Thursday, October 21, 2010

thelmita.

Greetings from the worst blogger ever!

It's only been, what, 5 months? Nothing strikes me as out of the ordinary anymore, and therefore have a bit of a difficult time relaying entertaining anecdotes to y'all back home.

In a nutshell, this is what has happened:
-I got a pony. And ride said pony to work in the aldeas.
-Sitemate Rachel and I finished the stove project.
-Went to the Guatemalan dentist. Not as scary as Mom thinks.
-Vacationed in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
-Another volunteer got sent home.
-Bad weather. Really bad. As in stuck in Antigua for a week bad.
-Cousin Kelsey almost visited.
-Poaquil vigilante justice killed 5 people.
-Mom came to visit. Dad too. But not sure if that was before or after the last post.
-My sitemates finished their service and one was replaced.
-Sitemate Kate took Host Mom Santa to the States with her.

Pony is named Geronimo (no Dad, not Geroooooonimooooo!). More like Her-on-i-mo. People ask me why I put that name to him, and I respond, "why not?" They think it's hilarious because Geronimo is a human's name in this country. So I tell them that they need to be more creative and quit naming every other dog Oso or Osita. I am actually keeping a list of my most favorite names here. Oswaldo is leading for the boys right now. Perhaps Pantaleona for the gals. Pony is smallish (for me, huge to the chapines)...anyone who knows hosses, he's about 15 hands, I'd say. Maybe a smidge more. He's gray, kind of a flea bit one, but right now he looks like a giant fluffy white sled dog with his "winter" coat. Thus far, it's chilly at night and ridic sunny during the day. Kels, bring a fleece. Pony is a trooper; absolutely nothing bothers him. Fireworks? Nah. Screaming small children? Tampoco. Motos in very close range? Nada. I'm going to have super high standards for my next horse as far as bombproofness goes.

Stove project got finished up right on time. The clausura (closing party, more or less) was a hit, and the stoves turned out fantastic. I'd like to think everyone learned a little something as well.

Guatemalan dentist has fancier tools than Dr. Novosad in Houston. As in he has this uber-fancy camera thing that shows you everything inside your mouth on a flat screen tv. He doesn't speak English, but he strikes me as a cultured, well-educated (I would hope so, if he's drilling in my mouth), very kind gentleman.

Vacay! It was fab, and quite necessary. I was at the point where I would see an entire family of 5 (3 kids under the age of 5) on a moto together, and think, "hey! population control!" rather than "yikes, maybe we should say something about safety." After ten days in Nica and CR, I had quit thinking like that. We spent 5 nights in Nicaragua - 1 in Managua (capital), 2 in Leon, and 2 on the island of Ometepe. Horseback riding, volcano boarding, and hiking amazingness. Four nights in Costa Rica consisted of 2 in Santa Elena Monteverde (cloud forest), 1 in San Jose (capital), and 1 in Puerto Viejo, a beach on the Caribbean side. Again, horseback riding, ziplining, hiking, and sunbathing amazingness.

Another volunteer got sent home. Don't have much to say on that front, other than I don't think it was deserved, and I can't help but wonder if other Peace Corps countries enjoy kicking out volunteers as much as PC Guatemala does.

Combo of one of the times of really (really) bad weather and Cousin Kelsey almost visits. Her flight was supposed to arrive around 11:30 on Friday. Delays keep pushing it back and back, 30 minutes here, an hour there. Once it's after 3ish, I'm getting pretty frustrated. It was a light drizzle, nothing else. So of course they route the flight to San Salvador...and then back to Houston. Worst. Day. Ever. I was then in Antigua for 8 nights, on what PC calls "standfast." Aka, don't move from where you are, but hey! If you're in Antigua, you get to come do paperwork at the office! The rain did get much worse, I'll give them that. Horrid mudslides across the roads, etc. Cousin Kelsey will be reattempting her trip in early November.

Vigilante justice! This unfortunately happened right when Mom was coming to visit...so she got all the dirty deets. What supposedly happened is this: an unknown person from my town contracted 5 gang members from Sumpango and Guatemala City to come to Poaquil and kidnap the daughter of a family who owns a big hardware store in town. They successfully do this on a Thursday evening. Take girl from town, go for the runaway. Too bad a mudslide has come across the road, and the sequestadores (kidnappers) are stuck. Poaquil vigilantes catch up with sequestadores and hang 3 of them in the trees on the side of the road and torch their car. It's still there, 3 WEEKS later. The other 2 are held until Friday morning. I'm happily puttering around my house, packing, waiting to pick up Momma Clote at the airport. So the vigilantes set fire to one of the two remaining kidnappers and then shot the other in one of the primary schools in town. On Dia del Nino. Children's day. I didn't know anything until after it had all happened, and I'm walking to grab a bus to go get Mom. No buses were leaving town because of landslides, as well as the police who were detaining everyone trying to leave town until the vigilante justice mess calmed down. Waited a few hours, caught a pickup out of town, walked through 3 mudslides and finally made it to Antigua to meet up with Ma.

We had a luxurious weekend in Antigua at Panza, my fav hotel ever. On Monday, we rented a car and drove to Poaquil. And then to the aldea! Ma got a real look at Guatemala country livin'. We had a little clausura with some groups that I had been working with alongside an intern from a local NGO. I'm still working with those groups, but the intern has finished her practica, unfortunately! Ma was a really good sport, and I really loved showing her off to all the little ladies.

Sitemate Kate and Sitemate Rachel are finishing up as I write this. Kate left for the States on Tuesday with her Host Mom Santa. And Rachel leaves on Sunday. The guy replacing Rachel is here visiting in Poaquil right now, and will be here for good on October 30, I believe. End of an era.

I've got a bunch of work to do on scholarship fund stuff, with school finishing up right now and kids thinking ahead to next year. And I've got a bunch of stuff to finish up to get my paperwork into USAID for a grant to build stoves with my ladies in Paxcabalche.

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