I'd like to begin this post by paying tribute to one of my favorite Guatemalans. Her name is Miriam and she runs the BEST lavanderia in all of Guatemala. She washes and dries your clothes in 3 hours and keeps the sweaters out of the dryer even if you forget to tell her. She folds everything and ties it up with ribbons and makes it smell extremely similar to what I'd imagine heaven smells like.
Before I regale you all with the details of my weekend, I'd like to tell you all about one of our team's favorite places in Guatemala. It's called Yummy Donas, el postre de cada dia. Guatemalans make a lot of delicious things, pastries not being one of them. Apparently an ex-pat realized the available niche in the market and capitalized on it, spawning Yummy Donas. They create delicious donuts, cinnamon rolls, fritters, and turnovers, much to the delight of tourists and natives alike. To add to the splendor of this establishment, they have a rainy day oferta: buy one donut, get a sencilla (simple donut) free. It seems like every time we go, it starts raining right after we make our puchases. But yesterday--yesterday I was determined to get my free donut. When we got back from Xela, it was pouring rain. I was starving, having eaten breakfast at 9:30 and nothing since. I was in the mood for a yummy donut so, after dropping off my stuff, I made the trek to the promised land. In the pouring rain. I was also enlisted to make a stop at Despensa, our local grocery store, located on the same street as Yummy Donas. I walked all the way there and found the store closed. Yes, Yummy Donas is closed on Sundays. It was devastating. I had to settle for gummy worms and some of my favorite Mexican cookies from Despensa. It was tragic. As I walked home, my obviously drenched pants earned me lots of "stupid gringa, walking around in the rain" stares. Thankfully, today it was raining a little less hard and the rest of the volunteers wanted to walk to Yummy Donas in Pana after dropped off our laundry. This time I got my free donut. It only kind of redeemed what happened yesterday. After I got donuts, I had to run to Crossroads Cafe to give Mike's wife my email address. By that time it was pouring and I soaked another pair of pants. But the preceding donuts made it a little more bearable.
On the subject of Mike and his family, I have an update on the teaching Biology thing. Sadly, Mike's kids will be finishing their school year in the next week or so. His youngest won't be starting Biology until September when I'll be back in Nashville. But now I've given them my email address so hopefully I'll be getting a few emails from them this year with some Biology questions. Keep your fingers crossed.
So this weekend I had a delightful time in Xela with a smaller subset of our team. Half the group hiked Tajamulco and a couple PDs went to Monterrico while Dana, Katy, Dave, and I spent the weekend in Xela. Our first stop was The Black Cat, the phenomenal hostel we stayed in. We chose dorm-style rooms for the experience and the cheaper price. After we checked in and dropped off our stuff, we went to the oldest bar in Xela for lunch which is located in the oldest building in Xela. Dana and I split two different sandwiches, both of which were delicious. The sandwich I ordered had eggplant on it. I've eaten more eggplant here than I've ever eaten in my life. Actually, I don't think I'd ever eaten eggplant before coming to Guatemala. Never thought this would the place I'd add that to my eating resume.
After lunch, we hiked up a hill to a church that overlooked the city. It was an incredible view. The city stretched way farther than we all thought it would. And the hill seemed way shorter than it looked from the ground.
We spent the afternoon walking around and exploring the city, making a stop at Baviera Cafe, per Mike's recommendation. I enjoyed a strawberry licuado, the Guatemalan equivalent of a smoothie, and a slice of their tres leches cake. It was a rather enjoyable afternoon.
After our snack, we wandered around for a bit, trying to figure out where to get dinner. We had heard you could watch movies at the Blue Angel cafe so we stopped in to see what was showing. After some investigation, we found out that we could eat while we watched the movie AND bring in outside snacks. We ran to Xelapan to get some baked goods before the movie started and headed back to Blue Angel to order and get ready for the movie. It turns out that we were the only ones who showed up to watch the movie so they offered us the smaller of the two viewing rooms. We walked inside and were shocked to find that it looked remarkably like...a living room. It was just a TV with normal Guatemalan cable and two couches. It was crazy. Definitely felt more like we were at a friend's house than at a restaurant. The food was great and the movie, Meet the Parents, was hilarious and uncomfortable as usual. The movie finished around 10pm, by which time the restaurant had closed and the only other person in the place was a woman who had fallen asleep at the table waiting for the movie to be over. Once it finished, she came in and said she needed to go to bed so we paid and left. Hilariously awkward evening.
We went back to the hostel and the rest of the crew decided to go out for a while. I opted to stay in since I'm still trying to kick this cold. At the end of the day, I think we both had the best nights we could have. I got to spend a good bit of time chatting with one of our roommates, a Norwegian guy in his third year of university studying chemistry. We talked about our respective areas of study and he told about the work he does in his lab, trying to make a three-peptide antibiotic stable in the human stomach. He explained to me the Norwegian college system and I reciprocated with the US system. I loved the opportunity to talk about science and travel and language. Best night in ever.
The next morning, I was greeted with the fantastic news that breakfast was included in the price of the hostel. I enjoyed a big bowl of yogurt with granola and fruit. Incredibly satisfying. After breakfast we packed up and checked out. The cleanest room I've slept in since I got here, the cleanest bathroom I've used since I got here, and the best breakfast I've had since I got here cost me a total of 60Q. That's about $8.50. Awesome.
We made our way to the bus stop which was right next to Megapaca, the best thrift store I've ever been to. We spent at least an hour browsing this warehouse-sized cornucopia of 100% imported, second-hand clothes. When it was all said and done, I ended up with a hooded sweatshirt that says "traveling across the sea", a crewneck sweatshirt with a hand-painted giant santa head on it (for use at all of those tacky holiday sweater parties), a polo shirt-dress with tiny white seahorses embroidered all over it, and an extra large button-down pajama top with lawn gnomes in various poses all over it. All for 47Q ($6.75). It was a good day.
All in all, I'd say Xela was probably my favorite weekend spent traveling here. Everything about it was just comfortable and enjoyable. If I come back to Guatemala, I'll definitely make a stop in Xela.
This is our last full week here. It feels like it's gone by so quickly. But this will be our busiest week here by far. Since we hadn't had a whole lot of time in the community, Katy had the great idea to ask the PDs if we could shadow some of their doctor friends who are working in clinics in rural communities to fulfill a requirement for their graduation. They agreed to let us follow them around for the day so I'll be meeting one of them tomorrow at 7:30am to see what a day in the life of a Guatemalan med student in their final year is like. I'm way excited.
Tomorrow is also the big prep day for the mini campamientos we'll be having on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'll be making lots of posters and examples for our class on pinata-making. I'm so excited for the chance to spend more time in the community with the kids. Since this is an extracurricular activity, we'll be unaffected if school is cancelled so we're guaranteed that time with our students. I'm looking forward to some uninterrupted contact
As we head into our last week, I'm glad to say that our group is getting more and more cohesive. We spent the afternoon together in Pana and really enjoyed each other's company. I'm glad we get a little more time to enjoy each other before we go our separate ways. And our line up of activities is pretty awesome.
Tuesday: Salsa lessons
Wednesday: Family dinner and discussion
Thursday: Soccer with the Guatemalans
Weekend: Santa Cruz
Can't wait to keep diving into life here and soaking up as much of this country, the people, and our team as I can.
Although we had a rather humorous discussion with Dana this weekend about things she has to look forward to when she's back in the States. She's leaving tomorrow to visit home and meet the new PDs who will taking over for the next year. Some highlights of our list:
Drinking water from the tap.
The certainty that fellow passengers entering a bus will sit as far away from you as possible as opposed to on top of you.
Peanut butter that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Fewer stray dogs.
Hot water for the entirety of a shower.
Dishwashers.
There are a lot of awesome things about living in a developing country. But I think if I did this all the time, there are a lot of things I'd miss. I think a month is the perfect amount of time for a taste of living abroad long-term. So far, I think I could do it. And I've also picked up a lot of tips for doing it well.
For example, check a bag full of peanut butter.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
La segunda semana.
Buenos dias, amigos.
Enjoying another beautiful morning here in Solola. I walked to the market and picked up a mango and 3 bananas for breakfast. Cost me a total of 8Q. That's roughly the equivalent of $1.14. I'll miss this.
Right next to the market this morning they're having a political rally for la Partida Patriota. This is an election year for Guatemala and candidates are only allowed to campaign during election years so the country has been inundated by political advertisements. Homes that support particular candidates hang their posters on the outside wall, not unlike homes in the US. However campaign teams have also painted signs all over the country. On curbs, on tienda walls, on rocks. It makes for a rather colorful country. Since illiteracy is high in Guatemala, each candidate picks a color or set of colors and a symbol to represent themselves. Then voters don't need to be able to read the name of the candidate; they can just check the box next to the apple (which is an actual symbol being used in this election). The rally in Solola today is for Otto Perez Molina. He's currently in the lead by quite a bit and is almost definitely going to be the next president of Guatemala. However, he has a terrible human rights record and a militant background. Theoretically this is what draws the people to him because the country is in need of a strong leader as they struggle to rebuild from the war. But all social programs run out when a new president is elected unless he or she chooses to actively sustain them. The Manna team doubts he'll continue anything already in place. For the sake of the Guatemalan people, I hope they're wrong.
