To get a feel for the celebration, check out our photos @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corbylewis/sets/72157594295220796/
September 15, 2006
Día de Independencia
The 15th of September marked the 185th anniversary of Guatemalan (as well as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica) independence from Spain in 1821. Our community of Salacuim took the day off to celebrate. The parade reminded me of our own independance day celebrations in Sheyenne, North Dakota...horses, bands, candy, dances, and community togetherness. Also the youth group we work with culminated their 2 month long soccer tournament with a chamionship game that drew what seemed like the whole town to watch. I had a chance to play in the "jovenes vs. ancianos" (translated youth vs. elderly) soccer game, where the ancianos won 2-1.
To get a feel for the celebration, check out our photos @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corbylewis/sets/72157594295220796/
To get a feel for the celebration, check out our photos @
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corbylewis/sets/72157594295220796/
September 8, 2006
Maps of Our Area
We wanted to share a basic map of where our site is and where we're located in Guatemala. Aquí es.
August 20, 2006
La Cantidad de Agua es Increíble
Our Peace Corps site is within an ecosystem known as Selva Tropical Lluviosa (Tropical Rain Forest). We’re in the middle of the rainy season. Guatemalans actually call the season from June-October “winter” and reserve the term “summer” for the drier months during winter in the US. For us the quantity of water has been incredible. This area receives about 175 inches of rain each year! Incredible when you compare it to the 30 inches of precipitation that Minnesota gets, especially this year from the way it sounds.
Although it has meant a few muddy shoes, clean clothes that never dry, and occasionally being trapped under some type of roof between the office and home the rainy season has been enjoyable. Most of the rain is at night, so its possible to stay dry during daytime activities and the sound of 5 inches of rain overnight on your tin roof without any sound insulation is something magical.
I thought a few people might be interested in this average monthly rainfall chart and rainfall data from June of this year….
Although it has meant a few muddy shoes, clean clothes that never dry, and occasionally being trapped under some type of roof between the office and home the rainy season has been enjoyable. Most of the rain is at night, so its possible to stay dry during daytime activities and the sound of 5 inches of rain overnight on your tin roof without any sound insulation is something magical.
I thought a few people might be interested in this average monthly rainfall chart and rainfall data from June of this year….
July 16, 2006
Few new pictures
We've recently added a group of new pictures to our photo site....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corbylewis/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corbylewis/
July 12, 2006
Laguna Lachuá National Park
Laguna Lachuá National Park is one of the most pristine areas in Guatemala and also one of the least visited parks in Central America. Part of our goal is to work with the communities surrounding the park to help protect and conserve its resources. Below are some of our favorite pictures of the park.
July 11, 2006
4th of July week
It's time for a new post. The lack of entries are a good indication that we are settling into a routine here and just living life. It seems like there are few blog worthy reports on a daily basis. The rainy season is in full swing and our new challenge is dealing with molding clothes. We have been putting our heads down and working hard lately. Corby on designing and developing a new building for the police in a near by aldea and Kari on designs for the national park that they will for merchandise, brochures, web sites and any sort of publicity material. Our free time has been filled with working with a local youth group, teaching English classes at one of the schools in Salacuim and helping the neighborhood kids with their homework.
Last week we were able to escape to Guatemala City where we met the other 200 volunteers and had a 4th of July party. It seems strange to celebrate Independence Day in another country, but it seems to be more meaningful than it ever was at home now that we are here. After the party we were able to take a trip to the south coast and visit Monterrico. We spent 3 days on the black sand beaches of the pacific where we virtually had the place to ourselves. After spending a month in our site it was wonderful to relax and enjoy another part of Guatemala we had never seen before.
Last week we were able to escape to Guatemala City where we met the other 200 volunteers and had a 4th of July party. It seems strange to celebrate Independence Day in another country, but it seems to be more meaningful than it ever was at home now that we are here. After the party we were able to take a trip to the south coast and visit Monterrico. We spent 3 days on the black sand beaches of the pacific where we virtually had the place to ourselves. After spending a month in our site it was wonderful to relax and enjoy another part of Guatemala we had never seen before.
July 10, 2006
Alligator Video
alligator video
Here is an interesting nature experience that we had a little ways out of Salacuim one day. We thought these guys were taking us out to see an large iguana...we realized that we needed to improve our spanish when an 8-foot alligator walked out of the pond.
Here is an interesting nature experience that we had a little ways out of Salacuim one day. We thought these guys were taking us out to see an large iguana...we realized that we needed to improve our spanish when an 8-foot alligator walked out of the pond.
May 7, 2006
First Month in Salacuim
We have been in site for about a month now. We're pretty well settled in and basically have everything we need for living. We're hopefully about to end our 3 week search for some shelves to put things on...
Our time is being spent getting to know the communities, people, their needs, and improving our language skills. We've already been able to get involved in some interesting stuff: helping out a youth group to write a request for donated computers & planning computer classes for the community, Kari is working with a group of women that weave traditional fabrics, Corby was asked to help out with a "engineering inspection" as part of the paperwork to start a new school in Salacuim as well as give comments on a preliminary concrete bridge design, we met the prime minister of agriculture when he came to the area for a visit, as well as some other fun stuff.
There are 45 communities surrounding the National Park that our counterpart (Proyecto Lachua) works with. We've been trying to travel to several of them for visits, but transportation is limited & dificult at times. We're becoming excellent hitchhikers and have taken some interesting rides. Perspectives change: somehow riding a few hours over a rough gravel road on the luggage rack of a minivan sounds pretty appealing or even comfortable. We will be getting our Peace Corps issued bikes in a week and that may open up some more opportunities for us to get around a bit easier.
Below are a few pictures of our house and life here. Check out our picture link as well. We're caught up on uploading.
Our time is being spent getting to know the communities, people, their needs, and improving our language skills. We've already been able to get involved in some interesting stuff: helping out a youth group to write a request for donated computers & planning computer classes for the community, Kari is working with a group of women that weave traditional fabrics, Corby was asked to help out with a "engineering inspection" as part of the paperwork to start a new school in Salacuim as well as give comments on a preliminary concrete bridge design, we met the prime minister of agriculture when he came to the area for a visit, as well as some other fun stuff.
There are 45 communities surrounding the National Park that our counterpart (Proyecto Lachua) works with. We've been trying to travel to several of them for visits, but transportation is limited & dificult at times. We're becoming excellent hitchhikers and have taken some interesting rides. Perspectives change: somehow riding a few hours over a rough gravel road on the luggage rack of a minivan sounds pretty appealing or even comfortable. We will be getting our Peace Corps issued bikes in a week and that may open up some more opportunities for us to get around a bit easier.
Below are a few pictures of our house and life here. Check out our picture link as well. We're caught up on uploading.
April 18, 2006
Settling In
Today was finally move in day! It has been a fairly slow week. We arrived in Salacuim last week just in time for our office and all regular activity to stop for the Semana Santa (Easter Week) holiday. We spent about 4 days getting to know the town a bit better and basically knocking on doors looking for a house to rent. We feel pretty lucky that we found a nice little one room place made of concrete block with a light bulb & and nice yard.
After we got things squared away we decided to go to the nearest big market city, Coban, to take care of errands (like buying a new bed, range top stove, and refridgerator) and try to pass the time until the holiday was over and we could get a ride back to Salacuim with our new stuff. We also got a chance to visit friends from our Peace Corps training group in San Cristobal, see a few sites, and watch some Easter processions.
Pues, this was finally our big day & this will be our first night sleeping in our own space since early January. We spent most of the day moving in, finding shelf space, setting up electrical stuff, figuring out what we´re going to eat....just living. We'll be posting some new pictures soon.
After we got things squared away we decided to go to the nearest big market city, Coban, to take care of errands (like buying a new bed, range top stove, and refridgerator) and try to pass the time until the holiday was over and we could get a ride back to Salacuim with our new stuff. We also got a chance to visit friends from our Peace Corps training group in San Cristobal, see a few sites, and watch some Easter processions.
Pues, this was finally our big day & this will be our first night sleeping in our own space since early January. We spent most of the day moving in, finding shelf space, setting up electrical stuff, figuring out what we´re going to eat....just living. We'll be posting some new pictures soon.
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