Pet squirrels are for eating

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Well, I have been settling in these past couple weeks here in my village, getting to know more of my neighbors and becoming friends with the local store owner on the corner where I buy my water and practice saying good morning and how are you in Quiche (local Indigenous language). Also with the lovely lady who owns the small bakery where I occasionally buy bread and homemade baking and cooking chocolate. I have been making Guatemalan inspired chocolate mush (oatmeal cooked with the baking chocolate along with with powdered milk, cinnamon, chopped bananas and honey) and also another popular morning drink called atol de trigo which is comparable to cream of wheat and I also add chocolate, cinnamon, honey and bananas. I have found this really is a great way to start the day with some hearty chocolate oatmeal or atol de trigo bright and early at 6:30am. I currently am baking brownies with this same baking chocolate I bought and this is more of a test to see how well or not well this oven of mine works. There is only a number system of 2 and 3 as far as temperatures go so I have no idea what that means and am crossing my fingers to see how it turns out and I am sure we will find out as I continue to write this blog so you will all be informed before the end of this here blog.

Last weekend many of the volunteers headed into Xela, the second biggest city in Guatemala, since many of us are within an hour traveling time of it. We ended up stumbling upon a sweet Mexican Reggae concert where we danced for hours which ended up being right near the hostel we stayed in. My friends and I also discovered some new coffee shops with amazing fresh Guatemalan coffee and I also indulgdged in a new found favorite of mine... The Avocado Smoothie (avocado, water, ice, honey and lime). It was a splendid ´´get-a-way´´ weekend and a time to reconnect wtih the other volunteers sharing our experiences from our first week at sites, both our frustrations and our delights, as everyday here seems to entail a little bit of both. However, I learned there are no buses to my town on sundays so I stayed with my friend at her site sunday night and then headed back at 5:30am the next morning to get back to my site in time to give health talks at one of the schools at 8:00am. What a start to this week! It was amazing to see the early risers, as most are awake at this time getting a fresh early start on the days work ahead of them. I watched from the frosted over window on the bus as many women stood at busy corners making fresh squeezed orange juice selling to the men and women waiting to catch a bus or who were starting their work running errands or collecting supplies for the day. As we rolled into Xela nearing 6:30am, many buses were just arriving, too, loaded up with huge barrels of vegetables, fruits, grains and herbs on top of the buses as the ayudantes (workers on bus who collects money and helps load and unload) were busy unloading all the boxes and bags of goods that were to be sold at the market. I had never seen the market so empty and quiet. Typically all you hear is yelling and shouting from the different booths and it is difficult to manuvuer around the tiny aisles or walkways being bombarded by people trying to sell you things, and everyone trying to bargain for better prices. I learned that the markets typically get started around 7am. I waited around to catch the bus to my town which left at 7am just watching in awe of how fast paced everyone was moving in order to get their stations set up for the long day ahead in hope to sell their produce. The market also has towels, pots and pans, clothes, shoes, wallets, jewelry, bags, live chickens that you carry home with you, cheese, meat (and this includes all the body parts of meat even the brain, tongue and liver).... the list continues, you can buy almost anything you need at this daily market which is right next to the terminal where all the buses come and leave continuously throughout the day to and from their destinations.

I made it just in time and Maria (the health educator) and I headed over to the school and gave presentations to each classroom about Respiratory Infections. I drew a poster for this the night before showing how Pneunomia is caused and where are lungs are. This is actually the number one cause of deaths for children under 5 here in Guatemala (as it is for many other developing countries as well). The air here is extremely dirty with all the pollution from transportation and factories, burning of stoves (creates both indoor and outdoor pollution), and burning of trash and plastics. Also this country puts off a lot of fireworks and small bombs for many celebrations which also adds to the air contamination. I find myself coughing a lot more or being congested as if being sick or having allergies, so I went to this natural herbal store and cafe in Xela and ended up buying Propolis Tincture. I put into my tea every morning to help alleviate throat and lung congestion for about a month, so I am anxious to see how it works!

