La vida chapina

Well, I made it to Guatemala safe and sound! I’ve been here for almost a week now but it already seems like it’s been ages. For the first three days I stayed with two other trainees (that’s what they call us until we become official volunteers in March) with a family in a town called Santa Lucia Milpas Altas, where our training center is located. The family was super nice and had hosted almost 100 volunteers and students in the past so they knew how to take care of us. After the orientation and group placements they sent us out in groups of four to different communities, all within an hour of the training center. For the next three months I’ll be living in this community and almost every day the four of us will have language/cultural orientation class with our teacher Sandra at one of our houses and Mondays and Thursdays we will have training.

My host family for the next three months consists of Doña Ana, Don Carlos, their son Armando who is 25 and his wife Ingrid who is 27. There are no kids living in the house which at first I was a bit bummed about but it is nice and tranquilo here. Also, the other trainees in my community have children in their homes so I can always go hang out with them when I need a kid fix. I live right outside of a town called Pastores which is famous for leatherwork, especially cowboy boots. Don Carlos and Armando run a shop where they sell their handmade boots. The other day Don Carlos showed me around the workshop (upstairs, above my room) and explained to me how they make the boots and showed me all of the different leathers they use. He told me I can design a pair of boots how I would like them and he will make them for me, which I’m really excited for.

Also, nobody needs to worry about me because Doña Ana worries enough for the rest of you. The first morning I woke up and she was washing dishes and she hurried toward me as I opened my door and asked me how I had slept. I told her I had slept well and she breathed a huge sigh of relief and told me she hadn’t slept the whole night because she was worried that I wasn’t sleeping well. She is constantly telling me to eat more and I literally had to force her to let me clear my plates from the table. She packs a lunch for me when I go to the training center and I worry that if I don’t eat it she might have a stroke. It’s nice to know that I’m so well taken care of but at the same time I don’t know how many more times I can say “No tenga pena” (Don’t worry).

Anyway, I have so much more to say but I feel a bit overwhelmed and very tired. They’re keeping me busy with training and when I’m not in class or doing homework my host family wants me to do things with them. I’ve already been to a wedding and a piñata (child’s birthday party featuring- you guessed it- piñatas) and this weekend I’m visiting the in-laws, going to a 50^th wedding anniversary and possibly going on a roadtrip to Escuintla.

Here are a few pictures:

With my first host family and one of the other trainees:

With my orientation roommates on the training director´s front yard:

Here is the training director in his backyard with a few other trainees:

I’ll try to update as often as I can but in the meantime I would love to hear from you all! I miss you all very much!

Paz,

Cristal

I'm goin' to Guatemala!

Hello friends and family!

Well, here's my blog. I just figure it's a better way for those people who would like to stay updated, rather than flooding everyone's email inboxes with mass emails. Also, this way you can check this site at your leisure and if you're not all that interested then you don't have to check it! One thing I do ask of you, though, is to please drop a line in the form of a comment every once in a while. I want to hear from you all and it'll be nice to know that someone is actually reading this. This post will mostly just be an introduction to what I'm heading out to do, but future posts should be less boring and I'll try to include interesting stories, reflections and funny anecdotes.

Anyway, I think everyone reading this knows that I'm joining the Peace Corps. However, I have noticed some confusion about where exactly I will be going and what exactly I will be doing (i.e.: "You're going to Nicaragua, right?" "So, Crystal, when do you leave for Spain?" "Crystal, I hear you're being sent to Afghanistan?") So, here's what I'll actually be doing: I will be going to Guatemala with the Healthy Schools program (I have included a map of Guatemala and a map of Central America for those of you confused about the geography of all those little countries south of Mexico). As far as the work I will be doing: I will be a School Health Facilitator and basically I will be working with rural primary schools developing sanitation and health projects, working with teachers to promote healthy habits and to incorporate health lessons into their curriculum, and helping to identify and implement necessary changes with the end goal of certifying these schools as "Healthy Schools."

Here's the map of Guatemala, followed by a map of Central America:




So, I'm leaving San Diego the morning of January 5th and will be flying to Washington D.C. where I will meet up with the rest of my training group, which I guess will be about 30 people, and we will have a day of orientation. Then, very early January 7th we will all be flying to Guatemala! For the first three months we will have training and all of us trainees will be centered around a town close to Antigua. Toward the end of training we will find out our permanent sites, then we'll be sworn in as volunteers and sent out on our own!

I'm getting pretty excited about embarking on this adventure and so far not so nervous. It does help a lot to know I have great support here at home and I'm really thankful for everyone's words of encouragement and excitement! We'll be in touch!



Much love,
Crystal