Did you forget the rain last night? That cell phone company is a woman, right? Your uncle is an animal! Which is more better?
Language immersion is exhausting. It takes a lot of brainpower to even ask what time breakfast will be tomorrow. It’s a good thing my family feeds me well. I do feel that my language is progressing, although I still speak like a 3 year old and often misspeak (as shown in the above). Slow and steady she goes. Today, while at another volunteers house, his Guatemadre, a 50 year old, toothless and smiling woman was chatting with me. I have a difficult time tracking with someone who is speaking slowly and clearly, let alone a chatty toothless woman. My strategy is generally to smile and nod, and throw in a ‘si’ or ‘bueno’ every now and then. After a few minutes, Anacleta said to me. “You don’t speak much Spanish, do you?” They’re on to me.
As language classes continue every day, we also have begun technical training. Yesterday we cleared a chunk of land with hoes and created raised seedbeds, and tomorrow we plant them with chard, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, radishes and carrots. We also made our first tire gardens this week. These portable gardens will live with my family and me and will have broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce. The gardens are made by cutting one face off an old tire, leaving ears for handles and then flipping the tire inside out. This is a comical procedure that requires strength and skill. In other words, Tire Flipper is going on the resume.
Although it has only been a week of training, more and more I am anxious to get to my site and begin life there, wherever “there” may be. I am excited to implement what I am learning and to begin to build relationships with the people.
Las caminetas, or chicken buses have become apart of my weekly routine. These are old school buses from the states that are privately owned and renovated into elaborate traveling catholic shrines and make up Guatemala’s public transportation system. In a country that values formality and respect, these buses are an anomaly. At any point in a ride, there could be no inch of your body that is not pressed against the body of another traveler, aside from your arm which is clinging to the ceiling bar as you stand in the aisle and sway with the curves of the roads. Personally, I love las caminetas.
I am really enjoying my Guate family. They continue to play jokes on me nearly constantly. They keep me laughing. Come to think of it, most of the people here do. Guatemaltecos continue to impress me with their steadfast, content and kind spirits and work ethic.
I have acquired a cell phone. Incoming calls are free, and I think one is able to call on Skype.com for fairly cheap, if not free. You can reach me by dialing 011 502 4092 0787. I am usually available after 8, which is 7 Oregon time. Also, the correct address for letters and packages is as follows:
Katie Mader
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 66
Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepequez
03001
Guatemala, Centro America
If you sent something to the first address I gave, it should still reach me. However, use this one from here on out. I hope all is well with each of you and look forward to hearing from each of you soon.
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