Poco a Poco

My favorite time of day comes every evening around 5:30 when its time to tortillar. The comal (a flat, round piece of metal) is placed over the leña (wood fire) and brushed with cal (limestone) to clean it. One of the women of the house returns from the molino (mill) with the freshly ground corn made into a dough. We roll up our sleeves, wet our hands, and get to work. By the time I have finished one tortilla, they have each completed at least three perfectly circular masterpieces. My edges crack, the dough sticks to my hands, I break off pieces and have to start all over – rolling the dough again into a ball, flattening it a little, turning it in my fingers to make the edges thicker than the middle, and tortellando between my palms. Finally, on the second or third try I produce a sufficient product. “Mejor que ayer,” Estella says every day, “hay que tener paciencia… poco a poco se aprende…poco a poco.”
“Better than yesterday. Be patient…little by little one learns.”
“Little by little.” It seems that wiser and more applicable words have never been spoken to me. They say that within three months I will learn to make perfect tortillas. Considering the seemingly low technical difficulty of making tortillas, I had expected it to be more like three weeks. But some things just take time.
Poco a poco our dog Lucky (pronounced lookie) is getting used to my presence in the house and attacking me less and less aggressively when I come through the gate.
Poco a poco the women are becoming more comfortable with my hovering presence in the kitchen and talk to me as we tortillar.
Poco a poco I am becoming more comfortable with silence and also finding more things to talk about.
Poco a poco I am learning to comment repeatedly about how cold it is, how the baby is, how steep the climb to the other volunteers’ houses is- the routine things in life.
Like my tortillas, each day is a little bit better than the one before it. I have to have patience with the adjustments that are being made by both me and my host family- who I don’t think has ever really interacted with a gringa before. Little by little I will learn to navigate my new situation.
For the first time, yesterday we got a more complete description of what our job will be as Healthy Schools volunteers. If we are expecting to change the world in two years, says our program director, we need to lower our expectations. Change comes poco a poco. One group will be working individually on four-year projects, and the other will be working in pairs on six-year projects. Since we are only in Guatemala for two years, we may not see the fruits of our labor in our time here. Some of us will be planting, and some will be harvesting. Poco a poco we will help build sanitation infrastructure, institutional capacity, and commitment on the part of the schools to work toward certification as a “healthy school.” Poco a poco will our goals be accomplished. After all, no one learns to tortillar in one day.

The photos are of all the women of my first host family, me and my host siblings, my first view of Guate, the peace corps garden of eden, and a concierto that took place in my hosue the second night.

Some Things

Here are some things i have learned since my last post:
1) milking a cow is hard
2) I should never doubt the ability of a family of 5 plus 2 giant gringas to fit into a tiny car made for tiny guatemalans.
3) You can make tortillas in star shapes, but it is difficult enough just to make a circle.
4) I have special twin powers.
5) Internet can be found where you least expect it.

My last host sister was a saint to wake up at six am because the crazy gringa wanted to learn how to milk a cow. When i asked my grandfather if I could watch him milk "Maravilla" he laughed and said I was asking for a swift kick to the face. Maybe at that point I should have taken the hint and gone back inside to sleep. But my friend Kendall had told me a bit about milking coes and i wanted to see for myself. After failing to coax out a stream of milk on the first try, I was pretty happy with successive attampts that i viewed as successful. Apparently it wasnt good enough for my host grampa. But try as he might to teach me how to get a stronger stream, I guess i am just not a natural.

I was very sad to leave the host family i lived with for 3 days. I had grown accustomed to the 3 yearold laughing at me when i tried to help him color and when even going to the supermarket is fun, you know its a great family.

Despite my failure at milking cows, it appears I am a natural at tortillando- or making tortillas. Although I have a sinking suspicion that my new host family is lying to me to make me feel better. I dont know how they get such perfect circles with much less dough than i use.

I have moved to a bigger town and live with a young married couple, their 2 month old daughter, and the husband's sister and father. Its a bit different dynamic than my last family, but they are very patient and kind to me. Best of all the house has A SHOWER WITH HOT WATER! And its 2 doors down from an internet cafe. This town seems a bit more traditional in dress and social roles. I dont interact much with the father or husband and the women spend most of their time cooking and cleaning. I have thus decided there is no time like the present to learn how to cook. This way i get to interact with the family aaaand I wont starve in 6 months when i move to my own house Today we went to the market and later we will go to church. Besides that I just kinda follow around after the women of the house. Hopefully when i start 6 hours of spanish a day i will be busier. If not, atleast I will become a pro at cooking over a fire and sustaining awkward conversations in spanish. I will also hopefully change some conceptions about the US. My host family already asked me if i was raised by a nurse and when i told them my family ate tortillas but didnt make them they responded- "ahhh so your servant makes them"

Its hard to believe I have been here only 5 days. I have already learned alot and it feels like much longer. Today Twin leaves for Africa, which is verrrry exciting! Before he goes, everyone should know about our our special twin powers. Being a twin has given me a reliable conversation piece, as it seems to be a pretty cool thing here. Many people believe that if you make a twin mad, they will poke many tiny holes in you clothes with their MIND! So watch out!

I also have a cell phone and its pretty cheap to call with skype... so email me if you desire my digits!

In Guate!

I have arrived safely in Guate, ridden my first chicken bus, and realized that my spanish is terrribly rusty. Good thing tomorrow we start 6 hours of language class a day!

I apologize if this entry isnt terribly witty or well written. I am re tired and we are trying to get home before dark...Peace Corps rules.

Today we learned about allllll the bad things that could happen to us here BUT we also got to see examples of what we get to learn to build, like latrines, worm farms, gardens etc. So overall very exciting. It only sometimes hits me that I have actually started Peace Corps training and i dont know when it will set in that I am here for 2 years. I dont think i could have found a more beautiful country with more friendly people or a better PC staff.

Everyone is great, including our host family for these first three days. We have a 4 year old brother who is a clown and loooved the candies I brought (thanks mom), A 10 year old drama queen sister, and a 13 year old typical adolescent brother... aaaand a cow that i am going to wake up at 5 30 tomorrow morining to learn to milk!! and goats, chickens etc. All in all its like a typical american family, just in a guatemalan context.

Well the sun is about to set over the green mountains and volcano in the distance so I will sign off, but my love goes out to every one back in the states!

Peace Up, G-Town Down

Getting on the plane this morning was not as hard as I thought it would be, although my family waved like crazies until I had nearly boarded. Although I am sad to leave them, I am feeling excited! I think I would describe my feelings the last few days as how I feel before I go on a roller-coaster. I may get so freaked out that I have to be talked on to it, but I know that after its all over I'm going to want to get back in line and go again.

At LOC we talk to the kids alot about stepping out of their comfort zone. Well I figure that for the past few months I have essentially been just wallowing in my comfort zone. Its about time for me to practice what I preach and take a kick to the comfort zone. Like we tell the kids- "your biggest challenge is often your biggest highlight." Although... I think one of my biggest challenges was leaving my family, and I am not so sure about how they would feel about me considering that a highlight.

Arriving at pre-service training I finally felt very excited about this whole thing. Everyone was pumped to meet each other and it seems like a very fun group. Its weird to think that these 45 strangers will be come my friends and family over the next two years. Well we leave at 3:30 tomorrow morning so I had better say goodbye to wireless Internet and get to bed. The morning brings new adventures!