If all the rain drops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a world it would be.

I am happy to report that all is well here in Guatemala.  It’s hard to believe how the time passes, but now that I've made a life for myself here, everything is happening in the blink of an eye.

For starters, I have been in my permanent site for over two months…22 more to go. After ten weeks of intense training near the main tourist city, Antigua, I moved six hours north to Nebaj.  Here’s some background information on Nebaj:

·         Nebaj is located in the North of the department of Quiché

·         It’s part of the “Ixil triangle” and is the largest of the three cities. Chajul and Cotzal make up the other two points.

·         Nebaj is 98% indigenous Ixil (pronounced ishil). 

·         The native language of Ixil is very well preserved here.  It is most native Nebajense’s first language and Spanish is rarely spoken in the aldeas (small towns outside of the city center).  This makes it a bit challenging to communicate with students, but all of the teachers can speak Spanish.

·         It’s famous for its beautiful traditional dress that is worn by the majority of women here. It consists of a brightly woven top, known as güipil (pronounced wipil). The güipil is tucked into a long, red skirt known as corte, which is wrapped around the waist several times and fastened tightly by a colorful belt known as a faja.

·         The municipio of Nebaj has a population of about 80,000 which is big for a Peace Corps site. 

·         There is a daily fresh market (which I take full advantage of).

Nebaj has been treating me well thus far.  I’m working in 10 schools overseeing the Healthy Schools project where I teach teachers how to instill healthy habits in their students.  It is definitely a work in progress.  Eventually I also plan to work on nutrition, school gardens, and mental health in the schools.  My schedule is made by me (a big plus).  My mornings are usually filled with school visits, meetings, or trainings.  The afternoons I have relatively free and I use them to plan, spend time with my host family, and integrate into the community. 

The people here in Guatemala continue to amaze me with their generosity, humbleness, and timid manner.  Working in the small towns surrounding Nebaj has shown me the more conservative, rural side of life.  In one of my schools, about a 40 min microbus ride through rocky, windy hillsides, I was greeted by children with a Buenos Dias as they bowed and waited for me to touch their head in approval.  This, I soon learned, is an old Mayan custom that is rarely practiced anymore, but can be found in some of the small villages.  In this same school several classrooms had dirt floors, the sound of pounding rain on the laminate roofs made it near impossible to teach, and there were two teachers absent the day I went, which meant no school for those students.  They have such strong traditions that have lasted for centuries, but it’s still a struggle for many to place importance and priority on education. 

Rainy season has settled in nicely here in Nebaj.  Upon my arrival in Guatemala, I began asking people what the rainy season was like and built this inexplicable fear of the inevitable rain.  After all the pre-rainy season nerves, I must admit that I am quite enjoying this season and I've settled into my own routine which is dictated by the weather.  In the morning I wake early to sunshine, birds chirping, and pigs snorting.  I normally go for a run, as I’m training for Antigua’s half marathon in July.  The beautiful mountain sides are green from all the rain and the air is fresh.  Nebaj’s farmers are up early and greet me as I run past their plots of land while they tend to their crops.  After my morning routine, I head out to a school, and I make it back home in time for lunch and for the afternoon rain to start.  Typically it rains on and off the rest of the afternoon.  This creates excellent background noise for afternoon reading and naps.  My rain phobia has now dissipated and I look forward to my afternoon siestas and relaxation.

On my way home from visiting a friend, I was on a microbus listening to the latest podcast of This American Life.  I was tuned out from the world when suddenly I overheard a melody that was all too familiar.  I looked up and saw the backs of two mother’s heads, both with a young child in their laps. The kid’s heads were bobbing in harmony to “Ah ah ahah ah ahah ah ahah”.  I took out my headphones and smiled when I confirmed what they were singing.  “si las gotas de lluvia fueran de caramelo…” If all the rain drops were lemon drop and gum drops, oh what a world that would be”.  And I thought to myself…what a world that would be.  

 Building a tire garden during training. This is Moses...he cut most of the tire. Guatemalans were born to work with machetes.

One of my favorite teachers during a Mother's day celebration.

 They are all smiling for me after they brushed their teeth.

 A young girl in traditional dress.

 My 3 year old host sister. This could be a postcard.

 In traditional dress for a wedding (minus my black skirt)

 The church of Nebaj.

 Posing with some school girls. They don't particularly like their picture being taken. They're cute anyways!

My not so temporary Peace Corps Guatemala life

8 weeks have passed since I stepped off the plane onto the hot Guatemalan ground. 

