Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Amongst the tall corn

On Saturday I arrived at San Bartolome Milpas Altas (literally Saint Bartolome Tall Corn), my home for the next 3 months. Located just west of the capital in the central highlands of Guatemala, San Bartolome is a city of about 8,000, five of whom are Peace Corps trainees. The town lies along the Pan-American Highway (how appropriate) which runs all the way from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. The weather up here is cold and it rains everyday. San Bartolome is nestled in the mountainside and sits at about 7,000 ft above sea level. Needless to say the town is very, very hilly. I live in the steep hills just outside of the city, about an eight minute walk to the center of town. It's a hike to mi casa from San Bartolome but I like it up there, it's muy tranquilo compared to the inner city where the other four volunteers live. In fact the only noise I hear are the numerous "bombas" which are shot off continually throughout the day and night.

Let me try and paint a picture of the property on which I live. Like all homes in Central America, there is a gate at the entrance. When you enter there is a drive at the bottom of a hill that leads past four houses which are located up the hill. These four houses belong to my family and extended family. The drive is bordered by avocado, lime, and pear trees and continuing down the drive leads to pasture, a pig sty and a small soccer field. All of this property belongs to my family. It's very, very nice and I have an incredible view of the highlands from my doorstep.

I live in a house with a family of four: Mi madre Olivia (35), mi padre Raul (31), Carmen (5), and Carla (2 1/2). They are a very warm and welcoming family and I'm the fourth trainee they have put up. It's fun to have siblings. Whenever I come home Carlita will yell "Daniel!" and run up and immediately lock herself around my leg (she goes up to my knee), prompting Carmen to do the same thing. Yea, I feel the love. Raul does party planning. Kinda like Zach except he hasn't gotten into the tents yet so Zach if you're reading this, and you want to expand your business southward in your mission to tent the world, I know a guy you can talk to. My first night in the hills of San Bartolo two kids asked me to play soccer with them on that small field. They're about 13 so I towered over them and could speed past them with my long legs. They called me the Hulk and I called them Shrek and Donkey. It was Shrek and Donkey vs. the Hulk which if you ask me wasn't fair. After running around for 10 minutes I was completely out of breathe, I'm not used to playing soccer at 7,000 feet. Still it was a lot of fun.

Sunday I spent with the family. They're Catholic and as is custom on Sundays, they lit a candle to burn all day in front of their shrine of some saint. In the afternoon the whole family piled into the car with Eminem blasting on the radio and Raul drove us further into the hills all the way up to the my family's farm. Raul is a reggaeton fan and Olivia likes Marco Antonio Solis (YES!). They walked with me up the terraced hills which bore the fruit of their labor: avocados, peaches, some vegetables I'd never heard of, and lots and lots of corn. It was a great family outing and a nice beginning to my three months here.

The Land of the Eternal Spring

It's the peak of the rainy season here in Guatemala and we flew through dark clouds when we landed in Guatemala City with lightning striking just off our wing. From the air Guatemala City looks like a sprawling mess (which it is) with houses stacked on the edge of cliffs. It's easy to see why landslides are so deadly here. Guate, as it's commonly referred to, is the country's capital and largest city. It's overgrown, dirty, and one of the most dangerous cities in Central America, which is really saying something. Not surprisingly Peace Corps advises against spending time in Guate and some of the city's zones are completely off limits. The mere sight of Guate from the air displays the dynamics of life in Latin America which has the largest wealth gap of any region in the world. There are skyscrapers and modern buildings bordered by the slums of the rural poor who flock to the city for potential opportunity but instead find harsh reality. Guatemala's airport is much nicer than I expected and it stands as a testament to Guatemala's number one industry: tourism. Covering the walls are pictures of stereotypical, smiling white families having fun at Tikal and other Mayan ruins.

