Since Tacaná, time has crept by with me not having done anything quite as sweet as climbing that volcano. However, I’ve been traveling a lot, so that’s kept things interesting. I just got back to Coban last night after a meeting in Antigua and signing my contract for the new job. Prior to that, I went to Lake Atitlan during Holy Week and climbed a much smaller (and hotter) volcano in eastern Guatemala.

Holy Week in Guatemala is a big affair. Schools close for the whole week and most people take the time to travel. I hadn’t really made any plans, but suddenly realized that everyone I knew in Coban was leaving, so I decided I’d better go somewhere. Luckily, my buddy Chris from Miami has been working on community projects with a parish right on Lake Atitlan.

Wednesday morning, I hopped the bus for Guate and it immediately got in a wreck with a pickup. No one died or anything, but it slowed us down and set the tone for the day. Later, it was a total mess trying to catch a bus from Guate to Lake Atitlan. What I didn’t realize is that practically half of Guatemala travels on the Wednesday of Semana Santa, so the terminals were jam-packed. Most busses passed by full with doors closed. Whenever one even remotely slowed down, hoards of people mobbed by me to get on before I could think to move. This went on for an hour or so. Meanwhile, I was becoming more desperate and contemplating just going back to Antigua as the bus situation was not getting better as night approached. However, an Atitlan bus rolled by shortly thereafter. Normally, I’m very polite in crowded public settings and make a concerted effort not to be the imperial gringo, but I’d had it. When I saw that bus, I stepped out in traffic to make it stop and let no one get in front of me. What resulted was me blowing through a crowd of people, lots of chatter and “¡Ay Dios!” I didn’t care and most importantly, I got on the bus. Despite standing for the next 5 hours in the aisle of a chicken bus, I made it to the lake and it was all worth it.

Lake Atitlan is in the Mayan Highlands at the base of three volcanoes. It has 15 or so small villages on the surrounding shores. Panajachel and San Pedro are the two touristy towns first popularized back in the 60’s by hippie ex-pats getting out of the States. The other towns are traditional, indigenous and materially very poor. Chris works in a couple towns like these at the base of the Toliman volcano. He works with an NGO started by an American priest who was been there since the 60’s and through the war. I spent the first day checking out his sites and some water projects they have going. From there, it was mostly hanging-loose on the lake. The water is deep blue, clear and chilly.

Besides the lake, Chris’s village was in full celebration of Holy Week. This began with nightly processions to parade Jesus and the Virgin Mary through town. On Good Friday, the town gets out to make alfombras which are carpets made of dyed sawdust, flowers and pine needles. Later on, the processions march over the carpets in celebration. The most unique tradition is the presence of Maximon.

He’s a sort of fallen-saint figure revered by the Mayan communities around the lake. Every community creates his figure out of wood in varying completeness ranging from a stump with a hat (Santiago Atitlan) to a whole body. During the year, people ask him favors that they wouldn’t usually pray for. This could be a small monetary gain or something bigger like asking to have your neighbor whacked. He’s admired for his fallibility as this makes him the deity most similar humans in behavior. Anyways, he’s paraded around all during holy week outside the main church. Finally, on Good Friday, Maximon appears hung dead from the front of the church as he incarnates Judas and his betrayal of Christ. The whole spectacle is a really cool example of the synchronism of Mayan and Catholic beliefs.

So besides the Holy Week trip, I also hiked the Ipala Volcano a few weeks ago. It’s in Eastern Guatemala which is far less populated, not Mayan and very hot. The volcano is much older than those in the west meaning it’s much shorter. It wouldn’t be so sweet were it not for the crater lake at the top of the volcano. The hike only took a couple hours. We left really early to beat the heat, but it caught us, so the lake was an awesome reward. What’s more is that inside the crater, the lake and altitude create a tiny cloud forest in the midst of a complete desert. Very cool.

To finish up, things are good for now. Finishing up Peace Corps and getting ready for the new job can be hectic, but that’s fine. I’ll mostly be working with my schools. Chris is coming up next weekend and we’re planning to hike into a cloud forest outside Coban known to have the highest concentration of Quetzals in Guatemala.

Lastly, here's a pic of one of my schools I visited last week. I did a garden with them last year and when I showed up recently, they'd already gotten started on another one.

Since my last post, things have been normal with work. I’m still waiting out the dry season to start my school gardens, but I’ve been plenty busy with our tourism project, worm-composting and family gardens. As for BIG news, it looks like I’m gonna take a job here in Cobán with Partner for Surgery. I will finish Peace Corps in early July, come home for a break at the end of the month before coming back to start in August.

Partner for Surgery is an NGO focused on bringing surgical relief to the most remote regions of Guatemala. About 8 weeks out of the year, doctors from the States and Canada come down to visit rural communities and to identify patients. From there, there is a team of about 15 Guatemalan gerentes from each region in charge of seeing the patients to Antigua for surgery. The charity hospital Hermano Pedro provides the surgeries at little to no cost in Antigua. Almost every week, a foreign team of surgeons comes into Antigua to operate on the patients identified in the rural medical missions. The most common operations are hernias, cleft lips, tumors and burn revisions.

www.partnerforsurgery.org

My technical title will be “Director of Rural Structures,” meaning I’ll be more or less accountable for everything going on outside of Antigua. It’s a lot of responsibility and will be a big change in pace from my Peace Corps assignment. I’ll have a car and be traveling much more often; however, I’ll still be based in Coban. All in all, I couldn’t be more excited with the job. It’s a good spot to be in.

