Arrival to the land of lightning and lightning bugs...

I am now a real Peace Corps Volunteer! The swearing-in was held at the ambassador's lovely residence in Guatemala City, and it was a formal and pleasant ceremony for everyone. I don't have as much to reflect about it, because it was really just pure happiness and gratitude to be here as well as the triumphant feeling of having completed an extensive training/job interview, but I will include a picture of me being sworn in by the ambassador!

Now, on to the less formal aspects of beginning my life as a real Peace Corps volunteer. So here I am, sitting in my new home at site (with internet, hooray!). Since our work is only just beginning and the first order of business is moving in to our brand new homes, I'd love to share a bit about our town and housing situation before writing my next entry about our work.

Our tiny aldea has 900 people, many of whom are spread out among 9 parajes (tiny tiny towns), many of which have no electricity or water. Ours, however, has a pretty reliable source of both power and water. It is a pretty tiny town, with a school, church, three small stores (basically in people's houses), a football field, and some beautiful mountain views. The main road's descent into our town presents a lovely sight of mountains stretching out into the distance, which you can also see from my house. The town is incredibly tranquil - cars don't often enter, as the main (dirt) road only loops through the entrance of town. The only noises are those of lots of animals and the very occasional motorcycle. Animals are such a part of daily life here - dogs, turkeys, bulls, chickens, pigs, horses, and anything else you can imagine. There is a gorgeous and gigantic white bull that wanders freely grazing outside my house during the day - I will be taking care to avoid its horns, though it seems gentle. The people are unusually tall for Guatemalans, a few are light-skinned and light-haired. They are generous and welcoming, although obviously we look completely alien to them. I have been dubbed "canchita" ("blondie") and my partner Cat, who is Filipina, has been called "Chinita" ("from China"). We are strange, but interesting and welcome in this land of cowboys and their animals. It feels like a land of light, especially at night. The sky is so large and the mountains extend so far that if there is a storm or heat lightning anywhere remotely nearby, the lightning lights up our sky. There are so many fireflies at night and they fly so high, that they look like shooting stars.

For those interested in foliage: I live in a strange place of pine trees and coconut trees, bananas and roses, bougainvillea and cactus. Everything is lush and growing, and it is often pretty hot. Considering it is "winter" (the rainy season), I can't imagine how hot it will get during the dry season. I can't wait to start growing a vegetable and flower garden in pots in front of my house.

My house is a haven. I have a lot of privacy, and my host mother lives right next door but not too close. She has a guard dog that mistook me for an intruder and chased me, barking manically, back to the safety of my room. However, it's been tied up and now recognizes me as a resident. I have obtained a tabletop stove (four burners, very fancy), a table, stools, a bed, and many dishes and household items - and this all only in two days! Two trips to Uspantan were needed, but now I can survive the week. The most important task was to be able to boil my water - the water's not safe to drink here so it is necessary to either boil it or add bleach, which is not ideal. I also have a plancha - wood burning stove- right in my kitchen. I was so proud of myself on the first night here, cooking fried plantains with cinnamon and tortillas on my stove! I'm full of dreams for my new home, especially since it's the first in my life that is completely mine alone.

With that, I must be off to bed but I am contented and feeling at home already in this place. It has its discomforts (I have never seen this variety or number of insects in my life) but the people have been wonderful, receptive and generous with us, particularly our new host mothers. I am feeling optimistic to the extreme, ready to begin my work, and grateful to be here.

Some catching up regarding site visit

Many apologies, as I haven't written anything yet about my visit to my new home, as well as my arrival! Here are some reflections on SITE VISIT, about a week ago. We traveled from Antigua for about six hours in two big buses and two microbuses to Uspantan, Quiche (the larger head of our municipality of which our aldea is a part) and then to our tiny aldea. We met our counterparts - an educator and a nurse who work in the health post - and got to see the post where we will be based for the next two years. Of course, we will be spending time in the post but hopefully the majority of our work will be out in the surrounding communities, reaching people that live too far away to get the help they need. Our counterparts are great, and there are only three people who work in the health post at the moment so we will get a chance to get to know them very well. The visit was beautiful, and rapid.

To best illustrate our few days there, I'll tell a short story. The second day was in all senses a classic Peace Corps adventure. We were to accompany the Health Post staff as well as two psychologists and one nurse from the hospital in Uspantan to an event in one of our parajes (smaller communities that are part of our town). The aim was to give two charlas – one by the psychologists about women’s empowerment and another by our counterpart about safe water – as well as provide pap smears for women who needed them. The aldea is located around an hour and a half away on foot. Because it was further, we were supposed to take an ambulance. After just a few minutes in the back of an ambulance (having taken a Dramamine to combat the inevitable carsickness), it stopped. We had reached the site of a landslide that had completely taken out the road the night before. Since our ambulance was barred from passage, we walked the rest of the forty minutes or so to the aldea without event. Upon arrival at the aldea’s school-which has no water or electricity- we set up a makeshift examination room to perform the pap smears/exams. This involved putting sheets over windows, doors, and tables in a tiny, dank room—making do with what we have, since getting these women pap smears is more important than having the perfect clinic in which to work. The interesting thing about the room, however, was the multitude of giant spiders on the walls, as well as a scorpion on the ceiling. In these circumstances, the health post staff did a fantastic job. Providing education to the women as well as basic health needs was the first priority, and they fulfilled what they came to do. As for the way back, our companions decided that they preferred to walk in the shade, as it was approaching 85 degrees outside. However, the shady route happened to require river crossing, rock climbing, and the agility of a mountain goat. It was an adventure, to say the least! After two and a half hours, we arrived back at our new homes, exhausted and contented, as well as ready to come back for good and truly begin our work.

Since I'm writing in retrospect, I may as well skip ahead to another post, to talk about our real arrival at our new homes two days ago!