I’ve now been in Guatemala for a little over a week, and while it seems like I have been here for much longer because each day is so busy and full of new experiences to take in, I feel like I am finally getting a grip on why I am here and what I will be doing for the next two years. For example, if you were to ask me what work I will be involved with during my time here, I could now do more than mutter something about “tooth-brushing” and “schools.” The part of me that craves details and organization, temporarily cast aside in favor of a tentatively optimistic “I have no idea what I’m getting myself into and I’m okay with that” attitude during the lead-up to my departure, has finally been satisfied with more information about what the following weeks, months, and years (!) will bring. Now I’m on information overload – between the health/safety orientation sessions, Spanish class, technical training, and the ever-present need to observe and absorb Guatemalan culture, I have more than enough to think about!
We began this adventure last Tuesday in Washington, D.C., with a five-hour orientation session in the conference room of a hotel, complete with lots of paperwork, icebreakers, group activities, and the like. Afterwards, we all scattered to enjoy our last meal in the United States (delicious Thai food at “Thai Tanic,” in my case), and then attempted to get a couple of hours of sleep before we had to check out of the hotel in the wee hours of the morning. We got to the airport extremely early, so we had a couple of hours to make an attempt at sleep-deprived conversation in the lobby before we could check our bags. The person sitting next to me on the flight from Washington to Miami turned out to be a former Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, and he had all sorts of wonderful and encouraging things to say about the Peace Corps and his experience in Benin, which definitely helped to ease my nerves. After a long layover in Miami (which included an excellent group stretching session), we all passed out for the flight to Guatemala City, awoke in a new country, and were promptly met by a Peace Corps representative and led to the van (actually, an old school bus – more about these to follow) that took us to the training center in Santa Lucia. It was hard to get much of a sense of Guatemala City during the short time we spent there – bus fumes and billboards were about all that I got out of it – but we are returning to the city on Monday with our Spanish groups to visit the embassy, the hospital, and “Gran Tikal,” which apparently is a hyper-modern mall where we can feast on McDonalds and Taco Bell. I don’t think I have been out of the U.S. quite long enough to crave American fast food, but after a couple more tortillas, perhaps.
The first few days in country were spent in training sessions at the Peace Corps offices, touching on everything from transportation safety, “survival Spanish,” and stool samples (it’s part of our lives now, for better or worse). Oh, and shots. The image I had in my head of all of the volunteers being rounded up in one room and stuck with various needles was not entirely accurate, but I have received several injections in the past week, with more to come. We stayed with host families in Santa Lucia during the first three days, which provided a great introduction to the country and eased the transition into the whole host family experience. I, along with two other girls from the group, stayed in the casa of Don Jaime and Dona Letty, an older couple who live just down the road from the training center. They own a spa and have a beautiful backyard/garden that they rent out for special occasions, meaning that we had a pretty amazing set-up at their house. We got to try out the temescal, which is essentially a steam room, Maya style, with Dona Letty – she poured cold water over the volcanic rocks, which released a wonderfully fragrant mix of eucalyptus, rosemary, and another herb I was unable to translate the name of at the time, and then we took a quick (and cold!) bucket bath. Don Jaime was similarly wonderful. At some point, we got on the topic of Boy Scouts, and as it turned out, he has been involved with the Guatemalan branch of the organization for years. We got to hear all about his work with the “escouts” in Guatemala, and even got to try on several of his scouting hats at the breakfast table. Apart from learning that Boy Scouts do in fact exist in other countries, I learned that Guatemalan beans go through three stages (whole, soup-like, and then pureed/refried), and that Guatemalans need no reason to set off fireworks for three nights in a row, other than to rile up the local dogs/roosters.
Last Saturday, we left our comfortable bubble of spa treatments, hot showers, and American roommates for the unknown of our permanent host family sites. We were loaded up into vans and then dropped off one-by-one at our new homes – a bit of a nerve-racking experience. I am not supposed to say exactly where I am (but if you’re interested, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll let you know), but I am more or less a half an hour outside of Antigua, one of the larger cities in Guatemala and a major gringo haven. We were warned that Antigua is not at all representative of “the real Guatemala,” which is certainly true, but it will be nice to have internet cafes/ethnic food/English language bookstores within a bus ride of the training site. The community that I am in is quite small, with a church, a couple of small stores, a tortilla stand, a barbershop, a school, and a soccer field. Peace Corps Guatemala utilizes “community based training,” which means that we are divided up into small groups and placed in a community, where we have our Spanish classes and in our case, we are able to complete our technical training in the local school. The idea is that we have an opportunity to spend most of our time in one specific area and integrate ourselves into the community, so it won’t be as much of a shock when we move out on our own into our permanent sites. So far, so good – although I’m beginning to understand why Peace Corps volunteers talk about the “fishbowl” effect, I am happy to have the time to focus on getting to know a small area and figuring out how I can fit into the community.
A big part of the training experience is living with a host family, and my host family is terrific! My official host mom is Dona Maria, who is a live-in nurse with an elderly couple in Antigua, so unfortunately, she doesn’t make it back to her house all that often. I just met her for the first time earlier this week. Luckily, my host family consists of many more people, or I would be quite lonely. I was first introduced to Dona Susana, Dona Maria’s sister, and I suppose she’s technically my host aunt, but I think of her as my host mom as well. She used to work as a cook in a hospital in Antigua, but now she stays at home with her daughter’s baby. She’s been extremely kind and welcoming during my first week in the house. Her husband, Don Gavino, is also a medical assistant of some sort, and works long hours. He speaks extremely quickly, which has definitely been a challenge to my limited Spanish comprehension. Their daughter, Brenda, is a year older than me, and has an eight-month old son, Wilson, who is absolutely adorable. He has a walker type thing with wheels that the family calls “la aranna,”, or spider; he uses it to zoom all around the house. I have four host brothers as well – Julio, who is twenty, Ronny, who is eighteen, and Mauricio and Luis, thirteen year old twins. In addition, there are more than a few chickens and roosters running around the courtyard of the house. My favorites are the six tiny chicks that come in and out of all of the rooms; they are particularly amusing to watch because they are always slipping and sliding all over the slick linoleum floors.
It’s a lot of fun to have so many people around, and our house is a town hub of sorts, with friends of the twins and extended family always passing through. The family sells green (immature) mango, which they slice and season with ground pumpkin seed, lime juice, salt, and chile. It’s apparently a good business, because every day there are at least a couple people that come by for their daily dose of green mango. The other night, a bunch of kids came over to the house to practice dances for a parade that is going to occur at the end of the month – their level of organization/dance prowess was quite impressive. Peace Corps/Cuerpo de Paz, as we’re known here, keeps us very busy during the day, so I mostly spend time with the family during meals and after dinner. I have already been to three futbol games in which various host brothers were playing, and I have been spending a lot of time playing “Uno” with the twins (shout out to Uncle Steve!). One of the first questions the family asked when I got to the house was whether I am Catholic or evangelical, the two main religious affiliations in Guatemala. After noting the obviously Catholic décor of the house, I decided that the safest bet would be to say that I am Catholic (there must have been some Irish Catholic relatives a few generations back, so I’m not completely lying?). Cuerpo de Paz advised us to not rock the boat too much in regards to religion, so I am going to go hope that when/if I attend mass with the family, I will be able to more or less blend in. Chris Laco, if you’re reading this, I may be in touch with you for some thoughts on Catholicism!There's lots more to say, of course, but the time is ticking on my computer at the internet cafe, so I am going to have to stop for now. More to come!
Saludos from Guatemala!
