Catching up!!!!!

I have purposely not written in a while, not to lose contact, but so that my fundraising blogs would stay on top! So I’m back, with a lot of updates. You better be reading this with a full glass of coffee (I’ll also allow a good microbrew) because it’s going to be long! The last real post was June 12, and I’ve been a busy girl since then. First, and most importantly, because of you all (pending one more big check) I reached my fundraising goal of $8,000!!!!!!! WOOOHOOO! I’ve been working on fundraising since I went home in April, and I’m happy to say that construction will be starting at the beginning of January. I have a lot of logistical things to figure out, and I’m really excited to get moving. I’m hoping my counterpart will be into helping me with at least this stage of planning, since she has already done it with the previous volunteer. If not, I’ve got some great Peace Corps coworkers that I’m sure will pitch in.
SO! June flew by. After I posted, my good friend Anna visited. She’s a Spanish teacher, so it was really cool to have her here, and for her to correct me on my Spanish = ) After that, I had packed week finishing up planning for the 4th of July party and All Volunteer Conference. I was able to give a workshop on washable/reusable sanitary napkins that went very well. Immediately after that, I went to the beach for a couple days, then had a few more very packed days of dental work. I had to get 6 replacement fillings, a root canal, and a crown. I won’t go into detail, but they don’t have funny gas here, so I was VERY happy when it was over! The rest of July was spent in site working and doing women’s groups. I taught them how to make an oral rehydration drink from limes, salt, sugar, and water.
In August, we had a 5 day conference on designing our projects as well as how to construct. I can proudly say I can mix and lay cement, as well as make stoves. I might not trust myself to do a whole job, but I get the jist of it! I had planned for my women’s group to give ME talks and presentations, but the week I had it planned for I was puking like crazy, so obviously I cancelled!
Moving on, in September, I focused on doing house visits for my women. This might not seem like a big job, but I had over 80 families to visit, spread out all over the place, with no mode of transportation other than my feet. It is necessary to continually do house visits to make sure the women are putting into practice what we’ve talked about in the group meetings. Things I check while I’m at their houses include: making sure their kitchens are clean, there isn’t food laying around, they try to keep the flies out, they are practicing drinking pure water, they and their kids are wearing shoes and have clean hands, etc. On these visits I usually am gifted either a beverage or some kind of food at every house, and the eating is just about as tiring as the walking! Since I couldn’t do it in August, in September I had the women give me charlas on any topic we had covered. It was really cool to see them take charge and explain to me how to purify water, make the oral rehydration drink, etc. I felt very proud during those meetings, and hoped that they were teaching their friends and families everything that they have learned so far.
In October, I did some translating for two US women’s soccer players (Shannon MacMillan and Tracy Noonan) in Xela. The first thing we did for them was a press conference, and it was pretty intimidating. The few days we spent with them were super fun, and since I really didn’t know anything about soccer, they were able to teach me! Also this month, my friend Blake came to visit, and since he’s been here already we pretty much stayed in my site so I could get work done. I continued house visits, and did women’s group. This month, I taught them how to make toothpaste with salt and baking soda. I am not sure how successful that was, since the toothpaste doesn’t taste like Crest, but I’m hoping to save money they might start making their own instead of buying the expensive stuff from the stores. Blake and I also visited Fuentes Georginas, which are these natural hot springs outside of the city. It was nice and relaxing, and I hope I can get there again before I end my service.
