Here is a small gallery of the celebration of mother’s day in the community we work in, El Limón. El Limón is a small community that has about 30 homes. It is an agrarian community where about two-thirds of the men are working in the US (New Jersey to be specific). We have been working in the community since last November. This is where some of the health “charla” (chat) magic happens. We give our charlas a couple of times a month to the people that are interested, a great mix of men, women, and even a couple of adolescent young men. It is mostly prevention work and we talk about poop a lot!

We have been guiding the COCODE (the legally recognized group of leaders for the community) through the USAID SPA grant for a cement floor project. Most people have floors made of compacted earth. Just yesterday we finished measuring the last room. Now we need to get price quotes from 3 different “ferraterí­as” for the materials. Roberto, the president of the COCODE, and José, the treasurer, are working on a description of the community. They have already gone to the mayor to solicit some sort of support from him and the municipality agreed to provide transportation of materials. El Limón has agreed to provide all of the sand and labor. We are still a ways from being finished but we are moving forward!

Anyways, here is the bright and shining El Limón.

BONUS IMAGES!

The photo on the left is our friend Carlos (brother of Virgilia, who is married to our counterpart) with his mother on Mother’s Day. I took a couple and in this one he had just changed his sandals because his other ones were the kind that everyone wears. Pictures are sometimes a big deal here. The mother put on her Sunday best – her traje is the nicest we’ve seen her wear yet. On the right is the father putting out some corn on a section of metal sheeting to dry it for storage.

Turkeys Gone Wild! This is why the Nature channel is useless here – we can just go outside and see this stuff on the street. We saw this happening while walking out to El Limón a few weeks back. It was pretty ridiculous. I think every turkey in a two-mile radius had moved in by this point. Notice how they’re all puffed up and ready to roll – they were making these strange dry scratching noises by clacking their feathers together and shaking them. All in all a pretty cool experience because wild turkeys in the States aren’t tame to humans (at least as far as we know). We get to eat turkey pretty often and it’s fantastic in a tamale, which is kind of like a Latin American version of a dumpling wrapped in a banana leaf made with corn and rice dough.

Here is why everyone gets sick during the first month of the rainy season. This water didn’t come near our mouths and as a precaution I chlorinated the water we bathed with while it was like this. Also, for those of you wondering what the big thing holding the water is called, it’s a pila. There is no translation into english and it’s specific to Latin America, which is unfortunate, as they are super-useful. When asked to describe it I usually call it a “big sink” but really it’s more of a huge water deposit/sink.

Click on either picture to bring up the large version

The second photo is where we take bucket baths. That brown grime is dirt from the river. The COCODE is currently fighting for a potable water system, including chlorination, but the mayor seems to have other ideas. It is a very sad state of affairs, in all honesty. There are a lot of preventable illnesses brewing in that gross animal/human shit soup. It is unfortunate our program or the Peace Corps in general isn’t large-scale enough to aid in potable water projects, especially when right people are already prepared for one.

May 1st marked 1 year in Guatemala. Lo logramos (we did it)! While we were excited for making it, the next 15 months weren’t looking any easier: we miss our families, are regularly frustrated by the work, and there isn’t any take-out to order on those nights you can’t bring yourself to cook! But 1 year in-site (July 20th) is on the horizon and how fast it has come upon us is unbelievable. Even though the last year has been difficult, it has been “vale la pena” (worth the pain). We live in a beautiful community with truly great people. There will be no other two years like these in our lives. So while sometimes we want to throw in the Pepsi towel (seriously 75% of the towels have the Pepsi logo and the other 25% are religious – think Last Supper- or the American flag), we remember the wonderful and unique opportunity this is.

We have so many projects in the works right now it is slightly overwhelming (I won’t bore you all with the details now though). We have all of these plans and none of them are scheduled to get under way until June! The past two months we have been planning and garnering support. Now we are restless and waiting for everything to get going! I knew coming in that there would be a lot of waiting but really! Mostly, we occupy ourselves with charlas in the schools, meetings, and the highly popular paseando y platicando (walking around and chatting).

Other than waiting for everything to take off, we are pretty much enjoying the life. There are 5 cats living at our house to bring us a lot of laughter and cute photos (3 kittens who are adorable). We are having a good time teaching in the rural school and actually feel kind of effective. The other day we were talking with a mom at the school who told us one of her kids was telling her all about what the “gringitos” (little gringos) are teaching and explained some of what we have been talking about. Very gratifying especially since we are often doubtful of our effectiveness!

Basically every day we miss our families and friends, but despite all of the frustrations and inconveniences, we finally are feeling settled. Coming in we were told it could take as long as a year to feel comfortable and Dave and Shelly (RPCVs, El Salvador) were right on the nose. Cultural activities, celebrations, Sunday tamales with a family, it is all starting to feel normal. Of course we will always be outsiders, extranjeros, but at least we know we are wanted. We are both very excited for what the next year brings!