After waking up from another Peace of Shit Corps nightmare (how's that for profanity?!)this morning, a year and a couple of days after my training group met in DC, I'm feeling the urge to write more about the untruthful crap (is this word profanity?... not in MY culture it isn't)they came up with to get me sent home. Pretty sure I didn't write about it in my last one, but one of the reasons listed for why they sent me home was because of a "misleading" request to go home before my 90 day restriction was up. As you all know, I was planning on attending Andy's brother's wedding, and yes, his brother is not part of my immediate family, but who's to say who I consider my family?!! They didn't even ask me who it was! Would it have been a "misleading" request if it were a cousin unrelated by blood that I had met once in my life... somebody that is actually my family, but means less to me than Andy's brother? Had they asked I would have clarified, but they didn't. I'm sure if you're the wicked witch of Central America, like Martha, you probably don't have anybody you consider family outside of the people that HAVE to call YOU family. Coming from a family that's HUGE and adopts friends as family, such as my best friend since 4th grade who has a single mother that works every single holiday, has spent every holiday since then with my family, sees my family still when I'm out of town, is attending my cousin's wedding as part of the family, and IS part of my family; or my little sister's best friend who had a worthless family that didn't take care of her in the least bit, that ended up living with my sister and my mom for a few years until she was old enough to take care of herself... SHE was family too. And, with the large loving family that I have, this list could continue indefinitely I'm sure. For these reasons, I didn't consider it "misleading" in the least bit, as it was the wedding of the brother of the man I was planning on marrying, a big part of my boyfriend's life, and I didn't want to miss it for the world.
Speaking of misleading, though, what about the time in Guatemala when our Spanish classes were cancelled and we were given some untruthful story about... well I don't even remember what, but the reality was that the Spanish teachers were striking because of some insurance lapse or decline in coverage. Was that "misleading" ? Hmmm... interesting isn't it.
Because of this hypocrisy and other awful things that were going on down there, when I tell employers and/or anybody that doesn't know the entire story of what happened that I left because of the disorganized program, lack of support from the staff, and fear that being in the somewhat scary country under these circumstances was going to have a negative outcome, I don't feel as though I'm being "misleading" in the least bit. After everything that had happened, all the vague accusing that was going on with the "red flag" crap, I can't say that I would have been able to stay and get my volunteer work done for the 2 years. It's very likely that I would have ended up leaving anyway like my good friend Stacy did despite the fact that I loved what I was doing, loved my host family and was integrating well in my training community, and felt ready to get some work done in my permanent site. I have to hand it to our good friend and partner in crime during training, Courtenay, who went through all the same crap but is still there despite all the drama doing what it was that she set out to do. Love you girl, and hope you are safe and happy :)
I haven't let the extremely negative experience that I still get nightmares from get in the way of what it was that I set out to do, though. In an attempt to continue what I started, when I got back to the states I went to a non-profit clinic that serves uninsured/underinsured people looking for a volunteer opportunity and ended up getting a full-time decently paying job out of the deal. I started at the front desk but moved up quickly, and am now doing a number of fulfilling things for a clinic full of great people that really appreciate the work I do and my willingness to help. I made up and am now executing my own nutrition counseling sessions with patients of the same education level as those I was serving in Guate in English and Spanish. I am coordinating the Colorado Colorectal Screening Program for the clinic- getting people a couple thousand dollar procedure that everyone should have after the age of 50, completely free. The program also completely covers cancer treatment for any patients diagnosed, which is AMAZING. I am also a patient navigator of sorts in the fact that I am responsible for following up with patients that have received an outside referral from our clinic to make sure they are following through in getting the care that they need. I am facilitating chronic disease groups such as "Por tu Familia," a group for Spanish speaking diabetic patients, and am taking patients through the eligibility process for the clinic. Also, I am coordinating our volunteers and will be in charge of the orientation process for our new-hires. Whew, I think that's it for now, but because of a recent change of events in the clinic they may be tacking on more responsibilities in the near future, which is great.
That is, of course, if I don't end up in graduate school this fall!! I've been accepted at the two schools I applied at-San Diego State University, and Tulane University in New Orleans. I'm going, eventually, for a Masters in Public Health. I say eventually because I'm still completely undecided on which school to go to, or if it's even the right thing for me to do right now. I applied on kind of an impulse when I got home from San Diego over the holidays, not knowing that I would soon get the promotion I hoped for at the clinic. Now I'm completely torn... I know that I want to go to school, but I'm getting some great experience in at the clinic and the people are so great that I will have a hard time leaving. I could easily put in another year there I think, and I'm not so sure I'm 100% ready to leave the beautiful rocky mountains. Then if I do decide to go, I have to decide WHERE! I desperately want to go to Tulane because I got accepted into the International Health and Development program which is exactly what I want, but it would end up costing me an extra 50 grand for the same degree I'd get at SDSU. AHHH! SUCH a tough decision and I have to decide by SDSU's deadline of May 15, and my work has even given me a deadline of May 17th to let them know. AH!!! I'm freaking out.
Despite all of how well things are going for me, I can't keep my thoughts away from Guate. I get patients at the clinic on a daily basis from there, and JUMP at the opportunity to tell them about my experiences in Pastores. A Chapine that I met before I left the states, that told me all about it and had me one the phone with his brother there so he could tell me all about it, came through the clinic the other day and I recognized him and just so happened to have my Pastores cowboy boots on (much thanks Esteak for bringing them back for me, since I got booted-hah no pun intended-before I had the chance to pick up my special order :). I had to tell him all about how I loved his country, how much I miss my host family and my host mom's negrita tortillas, and how I can't wait to get back sometime soon to visit my family and see the rest of it-The rasta town of Livingston, the Mayan ruins up north, Semuc Shampey (spelling?), and all of those other beautiful places that I planned on visiting but didn't get the chance to (and TP the Peace of Shit Corps headquarters there?... I think SOOOO! How's that for maturity? :) I am so thankful to have my good friend Esteak back here in the States so I can call her on a day like today and we can share our experiences about how we are still freaking out over the whole thing. She too is still having nightmares about everything that happened.
Time to give her a ring, and get to making my boyfriend some breakfast :) Pancakes and homemade maple syrup from his parent's property yummm. I'll toast my brewed coffee to those of you still down there eating beans and tortillas-although I gotta say I kind of miss it! Love you all and hope you are doing well!
domingo, 2 de mayo de 2010
martes, 22 de septiembre de 2009
Drama Drama Drama
Hm. Well. I didn't think I'd have the urge to write in this again... as it's called Haley in Guatemala! And I'm not there anymore. But listen to this... first of all, I requested my country file and 6 weeks later I got it in the mail. All I really wanted out of there was my administrative separation form since my country director had told me that they didn't have to put a reason for my separation on there, that they just have to check a box, so all I wanted to know was which box they checked. Of course the form wasn't in there. Second of all, the file came with a cover letter stating that if you "wish to appeal this file" follow these instructions. Why should you ever have to APPEAL a file request. You request the file, they send you everything in it, right? Nope. So I appealed it, clearly stating that I wanted the administrative separation form, and I got the "appealed" documents today (only had to wait like ONE week this time, wooo!) still missing the administrative separation form. What I did get though, was a detailed description of all these so called "red flags" that were raised on me in training, that nobody would actually tell me so I could not correct while I was there, and big surprise, half of them are completely made up. Some examples ... my robbery went unreported- funny since I have a receipt in my country file for the stolen money that the PC reimbursed me. Also talked to the security director about it. Interesting that somehow after all that it's still considered unreported? #2- According to this information I was opposed to the fact that we were going to split our Spanish class in half, since 2 of us were clearly way ahead of the other 2 in training... pretty sure that was our idea, and we were NOT opposed to it, infact we were all for the idea, and gave our spanish teacher positive feedback about how it was going after we made the split. #3 Talk of a very negative and profane blog entry following the meeting with my country director and training director. Pretty positive that entry doesn't even exist, although yes, it does exist in my journal. Would you have some negative feelings if people were sitting there telling you all these "red flags" have been raised on you, but wouldn't tell you what they were, so you couldn't do anything about maybe changing yourself to lower these "red flags?" Yea, I'm sure you probably would. #4- I used profanity in Spanish class often around my 2nd Spanish teacher. Yes, I did with my first spanish teacher because we all did, and we laughed about it, and we cracked all kinds of jokes that kept us interested in class. NOT the case with my 2nd Spanish teacher. We knew she was no fun, so we kept the jokes at a minimum and avoided the use of our favorite spanish profanities in front of her. SHE however, felt the need to talk of sex, prostitutes, her personal and health issues, and other inappropriate uncomfortable conversation using profanity, sometimes wondering if she had been heard by our host families. NOTE most of this is WE because our community based training group was tight, we all got along, had fun together, worked well together... I'm so blown away right now I'm sure I won't sleep tonight. Hopefully I can find a lawyer that's willing to take on Uncle Sam. Google searching them as we speak... My lawyer friend Jeff mentioned "defamation of character"... no joke. To the max. Ok well I guess I'm going to try to get some sleep. I'll keep ya'll posted on how this is going.
viernes, 10 de julio de 2009
Dear Future Peace Corps Applicants...