All of the visits from friends in the US I’ve had have been great, and I’m happy to say that Mom and Dad’s visit went very smoothly – they are both troopers. They arrived at about 10pm on October 31, and we hit the ground running from the moment they they got here. We were in Antigua, we went to a kite festival on November 1 in Sumpango (google it – so cool), they stayed at my site for 2 nights, we were at Lake Atitlán for 4 nights, then back to Antigua the night before we flew out. It’s nice for all of us that they were finally able to meet my host family, friends, and coworkers, and to see how I live my day-to-day life.
November will be spent with women’s groups this week, followed by Thanksgiving at the beach. I’ll be contacting some NGOs in Guatemala to see if they are interested in doing construction of some of the water tanks for free. I’ll be finished with my women’s groups, since I learned the hard way last year that thinking that I will get any work done in December is wishful thinking. Jordan will arrive on December 8 and stay for a week, and I think we’ll be staying at my site, and then heading to the lake for a couple days, maybe doing some zip-lining = )
I should mention a couple things: first, since June, three of my friends have headed home and I miss them dearly. However, Kyle and Lizzy are expecting, so although I was sad to see them go, I think their kid will be pretty darn cool, so I’m looking forward to meeting him or her in May! I also should mention that I am very lucky to be using my computer right now, since I spilled half a bottle of water on it yesterday. Due to my quick thinking, as well as putting it in 20lbs of rice for 24 hours, it is good as new. I didn’t have it backed up, but the instant it turned on today, I backed up all my documents and music. Disaster avoided!
The last thing I’ll mention is sad, but I think it is worth telling people about. In August, one of my health promoters, Angélica was murdered by her son’s dad. He took her to a cornfield and strangled her and their 8 month old son to death. I have a lot of things to say about domestic violence and women’s rights in general in Guatemala, but I’ll save it for another blog post. I will say though, that Angelica’s funeral was one of the saddest things I’ve ever experienced. She was 19. While I was giving her mom my condolences, she lost it, yelling “Megan, they took my Angelica and my grandson.” It made me reflect on how precious life is, and how much we take it for granted.
To keep everyone updated, it’s not official yet, but I should be ending my service around the end of March. My projects will be done, and I’ll have enough time to do follow up, so I think the amount of time spent here is/was perfect. It’s weird to think that I’m very close to being done, but then I panic thinking of everything that needs to get done in the next 4 months!
Now, for the most important part of my blog, the book list. These are books that I've read since my lost post:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
The Art of Racing in the Rain
The Final Testament of the Holy Bible – *this is probably my favorite book that I’ve read so far in Guatemala - READ IT!*
Nectar in a Sieve
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Lucky
The Tender Bar
Sophie’s World
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Escape
Little Bee

