Friday, September 10, 2010

Bisabuela = great-grandma

The garden before.....

...the garden after digging!


Our group diligently at work.

Me, doing nothing.



I feel like with as much stuff as we’re doing here, it’s hard not to write about my adventures instead of some of the interesting aspects of the culture. I’ve literally started about 3 entries about something more than just what I’ve been doing, but can never seem to find the time to finish them. This is going to be another boring account of what I’ve been up to. So last weekend was our first free weekend. Almost all of the people from my program, and a good amount of people from the other program went to Antigua, so we had a nice little group of gringos walking around the town. Antigua is touted as one of the most touristy places in Guatemala, and although it seems cliché to go there, I was pretty pumped. I imagined a small throwback town, like those that are so popular in the U.S., with little fancy window shops everywhere, and maybe a fountain or two spread about. Antigua is also known for its old ruins and churches (I mean, it isn’t called “Antigua” for nothing.) I definitely wasn’t disappointed, as Antigua is an exact picture of a quaint little town, complete with cobblestone streets, a beautiful park, tons of perfectly aged churches, and of course, lots and lots of white people. I have to say though, that even though everywhere I turned there was a sign in English, I never quite forgot I was in a developing country. Maybe it was because I rode in on a crowded camioneta; maybe because we passed through the run-down houses on the out-skirts of town; or maybe because even though we were in the most touristy area in Guatemala, a guy in our group was still able to buy a goat head in the market, but I never really thought I was escaping to a tourist’s paradise. Obviously I’m not saying this as a bad thing, and I think it’s pretty great Guatemala can retain its culture even where it’s most densely populated with fanny pack and cameras. The place was clean and bright, and we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day there. We were able to socialize for more than an hour or two for the first time since that fateful day in D.C. when we all met up. We also were able to put to use some of our safety training by having a DT, or Designated Thinker. Long story short, much fun was had by all.
This week also was the start of our “charlas” or small talks. We went to a school to give a small presentation on the parts of a plant and to identify what parts of what plants we eat. For example, you eat the seeds of corn, the root of potato, and the flower of broccoli. It went fairly well, although I personally feel like I’m having a difficult time being taken seriously. My trainer says I don’t need to worry, and it will be better with older groups, but it’s hard to look at a group of 13 year olds and know you only look about 5 years older than them. We also gave a talk in groups to others in our tech program, and Meghan and I talked about pest identification and organic pest management. The next day we reiterated the importance of composting and pest management to the entire Agriculture group, and got to hear their presentation on cost-benefit analysis of vermiculture. It has been a pretty intense few days of learning, and I can now say that I feel pretty comfortable talking about pest management, composting (worms and regular!), and how best to start a garden. We have also reviewed some problem-solving techniques, and I’m pretty sure I can McGyver a worm compost area out of anything. We’ve also completely planted our community garden, and some beautiful little sprouts have come up. We’re such proud mommas.
Monday I got my hair cut. It's short again, and I tried bangs for the first time and I pretty much hate them. Ahhhhhhh. It's times like these I'm glad I'm in a foreign country, and no one knows me here well enough to make fun of me.
Wednesday was a pretty awesome day, since I got to go to my first birthday party!!! And a hell of a birthday party it was! It was for my great-grandma, the oldest lady in my town, who turned 100. My god, that’s old. The last time I was around someone that old I was about 8, and it scared me to death. I reacted a lot better this time, and even though she wanted to sit next to me and kept patting my hair, I think I handled it ok. My great-grandma is pretty awesome: she speaks Kachiquel, like the rest of my family, but she switches to Spanish so I can understand, and has been through so much in the past 100 years. She made it through poverty, starvation, a civil war, and has raised an amazing family of people. My family has a long-running joke about her “caja de muerto” or casket that she bought 9 years ago, and they say that every birthday when they sing “Happy Birthday” they’re also singing it to her casket. Too funny. Anyway, birthday parties for my family here start with 3 hours of singing religious music and a sermon, just like a normal Sunday, and end with the women serving a MASSIVE amount of food to everybody. Then we all sit around and talk, and I got home at about 2am. Yikes. The best part of the whole night was at one point during the quiet part of the sermon when my great-grandma leans over me and says loudly in Spanish “I DON’T KNOW ANYBODY HERE!!!” I tried to keep a straight face, but I leaned over and said “ME NEITHER.” We were quite the pair. The only two in the room that almost fell asleep during the sermon. Love you, granny. Also at the party, they served “ensalada rusa” which was basically mayo on potatoes, and reminded me of home so intensely I thought my mom was going to come through the door claiming to have made it.
Also in recent news, I don’t know how much media attention this has been getting in the States, but Guatemala has recently been overwhelmed with rain and mudslides. This has been the heaviest rain in 60 years, and has led to over 200 landslides, and over 50 deaths, and all this right on the tail of Agatha that passed through in May. It’s pretty grim news, prompting the President to call a National State of Emergency, and has affected the whole country pretty seriously. Every time I watch the news here, read a paper, or even listen to my padres talk, I have to remind myself that this country is the size of Tennessee, that each “department” is the size of a county, and that when the Pan-American Highway is knocked out like it was for almost a week, it’s like if I-75 was shut down in Georgia. It’s hard to explain to my parents sometimes that in a country the size of the United States, we are far more removed from the deaths of others in distant states, and that crime or even natural disasters can happen in our own country and not affect us. It’s very humbling to see the compassion the people have here for their entire state and people. The infrastructure of Guatemala is just not able to handle a natural disaster of this proportion, and as our trainer reminded us this week, the whole country, Peace Corps included, will probably be cleaning up the mess of the last week for years to come.
So that’s all for now. Tech won last weekend (obviously) 41-10, and they’re playing Kansas this weekend. I’ll be watching a Mayan religious ceremony instead of the game, but I’ll be thinking of all you tailgaters. I also hope to cook a delicious meal for my family soon, so if anybody has any easy American recipes that I can make without an oven, let me know! Love you all too too much.