Slideshow: Our Peace Corps Experience

Looking Back.

Easter

It's a tradition in Salacuim to spend Easter Sunday at the river. We went with one of our favorite families in town, the Prados, and spent the day swimming, eating and socializing with the entire community. It was a cultural event and something different than we had experienced in our time here.


The river scene in Ixloc


The Prado family on Easter Sunday


Kari, Paola and Kennedy in Ixloc

Passing the Torch

Last week we had a chance to spend time with the volunteers that will be coming to replace us in our respective programs. We spent about 4 days with my replacement Andy, the new environmental education volunteer, in Salacuim and we had a chance to meet Ted, Corby's replacement in Ecotourism. There will be many changes coming up with the new cycle of volunteers. After realizing some of the challenges we dealt with while working in our programs, we recommended some changes to be made for the new generation. They will no longer be partnered with our NGO counterpart and rather Andy will work directly with the 4 schools in Salacuim teaching environmental education and training the teachers how to implement the curriculum into their classrooms. Ted will be living in a new Peace Corps site, Santa Lucia, which is near the entrance to the National Park Laguna Lachuá. He will be better situated to work with the park from that location as well as all the budding tourism sites in that area.


Welcoming Andy to Salacuim

It was nice to meet the people that will be taking over and continuing on with some of our work and starting new projects of their own. I really think that Andy will be a great addition to the list of Salacuim volunteers and the kids and schools are already so excited to have him start. In terms of passing the torch, I don't think we could have asked for a better person to receive it. He's also talking about starting a blog so we can stay caught up on the happenings around town. We'll post that info as soon as we find out for those of you that have become attached to Salacuim as well.

Last Trip

We just took what may be our last trip around Guatemala a couple weeks ago. We were lucky enough to have Corby's brother, Jeremy visit us for 3 weeks. He just returned from a year long tour in Afghanistan and made time to come see us, which was great.



We spent some time traveling to new parts of Guatemala that we had not seen before, including Huehuetenango and Xela and up to Mexico for a couple days. We also managed to climb the 3rd highest volcano in Guatemala, Santa Maria.







Things are quickly coming to a close here and the time seems to be slipping away. We've finally made our trip plans home and after a small trip to Mexico City, we will be returning to Minneapolis on April 7th. Everything has slowly been falling into place and the most exciting news from last week was my acceptance to graduate school at the U of M. Starting in the fall, I will be working on my masters in social work. I'm really looking forward to a new challenge and it'll be great to get home.

The mix of emotions has already begun to set in about leaving Guatemala and we're looking forward to spending the next 3 weeks with our Salacuim family.

Close of Service

Last week we attended our close of service conference in Antigua. Although we have more than a month left until we pack up and leave Guatemala, it was a chance for the original group of volunteers we started with more than two years ago to get together and reflect.


Ecotourism and Environmental Education Volunteers 06-08

Of the 25 volunteers that swore in April 2006, not one of us has terminated our service early. I remember during training, we were told that more than 1/3 of us would be gone before our 2 years of service was up. Last week, our training director told us that he could not remember one group to leave with all of its members in the more than 33 groups he has supervised. After hearing that, we all felt pretty proud of what we had accomplished.


Healthy School Volunteers 06-08

It was really interesting to hear about all the projects, frustrations, accomplishments and people impacted by our group of volunteers over 2 years. There were many anxieties expressed in returning to the states along with much excitement. Some of the things that people were looking most forward to were carpet, couches and hot water. Above all, I think we will miss all the amazing people we have met along the way and look back fondly on all the experiences we have had together and apart.


Volunteers at the Close of Service Conference 2008

2008 Scholarship Student Profiles

S.P.A. Project Complete

We are finally starting to see some concrete results of a much awaited project. So much of our service in Peace Corps is about intangible projects. Many of the activities that we participate in or seeds we plant will not be realized for years to come and we may never see the results. It has been refreshing to work on a project and see it completed before we leave.

In March 2007, we started writing a grant project with the youth group, JAGUAR. They participated in several community diagnostic meetings late in 2006 to determine what the best project for the community would be. In the end, we came up with a committee of 6 young men and women from the youth group to write a proposal for a grant to build a community space next to the library to allow for more study and training space.



As Peace Corps volunteers, we have access to a Small Project Assistance Grant (SPA) through USAID. The idea behind SPA grants is that it allows the volunteer to guide a community through the diagnostic and grant writing process, while enabling them to gain important skills along the way. The community is essentially in charge of writing the proposal and following through with the project once the funding is approved.



In May we received $3,205 to begin the project. The unique part of this grant is that 30% of the total costs must be covered or donated as in-kind contributions from the community. The community receives a little monetary assistance to get started, but in return they must contribute and invest themselves into the project. It's a beautiful concept and for the most part was very successful in Salacuim.



The committee was in charge of organizing all the in-kind labor from the community as well as being resourceful with the materials that we needed to supplement the $3,000. We hired a skilled mason from Salacuim at a reduced rate to do the concrete work, roof and doors, but all the kids from the youth group, the scholarship kids and all their parents were in charge of donating their time and manpower to the project.



We finally finished the building in December and the group threw a small inauguration party to celebrate. After 2 years of, at times, not seeing large changes, it is wonderful to see the success that the SPA grant has brought to Salacuim.

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