I hope all is well with you all in the US – as always, feel free to email me!

PBS

Cajolá was featured in a PBS article, as well as a woman in my Cajolá Chiquito women's group:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/latin_america/july-dec11/guat_08-29.html

To DIRECTLY help Isabella, who is set to receive a water tank when all funds are collected, as well as 67 other families, read the previous post and donate = )

Donate!!

This is the following letter I've emailed to friends and family, but if I somehow missed you, here it is!


Hello friends and family!
As many of you know, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer living in
Guatemala, more specifically in Cajolá, Quetzaltenango. I have been in
Guatemala since April of 2010, working on a project with the Peace
Corps called “Healthy Homes.” This program focuses on educating
families on preventative health, helping them to be more responsible
for their own welfare as well as the welfare of the community.
Since August of 2010 I have been working on educating four groups
of women, totaling 70 women. We meet monthly, and I give presentations
on basic health and hygiene. I have been able to do mini-projects as
well, including washable/reusable sanitary napkins, portable
hand-washing stations, and liquid soap. The projects I do with them
use only ingredients they can get for free or at a very low cost where
they live. As a reward for completing the contract they signed,
stating that they would come to each group, participate, and change
habits in their household, I am building one project per household.
Many living conditions in these communities are unsafe. How can we
teach about the dangers of smoke inhalation when these woman cook over
an open fire 10 to 15 hours a day, or the importance of a bacteria
free home, when they live and cook on dirt floors which are almost
impossible to clean.
In addition to education, I am trying to raise funds to help
better the homes of 70 families who live in the communities of Cajolá
Chiquito, Xecol, and Xetalbiljoj in the municipality of Cajolá. Your
contribution could save a woman or a child from getting lung cancer by
helping us build an improved 'smoke free' stove in their house, or
prevent a child from severe diarrhea and resulting malnutrition by
helping them get a cement floor or water tank, allowing the family to
live in a clean and safe environment.
The original idea for the project was to give all of the
women water tanks. After talking to other Peace Corps Volunteers who
have completed projects, we discussed how empowering it is to have a
choice, and I decided to let the women choose which of the sanitary
infrastructure projects we offer they think would benefit each of them
individually in their households. Not only did this give them more of
a say, it also made the original estimated cost of the project
decrease.
The women had a choice between a cement floor (many of them have
dirt floors), a rain-catching water tank (many have no access to water
other than the contaminated river), or a bettered stove (one with a
chimney so the smoke goes out of the house instead of in the lungs of
the women and children).

To see a short and awesome video on the project, click this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-0cNphnoGY

The rough costs of the projects are as follows:
Cement Stoves: Q330 = $47 each, 26 stoves total Q8,580 = $1,225
Cement Floors: Depends on the size of the room, but roughly Q280 = $40
each, 16 cement floors Q4,200 = $600
Water Tanks = Q1,200 = $171 each, 30 water tanks total Q34,800 = $4,971
Total funds needed:
Q47,580 = $6,797
My current balance is $1,580, with another $2000 promised but not yet received.


If by some miracle donations received exceed the amount requested, I
will be donating the excess funds to Maddie Syzek, my site mate
working as a Healthy Schools volunteer. She will be fundraising to
build hand-washing stations and latrines in schools where none
currently exist. If you have any questions about Maddie’s project,
email her at msyzek@gmail.com, or as always, feel free to contact me
(megangokey@gmail.com).

My current timeline is to have all fundraising and paperwork done
by December, and begin construction in January. If you have any
questions about the project, or my experience in general, please
contact me.
If you would like to donate, please send checks to:
Friends of Guatemala
P.O. Box 33018
Washington, D.C. 20033

Make the checks out to “Friends of Guatemala” and in the memo line
write “Megan Gokey – Cat II”

Please let me know that you donated so I can verify the correct amount
was deposited into my fundraising account, and so I can send you the
proper thank you!

Thanks for taking the time to read this – remember even small
donations go a long way!
Megan E. Gokey

P.S. Feel free to pass this along to anyone you feel would be interested.

Wisconsin, Guatemala, Projects

It’s been so long since the last blog post, I’m not even sure where to start. My trip home was amazing, everything I’d hoped it would be. I was able to meet up with a lot of friends and family, be in a beautiful wedding (congrats Jordan and Ty!), do several fundraising presentations, and even go to a Brewer’s game. I was also able to get a haircut, take a hot bath, and eat way too much cheese. There are pictures posted on my Flickr page of some of these events, so check ‘em out! The time flew by, and I’m back in my current ‘real world’ of taking long chicken bus rides, drinking wet corn in a cup, and the cold nights of rainy season. The weekend after I got back to Cajolá we had a welcome party for the new volunteers, complete with salsa lessons, so I really am getting into the swing of things again.
I have mentioned previously that I’d had a hard time with my counterpart at the health center; I was hoping this break would help things out, and it most definitely did. I think we have a whole new relationship and I am so much happier. I’m sure part of it was me, coming back and feeling refreshed and motivated to start again, but also she has been treating me like a coworker rather than this annoying gringa in the office that she oversees. She’s interested in the women’s groups that I’ve been working with since August, and she’s even attended a meeting with us since I’ve been back. She’s also finally happy about the projects I’ve been talking about, instead of trying to force me to do three separate projects – wanting me to have done one last February, this July, and next February – obviously not plausible.
So projects: working with these women’s groups, the most important thing is education. We’ve been working since last August, and I just designed a 6 month program, complete with charlas and mini-projects (such as making toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and shampoo from items that are easily attainable). It helps that my sitemate, Maddie, is a Healthy Schools volunteer and is trained in these cool projects, and that she wants to help with my groups! My first goal was to build a water tank for each family; the women were all on board with this before I left, but when I came back from the states, half of them changed their mind to either cement floors or bettered stoves. This is a little kink in the fundraising I’ve already done, but rest assured all the money already raised will go to water tanks, and the other projects are cheaper so it’s a little less pressure (my original goal was $17,000, and now it’s about $11.000). I think it’s also very important to give these people what they think is best for them and their families, and what they want to make their home a healthier place to live, so I can’t be upset about a family wanting a stove instead of a water tank. Right now I’m doing house visits with my women’s groups, as well as beginning to search for various grants for the rest of funding. I haven’t officially reached out to too many friends and family members yet, so that’ll be the next step. I don’t have exact numbers yet and I’d like to be a little more prepared in that sense before I officially solicit money. However, even without the numbers, I was able to raise over $3,000 from giving talks in Wisconsin while I was home. It’s a great start, and I’m excited to really get the ball rolling.
This summer is going to fly by. My next visitor (Anna!!! WOO!!) comes on Wednesday, June 15, and is here until June 28. We’ll be mainly working for the duration of her trip since I don’t have that many days I can take off any more. She’s a middle school Spanish teacher so the trip will be good practice for her. We’ll be heading to Lake Atitlán one weekend, and heading to some natural springs the other weekend. Anna and I studied abroad in Spain together so this will be an awesome reunion for us!
The day Anna leaves, I have to report to the Peace Corps office for my Mid-Service Meds. It’s hard to believe that I’m already at my mid-service, but at the same time it isn’t. I can see how much things have changed since I moved to Cajolá last July: I call it home, and I’d like to think I’m much more integrated in most aspects of life: I am used to go to the market and bargaining for my food in Mam; I am recognized in the community by adults and kids; people know that I know what ‘xnula’ means and that I know they’re talking about me; I’m used to not showering; my host brother, Junior, and I act like brother and sister, and he comes to my ‘house’ to play daily; I’m used to little babies bursting out in tears when they see me; I’m used to traveling an hour and a half to see if I have any mail at the post office. I think I’m so much more integrated that it’s hard for me to think of any more examples of how my life has changed! = )
With this said, I have to say a huge thank you to my family and friends that have helped me get this far. I would not still be here working with these people and living like I do without the support from home. I’m sure it’s not easy getting panicked emails, phone calls, or text messages from me, but you all have been awesome in helping me through whatever situation I had at the present moment (from troubles at work, to getting frustrated that I had to take 9 busses to my house rather than the usual 4). I can’t guarantee that the next year won’t bring similar frustrations or that I won’t be sending panicked emails and text messages, so I hope you’ll all be as awesome as you have been!