Besides this job news, I had a pretty amazing trip last week out to the western side of the country. I was headed out for meeting and decided to take off an extra day and to hike a volcano with some other PCVs. Getting to the meeting took me a good 8 hours on a chicken bus. From there, it was another 5 to the base of the Volcán Tacaná in the department of San Marcos.

The Western Highlands are a world apart from Cobán. It’s a dry scene of grasslands spotted with peaks and outstanding volcanoes. Furthermore, it’s really cold as the elevation can get up to around 12, 000 feet. After our meeting, we headed out to the tiny town of Sibinal at the base of the volcano. We stocked up on water (all of which had to be hauled up) and got a good rest before taking off the next morning.

I could go on forever describing how sweet this hike was, but I’ll let the pictures do that. Basically, it was a tough 5 hour haul to the top where we camped in the crater (it’s a dormant volcano). The next morning, we got around 4AM to hike to the tip of the volcano and see the sunrise. From there, it was about a 2 hour hike down and then a lovely 13-hour chicken bus ride back to Coban. This hike was awesome. It’s one of those experiences that make me have to pinch myself to believe it was all real. Guatemala is sweet.

Blogging is so much easier when someone else does it for me.

Here´s a post on my buddy´s site about Chirrepec, my Peace Corps site.

http://gringologue.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/te-chirrepeco/

These past couple months, things have been a bit slower with work as I have to wait for the rainy season before I can really get working with agriculture again. However, that’s not to say I haven’t been keeping busy. I’ve had some visitors, I made a trip to Belize and this week I’m working in a medical mission doing some translating (and also trying to figure out if I want to work for the NGO that runs the missions). Also, my buddy Dave and I have started to work with a little-league baseball team on the weekends for fun.

By far the highlight this past month was the trip to Belize. Mom and Dad came down a week earlier to travel around the northern part, and I met them on the second leg in southern Belize. I flew to Belize from Tikal in a tiny 3-person plane and it was sweet. We flew over jungle the entire time and spotted some Mayan ruins. Once in Belize, we spent almost the entire trip on a tiny atoll right on the reef. The scenery was stunning. I managed to get in a couple dives and went fishing for an afternoon with lots of hammock time in between.

We also met up with a friend on our last night in Dangriga which is Garifuna town on the mainland. She had worked there as a JVI volunteer and gave us the grand tour. Overall, I only spent 4 days in Belize, but it was wonderful. It was great to get some time with Mom and Dad to catch up.

With work, I’m just now getting back into my schools. We have to wait till April before we can get the garden going. So for now, I’m just doing some random talks on hygiene and getting the compost piles going. I usually arrange my visits to coincide with Phys. Ed on Fridays so I can play soccer afterwards. This past week, one of my schools waited for me to get back from Belize so I could celebrate Valentine’s Day with them (which fell on Wednesday). In Guatemala, this consists of bringing flour, confetti and confetti-filled egg shells to schools so you can plaster all your friends. I got covered in crap, but definitely dealt more mess than I took. Being 3 feet taller than everyone can come in handy.

Another part of the day is a secret-Santa type gift exchange between all the kids. Basically, everyone brings a gift and the teacher draws names for who exchanges gifts with each other. From there, the kids have to get up, say some cheesy stuff about friendship, exchange gifts and then hug their partner. For same-sex interactions, it went over easy. However, imagine 4-6th grade boys and girls having to hug each other in front of the whole class. Awkward and totally hilarious. Here’s what it looks like:


Beyond all this, things are going well. Marsha (my sitemate) and I are working together on a tourism project for the cooperative. We did I practice run today and it went well, so we´re hoping tourists can start arriving soon. Within a couple weeks I should know whether or not I will stay for another year. Tomorrow, I going to translate with the NGO on one of their medical missions to feel things out. I’m definitely on the fence, but would like to just make my decision so I can plan out the rest of the year accordingly. Will advise.

Here’s some recent photos:

This is Marsha getting swarmed on Valentine´s Day at one of the co-op schools.

Batting practice with the Coban little-league team.

These are the ruins of Yax-Ha that I flew over on the way back from Belize. This is where "Survivor Guatemala" was filmed.

Here´s a snapper I caught on the Belize trip. We ate him for lunch.

Here´s a view from right outside the cabin. The reef was right off the beach.

This is a waterfall outside Coban we hiked out to when I had some friends visiting.

Here are a few recent photos from work:

This is a guisquilero that I made with Humberto, my counterpart. We planted 5 guisquiles (potato-like squash) back in December and just this week made the support. The goal is for the vines to grow up into the strings so that the squash will hang down and be easier to harvest. Also, having the vines planted in one spot (usually they´re just planted wherever) makes it so you only have to fertilize one area. I´m hoping we can get at least 400 squash out of the vines.

This is a coop family (and their chickens) that Marsha and I both work with.

And here´s a family garden we planted back in November.

The last time posting something here feels like a really long time ago. Between now and then, I’ve been back to KC for Christmas, up to Chicago for New Years and have now been in Coban for two weeks.

Going home, there was definitely the expectation of culture shock. However, after the first night back, it felt like I was just back in the stride of things at home. I spent that first week just catching up with the family and being extremely lazy. Around Christmas, friends started to come back into town and things got busy. My trip to Chicago was wonderful as I got to check out Liesl and John’s new digs as well as see a ton of college friends.

The time at home made me realize how many things there are that I really miss. Clearly, the best part about home was to see people (and Scout). However, I had forgotten how little things like dry air, hot water and a good place to wash my clothes can make life so much easier. These aren’t exactly necessities, but just little things that a year in Guatemala will put into perspective.

Being home, I sometimes felt like I hadn’t left. On seeing people for the first time, the interactions usually went like this:

“Wow, you’re back. Everything going good down there?”
“Yeah, it’s been a great year.”
“Cool. Let’s get a drink.”

From there, any talk of Guatemala was over, and that was fine for then. I guess what surprising is how much I’ve realized Guatemala and home are two completely separate environments for me. Guatemala is a different world with a whole different set of rules than home. Accurately explaining Guatemala at home is just as difficult as it is to explain the States to people here. Somehow I’ve got it figured out how to live comfortably in both.

Getting back into things back here took me awhile. The month prior to going home, I had been thinking in little other than the trip itself. As such, I hadn’t planned much out for myself and had to kind of scramble to get thing back in order. Furthermore, I’m thinking seriously about taking a job here with an NGO that would cut my time short with Peace Corps but extend my overall time in Guatemala. It’s all up in the air and a lot to think about. The job would be amazing, but I really miss seeing people. With that, it’s tough to plan out the year not knowing if I’ll be in my current spot all the way to November, or just till June. I think I should be able to figure that out within a few weeks.

All that said, things have been pretty good this week. School started on Monday and it was great to see all the kids. Michelle, the volunteer before me at Chirrepec came back for a visit this week and we’ve been seeing a lot of coop families, so it’s been interested to see how things have changed. Come February, I´m off to Belize for a few days to see Mom and Dad. Can´t wait.

These past few weeks have been along the same lines as October. With the end of the school year, I’ve been spending more time working with and visiting families. It’s been a good change of pace. With schools, work was a lot more hectic as I had to try and control a class of kids. With families, it’s chill. We go out, work outside all morning and then eat a huge lunch.

Beyond the family gardening, I’m trying to get some projects organized with the agricultural committee of the cooperative. A couple of weeks ago, I took them out to the farm of a Mennonite family that’s working in the town next to the cooperative. It’s basically a huge school garden that they’ve been working on for the past few years. It’s pretty advanced, so I wanted some coop people to see it in order to generate some ideas. So far, I’ve got them sold on using earthworms to make organic fertilizer as well as making guisquileros. The worm-composting consists of making big box filled with weeds and coffee pulp, throwing in a bunch of earth worms and waiting three months for the worms to work the mix into fertilizer. The güisquil is a type of squash that grows wild here. A güisquilero is a set of vine poles that you can set up so that the squash grows above the ground and thus leaves much more fruit than it would in the wild. At the moment, we’ve got this built and the worm box is pending, so we’ll see how that goes. I also showed them a rabbit project that people got interested in, but that’ll have to wait.

Besides work, I’ve been going to a graduation and wedding parties that have been a blast. A Q’eqchi party usually lasts all day and includes heaps of traditional food and lots of Marimba dancing. On the whole, these parties are pretty amazing. Throwing a party is a huge investment for a family that usually involves somewhere around 50 chickens, a cow and hiring a marimba band. Moreover, they usually invite the whole community. I went to a graduation party yesterday where I had seen women preparing the food two days in advance.

At these parties, the deal is that you show up with a gift, salute the host and then eat an enormous meal. The food is always yu, which is boiled meat with a sauce made of corn meal, tree tomatoes and lots of oil. With the dish you always get a ton of tortillas and tamales as well as a separate bowl of soup. At first, I thought the soup was just salty broth with tomatoes. However, I was in the kitchen yesterday and learned it was in fact turkey blood.

After eating, you hang around and dance Marimba for hours. At first, I was totally shy about the dancing as I wasn’t sure about who I was allowed to dance with. I could just see myself asking someone’s girlfriend and getting thrown out of the party. Luckily, the norm is that you dance as much as you can with anyone. As such, I end up dancing with girls I teach to 70 year old grandmothers. By the end of it all, I’m totally exhuated as a marimba song can go on for over 20 minutes. For me, these are the events where I just realize how strange my life is here. I could have never imagined myself bouncing around a party way out in a Q’eqchi community and feeling totally comfortable and accepted, but here I am.

The only other major news to report was the Shakira concert I went to last week in Guate and Halloween. For Halloween, Roger, Dave, Miguel and I were the probably the only people in costume in all of Coban, so it wasn’t all that crazy. However, last week’s Shakira concert was sweet. Guatemala doesn’t get too many major concerts, so Shakira was a major event. The stadium was packed and it was a great show.

