Beards, Computer Centers and Freaky Ziki.

So I am growing a beard. Si estoy creciendo una barba Mama. And I am very proud of it. Sometimes I make myself laugh out loud because it has become my new project. But wait... the Peace Corps Says we are supposed to maintain a proffesional appearance at all times and if we decide to grow facial hair it must be kept and trimmed, Am I a bad person!!??? ...... Naw I dont think so. I have actually come to really like my scruffy look, the locals don´t seem to mind, plus it goes well with my new house. OH, By the way I also have a new crib. yes, a new crib! I lucked out being this house used to be the towns former computer center, so that means the house is very very secure. It has metal doors and a big front roll over garage gate. Inside is a front open patio that can fit up to 2 small cars and to its left is a garden. The house is owned by a man who lives in the US and his brother who lives in my town looks after the place. He is now my new landlord and has left me the place for 300 Quetzalez which is roughly 40 bucks a month. I occupy two rooms in the house, the first room houses the kitchen, dining area guest room, and the second my room.


Books read so far: Bitter fruit: The story of the American Coup in Guatemala by Stephen Kinszer, Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village by Stephen Montejo, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Currently reading: I Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, by Rigoberta menchu and Elisabeth Burgos-Debray.




¨El Centro De Computacion¨ aka the computer center is now what I call my new home, literally!! Either that or the fortress because it looks like one.
This is the front of the Computer center.




I also have a dog. His name is Ziki Ziki, hes a black dog, (dont know what breed, don´t ask). Hes really sweet, he keeps me company and guards the house. He was given to me by my previous host family to guard and keep me company. I´ve renamed him ¨Freaky Ziki¨ after the rapper from the Diplomats with the same name. He´s a chill ass dog. He just lays around all day and sleeps. Sort of like me. Ha ha! Guess thats why we get along so well.



I have to say I was freaked out when I first moved into the new home. I was all paranoid. it is hard to live on your own first after living with hosts families for over five months. Second, just living alone in a nother country is frightening in its own. but i am handling well and I have settled.



Sorry for the moment i have no new pics because of my broken camera but here are some pics I had saved on my USB. The first is SanVicente Buenabaj, the second is me fooling around. The thisrd is of some kids at a parade. Enjoy.

Parades, queens, torches and K´iche.

First off. Congratulations to me , from me. I have made it exactly another month in my site today, and I happen to be very proud of myself. I now only have 22 more months to go (not that Im counting). Things have been smoother as

well, as oppose to the first month. I have also been keeping busy with all the festivities this month of september. On Sept 15th was Guatemala´s independence and a party it was all over the country, including school bands, beauty contests and lots of patriotism. I participated as a judge to several beauty peagents and also atttended several parades with my schools including one in Huitan and another in San Jose Ch. In addition I attended a day trip with one of my Schools ¨paloma¨to the west coast to pick up the independence torch. I have also been very excited beacause I finally began my K´iche´ classes.

So, xbeq´ij, alak, Utz wach la.

On another note I have also began to work with a social worker from the local health center. We are planing to work together to form a summer camp for the local children being their vacation starts in Mid October.

I will try to keep up my up my blog, the only bad news is I broke my camera.

love u all.

F. G

One month @ site.

One month at site... What can I say, Just another 23 months to go. Serving in Peace corps Guatemala, and being in my site has definatelly taught me some lessons in life so far. The most important one definatelly has been patience, patience, patience, and more patience. As if I was not already the most patient and calmest person in the planet, I guess not...

Life here is definatelly different from the US. And I,m not talking about having access to a Burger King or a reaaly nice Italian Restaurant anytime I feel like it. Im talking about the little things in life we take for granted. Life here moves pretty slow. I guess coming from a big city like New York has made my mind used to moving at 70 miles per hour when life here in the campo moves at 5 miles per hour LITERALLY, like when the local chicken bus has to go up a dirt road on a steep mountain and stuff like that.

Then there s that little thing we in the U.S value so much which is privacy, there is little to none privacy in the campo. Everyone knows each other and they all know your business. I have been living with a family for the past month but it is time to move on. I recently found a two bedroom house I will be moving into soon that i am very excited about. I will be buying my furniture soon and getting everything ready to move hopefully by September.

Yes, stress here is different from the U.S. Here you dont have to worry about credit card bills, or getting sued for looking at somebody wrong. NO, here you have to worry about how to avoid getting bit by territorial chuchos, how to avoid and dodge Bolos on the street, making sure you bring your rain jacket for the rain or making sure you have enough change for the chicken bus. YES this is Guatemala.

Luckily, Ive been keeping busy as you can see by the pics up top. The first pic is me with my kids in one of my schools. The name of the schools in called Instituto Basico Por Cooperativa Xetena. This school is my farthers and I walk 5K up the tallest mountain in my site to and from, which usually takes about an hour each way. I like this school alot mainly becuase the kids are very sweet and they love me being there. The walk is also an excuse to excersice which I dont do too much of around here. I like the walk because there are some really nice views along the way of some of the neighboring caserillos, and mountains. Although it is not fun when I have to walk in the rain, and in Guatemala it rains 70 percent of the time due to the rainy season, hence the picture of the Ule boots I bought in Momo.

Lastly, please excuse the lack of postings or bad gramar. The only one internet cafe in my town is very slow, not that any one really is interested in my experience here but if you are leave a message, drop me some love.

love ya.

Ney in Guatemala.

Swearing in, Party @ Antiguas and Settling in.

