I admit that I’ve been pretty bad about updating this and for this I apologize. So much has gone on and at the same time I haven’t felt moved to write. If I could, if I had enough saldo (calling minutes) then I would call every single one of you and let you know what I am up to. But I’ll try to be a good daughter/sister/friend and update you as well as I can. I’ll start today and work my way back. Today I received a birthday box from Roy which floored me because of its sheer size, but then I opened it and saw all the goodies that were in it…dove dark chocolate, Swedish fish, my favorite gum, Sabritones, 1820 coffee, a journal, Neruda book, DaveChappelle, great music, etc. Basically, Roy, I was very touched. I felt very special and don’t deserve it but thank you immensely for thinking so highly of me to send me so many sweet things. I got home and I saw a DVD that said Texas Roadtrip. I thought, “No way…” Thanks, Roy, you made me cry. First time since I’ve been in Guatemala. It was so nice to see you guys if only on videotape for about 20 minutes. You guys are still as hilarious as ever. Jeiger bombs! Jeiger bombs! Thank you for everyone that wished me a happy birthday. Much appreciated. I was thinking about all of you guys on my birthday, and every day before then and to follow. Ok, now that I have gotten that out of the way, I’d like to talk about how this country has made me extremely accident prone. Today Carmen and I opted to not go up the pasarela (overpass) and just run across the busy highway because we were feeling daring. Turns out it was much more difficult than I thought. We made it across the first two lanes ok, waited at the median, then attempted to cross the next two. After a lot of jerky, hesitant moves, we ran back to median, with me heading straight for a huge green traffic sign, busting my dome and started bleeding. It’s not a big deal but it hurt and my audience was kind of large, so there goes my ego. Today the pain in my left ankle also returned. I think it may have been the 2 hour hike through the hills yesterday. Probably shouldn’t have done that. My ankle originally started hurting a few weeks back when I rolled it playing an intense game of basketball. It became swollen and like a fool, I decided to not take much medicine for it, barely ice it, play soccer the next day, go to Tikal where I did tons of walking, then went on field-based training where I had to walk even more. Yeah, I’m not the brightest in that sense. But I am getting better. The health care we are getting here at the Peace Corps Medical Office is fantabulous. I can go ask pretty much any question about my health and they take care of me. Also while in Tikal, I fell off the bus (not while it was moving) because of wet steps and bruised up my arm pretty badly. There have been other smaller incidents. I just need to be more mindful of surrounding conditions like weather, terrain, and giant signs. Aside from getting injured or sick here and there, I have been good, missing everyone but keeping busy which helps me keep my mind off of being without everyone I love. I try to go out around the town as much as possible because I have a hard time being in the house doing nothing. It’s a lot more difficult to do that since my curfew is basically 8pm here. Going out means walking a mile down the road to a coffee shop to get a smoothie or watching Carmen or local friends play soccer games, or going to Antigua where it’s so easy to blow all my Quetzales or going on walks around town. Last night was my friend’s birthday so went up into the hills where there is a basketball court and soccer field and talked and played Uno against a beautiful backdrop. I’m starting to get a little sad though because I basically only have two more weeks in my training site and then I am off to a different part of Guatemala. I’m going to miss my town, my family even though there have been some tensions, and my new friends. We’ll see how I handle it.
Other things that I’ve been up to:
the US Ambassador to Guatemala came to have a Q and A with us at the PC Office
visited a volunteer in another department for a mentoring activity for a few days; did a funny crocodile dinamica, played soccer and basketball, went to an English class, went to a parent-teacher meeting, crossed a river via rocks to get to the school, went to a kermes (school fundraiser), played volleyball and dominated
saw the Happening movie for my birthday (horrible); ate pepian and delicious manjar cake
ate sushi and watched some EuroCup games
participated in a Mayan religious ceremony in Iximche
started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns while putting off The Long Night of White Chickens
witnessed hail fall in my town (didn’t think I’d see that)
had a baby with Carmen named Concepcion Divino (mechanical baby from an agency called APROFAM); got hit on by more men with the baby than without
have become much more tan
have lost some weight (8 pounds to be exact)
ate sompopos (fried or sautéed flying ants)
have given some charlas and done many dinamicas
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