For the moment, I´ve got a couple more weeks of work before we celebrate Thanksgiving in Coban. After that, I´m headed to the capital for my mid-service medical checkups and conference. Not too long after that, I´ll be home for Christmas. Can´t wait.

**This is a private site and does not represent the views of the U.S. Peace Corps
________________________________________________

So I let that last post stay up for awhile as I don’t think I’m gonna be able to top it any time soon. However, the last month and a half or so of “post-trauma” have been busy and really rewarding, so here’s the story. I finished my first school year, I worked some more medical missions and it´s harvest time for corn on the cooperative.

With my schools, this last month has been pretty fun as we harvested the gardens and I got to work with the kids showing them how to cook the veggies. More importantly however, one of my schools won a prize for best school garden in Alta Verapaz and third best on the national level. As such, the Ministry of Agriculture lent us a bus to take all the kids to Salamá, the capital of Baja Verapaz. Most of the kids had never left their village, so just getting a ride out was a big deal for them. At the ceremony, they also got some prizes such as wheel-barrows and hoes—not terribly exciting, but the spectacle of watching the kids out of their element getting this kind of attention was hilarious. The all got dressed up and when they were formally recognized they had to get up and sing some school songs. They started singing in front of the whole audience at a just-barely audible level. The kids in the front row were terrified and kept turning around while everyone else just kind of looked down. Most people in the audience kindly smiled while I was busy laughing my ass off and taking pictures. Besides the stage fright, they all seemed to love it and I got a real kick out of just witnessing the whole spectacle.

After the ceremony, I spent the rest of the week running around with the ag. trainees who were up in Coban for a field-based training with me. They worked with some of my schools practicing lesson plans, working in family gardens, playing soccer etc..it was a blast.

Since the trainees visit, the school year ended, so I’ve got some more time than usual on my hands. This past week, I ran around a couple weeks translating for some Canadian doctors. Monday, we drove way out to some remote villages in Northern Alta Verapaz and Tuesday we worked in the Polochic Valley south of Coban. Both places were fairly remote, so we got to see patients who rarely get much medical attention. We worked straight from about 7 to 5 with no more than a 10-minute break for lunch. Each day, I sat with a doctor and translated either directly to the patient or to a Pokomchi or Q’eqchi translator. I translated for a few patients in Q’eqchi, but my vocab is small and mostly limited to agriculture, so answers to questions like “Describe your menstrual cycle for the past 3 months” blew right over me. The patient lines were out the door, so the days were long and totally exhausting. We saw all kinds of ailments from hernias and prolapsed uteruses to lipomas and a couple depressing cases of terminal cancer. With these missions, most people walk out better than how they came in, so every now and then, it’s good to work in something that sees immediate results.

Besides the medical missions and everything else, I’ve been spending a lot of time with families on the coop outside of work. Right now is the corn harvest, so most people are busy with that and love to invite Marsha and myself along. It’s an all day affair of breaking down corn stalks and hauling around big gunny sacks of the ears. Between the work, we just joke around and eat a ton of tortillas and tamales. With the end of the school year there’s also been a lot of graduation parties and even some weddings. Yesterday, I started with a wedding at nine, the reception at noon and then a graduation party in the afternoon. Overall, I think I racked up about 4 hours of Marimba dancing.

These activities are so much fun. Compared to where I was a year ago, I’m so much more comfortable around everyone. It used to be that I was too worried about offending someone’s cultural sensibilities and didn’t know enough people to feel at ease. At this point, I know most everyone pretty well, so it’s really fulfilling to be able to participate in the events and just hang out all day.

From here, I’ve got about a month and a half more before my trip home for Christmas. I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am for that. Till then, my biggest event is the Shakira concert I´m headed to this weekend.

**This is a private site that does not reflect the views of the U.S. Peace Corps**

Ever wonder how much my right testicle is worth? Me neither, but here’s the answer:

Honestly, I really don’t even know where to begin with the story of this week, but I guess I’ll go with a short description. I got sick on Monday, then got flown out of Coban in a helicopter and spent the week in the hospital for an infection in one of my testicles (if you think this is gross, I’d stop reading now). Bottom line is, I’m almost back to normal and I can’t wait to have all this behind me. Here’s the story:

I spent last weekend in Antigua after having been in Cobán for a good two months (mostly in good health). After coming back on Sunday, I woke up Monday morning, got out of bed and all of a sudden felt like someone had just drop-kicked me in the nut. It was awful, but the pain was confounded by the dilemma of how to remedy the situation. I got back in bed and the pain went away. I thought, “Maybe if I just lay here awhile, it’ll go away. It’s just a rush of blood at the wrong moment or something, right?” Wrong. I tried to get up to make breakfast and about threw up from the pain. Laying down, things were totally normal, but as soon as I got up, the invisible man in the room would be waiting with his steel-tipped boot to send me right back down. So I got back in bed and tried not to think about getting up or really addressing the situation.

However, while I was in bed, I had plenty of time to think over the worst-case scenarios. You can imagine what that might be like, so I finally got the courage to call the Peace Corps. I practiced the line a few times so as to not sound horribly awkward. It came out surprisingly easy, and the nurse had me go right to the hospital. Apparently, the symptoms I described meant I could have a contorted testicle (i.e. tubes in a knot) and without treatment in a couple hours, I could lose it. Needless to say, I got my ass to the hospital regardless of the pain. The Coban doctor didn’t believe it to be contorted, but had no ultrasound to rule it out. Essentially, he gave what would later be the right diagnosis, but we didn’t know at the moment. So, not being able to rule out a contortion and potentially being an hour away from a Lance Armstrong situation, Peace Corps had to protect against the worst-case scenario.

The doctor told me it was unlikely I was going to lose anything, but that I needed to get to the airport because a helicopter was on its way. I would pinpoint this as the moment where things went from understandable and normal, to “Holy shit they’re sending a @#$% helicopter!” It was all very strange.

So, I busted it over to the airport, which is nothing more than a dirt road in a big field. It’s not the kind of place you expect planes or helicopters to actually land in. There were kids playing soccer on the runway and construction workers eating lunch. They were clearly not expecting any arrivals soon. Moreover, there was lightning everywhere and a big storm approaching. I still couldn’t believe that a helicopter was actually coming, and I imagined that if it did, there would be some awful disaster with the storm or that the chopper would at least land on the kids’ dog or something.

It started to rain and then out of nowhere, there was a helicopter. I hopped in, laid on the gurney, and when I looked out the window, we were already out of Cobán and above the storm. At this point, I pretty much trusted what the Coban doctor told me, so I felt like it was a big overreaction. A couple hours earlier, I had thought I was just going to begin another normal week, and there I was on a gurney in a helicopter cutting through the mountains.

The ride took about 30 minutes (as opposed to the normal five hours it takes by bus) and we landed in the international airport. There was an ambulance on the tarmac and I made it to the hospital in another 15 minutes. There were 3 doctors waiting and they got me an ultrasound and ruled out the contortion, thank God. At that point, it was just strange. I had at least 10 different people “probing” me and I was getting wheeled all over the place. I think I’d just stopped trying to understand it all and just let the day run its course. By the end of it all, the doctors figured out that it was a urinary tract infection gone awry, not a contortion. However, I was glad to be in the capital as the infection did end up getting somewhat serious.

I spent the next few days in the hospital in total bed rest and until they let me out on Thursday. I had visitors and spent a lot of time on the phone, so it wasn’t such a bad deal. The Peace Corps med staff really pulled out all the stops, so I felt pretty comfortable. Now, I’m back in Antigua where they’re having me stay until I’m cleared for travel. The infection is just about gone, but tomorrow I’ve gotta get a final clearance by the doctor in the capital. It will be good to have this all be nothing more than a long story.

So, that’s the week news. On a different and far less dramatic note, here are some pics of my new apartment where I hope to be tomorrow night.

I live on the second floor.

**This is a private site that does not reflect the views of the U.S. Peace Corps**

Since Honduras, things have become very tranquilo. Basically, things have normalized for me to the point that all the random stuff going on around Cobàn is not so surprising anymore. That might help to explain why I haven’t updated this blog in awhile.

As of August 31st, I will have been in Peace Corps for a full year. I got kind of sick this weekend and couldn’t sleep much, so I had a lot of time to mull that over. Honestly, it’s amazing how quickly the time has shot by. Without seasons or semesters to measure, it’s hard to grasp a year in Guatemalan terms. My neighbor Roger, who is in the Ag program a year ahead of me, is now getting ready to finish up his service. One year from now, I’ll be in the same position having to leave Cobán.

It’s frightening having to even think about what doing after Peace Corps. Starting out, these two years seemed like an insurmountable amount of time. The first 6 months in site went by so slow that it was hard to imagine an exit. Now one year in, I can clearly see an end. What makes is scary is how much I’ve gotten used to living and working here. It’s that realization that some time soon, I’ve got to think about changing it all up.

On the bright side, it’s been a busy year and more than I could have imagined. Thank God I’ve got another one left.

Recently, there has not been too much to report on. Work has been steady and I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at. My stove project is mostly finished and I’m trying to work more the cooperative women’s group. Also, I’ve been getting after the Q´eqchi classes. I’m able to carry out basic ideas and am beginning to get the hang of what people are saying.

Since coming back from Honduras, my plan has mainly been to try and really focus on work. Thus far, it’s been very rewarding. Compared to where I was a few months ago, I’m much more comfortable with my schools and everyone I work with. With one fairly successful project completed, I have a better idea of how to approach people and involve them. Basically, I see this period between my last trip and Christmas as a time to try and really get a lot done.

Other than that, the only other major news is that I moved apartments. My old place got too full of mold and was always loud. My new spot is in the big building with a family downstairs. It´s right in the middle of Coban and I´ve got an apartment on the second floor. House warming party this weekend.

**This is a private site that does not reflect the views of the U.S. Peace Corps**

This past month or so since my last post has been wonderful. For one, I’ve been able to travel around a bit, once here in Alta Verapaz and again with John O’Connor visiting this past week in Honduras. Moreover, the projects with work have turned out well despite my periodic absences. To top it off, I think I’ve finally kicked the illnesses that have been plaguing me for the past three months (basically since the wet season began). The only significant downturn was a major one. I had a two-day bout with e.coli that made for hands down the worst 3 hours of my life. However, I think the cipro I took has given my system a clean slate.

