Going on 2...

Month 2, Day 4…pueblo (15^th of September)

Today is just another day in the world of most everywhere in the world, except for here in little old Central America, where 5 countries celebrated their independence from Spain in 1821. I spent all morning from about 9-1 to be exact in a packed town of 30,000 watching all ages of kids march through the streets. Some of them performed at the level of drumline the move, seriously. I was particularly impressed with a group of red and black dressed boys being lead by 3 trumpet players who danced and bobbed to a fast paced retro hip-hop beat. The parade was extremely hopeful and culturally sensitive, recognizing all 4 of the major ethnic groups in Guatemala; ladinos, Mayas, Xinca (who are apparently a lot like cowboys), and Garifunas (a Caribbean culture on the eastern coast). I found it enlightening and interesting that in the primarily Mayan town the ladinos (prominent ethnic group financially and politically in Guatemala) were represented in formal attire of suits and ball gowns.

I also finally saw the mayor, who is Dr. Mayor. He is currently renting a municipal building because the town burned the municipal building in a fit of civilian justice because he supposedly let two terrorizing El Salvadorian gang members out of police custody. He did just start an ecotourism office here in town though, although I would suggest a trash service and river purge first. He didn’t ask me though. Unfortunately from what I gather the town voted for him via credentials, not platform, and now are largely unhappy with his ineffectiveness. The typical mayor here in Guatemala makes a sizable salary, supplemented by 9 times that salary in annual kickbacks. I may run for mayor.

I still have a sinus infection.

I am deep into my coffee project with my family and it has sparked an interest in not only how to solve the problem of the small farmer being taken advantage of in one of the best coffee growing regions of the world and also the involvement of private investment in the solution.

I know I have officially formed solid bonds with my family as they have now openly told me how much they will miss me, that I must return, and that I am a very nice and handsome man. I like them a lot too.

Random fact of the day: the vast majority of pirating still going on in the world is off the coast of Somalia, where pirates take over large vessels carrying loads of valuable stuff, sale them into harbor, and then sell/use the items and hold the ship hostage. Read about it. Maybe if they only had a government.

Other big news? Not on the top of my head. I heard the stock market crashed a bit, not too excited for that, but not all that surprised.

On an unrelated but highly charged political note: Please vote for Barack Obama.

Month 2, Day 3…Losing count of days

I have officially moved into a new phase of training. It’s much harder for me to recall how long I have been in country. Suddenly, I don’t think of every day in the context of how long I have been here out of a 27 long month commitment. I am now more at the point where calmly reflect on everything going on around me with the quiet sense of awareness I am typically accustomed to. I cant say a ton of really exciting stuff has occurred in the last week since I have written. Hopefully the pictures were a good indication of what’s going on, and were sufficient for a solid entry.

Currently I am kind of salty because after bragging for weeks about having a stomach of iron because I use suspect pila water to brush my teeth (large sink/pool/bath in a house filled with water when there is water, and then used to supply houses with no running water), I eat the street food that we are told causes diarrhea (which has a 95.5% occurrence rate…and im pretty sure there are some shy people who don’t report), and I eat everything put in front of me, (by now the sentence is so long you forgot the point) I have a cold that may or may not be bronchitis. Hopefully it’s just a minor cold that I picked up from my 10-year-old sister. Not much you can do here besides take your vitamins. Although I have a pretty thorough med kit. Including a 300 page medical manual called “where there is no doctor” describing in detailed English how to treat everything from shingles to bullet wounds to the head, to amputation, and baby delivery.

Anyway, not feeling the best. Also I went in to Antigua to watch the OSU-USC game, in which I was yet again left wanting and sulking…I did enjoy the day though. I woke up not feeling well but had to go through Antigua anyway to go to a Mayan ceremony at the training center in Santa. I sat through an intriguing and long ceremony involving a lot of flowers, candles, and incense symbolizing a number of things natural. I felt like it had about as much legitimacy as literal translations of the bible. But it had a good karmatic feel to it.

Fast forward to Antigua, where I have taken a break from for a couple weeks. Me and 3 companeros went to an American owned bar where we posted up watching the Notre Dame-Michigan game on one TV (kudos ND 2-0), and the USCarolina-Georgia game on the other. I was impressed with ND, and unsurprised by the gamecocks game. Just throwing it out there, I was sitting next to Vanderbilt Alum who is in my group during the game. He was proud to say it was the biggest win he witnessed during his tenure at the SEC’s worst football school. Surprisingly enough the bar was filled with ND, Michigan and Georgia fans. One Georgia fan even had a little brother in ATO at USC. Maybe he can talk to a friend of mine Kenny Wright. Who still owes me money, but because im in Guatemala thinks its alright to do nothing. Karma hurts. Small world. Anyway I wont address the OSU game, not the USC game due to typically disappointing results. I had a long conversation with the 73-year-old man who is in our training group. It was nice to see him out enjoying himself. I respect him for what he is doing more so than most people my age. Although there exists massive respect for everyone. Many people say they will fulfill dreams later in life, or put things off in a self-rationalization/self bullshitting manner, but don’t fulfill. Well this guy is a father of 3 girls, left his wife home after teaching her the finances, and is here. We had a good hour-long talk over a couple beers; I have my first 73-year-old friend.

Other than that, in a world where I get giggles from every girl in the country (yeah I turned conceited) I was denied sitting in the front of the bus with two of them on the way to the school the other day. My mejor amiga thought it was funny, and just that I guess not every girl thinks I am a stud. My self-esteem is alive.

I also want to throw a fist pump to my parents who co-teamed a package to me, for which I will have to pay Q208 in taxes eventually. For now I sweet-talked the receptionist into giving me my own stuff on loan, it helped being the trainee that was victimized my identity theft during week 3.

One day this week we witnessed a speech from an interesting quirky professor looking type of journalist/research/development fellow who spoke/argued the effectiveness of international aid and NGOs. So basically the validity of Peace Corps. He explained Guatemala’s situation, which seems complicatingly discouraging in many ways (please call for hours of explanation), and then went into the politics of Aid, citing that its mostly political bullshit, governments are self-bullshitting, and that the procedures of international aid are malfunctioning. I agree with him. He also attempted to define the difference between charity and solidarity. Charity doesn’t do anything to teach or incentivize people, while solidarity creates a mutually beneficial relationship. I butted heads with him openly on the fact that charity (or unilateral aid) is necessary in the most destitute areas as a first step due to the lack of anything that certain places have, but agreed with him that the ideal situation for aid would be a beneficial relationship between two countries. Which lead me back to a firm belief that has been reaffirmed here, that a marriage between private investment and aid is necessary to create growth at the very bottom of the social ladder. Anyway, cool guy, going to have a beer with him soon.

Also, I have been concentrating on a lot of work this week. I had my first charla (educational session) in which I talked about ways to create advantages in interactions between café farmers and the powerful intermediaries. Working on my project for my cafe family is also a big issue. Speaking of the big intermediary I will be touring one this week, as an unassuming gringo teacher, after meeting a worker from there this past week. Two things I wanted to do here as tangent goals to learning about international development, meet interesting people and mull business ideas, have started happening.

Don’t have a whole lot more to say currently, besides I still have a few fleas.