Beware that your training process is in fact a 3 month interview process and if somebody on staff doesn't like you (ie a spanish teacher), no matter how great you're doing in your community, you could potentially be dropped back in the US unexpectedly and left with nothing. I gave up my whole life to volunteer for 2 years, spent all my money in the process, sold my car, quit my job with excellent health benefits, and this is what happened... as per a letter I sent to headquarters after I was unfairly separated and quickly evacuated from the country...
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Dear Kim,
I am writing because I feel I was administratively separated from Peace Corps Guatemala for unfair reasons and was not given specific explanations for what exactly I did wrong. Their argument was that I exerted negativity, lack of flexibility, and reacted strongly to feedback. The only particular instance they would elaborate on was an instance that I feel was created by lack of communication between the staff and our community based training group.
I will start by describing this situation because I feel it is a good example of how everything transpired. Our group had just come back from 9 days of field based training where we had visited the sites of 2 volunteers that had been in site for a year. At the end of the trip I was feeling very accomplished and excited, as I now had a better idea of how things in my site would be, and how to get started creating work for myself. It was a very challenging experience because the work load was heavy and the volunteers always had surprises lurking around every corner, but I feel that I was very flexible and that I didn't voice my opinions and frustrations any more than the rest of the group did.
The trouble started the Monday we returned home. We had scheduled an HIV/AIDS workshop with a group of health promoters for that Wednesday, following our technical trainer's schedule of goals. We were informed that we were to receive the help of an experienced volunteer that night so we could start preparing. She arrived about a half hour late, sat down at the table with 3 of us (the other in our group was at the hospital having tests done, as she had been really sick since arriving in the country) and started helping us map out an agenda for the workshop. We expressed concern to her that the other person in our group was missing, and that we didn't want to do everything without her, but she was saying things like she was sent because our group hadn't been working together well, and the words “you could be sent home” were spoken but I can't recall in exactly what context. This was the first we had heard of any problems as we had been working great together, had established strong friendships within our group, and had been accomplishing everything that was expected of us on schedule. We felt like we were being attacked without warrant, and I was the one that spoke up in what I thought was a fairly calm manner and simply expressed that we didn't know where she was coming from, and if she wanted us to work together it was going to be hard to do that while we were missing one of the group. We had chosen all of the components of the workshop, but didn't want to decide who was responsible for what without our fourth group member, and were planning to reconvene when she returned from the hospital. She got defensive and called our technical trainer down to talk with us.
The next day me and the 2 other girls went into our tech trainers office to explain a little bit about where we were coming from, and why we reacted to the volunteer the way we did. He ended up telling us that he did think our group had all of these problems, and that we needed to step it up or that we were in danger of being sent home. It was apparent that he had talked to her about all of our problems, but hadn't yet talked to us about them, so she was just the middle man in the whole situation. I felt awful about how we had treated her and began crying at the Peace Corps office. Marissa was there, so I immediately apologized to her, we hugged, and continued working together on the project.
After that, we were told almost every day for about 2 weeks, sometimes in a group and sometimes individually, by our Spanish teacher and technical trainer that we weren't positive enough and that we needed to change. The most intense of these meetings was when we were called into the office to talk to the training director and country director individually. During my meeting they kept saying things like “there are a lot of red flags that have been raised on you” but when asked to elaborate they wouldn't. Also, the country director said something to the effect of “we just want to make sure you're not here for a paid holiday” which was extremely offensive after I had fought so hard through the year-long application process, had appealed a medical rejection and won, had given up my whole life in the States, was excited about the program and the work, and done what I felt was a good job in training so far. She also said towards the end of the meeting that even if I didn't think I was in the wrong, that I needed to accept it and try to change.
One of the times that our new Spanish teacher (all teachers had just rotated a few days before we left for FBT) Sandra had the negativity discussion with us, she brought up how our first meeting with her went before field based training. We were sad to lose our other Spanish teacher who we had formed a strong bond with, and her method of teaching was a lot different than his, so it was a tough day for everyone. At the end of that first day she said she could feel that things didn't go well, and asked for input on what we could do to improve class. I told her that I preferred more of a formal lesson, with discussion, questions and answers afterward, as opposed to her having us try to figure the lesson out for ourselves. Another girl in my group also said that she was a visual learner like myself, and asked that more be written during the lesson. We gave her the input she requested in a very calm and tactful way, but she brought that up as an instance in which we were negative. I'm wondering, after a somewhat difficult first day, if she had a problem with us from then on, even though from my point of view class and our relationship with her dramatically improved.
Also over that couple of weeks, we heard from our friends in other community based training groups that our technical trainer was sitting down with other groups asking them for gossip, and each person had to say something around the table. He was also telling people not to associate themselves with our group using such analogies as “if you put a live fish in a bucket of dead fish, the live fish will die too.” Additionally he was telling groups that they were his favorites, then telling other groups that they were his favorites, and telling people that he “likes to create competition and turn people against each other.” For an organization that encourages professionalism to the fullest extent, it didn't seem like anything at that point was being handled professionally.
So, when we finally sat down with our technical trainer to discuss solutions to our problems, the only solutions discussed was that we needed to be looking for other things to do outside of what was required by his training calendar. We expressed to him that we did not know about these hidden expectations, but now that we knew that more was expected of us, we were going to get right on it and we did, scheduling multiple health talks in the community back to back. Just as I thought things were looking up, I received a text message from the training director telling me that he had the country director wanted me to come to the office for another meeting that morning, instead of going to an important meeting we had with a social worker about how she was going to continue her health promoter program without us when we left for our sites. I had been working hard on the solutions we discussed, and was convinced that there was no way they could send me home based on all of these rumors, but when the country director walked in with the administrative separation form in her hand it was clear that I was wrong.
Our group however, was not the only one being picked on. For example, my friend ______ was called into a meeting to have her motives for being there questioned after our field based training trip as well. During the trip she contracted a bacterial infection and amoebas, but was still giving it her all despite the fact that she felt awful. She never stayed in bed or anything and always did her part in the different health talks we did throughout the week. My friend _____ was also going through a similar battle having her motives questioned, after having been hospitalized for amoebas, which then turned into some other tropical disease. She had been on the phone with the nurses almost every day for about a month discussing her awful sickness which included explosive diarrhea, only to receive a phone call from them later telling her that they and other people had noticed that she had lost a lot of weight, and implied that she might be suffering from an eating disorder. The list goes on, but the point is that it really felt like they were not supportive at all of the fact that we had just left everything we knew and loved to come help a country in need.
A few conversations I had with people before I left really got to me also. One was my conversation with my first Spanish teacher. He said he was really sorry, that he thought it was all based on rumors, and that my friendship meant a lot to him and everything. Another was a text message I received from ___, somebody who was with us during our whole field based training trip. Somehow she had already heard about what was happening to me, and I forget her exact words but she said something like “I'm really sorry about what has happened to you. If you feel you were wrongly separated you need to follow through and seek legal counsel,” which I was already planning on doing.
The thing that gets me the most is that whoever was giving all of this negative feedback on our group, but obviously mostly me, failed to overlook the fact that I had a great relationship with my host family, had established friendships in the community, and was participating in an exercise group of diabetic women that all loved me. I felt, even if my program work was suffering, which I didn't feel it was, then at least I was doing an excellent job at meeting 2 of the 3 goals of Peace Corps. I loved being there, I loved all of my fellow trainees, I loved the work of the program, I loved advancing my Spanish skills. I loved everything about it and was fully equipped to begin a project in my own site, and now there is a site that will not be getting a volunteer because I was sent home.
I would also like to tell you the sequence of events leading up to my departure, as I feel that it was an awful process. I showed up to the office at 9am Monday morning, was told I was being separated by 9:30am, and was given a driver to take me back to my host family's house to get my bank account information so I could go close my bank account. I walked through the front door of my house and my host mom and her sister were standing there crying because somebody had already called them to let them know that I would be leaving. I was crying too and asked them what the person had said for a reason, and whoever it was told them that it was something I did in Quetzaltenango on field based training, which I don't know what that could have possibly have been and had never mentioned to me. It sounds almost as if they had lied to my host family. So I went to the bank and stood in line for 2 hours to close my account (by this time it must have been about 1pm) then went back to the office to fill out paperwork and go through all of the logistics. Craig the training director was saying that they were trying to have me fly out that day, but it didn't look like it was possible, so the administrative lady told me that a driver would be arriving at 3am to take me to the airport early the next morning. I got out of the office by 2:30 or 3pm without so much as a goodbye or best wishes from the country director and training director, ran to run some errands in Antigua and have an impromptu going away party with about 12 of my closest training friends, then got back to my host family's house to have my last meal with them and give them some going away presents I had picked up for them in Antigua. My host mom then took me around 8pm to go say bye to all her family members in the area. I was crying, she was crying, her other family members were crying, and I couldn't even say bye to everyone because some people weren't around that night. What kills me the most is that I didn't get to say bye to my 6 year old host brother Rodrigo, who played computer games with me almost every night. Everyone said to come visit, and that their house is my house, and that I was always welcome back. When I got back to the house said they were going to sleep, but they wanted me to wake them up when I was leaving. So finally about 10pm I had a chance to start packing. My 2 great girlfriends in my training town had gotten permission from the security director to come to the airport with me at 3am to see me off, and they came over to hang out with me while I was packing. I never even had a chance to sleep that night. I woke the family up at 3am to say my final goodbyes, all crying again. As I was going to get in the car my host mom was kissing my cheeks and telling me I was a good person, which meant the world to me after what I had been through in the previous weeks.
So I'm back now still trying to figure out exactly what happened, feeling like I've been robbed of an excellent opportunity based on a bunch of rumors and gossip. Nobody that gives up their life to go volunteer should have to go through what I went through and what lots of other volunteers in my training group are going through, so for the sake of future trainees I hope something can be done about all of this.
Thank you for your time,
Haley Erickson
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So I'm home now, missing Guatemala like no other- my host family, friends in the community that I didn't get to say goodbye to, the awesome fellow trainees I met along the way, the great opportunity I had to make a difference... and I have nothing (except for the people I love, there's always positives to be found :). No job, no car, no money, no home, no answers as to why somebody didn't like me enough to send me home. So all I have to say to you guys is beware... you spend a year and a half fighting your way through the intensive application process (I was medically rejected at first but got through it), give up your life, and you can be sent home without good reason. Just thought people should know about this. And I'm not saying it's like this everywhere. One of my friends from another program said it was nothing like this in the country she was in before... I guess it just depends on the staff. I realize Peace Corps does a lot of great things, but not so great things can come of it as well. I also just received a response to this letter, and as I expected I guess, nothing is going to come of it.
All I can say is good luck, and beware! Maybe finish putting your life on hold after you're sworn in. Be careful what you say to people!
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Dear Kim,
I am writing because I feel I was administratively separated from Peace Corps Guatemala for unfair reasons and was not given specific explanations for what exactly I did wrong. Their argument was that I exerted negativity, lack of flexibility, and reacted strongly to feedback. The only particular instance they would elaborate on was an instance that I feel was created by lack of communication between the staff and our community based training group.
I will start by describing this situation because I feel it is a good example of how everything transpired. Our group had just come back from 9 days of field based training where we had visited the sites of 2 volunteers that had been in site for a year. At the end of the trip I was feeling very accomplished and excited, as I now had a better idea of how things in my site would be, and how to get started creating work for myself. It was a very challenging experience because the work load was heavy and the volunteers always had surprises lurking around every corner, but I feel that I was very flexible and that I didn't voice my opinions and frustrations any more than the rest of the group did.
The trouble started the Monday we returned home. We had scheduled an HIV/AIDS workshop with a group of health promoters for that Wednesday, following our technical trainer's schedule of goals. We were informed that we were to receive the help of an experienced volunteer that night so we could start preparing. She arrived about a half hour late, sat down at the table with 3 of us (the other in our group was at the hospital having tests done, as she had been really sick since arriving in the country) and started helping us map out an agenda for the workshop. We expressed concern to her that the other person in our group was missing, and that we didn't want to do everything without her, but she was saying things like she was sent because our group hadn't been working together well, and the words “you could be sent home” were spoken but I can't recall in exactly what context. This was the first we had heard of any problems as we had been working great together, had established strong friendships within our group, and had been accomplishing everything that was expected of us on schedule. We felt like we were being attacked without warrant, and I was the one that spoke up in what I thought was a fairly calm manner and simply expressed that we didn't know where she was coming from, and if she wanted us to work together it was going to be hard to do that while we were missing one of the group. We had chosen all of the components of the workshop, but didn't want to decide who was responsible for what without our fourth group member, and were planning to reconvene when she returned from the hospital. She got defensive and called our technical trainer down to talk with us.
The next day me and the 2 other girls went into our tech trainers office to explain a little bit about where we were coming from, and why we reacted to the volunteer the way we did. He ended up telling us that he did think our group had all of these problems, and that we needed to step it up or that we were in danger of being sent home. It was apparent that he had talked to her about all of our problems, but hadn't yet talked to us about them, so she was just the middle man in the whole situation. I felt awful about how we had treated her and began crying at the Peace Corps office. Marissa was there, so I immediately apologized to her, we hugged, and continued working together on the project.
After that, we were told almost every day for about 2 weeks, sometimes in a group and sometimes individually, by our Spanish teacher and technical trainer that we weren't positive enough and that we needed to change. The most intense of these meetings was when we were called into the office to talk to the training director and country director individually. During my meeting they kept saying things like “there are a lot of red flags that have been raised on you” but when asked to elaborate they wouldn't. Also, the country director said something to the effect of “we just want to make sure you're not here for a paid holiday” which was extremely offensive after I had fought so hard through the year-long application process, had appealed a medical rejection and won, had given up my whole life in the States, was excited about the program and the work, and done what I felt was a good job in training so far. She also said towards the end of the meeting that even if I didn't think I was in the wrong, that I needed to accept it and try to change.
One of the times that our new Spanish teacher (all teachers had just rotated a few days before we left for FBT) Sandra had the negativity discussion with us, she brought up how our first meeting with her went before field based training. We were sad to lose our other Spanish teacher who we had formed a strong bond with, and her method of teaching was a lot different than his, so it was a tough day for everyone. At the end of that first day she said she could feel that things didn't go well, and asked for input on what we could do to improve class. I told her that I preferred more of a formal lesson, with discussion, questions and answers afterward, as opposed to her having us try to figure the lesson out for ourselves. Another girl in my group also said that she was a visual learner like myself, and asked that more be written during the lesson. We gave her the input she requested in a very calm and tactful way, but she brought that up as an instance in which we were negative. I'm wondering, after a somewhat difficult first day, if she had a problem with us from then on, even though from my point of view class and our relationship with her dramatically improved.
Also over that couple of weeks, we heard from our friends in other community based training groups that our technical trainer was sitting down with other groups asking them for gossip, and each person had to say something around the table. He was also telling people not to associate themselves with our group using such analogies as “if you put a live fish in a bucket of dead fish, the live fish will die too.” Additionally he was telling groups that they were his favorites, then telling other groups that they were his favorites, and telling people that he “likes to create competition and turn people against each other.” For an organization that encourages professionalism to the fullest extent, it didn't seem like anything at that point was being handled professionally.
So, when we finally sat down with our technical trainer to discuss solutions to our problems, the only solutions discussed was that we needed to be looking for other things to do outside of what was required by his training calendar. We expressed to him that we did not know about these hidden expectations, but now that we knew that more was expected of us, we were going to get right on it and we did, scheduling multiple health talks in the community back to back. Just as I thought things were looking up, I received a text message from the training director telling me that he had the country director wanted me to come to the office for another meeting that morning, instead of going to an important meeting we had with a social worker about how she was going to continue her health promoter program without us when we left for our sites. I had been working hard on the solutions we discussed, and was convinced that there was no way they could send me home based on all of these rumors, but when the country director walked in with the administrative separation form in her hand it was clear that I was wrong.
Our group however, was not the only one being picked on. For example, my friend ______ was called into a meeting to have her motives for being there questioned after our field based training trip as well. During the trip she contracted a bacterial infection and amoebas, but was still giving it her all despite the fact that she felt awful. She never stayed in bed or anything and always did her part in the different health talks we did throughout the week. My friend _____ was also going through a similar battle having her motives questioned, after having been hospitalized for amoebas, which then turned into some other tropical disease. She had been on the phone with the nurses almost every day for about a month discussing her awful sickness which included explosive diarrhea, only to receive a phone call from them later telling her that they and other people had noticed that she had lost a lot of weight, and implied that she might be suffering from an eating disorder. The list goes on, but the point is that it really felt like they were not supportive at all of the fact that we had just left everything we knew and loved to come help a country in need.
A few conversations I had with people before I left really got to me also. One was my conversation with my first Spanish teacher. He said he was really sorry, that he thought it was all based on rumors, and that my friendship meant a lot to him and everything. Another was a text message I received from ___, somebody who was with us during our whole field based training trip. Somehow she had already heard about what was happening to me, and I forget her exact words but she said something like “I'm really sorry about what has happened to you. If you feel you were wrongly separated you need to follow through and seek legal counsel,” which I was already planning on doing.
The thing that gets me the most is that whoever was giving all of this negative feedback on our group, but obviously mostly me, failed to overlook the fact that I had a great relationship with my host family, had established friendships in the community, and was participating in an exercise group of diabetic women that all loved me. I felt, even if my program work was suffering, which I didn't feel it was, then at least I was doing an excellent job at meeting 2 of the 3 goals of Peace Corps. I loved being there, I loved all of my fellow trainees, I loved the work of the program, I loved advancing my Spanish skills. I loved everything about it and was fully equipped to begin a project in my own site, and now there is a site that will not be getting a volunteer because I was sent home.
I would also like to tell you the sequence of events leading up to my departure, as I feel that it was an awful process. I showed up to the office at 9am Monday morning, was told I was being separated by 9:30am, and was given a driver to take me back to my host family's house to get my bank account information so I could go close my bank account. I walked through the front door of my house and my host mom and her sister were standing there crying because somebody had already called them to let them know that I would be leaving. I was crying too and asked them what the person had said for a reason, and whoever it was told them that it was something I did in Quetzaltenango on field based training, which I don't know what that could have possibly have been and had never mentioned to me. It sounds almost as if they had lied to my host family. So I went to the bank and stood in line for 2 hours to close my account (by this time it must have been about 1pm) then went back to the office to fill out paperwork and go through all of the logistics. Craig the training director was saying that they were trying to have me fly out that day, but it didn't look like it was possible, so the administrative lady told me that a driver would be arriving at 3am to take me to the airport early the next morning. I got out of the office by 2:30 or 3pm without so much as a goodbye or best wishes from the country director and training director, ran to run some errands in Antigua and have an impromptu going away party with about 12 of my closest training friends, then got back to my host family's house to have my last meal with them and give them some going away presents I had picked up for them in Antigua. My host mom then took me around 8pm to go say bye to all her family members in the area. I was crying, she was crying, her other family members were crying, and I couldn't even say bye to everyone because some people weren't around that night. What kills me the most is that I didn't get to say bye to my 6 year old host brother Rodrigo, who played computer games with me almost every night. Everyone said to come visit, and that their house is my house, and that I was always welcome back. When I got back to the house said they were going to sleep, but they wanted me to wake them up when I was leaving. So finally about 10pm I had a chance to start packing. My 2 great girlfriends in my training town had gotten permission from the security director to come to the airport with me at 3am to see me off, and they came over to hang out with me while I was packing. I never even had a chance to sleep that night. I woke the family up at 3am to say my final goodbyes, all crying again. As I was going to get in the car my host mom was kissing my cheeks and telling me I was a good person, which meant the world to me after what I had been through in the previous weeks.
So I'm back now still trying to figure out exactly what happened, feeling like I've been robbed of an excellent opportunity based on a bunch of rumors and gossip. Nobody that gives up their life to go volunteer should have to go through what I went through and what lots of other volunteers in my training group are going through, so for the sake of future trainees I hope something can be done about all of this.
Thank you for your time,
Haley Erickson
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So I'm home now, missing Guatemala like no other- my host family, friends in the community that I didn't get to say goodbye to, the awesome fellow trainees I met along the way, the great opportunity I had to make a difference... and I have nothing (except for the people I love, there's always positives to be found :). No job, no car, no money, no home, no answers as to why somebody didn't like me enough to send me home. So all I have to say to you guys is beware... you spend a year and a half fighting your way through the intensive application process (I was medically rejected at first but got through it), give up your life, and you can be sent home without good reason. Just thought people should know about this. And I'm not saying it's like this everywhere. One of my friends from another program said it was nothing like this in the country she was in before... I guess it just depends on the staff. I realize Peace Corps does a lot of great things, but not so great things can come of it as well. I also just received a response to this letter, and as I expected I guess, nothing is going to come of it.
All I can say is good luck, and beware! Maybe finish putting your life on hold after you're sworn in. Be careful what you say to people!
domingo, 21 de junio de 2009
Mierda... bunch of mierda
What a week what a week! Whew! I got back from my field based training trip feeling great, like I had learned a lot about what life as a volunteer would be like and how to get started in my own site. I had also done a lot of bonding with some awesome girls in my group on the trip, and was stoked to have new friends that will be a part of my support group for the next 2 years. THEN everything fell apart. Basically it's a bunch of gossip ridiculousness that some people are believing. I can't go into details here, but I've written some suuuuuuper long emails to some of you and balled my eyes out on the phone with others, and I'm OVER it. I HATE gossip, and that important people are believing it, but we Pastores girls are strong, and we're above it and despite all that happens we're powering through to do what what came here to do, volunteer. Ugh, what a bunch of frustrating nonsense.
Aaaanyway, so the last week has been tough. In the middle of all the unnecessary drama, we had a 2 hour long HIV/AIDS talk with the health promoters at the health center that went great. We played a bunch of games with them, got the info across effectively, had a good audience of people that were actually interested, and made fools of ourselves with condoms and other sex stuff. It was really fun. The bosses were there for it too, which made it a lot more nerve racking, but we did a fantastic job. I haven't had time to go to my exercise class lately, which is really sad, but hopefully we'll be able to pick it up again this week since the health work load will hopefully be a little lighter. Oh, and my Spanish teacher told me that my host family had nothing but good things to say about me, which is awesome after the crap I went through this week. My host mom said that she likes the way I help out around the house, and that I go with her to family things (which I guess hasn't been the case with some of the other volunteers she's had... weird). So that was a good feeling. I don't know if I wrote about it in my last post or not, but I made my lil host bro a beanie for his birthday, which kinda turned out to be a big flop. Good thing I threw some chocolates in there in case he didn't like it haha. He just looked at me with this fake smile and was like “graaaacias.” Who was I kidding, when I turned 6 all I wanted was toys too! Oops! And they don't understand how it's the thought that counts haha. O well, I tried. Lesson learned. So then today was my first official day off in 2 weeks and it was amazing and MUCH needed. I had told my host mom last night that I was gonna sleep in, and that I'd figure out my own breakfast while she went to the market. Turns out it's not possible for me to sleep past 7 in the country, so I just woke up and watched a movie in bed which was soooo relaxing. Got up, made my pb & j and banana sandwich, met up with my girls in Pastores, and we headed out to the house of a volunteer we've met that lives nearby. We get there and all my good buddies from training are there, and the volunteer has all this amazing food for us... veggies, hummus dip, amazing salsa, and fresh baked oatmeal chocochip cookies! We were so excited! We were supposed to have movie day, but we all blabbed so much that we never got around to it. He's awesome and so is his site mate, this other girl that's been there for about a year and a half now. They both have these amazing home-y apartments too... felt like we were in the states... nicer than my apartment in the states! (besides my awesome roomies... love you oompa, anne, suzie, and any other awesome people I lived with :). Tomorrow's another day off too, which is exciting! I have a lot of Spanish homework, but on study breaks I might start looking for my sweet pair of authentic custom made Pastores cowgirl boots haha. Another week ahead, hopefully this one will be less hell-ish! Only like 2 more weeks before we have our site assignments and go out on a trial run for a week with our host country counterparts to try to find a place to live and stuff! So excited to be done with training!