Anyways, a few weeks ago, I headed up about 3 hours north of here to camp at Laguna Lachua with some friends from Coban. Word has it the lagoon was created by a meteor way back when. Essentially, it’s a perfectly circular lake in the middle of the jungle. The waters are turquoise and clear. What’s more, the lagoon is filled with tropical fish, tarpon and huge crocodiles. Its remoteness and strange animal life give the lagoon a fairy-tale like feeling. The locals claim that if you swim out too far, the tarpons will encircle you, create a whirl-pool and take you down with them.

We got eaten alive by mosquitoes, didn’t pack enough food and got soaked in our tents. Still, it rocked. It was worth the half day we got to swim around and jump off the rocks.

A week or so later, John came down from KC for a two-week visit. From the airport we went right to our all-Peace Corps 4^th of July party. We held it at the embassy marines’ house. It’s the one time of the year that a party is held where almost all volunteers come together. As you might imagine, it’s total mayhem. What’s worse is that we invite all the people from the embassy, including the ambassador to come see us cut loose like no other. Image issues aside, it was a blast.

From there, John came up to Coban as I had to work before heading to Honduras. He checked out the cooperative for a day before heading up to Semuc Champey. In the meantime, I worked with my school kids before getting floored by e. coli. When John came back two days later, he was full of stories from Semuc and luckily missed the two days I spent in bed.

That weekend, we took off for our trip to Honduras. We stopped first on the Guatemalan side of the border in Esquipulas to check out the Black Christ. It’s a Christ-figure carved out of dark wood that has become the biggest pilgrimage site in Central America. It’s like Fatima in the way that people come away miraculously cured. Perhaps it wasn’t the cipro that cured my ills. Strangely, right as I tried to take a picture, my camera freaked and erased all my photos, so clearly something is going on there. From Esquipulas, we headed over the border to Copan, Honduras. There we met Meghann and Katherine and checked out the Mayan ruins. It’s not quite Tikal, but Copan is famous for the Mayan glyphs preserved on its site. It was a cool stopover on the way to Utila.

From Copan, we spent the day traveling by bus and ferry to make it to Utila, one of three Bay Islands off the northern coast of Honduras. It’s a chill Caribbean island settled by a mix of Garifunas, ex- English pirates and mainland Hondurans. The place is pretty much undeveloped except for the handfuls of dive-schools, hotels and restaurants. At the surface, it seems pretty scruffy, but the standard of living is higher than the mainland and the people are really warm.

The island is pretty small and we only got to know the area between our hotel and the Utila Dive School where we all took our open water course. That really didn’t matter however as it was so much fun learning to dive. I’m addicted and I am completely rethinking my future travel plans in terms of how to get back to diving.

Our Catalan instructor, Angel has been traveling the world for 15 years as a mountain guide and dive instructor. We frequently referred to him as super man and he’s now an idol to all of us, really. When John marked on his dive form that he was diabetic, Angel just ripped it up and had him fill out a new one. Instead of teaching from the book, he basically strapped all the gear to our backs and had us jump in the water after him. Besides Meghann jumping in un-inflated and almost drowning her first time in, it was a great way to learn. The man was fearless and it was impossible not to follow him. He’s logged over a 1000 dives with no one ever getting hurt and survived the tsunami while teaching in Thailand. We had an Irish girl in our class who broke down crying at the end of the class because she was so happy someone could get her through the course.

We dived 6 times in open water and it was amazing. I spent five hours underwater on my birthday. I could really go on for hours about it. Angel lent us his underwater camera, so I put up a bunch of the pics on my photo site (www.guatedan.smugmug.com).

I’m back in Coban now and there’s plenty to catch up on. Leaving Guatemala for a bit was great, but it does feel good to be back.

**This is a private site that does not reflect the views of the U.S. Peace Corps**

Again, I´ve been pretty lazy with the posts. Things have been plenty busy, so the time passes much quicker than I realize. The short version is that I´ve been working a lot with family and school gardens, got sick for about a month with various afflictions and I had a wonderful time when Liesl and John came to visit.

Now that the rains are back, it´s been good to get back into the ag. work. More than anything, this is one of the most rewarding part of work as I get to spend the days outside working with the families. About a month ago, I got invited to take part in the corn planting. Might not sound like much, but it plays a major role in Q´eqchi culture. We had to go in a cave the night before to give offering to the mountain spirit. The following morning, we started planting and didn´t finish till that evening. What´s interesting is how the people stick to the traditional practices. I had read an anthropologists study on the Q´eqchi from about 20 years ago that studied the rituals of the planting. Surprisingly, much of the traditions have held true over the year. For example, there are strict rules over how to plant, what you can eat, and of course that only men can plant. Marsha, my sitemate got stuck making tortillas in the kitchen, but to her credit, my hands were blistered and I was beat by the end of the day.

As for my ailments, I first got hit about a month and a half ago with awful food poisoning, Unfortunately, it hit me mid bus-ride on my way to the capital and lasted a good 36 hours. I let you imagine what that looked like. Later I got these crazy side-stiches that put me down for a week. Luckily by the team Liesl and John came, I was all better. However, two days into the trip, I managed to fall on a rock as I was getting into swim in Lake Atitlan. The water was Mediterranean beautiful and we were just getting ready to swim when I slipped and took a nice chunk out of my knee. Four stitches later, we were back in the water, so it wasn´t too bad. Also, on the last day of their trip, I got some nasty stomach bug, again, but I´m getting used to those and feeling better now. So the health has been touch and go, but all else has been good.

