See ya Spacecowboy...

I'm done with this blog... at least for now.

I will be starting an emailing list so for those of you who are still interested in my time down here send me a message with your email address and I'll be sure to add it to the list to keep you informed.

Apologies,

Mark (Suerté, Kux, Q'anis, Canché, Gringo)

Movin to the country, gonna eat me a lot of peaches...

Decided to move from the busy high-times city life of Coban back to the slow movin country livin of Chirrepec. Made the decision for a few reasons:
1. Peace Corps told me to
2. I don't want to get fired
3. I want to take care of stray dogs that wander into my house (I'm gonna need to buy a bunch of dog food and flea collars).

Daily Report:

2:30am woke up to the rooster call outside my window
2:40am woke up to the rooster call outside my window
4:30am woke up to the rooster call outside my window
4:45am woke up to the rooster call outside my window
6:30am woke up to the rooster call outside my window
7:00am got out of bed
7:15am ate breakfast with my neighbors: mashed hotdogs in scrambled eggs with a tablespoon of beans and cream alongside a platter of tortillas
8:30am cleaned the old apt.
9:45am came to the San Juan Chamelco library to check out a book for my tree tour lesson tomorrow. -found internet.. hoorah

So I'm excited to be back in the tranquil land of my tea farm living near a new family.

What I need and can't find here list:
-Dr. Scholes for my too big boots (size 11)
-Peanut Butter (JIF smooth)
-AA batteries (too pricey here) 4pack
-Chocolate
-Tuna
-Motorcycle & Jetpack (against PC regulation, but would be useful)

Alright, time to work... see yaw later

Slight rain, greener on the other side

Today:
Woke up at 7:30

Breakfast: spaghetti and a freshly over easy egg with a pack of chips a hoy cookies and milk for dessert

Work: Made a 3 month plan to organize my ongoing projects

Lunch: huge-frijoles, tortillas, and two hotdogs
After Lunch Lunch: Tyuyos (two tortillas with beans in the middle)

Work: Drank tea

Off work: walked home, layed on my bench, walked to the internet

Thoughts: Obama's gonna win, Tex's feet stink, I need Dr. Scholes for my too big boots, im going to have to get some really big speakers to drown out all the marimba music around me, hey, i kinda like marimba music, nevermind, im hungry, don´t wanna cook, but im getting good at it, butt muscles hurt.. time to get up

Reconnect

Last night: Played RISK until the wee hours of the night... lost a good friend, who is now a terrible enemy... and managed to make it home for a few hours of sleep before Spanish class -

Lesson learned: don't play board games with people that you will need as friends later in life.


Breakfast this morning:

1 Banana ($ 0.04)
1 Donut - tastes horrible ($ 0.25)
1 Cookie - with a 3 year old drop of strawberry jam ($ 0.25)

I'm still hungry...


Things I learned today in Spanish class:

What a hunk - Que mango
Person like a wet blanket - Aguafiesta


Number of pictures taken recently: 0

See ya space cowboy...

Daydream

I'm still doing well. Not much to report. 

I've been running through several projects for the tour in my mind, although nothing is quite as concrete as I would like it to be.

I am looking forward to getting my backpack next week, and seeing my friends soon. 

What I ate today:

-Beans

-Tortillas

-Cream

-Eggs

-Cut up hotdog

-Tortillas filled with spicy beans (Tyuyos)

-Lipton Iced Tea

-Chirrepec Hot tea from a Lipton Iced Tea bottle

New word for the day:

Chan-ru? : Q'eqchi- How is it?

Light rain came 9 times today for about 5 mins each time.

My favorite music right now is Margura (Spanish Classical)

Once again: I´m still catching up on events that happened a while ago - but better late than never. Before we backtrack though, I'll fill you in on the past few weeks.

I have been continually asking for more guides than the one that we currently have. This is because I would like for the tour to be prepared when my promotion starts taking effect. Unfortunatlly for right now that seems like a loosing battle, but still I struggle with the powers that be to eventually prevail. - I am continuing to have my presense felt in the school here (which is continutally making it easier to get to know the kids and enjoy working with them). I have been trying to create a lesson plan folder for each teacher in regards to the environmental education curriculum.. but they haven't had enough time in the past 2 months to review my resources to pick the ones they like (this was an attempemt to make sure they took some ownership of the program). So things are slow.. and i decided to speed it up by asking for my books back so I could just pick them out and show the teachers some of my favorite lessons.

Aside from that I have been diving into 19th century France - intrigued by the Count of Monte Cristo... who like myself mingles with royalty (embassador Durham pictured below), has outlandish parties (the welcome party pictured next), and sees strange things (ostreches) in the middle of nowhere. Anywho... back to the past ->>>



A jolly bunch in my training group:


BFF! lol... j/k..rotfl! (sitemates)



Before the trek in the mountains of Chilasco-
A view from Gerogios patio:


Georgio and Buckley:



I think you can blow this up and seek the birds I was trying to capture:


Here are some birds that I actually DID manage to capture- Just glad that they were behind that protective fencing.. I never knew ostreches could look so mean in person!