Aaaanyway, so the last week has been tough. In the middle of all the unnecessary drama, we had a 2 hour long HIV/AIDS talk with the health promoters at the health center that went great. We played a bunch of games with them, got the info across effectively, had a good audience of people that were actually interested, and made fools of ourselves with condoms and other sex stuff. It was really fun. The bosses were there for it too, which made it a lot more nerve racking, but we did a fantastic job. I haven't had time to go to my exercise class lately, which is really sad, but hopefully we'll be able to pick it up again this week since the health work load will hopefully be a little lighter. Oh, and my Spanish teacher told me that my host family had nothing but good things to say about me, which is awesome after the crap I went through this week. My host mom said that she likes the way I help out around the house, and that I go with her to family things (which I guess hasn't been the case with some of the other volunteers she's had... weird). So that was a good feeling. I don't know if I wrote about it in my last post or not, but I made my lil host bro a beanie for his birthday, which kinda turned out to be a big flop. Good thing I threw some chocolates in there in case he didn't like it haha. He just looked at me with this fake smile and was like “graaaacias.” Who was I kidding, when I turned 6 all I wanted was toys too! Oops! And they don't understand how it's the thought that counts haha. O well, I tried. Lesson learned. So then today was my first official day off in 2 weeks and it was amazing and MUCH needed. I had told my host mom last night that I was gonna sleep in, and that I'd figure out my own breakfast while she went to the market. Turns out it's not possible for me to sleep past 7 in the country, so I just woke up and watched a movie in bed which was soooo relaxing. Got up, made my pb & j and banana sandwich, met up with my girls in Pastores, and we headed out to the house of a volunteer we've met that lives nearby. We get there and all my good buddies from training are there, and the volunteer has all this amazing food for us... veggies, hummus dip, amazing salsa, and fresh baked oatmeal chocochip cookies! We were so excited! We were supposed to have movie day, but we all blabbed so much that we never got around to it. He's awesome and so is his site mate, this other girl that's been there for about a year and a half now. They both have these amazing home-y apartments too... felt like we were in the states... nicer than my apartment in the states! (besides my awesome roomies... love you oompa, anne, suzie, and any other awesome people I lived with :). Tomorrow's another day off too, which is exciting! I have a lot of Spanish homework, but on study breaks I might start looking for my sweet pair of authentic custom made Pastores cowgirl boots haha. Another week ahead, hopefully this one will be less hell-ish! Only like 2 more weeks before we have our site assignments and go out on a trial run for a week with our host country counterparts to try to find a place to live and stuff! So excited to be done with training!
martes, 16 de junio de 2009
Field Based Training
Ah so much has happened since my last post! I just got back from field based training in 2 different towns hours away from here. We visited the sites of 2 different volunteers that have been in their sites for a year now, and they lined up a ton of stuff for us to do to see what it feels like to actually be volunteer. We gave health talks (charlas as we call them) eeeeeeverywhere. We did an AIDS/HIV one at a school, had a cooking class/nutrition sesh with a group of Mayan women, gave a charla to little kids in a daycare, others in the waiting room at the health centers and with a group of lunch ladies, another with street food vendors... and the list continues. It was a stressful action packed week, but we all managed pretty well, and definitely snuck in some fun between the cracks :) On work- it's going to be awesome I think... fun, diverse, and helpful. It was good to get an actual idea of what it is that we'll be doing. We also did a lot of stuff like risk identification and rotations with the different people in the clinic that are going to be very helpful when we are trying to start work in our sites. People- AWESOME! I had a ridiculously fun time with the girls on the trip... Meredith, Stacy, Phil, and Courtenay are friggin hilarious. Stacy and Mer even held up after they were diagnosed with amoebas. Yikes. It's impressive how much we can laugh about farts and bowel movements. It's a Peace Corps thing haha. My favorite moment on the trip was when we went to these hot springs and the 5 of us girls are in a pool by ourselves playing Guatemalan charades where we're doing things like imitating the Guate women that walk around with giant baskets balanced on their heads. This led to us making up a camioneta (scary bus) dance... hang on tight!...1,2....duck n cover!....1,2... pocket check!...1,2... hahaha we were bustin up. Apparently our friend Kiki that was in another group for the trip just started a band with another girl... hopefully their gonna write a camioneta song so we can make a music video hah. Also with the girls, wine night at the hostel where I put back a bottle myself whilst eating mac n cheese and rice. Carbo-licious. Went to “reggae” night with Phil, or Lipa, or April (Phillipa means prostitute in spanish?) at a really cool little bar. It was 2 guys with guitars singing in spanish... the only reggae thing about it was the dude's massive dreads and the one Bob Marley cover. We had a volunteer leader on the trip too, or camp counselor as we like to call her, Kat. She's been in the country for 3 years... 2 as a volunteer then 1 with this volunteer leader position and she's trying to extend for another year! Only bummer about her is that as a camp counselor she's “not allowed to drink excessively with volunteers.” Que lastima! Bummer dude. She's really cool though and she did a good job putting up with us. Then there were 3 other trainees too that I haven't mentioned yet, but apart from work we didn't hang with them much. So 8 trainees, 1 camp counselor, and 1 chauffeur/teacher. One of the volunteers that we visited stayed with my host mom in training too, so that was kinda cool to talk about with her. Awesome trip! The hot springs we went to were amazing! We were up high in the clouds and it was kinda rainforesty. Reminded me a lot of New Zealand... mostly because I saw my favorite ferny palm tree again for the first time! It's called a Ponga tree, and if it wasn't the exact same tree then it was a close cousin or something. I miss NZ too much... maybe Andy and I can go hang out there sometime :)
Here's the top 10 things I learned on the trip, straight from my journal (but again censored a little bit :)
1. Bring a plastic bag everywhere in case I can't get to a toilet when I have the big D (diarrhea). I didn't learn this the hard way LUCKILY... Kat told us a story about another volunteer.
2. Cheaper Guate mac n cheese isn't as good as Kraft- sack up and spend the extra 5Q for Kraft.
3. Censored. Sorry.
4. Censored. Sorry. If you want to know, ask me :)
5. Amoebas suck. Stacy, Mer, and Katharine all had them on the trip. Explosive D. No fun.
6. Don't take pics of groups of lots of men, it draws unwanted attention. This I found out the hard way. We were stopped in construction traffic and there was a packed bus next to us with guys hanging out the door. After they realized I was taking a pic they were hooting and shouting the few words of English that they know including I love you haha. Never again.
7. Suave Chapinas (my new sandals that are kinda like the flojos I used to wear as a kid) are amazing, but should not be worn while walking down coble stone streets with a pretty solid buzz on.
8. Pocket knives should not be used to cut pineapples. But other than that your leatherman is awesome... thanks Uncle Rich :)
9. It's ok to eat fruit from the supermarket without disinfecting it. I ate some apples and I don't have the D yet.
10. Mayan languages are absurd. I'm freaked out on potentially having to learn one. I've studied Spanish for years and I still can't roll my rrrrrrrrs. I'll never get the weird Mayan throat things and millions of consonants in a row thing down.
All in all an awesome trip. When I got back today still hungover from last night, A birthday party for my little host brother was being prepared for, which is the last thing I was up for after like 5 hours in the car. I dropped my crap and tried to run out to buy him a present, but my host mom's sister stopped me and reminded me that stores are closed on Sundays ugh. Tomorrow though I'm gonna go out and buy some green yarn (his favorite color) and make him a sweet beanie. Hopefully he likes it. I felt like an ass though for not having anything. We ate some good food, tostadas (which they call enchiladas?), tamale things, and cake. Yum. Luckily no ridiculous games were involved this time and I didn't have to dance either. Just chatted about the week with the sisters n stuff. Chill. Finally a chance to relax before we jump back in to hours of Spanish class again tomorrow. Ugh. And we have a big HIV/AIDS talk to prepare for on Wednesday. Another busy week ahead, and hopefully we're gonna plan to hike a nearby volcano this weekend! Woo! Still missing Andy terribly though. I got all teary today listening to our bluegrass song (what the F was I thinking putting it on) and thinking of one of the first times we hung out... all I wanted to do today was cuddle up with him! That's it for now chatos (brothaz :)! Hasta luego!
Here's the top 10 things I learned on the trip, straight from my journal (but again censored a little bit :)
1. Bring a plastic bag everywhere in case I can't get to a toilet when I have the big D (diarrhea). I didn't learn this the hard way LUCKILY... Kat told us a story about another volunteer.
2. Cheaper Guate mac n cheese isn't as good as Kraft- sack up and spend the extra 5Q for Kraft.
3. Censored. Sorry.
4. Censored. Sorry. If you want to know, ask me :)
5. Amoebas suck. Stacy, Mer, and Katharine all had them on the trip. Explosive D. No fun.
6. Don't take pics of groups of lots of men, it draws unwanted attention. This I found out the hard way. We were stopped in construction traffic and there was a packed bus next to us with guys hanging out the door. After they realized I was taking a pic they were hooting and shouting the few words of English that they know including I love you haha. Never again.
