Standfast!

Every Peace Corps country has an emergency action plan based on the needs and policies of that country; Peace Corps Guatemala uses a five-stage system: 1) Alert, 2) Standfast, 3) Consolidation, 4) Evacuation, and 5) All Clear. Currently, all volunteers here are on standfast due to the heavy rains, not to mention the landslides and flooding as a result of these heavy rains. What does this mean? Well, on standfast all volunteers have to remain at their sites (community) and await further instructions. It also means that we should begin preparing for a possible consolidation, where we would all move from our sites to a main consolidation point (depending on where you are placed in country, there are different consolidation points—mine is Antigua, which is not a bad place to be stuck if you ask me). This also means, all activities for tomorrow are cancelled. Boo! However, this actually works out for me, because the mayor is distinguishing my host dad tomorrow for his service to his community (my host dad is pretty awesome; he holds vocational training for community members and builds houses for those without homes—I just found this out a couple dinners ago; we had a heart to heart), and now I get to go because I don’t have class or training! Silver lining!

On another note, it is crazy to think that I have not even been here a month (this Wednesday is our one month marker!!!) and already, we are on standfast. This does not happen too often, though the last time volunteers were placed on standfast (according to my handy dandy Peace Corps Guatemala Handbook and Emergency Action Plan—you would be surprised how many flippin’ binders of PC manuals and books we have!) was due to tropical storm Agatha this past May (before this, volunteers hadn’t been placed on standfast for about 5 years…) According to my host family, the rains this year have been pretty strong, and also, rainy season started early here. So, I am thinking we might be on standfast quite a bit this month…Usually, the rains begin in September, but this year they started in August and are only getting stronger. Exciting stuff.

But to all concerned, please don’t worry. I am fine. The PC staff here are amazing and well-organized, and they are definitely looking after our safety and well-being!