Uuuh, it´s something.

I´m a terrible blogger, this I know. I have an excuse though. This is the first time in 2 tries that I´ve actually been able to get in here. Before it´s always faked me out by saying I´m logged in but then won´t let me post anything.
As luck would have it I don´t have my flashdrive with my pictures on it, but soon I´ll remedy that.
I have completed my first ¨week¨ of work and it´s Wednesday.
Monday: Teachers spent the whole day cleaning the school minus bathrooms, sinks and trash. Children completely unsupervised but joyfully playing on the playground.
Tuesday: VERY long day that started at 4:30 and a 2 hr bumpy back of a pickup truck ride. Actual classes though, I´m not counting the boys who played soccer the whole day because they were practicing for the big sports day.
Today: Knowingly went to Sports DAy at my third school. Thought it´d be a good idea to put face time in and atleast show up since I don´t work the rest of the week.
So, things are a little up in the air. Next week will be a little more informative and I´ll get my hands in it more. I just observed this week to get a feel for what I´ll be working with. I am optomistic and a little nervous about the whole teaching kids about health in my far second language. Oh well, it´ll be better than what they´re getting now at least.
I´m out. Stinkin´ Skype is being a pooper and not wanting to download properly. I´ve gotten up to 75%, things are looking good and I may be able to communicate with the outside world in real time once again.
Alright, enough English. I´ve got to get back and put on a tv show with Spanish subtitles to learn a saying or two. I love studying Spanish!

Field Based Training!

THE Group with our bosses (the more grown up looking ppl)

And this is my whole training group in Healthy Schools. And these pictures are from the fun we had after learning all day about other volunteers, their lives and what we´re getting ourselves into when we swear in and are on our own in 4 weeks. It´s still a mystery where I´ll be sent but I didn´t see any place that I would be miserable at. I did see some pretty amazing transformations of schools that were in the beginning stages before a volunteer was there and then how they looked after they were certified. I didn´t take pictures but when I get to my site you´ll see what I mean. Most places don´t even have water so it´s a challenge to brush teeth and wash hands if there isn´t water, no? So as you can see I have some pretty cool people in my group. We all get along REALLY well and have lots of fun whenever we get together. We danced, we laughed and played games and we got to know eachother A LOT better during last week. I feel really lucky to have such a great group of people to do this with.
This week has been pretty normal with spanish classes and meetings but next week we go out individually to visit volunteers to shadow them for a few days. I´m really excited about that too, it should be fun. I´ll try to take pictures of that too. I´m not doing very well with writing about what I´m doing here but I hope that these random pictures make up for it.

Samra and I after our first presentation our old Spanish teacher Chepe and the program secretary Sheny..

Josh, Samra and I during one of the MANY introductions we did at schools during FBT.

Travis, Rebecca S., Julia, Mark, Adrian, Joanna, ME. having fun at the hotel.

Joanna, Samra, Amanda, and Me again.

The redheads of the group(apparently I´m a redhead).

Me with the boys (minus Travis), Jarro, Josh, Adrian, Mark and Me (grrr).

Rebecca, Crystal, Sarah, Mark and Me.

One down...millions to go

Today we had our first presentation at our school. It went pretty well minus the deflating balloons the kids were playing with outside. There was a big party for Valentines Day and we all ate hot dogs (Mmmmmm) and pure sugar. Needless to say after our presentation we got the hell out of there. I didn´t get out without getting some sweaty sticky kisses from the kiddies, but I´ll take it since that´s all the love I´ll get this Valentines.
Summer seems to have arrived this week just as predicted. The sun is pretty sweltering and despite my ¨best¨ efforts (meaning the sunscreen in my face cream) I still get a little too much sun. I think I´m going to have to break out the flip-flops this afternoon. The mornings are still jacket weather and climbing up the mountian that my school sits upon would´ve been difficult to climb with anythingn less than hiking boots.
This weekend I plan on checking out the SDA church I found and may or may not be invited to lunch with this doctor who´s Health Store/Spa I went to this week and got a killer massage for half off (besides going to heaven, being an SDA has it´s perks). And then on Sunday we all pack our hippy backpacks and go out into the field to practice our skillz and see more of what we´re about to be immersed into.
Things are going well. Even though Spanish seems to be slow to get a handle on everything is good when the sun in shining and there are avocados to be eaten.

Picture Time!

So it´s been a couple of weeks and I´ve tried to think of something to write but I can´t think of anything worth posting. As a conselation prize I´ll post some pictures of friends, host family, my room, volcano, and weird relgious procession where men dress up like women, etc. Enjoy.

Both ends

It was bound to happen at some point, I just thought it would be this soon. I travelled all through southeast asia eating street food, drinking whatever juices I wanted and slept in a few sketchy places and still managed not to get sick. I don´t know how I have the training and pre-approval of sources of sustence from the U.S. government and got explosivly sick during my first week in country. As I layed in bed deciding if I needed to get up or if I could mind-over-matter the nausea all I could think of was, ¨Two years. TWO YEARS!¨
To drown out those thought I put my headphones on and listened to Mates of State, some ABBA and dipped into my pool of episodes of This American Life to get me through the grumbling and ignore my host mom chuckling at me and telling me ¨Es Natural!¨ (¨maybe for you,¨ I thought)
Thankfully the next day I felt 80% better and was able to attend my classes and today I feel better than I have the whole time I´ve been in Guatemala. Things are looking up. The Jelly Bellies that one of my classmates let us scarf helped too.
Tomorrow I learn how to make tortillas and speak mas y mas espanol. Everyday has an adventure it seems.

Short but...short

I made it! I didn´t know if it´d ever really happen but I´ve arrived in Guatemala as a Peace Corps Trainee with asperations of becoming a full-fledged Volunteer.
After many shiftings things and places Í´ve arrived at my host family of 3 months here in Pastores which is just a stones throw from Antigua.
Right after I met these fine people I was toted around to my family´s niece´s house for wedding preparations. I barely remembered my mom´s name and I´m in my finest going to the impossible to get cathedral for a big catholic wedding and then to the reception that seemed to be a never ending dance party. I had fun and loved to watch the people dance and listen to the music but I have been über tired and accustomed to going to sleep at 9p so when I finally got my pjs on at 2:30 this morning I had been out of it long before that. There was not too much sleeping in gracias a mi little brother and the roosters RIGHT outside my window.
Although my Spanish has been good enough to place me not in the dumbass group I´m not much above it and it seems to have gotten worse since I´ve been left to my own. These next 3 months are going to be jammed and full of frustrating spanish lessons but I look forward to it, especially since it´ll be comfy compared to what I´ve got coming in the next 2 years.
Well, I´m running out of time and money. I´m poor now. I earn something around $4 a day so I need to be careful even when those bootleg DVD´s call my name.