meeting

Ok, so things are more exciting nowadays. Allow me to explain. It turns out I speak Spanish well enough that I don’t have to take any more classes. This means I have several days of the week where I get to plan out my training. It is great because I am already getting a better taste of what life is going to be like when I am assigned my site.

This past week, I met with el Licenciado Ingeniero Virgilio Borrayo. Everyone who has a college degree gets the title Licenciado (licensed) and is instantly given a ton of respect. I guess that is because less than 10% of Guatemalans who are old enough to have a college degree have one. Ingeniero just means engineer. Anyway, Virgilio had the honor of meeting with Licenciados Joseph ( me), Sotirou (my buddy Giorgio), and Boggiss (my other friend/ecotourism worker). He is the the boss of the ecological park near and run by the municipality ofSan Lucas. The park is called Parque Ecologico Senderos de Alux. We met to see if there was some stuff we could work together on to help out the park. He was very excited about the possibilities and we scheduled another meeting for this Tuesday. At that time, we plan to meet at the park to exchange ideas. We have already been up there and saw about half the park. It is beautiful. It has lots of trails that are in good shape, a bbq area with a playground, and several lookouts with sweet views of Guatemala City. From what I have seen, the park is in good shape. It just needs some more visitors.

That is where we come in. We are going to come up with a marketing plan. The idea is to work with Virgilio and the park rangers together so we can combine ideas and so they can continue the plan after we leave here in two months. Right now, it seems like it might succeed, but I have learned that working in development in the developing world can be quite frustrating. We shall see. If the idea doesn’t catch on with the locals, we will be spending more time in the park learning the plant and animal life, how the park functions, and carrying out various maintenance/improvement projects. Either way, I will be getting some good experience.
Ill let you know how it goes.

Sorry no pictures or videos, this computer is too slow.

Times this week someone pointed at me and made some sort of motion demonstrating they thought I was tall: 3

The City and a Vidi

I went to Guatemala City with my Spanish class and teacher this week. The purpose of the trip was to check out the US Embassy and the hospital we would have to go to in case anything bad was to happen. What a thrill that was. Not. In order to make the day more interesting, we decided to do as much touristy things as we could. That included touring the presidential palace, the central market, INGUAT (Guatemalan institute of tourism) headquarters, and an enjoyable lunch in the city´s central park. I was pleasantly surprised by all of it. It wasn’t nearly as dangerous as all the Peace Corps employees are making out to be. Pati, our teacher, was freaked out the entire day that we were going to get beaten and/or robbed. That prompted a new nickname for her that she gladly accepted, PreocuPati. Preocupada is the word for worried, so it works out quite nice. Don´t fret Babs, if I even travel to the city without Peace Corps permission, I´ll get kicked out. I won´t be doing that any time soon. Twas a good day in the city.

Here´s a quick video of my little host sister. She wrote out a whole speach to the fam. She practiced it several times before she let me tape it. This is the result.

translation: hello, my name is sheila vanesa perez. My dad´s name is Mario Perez. My mom´s name is Sonia Yolanda Quezada. I have a very beautiful family. I congratulate you for the son you have. He is very good and friendly. I hope that you have a good day and that you do everything that you have to get done.
I then ask don Mario what he thinks of that, to which he replies “esta bien”. Sheila then gets upset because she hasn’t said anything to Katie yet. I tell her now´s the time so she says: Hello Katie, your brother talks about you a lot. I think he loves you a lot. He says he loves you, your mom, and your dad the most in the world. I congratulate you for the brother that you have. God bless you. Goodbye.
Then I ask my host mom what she thinks of the message and she gets embarrassed. Good stuff.

Field Trip

Hello people. Wow, it has been over a week since I last posted. They are keeping us pretty busy with all that training stuff. Some pretty neat things have happened this week. Here is one of them.

As you may or may not know, I am here with a job working in ecotourism. With that being said, the 9 other folks who are here for that same job and I took a field trip with our technical advisor and boss this past Friday. We visited a current volunteer who is working in ecotourism to check out his site. He lives in a town that sits at the base of the active volcano Pacaya. The volcano and surrounding area are part of a national park that he is working to make better. It was a nice reality check for what a volunteer experiences here. So far, I have felt pretty pampered for a Peace Corps volunteer and he provided us with some of the frustrations that we will more than likely encounter. The park was beautiful, but definitely has room for improvement.

