Pictures...

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 With my 1st Spanish Teacher...

My room...

Feliz Cumpleanos Madre!!!!

So this is not Part II, sorry...

Training has gotten supper busy, we are working more than 12 hours on some days... So, I am a little behind on my posts. I apologize, but I promise once I make it through training (1 month and 1/2 left) I will be able to post more...I have so much to tell you all!

HOWEVER, this is a very very special day. My Mommi's Birthday! I had to take a few minutes to write to the love of my life and send her special Birthday Wishes in my abscence!

I love you and miss you SOOOO much! I am so thankful that you are supporting me through this journey, even though it is hard for us! You are the best Mom I could have ever had! I am thankful for all that you have done and continue to do for me. Especially your unconditional and everlasting Love! You are the epitome of what I aspire to be in this World!!! :-)

Sorry I can't be there to celebrate your special day with you! However, I took these pictures just for you and now is the perfect time for me to post them.... ENJOY!!!

Love and Miss You,
Tricey

P.S. They have Birds of Paradise growing a lot of places here!

Another reason to come visit!!! :-)

It’s only been 2 weeks??? (part I)

Wow… these last two weeks in my community has felt like a month! It’s probably because we utilize every second of the day and we’re extremely busy. So much has happened in this last week… let’s see if I can catch you up…

Ok, so to follow-up with my thoughts on the funeral from last week-end. Actually, what they call a funeral was equivalent to what we call the wake. The funeral like in the States is called Mass here, more than likely because the family is Catholic. I attended Mass and it was very interesting. Since I didn’t understand much, I just observed everyone and everything that I could. Mass was pretty similar, the priest said a few words, the family said a few words, they collected tithes/offerings, and then they gave communion.  What was interesting was seeing them walk with the body/casket to the Church. It was very solemn. One of the differences is that they had a band (for lack of a better word), a couple of men playing Don Albuerto’s favorite music as we walked to the church and then again as we walked to the cemetery. I enjoyed seeing what seemed like the entire town come together for his behalf.

My Spanish has been improving day by day. Some days are much better than others, but overall, I’m now able to have a conversation with people and almost understand everything they say, and they almost understand everything that I say. It’s been an interesting learning experience. Overall, I’m pleased with my progress but I know that I have a long way to go. I need to study study and practice practice…on top of all the work I have to do… Training is basically an accelerated Master’s program wrapped up in 3 months… Intense but great! I’m so glad I got my Master’s before coming to the Peace Corps because a lot of the themes that we are discussing, I have an understanding of it. Thus, I don’t need to learn the Spanish word as well as what it means in English. That’s a load off!

Well, this week brought me my first bad day in country. Tuesday, I had the worst day Ever! It was so bad… Let’s see if I can give you a short version… Tuesday is my day to travel to the Peace Corps office for training sessions. I woke up not feeling too well and because of that was running a little short of time getting ready. As you know, I don’t do too well when I have to rush, it makes me so anxious thinking that I could possibly be late (however, that anxiety is slowly dissipating the longer I’m in Guatemala!). Anyway, I had to be out the door by 6:30 to catch the bus. My host-mom met me at my door with my breakfast and lunch packed in a bag. Thanking her and filling up my water bottle, I quickly left out the door. I met my group members at the bus and we headed to Santa Lucia… well, enroute, I started to feel very nauseas (probably b/c I took an allergy people and Dramamine on an empty stomach). I eventually fell asleep, only to wake up to hear a guy in my group say “Uhhp, that was our stop!” (as we were passing it). However, we were able to get off only a few minutes walk away, so it wasn’t too much of a big deal. We finally arrived to PC with only a few minutes to spare before our first session began. I, who always sits in the front, was in the front asleep! Can you believe it.. I pretty much fought to stay awake through the Diarrhea session. I mean how exciting is it to learn what to do when you have loose stools… lol I really was interested but couldn’t stay awake, also probably because of the Dramamine. Anyway, at some point I thought, Hey, what did I do with my key? So I started looking through my bag, pretty much emptying it and I couldn’t find it. I searched my pockets…nothing! At this point, I begin to panic. Trying to retrace my steps as I rushed out the door this morning. The only thing I could come up with is that maybe I put them down when I got my water. I prayed all day that they were there. I would hate to be that “Gringa” that lost her keys within the first 2 weeks! I made it through my day, and of course a whole lot of things happened to me, as it does when you’re having a bad day. But, since this is the short version, I’m leaving those things out. Anyway, so I rush home to see if I can find my keys…and of course they are not there. I tell my host-sister and my host-father (who looked pissed, very pissed when I told him)…Mind you, they were getting ready for the Mother’s Day celebration, and this was not the time for me to be locked out of my room! So anyway, eventually the mom comes over and tells me that it’s ok and that they will try to find another copy, since they didn’t have one…However, I had already lost it… I mean this was my day from Hell… I just wanted to go to my room and cry myself to sleep, but couldn’t because I was locked out!!! Oh my… and I don’t think it helped that I hadn’t cried since I left the States… I think it all accumulated at this night…with pink and red balloons around me and a big cake! I had to call the PC staff member  that places us in our homes and informed him. He also assured me that it was ok and not to worry, this happens all the time. It only took the 2 year old, Jasmin, to calm me down. She’s so sweet. She took me by the hand and led me to this wall and looked up to me with her finger over her mouth and said Shhh as we were suddenly hiding from someone …It was too cute…I mean who can cry with her? Mean while, as my host mom and father tried what seemed like every key in the community, they eventually found a key that worked! They told me they would make another copy the next day. Thankfully, the Mother’s Day celebration could continue. We had a few of the family members over for cake and then had dinner. I still couldn’t stop thinking about how I could have lost my key, was it on the bus, did I put it down as I was walking, did it fall out of my pocket? I just couldn’t figure it out…After dinner, I went to my room…so exhausted and just ready to start another day. I could have definitely cried myself to sleep…this was definitely the moment that I wished I were at home! And as I undressed and got ready for bed…there falls my keys out of my bra! After a few seconds of confusing…I burst out in laughter…I couldn’t help but laugh at myself, my day…and all the stress I put myself through. The putting things in our bra came from the PC Security Officer. He told us this was one of the better ways to avoid getting pickpocketed on the bus…apparently I through the keys up/in there on my way out of the door…It’s so funny no recounting this story. I mean, the keys were there the entire day…and I didn’t feel them…that is hilarious. My host-family got a really big laugh out of it too…I’m sure I confirmed their thoughts that I was crazy after this incident!

Lol… we’ll I hope you got a good laugh out of that one! I sure did… and I’m glad I can say my worst day in-country ended with me laughing myself to sleep, instead of crying! How lucky am I?

Love and miss you all,

Shantrice

P.S. I’ll add my best and worst to my next post which will continue talking about my 2^nd week…there’s so much to talk about!

A little past due...

This post was written Saturday, May 7, 2011.

This has been an interesting first week in my community! I don’t know where to begin… 

Today has been a sad day because the host father of one of my group members passed at 5 this morning. It has been a very interesting day for us because we were able to observe the traditions of this pueblo. Having just attended a funeral a few months ago, I’m in a position to make a number of comparisons.

First observation: Don Albuerto died in his home, so his funeral is being held in his home. Of course, you know in the States when a person dies, the ambulance takes the body away, its inspected, and prepared for the funeral. Well, most of this was done in less than a day and in his house.  The room that he died in became his funeral room, or where people are allowed to view the body. He died around 5 am and I looked at his body (in a casket or caja with a suit on) at 10:30 am… and apparently, he was ready before 8 am because a few people from my group saw him then. Now that is a very fast turnaround. In those couple of hours they cleaned up his body and emptied out his room. When I went in there, there was his casket, candles lit, beautiful fresh flowers, and basket for money collection.  I was very impressed! When my maestro or teacher asked me if I wanted to see the body at first I said no. I’m not big on stuff like that. However, once I learned that this was the actual funeral… I was like oh, well sure I’ll see him. And, of course one of the main reasons I’m here is to open my mind and experience another culture. I’m very glad I went. I envisioned that he was just lying in the bed he died in…so I’m glad I was able to see the progress they made in only a few hours.

Second observation: They have another tradition that people from the community shows support by coming to the person’s house and just sitting there. We sat for about a half hour. Because so many people are coming to show their support, they must prepare a lot of food. There were about mas o menos15 women preparing food. Luckily, I was there to see when a lot of the food arrived. There were hugehuge bags of beans to be prepared, cases of tomatoes, onions, I mean I can’t even describe the amount of food that I saw… and mind you, they had to prepare and cook this food. I was told that the women were from their church and that the wife wouldn’t be helping in the preparation. Although I did see her running around getting a few things here and there.  It was very interesting. My host mom prepared my lunch and then went over there to help with the food preparation. 

The cemetery part is tomorrow, so I will finish the story after I experience that. 

