Multi-tasking in the rain

Well, it's rainy season alright, and right about now my clothes I spent all day washing are getting just about absolutely soaked on my patio. I suppose I should take them off, but there's too many, and I have nowhere to put them in my house where they won't get everything else soaked. Besides I'm a naive optimist... They'll dry tomorrow right? Right....

Ok, check! Winy blog moment is now over. Well, it's sunday, and just like in the States, I'm still repeating the same familiar phrase to myself over and over again: I DON'T WANNA GO TO WORKKKKKK!!!!!!!! I guess some things never change.

But I enjoy work, I do, work here is well... a bit different. It's not so much having to stare at a computer screen for too long, or getting stressed out about dead-lines but rather putting a smile on, a positive attitude with counterparts that are sometimes hard to work with, and multi-tasking different projects and completely different types of work. What am I currently multi-tasking?? Well, there is the ever-going bottle project (we are expecting to hopefully start building the benches in September), getting electricity and equipment for a new health post in one of my villages, getting a new water pump for my health center, helping to organize a youth sports "camp", prepping for projects for funding we will be getting in part of the HIV Committee here and of course, as always, my stove and cement floor project. But I love it all, I do, but like any human being I doubt wether I can actually do it all.

There is a saying here, which goes by "Poco a poco", or little by little. I think that's sort of the Peace Corps moto in general, it sure ain't a race, and when you're trying to balance all these different projects well, sugar, 2 years ain't nothing at all.

But I'll keep my head grounded and I'll chat about the projects I'm most excited about... Here it goes... Recently a few teenagers here approached me to form a youth commission in one of my villages. Of course, I was stolked!! How could I say no?? Right now these teenagers are trying to organize two days of sports, games and events for the youths in the aldea. Problem is.... They have no idea what they are doing! So I am trying to guide them, and giving them the responsibility of doing most of the work (getting tropies, water, refs, invitations et al). I suppose the kids thought I was going to do it all, and I think they were quite surprised when I told them that this was THEIR project and that they needed to do most of the work.... I know you must think I'm pretty mean. But we're talking about sustainability here folks, and if these kids can pull through and actually have a succesfull event, they will be able to do anything, and most importantly they will BELIEVE that they can do anything else too. It's a larger self-esteem charla under wraps here folks! We have our first meeting with the mayor tomorrow about it and I think the kids are super nervous!

Moving on... My poorest village here (also the one where I am doing my improved stove and cement floor project)recently had a health post built. This is the village where I have been doing most of my work and honestly, it's been a struggle to get this health post open. The health ministry agreed to build the health post, but it still remains unequipped and without electricity. We just had a meeting with the local mayors, and it looks like we will be able to have an "assamblea" or community meeting about the problem. The idea is to have the people themselves help build tables, chairs, non-medical equipment for the health post, so they can feel as if they truly own this project. But the health post has a long way to go, it is very small (the village's population is 9,000), and does not even an adequate coat of paint!:



The bottle project is going poco a poco, I'm still a little disappointed to see that the main sports field, where we will be building the benches, still has garbage! One of the other ideas that we've had to promote awareness about the problem is to have a monthly "movie" documentary night with kids from the school and their parents... (If you have any documentaries in Spanish pleaseeeee let me know!!)... We were also thinking of integrating a scavenger hunt based upon garbage collection and environmental education during the youth sports camp I previously talked about. Anyway, all in all, promoting behavior change about the problem here sure isn't gonna happen just with this bottle project! Either way it's super cute to see these kids excited about their bottles (check out the kid in the middle with his HUGE bottle!!):



And last, but definitely not least, is the main project I've been working on: the stove and cement floor projects. I've been doing my home visits now since
May, and although I started off not liking them, I've really gotten to enjoy the home visit days... At first, they can be quite a debbie downer... You're never quite sure what's more depressing: seeing the conditions and problems in these homes or feeling yourself get used to it, as they do, as if it were part of your every day life. After many home visits, you become numb, a robot, and you have to constantly remind yourself that these are not normal conditions, that these are things that can be changed. I suppose that's why I usually only do 5 visits a day... But I guess that's where my project is for right? Anyway I've narrowed down the families I want to work with, and they've agreed to come to all the health lessons planned in order to receive their project. Although I was a little hesitant about the project at first, I've gotten alot more comfortable and confident about it, especially as I've gotten closer to each of these 50 families. But what about funding? Well, I have the chance to use a SPA project through USAID, butttt I'm having a hard time getting my community and muni to give the 30% community contribution that SPA requires. SOooooo it's onto the next best thing... fundraising. Ew, I know. But I'm currently working on an oober fancy fundraising page that will blow your mind away. So keep your eyes open, and help a sista out!

