brisas.

Well, we´re all about to hit the ground running. Today is the first day I´ve had a couple minutes to make it to a computer in quite some time, and I´m about to get MUCH busier. Today was the day...dum dum dum...we found out where we´re going!

I´m going to have to eat my words from my last post, first and foremost, because I said I wouldn´t take anyone to visit Chimaltenango. When I said that, I meant the cabecera (departmental capital, kind of like Austin is to Texas), not the department in general. But I´m eating my words because in just a few short weeks I´m going to live in Chimal...ideally with this pet raccoon I plan on getting. Specifically, San José Poaquil. It´s in the northern part of the department, not at all too far from Lago de Atlitlan. Two of my pals from training (Ryan and Stacy) are going to be pretty darn close to me also. Ahhhh, and there´s Mayan ruins within an hour of me! The town is 95% indigenous and speaks a fair bit of Spanish, but I´m excited about learning some Kakchiquel.

I´m going to go visit next week, so I´ll know a heck of a lot more after that. Finally, that huge weight is off our shoulders (also because our VIH/SIDA taller was today, but it was remarkably unmemorable...perhaps because only one person showed up and we had to modify). Anyways, the rest of my time before swearing in is going to go by lickity-split.

This past Friday, the Pastores kids and us from Dueñas went for a little caminata up through Antigua to this really cool cross that overlooks the whole city. Of course we ran into other tourists, but these gringos were super special in the fact that a slew of them were from Houston and were in Guatemala with the organization Living Water. Which I plan on finding out more about. On Saturday, our Dueñas crowd (including families...like 26 people) and two other trainees, Anna and Courtenay, fled Sacatepequez for the beach. Las Lisas is practically in El Salvador along the Pacific coast, and was quite relaxing. A bunch of my host family´s family lives there, so we stayed with them. I personally can´t imagine Mom/Dad or any other middle-aged parent I know bunking down on the concrete floor with everyone. But that´s what all the Guatemalans did! Well, other than those of us who slept in hammocks, my fortunate self included. This is where I got the idea for my future pet raccoon...the Las Lisas relatives had one named Jackie (I hope the irony isn´t lost on you all...it certainly wasn´t on me).

The schools finally went back today, after 2 1/2 weeks off, supposedly for AH1N1, which I prefer to refer to as gripe porcina. Anyways, we were all on pins and needles all morning waiting to find out. In short, out of my preventive health training group, 3 of us are going to Chimaltenango, 2 to Huehuetenango, 2 to San Marcos, and 8 to Totonicopan. Wooooh! A ton has happened recently, but I just wanted to hit the high points and pretend like I´m not forgetting to update this thing when I can.

Please keep the letters and emails coming, I love them! Ooooh, but for packages, try a box instead of an envelope, don´t send anything valuable (please), and try to put religious symbols on the outside (seriously, it´s supposed to work). Books and magazines are excellent items. I should have some time this weekend, well, when we´re not celebrating the 4th of July, so I´ll see if I can´t get some more info up then.

¡Nos vemos!
Marta