The Peace Corps met us at the airport and immediately drove us out of the city and into the mountains. It's been difficult not to compare everything to Peace Corps Togo even though I know it's a completely different country, set up and experience. But staring out the bus window at Guatemala City it's was tough to comprehend how life with the Peace Corps in Africa was and how it would be in a country with modern U.S. looking malls. After a short drive into the hills we arrived at the Peace Corps headquarters in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas. Santa Lucia is a small town surrounded by three giant, sometimes-smoking, cone-shaped volcanoes which stand over 13,000 ft tall. The view early in the morning is phenomenal but because of the altitude by the afternoon clouds descend upon Santa Lucia.

We spent our first three days in Guatemala doing more orientation (culture, safety, health, etc.) and learning fun facts like how of the 67 countries around the world in which the Peace Corps currently operates, Guatemala is #1 in theft. They broke down and explained Guatemala's crime problem very clearly and it's pretty fascinating. I won't go into it but a lot of it has to do with remittances and 36 year civil war (1960-1996). There is a lot of impunity with something like 3% of crimes being solved. We lived with a host family for those first three days in Santa Lucia. My family consisted of a grandmother, her daughter, and her three grandchildren: Andrea (13), Allen (9?), and Daniella (1). Like every host family I've lived with they were shocked when I explained how I'm an only child. I mainly spent time playing cards with the kids (UNO is a great and fun way to practice a new language) and watching Mexican soap-operas (telanovelas). If you think the drama in U.S. soap-operas is ridiculously over the top (I´m talking to you James Franco) then you have no idea. I´ve been surprised with my Spanish. I´ve been able to understand almost everything that has been said to me. It´s just the speaking which is difficult for me, but it will come.

Our pack of gringos tramped around tiny Santa Lucia for a little bit and I got involved in a pickup game of hoops in the park. It's so awesome being taller than everyone else. A tall, goofy, white guy I feel like Shawn Bradley sometimes. I'm 6'1'' and so not only do I stick out as a white American but also as the tallest person around. Our last day in Santa Lucia some of us took a hike into the hills which was pretty cool. Saturday the 14th we said goodbye to our families in Santa Lucia and headed to our training sites to live with a new family for the next 3 months.

Southwest bound

8/16/10

It's 8 p.m. and the rain is pouring outside of my window. A perfect time to write. Let's play catch-up. It's been a week since I last wrote and since then I've been thrown into the whirlwind of another country, culture, language, and lifestyle. Our staging for Guatemala was in Arlington, VA and was exactly the same as staging for Togo in Philly 11 months ago. The same activities, icebreakers, and skits. It was fairly exhausting. There are 32 of us, 24 of whom are girls (the Peace Corps tends to have a female majority). Our training group is divided into 3 areas of focus: municipal development, agricultural marketing, and food security (the program of yours truly). It's a pretty good group, of course it was awkward but we're all in the same boat so that loosened things up a bit. A few of us went out and had some drinks after dinner and my buddy Chris came across the Potomac to hang out. It was great to see him before I left.

We checked out of our hotel at 3:30 and boarded buses which took us to Reagan (I prefer to call it National). I've always thought National is a beautiful airport with it's old architecture. It didn't take long to get to Guatemala. We had a very brief layover in Miami but almost instantly we were back on a plane for the 2 1/2 hour flight west.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

And so it begins...

8/10/10

Well I'm sitting in a Holiday Inn in Arlington, VA waiting to start my Pre-Service orientation in an about an hour. We're here for the day and have a 3:30 a.m. checkout time and then it's off to Guatemala tomorrow. It's funny to think it's almost been a year since I was in Philly doing this very same thing before heading to Togo. When I think about my fellow stagiers then and how we were all awkwardly meeting one another and then 3 months later as close as family, it's kind of amusing as I meet my new friends and I wonder how well we'll all know each other by the end of training. It's odd, a year ago I would never have thought I would be where I am today. Togo was amazing and the best time of my life. I had always dreamed of going to Africa as a little boy and there I was telling the Togolese that "I'm literally living a dream". The country was incredible and the people were amazing and Togo will forever hold a special place in my heart. I miss it dearly. It's very unfortunate what happened but now it's time for a new chapter. A new country, new adventure.