Ice Breakers.

Today we gave our first dinamica (ice breaker) with the kids at the instituto we are teaching at in our town San Bartolome. We had to prepare an ice breaker of 30-35 minutes. I chose on doing a self esteem building exersize where the kids had to run around the room and write positive things about each other on a paper taped to their back. It was very fun and the kids loved it.








At the end of the excersize we debriefed and spoke about self esteem.

LESSON LEARNED!!, not bad for a first...

Here are some more pics of the school.

Happy Ramblings...and G-Dub

Mood: Happy!
Currently Listening to... Ranchero Music at the local internet cafe, and It´s making me feel like having a beer.

Well if you guys have not been able to tell by now, I like to take alot of Pictures. And Luckily I haven't had my camera stolen Yet...(not that I´m expecting). Unfortunatelly there are alot of thieves here in Guatemala, and the Peace Corps really warns and drills it in our little heads to be minimal with worthy belongins on our person. I am a big believer of a picture is worth a thousand words, so while I still have my cameras, (yes I brought 2 digital cameras, one high quality, one so, so), I will be bringing to you the very best photographs of my adventures and landscapes.

Heres a lil pic of us in the white house with G-Dubya 4/30/08.




Speaking of adventures...

Last week on our way to the training site in Santa Lucia, we caught a glimpse of how crazy transportation can get in Guate. At the bus stop in San Lucas to catch the bus to Santa Lucia (training site) apparently two buses where racing each other for passesngers on the Highway. Apparently one of the buses arrived first and many of the passengers hopped on. This made the bus driver and ayudante (helper) from the bus tailing behind very upset. Long story short, the two ayudantes from each bus started yelling and cursing each other and started fighting in front of us. This was the start of an exciting day. Luckily no one was hurt and everyone went about their business.

Sorry no pic of that, I don´t condone violence.

Antigua, Volcanoes and Piñatas.

Volcan de Agua (Water Volcano).





Mayan word of the day:

Kuk: kaqchikel for ardilla, or squirrel.


Two sundays ago was a big sigh for the group being we all went down to Antigua for the day. It had been an intense week at our training site and we all felt we needed to let loose. We finished up some homework we had for Monday from 8 to 12 and headed to Antigua. We arrived at about 12:30ish and landed straight in Mono Loco which is a big Peace Corps Hang out spot. We had some nachos and a beer and unsurprised we met up with the rest of our Youth development group. After, we just walked around and I bought a really cool Mayan Carry on Bag which I will use through out the rest of the time here. I was able to squeeze some time before I went back home to use the local internet cafe in san Bartolome.








We are definatelly going back to Antigua. Its a really cool lil Colonial town with lots of tourism. Things could get expensive in there though...

Apparently Antigua was the second capital of Guatemala after the first capital "Ciudad Vieja" was destroyed by a mudslide off Volcan de Agua (Volcano of Water) in the 1600`s/1700`s. The capital was then moved to Guatemala city about 30 miles east of Antigua in about the 1800`s (could be wrong) when Antigua suffered a devastating earthquake.

Volcan de Agua.



Antigua was later rebuilt and now is mainly a tourist location where many peaople come for its famous Spanish schools. There are many museums one which is called El Azoteo which is a cofee plantation turned museum. It has exibits of traditional pre and post colonial indigenous Mayan Music, culture and garments.

We visited this museum last Friday with our Spanish class. The end of the tour consists of a tour of the processing of the cofee plus a tour of the plantation itself...Here are some pics.











Ripe Cofee, (Yumm!)






This past saturday the Trainees at S. Bartolome were invited to a 1st year birthday party in a terreno (farm) located in the outskirts of San Bartolome. They were celebrating Ana`s host brother's first B-Day. There was food, Piñatas and over 100 children! (exageration) Botton line was that these kids went crazy when the Piñatas came out and hell broke loose when they were opened, even grandma dove in to get some candy!

Feliz Dia De Las Madres, !te extraño mucho mama!

Mayan word of the day..

T´zi: dog (Kaqchikel)

Mood: >:-P

Last weekend was Dia de Mas madres, and in honor la Alcaldesa (mayor of the town)surprised all mothers in S. Bartolo with a traveling Mariachi serenade. They did their rounds around town and arrived to my host mom´s home at about 7:45 AM.






At 8:00AM we had spanish class in my home until ten and then we went to Doña Dora´s home which is where Maggie, another Peace Corps trainee lives. Here they held a special mother´s day tribute by praying the rosary My town is very religious and they pray and celebrate every religious holiday. It was very interesting because they gave everyone peaches to be placed on the ground after every prayer. The peaches finally formed a rosary. It was very beautiful.







Later on that night a local campesino (farmer) came to my host mother´s home to help out with the Tastusa problem. A Tastusa is a form of Gopher or mole that is a big prob here in Guatemala, it eats at all the roots of the plants and trees and it is known to wipe out vegetation. The farmer placed his arm deep where the gopher dug the holes and placed roots full with poison to see if we could get rid of the problem and grow some vegetables.