My life has taken a complete 360 from my former U.S. nanny life. 

• Long hot showers have been traded in for bucket baths. 
• The days of electric kitchen equipment are no more.  Here my family has no oven, stove, refrigerator, or microwave…but we do have a blender (used mainly for liquefying beans).  




 
• Apples and grapefruits every day in the states have been exchanged for mangoes, papayas, and bananas (which I consume in high quantities). 

• The luxuries of a washer and dryer are long gone.  All of my clothes are washed by hand and then they are hung on the clothes line.  This is a fun task to keep up with my laundry OCD.

• The New Jersey Transit and MTA seem like a dream compared to my daily commute via the “chicken bus”.
• Chicken buses: Yellow school buses that have expired according to US standards, arrive in Guatemala.  They are subsequently pimped out (literally) with a paint job, luggage racks, and added rows of seats (to fit more people and less leg room of course), then stuffed like a can of sardines.  Seats that are normally for two people are packed with three people.  The two people on the end of the seat basically have one cheek on and the other half of their body is resting against the person they’re sharing the aisle with. Some trips are so full that people hang out of the front door and start piling onto the roof of the bus.  Yes this is real life…and after the first few trips, its really not so bad.

 

• Fitness classes at my luxury NJ gym have been replaced with insanity, p90x, and Jillian Michaels workout videos in my bedroom.

• The people at the internet café know me…wifi zones are few and far between.
• Big salads are traded in for beans, eggs, and tortillas. (this will change once I start cooking for myself again in a week!!)

• My former life of chasing my cousins around the house to brush their teeth and wash their hands will soon be a huge part of my full time job as a facilitator of healthy habits in a school setting.

• My days of struggling to learn Spanish are about to be repeated while I attempt to learn the Mayan language Ixil to further communicate with the locals...Ill be living in Nebaj, Quiche!!

Yes, my life indeed has been altered, but I must admit that I feel exceptionally happy here in Guatemala. 

 “Life is too short, don’t just live the length of your life, but live the width.”

Semana Santa en Guatemala (Easter)

 Semana Santa is one of the most celebrated times of the year in Guatemala.  It is a celebration of Holy Week.  The celebration begins at the beginning of Lent with processions that continue throughout the 40 days, with the culminating processions in the final week of Lent.  A procession leaves from the Church of origin (each church has their own procession throughout the month) and travels throughout its town for varying amounts of time and distances.  There are people, known as cargadores, who carry a very large float that has a statue of Jesus carrying a cross on it. 

 This is a picture taken at one of the night processions in Antigua, Guatemala.  Antigua is world renowned for its beautiful processions.

 The people who carry the float are typically dressed in purple robes.  At certain points along the route of the procession, the cargadores exchange positions with another man in a purple robe to take over their load.

There is also another group of men known as the “Romanos” or the Romans to represent who crucified Jesus.  They are typically dressed in Red.

The procession is almost always followed by a band.

Another large part about the Semana Santa are the traditional carpets or “alfombras” that are hand decorated by the locals.  The streets are cleared of all traffic, bus routes are detoured, and road blocks are put up.  Local families decorate a large piece of the roadway with their own unique design to honor the procession.  Many alfombras include fruits and vegetables that are offered to the procession and can also be eaten by those carrying the float as they pass by.

Normally wooden planks are placed to create a rectangle, then filled in with saw dust.  This dust is then dyed and decorated using stencils and more dyed sawdust to fill in the rectangle with lots of colors and designs.

During the procession locals are led down the streets of the town following a crucifix, until they make their way back to the church and wait for the float with Jesus carrying the cross to enter back in.  This process can take many hours.  Some processions last up to 12 hours.

There are also alfombras that are simply made with flower petals.  Notice the watermelon and food offerings made in the alfombras.  These were by far my favorite part about Semana Santa.


Semana Santa in Guatemala was truly a special experience to be a part of.  The best part was watching the families working on their beautiful alfombras and all of the time and effort they put it…all for it to be walked over by the procession and ruined in a short instant.  The time and hard work that goes into the alfombras is a true reflection of the dedication and respect the families have towards the Catholic Church and the holy event of the Semana Santa

Las cosas ricas de Guatemala

Why not have the first real entry be about food right?  After all, it is an essential part of being and a great source of pleasure. For me, its my favorite thing to learn about in a new country.