Wow, although my week ended on a somber note, it has definitely been very lively and exciting. I commented on my first chicken bus experience in my last post. However, that is still very heavily in my mind. I don’t know how I’m going to do that for 2 years. Luckily it’s only once a week right now. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. It’s a very interesting experience. When you all come visit me…we will definitely ride a chicken bus!!! Lol

My Spanish is improving, poca a poca… I have to realize that it’s only been a week. I get so discouraged when people are talking to me and I’m looking at them like they are characters in a cartoon, of which I can’t understand most of what they are saying. However, I’m fortunate that all of my host family works with me. They talk slow, repeat and explain when necessary. I’m very blessed to be with them. I realized how blessed I am after yesterday. We had appointments with the Mayor of Santa CatarinaBorhona and the Puesta de Salud (Health Post) that we will be working with for the next 3 months. The Mayor and the nurse spoke very fast. It was very discouraging. Of course I smiled and nodded but I was thinking, I have NO idea what you are saying!! We each had to prepare questions to ask them. My question was “How can we help the municipality’s health efforts?” The mayor completely ignored my question and said something else he wanted to say... (However, I didn’t find this out until after the meeting when I asked my teacher what he said!) LOL, I’m sure by my smiling, nodding and jotting down random words that he was also thinking that I knew not what he was saying. Too funny! 

Well, I guess I’ll wrap up for now and give you my Best and Worst for this post:

Best: I’m not sure if this is a Best or Worst, but I’m putting it here because it’s so funny… So absolutely NO ONE in Guatemala (minus the people that flew in with me) can pronounce my name… Is it really that difficult? Shanteace, Shantweece, Shauntice, I’ve heard it all. I’m like, call me whatever, as long as it somewhat sounds like my name, I’ll answer. So the converstion goes like this: “Buenas Dias, Me llamoShantrice” They look at me with a puzzled face… “Oh, esmuyDificil!” I respond… “Si, mi nombre is muydificil, peroEstabien”… as they are practicing how to say my name. After we arrived in our community, we went around to meet everyone’s host family (there are 3 other people in my group) and I had the same conversation with all of the host families. I learned in class the other day that at night, over dinner, the families practice my name with my group members. They told me how they laugh that that is always a topic of discussion. It is even a topic at my house…almost every night, when they get ready to leave the table, a custom is to say Gracious to every person and they stumble when they get to my name. It’s so funny. However, the Best part is the 2 year little girl that lives with me. She has to be the most intelligent 2 year old I’ve ever met. But I’ll save that for another post. She calls me Shaany… and it’ssooo cute! So I’ll here Shaany outside of my room when she wants me to come out and play. Lol..she’s a very demanding person…already!

Worst: So my worst this post almost beats the chicken buses. I was so embarrassed and intimidated, I didn’t know what to do. So of course you know the food situation was the one thing I was worried about. However, it has been absolutely fabulous. I’ve had some great food more or less. And the not so great food I’ve “loved” because it’s not meat… “Oh mucho gusta” I say at every meal. Letting my host mom know that I loved it and thanking her for preparing it for me.It’s important for me to feel like it’s not a burden for her to prepare non-meat items for me and I want her to know I appreciate it. So, even when I’m given something that I don’t “care” for, I still love it. However, yesterday…I reached my limit! And, the worst part was that my Teacher was joining us for lunch at the time. I was thinking Oh crap…when she was walking towards me with a plate full of beets and onions. Now there is pretty much nothing I won’t eat, but, Beets…oh there is something about it that just won’t let me digest it without getting Nauseas. So…I’m like, how am I going to tell this lady that I don’t like Beets without being offensive. My first response was to try it. I’m thinking, well a lot of fruits and vegetables have tasted differently here, or at least I’ve tricked my mind to think so so that I can eat it (i.e. Bananas with lots of black spots, I prefer them green, but here…I love all kinds of bananas, lol). So, I take a small one, and put it in my mouth … and Yep, it tastes just like it does in the States…I force myself to swallow and follow it with a Tortilla. I go back to thinking, how am I going to tell her this. I think it would have been fine had it just been us two. But my teacher was sitting next to me, obviously enjoying her plate of beets! Lol It ended up not being as bad as it felt at the time.  I ate my other food, which was green beans prepared in an egg batter (kinda like egg fujung (sp?)) and salsa, It was SO good, especially after eating a piece of beets. My teacher looked over at me while eating her beets to tell me the name of it in Spanish…and there was my opening.. I responded with a disappointed face, “No me gusta.” She told my host mom and she responded with Esta Bien and that she won’t prepare it again (she said this in a very loving voice). I’m so glad that ended well…although it didn’t begin well. Lol I’m glad I didn’t force myself to eat it, given that I’m trying to acculturate and be as less of a burden as possible. Telling her that I didn’t like it saved me from throwing up all over the table and saved me from future possible run ins with beets…lol

Ok, well that’s enough for now… I’m going to get back to studying…

Love and miss you all lots,

Shantrice

P.s. Don’t forget how to say my name in the next 2 years please… Lol

Guatemala...