Now for my favorite part of the blog, the book list:

Half Broke Horses
Running With Scissors
Tina Fey’s “Bossypants”
Methland
World Bank’s Report of Violence and Crime in Latin America (okay, not a book, but a good read)
A Million Little Pieces
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The God Delusion (currently reading)

Not too much else to share that I can think of. My friends in site (yeah! I have real Guatemalan friends that live in Cajolá! Woo!!!) keep calling me ‘Mega.’ The wife gets my name, but the husband can’t get it right. His name is ‘Hector’ so I’ve decided that I’m just going to call him ‘Hecto’ and see where that goes.

As always, send me an email if you like (megangokey@gmail.com). Shout out to Patrick who is moving to San Diego this week!!

Love and miss you all!

Happy April!
Things are finally picking up for me in Cajolá – work is getting busier and time is flying. It only took about 9 months in site to get somewhat of a routine down, but here I am! I had a very ‘interesting’ integration period with my counterpart and doctor in Cajolá, but I’m finally starting to feel not as much as the odd ball out. After several meetings with my doctor, counterpart, and Peace Corps boss, I am being supported more by my health center, and I think I am finally on some kind of consistent schedule. Granted there are still weekly all-staff meetings and activities that people ‘forget’ to tell me about, but all in all, things are a lot better.
I think I reached my lowest of lows at the end of January/ beginning of February, and it’s really been looking up since then. For starters, Laura visited me in February, and Brooke, Lynn, and Kris came in March! When Laura visited, we stayed at the lake for two nights, and then headed to my site for 4 nights. She came to work with me for the week, and it was really nice to show her my real life, day to day. While she was here I had a couple women’s groups, and she helped us make washable/reusable sanitary napkins (super cool project!). She helped cut out at least 50 patterns, so to Mark and Katie Forsythe: she was definitely put to work! Laura was also able to witness an impromptu presentation for a group of teenagers on sex and what it is. We both had a good time, and I think the trip was what both of us needed for a little relaxation!
Brooke, Lynn, and Kris came in March over Brooke’s spring break, and their trip was a little more fast paced. They flew in on a Sunday, and we stayed in Antigua at the Earth Lodge for two nights. Sunday afternoon, we built a fire and did the Mayan sauna at the hostel. Monday, we hiked Volcano Pacaya (yes, this is the volcano that erupted last year, and no, we didn’t tell Kris that until afterwards). Tuesday, we got up early and drove to my site where the girls got to see the health center in one of my villages, as well as go to a women’s group in the afternoon. I gave a presentation to the women on the fecal/oral contamination cycle, and then we made hand-washing stations using recycled bottles. It was again really nice to show then how I live and what I do at work. The next night we spent at Lake Atitlán. We did some souvenir shopping, as well as relaxing on the lake. We had a nice private room with THE best shower I’ve had in Guatemala. The next day, St. Patrick’s Day, we headed back to Antigua and finished our shopping, as well as grabbed a nice dinner, followed by a Guinness at the Irish bar. The trip flew by, but a great time was had by all.
In between the weekend that Laura left and that Brooke, Lynn, and Kris got here, I was able to meet up with the Casey family’s foreign exchange student from 40 years ago. It just so happened that Marc had to be in Guatemala for five days and was up for grabbing breakfast with me. We had interesting conversation, and it was neat to talk to someone who knew my mom, aunts, and uncles from this time in their lives.
It probably seems like all I’m doing down here is hosting visitors, but rest assured, I am working as well! I am continuing to work with my three women’s groups, and they are my favorite part of work. I am creating relationships with these women, while trying my best to get them interested in preventative health with my presentations and mini-projects. I am currently starting to raise money to build water tanks for these women, so that they can put into practice a lot of what we talk about.
Other than these groups, I am working more in the health center. I give presentations every Monday morning. The theme changes monthly, and it’s a good way to continually introduce myself to more people in the surrounding communities, as well as to assist the health center staff. I have been giving a lot of impromptu presentations at the health center as well on any health related theme you can think of: rabies, nutrition, pregnancy, etc.
In other news, I got a site mate! Well, not exactly – she lives 10 minutes away in the village I take Mam classes in, but close nonetheless. Her name is Maddie, and she’s in the Healthy Schools program. We hopefully will get to collaborate on projects together that will target parents (my women’s groups) and kids (her schools).
Since this year is the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps (it’s Guatemala’s 48th year), we were invited to a celebration at the ambassador’s house in Guatemala City. It was a beautiful get together, with a swear in ceremony of new volunteers, a close of service ceremony of volunteers who have completed their service, and a talk from Peace Corps Chief of Staff Stacey Rhodes who visited for this event. This weekend also coincided with the return of my good friend, Dirk, after his bus accident in September, so it was a great weekend to celebrate with friends.
For those of you who don’t know, Jordan is getting married in May, and I’ll be traveling home for the wedding!! My trip is planned for April 21 – May 12. This will be the only time I head home during my service so I’m making it count. Other than the wedding, I plan to give presentations on my service to a few groups. I hopefully will be able to do some fundraising, so if anyone is interested in a presentation let me know and I’ll be more than happy to do it.
Not too much else, so of course I’ll keep you updated on my book list. Since the last post, these are the books I’ve read:

The Invisible Wall
A Fine Balance – Don’t let the thickness of this book turn you away – it’s a quick and good read!
The Poisonwood Bible
Cat’s Cradle
The Secret Life of Bees
White Man’s Burden
Hocus Pocus (currently reading)
What the Dog Saw (currently reading)

