July wrap up

A great deal has happened since my last post over a month ago. I’ve had site assignment, site visit, swear in, and finally I’ve moved into my site. Site assignment day was pretty exciting; our APCD Basilio drove to each of our training towns and handed us each a colored folder based on what department we’re in. Mine ( which was kelly green) told me I’ll be living in Cajolá, Quetzaltenengo, for the next two years. Cajolá is about an hour away from the second biggest city in Guatemala, Xela, and within an hour of good friends. During my site visit, I learned I would be taking over for the first volunteer in this site, Ashley, and saw where I would be living. Ashley was an amazing volunteer and the more I’m here I realize that I’ve got a lot to live up to. She showed me the ropes and introduced me to a lot of people in town, including the mayor, all of the city workers, and of course all of the health workers. I had already met my counterpart, Julissa, and my doctor, Raul, on ‘counterpart day’ earlier that week. Julissa seems sweet, really busy though, so I will just have to wait and see how much we actually work together once I get settled. Dr. Raul and I get along great; I’ve heard countless stories of male doctors not wanting to work with female volunteers, or giving them a hard time. Luckily Dr. Raul was a medical professor in Guatemala City for the past 30 years and has experience working with and respecting women. He’s only been working in public health for the last 5 years so he’s still very passionate about what we do.

After site visit I had to return to a bittersweet week back in San Antonio Aguas Calientes. I hung out with Duly, Carlos, and Sandra as well as my fellow trainees. Friday, July 16, was my official swear in date. We had a ceremony at the Peace Corps headquarters with our host families, the U.S. ambassador, and all of the Peace Corps workers. Afterwards, the five of us from San Antonio took our families out for lunch in Antigua and the said our goodbyes. We spent Friday and Saturday letting loose with the group of 45, and on Sunday we went our separate ways.
I’ve been in site sine July 18 and in this short time I can say so far so good. Cajolá has approximately 2,000 inhabitants, but including the aldeas (villages) the health center serves about 14,000 people. The elevation level is about 8,000 feet, so I am usually in several layers, a fleece, and long pants; who would’ve thought I should have packed more sweaters when moving to Guatemala?? I’m definitely the only gringa in Cajolá, or “ix’nula” I should say, since I will be learning an indigenous language called Mam. Believe it or not, I am super excited about this! It will be super useful to know and I will be able to educate more people with the more Mam I know. It’s a little difficult as initially it sounds like clicking and many of the sounds come from deep in the throat, but as I’ll continue to say, poco a poco.

I live in a house with a 28 year old couple, Estella and Romeo, and their 4 year old son, Junior. Estella is pregnant and will have the baby in the next couple weeks in our house with a midwife. They did not pick the right Gokey girl to live with them, as I will definitely not be attending the birth. I instead offered to hang out with Junior. Junior speaks Mam and is just learning Spanish, so he hangs out in my room a lot and we practice together. I’ve been teaching him colors and names of common items, and I think he’s catching on.

I’ve lucked out again in my living situation; Romeo lived in the States for 9 years and understands Americans’ crazy need for privacy. They help me when I ask, and I spend a lot of time in their kitchen practicing Spanish with Romeo and learning Mam from Estella. I plan on calling a Mam teacher next week, but Estella is helpful thus far. I’m completely moved into my part of their place, which consists of a make-shift kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. I almost feel guilty for how great it is, as most of my friends have latrines and bucket baths. I do recognize the fact that Romeo worked very hard in the US for several years to send back money to build this nice home. A lot of people in Cajolá have family in the States. It’s really interesting to be able to view this side of the immigration argument; it just reinforces my already strong opinions.

The past week and a half have been pretty slow. I go into the health center every day and for the most part just hang out; people need to get used to seeing me and associating me with the health center. Along with this, I’ve assisted in a couple 5 hour health charlas to different groups of teachers, sat in on a few medical consultations, and walked around to different aldeas (villiages). I was done with my work (read ‘poster making’) by 3:30pm today so I decided to go exploring (don’t worry Dad, I took a big stick and had rocks in my pockets in case dogs started attacking ). I walked in a 2 hour giant circle and met a few old women who walked part way with me. Two of them could barely speak Spanish, and since my Mam is pretty limited we had very broken conversations, but I think we understood each other enough. I also met a lady who wanted to know when she was going to get a project at her house, so as we walked I had to explain to her that I won’t be working on projects for a year and that to have a project done in one’s house, a person has to come to multiple educational charlas within the next year as well as be able to put forth a percentage of the cost and labor. She wasn’t too impressed, but since Peace Corps is pretty new here, I have to reinforce the fact that Peace Corps works with the people and local resources to mainly educate, rather than coming in and giving material goods away.

I have a lot to look forward to in the next month (lots of breastfeeding and family planning charlas AND big birthday plans!), and I will keep updating as time goes on. Pictures will hopefully be updated Saturday when I'm in the city with fast internet (I'll also hopefully be on Skype if anyone is free and wants to check in). Thanks to everyone who has been keeping in touch, it means a lot!

Congrats Jordan and Ty on your engagement!