7. Suave Chapinas (my new sandals that are kinda like the flojos I used to wear as a kid) are amazing, but should not be worn while walking down coble stone streets with a pretty solid buzz on.
8. Pocket knives should not be used to cut pineapples. But other than that your leatherman is awesome... thanks Uncle Rich :)
9. It's ok to eat fruit from the supermarket without disinfecting it. I ate some apples and I don't have the D yet.
10. Mayan languages are absurd. I'm freaked out on potentially having to learn one. I've studied Spanish for years and I still can't roll my rrrrrrrrs. I'll never get the weird Mayan throat things and millions of consonants in a row thing down.
All in all an awesome trip. When I got back today still hungover from last night, A birthday party for my little host brother was being prepared for, which is the last thing I was up for after like 5 hours in the car. I dropped my crap and tried to run out to buy him a present, but my host mom's sister stopped me and reminded me that stores are closed on Sundays ugh. Tomorrow though I'm gonna go out and buy some green yarn (his favorite color) and make him a sweet beanie. Hopefully he likes it. I felt like an ass though for not having anything. We ate some good food, tostadas (which they call enchiladas?), tamale things, and cake. Yum. Luckily no ridiculous games were involved this time and I didn't have to dance either. Just chatted about the week with the sisters n stuff. Chill. Finally a chance to relax before we jump back in to hours of Spanish class again tomorrow. Ugh. And we have a big HIV/AIDS talk to prepare for on Wednesday. Another busy week ahead, and hopefully we're gonna plan to hike a nearby volcano this weekend! Woo! Still missing Andy terribly though. I got all teary today listening to our bluegrass song (what the F was I thinking putting it on) and thinking of one of the first times we hung out... all I wanted to do today was cuddle up with him! That's it for now chatos (brothaz :)! Hasta luego!
martes, 2 de junio de 2009
Funny Stuff...
OK so I just finished writing in my journal and I crack myself up. I wish I could just copy what I wrote, but Peace Corps montiors our blogs and I don't think they'd approve. So here's the shortened, less offensive version...
I had another one of those “Oh Guatemala” laugh out loud moments again today as I was running around the gym in a line of chubby ladies holding a water bottle full of dirt above my head (our weights) during my exercise class. My life here gets more awesomely ridiculous by the minute! Needless to say my exercise class is more of an interactive comedy than it is an actual workout. I love it! How hilarious is my life right now and how many Americans have experienced this crap?? Not many, that's for sure. This whole 2 year adventure is gonna be a story for the grandkids (if I ever end up with my own kids, and if my kids decide to have kids :). Despite the fact that this place is pretty friggin dangerous (more on that in a second), I'm feeling pretty lucky to have the opportunity to live in this crazy place for 2 years. I should have my own subtitled reality show. Seriously. The only hard part is that life at home (and the life of my amazing boyfriend!) is going on without me. My mom told me that my favorite uncle B-word is having some health problems, which is super scary! Hopefully it's nothing serious... they'll find out when he comes back from smokin' the ganj in Jamaica on their 25th wedding anniversary vacay. I just have to keep telling myself that home will always be there (and hopefully my amazing boyfriend too! Sorry if the mushy-ness offends anyone :), so I can just kick back, learn some more Spanish, eat some more beans, and enjoy the insanity that is Guatemala.
About the scary part... I GOT ROBBED for m first time on Saturday! Yea, I was getting on the bus with a ton of other people and I felt a bump. I looked down to see if it was anything to be worried about but I didn't notice anything. Then I get on the bus and there's this big obnoxious man talking loudly in the aisle saying stuff in Spanish like “O Americans! Hopefully they'll spend lots of money here in our economy” and crap like that. I just laughed at him and said “we're volunteers, we don't have money.” I found a seat and realized a couple seconds later that my super cute bag that my host mom made me had been slit open and my money was missing. Sooo, 1 of 2 things happened. Either it happened when I felt a little bump when I was getting on the bus, or the loud obnoxious man was a decoy for somebody else that slit my bag when I was squeezing my way down the aisle of the bus. The thieves have been known to work in teams... 1 as a distraction, and the other to bust out a razor blade and swipe your valuables. Anyway, surprisingly I was able to find a lot of positives in the situation. 1. It's a friggin miracle that they only took my money. I had been at a Maya cultural ceremony at the Peace Corps office so I had my camera, my 16G flash drive that I have my whole computer backed up on, and my cell phone (which is a hunk of junk, but they usually take them anyway I think) in my bag too and none of that went missing. AMAZING! So, I'm buying property insurance ASAP. 2. Peace Corps will replace the money. 3. Now I know that even when I start to feel safe here, I'M NOT, so I'll be more on guard from now on... machetes are readily available in the market, I think I'm going to invest. 4. After the fact, my host mom told me that I shouldn't wear my sunglasses out because it makes it look like I have money (ironic since I got them for free and I'm a broke ass volunteer haha... if anyone in Keystone has an extra pair of those poopy ones that the mountain gave out on employee day, hook a girl up! :) So... live and learn, right?
Other exciting news... I bought a super cute shirt at a Paca today- the plentiful thrift stores full of used American clothing- for 15 Qs = less than $2! Woooo yea, that's what I'm talking about... I love sweet deals! Also, last week we passed out invitations around town to try to round up some health promoters for the health center here, and today 1 person showed up to our meeting!... that's 1 more than we expected! Haha. What we're doing is kind of making it look like we're not abandoning the health center here in our town, but since the nurse told us that she basically doesn't have time for us, we're starting to do the majority of our training tasks at the health center in Antigua instead (that means more scary bus rides! Ah!). We definitely half-assed our attempt at rounding up promoters hoping nobody would show up, but 1 person did and she's really nice, really interested and hopefully motivated, and she's willing to come to Antigua with us to meet with our real group of promoters. So that was kind of exciting. What else... we got a new Spanish teacher today which is kind of devastating because the other one was funny and put up with our crude jokes and Spanish cuss words. We invited him to a cafe with us on Saturday as a little goodbye thing, gave him a giant poster board card that contained just about every Spanish cuss word we learned, ordered cakes, delicious milkshakes (not really do-able on the PC budget but I felt like splurging), coffee... and he picked up the tab for all of us! How awesome is that?! Then yesterday he stopped by our houses and gave our host parents each a fat loaf of delicious carrot bread as a thank you thing, which has actually turned out to not be a good thing... it's all we ate for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. I mean it's delicious and all but I feel like a fat unhealthy sack of carbs. Thanks Rafael :-P But yea so he was awesome, then the new lady steps in today and cuts our lunch break in half, tries to pull the strict bit on us, and her teaching style is whack... I didn't understand what the heck was going on today. Maybe we just need to bombard her with Spanish cuss words and see if we can break her. Haha. I had to resist the urge today on multiple occasions :) Finally, I can't go into details, but one of our host moms is a blabber-mouth and likes to spill lots of dirt which is pretty hilarious. I found out some interesting stuff today. Ok that's about it for this round. Hasta la vista (when people say that here I have to resist the urge to say in a Gover-nator tone of voice, “Baby” hah)!
O one more thing! Did I tell you that I live next to an American?? Yea, she married a Guatemalan and now lives down here and teaches music classes. Recorders mostly which is funny... reminds me of when we learned the song “Hot Cross Buns” in like second grade. Anyway, within like 2 seconds of meeting her she said she has an old $5 bill that the banks in Antigua won't exchange, and asked if I'd be interested in buying it off her for Quetzales, the currency here. Seriously?! Yea sure, let me take that off your hands and sit on it for 2 years. $5 bucks. Hahahaa. No thanks. And that actually reminds me of another story. Saturday we were walking down the road in Antigua after the cafe and my friend behind me let me know there was a lady trying to get by so I moved to the side and said “Perdon,” excuse me in Spanish, and she replied “Thank you.” Eventhough Antigua is pretty touristy, I was still caught off guard that she responded in English so I asked her where she was from. Turns out she's from Virginia and has been living here for like 30 years. She was super cool... we stood and talked to her for a solid few minutes. Turns out she's going to the states in the next few days-Virginia, which is where my friend Stacy is from, so she asked where in VA and it's like right down the road from her parent's house! So the lady is going to deliver a present from Stacy to her parents in exchange for a ride from the airport! Small funny world isn't it?! I love randomly meeting really nice down to earth people! Ok. I'm really done now. Sorry if I got your hopes up that this was going to be funny and it wasn't really... it's better in my uncensored journal :)
I had another one of those “Oh Guatemala” laugh out loud moments again today as I was running around the gym in a line of chubby ladies holding a water bottle full of dirt above my head (our weights) during my exercise class. My life here gets more awesomely ridiculous by the minute! Needless to say my exercise class is more of an interactive comedy than it is an actual workout. I love it! How hilarious is my life right now and how many Americans have experienced this crap?? Not many, that's for sure. This whole 2 year adventure is gonna be a story for the grandkids (if I ever end up with my own kids, and if my kids decide to have kids :). Despite the fact that this place is pretty friggin dangerous (more on that in a second), I'm feeling pretty lucky to have the opportunity to live in this crazy place for 2 years. I should have my own subtitled reality show. Seriously. The only hard part is that life at home (and the life of my amazing boyfriend!) is going on without me. My mom told me that my favorite uncle B-word is having some health problems, which is super scary! Hopefully it's nothing serious... they'll find out when he comes back from smokin' the ganj in Jamaica on their 25th wedding anniversary vacay. I just have to keep telling myself that home will always be there (and hopefully my amazing boyfriend too! Sorry if the mushy-ness offends anyone :), so I can just kick back, learn some more Spanish, eat some more beans, and enjoy the insanity that is Guatemala.