Well that's all for now, I'll leave you with a oober cute pic taken during one of my house visits:

Forgiveth

I forgot my mom's birthday for the first time in my life. I'm not sure that you care, but I thought that maybe telling you this would make you forgive my lack of blog posting in the last few months.

But really I did, and to tell you the truth, it's been a little tough for me to remember what month I'm in, let alone the days, so I guess that's my excuse for being a total incomunicada jerk.

Sorry mum! Sorry reader! And now that I think about it, I even forgot to call the pops for father's day. Damn it. Sorry dad! Happy Father's day!

Now where to start, where to begin with the jumble of words that are supposed to make you understand my life....

I guess I'll start with what I am doing at this exact moment. Right now, I am enjoying a glass of orange juice, at a cozy wi-fi cafe in the comforts of Antigua, watching the Ghana vs. Australia game. World Cup fever has not escaped me, and I find myself trying to catch glimpses of games, in and out of errands and work. I guess not so much has changed in my life in that aspect. I don't think that the Guatemalan team has ever made it to the world cup, but still the fever is boiling here too, with most guatemalans cheering for brazil, honduras and mexico. I guess they must still be pissed at the US for the Arizona fiasco. Can't blame them. Anyway that's what I am watching right now, sipping my OJ, and of course writing to you.

I've been around Antigua, aka touristy Gringo haven, for about a week now. It's not my favorite spot in the world, but most of our training towns are located around here, and I've been busy lately working with the new trainees that have just arrived from my program. It seems incredible to me that I've now become a mentor; it seems that just yesterday I was at home watching yet another soccer game in a local NY Irish pub. And now over a year later, I'm comfortably home giving advice about how to do my job. It's a weird feeling and a reminder that two years of your life is nothing at all. I find myself jealous of this new training group... Of the bond they have, and the whole two years they have ahead of themselves. In sum, I feel like I am already running out of time, and getting antsy trying to figure out my life once again as I have a year left to make my decisions. Many of my close PCV friends are also leaving here next month, and I am feeling very sad and weird about it. But I guess that's life, nothing great can last forever right? It must always end; if not it, could never have been great at all.

This past week, a few of us were helping each training group set up their own HIV workshop in their own towns, and I was very happy about the outcome. In the end, they ended up giving the workshop to a total of 450 youths and service providers! woohooooooo

I was also lucky enough to spend this week with my host family from training and it was really great to bond with them again and have some culturally awkward moments I remember so well from training. One particular moment was when I was trying to explain the plot of the movie "Lars and the Real Girl"... Here was my try, which of course was all lost in translation: -"It's a movie about a guy who falls in love with a doll... It's really funny actually... No really... He has mental problems... And he thinks that this doll is his girlfriend... Really it's sooooo funny..." And as I am laughing, I just look at my host family who are just just looking at me with blank stares in utter discomfort... I guess I should have thought better, that's not the typical movie you talk about in conservative Guatemala.

The week before, trainees also came to my town to learn about the health care system and to practice giving their charlas. Although I was a bit stressed about it, the week went extremely well and I was very proud of them. It was great to see the change in them and how they become more confident about their service by the end of the week.

It's been a little difficult to get a lot of work done at my site because I have been so busy with this training group, and I am looking forward to returning home and getting my ass in gear! What does my agenda look like these days? Well, I am finishing up my first round of house visits for the improved stove project we will be doing in one of my aldeas. The project will be done with 60 families, although the number will probably go down. These families will also receive two months of health charlas in order to improve their health and hygiene conditions in their homes. Many families cook under open fires with smoke that fill up their small homes and lungs. What's the result? Child mortality. Many children have chronic malnutrition, and when you combine this with unhygenic living conditions you end with Acute Respiratory Infections. Pneumonia is the number one cause of death in Guatemala, followed by diarrhea in small children. These are all preventable. To sum it up, that's what this stove project is about, picking the neediest, poorest families, giving them an improved stove but also educating them in the process as well in disease prevention. Want to know more? Don't worry, you will be getting a letter begging for money from me, explaining this in more detail.

I am also in the process of doing a recycled bottle project in another aldea. Garbage and contamination is a huge problem there, and this project aims to educate concientizate (is that a word??) the community about the problem. Each plastic bottle is stuffed with inorganic, plastic trash, which are then used to build different infrastructure. Come to think about it, I think I already wrote about this in another entry! In my aldea we will be building 10 benches and the walls for two letrines. We hope to get about 3,000 bottles with the participation of students and youths! The aldea right now does not have any letrines in its outdoor community "center", and as a result many of the athletes, market vendors, et al, go do their business in the super contaminated river behing the health post, where many women wash and bathe themselves... Since this aldea does not have any running water, many women have no other option but to wash and bathe there...

Ok this entry is running long, sorry. As far as other things, I am still working alot with midwives and my health promoters groups. OH and I completely forgot to mention that I will be getting a volunteer from my program in one of my aldeas in JUly! I am very excited to get an extra person here to collaborate with me, to take some load off my shoulders, and to give special, and full attention to this village since I haven't been able to do that.

I suppose I should explain real quick how my municipality works. I live in the urban center of my municipality, however I also work in five other rural mountain villages that are part of my munipality. As you can imagine, it's been tough to spreadd myself so thin, and I amm excited that at least one of these villages will now have a volunteer living and working there full time!

In other news, some of you may have heard that Guatemala was recently hit with a bad hurricane at the end of May. Don't worry I am fine, one of my villages was hit pretty bad, but fortunatelyy no casualties. The rest of Guatemala was not so lucky, as many communities were flooded for days, and mudslides blocked many highways. Many people unfortunately lost their lives. So please I ask you not to worry about me, but worry about them. I recently did a food and clothes drive for the victims affected in that village with my local middle school, and I was happy to see so many people contributing... Although I am happy that the country has come together in this time of need, it seems sad to me that it always takes a catastrope to remind people about humanity.

Ok, you've probably stopped reading by now, so I will leave you with some photos>

This is an example of the recycled bottle project construction in a nearby community. The volunteer there is currently building a classroom


An example of an open cooking fire...


One of the mudslide in one of the hiking trails up to one of villages caused by Hurricane Agatha...


Sleepy milpa during a 530AM walk with the pup... My favorite time of the day...

The Smiling Faces

This is my last breathing day of vacation. Tomorrow, I will be back to Guatemala, amidst the hustle n bustle of camionetas, street ventors, fumes, rolling landscapes, being broke and my work. Am I looking forward to going back? I don`t know. So I`ve decided to do the write it out exercise, lucky you. It`s just a little weird this ``I don`t know`` feeling... I`m not the kind to be home sick, be lazy, or miss excessively the obvious comforts of a developed nation.

Picture you, reader, on a windy, lonely beach (or whatever other adjectives you want to add for dramatic effect). You spend the last breathing day on the shore of your mind, looking North, and looking at all your challenges and obstacles: a non-responsive counterpart, a community with too many needs, and an overworked health center that has been left simply numb to it all. Thinking about the frustrations and challenges leave you very tense, and you take one step back from the water. But you then see familiar reflexions in the water: they are the smiling faces, the people and community you know, the web that is now called your life. You know that nothing makes sense to you anywhere else in the world right now, and it is in that very strange land that you find the comforts of your new home.

And I guess even on vacation, those faces have silently creeped behind me, as thoughts swirled about me as to what do do next, who to contact, how to do it, et al. But vacation is always surely needed, and if anything makes you re-evaluate your life. What have I concluded?? Amidst a Mt. Everest-like pile of personal dabbles I won`t bother you with, I have realized this: I am a strange bird. But you knew that didn`t you? Ok, the conclusion is more compound: I, Esther Janaina Spindler, am a strange bird who for the moment being, belongs in a small indigenous community in Guatemala. (Why thank you ``write it out`` exercise!!)

