Transitions in Toto

Central America Caribbean » Guatemala
July 24th 2010

Published: July 24th 2010

Yay we are finally volunteers after a long couple months of training, no longer are we called the newbies or the trainees. We had a swear in ceremony at the Peace Corps Office, where the embassador came and had us form a circle around him and next to us stood the American Flag, Guatemalan Flag and Peace Corps Flag while he led us through the same words that Joe Biden used to swear in as VP, although we did change the part from Vice President to Peace Corps Volunteer. I had no idea these would be the formailities that we would be going through as being Peace Corps Volunteers, yet I am imprsesed with the professionalism of everyone that works at the Peace Corps Office here in Guatemala. This along with many of my experiences so far have not been what I imagined Peace Corps would be like prior to my arrival in Guatemala; I was expecting more of a 2 year camping trip. Yet in some ways it is seeing that I sleep in a sleeping bag on the tile floor with a grass weaved mat for cushion. However, I never expected that I would be sitting with the Mayor of my town while being served lunch, each with our own bowl of tomalitos each individually wrapped in leaves (I guess this could be similar to being served your own personal bread basket at a restaurant instead of sharing with the table). It has been quite the learning experience everyday here, I almost cannot rule out anything because we may end up doing it tomorrow...

At the Swear In Ceremony, my family dressed me in their traditional Indigenous Traje for the event, which includes a very tight faja (belt) that wraps around to hold up a long piece of hand woven cloth which looks like a long wrap skirt. The guipel is the top part which is also hand woven and each one is different depending on the community, but the specific one I wore had beautiful Mayan figures similar to those on the Mayan Calendar. It was wearing this that prompted me to ask my host sister how women can breathe and do all their daily activies wearing this, since it is similar to a corsette in that it was very tightly wrapped around our waists. She then told me how my host mom and grandma, as well as many other women, wear it when they sleep during the nights, too, and only take it off to bathe. I was amazed and at that moment gave these amazing Indigenous women all the more respect, even though I already was in awe of their strength and their committment to family. A typical schedule they have is waking up around 4 or 4:30AM to start their day which consists of starting a fire on the wood buring stove to prepare hand made coffee made from rice, corn, coffee and another plant i can never remember the name of, and they also begin cooking all the meals for the day. They make a trip to the local panaderia (bakery) and then make another early morning trip to carry the corn kernals to the town molino, which is a big grinder that creates maza which is then used to make tortillas which they make many for each meal given that on average each person will eat 3-10 tortillas per meal. I am impressed at how they can carry up to more than 3 times their own size of whatever materials, food, or fire wood on their head as they walk through town. They say one can walk and carry things on their head when they have the equilibrium and balance within. One quick side note since I am on topic, one of the male volunteers had his biggest suitcase which weighed well over 70 pounds and struggled to carry it to the bus, but his host mom comes and swoops it up and places it atop her head and with ease walks it over the bus; all our jaws dropped. Through out the day they also hand wash clothes, sheets and towels, move over to the other side of the pila to hand wash dishes, and many spend hours weaving various textiles to sell at local markets. I have personally learned the physical effort it takes to hand wash all your clothes and towels in the pila, for it requires quite a bit of muscle especially continuously doing one after another. These women are amazing, and in the cold places such as my site, they wear sandals year around even when temperatures are low enough when you can see your own breath in the morning along with a light layer of frost covering the ground.