After a very long day of training, my host mom greeted me at the door with a choco-banano.  In the states we have chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, but chocolate covered bananas are not so easy to come by.  We are definitely missing out.  This was my first choco-banano experience.  It is a frozen banana dipped in chocolate and covered in nuts.  Once you get to the banana part, you have to lick it as it if was ice cream because its way to cold to just bite (yes I did try to bite it…I was so hungry). 

My host mom then followed that up with a rellenito.  Another bite of deliciousness.  It is basically mixed up plantain batter with frijoles (like refried black beans) in the center.  Then it is deep fried and rolled in sugar.  This is all just the appetizer before dinner.  Granted, these treats don’t happen very often, but I’m not complaining…I just may not be eating much for dinner.

I will give a run down of what the typical meals are like.  There are two staple foods in every Guatemalan household:

1)      TORTILLAS.  There is no meal in Guatemala that is not accompanied by a large stack of hand made tortillas.  Up until about 5 years ago, all the households made their own tortillas. Then somebody came up with the brilliant idea to sell tortillas.  Now there are “ventas de tortillas” on every corner with 4 or 5 young girls clapping balls of dough between their hands, making their living.  Some households still make their own, but it is much more convenient and efficient to buy them.

2)      FRIJOLES.  Frijoles are cooked black beans that are “liquefied” in a blender.  In my household, this process is done once a week and the beans are kept in a covered pan and eaten throughout the week.

Typical breakfast foods:

• Tortilla with frijoles and queso (you crumple up the cheese over the tortilla that is naturally covered in frijoles.)
• Fried plantains and frijoles (with tortilla)
• Hard boiled egg (with frijoles and tortilla)
• Tamale. This sort of tastes like a savory cream of wheat (except its corn) with a light tomato sauce over it and a piece of meat in the center.  The tamale is wrapped in a plant leaf (not to be eaten).  This is to be eaten with tortilla or bread.
• There is always the fall back bowl of corn flakes.  Here in my Guatemalan house the girls like the cereal “soft” aka soggy, and with hot milk.  The first day I ate it, all I could think of was how my mom used to make me finish my soggy cereal, and if I did, I could pick out any kind of cereal I wanted…I don’t think I ever got to choose. I politely told my host mom that I prefer the cereal “hard” and the milk not hot.

At 10:00am and at 4:00pm in Guatemala, they have a snack that’s called “ refacción”

Typical refacción foods:

Tostada (flat hard taco shell) covered in avocado, frijoles, and hot sauce

Any type of bread or a small sandwich

Any fruit

Rellenito (descriped earlier)

Choco-banano

Typical lunch food:

Lunch is the biggest meal of the day.  There is a large variety of foods they eat.  Most of the typical dishes include some type of squash vegetable (they have many different varieties), potatoes, carrots, beef or chicken all stewed in a sauce.

They also make different soups with myriad vegetables and meat or with leafy greens. 

Typical dinner food:

The dinner food is basically the same as the breakfast food.  It’s usually something small and quick like the fundamental tortillas and frijoles.  This may be accompanied by an egg, plantains, or cheese (a crumbly kind).  In my house they also make pancakes and French toast (this was taught to them by a former volunteer). 

The thing that I have been loving the most about the food here is the amazing fruits they have.  I have been eating the most delicious mangos of my life.  They are so sweet and ripe, you can tell they are freshly picked. Also, the papaya is amazing.  My host mom has caught on that I love fruit, and lucky for me, they do too.  She buys this small fruit that looks like a green tomato called a hokote…its sweet and a bit sour, put a dash of salt on it and enjoy.

On that note, I’m still full from the choco-banano and the rellenito, but its time for dinner.  Adios for now.

Bienvenidos

I have officially been in Guatemala for two and a half weeks.  It always amazes me how in such a short time, you can feel right at home in a brand new place.  Or how little time it takes for a host family to take you in and make you a new member of the family.

2 weeks ago when I arrived with my new host family, my host mom said to the Peace Corps van driver, “thank you for bringing me my new daughter”.  I knew from those words that I would feel right at home.  Since then, Dona Olympia, Don Francisco, and their 3 daughters have delighted me with good conversation and good food, but most importantly every day they show me the meaning of humility and humbleness and that you don’t need a lot to be happy.

I am going to use this blog as a window into a different world that many of you have never seen; a world that doesn’t necessarily include washing machines, hot running water, or wifi.  I will incorporate some of my daily activities, but my main goal will be to paint a good picture about what life in Guatemala is like and what my job, as a “Healthy Schools” facilitator and Peace Corps Volunteer entails.  I hope you enjoy.