Puppy for a day...
Last Sunday, I arrived home from Antigua and to my surprise my host mom showed me a puppy someone had given her, she was a mixed breed, but she was still very cute. She told me some neighbors had found the puppy lost in a ditch and did not want to leave it so they gave it to her. I was very excited because I had never had a pet in my life. Me and my host mom spoke about giving the puppy a Mayan name so the next day I went to PC training and reserched some names. When I arrived home my host mom gave me the bad news the puppy belonged to someone in the town and it´s owners were made aware Doña Violeta had the puppy. Unfortunatelly the owners came and picked up the puppy that afternoon. DAmmn!!








Here are some additional pictures...




The local cemetary.






Sunset from S. Bartolo Milpas Altas.

First week in Guatemala

Arrival To Guatemala.


The white House.



Mayan Language word for the day...(Kaqchiquel)
Xsaqarik = Buenos Diaz. (good morning)




Current Mood: Gratefull, Excited, Inspired.

May 5th 2008.

Its been an exciting, and intense week. Arrival to the country was breathtaking. This country is very beautiful. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes one can only break its neck looking around at all of the trees, people, mountains and colors. We arrived to the airport at around 2:00pm that afternoon and shortly we were met by PC staff who loaded all 33 of us on a school bus and took us to the training PC headqurters in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas. The training site is very beautiful and it reminds me of my kindergarden school in Colombia. It has a beautiful Patio and is surrounded by rooms where trainings occur, and there are offices for adminstrative staff. The past week we have been learning many things from health to safety and we also stayed with a nearby host family for the first initial three days. I was fortunate to have been placed w/ the Castellanos with 2 other volunteers which lived not too far from the training site. They were very hospitable and cooked very good food.

I am now at a new site with a new host mother not too far from The Training location. I live in a big home, have my own room and shower. I will be staying here for the next 11 weeks for our training phase of PC and I will receive my site for the next two years later in late June.








The town I currently live in is literraly about 11 blocks long and and has a population of about over a thousand people.






May 6th

Today May sixth we had our first spanish classes at the municipality of my current Training site, San Bartome Milpas Altas. The other tarinees in my town Maggie, Carmen, Anna and I met our instructor Izabel at the park and we headed towards the Municipality. We were surprised and had the privilege of meeting the Mayor of San Bartolome Catalina Martinez who proposed a side project for us to work i the municipality at nights from 6-9 teaching some of the locals English and life skills. We were surprised and thankful and we kindly told her we would get back to her after we planned and spoke to our technical director and trainers.





May 7, 2008..
The name of my town for the next 11 weeks is called San Bartolome Milpas Altas. My I live with a single host mother so it is just me and her in her house. Training is intense as usual and very draining but it is very fun. The Trainees have to report to Training hadquarters every Monday for sessions regarding Technical, health, safety and safety. This past monday the we finally met out technical director Gonzalo who is a native of Guatemala. He is a medical doctor of indigenous descent who is new to the Peace Corps. He has been working about 2 years for the PC and has very fond knowledge of the rural country side of Guatemala. In total there are 17 of us in the Youth Development Group, and we have been lucky enough to have be the first group of Trainees who will b working the Youth Development project in Guatemala. Our Technical director Gonzalo told us we will all be sent to new sites in very Rural areas throughout the country to work in schools teaching life skills, planing for the future, HIV awareness ect....

Apparently in Guatemala, the social situation for children is very rough. There are many issues children have to deal with in this country that not many children in the U.S would ever have to go through. Besides the poverty many Guatemalan´s face such as living on one dollar a day, and the violence that plagues the streets, children in this country have to deal with little or no education, lack of motivation from parents, teachers, lack of opportunity, migration, gangs, prostitution, HIV, lack of self esteem. The median age of pregnancy in Guatemala is 18 while the medican age of marriage is 16. In addition, 50 percent of the population is indigenous and 50 percent is poor. There is also the problem of discrimination between the Ladino and indigenous population. Recently Inflation due to high gas costs has also hit Guatemala hard, in return increasing poverty and crime.

Part of the focus of our Youth Development group is to prepare the youth for their adult roles in the area of family, work, and life and to develop their minds in order to get them to think about themselves and their future. Also to motivate and inspire them to continue to pursue an education, whcih not many children do due to their responsibilities of work and family.

"To change others we may have to change ourselves first".

Today we were taken to meet a current volunteer Terry who has been in Guatemala for 2 years working the Pilot Youth Development program. We were first taken to a city called Dueñas where we were able to meet with 2 classes of 40 plus students. Terry introduced us to the students and did some ice breakers with them. After this we had lunch in Ciudad Vieja and then we headed to one of the other schools Terry teaches at which was one of the more Rural schools. This school was in a small village called Aldea Rejon which was located on the outskirts of the mountains. This town was almost all indigenous and the local people spoke Kaqchiquel. The school was really small and it held about 50 students, all within the ages of 8-12. Terry did some ice breakers with them and had us participate as well. we also learned some words in Kaqchiquel from the school director and one of the children made a presentation about one of the Mayan calendars.






"Imagination is more important than knowlwdge" -Albert Einstein.