Sunday November 9th – Weekend reflection
All right, life is different. I just spent an entire weekend…doing nothing of significance. “Nothing” defined as cooking several slow meals (a stir fry, large big breakfasts, a stew, and elaborate hot dogs w french fries), reading a book and a magazine in Spanish, watching TV in Spanish, running, and going to the market. I also cleaned my house to the maximum. And washed the laundry…by hand.
Ok I get water here in _______________ every other day for 3 hours (530-830am). Unfortunately the last two days it was turned off at 7 am. And this may not be such a big problem, if only my pila (a large water basin for all intents and purposes) was large enough to last a week. Instead my pila is perfect for about 2 days worth of cleaning, washing, and boiling water. I usually (1 weeks worth of habit) let the downstairs pila fill up first, then attach a hose and fill mine. The first day when the water went out (accompanied by a power outage) after 2 inches of water I chalked it up as shit luck. Today, I was laying in bed, thinking man it would suck if I went to fill the pila up again and the water went out, ha-ha. And then, I get up (its 650), go outside, make the attachment, let it start flowing… and sayonara 10 minutes later. Not funny when it happens 2 times. It was like the f**in Anti-Secret (Secret, the book).
But beyond that, I talked to my parents this weekend, which was nice. They still love me.
Interesting side plot in the unsaid volunteer in Guatemala penthouse saga: my bathroom door also doubles as the door to close off that part of the house. Which wouldn’t be too bad, except for the fact its predominantly glass. So basically people, if per chance there were any in my house, would be able to see me or whomever were in the bathroom, going to the bathroom. So I went ahead and nipped that issue in the bud by plastering various magazine covers of Newsweek (john McCain and Sarah Paulin), Maxim (I don’t know names, but well worth the bathroom time), The economist, the Map of my Department (___________________), and some various photos of my late heroes (Chavez, Bhutto’s Coffin, Kid playing with Cobra in India). It’s an entertaining bathroom now. It also allows for Peace Corp budget crunching-reflection, as our monthly allowance is detailed there as well.
I upgraded the penthouse to B… w/ A status coming soon. Don’t tell Peace Corps or my neighbors…. Shhhhhhhh… I got a TV and a little fridge. A tiny bit over budget. But I pride myself in comfort for those really rough times when they (Peace Corp) say everyone gets depressed. Ill just watch TV and eat leftovers. I mean, I got ranch dressing now hhuuhhh uhhh!!! I also have several basic pieces of wood furniture on the way…shelves (which I can never get a straight answer for what they are called, and they don’t call them what my dictionary says, so I always sound like a tool talking about how I need shelves…you know the things you put books on?), a bedside table with a lock drawer, two lounge chairs, and a couch that I can then put a mattress pad on (like a futon) and all for a very low reasonable price….1500…quetzals. ($180). So once that gets all wrapped up on approximately the 20th, ill be living comfortably…with bucket baths and occasional water. No big deal.
Funny story…left my cell phone in the truck of the guy I contracted outside of the Maxi Bodega (walmartish grocery/random house appliance store) to take me, my fridge and TV home. I didn’t realize until late in the day, when I had a friend in town and couldn’t let them know I couldn’t answer the phone and had to meet them in good faith, in the dark, in front of the Municipal building in a town they had never been to. Yeah, about to be bad news. I luckily had written their number down earlier when I go it offline and then used a pay phone…and all was saved…except my phone. So I call the guy, and luckily he answers. I talked to him for about 30 mins straight on the ride home and I think the good feelings were mutual…also combined with the fact the cell phone is $20 he didn’t mind giving it back. I met him the next day for it. All saved.
I hope I made one of the more lame weekends of my life sound exciting? No and Yes... But seriously its nice to take breaks…think…and read a lot… That sounds lame. And it is. I’m still enjoying my life here. Which is good because I have a little less than 24 months to go.
I met the Norwegian volunteers. They are in a program that does cultural exchange between Guatemala and Norway. I don’t know. But I agree that’s about as exchange as it gets unless you want to start exchanging young Iraqis for US students.