I’m also going to add to the last post on things that are now normal to me:
- Riding in the back of a truck with 10 other people, because that’s the only transportation a person can get on Sundays, on holidays, on days people are protesting, or just because you haven’t seen a bus in a while.
- Having an animal, baby, produce, bags, or other items that are not yours on your lap, shoulder, head, etc, during crowded bus rides.
- Having people call you baby, queen, princess, beautiful, little girl, etc (in Spanish it’s easier to explain: conchita, nena, novia, esposa, xnula - that means woman who wears pants, niñita chula, bebecita linda, niña bonita; I could go on for a while).
- Having people ask you for money. This actually happens all the time, and it’s not just drunk people in the streets. Last week one of my coworkers asked me for 500 quetzales to buy some turkeys.
- People talking about you in front of you because they assume you have no idea what’s going on. Sometimes mothers tell their kids to behave or else I’ll vaccinate them - this is why all the kids are scared of me.
- Hearing people speak in tongues and/or sobbing over a microphone at the Evangelical church, and sometimes in my host family’s house.
- People asking you to bring them to the states, or to bring their kids to the states.
- Not showering for long periods of time. My longest has been a Friday to a Friday, but since I can now go to the city to shower at the new Peace Corps office, I can usually shower about every three days. I haven’t had water from the shower since January, so here’s hoping that April is different!
- Everything is blamed on the “temperature change” – if you’re sick, if the pigs won’t get into their pens, if there are a lot of people at the market today, if you have the hiccups, if you aren’t hungry, etc.
- Everyone is late. If you plan a presentation for 2pm, no one will show up until 2:30 at the earliest, and you probably won’t get started until at least 3pm. I’m learning patience, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get out of the habit of being punctual.
- Sitting and staring at one another is a favorite pastime of Guatemalans. I’ve gotten pretty good at surviving the awkward silences while drinking a glass of wet corn and sugar.
- Since you bargain for EVERYTHING down here, I am now used speaking very strongly when I shop, as well as going over the top with my facial expressions,
- It isn’t rude or gross to fart, burp, or ‘farmer-blow’ in public. For those who don’t know, farmer blowing is a way of blowing your nose without tissues. In fact, about 20 minutes ago, my counterpart let a huge fart out in the office. I almost busted out laughing, so obviously I’m not accustomed to this yet (so no, I will not be publically farting, burping, or farmer blowing while I’m home… well, I hope).

Can’t wait to see everyone while I’m home, next post won’t be until after the trip.
There are pictures on my flickr page of my visitors!

My New Normal

I wake up to see The Hunchback of Cajolá, or Franken-pig for short. Franken-pig is always hanging around the house. We've become very good friends.

I have had pieces of luggage fall on my head in the busses.

I was recently attacked by dogs and had to fight them off with the cooler of vaccines I was holding.

I was sitting on a bus a couple weeks ago (for 3 hours) with a bag of raw meat on the shelf above my head - dripping on me.

It is normal to be on a microbus that isn't 'full' until at least 5 people are hanging out the door holding on for their lives.

It is normal to be okay with being one of the people hanging on the outside of the bus and not thinking twice about it.

I always have black boogers.

Because of the culture differences of the Mayans, Ladinos, and Americans, several times a day I have the challenge of figuring out if I should do the awkward handshake (limp fish), the cheek kiss, or the weird shoulder touch.

I always have people pray over me on the busses. Recently, A priest got on my bus with a megaphone. After saying what he needed to in Spanish, he made sure to point out the only foreigner on the bus to say the Our Father in English. I wasn't sure what to do with everyone looking at me, so I made the sign of the cross - it was weird.

Yesterday a bird pooped on my head right before a big presentation to the equivalent of the state health department.

On house visits, EVERY child bursts out in tears when they see me since they think I'm giving vaccines (I'm not). They all scream bloody murder.

People tell me daily how fat I am, and ask how much I weigh. It never gets old. Wait, yes... yes it does!

I stepped on a scale for a group of very persistent nurses, who were very surprised. They said that I only weighed that much because I am so tall - what?!

I was recently weighing kids and this lady gave me her son while he was still sucking on her breast, and BOOM.... breast milk squirted all over me. Thankfully none went in my mouth.

I'll write a real blog post soon - happy early St. Pat's day!