Liesl and John just took off this past Sunday. They were in for a little over a week and it and we managed to see a good chunk of Guatemala. We started it off posh by spending a night in Antigua before staying in a hotel carved into the cliffs over Lake Atitlan. Besides the whole previously mentioned rock incident, it was amazing. Afterwards, we headed up north to the town of Nebaj. We hiked around with our ex-guerrilla guide Nicolas for a day out to a village. The hike was stunning. The villages are up in the high Cuchumatanes mountains. The don´t look like anything you´d imagine out of Guatemala. The mountains are sharp with green valleys in between, it looked like something out of Switzerland.

After Nebaj, we took the long trip back to Coban where we took it easy for a couple days. I´ve gone easy on the detials. Basically, I got treated like a king for a week and I think John and Liesl really enjoyed the trip. It´s rare that we get to spend that much time together between just the few of us. It was a great week and should be encouraging for any other potential visitors our there.

At the moment, I getting back with things at work. It should be quiet for at least a couple weeks. However, today I got a one line email from none other than John O´Connor saying he´ll be here in three weeks. Life loves throwing curve-balls.

Since the last entry, things have stayed busy and all over the place. Most notably, Mom and Dad came to visit for Holy Week and I spent all of last week working on a medical team. Having Mom and Dad down was a great change of pace. In comparison to normal, I lived like a king for a week. We started out Tikal, then came down to Coban and Semuc Champey before heading down to Antigua and Lake Atitlan. For me, Tikal was the highlight as I had yet to make a visit. Compared to Coban or the highlands, the Peten is it's own universe. For one, it's flat and hot. Inside of Tikal, it's a lush jungle with loads of monkeys, ocellated turkeys and jaguars (so we heard).

After Tikal, we spent a few days around Coban and my site. After that we spent about 5 days just taking it easy in Antigua. One day, we went up to visit my training host family and another we took a day trip up to Lake Atitlan. Just relaxing in Antigua was great. It is definitely a tourist center, but it's just really good to soak it up sometimes. Check out Dad's photo site for the pics:
http://www.jimmyo.smugmug.com/

The week after Mom and Dad left turned out to be pretty slow. As I was gone for Holy Week, I really didn't plan anything for the following week. As such, there was little to do and it was hotter than hell, so pretty boring all around. This past week however, there was a medical mission in a town about 45 minutes from Coban. I had met the organizers before and they asked me to come down and help out with translating. Basically, a group of about 30 doctors, nurses, dentists and helpers came down from Michigan for the week to perform operations and give consultations. Since their time is limited, they cram in as much work as possible.

I spent the first part of the week helping the recovery nurses to communicate with patients after surgery. Most of the people had were having their gall bladders removed and hernia operations. It was myself and a few other volunteers doing most of the translation, so they had us working long days. We would usually get up around 7 to start and would still be helping the post-op nurses till about midnight. It was exhausting, but the need and the importance of the work seemed to keep us all awake and somewhat alert.

As the week went on, the surgeons started inviting us in the OR to watch. Later, they let us scrub in and get involved in the operations. This mostly involved holding retractors to keep people open. By about Wednesday, most of us had gotten a chance. At first I thought I'd get grossed-out by the whole thing, but the doctors got us right in and we didn't have time to think about ourselves. Basically, I just stood there quietly and did whatever the doctor said so to not screw anything up.

That night, I was beat, so I crashed early. At about 11:30, another volunteer came in as I was sleeping to tell me that "I was need in the OR, stat." My reaction to that was, "OK, this is total bullshit. I'm the only person in the hospital asleep and they just wanted to wake me up so I can run into the OR all excited and what not only to get laughed at." Also, you don't generally call history majors into the OR. As hard as it was and still is to believe, they actually did want me in the OR. The last scrub nurse had been working all day and about passed out, so they were out of people. Somehow I got the call.

One of the doctors had been trying to remove a gall bladder when the woman's main bile duct ruptured. So what was a routine 2 hour surgery ended up going over 5 hours. When I got into the prep room expecting to find everyone laughing, they were waiting for me with scrubs. So in about 10 minutes, I went from deep sleep to holding retractors across from a doctor covered in blood. What was so crazy is that I didn't even have time to ask questions. They just threw the scrubs on me and sent me into the room. At the time, I didn't have the slightest idea of what was going on. It wasn't until afterwards when everyone was calmed down that I had any idea of what kind of surgery it was or what had happened. I just stood there holding this woman open without a damn clue of what had gone wrong or why in the world they would want me as a scrub nurse.

Luckily, things turned out well for the patient. She's got a bit of recovery time yet, but should turn out all right. After that whole ordeal, the doctor had me scrub in for the rest of his surgeries. It was interesting and somewhat flattering, but completely exhausting. I've been sleeping 10 hours straight every night since I got back.