Friday November 7th - __________________, _____________________, Guatemala - My Site
Yes, I do live in a site with no name…as far as blog-life is concerned. But I can tell you the name (___________, ______________) personally out of the potential public eye if you so inquire in order to check it out online. You could even download a song titled ________________ de mis recuerdos. I live there. Anyway, its Friday, end of week 1 in site, working and arranging my house were priorities 2 and 1 this week. I have visited the market 2 times now, where I consistently get overcharged for things due to my pretty white face. I barter a bit, but I figure ill build a little more credit before I demand anything. One lady though lowered the price of eggs for me because I was very nice. Which I am, so it makes sense doesn’t it? I did pay 6 Qs for a peeler, only to go to the grocery store and find a set of 3 for 4 Qs. So that guy poached me. I’m mentally tallying who treats me well so I can return to them in the future. I will go back to the women with eggs.
Other than market experiences, I have done a fine job of arranging my upper level of the house that I rent. I bought a nice big bed, table and chairs, portable stove, and have 3 pieces of furniture under construction. Currently my room is somewhat disorganized due to the lack of storage space (shelves) so I have clothes and books bordering the edges, but I’ve seen far worse in some of my friends rooms. The room that I have, after reflecting last night on my long history, is perhaps the biggest I have had area-wise. In fact if there is one room that may be equivalent or close in size it would be my palace I had in high school in my parents house, which is empty now. I also may have had a slightly smaller room on Ohio St. where I lived when I was a sophomore at South Carolina. Yes, for those of you who didn’t know, I lived on Ohio St. which is also Ohio State and being from Ohio I thought it was very cool at the time. In fact I still do and I forget that little coincidental story usually, but its good…I still have the sign to prove it somewhere…Thank you Phil DaVanzo.
I have put on the integration smoosh mode while I’ve been here in order to meet people and start on the right foot. I thoroughly enjoy the little bonds that I have been creating through 5-15 min. conversations with the everyday people near my house and the town center, as well as in work. Over the last few days I have had great conversations with the local meat guy and local tortilla maker. Also, I went to have lunch with the original family I stayed with during my site visit here. They were happy to see me as I banged a coin on the glass counter to summon them to the front of the store. They are charming. After only a total of perhaps 10 days here, counting this week and my site visit, I have met perhaps 100 people. Out of 45,000 I have quite a few to go. But at this rate ill meet a majority. I had one group of women say my name…and I didn’t even recognize them. I thought I was one of only 2 Gringos in town, the other being another PC volunteer. But yesterday I saw a gringa in Traje, which is the local indigenous dress, look it up online. The local traje is perhaps the favorite I have seen, very dark subtle reds with dark yellow, blues, reds on the collar. I also saw that Gringa from a distance talking to another gringa. And then to my shock and pleasure, my association received 2 Norwegian female volunteers. Yes, I was perhaps more surprised than anyone at that. Not only does Norway seem a million miles away from here (more accurately maybe 5000) but why would they end up here. They have trouble with Spanish, so i've heard through the chisme (top 10 Guatemalan Spanish verb meaning gossip, past time numero 1). They were only in the building for a moment yesterday, and my office is upstairs on the far side of the building with my counterparts, so I was unable to meet them. But needless to say I am excited to meet them eventually, maybe today. They wont be hard to pick out of a crowd. They will be here for 3 months. Which made me think, since ill be here for 2 years, i'm basically the elder volunteer, which automatically gives me some pull. Judging by the fact that when I was here visiting originally there was a Spanish volunteer here, and that now there are two new ones, I will probably see around 10 more international volunteers in my association alone. Very cool.