Today we head off for our second weekend away in Xela. Apparently it's one of the more Americanized cities in the country. They have a Subway and a Walmart. Our friend Mike, the coffee hunter who lives in Panajachel, recommended we spend some time at Bavaria, a coffee shop there. It seems logical to take recommendations on coffee hotspots from a guy who's spent the last 25 years searching for the perfect cup of coffee. We'll also be stopping at some hot springs but the main attraction is Mega Paca. Every town has bunches of pacas which are second-hand stores that sell clothes from the states at extremely low prices. Mega Paca is the granddaddy of them all. So. Excited.
Last weekend we took a trip to San Pedro, a town across the lake. Along the way we stopped to swim in San Marcos. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but it's extremely non-tropical here. The altitude/rainy season actually makes it quite cold for being this far south. So swimming was chilly but totally worth it. I actually felt a lot less sick after a refreshing dip in the lake. Although I did have to fight to keep the water out of my mouth to prevent myself from getting sick all over again. So far so good.
Once we got to San Pedro, we checked into our hostel (Villa del Lago) and went to Zoola for lunch. Zoola is a restaurant run by an Israeli man that serves absolutely awesome food. They're well known for their Chocolate Volcano. It's really just a small bowl of vanilla bean ice cream next to another small bowl filled with brownie-esque material. But it's delicious and you can't really find much else like that in Guatemala. I was super excited to get to eat salad. It's not generally recommended that Americans eat salad in this country just because there's a chance the lettuce and other veggies were washed with tap water and not agua pura. But the Manna crew put the stamp of approval on Zoola salads. Probably the best Caesar salad I've ever had. But that may be influenced by the fact that I've been subsisting on toast, fruit, cereal, and pasta for a while now. Zoola is aesthetically a really awesome place in addition to having extremely tasty food. The dining room is a large colorful tent with about eight "booths". The booths are really straw mats with logs covered in fabric forming the walls. There are colorful pillows to lean on as you sit on the floor and a low table with a large paper lantern hanging over it. I can't wait to post pictures.
Ok, I must interject to say that Oliver just had a full-body muscle spasm in his sleep. He's sitting next to me on the couch. It gave the appearance of the finale to a fireworks show. Muscles firing all over the place in close succession. Very strange.
After lunch, some of us went to the Alegre Pub to watch the Mexico v. Guatemala soccer game. I could really get into watching soccer. It's much more exciting than basketball or baseball or the like. Sadly, Guatemala lost. But that's not surprising. Apparently they're really quite bad and Mexico is really quite good. Sad day.
After the game, we went to find some dinner and ended up going back to Zoola. Yes, we ate two meals at the same restaurant in the same day. We tried to go to another place but it was full. But Zoola is delicious. No regrets on that decision.
We turned in early that night because we got up at 3:30am the next morning to hike La nariz del indio (Indian Nose). It's an easy and relatively short hike but it was excruciating considering I still couldn't breathe through my nose at this point. We got to the top in record time. Our guide called us "chicos que caminan mucho". It's supposed to be a 40-45 minute hike. We were at the top in 32 minutes. We reached the summit just before sunrise and got to watch the sun come up over the lake while drinking delicious coffee made over a fire. Really, really wish I could post pictures already. Trust me, their worth waiting for.
We got breakfast when we got back into town at a cafe on the lake. I can totally understand why Lake Atitlan is a highlight of pretty much anyone's trip to Guatemala. It's a great place. Lots to do and something awesome to look at if you actually feel like doing absolutely nothing. Katy asked a guy on the plane what he recommended she see while she was here. He said, "I'd say Lake Atitlan, but you're living there." Good deal.
Our return home was followed by gratuitous amounts of napping. I think that was the night we had a big group movie night. Watched the Dead Poets Society. Loved it. Tragic, but really well done.
Monday was our usual group meeting. Assigned cooking duties for the week which amounted to not much since everyone was out and about for most meals this week. We discussed a little bit of what we'll end up doing for our last weekend here (the weekend of July 4th). I'm planning on just staying in Solola/Pana but I think the other volunteers may go to the beach. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday reading the book I wrote my last post about. I'm going to have to get my own copy when I go back to the States. Tuesday night we had our second salsa lesson. I'm loving it. We're going out to a salsa bar tonight. Hopefully we can successfully implement what we've learned.
Wednesday was supposed to be a review day with my sixth grade class for the test they were retaking on Thursday. Instead, we got out to the community and found out sixth graders didn't have class that day. It ended up being a good thing we had showed up anyway because we were able to advertise for our mini campamiento we're having next week. I'm teaming up with Elle to teach art to 1st-6th graders. We'll be making pinatas. Very exciting.
Wednesday afternoon was our weekly discussion. This time it focused on Guatemalan history and culture. We read and excerpt from Rigoberta Menchu's book and an article from March about the aftermath of the civil war. It ended up being a really healthy discussion about differences between our expectations and the reality of Guatemala and our perceptions of poverty both here and in the States. We also got a more complete picture of what the civil war was about. It felt like a really productive time as a group. Wednesday night was another group movie night. We watched The Town. Another volunteer had been telling me I would really like it but it was described to me terribly so I adamantly said I wouldn't like it all. I had to eat my words. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Foiled again.
Thursday morning we ended up giving the 6th graders the test without a review but it was made open note. I graded them that evening and it seems like pretty much everyone was able to improve their scores. Mission accomplished. The whole team went out that night except for Katy and I (just not in the mood for a night on the town) so we watched The Princess and the Frog. I really liked the parts I was able to stay awake for. May or may not have to rewatch that one when I get home...
On Friday, about half our team left in the early afternoon to go to Xela early. They're currently hiking the highest point in Central America which is a two-day hike. We should be meeting up with them on Sunday afternoon. I really wanted to go but I don't trust my body yet as it's still trying to get over whatever's made it so unhappy. But now I have a really legitimate excuse to come back to Guatemala...Katy and I spent the morning walking around Solola. We stopped for a little bit in the cemetery which is just an absolutely beautiful place. Each family has something akin to a mausoleum painted in an absurdly bright color. The cemetery is on top of a hill with a fantastic view of the lake. A few of the other people milling about called it "el cemeterio con el mejor vista del mundo". Es la verdad. After a while, a funeral procession entered the cemetery and Katy and I quietly exited. In the afternoon, she and Dave and I met up in Pana to go to Crossroads Cafe, the cafe run by our friend Mike. We all had such an enjoyable afternoon there, having him regale us with stories about coffee and finally getting his wife to say yes after three proposals. His enthusiasm for the Lord is intoxicating. I asked him if there was anything I could help him with in the afternoons after I'm done with class. His wife homeschools his kids and his youngest daughter is starting Biology this week. His wife doesn't really know anything about Biology so he asked me if I'd be willing to come down and teach some Biology. I'll be giving his wife a call on Sunday. =)
That night, the small portion of that team that's still around (which amounts to Dave, Katy, Dana (a country director) and I) went to Circus Bar for dinner. It looks a little shady from the outside but has fantastic pizza and bruschetta in addition to live music. Probably one of the better dinners I've had here. Dana and I split a Soleil pizza: cheese pizza with eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, and pesto on top. Nomnomnom.
And now we get to this morning. We'll be leaving for Xela in about 20 minutes. I should probably finish packing. =P
Thanks again for following along as I continue my adventure in this beautiful country. Again, feel free to ask me any questions you like.
Hasta luego!
Enjoying another beautiful morning here in Solola. I walked to the market and picked up a mango and 3 bananas for breakfast. Cost me a total of 8Q. That's roughly the equivalent of $1.14. I'll miss this.
Right next to the market this morning they're having a political rally for la Partida Patriota. This is an election year for Guatemala and candidates are only allowed to campaign during election years so the country has been inundated by political advertisements. Homes that support particular candidates hang their posters on the outside wall, not unlike homes in the US. However campaign teams have also painted signs all over the country. On curbs, on tienda walls, on rocks. It makes for a rather colorful country. Since illiteracy is high in Guatemala, each candidate picks a color or set of colors and a symbol to represent themselves. Then voters don't need to be able to read the name of the candidate; they can just check the box next to the apple (which is an actual symbol being used in this election). The rally in Solola today is for Otto Perez Molina. He's currently in the lead by quite a bit and is almost definitely going to be the next president of Guatemala. However, he has a terrible human rights record and a militant background. Theoretically this is what draws the people to him because the country is in need of a strong leader as they struggle to rebuild from the war. But all social programs run out when a new president is elected unless he or she chooses to actively sustain them. The Manna team doubts he'll continue anything already in place. For the sake of the Guatemalan people, I hope they're wrong.
Today we head off for our second weekend away in Xela. Apparently it's one of the more Americanized cities in the country. They have a Subway and a Walmart. Our friend Mike, the coffee hunter who lives in Panajachel, recommended we spend some time at Bavaria, a coffee shop there. It seems logical to take recommendations on coffee hotspots from a guy who's spent the last 25 years searching for the perfect cup of coffee. We'll also be stopping at some hot springs but the main attraction is Mega Paca. Every town has bunches of pacas which are second-hand stores that sell clothes from the states at extremely low prices. Mega Paca is the granddaddy of them all. So. Excited.