Overall, the week was a great change of pace. With medical missions, no one has to worry about sustainability. They are just providing a very needed to service to as many people as they can. In this work, you see the results right away as opposed to the years it takes with my normal job. I do enjoy what I'm doing right now, but it's simply nice to see things happen so quickly. A good week for sure.

Coming into my service here in Cobán, I was definitely expecting there to be a lot of down time. However, up until now that has really been a non-issue. These last few weeks have been especially busy and all over the radar. For one, Brandon, my old roommate came down to visit and travel. I also had my ¨Reconnect¨meeting in Antigua with the rest of my training class to sort of regroup and talk about where we´re at. At the moment, I´m back in sight after a fairly grueling week.

Getting out to travel a bit was an exhaustive but good experience. We took a few days to go visit the Eastern side of Guatemala. We started out by going to Río Dulce, a small river town about 20 miles in from the Caribbean. From there, we took a boat out to the mouth of the river to Livingston, a Caribbean Garifuna village that looks more like Belize than Guatemala. The river tour was by far the highlight. The area is thick with jungle and Africa hot, however there is hardly any development or residents for that matter. Unlike most other places I´ve seen, it was a pretty untouched piece of Guatemalan nature. Contrastingly, Livingston was dirty and fairly rough around the edges, yet it was interesting to see this completely different culture. From Belize on down the coasts of Guate, Honduras and Nicaragua, there are small populations of Garifunas. They are of African descent, speak their own language and hold onto their own traditions far different from those of indigenous Guatemala. Livingston is the center of Garifuna culture in Guatemala. Beyond the village scene, we were able to walk up the coast a few miles where we found a cool beach. Livingstone was interesting and all, but after a full day of bus travel, the hammocks on the beach were a welcome sight.

After Livingston, we took what was quite possibly the worst bus trip ever. Going from the Eastern seaboard to Antigua requires that one passes through the arid and desert-climate departments of Guatemala. Our bus was a jalopy and only had flat backed, narrow vinyl seats. What´s worse is that we were both having pretty serious bouts with stomach bugs. So, that sucked, basically. Luckily, with Antigua as our destination, we got to enjoy the mountain climate for the rest of the week. We climbed Volcán Pacaya the next day before Brandon left for Atitlán and I went to my reconnect meetings. It was great to just have a relaxed week in Antigua with all my friends that I hadn´t seen for months. The whole experience felt like training again; pointless meetings and no responsibility-a definite break from my hellion 3rd graders. I also got to spend a day catching up with my old host family from training. Leaving was something of a downer as I really enjoyed my time in that part of Guatemala.

Coming back to site this week has been a bittersweet experience. Workwise, I got a lot done planting with my women´s group every day. However, on Monday I got news that one of the coop kids, Bryan, who is the 8-year old son of the president had died while I was in my reconnect meetings. I haven´t been here that long, but I knew him briefly. He was adorable and was close with all the past volunteers. When I got back to site, they had already had the funeral, so it came as a big surprise frustration as I couln´t be here to deal with it. They don´t really know what it was. All I got was that he died from an "internal pain." He got sick one day and died the next. This is what is so depressing about the whole matter. While he came from a family that had done relatively well for themselves, they still had no access to even nominally adequate medical care. It´s just plainly frustrating and sad to see someone die who had been climbing out of the poverty that afflicts almost everyone else.

It has been interesting to watch how people here come to terms with death. Superficially, people just returned to work and seemed to go about their way. I know mothers who have given birth to 20 children and lost 8 of them. With those types of experiences and everything that happened with the war, it is easy to imagine that people just deal and move on. From my point of view, I just can´t imagine it possible to be attached to so many children with death lurking all over the place. However, while I was planting with a mother from my women´s group, we started talking about it. She said losing a child was "un dolor que nunca se quita, que se queda toda la vida" or "a pain the never takes itself away, one that sticks with you all your life." People are careful where to express themselves, and it mostly comes off as if they are really simple and subdued. Though given this experience, I can only imagine how much there is behind it all.

Since my last entry, work has been busy, but good. I am teaching in schools usually two days a week and then working with families on the cooperative the rest of the time. Most of my coop work has been with a women´s group where we work in different member`s garden each week. Other than that, I´m still working on putting a stove project together, but that`s going to be a fairly slow process before things really get moving.

The only really big news as of late has been the change of administration at the cooperative. Every two years, the coop members elect a new president and directive who are essentially in charge of all decision making concerning the tea and all development issues. This includes our projects as well. For me, this change is great as the last president tended to dominate all projects and intimidate the other people in the office. He gave the last volunteers a lot of problems. However, the new president is much younger, university educated and an all-around easier person to work with. We are still just getting started with him, but already, I can see how things are far more relaxed around the office.

For the change of administration, the coop threw a big all day assembly followed by an enormous feast. We killed over 200 chickens and something like 60 turkeys. For the meal, you just get a big chunk of bird with a mountain of this traditional corn meal sauce on it. All 600 people just sort of grabed a plate and went to town.

Beyond work, I´ve spent that past few weekends here in Coban. A friend of mine just opened up a language school, so handful of other foreigners moved to Coban. We´ve got our own ex-pat circle going. My buddy Brandon just took off from the States by bus last week and should be here in Coban by the 18th. It´s my first visitor, so I´m pretty pumped. I´ll put up another post after then.