New Year … New Beginnings (Part I)

Well this year has definitely started off interesting. As it should, being that this is my first full year in country. I actually brought the year in with my Soror Keisha, in Livingston (my favorite vacation spot thus far)! It was very exciting. We talked about all the exciting things this year was going to bring us. And how excited we are that PC brought us together! I am very thankful that I have my Sorors here to share this experience with me.

However, on the 2^nd, I was back on a camioneta headed to site… or to the real world. I had a very big meeting scheduled for the 4^th with all of the teachers in my town to discuss the 2 programs I will be starting this year. One program is a series of workshops just for the teachers (i.e. working in a team, being a leader, and even domestic violence). The other program is a Youth Promoter group for the schools. The teachers will select 5 students to represent 8 of my communities and I will meet with the group monthly to teach them different health topics so that they can share the information with their schools and community. It seems to be a promising project. So let´s just say I´m VERY excited about these programs.

But of course, everything doesn´t always goes as planned. I got back to site, after a wonderful vacation. Refreshed and ready to get some great work done for my community! Really feeling like a PCV! With the meeting scheduled on the 4^th and being on vacation, I gave my counterpart the program plans for him to review so that I could hand them out during the meeting. Well of course I came back and he had not even looked at the plans to make any edits. And on the 4^th, he was not even there to attend the meeting with me. I was like Great… this is not how I wanted to start the year. But I made the best of it, I talked with someone else to make any necessary edits and went to the meeting by myself. I still have a lot of confidence issues with my Spanish, so I prefer not to attend important meetings alone, but at some point I need to grow up… right? Well the meeting went well. The teachers were very excited about the programs and eager to work with me, as I am with them.

The next few days I spent in my house, mostly in my bed, as I was in protest against seeing my counterpart. Lol … I was so angry that he completely stood me up and wasn´t there for me when I thought I needed him. So, I took a few days to calm down and get over it. I talked with my PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader) and she reminded me that this is Guatemala and that we cannot depend on our counterparts for everything. But we can demand that they be up front with us and at least let us know when they won´t be available to us.

Thus, when I finally saw him again, I was much calmer. I let him know that I was upset he was not present, but the meeting was a success. He told me he heard the same and that the teachers were excited about the program. They were hopeful that they would get a lot out of it, for their personal development. So that was a good thing. We then worked together to create a data set for me to enter all of my census data I collected last October in one of my communities. I will use this data to start my primary project to invite needy families to receive monthly health talks. The families that are really interested in the talks and improving their health habits will be those that I work with to implement my projects (i.e. build improved stoves, floors, latrines or drainage systems). I am excited that I have data to make decisions off of, however I DESPISE entering data… it is Sooooo boring! Lol But I got it done. And thankfully for me, I have lots of missing data. So, my counterpart and I will have to go back into this community and un-do a lot of the errors my team made last year. But that´s ok, it means more face time in my community, which is always a good thing!

So, this brings us to the week of Jan. 16^th. I had a few small meetings. I met with the women´s office in my Muni to discuss my women´s group meetings for this year and with the supervisor of the schools to discuss the first meetings of the programs. I also began to prepare my meetings for this week, with my Health Promoters (theme: Usage of purified water) and with the Teachers (working in a team and being a leader). Preparing for these meetings always makes me nervous. I´m not sure why, maybe it’s the Spanish or just the fact that I´m talking about things that I´m not an expert in… but yeah, I definitely procrastinate when it comes to getting my meetings together.

However, in the midst of preparing for these meetings, I received a very important email from Peace Corps Guatemala. This was my week that I didn´t have internet, so I had my friend read the email to me. It was definitely VERY important and upset me in a number of ways. First, the email stated that they were scaling back the post here in Guatemala. We were reminded that no new training groups would be sent this entire year. That the next 2 COS-ing groups (Close of service) would be leaving early so that the number of volunteers could decrease. That they are offering Early COS to any volunteer, regardless of how long they had been in country. That they were only going to have volunteers in the Central Western Highlands. Finally, that we would be having an All Volunteer Conference the following week (3 days, Tuesday – Thursday). Obviously, this caused a lot of anxiety. For one, I had to cancel my two meetings that I had scheduled for the following week (so maybe it was good that I procrastinated and not finished my lesson plans). Secondly, I wondered- what exactly is Central Western Highlands? The thought of having to move caused me great anxiety and confusion. Where had this email come from? What is really going on in Guatemala?

Well, stay tuned for blog post Part II as I answer these questions and discuss the All Volunteer Conference.