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!).

What Guate can teach the US about Independence Day Partying

Guatemala’s Independence Day was September 15th and let me tell you it was a blast! I woke up in the morning super pumped because in addition to Independence Day, my family was celebrating two of my host brother’s birthdays (6 and 16) so we were cooking a huge lunch, breaking a piñata, and eating cake! During the morning there’s a big parade of all the school children in different kinds of costumes. Before heading out the door my host mom asks if I’d like to put on some indigenous clothing. I clearly say yes! It’s pretty thick clothing that consists of a skirt which is called a “corte” and is a long rectangle that you have to fold in a certain way to make it into a skirt (not in an intuitive way mind you because when I tried to do it I ended up with a huge slit which is definitely not supposed to happen!) then the skirt is accompanied by a huipil which is also a square type of shape with slits for your arms and heads. The huipil is made by hand usually and is usually quite intricate. Then to tie it all together you have a belt the word is faja but I forget) which is also weaved and pretty cool. I think that the way all these different patterns and designs match is there is a predominant color; my color was pink  So we watch the parade which is cute but I liked the bands the best with their drumline beats and dance moves! Afterwards the eating and drinking festivities start with my family! We had a delicious meal called estofado which is a mixture of slow cooked beef and chicken in a tomato sauce accompanied with rice and a side of green beans and carrots. Absolutely delicious (and it takes two days to make!). So I bought a couple of gifts for the kids and a gift for the adults (bottle of Bacardi) which my family certainly appreciated and thought was cute.
Towards the afternoon the municipality planned a variety of activities ranging from a 15k to grease pole climbing. For a while I had told myself that I wanted to run this 15k because I have never in my life run that far and I thought it would be a great personal challenge. But after I realized my family was throwing a part and that the 15k was later in the afternoon, I figured that it probably wasn’t going to happen. Around 2:30 one of my sitemates decided he was definitely going to do it. So I couldn’t just leave him hanging, especially since I was the one that had been all pumped about doing it in the first place. So I have one more dance and my family feeds me another rum and coke (they said it would be my “gasolina”), and quickly change to run the 15k. I’m incredibly full and a bit tipsy but the adrenaline is pumping! For all of you PCVs, PCTs or future volunteers, if your town hosts a race DO IT! Running in the 15k was the best thing I’ve done so far in training. The first couple miles I was totally praying that I wasn’t going to vomit on the side of the street somewhere (can you imagine the gossip! A gringa throwing up on the street during Independence Day!!). The entire town is outside clapping and cheering which makes it even better because you kind of feel like a super star and you’re not going to just slow down when everybody is watching! I do have to admit that I did stop to walk for about ten minutes when going up a pretty long gruesome hill, but other than that it was a nice slow passed jog the whole way! It was such a high and I had a blast! Towards the end of the race I notice there’s a girl in front of me and I got a bit competitive and stepped it up so I ended up being the first girl to cross the finish line! (I have to disclose though that there were only three girls total that ran including me though). Anyway, with all that drink in my stomach, after catching my breath, I ran to the bathroom after! Supposedly, according to local gossip, I was supposed to win a trophy but the next day when I found out I of course received a “fijese que…” excuse that the treasurer was not in the office and that the race was actually just supposed to be men and they didn’t have any prizes for women. Who knows what the truth is and it’s not a big deal at all because nothing beats a huge crowd of people cheering for you and they even said our names on the loud speaker as the Cuerpo de Paz volunteers! Now the whole town is like oh aren’t you the girl that ran that race!? It’s great! Later that evening I just chilled with my family and ate even more food. I also watched people on horses try to use plastic straws to catch these tiny rings hanging on a string; pretty entertaining, especially since one guy’s horse would literally walk past the rings and the dude still couldn’t get a ring (he reminded me of Sancho Panza, Don Quijote’s side kick). I unfortunately missed the people trying to climb up the greasy pole that was incredibly tall, but I heard it was hilarious. In summary, it was an awesome day and the US should really step its game up because bbq and fireworks ain’t got ish on what we did in Guate!

some random pictures

The Stress of Not Knowing Your Site!

Last week we returned from Field Based Training. Essentially, this is a time where Peace Corps Trainees get to venture out into the country as a group to visit other Volunteers who work in the same field. It's absolutely amazing to see a "real" PCV in their "native" habitat :) For me it was a mixture of highs and lows as most Peace Corps experiences seem to be. Right now, our group is in the torturous stages of being so close to knowing where we're going to live for the next two years but also still having to wait a significant amount of time. It's like when you're waiting for acceptance letters from college! I don't have a specific site in mind that I want to live in necessarily, the largest part is making sure I'm set up with a municipality that has some structure and will be supportive as well as that I live with a family for the first three months that is very open, accepting, loving and can make me feel at home more or less. That's really what's stressing me out, I can live in the east, west, north, hot, cold, I don't care that much it's just those two factors that keep me up at night. Because I'm working in municipal development and elections are coming up it's going to be a challenging time for us municipal volunteers. Parties are going to want us to campaign with us and we are prohibited from being involved in such things (thank goodness!) that could also potentially mean that funding is tied up to election related activities to beef up votes. Also, with the second year it will be challenging if the administration does change because oftentimes that entails a completely new staff and new priorities. Thus, we'll be starting from zero essentially. It's going to fascinating and challenging at the same time but one thing that I have to ensure is that I continue to motivate myself and take initiative. In a couple months, the summer camp that is training is going to end and I'm going to have to once again deal with the politics of works...except even more so because it will literally be in a political environment, in another culture, and another language.

The Peace Corps volunteers offered some valuable advice that I want to post for other trainees, volunteers or people interested in Peace Corps.

One: TAKE INITIATIVE! In training we learn a lot about capacity building and ensuring that host country nationals take the initiative, but one volunteer who I consider to have had a successful service says that many volunteers misinterpret this information and end up sitting in an office for two years and find that they have little to nothing to show for their close of service report. You always want to involve HCN but that doesn't mean you can't get things started!

Two: YOU MAKE YOUR SITE! It's all about attitude, outlook, setting goals, remaining flexible and keeping a sense of humor. I think that's going to be some what of a mantra for me

Three: WORK WITH YOUTH! I'm learning this in training, but kids are amazing. They always want to play, interact, learn, and even though this can be overwhelming at times when you just want to be alone, it is also a blessing and a great way to combat loneliness. If we can start educating youngsters...we may be able to galvanize some sort of change

Four: MAKE SURE YOUR FIRST SECONDARY PROJECT WILL BE SUCCESSFUL! This I found interesting, if the first project you plan is a total failure at first, you may have a pretty hard time building up trust if you've wasted a bunch of people's times. Be realistic about timelines, what can be accomplished and what it takes to get there.

Five: DO WHAT KEEPS YOU SANE! There will be a lot of sacrificing of self while in a more conservative country, but you have to find some outlets that help keep you sane. If that means you need to buy a tv...buy it! If that means you need to visit other volunteers nearby once a month...do it! The mental challenges are more difficult than the physical challenges of bucket baths, cold water, or non stop rain (or drought) so sometimes you're going to have to treat yourself!) but I'm also fascinated by the culture in the West. Kinda leaving it up to fate so that I keep an open mind because I know that it's up to me to make sure I have a good experience here!

Well, that's all for now I suppose, at some point I'll post some pictures to make things less boring haha

Mayan Ceremonies

This past weekend I had the opportunity to experience two Mayan ceremonies. The first was a “surprise” planned by my host family on Friday night and the second was one planned by the Peace Corps office. I’m not sure if I’ve explained this previously, but I live with a spiritual guide (the mother) and so three times a week she does natural/spiritual healing for people and then on specific occasions she puts together ceremonies (sometimes people ask for them specifically or she personally puts them together during the day of her nahual). I personally love that I get to learn about an aspect of Mayan culture that many people are not exposed to and even though many find these beliefs to be superstitious or unrealistic, I think it’s absolutely fascinating.
So Friday night, a group of about five people get together for the ceremony. My host madre carefully gathers and prepares all of her materials. First she creates a design with sugar on the ground. Then one by one she places small pieces of incense that look like rocks. At first they are placed on top of the sugar but after she finishes that pattern she continues to fill the circle with the incenses. On top of that there is a large assortment of different colored candles and other types of incense. Each color of candle represents something different. I can’t recall what each color represents but it just emphasizes how every step has a purpose, an order, and a specific meaning…nothing is just randomly placed. Everything is blessed before being placed into the pile and the candles are set on fire after everything is set up. Prayers are said in both Spanish and Katchikel (the indigenous language in this region). The fire continues to grow and the group becomes entranced with the flames and prayer. This part is truly captivating and I wish I could get it on film; it’s almost surreal to watch the fire and hear an unknown language. As the flames rise up, everyone cannot help but notice that the fire and smoke are always coming towards me. People comment and in my head I’m thinking, “I could be totally screwed or lucky depending on how they interpret that!” Nonetheless, I keep my cool as the ceremony continues with prayer and some observations by my host madre. We are all blessed with rose water to take away negative energy and she gives some special attention to some members who had especially negative energies (this was also especially interesting to watch). The flames began to die down and closing prayers were said. Afterwards, my host madre decided to explain to us all what she was told by the “abuelitos” (grandparents which signifies God and ancestors, the ancestors are paid homage and are typically present during these ceremonies as they have much knowledge to give). She specifically discussed what she was told about each person and saved me for the last. “Mihijaadoptada” (my adopted daughter) is how she started, she proceeded by telling me how I have become more comfortable here in Guatemala but that I am still holding on to the United States and that I need to embrace my stay here and receive more positive support from home. She said that it was very clear that Guatemala is welcoming me as the sagradafuego (sacred flame) was definitely in my favor (turns out smoke and fire in the face is a good thing!) Basically, Guate is giving me good vibes and it’s up to me to really go all in! This was a relief to hear and made me think about how I can mentally, emotionally, physically adopt my new home.
The ceremony at the Peace Corps was a very different vibe. Since it was such a large group, it’s difficult to get such personalized attention and to also personally be attached to the ceremony. I learned a lot more about the symbolism behind various things (i.e. the sugar, soda, chocolate, honey, liquor are all offerings to help ask for happiness)and the entire procession was different. We had to greet all the various nahuales as well as each of the four corners of the earth. With each greeting the spiritual guide proceeded to tell us what each nahual represents. It was also a little difficult because this ceremony was during the day and the school nearby was blasting some bumpin music so it was a stark contrast to the serene atmosphere of the ceremony.
This all led me to be very curious about my nahual. What is a nahual you ask? Well, the Mayan calendar is composed of different kinds of months, days and years than the traditional calendar. Thus, every day has a specific energy to it which is signified by the nahual. There are 20 nahuales and thus there are 20 days in a Mayan month. In summary, a nahual is an energy. Each person has a nahual, actually each person has 9 nahuales but there are 3 principle ones which make up a person’s Mayan cross. The day you were conceived, the day you were born and your destiny narhual are the three principal ones. The day you were born dictates the other two (there’s an assumption that you were conceived nine months before birth…pretty rare to know the day you’re conceived!) The nahual tells you characteristics about yourself and also who you get along well with and who you may clash with. It’s kind of like your animal on a Chinese calendar. So I became curious and decided to look online to see what mine was and I was pretty happy with the result. I read the description and for the most part it fits my personality type. Also my host madre said I was very lucky to have this nahual as it is very intelligent and has other positive connotations. She advised me not to just let people know what it is as some may find out and use it to make me weak. Sooo call me superstitious but I don’t want to just post it online  (if you’re really curious just email me and I’ll let ya know what it says in detail).
So that’s my two cents about some interesting Mayan experiences I had over the weekend. This Wednesday is Guatemala’s independence day and I’m quite excited for the festivities! This morning there was a parade of tiny little ones in traditional traje which was incredibly cute!! I’ll have to snag pics from my sitemates to post because it was truly adorable! Thus, more parades will take place as well as awesome drumlins (my favorite part!) and lots of food. Apparently my host family wants to dress me up in traditional clothing as well, but I’m not sure if they were joking or serious about that…we’ll see!!