About the scary part... I GOT ROBBED for m first time on Saturday! Yea, I was getting on the bus with a ton of other people and I felt a bump. I looked down to see if it was anything to be worried about but I didn't notice anything. Then I get on the bus and there's this big obnoxious man talking loudly in the aisle saying stuff in Spanish like “O Americans! Hopefully they'll spend lots of money here in our economy” and crap like that. I just laughed at him and said “we're volunteers, we don't have money.” I found a seat and realized a couple seconds later that my super cute bag that my host mom made me had been slit open and my money was missing. Sooo, 1 of 2 things happened. Either it happened when I felt a little bump when I was getting on the bus, or the loud obnoxious man was a decoy for somebody else that slit my bag when I was squeezing my way down the aisle of the bus. The thieves have been known to work in teams... 1 as a distraction, and the other to bust out a razor blade and swipe your valuables. Anyway, surprisingly I was able to find a lot of positives in the situation. 1. It's a friggin miracle that they only took my money. I had been at a Maya cultural ceremony at the Peace Corps office so I had my camera, my 16G flash drive that I have my whole computer backed up on, and my cell phone (which is a hunk of junk, but they usually take them anyway I think) in my bag too and none of that went missing. AMAZING! So, I'm buying property insurance ASAP. 2. Peace Corps will replace the money. 3. Now I know that even when I start to feel safe here, I'M NOT, so I'll be more on guard from now on... machetes are readily available in the market, I think I'm going to invest. 4. After the fact, my host mom told me that I shouldn't wear my sunglasses out because it makes it look like I have money (ironic since I got them for free and I'm a broke ass volunteer haha... if anyone in Keystone has an extra pair of those poopy ones that the mountain gave out on employee day, hook a girl up! :) So... live and learn, right?
Other exciting news... I bought a super cute shirt at a Paca today- the plentiful thrift stores full of used American clothing- for 15 Qs = less than $2! Woooo yea, that's what I'm talking about... I love sweet deals! Also, last week we passed out invitations around town to try to round up some health promoters for the health center here, and today 1 person showed up to our meeting!... that's 1 more than we expected! Haha. What we're doing is kind of making it look like we're not abandoning the health center here in our town, but since the nurse told us that she basically doesn't have time for us, we're starting to do the majority of our training tasks at the health center in Antigua instead (that means more scary bus rides! Ah!). We definitely half-assed our attempt at rounding up promoters hoping nobody would show up, but 1 person did and she's really nice, really interested and hopefully motivated, and she's willing to come to Antigua with us to meet with our real group of promoters. So that was kind of exciting. What else... we got a new Spanish teacher today which is kind of devastating because the other one was funny and put up with our crude jokes and Spanish cuss words. We invited him to a cafe with us on Saturday as a little goodbye thing, gave him a giant poster board card that contained just about every Spanish cuss word we learned, ordered cakes, delicious milkshakes (not really do-able on the PC budget but I felt like splurging), coffee... and he picked up the tab for all of us! How awesome is that?! Then yesterday he stopped by our houses and gave our host parents each a fat loaf of delicious carrot bread as a thank you thing, which has actually turned out to not be a good thing... it's all we ate for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. I mean it's delicious and all but I feel like a fat unhealthy sack of carbs. Thanks Rafael :-P But yea so he was awesome, then the new lady steps in today and cuts our lunch break in half, tries to pull the strict bit on us, and her teaching style is whack... I didn't understand what the heck was going on today. Maybe we just need to bombard her with Spanish cuss words and see if we can break her. Haha. I had to resist the urge today on multiple occasions :) Finally, I can't go into details, but one of our host moms is a blabber-mouth and likes to spill lots of dirt which is pretty hilarious. I found out some interesting stuff today. Ok that's about it for this round. Hasta la vista (when people say that here I have to resist the urge to say in a Gover-nator tone of voice, “Baby” hah)!
O one more thing! Did I tell you that I live next to an American?? Yea, she married a Guatemalan and now lives down here and teaches music classes. Recorders mostly which is funny... reminds me of when we learned the song “Hot Cross Buns” in like second grade. Anyway, within like 2 seconds of meeting her she said she has an old $5 bill that the banks in Antigua won't exchange, and asked if I'd be interested in buying it off her for Quetzales, the currency here. Seriously?! Yea sure, let me take that off your hands and sit on it for 2 years. $5 bucks. Hahahaa. No thanks. And that actually reminds me of another story. Saturday we were walking down the road in Antigua after the cafe and my friend behind me let me know there was a lady trying to get by so I moved to the side and said “Perdon,” excuse me in Spanish, and she replied “Thank you.” Eventhough Antigua is pretty touristy, I was still caught off guard that she responded in English so I asked her where she was from. Turns out she's from Virginia and has been living here for like 30 years. She was super cool... we stood and talked to her for a solid few minutes. Turns out she's going to the states in the next few days-Virginia, which is where my friend Stacy is from, so she asked where in VA and it's like right down the road from her parent's house! So the lady is going to deliver a present from Stacy to her parents in exchange for a ride from the airport! Small funny world isn't it?! I love randomly meeting really nice down to earth people! Ok. I'm really done now. Sorry if I got your hopes up that this was going to be funny and it wasn't really... it's better in my uncensored journal :)
viernes, 29 de mayo de 2009
Beach! and other stuff...
More new stuff... another earthquake last night... the 3rd in 4 weeks. It was the middle of the night (Weds night) and I just stayed in bed hoping that a bigger jolt wasn't on the way so I didn't have to run out in the courtyard, which I guess is the family protocol because I had to do that for the first one. Crazy eh? But apparently it's totally normal. It was a big one I guess- we felt it all the way from Honduras. I heard there was even a tsunami somewhere in Central America. Ah! Reminds me of when I was in New Zealand and woke up in the middle of the night to a phone call from my mom telling me to run for the hills because a tsunami was on the way haha. I went back to sleep :)
Also, I had my first standing ride on the “camioneta,” i.e. sketchy ass bus. It was jam-packed and I was in the aisle somewhere in the middle. It was the perfect day too, because I was carrying a massive load of supplies for this health talk I had to give today. I had a rolled up poster board sticking out of my big bag and it was whacking everyone in the face, but since I was using both of my hands to dangle from the “oh shit” bar that conveniently runs the entire length of the bus, I couldn't do anything about it haha. It was ridiculous. Just picture me... a foot taller than everyone else, giant frizzy hair, white skin, standing in the middle of everyone else sticking out like a sore thumb, meanwhile dangling from the ceiling and whacking everyone in the face with my poster board. Pretty hilarious right? A lot of times I find myself just thinking “Ohhhh Guatemala...” and chuckling out loud. Another time this happened was when I was standing outside talking to Andy (my cell signal is strongest out by the noisy road, go figure) and a fireman went by on a bicycle. Or maybe it was just a guy with a fire hat trying to stay dry in the rain. Who knows really... all I know is it would have been a hell of a lot better if he was carrying a bucket of water or something... maybe wearing a red flashing headlamp. Hahahahaaaa. Love it.