A view on the way home - Very cool mountains that look like they should be valcanoes (but we are pretty far away from the volcs here)


Whos that cherry fellow? What a goon!



Sorry for the lack of explination, but I will soon be able to pick up the pace with this thing and be able to discuss some real issues here in Guatemala. Hopefully I will still have visitors by then... see you guys later...

La Cooperativa (and the city too)

Finally, the long awaited... much too anticipated, almost feared, NEW POST!

Personal) I have been trying for quite some time to sit down and transfer photos, and write some short snippets... and it had been eluding me for quite some time. I know what you've been thinking all this time in my absence: "no more excuses Mark, gimme now!" "I'm tired of hearing of how you saving the world is getting in the way of my blog-reading time," and "Oh well, I suppose he was kiddnapped by FARC and since I don't have the money to pay for his ransom, I'll just stop checking his blog..." And to that I say, come hither! No more shall you be left in the dark! No longer will you have to click the refresh button, only to realize I haven't actually posted anything since you just loaded the page 2 seconds ago... Now you will see, a vague little picture I might add, what I've been up to for the past month and a half or so...

---

Project 1) Restoration of "Antigua Local": This is the name of the historic plantation house, a site where close to 100 years ago German immigrants made a little nook for themselves in Alta Verapaz to begin cultivating the land of the native Mayan people to grow coffee, cardamom, and among other things Tea - now known here as "Te Chirrepeco."

The house (or mansion... compared to the small shanties where the surrounding Mayans live) is made of some type of adobe/stone mixture, and used to be covered by clay tiled roofs.

The aritecture is very unique, including intricate designs of porch banisters (shown below).
Also a common practice was planting a quadrant of giant palm trees that reach to the skies above.



Some of the origional iron work on doors and furniture still stands the test of time.
And huge wells and pilas where water was gathered make this place come to life as if some German housekeeper was about to come gather the morning supply...



Project 2.) Visitors Center: I was able to lend suggesstions of this building when I first visited in March, and here the majority of the work has been completed. Since this picture was taken about two weeks ago, the rest of the walls have been built, including a section in the rear (which I had to practically beg for) to become a combination mini-museum, and gift shop.


Project 3.) Chirrepec Instituto Primeria: This is the view I see twice a week as I surmount the peak of a small mountain to get to the local elementary school.
Description: 5 teachers, 150-200 students (depending on which have to stay home to work the farm), 4 classrooms. - And I thought teaching at an inner-city school in the states was difficult!

Here I observe classes given by the teachers to become aquainted with the kids, who are ever so egar to run up to, stare, point at, tag, and sometimes shout "gringo!" and then giggle with their friends as I approach the school. It's a bit taxing at this point because I don't know enough language to communicate with them, and get to know their world. And until I can, I won't be able to get them organized enough to learn anything from me.




Rudy) One of my favorite little rascals at the Co-op, sometimes my guide through the forest trails, and all together a good person to know. Unfortunately, as is the case with many of these kids, he has almost just as many responsibilities for working the farm-land as the adults, with little time for an education (which he is very fortunate to receive). Too bad for me, he goes to school in a city close by, because the quality of teachers and education is higher outside of Chirrepec. This raises an immediate challenge for me to do something so that the brightest kids here don't have to seek for opportunities elsewhere...




Back to my house) It's banana harvesting time, and all the banana trees you see below my porch [pictured left] are going to be cut down for their fruit. It's a shame because now I can walk down and loose myself under the canopy of giant leaves with the fear in the back of my mind that a stegosaurus is about to stomp through any moment... and safe on my porch [pictured right], I am able to enjoy the closet of the banana trees along with the distant mountain ranges that contain wonders yet to be explored.





Random events) Candle light after the local medicine man or "cura" sancitified my host-families home - I was prohibited from taking photos of the actual cleansing, but this picture gives a little insight into how the Mayans here have adapted catholic norms into their own cultural context.




Feria [similar to a very small state fair] at Uspantan) Silly processions involving Guatemalans dressing up in full body star-trek costumes (among other types) in the middle of 90+ degree heat, and 'dancing' or more correctly described as swaying back and fourth and moving in the same square repetition for hours on end. For me the novelty wore off when I realized that Klignons hadn't actually landed in Guatemala... but for the locals this was a huge, huge hit. And yes - that is a tractor trailer filled with a homemade 16-set enormous stereo system!



My walk home, Coban) Tree wall - One of the coolest views on my walk back home from my friend Dan's place. As far as I can see, it has no contact with soil, but is doing comfortably well in concrete.

That's all for now. I already have the next
update mostly prepared, since my last post
was up for so long.... kinda owe you one...

new post

hey everyone...

I won't have a whole lot of time to write more posts in the near future. I'll try to pick this up whenever I get the chance, but having to rely on internet cafes in another city kind of hamper this info sharing process.

I have settled into my site at Chirrepec, and within the first week of working there have been able to convince people to build a visitors center, check out other tours to get a better sense of what ours should be, and create new paths for our current tour.

It is pretty astounding to most people that the folks in my site have had the motivation to do so much with me in so little time, considering the first three months here are supposed to be just a transitioning time where I just get to know everyone. So this week has gone by very quickly, so quickly in fact that I woke up yesterday, got dressed, panicked because I looked at the clock and realized I was late... then looked at my watch again... saw it was saturday.... thought for a minute.... no, it couldn't be... I missed a day this week!  I'm still not quite sure which day I missed, but I completely missed one day of my life this week....

so this next two years is going to go by very very quickly it seems. but i'll keep the updates coming as soon as I can...

till next time, adios!

p.s. feel free to send packages to the address listed on the sidebar... and try out the number i put on my last post... it might just work sometime..... see ya

Officially A Volunteer

I was sworn in to the United States Peace Corps. as an Official Volunteer for Peace Corps Guatemala on March 27th, 2008. WOOH HOOO!

These past three months of traning have been leading up to my current status. I´m very excited to have made it this far and I have so many people to thank for it. I had to overcome my terrible memory to build my comprehension of Spanish to an adequate level. I suffered for three weeks with some aweful bacteria in my stomach (I´ll spare you the details...). And I jumped through all the hoops that my technical trainer and training director placed in front of me.

All that being said, I still feel incredibly unprepared for the task ahead of me. I am not worried at all because I can look back thinking how unprepared I felt before I left the U.S. But now I face my two year stretch dead in the face and figure out how well I measure up.

I am going to live in the aldea Chirrepec in the reigon of Coban in the department of Alta Verapaz (Chirrepec, Coban, A.V.). 100% of the people living there are indegionious, which means they speak Q'eqchi (don't worry, you're not going to pronounce that right). So, as I come to know and understand these people I will also be picking up my third language spoken by only a minute portion of the population of Guatemalans and spoken no where else in the world! So as useless as it may seem when I leave it will be esiental to getting to know and love the people that I'll live with.

Luckly, I will be working with a few of the members of my community that speak Spanish, so hopefully I'll still be able to continue building that vocabulary. So as I head off... away from the comforts of my home away from home in San Bartolomé... I will be filled with a mountain of emotions, but with them comes a sense of calmness, open-mindedness, and optimism for what my future holds in the little Tea making Coopertive of Chirrepec.

Adios!


p.s. My new address is:

my name, PCV
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 66
Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepequez 03001
Guatemala, Central America

Office Tel. # 502.2384.3800
(needed for courier packages:FedEx, DHL, etc.)


And my telephone number if you'd like to get a hold of me here:
502-4532-6433
You may need to try several times before you're call makes it through.

A compilation!

Okay guys and gals, here´s a compilation of the events of my life in Guatemala over the past few weeks. I haven´t been using my camera enough, so I´ll have to fill in a couple of details here and there. I've seen the bioreserve in Chilasco, Mayan Caves in Uspantán, Mayan Temples in Punta Piedra de Soch, the jungle of our surrounding parks, and wildlife living near our rivers. Now...

Let me present the Eco-Tourism sector of Peace Corps Guatemala. Here we stand in the midst of foggy tropical cloud forest, below the largest waterfall in Central America (Guatemala's got it all!).

These are the trails leading back up from Chilasco falls. The park is kept up amazingly well for the amount of erosion that takes place with visitors and the natural climate. These steps are a testiment to the quality of service and the mix of natural beauty you can expect here.

Later, I raced a friend of mine to see who could reach the top first (5km uphill at 3000 meters[I'm guessing])... not a good idea!

Random cow- usually seen on the streets of little pueblos like San Bartolome.. but I found this guy and his brothers (not pictured) grazing on the side of a river near Uspantán. We were on a makeshift river tubing tour when this cow started a starring contest--- he won.

Jungle shot. This is a local park in Sacetepeqez (sp?). I caught this photo of my friends Ted and Andrew just before a Velociraptor (not pictured) attacked them from the behind the fern trees. [not a true story]

Uspantán! We were led by a guide to a great view of this Aldea of Baja Vera Paz. These grounds are home to a host of Mayan rituals and ceremonies preformed by the local Mayan population below.

Pajuil, Guatemala (probably not gonna find this one on a map). Here we gave a charla (workshop) to a very rural and indigenous community about improving the quality of their arts and crafts to generate more income in local markets. With the use of a translator I was able to communicate in my broken spanish to these indigenous women who only spoke Pok´m Chi (thier native language).

