A rain dog at Easter

I’m staring at my blog for the first time in ages and trying to compose a narrative of all that has happened in the past few months. There’s so much to tell, I’m not sure where to begin so I think I’ll come back to those happenings in subsequent posts.

The rain is pouring outside and some old Isaac Hayes album is playing on my iTunes. It’s odd mixture, his smooth voice against the beating rain. The current downpour signals the start of the rainy season. Great. I arrived in August last year (that’s 8 months in country!) and caught the last third of the rainy season which runs from April/May – October. Last year Guatemala was deluged by the most rain in its recorded history. This leaves a lot to be expected for the upcoming wet months. Travel will be difficult on these muddy, landslide-prone roads. I was returning from the Lake at the beginning of December and got stuck behind a landslide that had just occurred along the road descending into Nebaj. What was unnerving about the whole thing was that it hadn’t rained in several weeks. I’m guessing the soil was so saturated from all the rain of the previous months that eventually hillside crumbled. It will be interesting to see what goes down this rainy season and also how the constant rain will affect my work as I’ve noticed that Guatemalans aren’t exactly excited about doing work when there’s even a light drizzle.

Last week was Semana Santa (Holy Week) which is the country’s largest holiday outside of Christmas. The schools that weren’t already closed because of the lengthy teacher strike, shut down for the week (as did most businesses) and it was nice to see the streets filled with people. It was a festive time and Nebaj was filled with carnival booths, street vendors, a couple of rickety ferris wheels and of course plenty of bolos (drunks). The strangest thing I saw was an effigy (of who I have no idea) hanging in the central park in front of the Catholic Church. I spent most of the week leading up to Easter in Nebaj by myself, taking a break. I lounged around, worked out, read, watched a bunch of The Wire and wandered the muddy streets. I’ve got to admit it was good to have some alone time. Sometimes living with 5 siblings up in Salquil Grande can be trying and I’d spent a lot of time with Peace Corps volunteers in the past month so it just felt nice (and a bit lonely), to take a break from everything. That being said I did have a wonderful wine filled night with other volunteers at Passover Seder on Wednesday night. I hadn’t seen my good friend Noor in a long time so it was great to spend time with her and of course our terrific host Nicole.

Most of the major U.S. holidays have passed since I’ve been in country. Thanksgiving and New Year’s were celebrated in grand fashion with other volunteers and that was nice. It’s great to get together in big groups for such celebrations because while I come from a small family, it’s nice to experience that same sort of camaraderie. Christmas was a small event. I spent it with my two dear Dutch girls who had just arrived for their two month volunteer stint in Nebaj. I had planned on getting together with other volunteers for Xmas but I decided to spend it in a small setting, getting to know my new European friends. While I miss everyone back home, in regards to Christmas and Easter, it has felt nice to take a break from the usual madness that comes with holidays here in Guatemala and especially in the U.S. It may not seem preferable to hunting for eggs or microwaving Peeps but spending a quiet couple of lonely days was a nice change.

Dia de la Independencia

Well it's September 15th which is Guatemala's day of independence (it shares this date back in 1821 with El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica). As such an important day the town is alive and brimming with commotion. This morning there was a parade which wove through the streets. It reminded me of those Montreat parades I used to march in, with kids dressed as different things like the Quetzal (Guatemala's national symbol). The most interesting part of the parade was probably a group of children dressed up in black face to depict the Garifuna people (West African descendants who inhabit the eastern part of the country). I don't think that would exactly fly stateside. Everyone was decked out in their blue and white, school bands marched and little kids set off fireworks in the streets. It's such a neat thing to experience another country's day of independence, witness all their patriotism and pride. It's been a while since I've updated. I've been very busy: lots of presentations with little prep time but it's good to practice shooting from the hip. Tomorrow I've got to give a presentation on tire gardening in Spanish which should be interesting.

It was a good weekend. Saturday we took part in a traditional Mayan ceremony. I'm looking forward to learning more about the Mayan culture and since my program is Food Security it's likely I will be in a more rural, Mayan village. It was very interesting. It's been an amazing year experiencing different religious ceremonies. In the past year I've been to a Jehovah's Witness service, a Christian service, participated in a voodoo ceremony, an informal Jewish event, a Pagan/Wiccan solstice party and now a Mayan ceremony. It's been awesome to take part in such a wide array of sacred events. I'm completely fascinated with different cultures, ways of life, beliefs, etc. It's a desire to understand one another through learning and absorbing different cultural aspects.

I spent this past Sunday up at the farm with my family. When we got to the farm we found their guard dog Rex lying lifeless. It turns out a coyote had gotten him. It was a little sad but we dug a grave and buried him under the corn. We hung up plastic bags to scare birds away from the avocado trees and we cut down some corn to sell. It was a great to spend the day with the extended family and not have a tech or Spanish session to attend. I've been playing some soccer which has been good exercise especially up here at 7,000 ft and I'm going to have a nice tush by the end of training thanks to the steep hill that leads to my house.

We're taking a field trip next week which should be quite the outing. Yup that will be me and eight girls. I may commit seppuku before I make it back. I'm enjoying Food Security, I find the information really interesting and I'm looking forward to working with the Guatemaltecos after swear-in. We've got a garden set up right now and we've been tending to it. We're growing some basic crops that will harvest within the couple months we're in training like root crops (radishes, beets, carrots), some tomatoes and then three cousins (broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage). So far so good, we're seeing sprouting although we need to do some thinning (or "purging" as Stalin would call it). The only problem has been that some chuchos (street dogs) did some digging in one of our beds the other day.

Something I would like to address are the landslides that recently caused a national emergency here. Some of you probably heard about it some of you may not have. The major American media programs (CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc.) spend very little time on international news so you have to look elsewhere to find out what's going on in other parts of the world. I recommend BBC.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Guatemala is ripe for natural disasters and landslides are among the most prevalent. This rainy season has been the most powerful in Guatemala's history. The country has received more than three times the normal amount of rainfall. Last week torrential downpours caused several landslides throughout the country. In Nahuala in the state of Solola (north of where I'm located) along the Pan-American Highway two landslides occurred. The first took out a bus. When help showed up there was a second landslide. The current estimates are 46 people dead. It's awful, thousands have had to evacuate their homes. These disasters come after the devastating Tropical Storm Agatha that hit Guatemala in May. Remember pictures of that sinkhole? According to BBC.com the president estimates that roughly 263 have died so far this year as a result of the rain. The bad news is their predicting it will only get worse. It's tough with such tragedy happening all around.

Here are some photographs from BBC.com: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11193592