An Assessment of Community Needs Assessment

We’re beginning to delve into the specifics of identifying a community’s needs. As we’re discussing this topic I think to myself, “yea I remember all of this from classes at Duke” but then it dawns on me…actually this is very different. What I recall from classes is how to ensure that you get a solid representation of the population when conducting a CNA, make sure focus groups have similar characteristics, gain trust, incorporate community leaders, and determine existing networks. What was fascinating though is that during these classes we more or less went in with the assumption that we already knew the answer. In a university setting, you get funded for researching a hypothesis thereby causing the researcher to be biased. It reminded me of the phrase “statistics is the best way to lie” because if you think you know the answer, you’re either consciously or unconsciously going to seek out those who will let you know what you want to hear. There are situations where your research uncovers that the real need is something completely different, but even still it usually still pertains to the same type of topic (i.e. health).
What was fascinating about this particular workshop is that I suddenly realized that in this type of Peace Corps Scenario, I’m truly going in with a blank slate. Because I’m working with the municipality, my only limitation is that it has to deal with a need identified by women. For the first time I’m not trying to just focus on health or just focus on a specific project like microfinance…the sky is the limit. I started to wonder why this topic was never really brought up. I clearly remember in class learning that the first step is to always conduct a community needs assessment, but because these were always in Global Health classes it was assumed that the need would be health related. But what is a poor student to do if she goes into a community and suddenly it turns out that what they truly want is a new school? There goes their funding? Or they continue to try to implement a health regimen that ends up not being adopted by the community because it’s a need identified by an outsider? I guess there really isn’t an answer and this topic probably falls into the ethical questions pile.
Either way, it was exciting for me to realize that I suddenly have a myriad of options and paths I can go down when dealing with development. I’ve always loved health and health care, but now I’m wondering if this experience will lead me down a different kind of path. Perhaps it will just reinforce my love for healthcare since it is incorporated in pretty much every aspect of life.
Anyway, we’ll see how my first community needs assessment goes once I get to my site. I’ll keep you all posted!

Experiential Learning

Throughout training, we have begun discussing the experiential learning process. After earning trust and learning about our communities, we have to learn to not only be a change agent but inspire others to serve as agents of change as well. The primary way that we are expected to galvanize this process is by facilitating experiential learning experiences. Clearly, this makes my heart pound with joy and excitement as I’m taken back to my days at Duke in Tony Brown’s enterprising leadership class where experiential learning is the name of the game. We’ve only just started discussing this process but I’m looking forward to writing more about this topic and also asking friends, family and mentors for their suggestions as to how I can help facilitate the experiential learning process and continue to try and help the residents of my future community become change agents and active participants in their community’s development. I know I sound totally bright-eyed at the moment since I have yet to work with a community or face any challenges, but I’m totally psyched about being able to take something I loved learning about and applying it to this new setting.
This post is just as a prep, I’ll continue writing about this topic throughout my service and explaining the success and inevitable failures that I’ve had while facilitating this process and (fingers crossed)hopefully inspiring others to take lead in community change!