I'm on a break from training so I will keep it short until next time...

This is my 1st post in country and I must say, it has been a great experience! I am coming in contact with some great people. I am on my 2nd host family and they both have been very accommodating. All of my food experiences have been great! Currently, my host mom is a semi-vegetarian because she had an operation on her stomach, so she has to watch what she eats...turns out to be the best thing for me! The food here is amazing, and I'm one of the lucky ones who hasn't gotten sick! Thank you Jesus!!!

Training is very intense, we go pretty much non-stop, even on the weekends. Sunday is our day off. This past Saturday was my first day in my community and staying with my host family (the one I'll be with for the next 3 months). My first night here I went to a fiesta, or a wedding reception! It was very interesting. There was a lot of people there, mostly eating. I saw the new couple's first dance. The whole experience was pretty much similar to receptions in the States, the only difference was the LARGE amount of people there! I was surprised by how many people that was there and getting fed. I did learn that a wedding here lasts for several days and I just saw the final reception. So, I'll have to update you on my next wedding ceremony.

I plan to do Bests and Worsts for each blog post. So here goes...

BEST: My best so far has to be how accommodating my host family is. I have great quarters to sleep in. They work with me on my spanish. Sunday, we went on a walk around the Pueblo (town) and I got to see a lot of how they live and what they do. Unfortunately, that's not a lot. They have this Beautiful swimming park area with a really long slide. It looks very fun (non-swimmer). However, that's pretty much it for entertainment. They go to Church, work and spend time with family. So, that has been interesting to learn.

WORST: So, unfortunately, I have a few more worsts than I have best... I'm hoping that will change the longer I'm here.
1. The street dogs. I am still shocked by the number of dogs that roam the streets looking for food and pestering people. The dogs here are fearless...much much different than in the States. I must say, we do a great job at controlling animals. However, they are everywhere and will follow you as well. One of my experiences, I had a mango in a bag and the dog was looking up at me like "Give me that mango" and I was like NO....you are not getting my Mango.. Lol... He eventually went away but he seemed like he wanted to put up a fight...Lol... Luckily for me, I started my Rabies series so I'm good to go now... J/k.

2. The noise. I completely underestimated how loud it is here. OMG... I have a difficult time sleeping at night because near my house there is a Church that plays music all night long and the intermission is like a Preacher talking about something.. still working on my Spanish. And it is so annoying...funny, but annoying. I definitely appreciate my Locust Grove home now... oh my goodness... I sleep with earplugs, which helps until they fall out and I wake up in the middle of the night. I'm hoping to get used to it but we'll see. The worsts of this worsts has been the children's singing in the inter-intermission... It's so crazy...you definitely have to be here to understand! Lol...

3. Firecrackers. So, there's this tradition that whenever it's someone's birthday, the family lights firecrackers... Tell me this... How many days a week is someone born? Exactly, every single day!!!! My host family is constantly telling me not to be afraid and that its totally safe, since people aren't using guns. I'm like I sure hope not. I told them that in the States, some people use guns (I keep thinking about the little boy's life we lost on New Year's Eve last year) and its so Peligroso (dangerous). But, they are completely immune to the noise..no one jumps when the loud noises come out of no where....I'm sure this is something I will get used to...I kinda am already. Talked to Mom and she's like... "It sounds like you're in a war zone.." LOL

4. Chicken buses. I totally knew that this would be a worst but was hoping it wouldn't make the list. Let's just say, I am SO glad to be typing this blog right now. I just knew I was going to dye this morning. I planned my escape route and everything as I was praying my way to the Peace Corps office this morning. I swear we one-wheeled it a couple of times! Lol I have to just laugh b/c it's hilarious, but very scary at the same time. And yes, they very much so pack us in like Sardines and go very very fast! Thanks for my Dramamine (sp), I'm definitely using it... And please include in future care packages! ;-)

I know these are a lot of worsts but hopefully funny stories that you can enjoy! Overall, I'm having a wonderful experience. I've been here for a week now and I can already see some of my growth. I have no choice but to speak lots of Spanish and it's definitely working. My confience is rising and I'm feeling so much more comforatable! I can't wait to start learning my techincal spanish words so I can go out a saved the world.... one hand washing at a time!!!

Love and miss you lots!
Shantrice

P.S. Pictures to come soon...