Site Visit!

Through winding roads on crowded chicken buses and VIP rides in the mayor’s 4WD truck, I have survived my site visit! I have to honestly say that I’m incredibly pumped to live in my new town and despite some minor setbacks; I’ve got a very positive vibe. Last Monday was counterpart day which consisted of a sort of blind date kind of feel to it. We all had name tags and had to walk around trying to find someone who also had my town’s name on it. I was running a little late but found my counterparts ( a guy and a girl) who will be working with me in the Oficina Municipal de la Mujer (the women’s office, OMM). They are both young and informed me that most of the people at the office are also young. My counterpart is awesome, she’s super cute, energetic and incredibly friendly – seems like the perfect type of work setting for me! After enduring lots of PC presentations and tons of delicious coffee and breads the day was over and I prepared to pack all of my stuff into my suitcases to haul to site.

Tuesday morning we were able to mooch a ride off of another volunteer so that we only had to take a camioneta (chicken bus) for a short amount of time. We arrived in Quiche around three which is our big city. It’s got a bunch of stores, a big market, lots of Pacas (woohoo thrift stores!) and a pretty large central park. We were getting a ride from the muni so we had to wait a little bit until the truck got out of the shop and the driver ran some errands. In true Guatemalan fashion, we ended up waiting for four hours! Haha so we just hung out at the bus terminal with all of my luggage until about eight at night. We ended up getting into town around ten thirty. So this brings me to the “adventurous” part of my journey: THE ROAD! So PC warned me that it was a bumpy road and wasn’t paved so I was prepared but whoa! I wish I had pictures but basically it’s two hours of crazy bumps and winding turns. You know this motion simulator rides where the seats move and you’re in a movie theater? Yea that’s my ride. All you can really do is laugh at the fact that you have to endure such bumpiness just to get home (you must have a sense of humor to do PC…pretty much mandatory!) When it’s rainy season…I’m not leaving my town, I don’t see how it’s possible! So if there’s anyone out there that’s reading this who knows someone who would love to donate a paved road to my amazing town…hit me up. I know there’s some engineering firm out there that would love to put that on their resume  we would be forever grateful!

When I arrived late I decided to stay with one of my host family options. We got there and come to find out…they don’t have a bed! Thank God for my sitemate!! Susan you are the bestest. I called her up and she had an extra bed for me to sleep on and I just stayed there for the days that I was in site. I was also excited to find out that my sitemate is super busy with work, goes running, and loves to listen to music. Perfect match! I was so worried that my sitemate would be weird, or we wouldn’t get along, but we’re totally gonna rock our town!

After an awesome breakfast, I met some people at the muni including my mayor and then went to the salon to see the Mayan Princess contestants. Our muni is having a Mayan Princess pageant to select who will be the Mayan Princess for our feria (town celebration) which is in December. I thought it was awesome that we’re putting this together because these young girls don’t usually have a chance to do public speaking or anything like that so it teaches them how to present themselves and gain some confidence. After that in the afternoon we went on a house hunt. I’m pretty bummed about my housing situation actually. I love my family in San Antonio, they are amazing; so it was really important for me to have an equally inviting and loving family in my new site. That’s not gonna happen. I’m renting a room from a family (no hot water) and it will basically be a tenant type of situation. The old volunteer who lived their previously did not have a good experience and advised for me to just go ahead and find my own housing asap. So that’s what I’ll do and because my muni is so awesome they’ll be my family to welcome me to town. Which is fine, you can’t have it all! The best part of the trip was that my counterpart organized a welcome dinner for me! The muni bought awesome roasted chicken, beans, salsa, cream, etc at the warm pilas where they are also building a pool (supposedly they will be ready be Christmas…I doubt it will be done by then, but it’s all good).

There’s more to write about but I’m running out of time!! So more to come about the rest of the week! I don’t have my computer so I can’t share my pics but as soon as I can I will share!!