The World I Know

Yet again there's been a lapse in my blogging activities...whoops.  Things (as always) have been pretty crazy with me, but life's good and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Kudos to Mama Lupe for helping me with my birthday bash.  We toasted ingredients for my favorite dish, pepian de pollo.  Below you'll see dried chiles, tomatoes, miltomates, bread, onions, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. It turned out fantastic!  Oh I should mention that we started prep for this party on Fri May 28 (to have it on Sat), of course the two days that the tropical cyclone Agatha hit Guatemala hard.  

More on that to follow.

I am blessed to have such wonderful people in my life here.  

Juanita's not in this picture but she was so great that she went out during the storm to pick the leaves from the corn stalks so we could wrap up tamalitos in them!

Picture with the family

So many of you might know what happened during Agatha, but if not click here.  The storm came just two days after one of our active volcanoes, Pacaya, erupted, and caused immense destruction throughout the country with flooding, mudslides and even a giant "sinkhole".  Luckily my community was spared from losing any people, but the park sustained significant infrastructure damage.  Here's what happened to the hydroelectric dam...  I have a post back in April that shows what it looked like before.

Our entrance was completely washed away and one of our concrete arches is now falling down because the land underneeth it was washed in to the river.

Here's the turbine and generator buried under mud.

We didn't have any power at the park for 5 days, so we all pitched in a hand to clean up.  I joined the men fixing the bridge and entrance.  Here Don Martin and I are exhausted from shoveling.

Luckily the roads got cleared a bit and I was able to head to San Antonio for a visit.  I love these kids!

Randomly hanging out with my co-worker's mom while making dinner.  

Each day brings surprises and new experiences.

Chico, Eddy and I took off on a Friday after work and class to hike up to a gigantic rock on the mountainside.  Here we're taking a shortcut through someone's corn field.

My first baby shower in Guatemala.  Exactly like the ones back home, except for the food (tostadas and tamales).  We even played the guess the size of the mom's tummy game with string and the race to burst balloons between two people (below)!

We had the pleasure of hosting a group of Canadian tourism students for two weeks in the park.  They were amazing volunteers and helped make signs, clean the trail, paint the office, plant trees, etc.

Fair in San Antonio Aguas Calientes.  Could not believe the men spent all day Saturday cutting huge pieces of plastic to make this decoration for their street.  The design is a depiction of St. Anthony.

My dear friend Patty gave me this bag for my birthday.  She tried to make it to the party, but like all of the volunteers I invited she also couldn't make it due to the storm, so we celebrated later.

Danika and Fatima all ready for their brother's birthday party.

So this was the craziest weekend ever...had a get together with the fam Friday night, took off Saturday morning for San Antonio to hang out with Patty and the old fam, left early Sun morning to get back in time for the baby shower, made cakes all afternoon and then spent the evening celebrating Johnny's 12th birthday.  

It was great :)

Corazón del Bosque: through the lens

A while back I took a bunch of pictures of the park for an upcoming publication from CONAP (the National Council of Protected Areas) and thought I’d share them with you all.  Also included are a couple photos a Canadian volunteer took and gave to us to use for publicity.  It’s not a big park nor does it have crazy attractions (like incredible views, volcanoes, ruins, adventure activities etc.) but I’ve grown to love its simplistic beauty :)

De todo un poco

Oops…I can’t believe how I let time get away from me this past month.  If I would have been a bit more pilas (on top of things) I would have written some great play by plays because there’s been quite a bit of interesting things in and around the bosque.  Since I strive not to be a long-winded person, I’ll give the quick summary…

Beach

Ok this has nothing to do with the craziness but I just wanted to share my excitement at the fact I was able to go to the ocean two times this past month!  The first was down to Hawaii (just past the famous Monterico) for a combination lifeguard training, despedida (goodbye party) for a fellow volunteer and fabulous dip in the ocean (although the current was unfortunately strong).  Accompanying me was the crazy duo of Jamie and Josh…talk about attention when you have three tall canches (blondes) walking around together!  The second time was a day trip with the park staff to Champerico.  The waves were strong here too so we just played a bit, ate some fish and spent the afternoon at a pool.  Even with 3 applications of sunscreen I came home the lovely shade of a tomato.

Wedding

Yep, another wedding.  This time it was Oralia’s brother who got married.  We went to his civil ceremony on a Tuesday and I got to see and take part in several of the traditional customs (bringing food for the family, gifts, the outfit the bride will wear on the other wedding day- green corte, white lacy blouse and veil, and not to the mention the important advice part where all the elders share their wisdom with the couple- I have to admit I was a little offended when they were telling the bride that she better put the right amount of sugar in the husband’s coffee, iron his pants and shirts correctly, keep a separate soap ball for washing his clothes, etc but they seem like a more progressive couple than that so I shouldn’t worry.)  As crazy as all that sounds, nothing compares to the actual wedding day.  I don’t want to go in to too much detail, but let’s just say that as we’re sitting in the decorated church waiting for the mass to start, the priest comes out and says that the ceremony won’t be taking place!!!  Everyone is shocked (just like in the movies).  It’s a drama-filled story complete with an ex-girlfriend coming to ruin the day.  I felt horrible mostly for the bride (she’s super sweet and of course was so excited for her wedding day).  The party for 400 guests had already been arranged so that still took place (they were technically married anyways).  Kind of hard to celebrate with everyone upset (mainly at the priest for listening to the crazy rantings of the ex) but there was still the meal, cake, live marimba, dancing and so forth.

Fútbol

The World Cup is just around the corner!!!  I’m getting super excited :)  Lately I’ve had the chance to go to a few games (almost all in Novillero) but last weekend I made it to the Guatemalan finals and sadly watched the Super Chivos (Xela) lose horribly to a team from the capital (Municipal, aka the Rojos).  We sat in the rain and cold all afternoon only to see them end the night with a score of 0-4. 