On an editorial note - check out the new fotos, video and gadgets put up during vacation (slowly move your pupils to the right ------)

All about YOU

Hellooooooo reader!

So I´ve realized that I´ve been selfleshly blabbing about myself all this time without even bothering to ask you: How are YOU doing?? I know that you might be reading this which in turn, makes you think you´re in contact with me, but the truth is I never hear from you! Come on, we all have facebook, send me a message, let me know about life in the States, because believe it or not there are things that we miss once in a while (you know like a good old burger, Obama, a clean creek, a Republican or two, et al).... Any corky news, new babies??? Let me know, would loveee to hear from you.

Well that´s it about YOU, on to boasting about myself: All is really good here! I am actually in Brazil right now visiting my father for a short bit, and will be back off to Guatemala at the end of this month. It will be a year this month too that I have been in Peace Corps Guatemala! Can you believe it?? Time sure flies...

I think the culture shock here has hit me harder than when I came back to NY. Like Guatemala, Brazil is a latin country, which has left me perplexed when seeing white people, tall people, interracial people, and beautiful fru-fru neighborhoods. I suppose it shouldn´t be a shock since I used to live here but somehow I feel like I´ve returned as a stranger in my home. Brazil has grown and become very rich since I was last there, and the physical results are apparent.

On the Guatemalan front, work has been good, and always finding myself busy, trying to be a superhero and do a million things at once. But when you are dealing with poor indigenous communities, there are always things that should have been done better, a different way, a mistake, or more things that could be done. So I´ve been trying to calm myself down and be easier on myself, reminding little Esther that it is this way specifically because much of the work is new to these communities....

If not, I´m excited to continue on with the second halfish part of my service, which entails focusing more on construction projects here with poor families (letrines, cement floors, water tanks, stoves depending on the needs)... I´ll also be trying to do a mini project building with recycled bottles stuffed out of plastic garbage (I think we´re going to start small and build benches)... I know it sounds crazy but check it out, I think you´d find it interesting:

http://www.puravidaatitlan.org/english.html

It would be awesome to do a mini project wherever YOU are too (I told you this is all about YOU)! It is so easy and really interesting too! It has gotten alot of attention here... Even Barbara Walters flew down to interview a fellow volunteer who built an entire school out of these bottles (at least that´s the Peace Corps rumor)!!

Anyway, I am really excited to build things here and get down and dirty!! I´ve also been thinking more and more to go back to school for Public Health and maybe International Devlp´t. I know a long shot from my original Poli Sci undergraduate degree right??

Since this is still about YOU, I think you deserve some pics:

Kids getting wild at the Dia Del Carbaval in February....

My dog developing a new compulsive habit of roof-climbing

Fellow pcvs enjoying the mountain view during a 4 hour hike.....

OK YOU, send me some news!!

Saludos,

Es

About a dog.

 

Every volunteer that has ever gotten dog has made it their duty to blog about it.  So here is my go -

yes, like you in the USA, we volunteers often make irrational decisions that almost always involve buying a dog.  Hey we need comfort too here,so without further ado, I would like to introduce you to..... Tay`in (don`t ask what it means, I just made it up):

Yes... she`s as terrifying as she looks. She goes through my garbage, gets into packs of sugar, rice and cookies, eats other dogs` puke, and the list goes on.  But she puts up with me too and my crazy eccentric ways, so I guess we kinda complement each other that way.  I may not eat garbage or other people`s puke but I ain`t no picnic either.  And hey we`re disciplining each other: Tay`in can already sit, and me, well, I don`t know, I`m learning to lay down and just relax on a stormy afternoon.