These past couple weeks here at site have felt long, but have been rewarding at the least. I made pizza wtih two different women´s groups who were excited to learn how to make this Italian delight that many have an interest in I am finding. This week we are making pineapple bread and banana pancakes, and next week is beef and broccoli stir fry. I am letting them decide for I have a lot of recipes and have the resources to find the recipe if they ask to make something I do not already have. I very much enjoy these cooking classes, for it is a great way to get to know more of the women in my village better as we share a common interest in cooking and trying new foods! Starting this week I will be adding in nutrition and hygiene talks during our cooking classes and after 6 sessions and ´´exams´´ over what they have learned they will receive diplomas which they can then use to either start their own small business or teach others in the community! This week I am also having a knitting and crocheting class with the same group of women so I am also very excited about this because again it is another interest we can bond over and share new techniques with one another. They are all asking to make sweaters, which I still have yet to do but have the instructions (in English) to make a sweater so hopefully I can practice on my own from my directions and then in the next upcoming months eventually we can work toward making sweaters! It will be quite the new challenge for everyone.

I have been feeling more like myself and trying to make this feel more like my home lately. I purchased some mini speakers to play music while cooking, studying, and meditating at night while also doing yoga... yes not only have I acquired an old yoga mat from a previous volunteer who just left, but I finally am back to my daily yoga practice by candle light at night before I go to bed. It feels great to get back into my regular routine and feeling more like myself and continuing to do the things that I still love while being in a completely different culture and have very diverse surroundings. I also have finally been increasing the variety in my diet. During training we ate tortillas, beans, eggs and bread daily. It was difficult to have a lack of variety since I have a passion for cooking new, exotic foods, but it was a good challenge to go 3 months on only staple basics. Here I still cannot eat something different everyday since I have to travel an hour by bus to get to teh market to buy food so I can only go 1-2 times a week and can only pick up what is locally in season and what I can find. However, these past couple weeks I finally branched out to the store and splurged on some spices and made carrot curry, chunky cinnamon applesauce, and I just made brownies which actually ended up being more of a chocolate cake (i just took them out of the oven a few minutes ago, guess I put in too much flour or something because it definitely is teh consistency of a cake). But it tastes good, thus my first baked good in this most interesting of an oven was not a complete failure but a surprise success... plus, who doesn´t like chocolate cake? Just wish I had more butter to make frosting. I think I will make some coffee or ginger tea to dip the cake in. It is of Guatemalan culture to dip any type of baked good, even bread in your coffee, tea or atol (hot drink, the popular atoles here are atol de maiz (corn), atol de trigo (cream of wheat), atol de platano (plantain atol), atol de arroz (rice with milk, and also typically made with cinnamon ) and I have definitely adopted this and always have to make tea or coffee whenever I have a cookie, bread or chocolate cake in this case!

Last week at the school I helped administer fluoride to the kids with the local doctor. It was an emotionally challenging day because the majority of these kids already had rotting teeth, and typically more than one tooth was infected. I think this may have been the first time or two that they had a cotton swab or anything in their mouth by another person for hygiene purposes since there are no dentists in my town and they are expensive in the big city if they were to travel there to see one. We put a pink gel on both the inside and outside of their teeth and they had to hold their mouth shut with a napkin for at least a minute, but to see many of their faces tearing up was very difficult. I think I will plan on doing an oral hygiene talk soon and to make it more interactive we can teach them how to make toothbrushes and toothpaste using local materials or cheap materials from the local stores. Most of the schools have implemented via the Healthy Schools Program (also Peace Corps, my program is healthy homes) a rincon de salud (health corner) in each of the classrooms that is suppose to have a toothbrush and toothpaste for each student that they should have purchased (if funds allow) along with a towel and a small guacal (bucket) to wash their hands before snack time. However, it is not strictly regulated and only some of the classrooms actually put it into practice, but with more health education and guidance I think it can be a real success.