It took o nly about 40 seconds this past friday the 18th when the vice ambasador swore us in to become actual Peace Corps Volunteers. After, the whole group headed to Antigua to celebrate for the weekend. We said goodbye to our host parents of three months and headed for a funfilled weekend of drunkedness and happyness. I stayed at Kafkas along with Jessica, Kaying, Tim and Jane, and that night we celebrated at the famous Mono Loco, along with some other clubs I cannot remeber right now. Apparentlly it is dangerous to let 31 Peace Corps Trainees who have been housed in for three months loose. That night plenty of us were "BOLOed" or drunk.



We continued the party until Saturday night when we saw an awesome live Rock cover band. The band did plenty of Los Fabulosos Cadillac songs to have us jumping on top of each other, the energy in the room was fun and intense.
La SaLa, Antigua.
That Sunday was as depressing ad stressful as ever, Peace Corps IS a Rollercoaster Ride of emotions. With all the fun that weekend, everyone purposefully had forgotten they had to travel alone to their site with all their luggage. I personally had to take a shuttle to the Capital and a Pullman from there to Xela.

I didnt arrive to Xela until 7 pm that night making it too late for me to get to my site which is one hour north of Xela. I decided on staying in Casa Argentina which is a big Hippie Hangout in Xela and where the rooms are really cheap. Luckily 6 others from the group where also staying at the Hostel that night and were traveling the next day.
Casa Argentina Xela...

Casa Argentina, Xelaju, Guatemala, reminding people to clean after themselves

Settiling in has been O.K so far, I visited my site two weeks ago so the brunt of Culture Shock already has eased into my mind. I have been here almost three days and I have already started to work in some of my schools. I have also begun to look for housing for the next two years.

An hour ago I just finished giving a presentation to about 150 parents of students. Intense. Intense, Intense. Specally when you are a starnger in a community of people that have been oppresed for over 500 years. I was advised by the locals in My town San Vicente Buenabaj NOT to look at, or take pictures of children because of the bad reputation Guatemala has of children being stolen for illegal adoptions. But not too worry I am still ok, and I think I will be.

Extra Pictures from past 3 months.

Chicken bus the fell to it´s doom in the mountainous plains of Baja Verapaz
Fanny
Mixco Viejo Ruins
The crew at Volcano Pacaya

Kids picking up a car at El Chiux, Alta Verapaz
Gangs are a harsh reality in Guatemala.
My Home for Field Base Training.
Curious Parrot
Mayan Ceremony at Santiago Atitlan, Lake Atitlan.

My Host family.

Site Assignment and Site Visit.

Yes!!!

It is finally a reality. We were finally assigned our sites for the next two years. After much anticipation and an anxiety hair raising 2 day delay by our APCD Dr. Ball. We were finally given our site on June 25th.

It all took place in the municipality at my town of San Bartolome. Early that morning to reduce the anxiety, I took a jog through the campo. We then all met at the Muni at 9:00 AM and after some dialogue from the Doctor we were given the names of the sites and with a large map we were shown the locations.

Dr. Gonzalo Ball, our Youth Development Project Director.

The Manila folder held information about our future homes.

AND THE WINNER IS.......

??? ???????? ????????????
------------ is a small of the Municipality of ------------from the Department of -----------. It is located in the western highlands and is about 2,725 meters high. The population is roughly 14,000 people and has 14 caserillos (twps). The town is 98% indigenous K'iche and 95 % of the pop speak the Mayan Dialect K'iche. Because of it's altitude, the weather is Cold. The town is also 100% agricultural, growing mostly corn, beans, and potatoes along with some other yummy vegetables & fruit.

I had the chance to visit my site last week with the help of my counterparts who are ------------ and -----------, the local CTA (superintendent) of the schools in the town and the director of one of the Junior High Schools I will be working for.

Here are some other pics of --.-----------

(Due to PC policy I had to edit this post by deleting the names of my site). Sorry.

Mecanical baby from el Infierno (hell), and some art :-)

Field Base Training is two years of a Peace Corps volunters' life meshed up into 11 weeks, you either keep up with the cultre, lifestyle and language of the host country or get left behind in the dust. It is definatelly a test of ones physical, (intestinal) but most importantly emotional endurance. The rollercoaster ride of emotions being the most dificult part of the process.

here are some of the things I have been up to these past few weeks...

Heres a pic of the Mechanical baby fom Hell.

Several weeks back Our APCD Gonzalo set us up with a Guatemalan Organization which dedicates itself to teaching children the joys or downs of parenthood by providing them with mechanical babies. The children keep the babies for about a week and have to care for them as if it where their own. With the help of a chip planted inside of them, the babies are programed to cry histerically when they are cold , hungry, need to be carried, need their diaper changed or are just plain cranky. Maggie was my partner in this wonderful experience and we decided on naming the baby Milagro de Jesus Giraldo Hume. I kept her that first night and did not get any sleep at all. This experience has let me to postpone any child rearing for many years to come.

This past week we at San Bartolome Milpas Altas realized an event with the children in the community. We organized an Art Day at the Municipality which was a success. The children had to draw about the Comunity of San bartolome. A total of 35 people arrived and we had music and snacks. Good times...

Coban and San Cristobal, Alta verapaz

This past week for our individual directed activities, we visited a current Youth Development volunteer from Tues through Saturday. I was lucky enough to be picked to go with two other trainees to San Cristobal, Alta Verapaz.
San Cristobal is about 15 miles south west of Coban. The department of Alta Verapaz is very warm and is known for its beautiful exotic flowers plus a range of other natural wonders including hot springs and waterfalls. The main city of Coban is also famous for its anual half marathon.

First Aids talk with the kids at a school named Aguas Benditas, bottom charla @ Chiux .