Last weekend we took a trip to San Pedro, a town across the lake. Along the way we stopped to swim in San Marcos. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but it's extremely non-tropical here. The altitude/rainy season actually makes it quite cold for being this far south. So swimming was chilly but totally worth it. I actually felt a lot less sick after a refreshing dip in the lake. Although I did have to fight to keep the water out of my mouth to prevent myself from getting sick all over again. So far so good.
Once we got to San Pedro, we checked into our hostel (Villa del Lago) and went to Zoola for lunch. Zoola is a restaurant run by an Israeli man that serves absolutely awesome food. They're well known for their Chocolate Volcano. It's really just a small bowl of vanilla bean ice cream next to another small bowl filled with brownie-esque material. But it's delicious and you can't really find much else like that in Guatemala. I was super excited to get to eat salad. It's not generally recommended that Americans eat salad in this country just because there's a chance the lettuce and other veggies were washed with tap water and not agua pura. But the Manna crew put the stamp of approval on Zoola salads. Probably the best Caesar salad I've ever had. But that may be influenced by the fact that I've been subsisting on toast, fruit, cereal, and pasta for a while now. Zoola is aesthetically a really awesome place in addition to having extremely tasty food. The dining room is a large colorful tent with about eight "booths". The booths are really straw mats with logs covered in fabric forming the walls. There are colorful pillows to lean on as you sit on the floor and a low table with a large paper lantern hanging over it. I can't wait to post pictures.
Ok, I must interject to say that Oliver just had a full-body muscle spasm in his sleep. He's sitting next to me on the couch. It gave the appearance of the finale to a fireworks show. Muscles firing all over the place in close succession. Very strange.
After lunch, some of us went to the Alegre Pub to watch the Mexico v. Guatemala soccer game. I could really get into watching soccer. It's much more exciting than basketball or baseball or the like. Sadly, Guatemala lost. But that's not surprising. Apparently they're really quite bad and Mexico is really quite good. Sad day.
After the game, we went to find some dinner and ended up going back to Zoola. Yes, we ate two meals at the same restaurant in the same day. We tried to go to another place but it was full. But Zoola is delicious. No regrets on that decision.
We turned in early that night because we got up at 3:30am the next morning to hike La nariz del indio (Indian Nose). It's an easy and relatively short hike but it was excruciating considering I still couldn't breathe through my nose at this point. We got to the top in record time. Our guide called us "chicos que caminan mucho". It's supposed to be a 40-45 minute hike. We were at the top in 32 minutes. We reached the summit just before sunrise and got to watch the sun come up over the lake while drinking delicious coffee made over a fire. Really, really wish I could post pictures already. Trust me, their worth waiting for.
We got breakfast when we got back into town at a cafe on the lake. I can totally understand why Lake Atitlan is a highlight of pretty much anyone's trip to Guatemala. It's a great place. Lots to do and something awesome to look at if you actually feel like doing absolutely nothing. Katy asked a guy on the plane what he recommended she see while she was here. He said, "I'd say Lake Atitlan, but you're living there." Good deal.
Our return home was followed by gratuitous amounts of napping. I think that was the night we had a big group movie night. Watched the Dead Poets Society. Loved it. Tragic, but really well done.
Monday was our usual group meeting. Assigned cooking duties for the week which amounted to not much since everyone was out and about for most meals this week. We discussed a little bit of what we'll end up doing for our last weekend here (the weekend of July 4th). I'm planning on just staying in Solola/Pana but I think the other volunteers may go to the beach. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday reading the book I wrote my last post about. I'm going to have to get my own copy when I go back to the States. Tuesday night we had our second salsa lesson. I'm loving it. We're going out to a salsa bar tonight. Hopefully we can successfully implement what we've learned.
Wednesday was supposed to be a review day with my sixth grade class for the test they were retaking on Thursday. Instead, we got out to the community and found out sixth graders didn't have class that day. It ended up being a good thing we had showed up anyway because we were able to advertise for our mini campamiento we're having next week. I'm teaming up with Elle to teach art to 1st-6th graders. We'll be making pinatas. Very exciting.
Wednesday afternoon was our weekly discussion. This time it focused on Guatemalan history and culture. We read and excerpt from Rigoberta Menchu's book and an article from March about the aftermath of the civil war. It ended up being a really healthy discussion about differences between our expectations and the reality of Guatemala and our perceptions of poverty both here and in the States. We also got a more complete picture of what the civil war was about. It felt like a really productive time as a group. Wednesday night was another group movie night. We watched The Town. Another volunteer had been telling me I would really like it but it was described to me terribly so I adamantly said I wouldn't like it all. I had to eat my words. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Foiled again.
Thursday morning we ended up giving the 6th graders the test without a review but it was made open note. I graded them that evening and it seems like pretty much everyone was able to improve their scores. Mission accomplished. The whole team went out that night except for Katy and I (just not in the mood for a night on the town) so we watched The Princess and the Frog. I really liked the parts I was able to stay awake for. May or may not have to rewatch that one when I get home...
On Friday, about half our team left in the early afternoon to go to Xela early. They're currently hiking the highest point in Central America which is a two-day hike. We should be meeting up with them on Sunday afternoon. I really wanted to go but I don't trust my body yet as it's still trying to get over whatever's made it so unhappy. But now I have a really legitimate excuse to come back to Guatemala...Katy and I spent the morning walking around Solola. We stopped for a little bit in the cemetery which is just an absolutely beautiful place. Each family has something akin to a mausoleum painted in an absurdly bright color. The cemetery is on top of a hill with a fantastic view of the lake. A few of the other people milling about called it "el cemeterio con el mejor vista del mundo". Es la verdad. After a while, a funeral procession entered the cemetery and Katy and I quietly exited. In the afternoon, she and Dave and I met up in Pana to go to Crossroads Cafe, the cafe run by our friend Mike. We all had such an enjoyable afternoon there, having him regale us with stories about coffee and finally getting his wife to say yes after three proposals. His enthusiasm for the Lord is intoxicating. I asked him if there was anything I could help him with in the afternoons after I'm done with class. His wife homeschools his kids and his youngest daughter is starting Biology this week. His wife doesn't really know anything about Biology so he asked me if I'd be willing to come down and teach some Biology. I'll be giving his wife a call on Sunday. =)
That night, the small portion of that team that's still around (which amounts to Dave, Katy, Dana (a country director) and I) went to Circus Bar for dinner. It looks a little shady from the outside but has fantastic pizza and bruschetta in addition to live music. Probably one of the better dinners I've had here. Dana and I split a Soleil pizza: cheese pizza with eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, and pesto on top. Nomnomnom.
And now we get to this morning. We'll be leaving for Xela in about 20 minutes. I should probably finish packing. =P
Thanks again for following along as I continue my adventure in this beautiful country. Again, feel free to ask me any questions you like.
Hasta luego!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
A bit of light reading.
Part of my duties here with MPI is to post on their blog once a week. I was particularly fond of my post this week so I've decided to repost it. I apologize if any of my readers feel slighted by the lack of original material today. =P I'm aiming to post again tomorrow morning with a more thorough update on what's happened since my last post.
As I sit down to write this, I've just eaten a delicious bowl of pasta after arriving home from our second Salsa lesson. According to our teacher, we're all progressing nicely, having reviewed everything we learned last week while adding the "dile que no" to our repertoire. Hopefully by the end of our stint here we'll be fluent in Spanish AND Salsa.
Besides tonight's Salsa lesson, things have been pretty low-key since our return from San Pedro this weekend. Yesterday we finished up presentations about the bottle-stuffing competition we're having between classes in Central. The kids generally seemed to have a healthy amount of enthusiasm, however the fifth graders couldn't contain themselves and began beating each other with the bottles we brought for them to stuff. After threatening to remove them from the competition, they regained some semblance of composure. Hopefully that translates into lots of stuffed bottles, which will in turn translate into more classrooms for the school.
Today, since health classes have finished for the rest of my time here, I spent the day around the house doing a lot of extremely fascinating reading. Yesterday I grabbed Buried Secrets off the communal shelf and have since commenced devouring it. I'm a little over halfway through its 280 pages and am totally loving it. It was written by Victoria Sanford, an extremely accomplished anthropologist who focuses her work in Latin America. The book is about her experience working on exhumations of clandestine graves that were the result of massacres during the Guatemalan civil war. Part of her work was doing actual excavation but she mostly conducted antemortem interviews, giving survivors and family members a chance to share their stories while contributing to the exhumation process. Portions of the book are the testimonies she bore witness to, while the rest of it is the history of the civil war. She was able to compose both the testimonies and existing record in addition to an explanation of how genocide is defined in the international arena and her argument as to why the massacres that occurred during the war should be classified as genocide.
It's heartbreaking to read of the torture sustained by the Mayan people during the war but I can see the extreme value of investigating the war in this way. Sanford has given the Maya a voice and is refusing to let them be silenced despite the efforts of Guatemalan and US officials to discredit their testimonies. In one chapter, she focuses on the experience of women, citing Rigoberta Menchu and Deanna Ortiz as examples of women who spoke out about the violence they experienced and met with attempts of defamation. In Menchu's case, army officials claimed that her story was false and that those killed in her village were only eliminated because they were collaborating with the guerrilla and threatened violence. Ortiz was a nun who was kidnapped and tortured for months and after her release, one US official tried to argue that she was lying about the torture she had endured and stated that the doctor's examination happened too far after the fact to be able to confirm that her scars were a result of torture. It was later revealed that the doctor's report was dated only a week after Ortiz's release.
It's disappointing to think of members of our own political body trying to cover up such serious human rights violations. But this book is making me think critically about the importance of giving a voice to the wounded. It's invaluable to examine history from multiple perspectives and we do populations like the Maya a disservice when we fail to seek their side of the story. As she spoke to her village on the 20th anniversary of the massacre, the granddaughter of a victim told her people, "Nunca más." I hope that as Guatemala continues to work through the aftermath of its civil war, this will be our wish, too; not just for Guatemala, but wherever basic human rights are being stolen.
As I sit down to write this, I've just eaten a delicious bowl of pasta after arriving home from our second Salsa lesson. According to our teacher, we're all progressing nicely, having reviewed everything we learned last week while adding the "dile que no" to our repertoire. Hopefully by the end of our stint here we'll be fluent in Spanish AND Salsa.
Besides tonight's Salsa lesson, things have been pretty low-key since our return from San Pedro this weekend. Yesterday we finished up presentations about the bottle-stuffing competition we're having between classes in Central. The kids generally seemed to have a healthy amount of enthusiasm, however the fifth graders couldn't contain themselves and began beating each other with the bottles we brought for them to stuff. After threatening to remove them from the competition, they regained some semblance of composure. Hopefully that translates into lots of stuffed bottles, which will in turn translate into more classrooms for the school.
Today, since health classes have finished for the rest of my time here, I spent the day around the house doing a lot of extremely fascinating reading. Yesterday I grabbed Buried Secrets off the communal shelf and have since commenced devouring it. I'm a little over halfway through its 280 pages and am totally loving it. It was written by Victoria Sanford, an extremely accomplished anthropologist who focuses her work in Latin America. The book is about her experience working on exhumations of clandestine graves that were the result of massacres during the Guatemalan civil war. Part of her work was doing actual excavation but she mostly conducted antemortem interviews, giving survivors and family members a chance to share their stories while contributing to the exhumation process. Portions of the book are the testimonies she bore witness to, while the rest of it is the history of the civil war. She was able to compose both the testimonies and existing record in addition to an explanation of how genocide is defined in the international arena and her argument as to why the massacres that occurred during the war should be classified as genocide.
It's heartbreaking to read of the torture sustained by the Mayan people during the war but I can see the extreme value of investigating the war in this way. Sanford has given the Maya a voice and is refusing to let them be silenced despite the efforts of Guatemalan and US officials to discredit their testimonies. In one chapter, she focuses on the experience of women, citing Rigoberta Menchu and Deanna Ortiz as examples of women who spoke out about the violence they experienced and met with attempts of defamation. In Menchu's case, army officials claimed that her story was false and that those killed in her village were only eliminated because they were collaborating with the guerrilla and threatened violence. Ortiz was a nun who was kidnapped and tortured for months and after her release, one US official tried to argue that she was lying about the torture she had endured and stated that the doctor's examination happened too far after the fact to be able to confirm that her scars were a result of torture. It was later revealed that the doctor's report was dated only a week after Ortiz's release.
It's disappointing to think of members of our own political body trying to cover up such serious human rights violations. But this book is making me think critically about the importance of giving a voice to the wounded. It's invaluable to examine history from multiple perspectives and we do populations like the Maya a disservice when we fail to seek their side of the story. As she spoke to her village on the 20th anniversary of the massacre, the granddaughter of a victim told her people, "Nunca más." I hope that as Guatemala continues to work through the aftermath of its civil war, this will be our wish, too; not just for Guatemala, but wherever basic human rights are being stolen.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
para informarles de mi viaje hasta ahora.
hola, amigos!
i finally have a definitive answer as to what i'll be doing while i'm here: i am now an english teacher. the permanent team here teaches english classes at the elementary school in chaquiyla, a rural community about 20 minutes outside solola where we live. in addition to english, there are monthly health/personal hygiene classes that i'm also involved with as well as a bottle stuffing competition that began today. stuffing bottles with inorganic trash produces ecoblocks which can be used to build the foundations of buildings. it's an awesome alternative to the other two options (burning or burying trash) and gives us an opportunity to teach the kids about the importance of caring for the environment. once the school has about 13,000 stuffed bottles, they'll be able to use them to build an addition to the school. the class that produces the most bottles during our three-week competition gets to design and paint a mural that will hang in the new classrooms.
today was my first full day of teaching--i observed on tuesday and classes were cancelled on wednesday (something that happens a lot...for no obvious reason). i taught two sections of health and the 6th grade english class i'll work with wednesdays and thursdays. in health, we explained hiene (personal hygiene) to the kids, specifically dental hygiene and hand-washing. to demonstrate the spread of germs, we passed around pens covered in glitter then asked the kids to look at their hands. everyone's hands had glitter on them just like everyone's hands have germs on them when we all touch the same things without washing our hands. it seemed to be an effective exercise and offered a visual representation of what's really happening at the microscopic level.
we teach at two schools here: central y cooperativa. there are four total in the community and mpi has interest in expanding eventually but they really want to establish their existing programs and figure out how sustainable they are first. all the english classes are taught at central (except for teacher's english) and health is taught in both schools. i started my day at central and finished with a health class at cooperativa. there's a marked difference in the behavior of the kids at both schools. the children at central seem to care much less about their education and will often talk or walk around during class. at cooperativa they're remarkably well behaved and get really excited about learning. i asked one of the long-term team members what she would attribute the difference to and she feels the teachers at cooperativa have struck a good balance between being authoritative and being too strict, allowing them to earn the respect of their students and to encourage enthusiasm in the classroom. since the students from both schools live in the same community, it really is surprising how different they are. the hope is that as mpi continues to work with central, interest will improve but it's impossible to say what exactly needs to happen for that to be the case.
my time here so far has been absolutely phenomenal. since classes go from 8am to noon, we have plenty of time to spend making friends and immersing ourselves in guatemalan culture. we live in solola, the capital of the state/province/larger entity that's also called solola. the community we work in is also in solola proper and the city we relax in, panajachel (affectionately known as pana), is also included in solola. pana is much more touristy than the other cities we've seen and is a hotspot for backpackers especially. that's where you'll find the best souvenirs and lots of awesome restaurants and coffee shops. on our first full day here, we did a scavenger hunt through pana to get the lay of the land. the finish line was a coffee shop owned by an ex-pat named mike, an awesome christian guy who loves Lord and has been selling coffee in pana for 11 years, raising money and slowly building the youth hostel of his dreams. his goal is to create a space where backpackers and other travelers can go to feel at home while away from home. on monday, some of us went out to mike's house and helped him install a cover over an exposed pipe. his passion was intoxicating and extremely inspiring. i'll be posting pictures of his place once i get back to the states.
our scavenger hunt ended in a tie, and to break the tie, we did a brainteaser. my team had a gross advantage. =P we won a loaf of banana bread which was obviously shared with everyone. but the everlasting pride of being the official winners is ours forever.
at mike's cafe, crossroads cafe, katy and i met neal, an american who felt led by God to do volunteer work in guatemala. he's about a year to a year and a half into a three year contract and he travels around a bit doing construction work. he's another really passionate guy who's totally sold out for God. we chatted with him about our role as believers in the US and the service we're called to do both domestically and abroad. pretty heavy chitchat. =P but awesome to meet so many english-speaking christians in our first day and a half in guate.
that night, we went out on the town in pana and spent the night in a hostel. stop thinking of that horrible movie immediately. this hostel was phenomenal. each room had two full beds and cost 35Q (the currency is quetzales, abbreviated Q) per night per person. the exchange rate is a little over 7Q to every dollar so our night in the hostel cost us about $5 per person. this will be a much bigger deal after i post pictures of the hostel itself. =P
on sunday morning we got some coffee (which tastes a million times better here) and headed back to solola to recouperate. that evening, katy and i went to church with one of the long-term volunteers. the church meets in a coffeehouse in pana called soloman's porch and services are done in english/spanish with a translator. it's a very small community but they did a fairly in-depth bible study and were all really passionate about their faith--especially our guatemalan counterparts.
monday is the day the team uses to get everything in order for the week. the long-term team has a meeting then there's another meeting with the volunteers and all the shopping for the week happens in the late morning/afternoon. tuesday was our first day in the community during which i just observed health classes and then we went into pana for the evening to take a salsa class. it's taught by two americans who are also here with other ngos. our group had a ton of fun and i especially loved picking up another cultural skill. for dinner we had papusas, a typical el salvadorian dish but they're good bar food so they sell them in pana as well. =P it's essentially an uncrustable. except the bread is tortillas and the peanut butter and jelly are any variety of beans, garlic, cheese, spinach, or meat.
wednesday is the day we'll have our weekly discussion. these differ from the meetings in that we talk about larger issues that relate to our community instead of just the logistics of our work for the week. our first discussion was on development theories and how manna thinks about the future development of the communities in which they implement their programs. it was awesome to hear about the experience of the long-term team and how they think about/how their time here has influenced their thinking on community development. i'd love to explain some of the theories we discussed in a post when i have less general catching-up to do. =P way interesting and extremely relevant as we think about how to invest in communities with both time and money.