 

Ok, I got the dog thing over with. I`m sorry if this is starting to sound like a chore, but it kinda is.  It`s not your fault really, it`s just that wrapping my thoughts around what I have been doing for the last few hundreds hours of my life is pretty challenging.  Ok, I`m listening to some Michael Franti now and I`m relaxing... Here comes the word diarrhea:

 

The biggest events this month were two women`s marches we organized with my health center in my urban center and one of my aldeas.  March 8th marked International Women`s day, and we all agreed here that it was super important to not only do a march in my urban center but in one of my mountain villages, where such a thing had never happened before.  Keeping with the Guatemalan style of doing things, everything was super last minute, trying to solicit bread and drinks for the estimated 900 women attending. Breaking our backs was worth it in the end- we had the help and collaboration of the muni and different ngos, which all came together in a chaotic but yet beautiful way.  We even had a few newspapers at the larger march in my urban center!

 

The  one in my mountain village was what suprised me the most.  We gave most of the women a piece of poster and told them to draw or write a message to express themselves a week before the march; most of them just responded that they did not know what to draw, or write, but I simply told them to draw a woman, a family, something pretty, or heck even a flower if they wanted, to show how they felt.  What I saw the day of the caminata was amazing...

 

As usual I was running late, and as I was coming around the corner... I saw them: 200 women, being led by the local mayors, crowded with handmade posters with creative, amazing statements and drawings, declaring and expressing their rights as indigenous women.  The view was just spectacular.  Here is what I saw:

   

Well, you get the point.  I was a proud mama!!! This was something that had never happened before in these women`s lives nor in such a conservative rural village.  Not only were they out in full force, but the men, the leaders of the village, were there too telling them once in a while to be louder, and to make themselves heard!  I`m still convinced it all might have been a dream...

Talking of women, I`d like to thank my mum and bro too for helping with donations for a domestic violence shelter that I have been trying to help located in a city near me (it is one of five in the entire country!!)  You guys are awesome!!!

 

I also recently went to go visit two friends of mine who live in one of the most remote sites in peace corps, and it was amazing to see how different their experience is to mine.  I think we all go into peace corps with the idea that we will become all ``sensei`d`` with our souls while maybe helping some people along the way.  Most of us are shocked to find out when we get here that it`s the exact opposite.  We live more comfortably than we`d like to admit; we are more dependent on each other as a community than we may have been to anyone in the States.  And I certainly have been way busier than I have ever been in the States.  But these two friends.... well, they got that site... 7 hours away from me, quite literally on the mexican border, where there are no electricity and water, and where absolutely no one speaks spanish.  It`s a beautiful, strange Guatemala out there, and I definitely look foward to visiting them soon.

Let`s get personal now... How am I feeling at this exact moment? I`m happy.  Hey, who knew that happiness came with a job I knew nothing about a year ago and occasional fleas? I guess we all find our happiness in the most awkward of ways.

I think I`ll stop here, I`m lazy, and a bit sick.  But hey, I gave you lots of pictures, so don`t complain.

Saludos.

 

Esther

Mural pics pleaseeeeeee

dear new year

Hello New Year.

First things first, I must apologize to you for failing to keep up with my resolution of writing more than one blog entry a month. The book isn`t looking too hot either. But January has probably been my busiest month ever. Here are my rambling excuses:

The month started a little weird, meeting new faces at the health center as many new work contracts began while others ended. Although it was a little awkward to continue my work in the New Year without the presence of my old counterpart (yes she was let go on bureaucratic government crap I won`t bother boring you with), it was also interesting not to feel like the new kid and actually being able to show new workers around. In short, life feels well, settled… although I am still looking for a new counterpart.

School is beginning again which means that I had to finish my vacation courses with my two youth groups. As I originally planned, both groups got the chance to do two final projects: paint murals on the environment. Thanks for the help and fundraising of my oh so awesome friend Jen who came to visit from the States, I was able to buy paint to accomplish both murals outside my health center and outside the school of one of my aldeas. How did it really work? Simple: to start the participants were split up in groups two weeks ahead of time and told to think of an idea and message for the murals on the environment. The best idea would get to paint their message and drawing on the murals with the help of everyone else. The outcome of the contest was really amazing, although I was scared that the kids just wouldn`t get it (giving them a blank poster and being told to just make something up isn`t really something they are used to). Day of judging went great and I was really impressed with the creativity and messages of all the group although I was a little bummed about having to pick winners!

