Hey,

I’ve been in my town for about a month now and am slowly adjusting to life here. I’ve had a lot of free time lately because there basically haven’t been classes in the schools for the whole time I’ve been here. So I find ways to fill my time so I don’t get too lonely or homesick: I walk around town and introduce myself to strangers (“Thank you for selling me this mango. My name is Crystal and I’ll be living here for two years…”). I go to the cake shop that has a juice bar and chat with the woman working there while people watching and drinking fresh made pineapple, banana, orange juice. I wash my clothes by hand, which usually takes at least all morning (I am going to have such buff arms after two years). I read. I watch the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Dvds Laura gave me. I take a pick up (my main form of transportation these days) to the lake and enjoy the sun, the water and the tourist targeted grocery stores that sell such wonderful foods as peanut butter and whole wheat bread. I play tag with neighborhood kids. I chat up the local tienda lady. I kill the spiders in my house.

This week is Olympics week for the elementary schools in the district which means they all compete in sports tournaments the whole week (thus the fourth week of no classes. Last week classes were cancelled to prepare for the Olympics). Monday was opening ceremonies and I went to watch the parade that all of the schools walked in around town to take pictures of my schools and ended up being forced by one of the school principals to walk in the parade which was a little awkward but I guess it was good to be included. After the parade there was a talent contest for the niña deportistas (girl athletes). One girl is nominated from each school to perform a dance with some of the teachers from the school and then they each have to make a speech (in Spanish and Kaqchikel) about how sports are good for your mental and physical health and keep the youth out of trouble. My favorite was a girl who came out on stage with her female teachers and they were all dressed in traditional indigenous dress and doing a traditional dance and then the music stops and they take off the traditional dress and are dressed in basketball jerseys and sweats and finish with a hip hop dance.

Well, that´s all for now. How are you?

I love and miss you all!

Crystal

P.S. Here’s my new address for in case you might want it (because… my birthday’s coming up? you love me? you’re a good person?):

Crystal Sand

Voluntaria del Cuerpo de Paz

San Andrés Semetabaj,

Sololá, Guatemala

Things I would appreciate:

Letters

Pictures of you

Words of wisdom

Good books

New music

Magazine and news clippings you think I might be interested in

Tips/ ideas for cheap ways to set up my house/ garden

Anything from Trader Joe’s

P.P.S. I have a history of being really bad at correspondence but I’ve made a pledge to myself to correct that so please send me your addresses so I can send all of you postcards/ letters/ etc. Also I do have a cell phone here so send me a message if you ever feel like giving me a call and I will send you my number.

And now it begins...

Training has ended and real Peace Corps life is just beginning. Last weekend we had our “swearing in” which is basically like a graduation ceremony and our host families get to come and we dress up and take lots of pictures. It was held at the ambassador’s house and we all got to feel important for a day. Though, they did make us use the outdoor bathrooms. Swearing in was followed by a weekend in Antigua with my training group drinking beers, eating good food, dancing and enjoying each others company before we all parted ways.

Now I find myself in the community where I will be living for the next two years. Life is very different from training. We were “bodies without choices,” as my friend Mark likes to say, during training and then we were pushed out of the nest and left totally on our own. I got to my site and sat in my empty house and thought “Shit. What do I do now??” Everyone says the first three months in your community are the hardest and that there will be highs and lows, and if the first five days are any indicator, I would have to agree. Poco a poco (little by little) I’ll adjust though.

You all should definitely come visit me. I really lucked out and got placed in an amazing site. I live twenty minutes from Lago Atitlan, a beautiful lake surrounded by volcanoes. The town is really tranquilo and buses don’t enter which is such a beautiful thing to me after living three months right on the highway. There has been a long presence of Peace Corps volunteers here so people know what I’m about for the most part. Pretty much everyone here speaks Spanish but most also speak Kaqchikel, a mayan language, so I’ll probably be learning to speak some of that as well.

I’m slowly meeting people in town and becoming comfortable here. I have a lot of eight year old friends. They’re the easiest. A few games of freeze tag and you’re in. Next it’s the mothers who take pity on this poor gringa whose been sent away from her country and family to live here on her own for two years. Meeting people my own age will probably be the hardest as most are married or work away from home. A lot of the teachers I will be working with are in their twenties, though, so once I start in the schools I’ll hopefully be able to build relationships with them. I have also been invited to join a women’s basketball team so I’m thinking of doing that, but once they see me play they might rescind the offer (I was not blessed with the Mohr women’s basketball skills). There’s also a guy here who was a PC volunteer in the mid eighties who never left and now has a Guatemalan wife and daughter. He’s already been really great and helped me buy a stove, had me over for meals with his family and lent me a bunch of stuff until I get my house all set up. Apparently there’s also a volunteer from the Japanese Peace Corps somewhere in this town but I have yet to meet her.

My house is pretty sweet. I have three rooms, one that will be used as a kitchen, one as a living room/ guest room and one for my bedroom. I also have a bathroom with a shower that has an electric water heater. I have a porch with the perfect place to hang a hammock and a patio/ garden with a lemon tree. So it’s not exactly the peace corps home I had imagined but it’s pretty close. I'll put up pictures once I get it a little more set up. Anyway, that's it for now but here are a few photos:

First of many pictures to come of Lake Atitlan :

The leather boots my host brother gave me as a gift: With Jareau from my Spanish group rocking our new leather boots custom made by my host family (he paid for his) :

My spanish group with teacher Chepe:
With the ambassador and host fam:
My whole training group with country director Martha:

Paz, Crystal