On our way back, we stopped by a lake to see some of the environmental devastation Guaguatemala has encountered. The lake we visited, Amatitlan, is the 4th largest lake in the country and is on a path to destruction. It turns out that a very large number of the country´s major manufacturing companies have been using it as a dump. This practice has led to the color you see in these photos.

That is blue-green algae and it has killed almost everything in the lake. I thought it was a little ironic that all the nasty-ness that is going into the lake could create such a splendid color green. It reminded me of the impressive sunsets we have back at home caused by all the smog. Anyway, that is just one example of how Guamania´s natural beauty isn´t being treated properly.

Whoa, I was planning on writing about more, but I need to go eat dinner. Expect something more soon.

Times I hit my head this week in this country of short people: 5

Training

I have been here in Guatebuena for just about a week now and things are going well. Peace Corps is keeping us busy everyday with training, whether it is technical, language or cultural. I have been getting home pretty tired. So far, when I get home, I just eat, hang out with the fam, and then go to bed at about 10. The town I live in is called San Lucas Sacatepequez and is almost in the middle in between Guatemala City and Antigua for those of you who have a map. It's a decent sized town at about 7000ft above sea level. It has a soccer field and a basketball court in the middle and is one of the larger training sites. I guess I should explain what training is all about.
Here it is. There are 36 total folks that got here the same time as me that are what they call trainees. We were placed into groups according to our Spanish ability and job title. We were then placed into training sites that are near by the training center. As I said earlier, I live in San Lucas with one other dude. Babs, his name is Giorgio and he´s from Arizona. Good Guy. His place is about a 5 minute walk from mine. Anyway, San Lucas is about a 10 minute bus ride from the training center in Santa Lucia. There, we have lots of classes regarding health, safety, Spanish, job training, blah blah blah. It is a lot of time in class, but I think it will help when it comes time for me to move to my actual site. After 3 months of training, we will be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers and each person will be placed in a different site, most likely pretty far from the training center, for 2 years. That is about as brief as I can be to describe training.
So ya, San Lucas is my home for the next three months and I will have easy access to internet for that time. After this, I don´t know what my amenities will be like, so I´ll take advantage while I can.

My Family and House

In just about a week here, I am very encouraged by my host family. Don Mario is a teacher and Doña Yoli has a barber shop. They have 3 girls that are 25, 23, and 10, respectively. All the kids are students. Don't get any ideas, I don't think I'll be marrying any of them any time soon. The whole family seems to love to have fun, but is also willing to help make their pueblo a better place. The first thing I did with Doña Yoli and Sheila, the youngest girl, was play a joke on our next door neighbor. She also happens to be Don Mario´s mom. Her fence reaches maybe as high as my shoulder, which is way taller than both Yoli and Sheila, maybe put together. Anyway, they stood next to me, whispering things for me to say to her over the fence. After about a minute or so of me trying to convince this old lady that I was going to live with her, my host mom and sis laughed and the joke was over. Later on, the ladies left the house and Don Mario and I talked for a couple hours sharing ideas of how to make San Lucas a better place. I am going to be pretty busy the three months I live here, but hopefully I will get to actually do some of the stuff we talked about.

Here is a quick video of my house. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. I haven´t taken any pictures of the host fam yet, but those will be soon.

Testing

Ok then. Just bought a memory card adaptor thang so I don't have to haul my camera around when I want to post fotos online. Gonna see if it works. First one should be of some stuff in a room. Second one should be me in a room.

Yippee! Looks like I can also post videos. Let's check it out.

Looks like it works. Who knows if I can actually do this stuff in Guamania, but I shall try.

Ok, I leave in a day and I am feeling all those feelings you would expect. To my family and friends: thank you and I love you. I am excited to tell you all what is happening with me and I would love to hear updates on what you are doing. You can do that through email (tedelgringo@gmail.com), facebook, snail mail (i'll let you know how to do that when I find out), or getting your ass down to Guadalamania. We'll be in touch, and seriously, a very happy new year to you and yours.