That would be "good afternoon" in Kaqchikel. Only a smidge different from English. Anyways, happy Monday! As much as I'm loving having my computer (and wireless...), it might not be the best thing. It makes all of you at home and the States seem that much closer, but still just far away. I guess being able to be on gchat and such makes me nostalgic or something. As of last week, we're at 4 months being in Guatemala...I swear the first few days we were in this country seemed longer than the past 4 months in total. I've kind of got more or less the idea of a "schedule," so we'll see how this works out. As of now, every week I'll supposedly be doing the following:
-Monday: Work at the school in Paneya, one of our aldeas; radio show in the afternoon.
-Tuesday: Kaqchikel class.
-Wednesday: Consejeria a los puerperos, aka chatting with moms who have babies less than 6 months old about family planning, breast feeding, and vaccinations. Because I know SO much about that.
-Thursday: Teach English class to my Centro de Salud.
-Friday: Waiting room charla.
Oh, and I was informed today that our Centro is starting an exercise class every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon...and I'm teaching it. I think it's hilarious that I was anonymously and unamimously elected to teach this thing when I didn't even know about it. Considering I DOUBT anyone that works in my Centro actually exercises at this point, it should be interesting. Who wants to be a fly on the wall?
Last week, a group called the Payaso Proyecto came to visit us here in Poaquil. Payasos are clowns. I am utterly terrified, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, of clowns. Basically, after witnessing their schpiel twice, I can attest that it is more of an acting troop about HIV/AIDS education and awareness. Which is lovely concept. We started out in Paneya, one of the aldeas, at the school there. The kids were split into boys and girls (these kids were about 13/14), and we girls worked with the muchachas and the boys worked with the patojos. I can't begin to tell you how hilarious it is to see tweens in traje awkwardly holding a condom with a scarlet face. Don't worry, there's pictures. After that session, we gathered for the "spectacula" or something like that. This is where the clowns came into play...fortunately only 2 of the 7 were dressed as clowns. I handled it. Then commenced the skit, complete with song and dance, about HIV/AIDS education and prevention. These kids in the acting troop (essentially kids, they were about 19-24, agewise), had some serious chops. In the afternoon we did the same thing at one of the colegios (private schools) in what I refer to as "downtown" Poaquil. I'd say the Payaso Proyecto was remarkably well recieved by the kids at both schools.
We had the monthly round of midwife education (capacitacion de comadronas) at Ixin Ac'uala' (local NGO that works extremely closely with the Ministerio de Salud) which was awesome. Apparently the midwives decided I no longer am going to curse them with my blue cat eyes or something. Hardly any of them speak Spanish, just Kaqchikel, and almost all of them live out in the aldeas. They went from completely ignoring me to essentially arguing over whose turn it was to talk at me in Kaqchikel and patting on me and hugging me. They were precious.
Ooooooh! I almost forgot that I experienced my first Guatemalan bachelorette party, or "despedida a soltera." One of the nurses that works in my Centro is getting married this coming weekend. It was...different. Rather tame, fortunately, because it included everyone that works in the Centro, including the doctor. I do believe my favorite activity included having a man (in this case, the doctor) lie down on the floor. Blindfold the bride-to-be and then substitute the man on the ground for some sort of large inanimate object. Have the bachelorette walk wide-legged (remember all the women wear traje...) over what she thinks is the man lying on the ground, with everyone a-hootin' and a-hollerin'. She then finishes, whips off the blindfold, and, lo and behold!, discovers she didn't actually flash her Britney at some poor unassuming man. There's photos, no worries. I'm afraid they don't really do the hilarity of the whole situation justice, but they'll do.
I visited a house last week that was literally less than a 5 minute walk from mine to just sort of do a diagnostic survey. It was pretty surprising and eye-opening, but I don't want to go into details; I feel like it might sort of degrade this wonderfully kind family that is living in such poverty. I had sort of assumed that most people living in the "urban," I use that term loosely, area of Poaquil at least had cement or tile floors and letrines. Apparently not. Rather sobering, but there really wasn't any reason to pity them - all of their children were still living, and they are just living their lives.
Anyways, I'm going to wrap this up by leaving yall with my new mailing address. I went to Tecpan (bigger town about 30 minutes away) last week and opened up a PO Box there. Now, I'm expecting it to be utilized because I dropped a whole Q185 on that, not to mention my busfare there and back.
PCV Meredith Clote
Apartado Postal #1
Tecpan, Guatemala
Chimaltenango 04006
Guatemala
Centro America
I'll leave you with a Kaqchikel phrase I finally managed to remember today, which essentially just means "see you later": yojch'on yan chik, matyox.
Mere