after our meeting, we visited a ngo based out of pana called mayan traditions. mayan traditions organizes a co-op of weavers and ensures that they get a fair wage and their products are sold at a fair price. we watched yolanda, one of their weavers, give a weaving demonstration. she showed us an example of back-strap weaving, an incredibly intricate and time-intensive form of weaving which i'm assuming is called "back-strap" because they connect themselves to their looms using a strap. which goes around their backs. the piece she was creating would take her about 6 months and would be used as the centerpiece of a weepil, the traditional blouse that mayan women wear.
to the right is a generic picture of back-strap weaving that i absconded from the internet.
last night, some of us went to the weekly soccer game that the friends of the long-term volunteers have every week. a group of our team members played and actually did quite well. i didn't play partly because i stupidly wore sandals and partly because i've been sick the last couple days. mostly a weird stomach thing accompanied by a sore throat, both of which thankfully seem to be on the way out. katy's been sick too so we both ask for prayers that we'll be healthy for the remainder of our trip.
thanks for bearing with me as i try to keep you all informed. i may or may not give as detailed a post in the future but it seemed relevant today since we're still laying the groundwork for our time here. =) i'm so thrilled to be here and can't believe it's almost been a week already. i feel so at home here (besides the weird bug i acquired from the water. or maybe those mangoes i bought off the street...) and can already tell that i'd love to spend a long period of time living in latin america. i so appreciate all your support and prayers that got me here and will carry me through the rest of my time here. =)
we're able to use the internet pretty regularly here, so if anyone has any questions about my trip or wants me to post more about anything specifically, just shoot me and email or leave me a comment. this is partly a journal for me but mostly a way for you guys to stay informed about my life here so i'd love to tailor it towards your interests. =)
hm. the house cat (oliver) is licking my foot. time to relocate.
mucho amor.
i finally have a definitive answer as to what i'll be doing while i'm here: i am now an english teacher. the permanent team here teaches english classes at the elementary school in chaquiyla, a rural community about 20 minutes outside solola where we live. in addition to english, there are monthly health/personal hygiene classes that i'm also involved with as well as a bottle stuffing competition that began today. stuffing bottles with inorganic trash produces ecoblocks which can be used to build the foundations of buildings. it's an awesome alternative to the other two options (burning or burying trash) and gives us an opportunity to teach the kids about the importance of caring for the environment. once the school has about 13,000 stuffed bottles, they'll be able to use them to build an addition to the school. the class that produces the most bottles during our three-week competition gets to design and paint a mural that will hang in the new classrooms.
today was my first full day of teaching--i observed on tuesday and classes were cancelled on wednesday (something that happens a lot...for no obvious reason). i taught two sections of health and the 6th grade english class i'll work with wednesdays and thursdays. in health, we explained hiene (personal hygiene) to the kids, specifically dental hygiene and hand-washing. to demonstrate the spread of germs, we passed around pens covered in glitter then asked the kids to look at their hands. everyone's hands had glitter on them just like everyone's hands have germs on them when we all touch the same things without washing our hands. it seemed to be an effective exercise and offered a visual representation of what's really happening at the microscopic level.
we teach at two schools here: central y cooperativa. there are four total in the community and mpi has interest in expanding eventually but they really want to establish their existing programs and figure out how sustainable they are first. all the english classes are taught at central (except for teacher's english) and health is taught in both schools. i started my day at central and finished with a health class at cooperativa. there's a marked difference in the behavior of the kids at both schools. the children at central seem to care much less about their education and will often talk or walk around during class. at cooperativa they're remarkably well behaved and get really excited about learning. i asked one of the long-term team members what she would attribute the difference to and she feels the teachers at cooperativa have struck a good balance between being authoritative and being too strict, allowing them to earn the respect of their students and to encourage enthusiasm in the classroom. since the students from both schools live in the same community, it really is surprising how different they are. the hope is that as mpi continues to work with central, interest will improve but it's impossible to say what exactly needs to happen for that to be the case.
my time here so far has been absolutely phenomenal. since classes go from 8am to noon, we have plenty of time to spend making friends and immersing ourselves in guatemalan culture. we live in solola, the capital of the state/province/larger entity that's also called solola. the community we work in is also in solola proper and the city we relax in, panajachel (affectionately known as pana), is also included in solola. pana is much more touristy than the other cities we've seen and is a hotspot for backpackers especially. that's where you'll find the best souvenirs and lots of awesome restaurants and coffee shops. on our first full day here, we did a scavenger hunt through pana to get the lay of the land. the finish line was a coffee shop owned by an ex-pat named mike, an awesome christian guy who loves Lord and has been selling coffee in pana for 11 years, raising money and slowly building the youth hostel of his dreams. his goal is to create a space where backpackers and other travelers can go to feel at home while away from home. on monday, some of us went out to mike's house and helped him install a cover over an exposed pipe. his passion was intoxicating and extremely inspiring. i'll be posting pictures of his place once i get back to the states.
our scavenger hunt ended in a tie, and to break the tie, we did a brainteaser. my team had a gross advantage. =P we won a loaf of banana bread which was obviously shared with everyone. but the everlasting pride of being the official winners is ours forever.
at mike's cafe, crossroads cafe, katy and i met neal, an american who felt led by God to do volunteer work in guatemala. he's about a year to a year and a half into a three year contract and he travels around a bit doing construction work. he's another really passionate guy who's totally sold out for God. we chatted with him about our role as believers in the US and the service we're called to do both domestically and abroad. pretty heavy chitchat. =P but awesome to meet so many english-speaking christians in our first day and a half in guate.
that night, we went out on the town in pana and spent the night in a hostel. stop thinking of that horrible movie immediately. this hostel was phenomenal. each room had two full beds and cost 35Q (the currency is quetzales, abbreviated Q) per night per person. the exchange rate is a little over 7Q to every dollar so our night in the hostel cost us about $5 per person. this will be a much bigger deal after i post pictures of the hostel itself. =P
on sunday morning we got some coffee (which tastes a million times better here) and headed back to solola to recouperate. that evening, katy and i went to church with one of the long-term volunteers. the church meets in a coffeehouse in pana called soloman's porch and services are done in english/spanish with a translator. it's a very small community but they did a fairly in-depth bible study and were all really passionate about their faith--especially our guatemalan counterparts.
monday is the day the team uses to get everything in order for the week. the long-term team has a meeting then there's another meeting with the volunteers and all the shopping for the week happens in the late morning/afternoon. tuesday was our first day in the community during which i just observed health classes and then we went into pana for the evening to take a salsa class. it's taught by two americans who are also here with other ngos. our group had a ton of fun and i especially loved picking up another cultural skill. for dinner we had papusas, a typical el salvadorian dish but they're good bar food so they sell them in pana as well. =P it's essentially an uncrustable. except the bread is tortillas and the peanut butter and jelly are any variety of beans, garlic, cheese, spinach, or meat.
wednesday is the day we'll have our weekly discussion. these differ from the meetings in that we talk about larger issues that relate to our community instead of just the logistics of our work for the week. our first discussion was on development theories and how manna thinks about the future development of the communities in which they implement their programs. it was awesome to hear about the experience of the long-term team and how they think about/how their time here has influenced their thinking on community development. i'd love to explain some of the theories we discussed in a post when i have less general catching-up to do. =P way interesting and extremely relevant as we think about how to invest in communities with both time and money.
after our meeting, we visited a ngo based out of pana called mayan traditions. mayan traditions organizes a co-op of weavers and ensures that they get a fair wage and their products are sold at a fair price. we watched yolanda, one of their weavers, give a weaving demonstration. she showed us an example of back-strap weaving, an incredibly intricate and time-intensive form of weaving which i'm assuming is called "back-strap" because they connect themselves to their looms using a strap. which goes around their backs. the piece she was creating would take her about 6 months and would be used as the centerpiece of a weepil, the traditional blouse that mayan women wear.
last night, some of us went to the weekly soccer game that the friends of the long-term volunteers have every week. a group of our team members played and actually did quite well. i didn't play partly because i stupidly wore sandals and partly because i've been sick the last couple days. mostly a weird stomach thing accompanied by a sore throat, both of which thankfully seem to be on the way out. katy's been sick too so we both ask for prayers that we'll be healthy for the remainder of our trip.
thanks for bearing with me as i try to keep you all informed. i may or may not give as detailed a post in the future but it seemed relevant today since we're still laying the groundwork for our time here. =) i'm so thrilled to be here and can't believe it's almost been a week already. i feel so at home here (besides the weird bug i acquired from the water. or maybe those mangoes i bought off the street...) and can already tell that i'd love to spend a long period of time living in latin america. i so appreciate all your support and prayers that got me here and will carry me through the rest of my time here. =)
we're able to use the internet pretty regularly here, so if anyone has any questions about my trip or wants me to post more about anything specifically, just shoot me and email or leave me a comment. this is partly a journal for me but mostly a way for you guys to stay informed about my life here so i'd love to tailor it towards your interests. =)
hm. the house cat (oliver) is licking my foot. time to relocate.
mucho amor.
Friday, June 10, 2011
he llegado.
hola, amigos!
i am officially in country, chilling with the team at our house in solola. we've just eaten our first dinner together (enchiladas--good typical mexican dish) and moved into our host homes. katy and i are staying together and getting totally pumped to begin our first full day tomorrow. we'll be exploring solola and venturing into pana to get the lay of the land.
beautiful country. two and half hour van ride from the airport to our home. i'm so excited to explore.
time to pass off the computer. more later.
i am officially in country, chilling with the team at our house in solola. we've just eaten our first dinner together (enchiladas--good typical mexican dish) and moved into our host homes. katy and i are staying together and getting totally pumped to begin our first full day tomorrow. we'll be exploring solola and venturing into pana to get the lay of the land.
beautiful country. two and half hour van ride from the airport to our home. i'm so excited to explore.
time to pass off the computer. more later.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
the time has come.
my plane leaves in less than 7 hours. i should probably be asleep.
but i have my first official trip story. it seemed pertinent to share. i can sleep on the plane. =P
about a month ago, the program director asked for volunteers to transport dental supplies. it seemed like a benign enough request and they volunteered to pay the extra baggage fees so, being the flexible people-pleaser i am, i volunteered. i got confirmation that i would be receiving the supplies and then heard nothing else about it until wednesday. of this week.
while i was at work on wednesday night, holding down the fort at the panera bread, i received a text from my mother, alerting me of the arrival of a package for me. she and my father had assumed it was the dental supplies considering it was giant and weighed 73 pounds. i wasn't expecting anything else that weighed the equivalent of a nine-year-old child so this was probably a safe bet.
when we opened the package we found a ridiculous amount of toothpaste, toothbrushes, and dental floss. probably enough for an entire village. which is probably good when you realize that's exactly how much we need. but still--i proceeded to spend all of today trying to package it all as efficiently as possible. but really, how efficient can you get when the goal is to carry 73 pounds of oral hygiene items onto a plane?
so if you need a pick-me-up tomorrow, go ahead and imagine me in an airport in guatemala city, surrounded by 5 bags, two of which will reek of copious amounts of mint. also, you can use this story to explain to your kids why you should ask lots of questions before responding in the affirmative to a vague request to transport goods internationally.
in other news, the fundraiser at buffalo wild wings was a success. i was able to raise $75 and, thanks to this event and the extremely generous donations made by my family and friends, i will be able to afford this trip while still having enough money to pay for all of next school year. praise the Lord. hallelujah for continuing through college debt-free.
and thus ends my last update to this blog in the united states. next time you hear from me i'll be in an internet cafe in solola. or borrowing the laptop of another volunteer in the house. but either way, i will be on non-american soil.
can't wait to fill you in on the actual adventure. it's finally here. =)
but i have my first official trip story. it seemed pertinent to share. i can sleep on the plane. =P
about a month ago, the program director asked for volunteers to transport dental supplies. it seemed like a benign enough request and they volunteered to pay the extra baggage fees so, being the flexible people-pleaser i am, i volunteered. i got confirmation that i would be receiving the supplies and then heard nothing else about it until wednesday. of this week.
while i was at work on wednesday night, holding down the fort at the panera bread, i received a text from my mother, alerting me of the arrival of a package for me. she and my father had assumed it was the dental supplies considering it was giant and weighed 73 pounds. i wasn't expecting anything else that weighed the equivalent of a nine-year-old child so this was probably a safe bet.
when we opened the package we found a ridiculous amount of toothpaste, toothbrushes, and dental floss. probably enough for an entire village. which is probably good when you realize that's exactly how much we need. but still--i proceeded to spend all of today trying to package it all as efficiently as possible. but really, how efficient can you get when the goal is to carry 73 pounds of oral hygiene items onto a plane?
so if you need a pick-me-up tomorrow, go ahead and imagine me in an airport in guatemala city, surrounded by 5 bags, two of which will reek of copious amounts of mint. also, you can use this story to explain to your kids why you should ask lots of questions before responding in the affirmative to a vague request to transport goods internationally.
in other news, the fundraiser at buffalo wild wings was a success. i was able to raise $75 and, thanks to this event and the extremely generous donations made by my family and friends, i will be able to afford this trip while still having enough money to pay for all of next school year. praise the Lord. hallelujah for continuing through college debt-free.
and thus ends my last update to this blog in the united states. next time you hear from me i'll be in an internet cafe in solola. or borrowing the laptop of another volunteer in the house. but either way, i will be on non-american soil.
can't wait to fill you in on the actual adventure. it's finally here. =)
Sunday, June 5, 2011
God is in control.
i got a text from katy this week with an awesome story i wanted to share with you. it's one of those ones that remind you that God is way bigger than anything. everything.
here it is.
last sunday, katy felt like she needed to go to her bible study from high school that morning. thinking it was just an opportunity to reconnect with her old bible study leader, she decided to go. at bible study, they prayed for our trip and for my fundraising efforts. and after bible study, the mother of one of her friends approached her and said she felt led to give to me to help me pay for my trip. her daughter had done a mission trip last year and she remembered how difficult it was for her to fundraise but God came through for them and she wanted to give back.
i found myself not knowing what to say when she told me this. the way that God was so obviously taking care of me was overwhelming. it reaffirms the fact that God has plans for this trip and wants to do something awesome while katy and i are there.
i can't believe i'm leaving on thursday. i feel like i'm entering a dream sequence. probably partially influenced by the fact that i opened a new pair of contacts this morning and my eyes have been watering quite a bit, giving everything that weird hazy look that dreams had on the brady bunch. but mostly because it's hard to believe that this is finally happening. and overwhelmingly i'm feeling excited and ready. the other day, i ran into a girl who had graduated from city a few years before i did and we ended up having our conversation in spanish. good to know i can still communicate effectively.
we got an email last week with some last-reminders and bits of information. one of the more exciting tidbits in there was that we'll be living in homes for a large portion of our trip. this has always been one of my favorite parts of serving abroad and i'm so glad we'll have that opportunity to immerse ourselves so completely in guatemalan culture.
i got a another not-so-happy email from katy last week with a link to the state department's page on guatemala. their information on safety and security in the country was pretty extensive and rather disheartening. a weak government has allowed an increase in gang activity that leads to lot of robberies, kidnappings, and murders. also, mayan cultural beliefs make the indigenous people very wary of white women because they believe that they steal children. katy sent an email to the head of mpi program in guatemala who sent a really well-developed reply about the safety measures mpi employs. i think we have little to fear, what with all of mpi's efforts to keep us safe and God's hand that's been so obviously over this whole trip. but please pray for the guatemalan people and tourists who aren't as well protected in addition to strength for the government.
today is the day of my fundraiser at buffalo wind wings on the east beltline (near celebration cinema)! if you're in the mood for some chicken, come on out and present this flyer to have 20% of your purchase donated to my trip (you can also find a larger copy to download here).
i'll be there from noon to 2:30, 6 to 8:15, and 10 to midnight. i'll have some copies of the coupon there but i'll have to give them out discreetly (their policy on handing our flyers has a bit of gray area). generally it'd be best if you brought your own copy. =)
also, the procedure for donations has changed: since my departure date is so close, it's unlikely that mpi will be able to process any donations in time. the best way to donate is just to send your contribution to me (checks made out to kati turner) and i'll guide to where it needs to go. sadly, it will no longer be tax deductible, but it will still help me get to guatemala!
i'm so grateful for all the support i've received as i prepare for this trip and can't wait to actually be there in 5 days. another tidbit in the last-minute details email mentioned that we'd have internet access the whole time we're there in the mpi house. which means potential in-country updates. stay tuned. =)
here it is.
last sunday, katy felt like she needed to go to her bible study from high school that morning. thinking it was just an opportunity to reconnect with her old bible study leader, she decided to go. at bible study, they prayed for our trip and for my fundraising efforts. and after bible study, the mother of one of her friends approached her and said she felt led to give to me to help me pay for my trip. her daughter had done a mission trip last year and she remembered how difficult it was for her to fundraise but God came through for them and she wanted to give back.
i found myself not knowing what to say when she told me this. the way that God was so obviously taking care of me was overwhelming. it reaffirms the fact that God has plans for this trip and wants to do something awesome while katy and i are there.
i can't believe i'm leaving on thursday. i feel like i'm entering a dream sequence. probably partially influenced by the fact that i opened a new pair of contacts this morning and my eyes have been watering quite a bit, giving everything that weird hazy look that dreams had on the brady bunch. but mostly because it's hard to believe that this is finally happening. and overwhelmingly i'm feeling excited and ready. the other day, i ran into a girl who had graduated from city a few years before i did and we ended up having our conversation in spanish. good to know i can still communicate effectively.
we got an email last week with some last-reminders and bits of information. one of the more exciting tidbits in there was that we'll be living in homes for a large portion of our trip. this has always been one of my favorite parts of serving abroad and i'm so glad we'll have that opportunity to immerse ourselves so completely in guatemalan culture.
i got a another not-so-happy email from katy last week with a link to the state department's page on guatemala. their information on safety and security in the country was pretty extensive and rather disheartening. a weak government has allowed an increase in gang activity that leads to lot of robberies, kidnappings, and murders. also, mayan cultural beliefs make the indigenous people very wary of white women because they believe that they steal children. katy sent an email to the head of mpi program in guatemala who sent a really well-developed reply about the safety measures mpi employs. i think we have little to fear, what with all of mpi's efforts to keep us safe and God's hand that's been so obviously over this whole trip. but please pray for the guatemalan people and tourists who aren't as well protected in addition to strength for the government.
today is the day of my fundraiser at buffalo wind wings on the east beltline (near celebration cinema)! if you're in the mood for some chicken, come on out and present this flyer to have 20% of your purchase donated to my trip (you can also find a larger copy to download here).
also, the procedure for donations has changed: since my departure date is so close, it's unlikely that mpi will be able to process any donations in time. the best way to donate is just to send your contribution to me (checks made out to kati turner) and i'll guide to where it needs to go. sadly, it will no longer be tax deductible, but it will still help me get to guatemala!
i'm so grateful for all the support i've received as i prepare for this trip and can't wait to actually be there in 5 days. another tidbit in the last-minute details email mentioned that we'd have internet access the whole time we're there in the mpi house. which means potential in-country updates. stay tuned. =)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
creole confusion.
the other night, i was channel surfing on the radio in my car as i drove to a friend's house. i settled on a world music channel and was excited to find they were playing a song that sounded quite spanish. but as i continued to listen, i began to feel anxious because i couldn't understand any of what the singer was saying. i all of a sudden felt very unprepared to be using almost purely spanish for a whole month. if i couldn't even understand this song, how was i going to be able to understand the guatemalans i was hoping to serve?
turns out the song was in creole and my anxiety was all for naught but it made me realize that as excited as i am about this trip, i'm still a little nervous. but i know that God has given me all the tools and education i need to do this. any fear that i have is not of Him; he has blessed me with all spiritual gifts necessary to complete the task he has laid before me.
if you guys are supporting me in prayer as i prepare for and actually embark on this adventure, i'd ask specifically that you pray for both katy and i, that God would grant our hearts peace and confidence in Him. and that once we arrive in guatemala that we would trust Him and throw ourselves completely into our work there.
in other news, i stopped in at the buffalo wild wings on the east beltline (in grand rapids. i apologize to my readers in other parts of the country. wish you could be here to eat chicken with me.). i've set up a fundraiser for sunday, june 5. sometime in the next couple of days they'll be sending me a flyer for the event that i'll be able to distribute to all of you lovely people. if you bring the flyer to the b-dubs on the east beltine anytime that day, they'll give me 20% of your bill to put towards my trip. awesome deal. you get delicious chicken and the satisfaction of knowing you're helping me go to guatemala.
i'll be emailing mpi today to ask them how my fundraising has been going so once i hear from them i'll give you all an update as well. also: i was reading the fundraising packet the other day and came across some contribution cards that they recommend donors use to direct their donations. this is different from the instructions i found in the welcome packet they sent me so i'll also be asking them if donations sent in the old format are still getting to my account. unfortunately, there isn't a strategic way for me post the forms online. if i figure one out, i'll let you know, but for the time being just go ahead and email me if you'd like a form. (katherine.a.turner@vanderbilt.edu)
thanks so much for your support guys. getting more and more excited every day. =)
commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
proverbs 16:3
turns out the song was in creole and my anxiety was all for naught but it made me realize that as excited as i am about this trip, i'm still a little nervous. but i know that God has given me all the tools and education i need to do this. any fear that i have is not of Him; he has blessed me with all spiritual gifts necessary to complete the task he has laid before me.
if you guys are supporting me in prayer as i prepare for and actually embark on this adventure, i'd ask specifically that you pray for both katy and i, that God would grant our hearts peace and confidence in Him. and that once we arrive in guatemala that we would trust Him and throw ourselves completely into our work there.
in other news, i stopped in at the buffalo wild wings on the east beltline (in grand rapids. i apologize to my readers in other parts of the country. wish you could be here to eat chicken with me.). i've set up a fundraiser for sunday, june 5. sometime in the next couple of days they'll be sending me a flyer for the event that i'll be able to distribute to all of you lovely people. if you bring the flyer to the b-dubs on the east beltine anytime that day, they'll give me 20% of your bill to put towards my trip. awesome deal. you get delicious chicken and the satisfaction of knowing you're helping me go to guatemala.
i'll be emailing mpi today to ask them how my fundraising has been going so once i hear from them i'll give you all an update as well. also: i was reading the fundraising packet the other day and came across some contribution cards that they recommend donors use to direct their donations. this is different from the instructions i found in the welcome packet they sent me so i'll also be asking them if donations sent in the old format are still getting to my account. unfortunately, there isn't a strategic way for me post the forms online. if i figure one out, i'll let you know, but for the time being just go ahead and email me if you'd like a form. (katherine.a.turner@vanderbilt.edu)
thanks so much for your support guys. getting more and more excited every day. =)
commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
proverbs 16:3
Thursday, May 5, 2011
why i do what i do.
i purchased my ticket last night. its acquisition was not without a few complications, but with the help my mother and a lovely indian man, i'm officially going to guatemala.
recently a good friend asked me an extremely relevant question and i thought it would be good to address it here as i include you guys in my preparation for this adventure.
he asked me, "why go to guatemala to help people when there are so many people in need here?"
as a pre-med student wanting to do medical missions abroad i get this question a lot. but this time i felt like i actually had something worthwhile to say.
first of all, i absolutely acknowledge the need for healthcare and general aid in the US. the recent tornado in alabama makes it impossible to forget that. seeing the importance of meeting that need, i do serve in the US as well as often as i can. service is not an event isolated to foreign countries in my life. but i do feel a particular call to serve abroad.
i think there's a standing misconception that tons of people are going abroad to serve because it's somehow a more glamorous life and they leave all of the under-served people of the united states in a lurch. in my experience, this is absolutely not true. for example, when i checked last week, manna was still accepting applications on a rolling basis. meaning they still have spots. meaning not everyone is leaping at the chance to help others in a foreign country. and it is by no means the more glamorous option. when you work abroad, you typically live in community either with the people you're serving or others you serve with. you don't have much free time and, if you're living with those you serve, you may not even have running water. it's a hard life. and a lot of people talk about doing it, but i think many people would be surprised by how few people actually dedicate their lives to service abroad.
helping others in a different country also requires a specific skill set. obviously being a doctor requires typical doctor skills but serving people who don't speak your language or who come from a completely different cultural background is a different story. the language barrier is what kills it for many people. if you don't already speak the language, you have to work with an interpreter (if there's one available). and even then it's difficult to get used to working with someone else in the room, translating everything that's being said. and supplies are often few and far between so this work demands ingenuity, flexibility, and patience from everyone involved.
we have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. if your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
romans 12:6-8
we have all been endowed with a specific set of gifts. and the Bible calls us to use them to their fullest. and so i feel like not using my ability to speak spanish and my heart to provide healing to others would be squandering the gift.
finally, there exists the simple fact that we have more than they do. in the US, we have a much more established community of service organizations and far more resources to help our needy than developing countries do. because of this disparity, i feel led to help even the score.
i fear i've painted a bleak picture of what medical missions looks like. it's not bleak; it's beautiful. it can be discouraging and heartbreaking, but the success stories illuminate out the darkness. it's ridiculously rewarding work and i can't wait to be involved.
and so this is why i want to serve abroad, starting in guatemala and wherever else the Lord will take me. i can't wait to begin this part of the journey He has prepared for me.
if anyone has any questions about anything i've said, feel free to send me an email or leave me a comment. i think this is an incredibly important thing to discuss and would hate to leave anyone feeling unsettled by anything i've said or haven't said.
thanks for all of your support. i'm so excited to continue to share this adventure with all of you. and to actually begin in 35 days. =)
then i heard the voice of the Lord saying, "whom shall i send? and who will go for us?"
and i said, "here i am. send me!"
isaiah 6:8
recently a good friend asked me an extremely relevant question and i thought it would be good to address it here as i include you guys in my preparation for this adventure.
he asked me, "why go to guatemala to help people when there are so many people in need here?"
as a pre-med student wanting to do medical missions abroad i get this question a lot. but this time i felt like i actually had something worthwhile to say.
first of all, i absolutely acknowledge the need for healthcare and general aid in the US. the recent tornado in alabama makes it impossible to forget that. seeing the importance of meeting that need, i do serve in the US as well as often as i can. service is not an event isolated to foreign countries in my life. but i do feel a particular call to serve abroad.
i think there's a standing misconception that tons of people are going abroad to serve because it's somehow a more glamorous life and they leave all of the under-served people of the united states in a lurch. in my experience, this is absolutely not true. for example, when i checked last week, manna was still accepting applications on a rolling basis. meaning they still have spots. meaning not everyone is leaping at the chance to help others in a foreign country. and it is by no means the more glamorous option. when you work abroad, you typically live in community either with the people you're serving or others you serve with. you don't have much free time and, if you're living with those you serve, you may not even have running water. it's a hard life. and a lot of people talk about doing it, but i think many people would be surprised by how few people actually dedicate their lives to service abroad.
helping others in a different country also requires a specific skill set. obviously being a doctor requires typical doctor skills but serving people who don't speak your language or who come from a completely different cultural background is a different story. the language barrier is what kills it for many people. if you don't already speak the language, you have to work with an interpreter (if there's one available). and even then it's difficult to get used to working with someone else in the room, translating everything that's being said. and supplies are often few and far between so this work demands ingenuity, flexibility, and patience from everyone involved.
we have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. if your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
romans 12:6-8
we have all been endowed with a specific set of gifts. and the Bible calls us to use them to their fullest. and so i feel like not using my ability to speak spanish and my heart to provide healing to others would be squandering the gift.
finally, there exists the simple fact that we have more than they do. in the US, we have a much more established community of service organizations and far more resources to help our needy than developing countries do. because of this disparity, i feel led to help even the score.
i fear i've painted a bleak picture of what medical missions looks like. it's not bleak; it's beautiful. it can be discouraging and heartbreaking, but the success stories illuminate out the darkness. it's ridiculously rewarding work and i can't wait to be involved.
and so this is why i want to serve abroad, starting in guatemala and wherever else the Lord will take me. i can't wait to begin this part of the journey He has prepared for me.
if anyone has any questions about anything i've said, feel free to send me an email or leave me a comment. i think this is an incredibly important thing to discuss and would hate to leave anyone feeling unsettled by anything i've said or haven't said.
thanks for all of your support. i'm so excited to continue to share this adventure with all of you. and to actually begin in 35 days. =)
then i heard the voice of the Lord saying, "whom shall i send? and who will go for us?"
and i said, "here i am. send me!"
isaiah 6:8
Saturday, April 23, 2011
¡bienvenidos!
hello, dear friends.
about seven months ago i found myself feeling quite burnt out. my freshman year of college had awakened me to the reality of what my college experience as a pre-med was going to be like and i could already tell it was going to be a very difficult four years. if i was going to perservere i needed to keep the passion that led me to medical missions in the first place alive: a passion to serve others and save lives in the name of Jesus Christ.
and thus was born the decision to seek an opportunity to go abroad. i began looking for organizations that took college students abroad and was overwhelmed by what i found. wanting to do something medical narrowed the options a little bit and sometimes too much, considering all i'm currently qualified to do is hand out band aids. eventually, the manna project popped up on my radar.
manna project international (mpi) is a non-profit founded by a group of vanderbilt students that "utilizes the passions and energy of young people to empower developing international communities through hands-on learning and service". they work with and alongside communities in order to empower them while learning from them simultaneously. their mission is "to foster communities of young adults and encourage them to use their passions and education in service to communities in need". to meet their goals they take a holistic approach, offering a wide variety of programs as a realization that the many facets of a community are inextricably linked. their focus is on community and to that end volunteers live together near the areas in which they serve. their work happens in three international locations: nicaragua, ecuador, and guatemala, their newest site.
excited by what i learned about them, i chose to apply to mpi's short-term summer program in nicaragua and ecuador. i chose these sites solely because i knew more about them, having been established for longer, and because it appeared they had more opportunities for medical service. i filled out the application during the super bowl and then waited to see what would happen. after hearing me talk about the program, my roommate, katy, also chose to apply.
almost two weeks ago, while my mom and sister were both visiting me, i received an email notifying me that i had been offered a position at the mpi guatemala site. they said they realized it hadn't been my first choice but they thought i'd be a great fit for the program there. about five minutes after reading the email, katy stuck her head in the room.
"did you get an email today?"
"did you get an email today?"
"it depends. did you get an email today?"
(wanting to end the madness) "yes."
"where are you going?"
"guatemala."
"what?! you didn't even apply there!"
"i know, but who cares?! where are you going?"
"guatemala!"
we then come to find out that not only are we going to the same country, we got into the same session. i can offer no other explanation except that God must have big plans for my friend and i as we serve together in guatemala this summer. yesterday i mailed out my deposit. i'm officially going.
i don't claim to make good decisions all the time. for example, having slept in and used my meal plan to get breakfast, i'm currently enjoying a lunch of microwave popcorn. but i can tell already that my decision to go to guatemala is an important one and that God will use my time there for my edification and His glory.
and thus begins the least fun portion of this experience: fund raising. by my calculations, it will take about $2,000 to get from michigan to guatemala and back. being a college student and a lowly sandwich maker at panera, i am in need of financial assistance to make this happen. if after reading this blog you feel led to give to support me in my guatemalan adventures, i am eternally grateful. here's how you would go about doing that.
1. write a check to "manna project international" and put "katherine turner" in the memo line. i suppose cash would be accepted too. haven't actually read anything about that but i can't imagine they would turn it down. in that case, i think enclosing a slip of paper with my name on it would be the way to go.
2. put the aforementioned check or cash in an envelope. address it to:
Manna Project International
c/o Andrew Preston
P.O. Box 121052
Nashville, TN 37212
3. close the envelope. put a stamp on the upper right hand corner.
4. drop your envelope in the mail and enjoy all the benefits of your tax-deductible donation!
if you completely understandably don't feel led to give or are unable to, i still love and appreciate you all the same and hope that you will continue to support me by reading this blog and giving me an opportunity to share my passion for this project with someone else. also, i hope that you will join me in prayer for both katy and i as we prepare to make this trip and for the community in chaquijyá that we will be serving.
please continue to check back here for updates on my fundraising efforts, more information about mpi, and for interesting little tidbits about my preparation and guatemala itself. if you have any questions about mpi or what i´ll be doing while i´m there, feel free to comment and i´ll try to answer all question i receive in my next post. or if you have a more personal question, feel free to email me at katherine.a.turner@vanderbilt.edu
thanks for reading the first installment. more to come in time.
-kati
about seven months ago i found myself feeling quite burnt out. my freshman year of college had awakened me to the reality of what my college experience as a pre-med was going to be like and i could already tell it was going to be a very difficult four years. if i was going to perservere i needed to keep the passion that led me to medical missions in the first place alive: a passion to serve others and save lives in the name of Jesus Christ.
and thus was born the decision to seek an opportunity to go abroad. i began looking for organizations that took college students abroad and was overwhelmed by what i found. wanting to do something medical narrowed the options a little bit and sometimes too much, considering all i'm currently qualified to do is hand out band aids. eventually, the manna project popped up on my radar.
manna project international (mpi) is a non-profit founded by a group of vanderbilt students that "utilizes the passions and energy of young people to empower developing international communities through hands-on learning and service". they work with and alongside communities in order to empower them while learning from them simultaneously. their mission is "to foster communities of young adults and encourage them to use their passions and education in service to communities in need". to meet their goals they take a holistic approach, offering a wide variety of programs as a realization that the many facets of a community are inextricably linked. their focus is on community and to that end volunteers live together near the areas in which they serve. their work happens in three international locations: nicaragua, ecuador, and guatemala, their newest site.
excited by what i learned about them, i chose to apply to mpi's short-term summer program in nicaragua and ecuador. i chose these sites solely because i knew more about them, having been established for longer, and because it appeared they had more opportunities for medical service. i filled out the application during the super bowl and then waited to see what would happen. after hearing me talk about the program, my roommate, katy, also chose to apply.
almost two weeks ago, while my mom and sister were both visiting me, i received an email notifying me that i had been offered a position at the mpi guatemala site. they said they realized it hadn't been my first choice but they thought i'd be a great fit for the program there. about five minutes after reading the email, katy stuck her head in the room.
"did you get an email today?"
"did you get an email today?"
"it depends. did you get an email today?"
(wanting to end the madness) "yes."
"where are you going?"
"guatemala."
"what?! you didn't even apply there!"
"i know, but who cares?! where are you going?"
"guatemala!"
we then come to find out that not only are we going to the same country, we got into the same session. i can offer no other explanation except that God must have big plans for my friend and i as we serve together in guatemala this summer. yesterday i mailed out my deposit. i'm officially going.
i don't claim to make good decisions all the time. for example, having slept in and used my meal plan to get breakfast, i'm currently enjoying a lunch of microwave popcorn. but i can tell already that my decision to go to guatemala is an important one and that God will use my time there for my edification and His glory.
and thus begins the least fun portion of this experience: fund raising. by my calculations, it will take about $2,000 to get from michigan to guatemala and back. being a college student and a lowly sandwich maker at panera, i am in need of financial assistance to make this happen. if after reading this blog you feel led to give to support me in my guatemalan adventures, i am eternally grateful. here's how you would go about doing that.
1. write a check to "manna project international" and put "katherine turner" in the memo line. i suppose cash would be accepted too. haven't actually read anything about that but i can't imagine they would turn it down. in that case, i think enclosing a slip of paper with my name on it would be the way to go.
2. put the aforementioned check or cash in an envelope. address it to:
Manna Project International
c/o Andrew Preston
P.O. Box 121052
Nashville, TN 37212
3. close the envelope. put a stamp on the upper right hand corner.
4. drop your envelope in the mail and enjoy all the benefits of your tax-deductible donation!
if you completely understandably don't feel led to give or are unable to, i still love and appreciate you all the same and hope that you will continue to support me by reading this blog and giving me an opportunity to share my passion for this project with someone else. also, i hope that you will join me in prayer for both katy and i as we prepare to make this trip and for the community in chaquijyá that we will be serving.
please continue to check back here for updates on my fundraising efforts, more information about mpi, and for interesting little tidbits about my preparation and guatemala itself. if you have any questions about mpi or what i´ll be doing while i´m there, feel free to comment and i´ll try to answer all question i receive in my next post. or if you have a more personal question, feel free to email me at katherine.a.turner@vanderbilt.edu
thanks for reading the first installment. more to come in time.
-kati
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