Anyways, Basilio finally made it to my town last Thursday to visit, which went exceptionally well...much better than I had expected. First off, he was extremely complimentary of my Spanish, which is always nice. He asked what I'd been doing, like studying or listening to the radio or reading the newspaper. I informed him that I watch the Spanish telenovelas (soap operas) a few times a week and listen to a lot of music in Spanish. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. We came up with a little game plan that we discussed with the doctor at the Centro. All Peace Corps volunteers have what is called a counterpart - it is someone who works for the host country agency that the volunteer is placed with (in my case, the Centro de Salud of my town). My counterpart, Cruz, is a TSR (tecnico en salud rural), which basically just means he does some auxiliary work in 2 tiny towns that are covered by the Centro. He came back from his 6 weeks (!) of vacation last week, so I now feel less at odds than I had been.
I'm starting this week in 3 of these caserios (the tiny towns) - Chuatacaj I, Chuatacaj II, and Pacul. Ideally, I'll spend one day a week in each one, one day at the Centro, then one day in the aldea (slightly larger tiny town) Paneya where I'm teaching English at the school. The volunteer I replaced worked in Paneya, as well as two other aldeas, so it would be nice to follow up on her work in those as well. I haven't spent as much time in the aldeas and caserios because the doctor at my Centro makes me feel like I'm not working if I'm not at the Centro. Which is frustrating, because my work isn't at the Centro, it's in the aldeas and caserios. I'm more than happy to help out when they need it, but he has a full staff of nurses, etc, to handle that stuff. It's hard to politely explain that I'm working with the Centro, not for the Centro. Whenever I'm not there, apparently he's asking everyone where I am. Just kind of a frustrating conflict because I don't want to upset him, but I'm also not going to placate him by sitting in the Centro every day with very little to do. Basilio told him I was only going to be at the Centro once a week or so, but still. We'll see how it pans out.
I spent one night last week in Caserio Centro, where my sitemate Kate lives. I hadn't been there yet, and it's one of the smaller communities in our municipality, so it was interesting to visit. She's an agriculture/food security volunteer, so has a lot of interesting projects and groups going on. Her town is very close to one of the larger aldeas, so transportation isn't as much of an issue as it can be for other places (like the ones I'm working in...). Anyways, we left on the last bus in the afternoon. We're on the bus, waiting to leave, and happen to notice that the man across the aisle from us is drunk. Very, very drunk. Here, the term for a drunk is bolo/bola. Those are the ones you see passed out in the street, often having just wet their pants. It's not like cops are going to come and take these guys to the drunk tank, the way they would in the States. The bolo on the bus wasn't causing much harm, just kind of muttering gibberish and being annoying. The ayudante and then the owner of the bus both came by separately to tell him to sit down and shut up, but he didn't heed their commands. We finally pull out of town, and he stands up and is (slurredly, if that's even a word) yelling, "f-ck you" at me and Kate.Of course it is at us, we're the only gringos, and of course that's the only English he knows. We're not even halfway down the first hill when the bus stops, and the driver and the ayudante come to forcibly remove him from his seat. This guy did NOT want to bajar the camioneta, let me tell you. He was hanging on to rails and other people with hands and feet, so the ayudante and driver got rather violent, hitting his arms and legs, and kicking him in the torso to get him to let go. Eventually, they overpowered him and dumped him out the back door of the bus (old school US school bus), flailing in the middle of the dirt road in the rain. That was definitely some serious gossip for the whole municipality for the next few days. People would ask me, "Marta, did you hear about the bolo they kicked off the bus?" and I'd tell them I was actually there. It's not very common for someone to be kicked off the bus...I've been on buses with bolos my fair share of times, and this was the first time I've seen them follow through. Long story short, I give mad props (other than the extreme physical force) to the ayudante and the driver for setting an example and following through on their word. Doesn't happen much here.
We stayed on Lake Atitlan two weekends ago for Saturday night in a town there called Santa Cruz La Laguna. I loved it because it's not particularly touristy. There's a hostel there that's really popular with Peace Corps volunteers and backpackers/travelers that we stayed at. Rather inexpensive, beautiful views, great food, eclectic mix of people. You can't get there by bus, so you take a bus or drive to Panajachel and then take a boat to Santa Cruz. When Dad comes in a few weeks, I'm planning on taking him to a town next to Santa Cruz, that you also can only get to by boat or foot. So excited to have him here!
Cross your fingers that my pony situation works out. I may have found a place to keep it, but I don't know how it'll pan out. And I have to find/buy the actual pony. Still a long shot, but it would make my life SO much easier, and safer, if I had one. Since I'm working in the aldeas at least 4 days a week, I'm going to go broke paying for taxis or tuktuks since it's not really safe to walk there. In other animal related news, my kitten Gouda is settling in quite nicely. He's becoming more independent by the day, and seems to have made friends with the hideously ugly and scrawny 2 black kittens from next door.
I finally finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so I guess that's partly the reason I'm so pumped for Dad to come...he's bringing the next one. In the meantime, I'm pacifying myself with Jon Stewart's old book from like 10 years ago. I wanted to mention something in this post about Friends of Poaquil, the scholarship fund I'm now in charge of, but this is so long already I'll save it for next time. Hope all is hunky-dory at home!
Chon chik,
Meredith