And, most important news of the day... I GET TO GO TO THE WEDDING!!! Yep, I got the OK from my program director during my interview with him today! So excited to see Andy again! Feels good to have a date set! Hopefully my malaria pill induced funky dreams will be about that tonight! I'll get to see him all dressed up, get dressed up myself, dance with him (although I don't know if I'm actually looking forward to that part... the other night when I was dancing with the family it was so awful that my host “cousin” gave me a crash course lesson hah), hang out with his awesome fam... sounds like a fairy tale now and I'm sure it will seem even more amazing after I've been here for almost 6 months! Ah can't WAIT!!!
Aaaand finally, I had to give my first health talk today. It was in front of my training group, luckily in English. Next week we have to give it in front of a group of health promoters in Spanish! Ah! It went pretty well though... I think I made it somewhat entertaining, and I followed the steps of the learning cycle that we've been taught pretty well I thought. My biggest setback is that I get way too freakin nervous in front of people! Ah! I thought I was getting more comfortable with it, but then the person that went before me came on and I started losing it again...getting all nervous. Ugh. Hopefully by the end of all of this I won't be so freaked out anymore. Anyway, my talk was on the importance of hand washing and I had an audience of about 9 people... 7 other trainees like me, my health technical trainer, and my program assistant. The learning cycle requires us to play a hands on game with the crowd to get them more engaged- I had a poster of a girl (Marta) washing her hands, then next to that I had a poster with just some hands and the title of the game “Manos de Marta.” The game goes like this... people throw around the hackey sack while I clap with my back to them. When I stop clapping, whoever has the ball has to tell me 1. their name and something random about themselves, for this group I had them say something funny that they have seen or learned since arriving here in GT and 2. something that “Marta” did today to make her hands dirty (which is why she's washing them in the poster). Then, they had to go up and grab a beautifully drawn monster germ representing the dirty thing Marta did and put it on the other poster of the hands. Easy enough right... so at the end the poster of the hands is all filled with scary looking germs. I also had glitter on the hackey sack, so when people looked at their hands the glitter represented germs from all the germs they had been touching. It went pretty well. Then I had to basically relate the findings to their lives (audience given is women in a waiting room of a health center), make them realize that they need to wash their hands a lot, then at the end I brought some soap and water in and chose a volunteer in the audience to show everyone the proper way to wash their hands (soap, water, friction... I've become a hand washing warrior since I've been here!). So yea, that was it. It was supposed to be 30 minutes long, but I'm not sure how long it actually was... probably shorter, but when I have to do it in Spanish it will be a lot slower/painful haha. It was a good time though! This is the kind of thing we'll be doing a lot in our sites because we're supposed to be showing health promoters how to give effective health chats that are interactive and not borrrrring. Pretty cool eh?
Alright, that's about it for tonight. It's been a hectic few days preparing for this chat and dealing with our health center nurse that doesn't want anything to do with us, but we actually have a free afternoon tomorrow which is pretty exciting! Maybe I'll bust out the only movie I brought with me... Across the Universe :) Maybe do some blabbing on Skype at the internet cafe after I post this on my blog. Soooo if you're reading this your phone is ringgggggiiiiiiing riiiiiight abouuuuuuuuuutttt…................... NOW ;-)
O yea one more thing... we have to switch Spanish teachers which is a friggin tragedy because our guy is the best! Just a part of the program, every group has to switch. But tomorrow was supposed to be our last class with the awesome guy, but our tech trainer told us this afternoon that some admin stuff came up, so we don't have class tomorrow, so we don't get to see him again! Que triste! But we're gonna make him a giant card with some bad words in it that he taught us, and hopefully convince him to bring his girlfriend that we haven't met yet (they might get married while we're here... hopefully get to see a Guatemalan wedding!) to meet us in Antigua on Saturday for some pizza or something. Sad :( Ok, that's it. Gooodnight!
Also, I had my first standing ride on the “camioneta,” i.e. sketchy ass bus. It was jam-packed and I was in the aisle somewhere in the middle. It was the perfect day too, because I was carrying a massive load of supplies for this health talk I had to give today. I had a rolled up poster board sticking out of my big bag and it was whacking everyone in the face, but since I was using both of my hands to dangle from the “oh shit” bar that conveniently runs the entire length of the bus, I couldn't do anything about it haha. It was ridiculous. Just picture me... a foot taller than everyone else, giant frizzy hair, white skin, standing in the middle of everyone else sticking out like a sore thumb, meanwhile dangling from the ceiling and whacking everyone in the face with my poster board. Pretty hilarious right? A lot of times I find myself just thinking “Ohhhh Guatemala...” and chuckling out loud. Another time this happened was when I was standing outside talking to Andy (my cell signal is strongest out by the noisy road, go figure) and a fireman went by on a bicycle. Or maybe it was just a guy with a fire hat trying to stay dry in the rain. Who knows really... all I know is it would have been a hell of a lot better if he was carrying a bucket of water or something... maybe wearing a red flashing headlamp. Hahahahaaaa. Love it.
And, most important news of the day... I GET TO GO TO THE WEDDING!!! Yep, I got the OK from my program director during my interview with him today! So excited to see Andy again! Feels good to have a date set! Hopefully my malaria pill induced funky dreams will be about that tonight! I'll get to see him all dressed up, get dressed up myself, dance with him (although I don't know if I'm actually looking forward to that part... the other night when I was dancing with the family it was so awful that my host “cousin” gave me a crash course lesson hah), hang out with his awesome fam... sounds like a fairy tale now and I'm sure it will seem even more amazing after I've been here for almost 6 months! Ah can't WAIT!!!
Aaaand finally, I had to give my first health talk today. It was in front of my training group, luckily in English. Next week we have to give it in front of a group of health promoters in Spanish! Ah! It went pretty well though... I think I made it somewhat entertaining, and I followed the steps of the learning cycle that we've been taught pretty well I thought. My biggest setback is that I get way too freakin nervous in front of people! Ah! I thought I was getting more comfortable with it, but then the person that went before me came on and I started losing it again...getting all nervous. Ugh. Hopefully by the end of all of this I won't be so freaked out anymore. Anyway, my talk was on the importance of hand washing and I had an audience of about 9 people... 7 other trainees like me, my health technical trainer, and my program assistant. The learning cycle requires us to play a hands on game with the crowd to get them more engaged- I had a poster of a girl (Marta) washing her hands, then next to that I had a poster with just some hands and the title of the game “Manos de Marta.” The game goes like this... people throw around the hackey sack while I clap with my back to them. When I stop clapping, whoever has the ball has to tell me 1. their name and something random about themselves, for this group I had them say something funny that they have seen or learned since arriving here in GT and 2. something that “Marta” did today to make her hands dirty (which is why she's washing them in the poster). Then, they had to go up and grab a beautifully drawn monster germ representing the dirty thing Marta did and put it on the other poster of the hands. Easy enough right... so at the end the poster of the hands is all filled with scary looking germs. I also had glitter on the hackey sack, so when people looked at their hands the glitter represented germs from all the germs they had been touching. It went pretty well. Then I had to basically relate the findings to their lives (audience given is women in a waiting room of a health center), make them realize that they need to wash their hands a lot, then at the end I brought some soap and water in and chose a volunteer in the audience to show everyone the proper way to wash their hands (soap, water, friction... I've become a hand washing warrior since I've been here!). So yea, that was it. It was supposed to be 30 minutes long, but I'm not sure how long it actually was... probably shorter, but when I have to do it in Spanish it will be a lot slower/painful haha. It was a good time though! This is the kind of thing we'll be doing a lot in our sites because we're supposed to be showing health promoters how to give effective health chats that are interactive and not borrrrring. Pretty cool eh?
Alright, that's about it for tonight. It's been a hectic few days preparing for this chat and dealing with our health center nurse that doesn't want anything to do with us, but we actually have a free afternoon tomorrow which is pretty exciting! Maybe I'll bust out the only movie I brought with me... Across the Universe :) Maybe do some blabbing on Skype at the internet cafe after I post this on my blog. Soooo if you're reading this your phone is ringgggggiiiiiiing riiiiiight abouuuuuuuuuutttt…................... NOW ;-)
O yea one more thing... we have to switch Spanish teachers which is a friggin tragedy because our guy is the best! Just a part of the program, every group has to switch. But tomorrow was supposed to be our last class with the awesome guy, but our tech trainer told us this afternoon that some admin stuff came up, so we don't have class tomorrow, so we don't get to see him again! Que triste! But we're gonna make him a giant card with some bad words in it that he taught us, and hopefully convince him to bring his girlfriend that we haven't met yet (they might get married while we're here... hopefully get to see a Guatemalan wedding!) to meet us in Antigua on Saturday for some pizza or something. Sad :( Ok, that's it. Gooodnight!
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