is that I got assigned the light blue group (eww Carolina blue!) but unfortunately, Guatemala’s flag is Carolina blue so it’s everybody’s favorite color. Anyway, first step was to sand the paint down which was a completely futile effort so I’m walking around pretending to be productive until we bust out with the paint. Afterwards, we start getting some work done and this poor little kid who was standing underneath a bar we were painting got a huge splash of blue paint on his forehead. You probably had to be there to find the humor but the look on this kid’s face was priceless and he was like “Oh no my mom is going to yell at me!” but then two seconds later he comes back all cleaned up. I was pretty surprised because it was oil based paint sooo he may have gotten doused with some gasoline on his forehead! Then it started to rain big time so we all got to go underneath this metal roof and play a bunch of school kid’s games. I learned a great new way to play “rock, paper, scissors” which is called Pikachu. There’s a hilarious video of the boys doing it which I’ll try to post. Then there was another game called “conejo” which I’m pretty sure involved kissing someone or something so I made sure to steer clear of that one…kinda awkward. But it was great fun and given that I was wearing bright pink capris and my bright green I love Durham shirt (thanks Lizzie) I totally fit right in as a fellow 10 year old!
The 24-7 store (or 7-24 store) that decided to sell us a pepsi for 6Q even though straight on the bottle it said the price was 5Q. And then the next day they told us it was actually 7Q…damn gringo tax. This 24/7 was also open past 3am but for some reason it was closed during the useful hours of breakfast time. We think it’s secretly a narco hot spot because they never had anything in stock and clearly just wanted to overcharge for the few pepsis that they kept in the fridge!
There are also some great pictures and inside jokes that developed as well! In sum, field based training is tons of fun because you get to know everyone a little better and you actually have the freedom to hang out with people past dark (what a concept!).