Happy New Year

Hi all! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season, and are enjoying the beginning of 2011! I suppose that I'll start with Thanksgiving, as that's where I left off! A group of close friends and I went to Tilapita, which is a beach on the Pacific Coast, close to Mexico. You have to take a boat to get there, and it is a beautiful little island with no roads or cars, just the occasional four-wheeler. Cellphones don't get reception there, and I doubt there are any computers on the island. We stayed at the only hotel on the Island where, for 50 Quetzales (about $6), we had fresh fish and shrimp cooked for us for dinner. We spent three nights there, lounging around in hammocks, swimming in the ocean, and eating good food. We also cooked our very own thrown together Thanksgiving meal, and it was lovely. December really slowed down for me work wise, as Blake came and visited from November 28-December 21, followed by Joni, December 27-January 8. When Blake arrived, we stayed at a place outside of Antigua, the Earth Lodge, with an absolutely gorgeous view of three volcanoes, and overlooking the city. Following that, we went to Jacaltenango, in the department of Huehuetenango, to visit a coffee cooperative that Kickapoo Coffee in Wisconsin buys from, and where the Root Note in La Crosse, WI, buys some of their coffee. It is mighty delicious, so try some Guatemalan Blend next time you're in La Crosse = ) Next on our agenda was Lake Atitlán. We stayed in a cute little bungalow right on the water's edge, and took boats to a few of the tourist towns on the lake. It was picturesque, and very relaxing. How relaxing, you ask? We watched every single Harry Potter movie while we were there!! Blake and I then traveled to Cajolá, where I was able to show him how I actually live. I had two presentations with my women's groups, where Blake, who doesn't speak Spanish, helped me put on a puppet show. A great time was had by all! I also had a lunch set up with a group. They cooked for us and we had a great time with the women. We met up with Peace Corps friends and had a Paca White Elephant Christmas Celebration. Pacas are stores that sell donated clothes from the states, and there are some awesome clothes, and a lot of ridiculous clothes. We dressed up, made dinner, and played a lot of ping pong - it was a very nice way to celebrate the holidays with all of my friends that flew home for the holidays. Blake flew back to snowy Wisconsin on the 21st. I went home for a couple days to clean/relax, and spent Christmas in bed watching movies and wearing my Christmas socks. Junior and I made faces at each other for about an hour, so although it wasn't the same as being at home, I wouldn't have wanted to spend it any other way down here. Joni flew in on the 27th. We spent that day in Antigua, then went to Tilapita, the same beach I went to for Thanksgiving, for three nights. We spent New Year's Eve there, but had so much sun that we were sleeping before midnight. After our relaxing trip to the beach, Joni and I went to Cajolá and saw the sights (well, there are none, but she saw my house!). Next, we were off to the lake to stay at a hostel, sit in the sun, and go for boat rides. I think both Joni and Blake had a nice time in Guatemala, and there will be pictures on facebook and flickr to prove it!

I was able to do a lot of traveling with them, and hopefully January will pick up right where I left off with work. This week will be full of cleaning (hand washing all of my clothes from these great adventures will not be fun!), and I think I'll get a couple Mam classes in as well. I'm part of the Volunteer Advisory Council (yes, this is the student council of Peace Corps), and I represent the Xela and San Marcos volunteers. I am in charge of putting on the welcome orientations when new groups swear in (every 3 months) so this saturday we're doing a meeting and a chocolate factory tour in Xela. It will be great to get to know the people that live near me better.

Nothing too much else to share, except the fun bus rides I've recently had. My first one is on the way back to Xela after Blake left. I wasn't feeling the best I could have been, and there were no seats on the bus. This is not abnormal, but usually seats open up. This time, however, they did not. I stood on the bus, sweaty and tired, feeling a bit sick, when the driver kept cramming people in. I couldn't move a limb, and suddenly the little boy standing next to me starts vomiting. Luckily it was in a bag, but a clear plastic one. It was not a pleasant experience for either of us. On this same bus ride a lady (who was SITTING mind you) kept elbowing me in the back, like she wanted me to climb on top of the bus so that she could be comfortable. Finally 2 hours into my 4 hour standing bus ride, I said "I can't move!" With one more big elbow to the back, she finally quit. After a couple more standing-for-multiple-hour-bus-rides, I was finally sitting on one minding my own business, when someone's huge bag falls on my head. I didn't know what to do, so I stayed still and silent for a minute, hoping the owner would grab it. I was wrong, the owner did not, but the guy behind me who kept calling me 'baby' did. ahhh the life of a chicken bus rider.

I wasn't able to read as many books as normal with visitors here, but I did manage to get through these ones:
The Glass Castle
An Ethical Slut
A Round Heeled Woman
Invisible Man (currently reading)

All for now, happy early birthday Dad = )

oh yes, new phone number: 011-502-4013-3400