Further more, on November the 4th I felt fortunate to make my way to a TV in a Democrat-American stronghold where I watched the election. And WOW, 348 to 134 or something close. America did “speak strongly” in the words of McCain. I empathize with him because I believe he is more liberal than he was pigeonholed into for the election and because he was done amazing things for the country. But its time for a change and Republicans needed to hand over the reigns to the Democrats, its only fair in a two party system. When one fucks it up, let the other have a go at it. Concerning international policy, which is probably what I agree most strongly with Obama on… The reaction in the world was overwhelmingly positive. It has showed all countries that we aren’t necessarily the same empirical dominant America that we always have been. We have shown we are more open minded and evolving as a nation. Which the world hasn’t seen for quite some time. The world opens the potential new stances on international affairs and hopefully a decreased emphasis on influencing where we see fit. Countries from France, Spain, and England to Venezuela, Bolivia, and Iran have expressed congratulations to Obama and have already mentioned going back to the meeting room and rethinking relations with the USA for the better. Plus combined with the fact Democrats take more interest in the Peace Corps and an open, friendlier international relations policy, my personal interest lay with Obama. I don’t have any money, so anyone can tax me. But we have too many environmental, international relations, financial, and public mindset problems as it is, and I think its time to re-evaluate. I understand the fears of the wealthy that do not feel they should pay more taxes, especially those right at the 200-250 thou cut-off. But our nation is creating more debt, by creating more money, at an alarming rate. And no wonder our economy crashed.
But if you disagree with paying more taxes in general, then please, I refer you to our government budget, which is free online. I crunched out some of the numbers recently…and if you agree with paying 20-25% for national security/warfare, somewhere near 50 for social security and Medicare (which are 2 things not doing anything for you NOW) then rethink your argument. Push for paying less in those areas. Because face it, you wont have social security anyway. Also, we pay an alarmingly low 1.5% on education (less than a large number of countries), slightly more (2.5%) on infrastructure, less than 1% on community and local development, about 1% on general research and development, 1.5% on the environment, and less than that on energy…For a country who flaunts its support of the rest of the world…1.2% of the budget goes to international AID, which seems generous enough, until you realize that budget includes money going to support embassies, (a USA service primarily), assistance to counter drug trade, IRAQ aid (which cycles back to us engineering companies), AND the largest part of that budget goes to FOREIGN MILITARY FINANCING GRANTS AND LOANS!!! I have the budget if anyone is interested.
More research and development, education, infrastructure, environment, and AID and business investments are necessary to strengthen international aid and relationships and are expenditures that benefit everyone.
I don’t mean to do that often… But check out Zeitgeistmovie.com. Two movies for free that will change your life.
When I was watching the election I started talking to 2 English blokes, and guess what…one of them studied at USC for a year and was actually wearing his USC Gamecocks shirt ha-ha. We knew a couple of the same people and he was my age. Very cool, very coincidental.
November 2nd – Post Swearing-in
Muy buenos dias a ustedes. I find myself in November already? I do a lot of re-counting memories and stressing the fact that every time I take a look around and think about the last few stressful and anxious days in Ohio, SC, and DC before I left for Guatemala, It seems so far away. Training is over.
Never during training, the 3 months of it, did I really think that it was going fast. No training session or Spanish class could go fast enough. Training was measured in months, and I kept track to the hour, my long-term vision was in days/weeks, but now from the official volunteer side of training it feels like it rocketed by. I’ve changed a good bit via new experience. And that makes me feel like I’ve been here for longer than 3 months. 24 to go. I’m in no rush to finish.
On October 31, yes Halloween, 29 of us went to the Ambassador (USA) to Guatemala’s house. We heard some good words from our project directors, the PC Guatemala director, training director, volunteer speaker, the Ambassador…It was another graduation. Just had one in May. This one felt pretty similar though. I couldn’t be more proud of my decision. A graduate from school is just a graduate, not yet defined by whatever he/she decides to do. I go out to my permanent site tomorrow to start my job. I’m excited. I’m ready, bien prepared. There are some unfortunate aspects to swearing in. I will see my friends less frequently. And the training staff wont be around all the time. We got incredible support.
The weekend after swearing in we all, minus a couple unfortunate ones that were sick, spent the weekend in Antigua. Good weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment