Christmas in Salacuim

After much debate of how and where we were going to spend Christmas this year, we finally decided to stay home and experience the holiday through the eyes of Salacuim. There were many events that led up to the day and we could feel the excitement in the air as Christmas Eve approached. About a week ago, Corby helped one of our neighbors, Don Ramon, wrestle a pig in a nearby community so that he could cook it for his Christmas dinner. Not very many people can afford to purchase an entire pig, which goes for about Q500 ($65), but he was planning on cooking the meat and selling it for all those that wanted a special treat.


Corby and Don Ramon with the Christmas pig

For us, it is difficult to get used to a green Christmas, especially since we have been hearing about all the snow in Minnesota this year. We struggled to find creative ways to make it feel like Christmas while it was 80 degrees. Luckily, a large coconut tree feel down in our front yard a couple days before Christmas, which allowed us to use the palm branches for a makeshift tree- lights and all.


Decorating the Christmas Palm

Christmas Eve is the biggest day of celebration for Guatemalans. We spent our day helping neighbors make the traditional meal of tamales, which consists of corn paste, a chile sauce and a small piece of chicken, all wrap up in a banana leaf. After being here for almost 2 years, I finally found myself liking the taste of tamales, but that has worn off over the last few days.


Preparing tamales with the Prado family

We spent the evening at church with our friends and neighbors, singing the same Christmas songs as we sing in the states, only in Spanish. There were endless invitations afterward to join families in their homes for tamales. We were overwhelmed by the spirit of the season as people welcomed us and shared their food and company. Corby and I had a difficult time consuming 2 tamales at every house we went to and as a result we have over 10 sitting in the refrigerator right now.
At midnight people lined the main street, some sat with chairs in their front yard and everyone threw firecrackers. The entire town was alive with excitement. The Catholic church walked through town in a procession singing songs and people spent the rest of the night into Christmas Day with their families, eating and socializing.


Catholic Procession through town

While we missed being with our own families at home, we look forward to next Christmas when we all will be together again and cherish the memories of Christmas in Salacuim. We are heading to Belize for the New Year and are looking forward to seeing a new part of Latin America.

¡Próspero Año!

2008 Scholarship Recipients

We are happy to announce that we have selected 5 new students to enter our program in 2008. About 6 weeks ago an exam was given to all 6th graders and the top scoring students were selected to participate in the Scholarships for Salacuim program. Each student has been offered a full 3 year scholarship to complete junior high in Salacuim as long as they complete the rules of the program and maintain their grades.


The 5 newly selected students for 2008- all entering 7th grade


Our program this year will solely be focused at the junior high level, as the community committee takes over in our absence. We are also grandfathering in the 4 junior high students from last year that have successfully completed the 2007 school year.

This week we had our first meeting with the new students and their parents to introduce them to the program. We are really excited about this new group as we feel they have already proven their intellectual ability through the exam and are ready to tackle the challenges of 7th grade. They really seem like a great group of kids and we look forward to working with them in 2008!


Russell, Reyna, Sherna, Maria, Jener

Cell Phones coming to Salacuim!

We've been hearing rumors for at least a few months now that the cell phone companies have been visiting the area around Salacuim and doing feasibility studies. Obviously, we've been anxious to see if the rumors are true. We've lived here for almost two years now, always with limited communication. There are a few public telephones that grab a cell phone signal with a large antenna from distant cell towers, but the result is always a scratchy connection and a 65 cent/minute charge to call the US. There is also a telephone at our NGO's office which works on a satellite connection, but its plagued by a 2 second delay and strict limits on personal calls (especially frustrating when speaking Spanish as a second language).

Also, about six months ago some new towers went up across the Chixoy River in the Quiche department that gave everyone a sort of hope that maybe their phones could grab signal in special "spots", in fact the large open field next to our house has had a faint signal if you stand in the right place for enough time and learn the tricks such as shutting-of and restarting your phone 3 times in succession while raising your left hand in the air. This ghost signal has created a culture of small groups that congregate in these "spots" with their phones every night, partially to make phone calls but also to pass time.

This is all about to change, as this week we noticed a large metal object growing in Salacuim's skyline, a shiny new cell phone tower! The rumor is that we will have real cell phone signal before Christmas. A team of 6 Colombian and Nicaraguan workers (better described as Trapeze artists) are throwing up a 130 meter tall tower that promises cheap, clear phone calls and the ability to actually receive calls in the last few months of our Peace Corps Service.

Construction Methods:
Although these guys don't have all of the safety gear required in the US, I'm impressed with their use of resources. There is no crane, but they can secure a metal section of ladder to the tower with rope and use it as a boom. From there they run a rope through a pulley system to the rear wheel of a pickup truck up on blocks. To lift sections of the tower, they start the pickup, put it in gear and use it as a crane.

Development:
An adviser to our NGO talks about development of the area as a balance between infrastructure, education, political organization, and environmental conservation; calling them the 4 "capitals". Things like education and political organization are just as important to the development of Salacuim, but they are intangible, hard to see, and actually take more time.

Infrastructure, however, is very tangible and visible. We arrived in Salacuim about 10 years after they were connected to Cobán with a gravel road. The electricity came about 4 months before we arrived, and a previous Peace Corps volunteer told us about the drastic difference: TV's, later nights on the street, etc. Earlier this year, all of the side streets were leveled and lined with gravel; a huge improvement to the steep, slippery paths of before. Offices have also been built for the local organizations: the youth group, the farmers group, and the womens group. In the near future, running water and road paving projects are in the works. We have to look at how much the face of this area is changing and just be amazed.


Tower construction acrobatics


The tower construction site is the most popular community gathering spot


Use of pick-up as a crane

Lunch with the Senators

During Joey and Stacie's visit, we got a phone call from the Peace Corps office inviting us to have lunch with a delegation of US Senators that were in the midsts of a tour, meeting with presidents of several South American and Central American countries during the Senate's Thanksgiving recess. Only 6 Peace Corps volunteers were invited, including us because I happen to be the only PC volunteer in Guatemala with North Dakota roots and both senators from North Dakota were part of the delegation.

Kari and I were split between tables, my place was with the ND senators while Kari was with the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the US ambassador in Guatemala. It was a unique experience for me to have lunch at a small table with 2 senators and their wives. I was impressed at how interested they all were about the life of a Peace Corps volunteer, and I think my Dad was just as impressed when he received a personal phone call from Byron Dorgan the day afterwards to let him know that his son was doing well in Guatemala.



Kari & I with North Dakota Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan


Kari & I with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid