From Trainees to Volunteers!

Yesterday I woke up a Peace Corps trainee and went to bed a real Peace Corps Volunteer. And how do I feel? Well, it is hard to describe…Yes, I am a tad scared, nervous, and excited. Although we have had three months of training to prepare us for this moment, I still feel like I am entering into a world of uncertainty…While training was definitely helpful, I still feel like no matter what, each site and each volunteer is so drastically different, that each PC experience depends on the volunteer; as much as it can be a collective experience, shared with other volunteers, community members, host families, and work agencies, it all comes down to the individual volunteer…though of course, there are many variables at play…

According to other PCVs, these feelings of uncertainty and anxiety are absolutely normal…So, I am resolved to just take my time getting used to my house, my new job (whatever it entails!) and to just enjoy the ride…However, I am already aware of the fact that I am going to have to be proactive and take the initiative, especially because unlike most PCVs, I don’t actually directly work with my immediate community. Through the women’s NGO (CODEFEM), I will be working with three municipal governments about 4-6 hours away from my site, which is awesome because I will get to travel to other communities. However, this will make it hard to meet people in my own community. However, I hope to find some secondary projects (perhaps working with an all girl youth group or local women’s group) in my actual community. Also, unlike most PCVs, my site is actually a HUGE city (65,000 people), so for me at least, this makes it harder to make the more personal connections…(big city life…) that I found so easy to make in my training community (which was pretty much one street!!!)

Anyway, this week has been charged with emotion; lots of goodbyes…starting with my host family, who actually threw me my own personal despedida (goodbye party) complete with dominos pizza and my very own purple traje jacket (Traje is the typical skirt and shirt worn by indigenous women). My host parents and even one of my host sisters started crying, which made me cry, and it was all kind of a mess! I am going to miss my host family so much as they were amazing…

The following day, all the host families of San Luis Las Carretas (my training town) threw all four volunteers (four of us lived in one training community) a joint despedida. Also, we had our swearing in ceremony at the US Ambassador’s house (it was pretty fancy!) then we all went to Antigua to celebrate and say goodbye to one another…It is strange because we won’t see each other again for three months (we have an event called reconnect where Peace Corps checks in with us after our first three months; also, after our first three months, we are officially allowed to travel to other sites as well as take vacay time…for our first three months of service we have to stay put! So most of us really won’t see each other again until February) Hence, it was a little sad…

but every end just leads to another beginning, right?

A little recap (in case you missed this mass email...)

So, first I want to apologize in advance for what will most likely be a very long and grammatically incorrect reading experience; thinking in Spanish for the last 3 months has ruined my English, which is sad because I used to be such a grammar snob...oh well...I did hear that the Peace Corps does change people…! =)

Anyway, the last three months have been a whirlwind to say the least, and I am barely able to catch my breath as I write this. I have had so many adventures and great experiences, some all time highs, and very, very few lows (thank goodness), and I can't believe that my three months of training are almost up (this Friday marks the training end date!). For those of you unfamiliar with the Peace Corps experience, the first three months is spent in training in local communities. For this reason, I have been living with a wonderful family, who I really have come to love, for the last three months. My host parents are kind and very generous, and all the adults have an awesome sense of humor, so I can comfortably joke around with them, which is also pretty nice. And the children are always fun to play with, whether it be tag or soccer, or even the occasional English lesson (which they consider playing…!) Saying goodbye will be difficult. My host parents have already told me that they are going to talk to the director and ask if I can just stay with them for the next two years! haha.

The Peace Corps has actually given us some money to throw a thank you party for our families today and to say goodbye in style...we are going to cook them a great feast of spaghetti, garlic bread, and cake (very American, right?? maybe not...but on our peace corps' budget it is all we can afford for about 30 people!!!)

Also, this Friday there is a big, official ceremony at the US ambassador's house where we swear in as REAL Peace Corps Volunteers (I think we get a mini diploma saying we have graduated from trainees to full volunteers; which is a definite Peace Corps Rite of Passage!). Saturday we move to our permanent sites--the place where I will spend the next two years of my life...it is all so crazy...and scary…and exciting…and I can barely process all of it.

So, about the site...

This last week I was able to visit my site, Santa Cruz del Quiché, which is nice because it is a Cabacera (or capital). This means I have an actual grocery store and a Dominos (in case I get homesick for subpar pizza! Yay! And I know I will…), as well as a superb open-air market pretty much seven days a week with most every type of produce I could ever want. After living in my small Aldea (village) (like barely 1,000 people), I have to admit that upon first arriving in Santa Cruz, I was more than a little overwhelmed as the cabacera has about 65,000 inhabitants…which was shocking after being so sheltered these last 3 months. Also, It was a little hard to swallow at first because my partner organization (a women’s non-governmental organization called CODEFEM, which basically stands for the women’s collective for the defense of the woman in English….it sounds better in Spanish, I swear) which partners with municipal governments in an effort to strengthen women’s political participation and access to basic services in line with basic human rights, although is centered in the Cabacera, actually works with 3 municipal governments about 4-6hours away. So, immediately, I was like how in the world am I going to get to know my community if I am never here!

Also, in terms of housing, for the next three months, I have to live with a family (Peace Corps’ policy for the first 3 months of service) (this does not include the three-month training period where we also live with a family). However, my family does not live in the cabacera; they live about 15 minutes away by microbus. And their Aldea is TINY. The whole point of living with a host family is so that they can help you integrate into the community where you work, but my family doesn’t live in the community where I will work…So, anyway, I had all these thoughts floating around, but in true Guatemalan style, I have to remind myself of the very popular Guatemalan adage, “Poco a Poco” (Little by little) and just give myself time to let it all work itself out…which I know at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, it will…

Oh, and a little descriptor of my new house…Rustic…no hot water (sometimes no water in general), bucket baths (when water is accessible) and no flushing toilets (now this is the real peace corps experience! Up until this point I have totally been spoiled in training with the luxury of a real stand up shower and flushing toilets…oh well, good bye material comforts…!) The town is basically one street (I think there are seriously like 10 houses…if that). It is very removed and the area is silent (which is rare for Guatemala!) However, like I said, I just pop on the microbus for 15 minutes to get to the center…

Anyway, while my new host family seems nice (one mom, her two fully grown kids-son, 28 and daughter 26 (so maybe we can be friends! yay!), I am ready to move out to the cabacera and live on my own (so I can feel like a real adult once again!). However, I will take advantage of being surrounded by people, and try to build some strong friendships, like the ones I have already been lucky enough to form with my current host family! And hopefully, poco a poco, I will start feeling like a member of my new community rather than an awkward extranjera (outsider)

So, that is all for now

One Crazy Ride…

Every ride on the camioneta is a different adventure. In fact, I am considering creating a separate blog especially for camioneta rides, since I am almost always going somewhere on a camioneta, and each ride usually involves a crazy story or adventure, if not misadventure… That being said, my latest camioneta ride was no exception. I went to go visit a volunteer just outside of San Marcos (a town called San Antonio Sacatepequez), which is located in the western part of the country, also known as the occidente. How to describe the occidente? Hmm, in one word: COLD. In two: VERY COLD. However, maybe that is just my thin SoCal blood talking because it rarely gets below 40 degrees farenheit out west. And for those of you asking, “Isn’t Guatemala supposed to be warm and tropical?” My simple response is: “NO.” However, every region of this country seems to vary, so parts of it are, indeed, warm and tropical (what one might expect), and other parts, well…not so much! Have I mentioned that besides weather extremes, this country is also subject to sinkholes, hurricanes, storms, landslides, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and probably every other type of natural disaster imaginable? (Don’t worry—I am fine! So far anyway…!)

Anyway, for someone expecting warm, sunny, even tropical weather, 40 degrees was a big surprise for me, and my body just wasn’t prepared for the cold. Although, I am not sure where I will be placed for my two years (I find out Thursday, keep your fingers crossed that I get a site where I will be happy for 2 years!!), I have it on good authority that I am most probably going to the west (and now I am regretting not bringing more winter clothes. Though I am grateful that I packed my long underwear! Phew!) So, currently I am trying to mentally prepare myself for two years of cold. (Well, summers are temperate, so hopefully my thin-blooded body can handle it…and yes, I do realize that I somehow survived 4 years on the east coast…I honestly don’t know how. I think it made my body weaker because I totally can’t handle the cold like I used to…or maybe it is old age? Hmm…)

Anyway, getting back to my camioneta story…So after a three day journey to the West, I was back on the bus, ready for my 5 hour ride home, when all of a sudden a lady decides to sit next to me with her baby. This was fine until the woman decided to start breastfeeding in MY personal space. I am all for women’s rights, etc., and sure, breastfeeding in public is fine with me as long as the breast is NOT in my face. Might I add that the highway I was on was pretty windy, with steep curving paths, so while this lady was breastfeeding with one breast already in my face, she was also slamming into me with her child who happened to be kicking me while suckling. NOT. FUN. Also, just a tad awkward…Excuse me ma’am, your breast is in my face and your baby keeps kicking me…might you consider breastfeeding on your side of the seat instead of in my face? I definitely did not learn how to say that in high school Spanish…!

Anyway, in an attempt to look away from the giant breast in my face, I happened to look up and see the reflection of a MIDDLEBURY sweatshirt in the big mirror that is always at the front of blue bird school buses (I actually owned this very same sweatshirt from my alma mater before it got stolen—who knows maybe it was mine!) The sweatshirt was being worn by an elderly Guatemalan man! That pretty much made my day. (I know, for me it totally is the simple things in life that end up making my day! I am strange like that.) All over Guatemala there are thrift-stores called “Pacas,” which carry second-hand merchandise from the United States. Seeing the Middlebury sweatshirt on an old Guatemalan man reminded me of how small this world actually is, and through globalization, it is increasingly shrinking.

It also reminded me that life is one crazy ride—maybe even crazier than a camioneta ride…! Though that is still TBD…!