We started painting the following week and I think all the kids were very much overwhelmed by the space they had to cover (probably didn`t help that school was starting too). A lot of them were just complaining that they couldn`t paint, draw or didn`t know what to do, but after a little direction from other oh so awesome volunteers that came to help ,they began drawing their murals away and before you knew it, all the kids were working together, just painting away. It truly was a great experience and I loved that these kids got to work on their creativity and their self-esteem, working on something they had never done before. The bad news is that neither murals were done in a day and we had to schedule another day to finish…. Unfortunately, only one person ended up showing up the next day in my casco urbano and only four people in my aldea. I think the kids were probably sick and tired of 101 hours of painting and maybe I did push the kids a little hard, but what is change without a little shoving? So the next meeting I gave them a huge guilt speech and we will be finishing off the health center mural tomorrow. The other mural in my aldea was just finished this last week. This one turned out really nice, with a great message about garbage disposal (the town is littered with garbage).

In general, it really was a great experience although very stressful trying to manage the participation of so many kids working at once on something they had never done before.
So I am finished with the youth groups this year and done with the project and now planning on my next secondary project: recycled bottle project to extend my health center (although I am pushing for the project in my aldea where garbage is a huge problem).

What else, what else… I also work with different NGOs here…. One of them has recently asked me to help them start women`s groups here in my municipalidad, so I am currently working on that, and so far it looks as we have at least two on the ground to start receiving charlas on reproductive and child health. I am really looking forward to have the training sessions started! I`m also beginning to work a lot with the women`s commission here. The commission was started in November after our Mayor was finally convinced to authorize it. Next challenge: trying to get them an office. A Women`s office is pretty standard in every muni of Guatemala, except for mine. It turns out that the mayor is not a big fan of the commission because ``women are not supposed to do things like that`` (and yes I quote). Anyone that knows me can only imagine the fire brewing in me waiting to feud with the muni. So I don`t quite fight, but I pester, a lot. And next Monday I will pester with a meeting with the alcalde to try to get their office.

My reunions with the health promoters are doing well although I have been having a hard time keeping attendance stable. I have them currently split into two smaller groups, which facilitates a lot of the aprendizaje. This month we worked on Respiratory Infections and next month, we will be doing workshops on Disaster prevention and response (was not originally planned but pretty relavent given everything happening in Haiti and the geographical position of Guatemala). Next week I will also be starting my health promoters group in one of my aldea, which I am really excited about too, because health education is virtually non-existent there.

I still do my radio show once a week, although I need to find a new Kiche translator since my counterpart is now gone. Good news is that I just got a bike, and can just ride right to the radio station and back, scarring off all the local inhabitants along the way.

And last but not least I am super excited about a new project that is starting in my department that is aimed to combat malnutrition, which is being administered by the UN and coordinated by a Guatemalan government agency, focusing on nutrition and agriculture education. About 70 percent of Toto suffer from chronic malnutrition and San Andres, like many municipios, is plagued with malnutrition, which has left me overwhelmed at times not knowing where to begin to confront the problem. So as you can imagine, I am super happy that this project has arrived. Right now, I am currently working with them to find the families in my aldeas to participate in the program. I think it`s a really great opportunity and I can`t wait to start the capacitaciones and maybe try out some tire gardens!

The new year also began with new midwifery trainings as always and workshops with health vigilantes working with my NGO that covers the rest of my aldeas. I also got the chance to go visit a domestic violence shelter coordinated by an NGO in Xela, where victims and families stay for 4 to 6 months at a time, until they are rehabilitated back into society. I learned a lot from the visit and the system implemented to help victims rehabilitate and not fall back into the cycle. I`m currently trying to help them with donations of equipment and games to work with the kids living there.

So I guess this is a work entry, but I just thought I`d try to make you understand, New Year, what I have been up to. Other plans for the rest of the new year? Maybe a women`s march in March, starting a library, trying to clean out an oober contaminated river, not driving myself crazy if I can`t get any of these things done and taking time to take care of myself.

That`s it, I guess that`s my new years resolution: helping others to help me take care of myself. I know a bit abstract but I don`t make sense when I`m tired. It`s almost 7PM on a Saturday night, which is close to Peace Corps midnight.

Saludos.