More About What I Do

Every morning I awaken very early. It is still dark outside, but I can hear the sounds of a new day: roosters crowing, dogs barking, buses honking, babies crying. At six the mill next door opens and I hear the engine fire up to grind the corn for the day's tortillas. My toddling host brother Pablito begins scurrying outside my room, anxious for me to come out and play with him. I rise to meet the dawn. My host mother Luvia gives me bread and a hot mug of atol, a corn beverage, and I contemplate what the day has in store. Some days I teach games and environmental lessons in the school, others I do consultations with community leaders in San Miguel. Also we have Spanish classes, group meetings with our technical trainer David, and field trips. The days are packed!

I come home in the evening and chat with Luvia as she prepares supper. I play with the babies and offer to help her, but she always declines. We talk about food and culture and what is going on in the village. There has been an outbreak of diarrhea among the children this week. The twins in my family have already recovered because Chepe and Luvia were able to bring them to the hospital to receive an injection of antibiotics, but many children from poorer families are still quite ill. We have supper once Chepe comes home from work and he tells me about the carpintry business and answers questions I have about the town. We play with the kids and sometimes watch TV. 'The Simpsons' and Pro-Wrestling are common programs in the evening. Later I go to my room and work on lesson plans, Spanish homework, or technical reading. This is the rhythm of my days now.

A Guatemalan Wedding (But Not Mine)

On Saturday night I put on my dancing shoes and slicked my hair back before piling into the back of Chepe's pickup with many of his relatives. We raced along the mountain roads with a canopy of stars overhead, to the wedding of his cousin in a town about half an hour from San Miguel. Upon arrival we briefly congratulated the bride and groom before settling in for a big meal of chicken, bread and vegetables. Marimba music boomed from speakers, and I patiently waited for someone over the age of five to start dancing. No one danced! But with much urging from the extended family, I invited Chepe's teenage niece to help me get the party started. I admit I was blushing a little as I felt two hundred pairs of eyes on us, but everyone burst into applause as we began to swing and sway. Soon some other couples joined us. Perhaps the wedding guests will now think of Americans as a nation of dancers. I'd like to believe so!

Later we returned home and I went to bed. I awoke in the middle of the night with a strange rumbling in my stomach, and became ill early that morning. I later found out that everyone at the wedding party also got sick from the food. Imagine that! I'm feeling better now, thanks to some antibiotics my Medical Officer gave me.

This weekend I will be taking off to visit a fellow Environmental Education volunteer who lives and works in the eastern lowlands of the country, where the climate is very hot and dry. Apparently she has been in-site only ten months and has already contracted both dengue and shingles...Yowie! Hopefully I'll be staying healthy during my visit. I am excited to go, as it is a part of Guatemala I have spent little time in. It's cowboy country, yeeeeehaw! Cattle, boots, hats, and guns...sign me up!

Also, I experienced my first earthquake a couple nights ago, a 4.1 centered in the town next to ours. It was pretty exciting, a very physical reminder of how dynamic this landscape is...as is the active 'Volcano of Fire' visible from San Miguel.

Blessings to all!