This past weekend I stayed in Xela friday night with my friend at the same hostel as the other weekend, and we had a blast hanging out at this delicious vegetarian cafe decorated with Mayan paintings and the owner is a DJ who played an amazing mix of electronic, cumbia, Indian bollywood with some African Drums. I was having the best night listening to this music while chatting with two girls we met at the hostel who just finished volutneering in Nicaragua. Then saturday we went to the market to get some produce and then I came back that night because I had to be back to teach my first English class sunday. I taught it to the family and friends of the same group I am doing cooking lessons with, and it seemed to have been a success! There were 9 kids and 5 adults all crammed into this little room all eager to learn. We started with learning to read and pronounce the alphabet as well as singing the alphabet song, and then ventured into the days of the week. I left them with homework for the week to practice saying and writing what they learned, and even left them with some practice notecards with the english day of the week on one side and the Spanish on the other so they can quiz each one another. Next sunday we are going to do numbers and months and I plan to give a short ´´quiz´´ for the days of the week and the alphabet. I really enjoy teaching, especially in a laid back, non formal education setting which seems to really fit my style these days.

It is exciting to see things come together, the family I am renting a room from said I could plant some of my own seeds in their garden or even ride their horses some weekend. The owner of a bookstore is giving me some Kombucha culture (raw fermented tea originally from China with heaps of health benefits) so now I can grow my own kombucha! I already have lemongrass tea so I think I am going to use that as my base and make a lemongrass kombucha tea. I have always wanted to do this so now I am excited to finally make it happen! Also, the family I am living with has a pet squirrel and 5 rabbits that we will be eating in a couple months apparently, but I am anxious to try new foods as usual. Typically people here have pets that serve them a purpose; whether it be a dog for protection, a cat to capture rats, farm animals for food and milk, or your basic everyday squirrel and rabbit for food, as well. However, I am still unsure of the purpose for this ridiculously loud, obnoxious bird that lives in a cage right outside my window. It is constantly singing or yelling in Spanish and Quiche and tends to copy whatever it hears and puts it into its own louder version at the most inopportune times (when I am trying to sleep or study usually). But, little by little I am learning to ignore it or I simply put my headphones on.

Just today during a meeting at the health post, I was talking with some of the women that are in my cooking group and it just so happend that I finally found a Quiche teacher, and she is actually one of my health promoters that I work with every other week. I am helping to train these health promoters in various health topics so in turn they will be able to help their community, especially in emergency situations during pregnancies with midwives or natural disasters. Her name is Florinda and I will be working with her hopefully on a weekly basis so I can learn more of this local language since everyone in the town speaks it, and only about half speak Spanish. I already have been practicing the basics with people and they either laugh because the Gringa is learning Quiche or they smile and say it is beautiful that I am learning it. It really is a mix of reactions I have been getting when I say good morning (Xsaqarik) or how are you (utz wach laa), but I think over time through out these two years as they get used to me living here, they hopefully will be more open to talking with me (as many already are which I am very grateful for) and accept me as a community member of their village, too.

Well, I guess that is all for now. Oh yea and I finally hiked down to the bigger town where another volunteer is living who also works in my town and the nearby aldeas, too. It took almost an hour but it was absolutely beauatiful! When I have faster internet I will try and upload some of the photos! She is the one who has been implementing the bottle project to build benches out of recycled bottles full of trashand I look forward to working with her on it . As far as what is coming up, this week entails more cooking and knitting classes, more health talks at the schools, a meeting with my health promoters on friday where we will probably talk about nutrition and I think I am going to show them how to make a portable water carrying device out of plastic bottles that is used for hand washing. I made one for my room so I can wash my hands before and after cooking and to have water accessible in my room, too. I hope all is well and as always I do enjoy hearing from you, too! Take care and best wishes 😊

Peace, Love and Hugs, Alyssa

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