Luckily the next day the boys played in the finals in Novillero and won 5-4!

Birthdays

I love birthdays.  Mostly because it represents a time where everyone comes together to celebrate someone they all love.  And also because it implies good food, cake, presents and if you’re lucky, a piñata….hehe.  I am fortunate to live with a family that shares the same mentality; we are mad birthday partiers.  Here are pics from the past two birthdays (Chico and Mama Lupe).

I made chocolate cake for Chico and the most amazing brownies (got the recipe from the US ambassador here) for Mama Lupe.

Semana Santa

My favorite customs from Semana Santa in El Novillero:

• Baking baskets full of "semana santa" bread (a sweet bread sometimes made with milk or raisins) that gets exchanged among families.
• Constructing "arcos" which are different sized arches made from fruits, breads, plants, etc and are placed in homes, in front of churches or businesses to celebrate holy week (see bottom left).
• Holy Thursday: in the morning there is a traditional breakfast with the family of semana santa bread, hot chocolate and a garbanzo/plátano sweet dish; in the morning all the god-children stop by to visit and exchange food (usually fried chicken and a veggie salad); lunch is also had together at home and includes way too much food (the food dropped by and more); and a mass takes place late afternoon with neighboring communities.
• Holy Friday: a procession starts mid-day from a community up the mountain, which carries down the image of Jesus carrying the cross, stopping at altars ("rugs" made from colored sawdust, flowers, fruit and pine needles, check top left) in front of several homes to pray (we joined half way down, walking "procession-speed" for a couple hours) till we arrived back in El Novillero joining up with other processions for a huge mass in the soccer field.  After the 3 hour mass Jesus is taken off the cross (bottom center and right), put in a coffin-like box and there is yet another procession through town, ending up at the old church...crazy long but fun day!
• Sábado de Gloria (Saturday of Glory): families go out during the day to have picnics, visit relatives or just hang out together (at the park we had over a thousand people enter!)  There is another mass in the evening (with a bonfire outside and everyone enters with candles); many things take place such as confirmations, baptisms and this year there were 5 weddings too :)
• Domingo Resurrección (Resurection Sunday): although this day is often the biggest day of holy week in the US, here it is the calmest, with a normal mass either early in the morning or in the afternoon.

Proverbs & Culture

Russian Proverb:

If God does not bring it, the earth will not give it.

Chinese Proverb:

Don't depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load.

During training to become Peace Corps volunteers, we went through several sessions on cultural differences.  The purpose was to help us understand the thoughts, motives and actions of others so we could effectively carry out our work in a context quite distinct from that which many of us were accustomed to.  One topic that stuck with me was locus of control.  A person who has a high internal locus of control believes that they have the control to change events based on their actions and behaviors.  Someone with with a high external locus of control relies more on fate, and believes that chance or some higher power determines events.  North Americans generally have a high external locus of control, believing that if they study enough, work hard and don't give up they can achieve their dreams and be successfull.  Even those of us who believe in God still lean in the direction that we were given the capacity to look for or create our own opportunities.  The tendency in Guatemala is definitely more passive, noted with a high use of the phrases "si Dios quiere/manda" (if God wants/wills) or "primeramente a Dios" (first to God, used in my region when talking about if something will happen or not).  For me it's been interesting (and perhaps frustrating at times!) to see how this plays out in work and social situations.  Generalizing a bit, I can many times trace a lack of initiative, lack of future planning and the inability to own up to responsibility to this cultural trait.  


Going back to the two proverbs above, maybe that explains a bit of the difference between the Russians and the Chinese...


Where do you find yourself on the spectrum?

I do!

I had the privilege of attending two weddings during the month of March.  The first was a mix of the indigenous and ladino cultures of Guatemala, set outside the country’s second largest city- Quetzaltenango.  The second took place near San José, Costa Rica and was also a mix of cultures, with a bit of the US, Costa Rica and China.

Here´s the recap:

 Chuck and Laura

I like this story a lot.  It begins just over five years ago, when I decided to study abroad a semester in Costa Rica.  I was placed with a wonderful host family that had three daughters, one son, and was half tican (Costa Rican) and half Chinese.  Only the youngest two still lived at home, Beiy Sim who was a few years younger than me and Chuck Jun who was slighter older.   There was another girl in the same program that lived just down the street from us and we became fast friends.  She would come over to the house often, and we would go out with my host brother Chuck and another study abroad friend, Steve.  By the end of the semester Laura and Chuck had definite chemistry, but alas, she had to go back to the States.  Luckily, Chuck ended up going to San Diego the next year for a few months to study English….Laura just happened to go to college in San Diego as well :)  From there their story goes back and forth from Costa Rica, her Peace Corps stint in Bolivia, being relocated to Costa Rica, being together a bit in her home state of Washington, etc.  All this to say that this couple has traversed (and is currently exploring!) the hemisphere together, they love each other deeply and I have absolute confidence that they will make it work no matter what.  It was such a blessing to be able to join them on such a special day!!!  Better pictures can be viewed at http://blog.theyoungrens.com/

The old host family and I back together again!

Claudia y Maynor

Claudia is one of my favorite cousins of the family on Miguel Angel’s side.  She’s such a sweet person, 22 years old and studying marketing in the university.  A couple of my favorite memories here that include her are the time we all went camping on the mountain and the training I went through on how to kill and defur(sp?) a rabbit.  She had been dating Maynor for several years before joining him in marriage at his family’s home outside Xela. 

Their version of the dollar dance....women pinned money on Maynor and the men on Claudia :)

Doña Oralia and I