It is hard to believe that I am in my site here in Totonicapan (Toto), finally. I arrived here with the last of my bags and all the materials acquired through training on monday morning the 19th and already I have had a busy week. I am still forming my own schedule here, but the majority of my work so far is done with the educator at the health post. Her name is Maria, and she is a sweetheart who speaks both Spanish and the local Ki´che´ Indigenous language, which both I am learning more and more everyday. I love working with and am excited to get to know better throughout the two years. We have already gone into two of the schools and each week we go into each classroom and talk about a different health topic. This week we read a story with drawings that we colored about the importance of basic hygiene such as hand washing, washing fruits and vegetables, going to the bathroom in a latrine (to discourage going in the river), and wearing shoes. Next week will be respiratory infections so we are going to make a poster on sunday together to prepare. Also this week I met another women´s group who expressed an interest in cooking classes and our first one is tuesday where we will be making pizza! I actually will be making it again on wednesday with another group, for some reason they all have a vested interest and love for pizza I´m finding! My town lacks a comedor (cafe or restaurant) so maybe if there is interest among some of these women´s groups then I can help them to start their town´s first comedor, and who knows it may even be a mini pizza parlor if everyone continues to express such a great interest!

On sunday afternoons, I will be teaching English Classes to a group of kids that have already asked me to teach them. We are going to start with the alphabet song and then continue to use fun, dynamic ways to teach and keep them engaged. It really opens up a lot of opportunity for them as far as jobs if they are able to speak English, and I have received many requests for teaching English just in the short amount of time that I have been here. I gathered several electronic materials from Peace Corps on how to effectively teach English and what has worked in the past with other volunteers so along with some creativity you can really make it your own experience so I am very excited for this, too!

Every other friday I meet the health promoters, who are a group of local community members that expressed an interest in health, wanting to make a difference in their community and be a part of something new and different. They formed in February with another volunteer who lives in the bigger town near mine, and she is handing them over to me now. They have already had several meetings about various topics such as basic hygiene, emergency action plans, domestic violence, HIV prevention, and I plan on starting a nutrition series starting with the basics then getting more detailed on various nutrient groups and giving recipes using local foods they can easily make. I also plan on doing the nutrition series with the women´s groups during the cooking classes every week.

I am amazed to have already acquired such a schedule, and also having a few other volunteers in near by towns where we can take day or weekend trips to nearby sites such as Lake Atilan or climbing the nearby volcano or just spending an afternoon in the nearby big city for coffee and gathering new ideas from one another. I have plently of free time during the late afternoon and evenings where I spend it reading, knitting, drawing, or preparing materials and planning for the next day or two of work. I even had enough time to make myself a calendar out of construction paper and markers instead of buying one given they are rather expensive here. Us volunteers are living at the level of the community and are only given enough money for basics, thus it is a good challenge to make with what you have, especially when you have time to do so and I guess this is the reward of hard work and patience I am learning more and more everyday.

Overall, things are starting off very well, minus being sick all day friday with food poisoning (I am guessing it is yet again), but I have come to accept this as a normal monthly or bi monthly event sadly that hopefully will decrease through out the two years as I become more accustomed to living here. I feel extremely blessed my town is very receptive to my presence here, even though many are still confused as to why there is a gringa walking and living in their small Aldea. It does make interesting conversation on the buses for I have met serveral women just casually talking on the hour bus ride to and from the city to buy food at the market. Many of the kids question why my hair is so much lighter in color than their own, and are amazed at my curles and love to play with my hair when they get a chance. The typical hair here is straight and black, so my blonde curly hair definitely sticks out like a sore thumb, and the fact that I am much taller and lighter in skin just means I cannot go without being seen. I think once I become more established throughout the next year Maria and I can start doing home visits to see which homes and families are in most need for stoves (those with black walls indicating indoor air pollution and cook on an open fire inside their home), latrines, cement floors and water tanks. Then in the second year is when we start to build them after the grant writing process for obtaining the funds to do so. We also talked with a few students about doing after school programs wtih the kids such as art and cooking, making gardens for herbs and vegetables using old tires, and of course our recycled bottle project that we are currently in the process of and will start constructing in early September. I am very excited to see where each day takes me and to slowly explore more of Guatemala since we can travel to the areas that are within a few hours of our site for weekend trips, and then we can take off more time in the next couple years to see the places that require a bit more travel.

I hope all is well with each and everyone of you! Until next time...
Peace, Love and Hugs,
Alyssa

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