After a hard days work we were invited to one local farmers house for some very interesting soup concotion (during this trip I had some really bad intestinal issues-which were resolved some 3 weeks later-needless to say, at this point I was a little weary of our meal).

---

The Ancient Mayan World:

Here I am exploring the sacred caves of Uspantán with our Mayan Guide

At Ixchimché we were able to see a resorted Mayan city from almost 1000 years ago.

Here we were also invited to take part in a Mayan sacrifical ceremony. Each color represents something special to the offering. The red flowers signify the position of the sun.

Now, imagine taking a two hour van ride into a very remote part of the country. The only explination you´re given for your presense here is to help a local sugar cane farmer/ex-soldier(guatemalan marine) decide what is best to do with whats left of the Mayan ruins in his back yard (a.k.a. JUNGLE).

Now, knowing that you are about to be some of the first people in 1100 years to see these archeological sites, you step into the jungle to find this:

Three amazing Temples, Mayan ceramonial caves filled with ancient pottery, and the rarest and most reviered of birds in Guatemala (the Quetzal) flying around the treetops. Wow, what a site!

On one hand, this local farmer has single handedly defended his 200 acres of jungle throughout the violence that took place here during the civil war, which has left this place in pristine condition.

On the other hand, he is very afraid that if the government finds out about these precious Mayan ruins, he will have to give up his land.

Fortunatly some volunteers from Peace Corps have been working with him to dispel the notions that the govenement can sieze his land. This will enable him to work with Guatemalan Arecheological organizations and museums to preserve what is left of the Mayan history here.

Now... back home:
It´s always nice to come back to San Bartolome after long trips.

Here's my house on the left with the curved arch doorway.

Gotta get up and go to chuch!

Pop-dukes helpin out with the laundry. Imagine if you had to wash your clothes like this...

Here's a good shot on Don Cezar's farm. Frijoles growing to the left, alvacados growing to the right, and a couple of cows and chickens in the woods below.

Doña Dora: my host-mom dukes... always having a good time! Here shes laughing with a customer at our houses school supply/candy store. This is a convienient way to make a living as most of these kinds of stores are attached to peoples houses.

Dokkie - and the litter: life of a dog in Guate

And she' finally done it!

10 perritos (layin' on the floor)

... and two got a little lost...but mine has mom's milk seekin sensors equiped...to join the pack and survive another day:

Goin' to Antigua, Guatemala

I was able to catch a ride one day to Antigua with a friend of mine. The drive takes about 30 minutes depending on traffic, but I wanted it to last longer because I could stare at those mountains for hours...

Getting through town is no easy task - If it looks like the angle of my picture is offset, you might be right, but the roads are curved and look more like ditches to me... Look closely and you can see that the road is handmade with cobblestones (and the roads stretch for probably 10 miles around the city). This makes for a pleasent scene on foot, but also an awefully bumpy car ride:

The center of the city contains a beautiful park

that acts as a rest area for visitors as well

as a gather place for live music and art vendors.

(above: Markets are common in every town,

but the one in Antigua is exceptionally

big - Volcan de Agua adds to its grandur.)

Antigua was the second location of the nations capitol city. The first was destroyed by a gaint mudslide that started on the side of a Valcano. Antigua was partially demolished by a great earthquake. Luckily, some of the beautiful architecture (built by Mayan slaves for Spanish conquitadors), still stands today.

Late night in this city is magical. Tourists (mostly gringos[Americans]) and chapinas[Guatemalans] congregate in mass number around tasteful dance clubs, cantinas, or the central park to enjoy good converstaion and good company.

My favorite pub (pictured below), contains lots of space to relax(two floors), hammocks, cheap rooms for rent, and even a shrine that preserves the Mayan cultural experience.

Here my friends have gathered for a couple of pints at another well known cantina... full of gringos. My host-brothers are the one with the white shirt and the one with the red vest. The other two guys are part of my pueblo: Andres (Andrew) and Juan (John)... team San Bartolomé!



Home again home again, jiggity jig...



So- as much as I miss Bojangles cajun chicken biscut combo with french fries and sweet tea, topped with an outer swirl of ketchup and an inner swirl of texas pete hot-sauce - I'm still really excited to be here to experience this adventure.

It has been a month and a half since I left the country, and I feel like I've learned soo much from these people. Their open kindess has no match in the fast paced technologically developed society I came from. I still have a lifetimes worth of Spanish to learn and I haven't even chipped off the top of the iceburg (I don't even have any idea how to say iceburg - something I probably won't need anyway).

So I'll keep everyone posted as much as possible... and thanks to everyone who's stopped by to check this out: hope you get something from it. Till next time, Adios!

p.s. My dog had puppies (pictures on the next post!).