Day 18: Colors and Noises

"For ourselves, who are ordinary men and women, let us return thanks to Nature for her bounty by using every one of the senses she has given us." - Virginia Woolf

Allow me to preface this post with an apology for the lag in blog time, as I’m sure you positively live for my blog posts. I blame the lack of easy internet access, and the fact that I’m actually kind of busy (by which I mean I’m really busy!).

The past ten days have been filled with what feels like thousands of different activities, ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary. To add to my mental confusion, I’m constantly surrounded by new sights—majestic volcanoes, garbage heaps the size of houses, far-reaching lettuce fields; new sounds—frequent fireworks, cats fighting on my tin roof, the local elementary school band rehearsing Dancing Queen for hours on end; and new smells—incredibly concentrated truck exhaust, yeasty happiness drifting from my neighboring panadería, burning garbage.

One of the more beautiful street views I've seen

Some highlights of the past few days:

• I’ve started the technical training for my project, Maternal and Child Health (MCH). In other words, I’m learning actual facts about the health situation in Guatemala, as well as what I’m actually going to be doing for the next two years! Because none of the volunteers working in MCH are actually trained or licensed in providing health care, and because the Peace Corps isn’t an organization that provides health care, most of our work will be training Guatemalan health workers (Health Center workers, midwives, etc.) in the improvement of maternal health. We’ll also be working directly with Guatemalan women, which I’m really excited about.

• As part of our technical training, the other MCH volunteers and I got to visit a current MCH volunteer living about two hours from Peace Corps Headquarters. We sat in on a Pregnant Mothers’ Club, during which the volunteer and her counterparts from the Health Center explained various pregnancy red flags to a room full of very pregnant ladies. The audience seemed genuinely engaged, the information was presented in a simple but interesting way, and I left feeling really optimistic about the MCH project in general.

• My host mom is teaching me to make various Guatemalan foods, in preparation for my two years in the field. Although some volunteers pay their host families to cook for them during their service, it seems that most volunteers do most of their own cooking, often in their own kitchenette (comprised of a gas stove, a microwave oven, and a mini-fridge). I’m really excited to make my own food, but I also understand that I need to adapt my kitchen skills to the available ingredients. To that end, I’ve learned to make macuy soup (a simple noodle soup filled with the giant, exceedingly healthy leaves of the native macuy plant), plátanos cocidos (plantains boiled in sugar water…definitely a little less healthy), and chilaquiles (cheese and vegetables wrapped in corn tortillas, then fried in egg…definitely way less healthy, but very popular here). My host mom was also raring to teach me how to boil noodles, fry eggs, and heat refried beans; I had to gently inform her that I mastered these arts back in ’merica. She didn't seem to mind too much, especially after I promised to teach her how to bake cookies.

• I attended the most magical session on Peace Corps volunteer diversity. Basically, current volunteers spoke about their experiences as female, male, gay, lesbian, Jewish, Asian, African American, etc. etc. etc. volunteers serving in Guatemala. They discussed various ways of adapting to the local culture without sacrificing your self identity, the fact that many prejudicial comments come from a lack of information, and that every moment in Guatemala is a teaching/learning opportunity, balanced on a fine line of self-righteousness. I can’t really do justice to the power of the presentation, but suffice it to say that I left feeling deeply moved.

• I’m growing to love my fellow trainees like family, which I suppose is somewhat inevitable when you’re together in a foreign country, for 8-10 hours each day, with free calls to each other’s cell phones 24/7 (I have a phone now! Check out my contact page if you want to give me a ringle). I’m especially fond of the trainees living in my town, with whom I often run, play games at the local stadium, or just chat. As cheesy as it sounds, everyone seems to play a special role in the group—Hannah keeps me grounded, Naomi tells fascinating stories, Alex makes me laugh and asks insanely deep questions, and so on and so forth. I also feel compelled to give a special shout-out to Pablo, the other trainee from Minnesota. It’s been very therapeutic to share reminiscences about the Boundary Waters, Paul Bunyan, the Twin Cities, and hot dishes. The other trainees have dubbed us “Twinnesota,” which, let’s face it, might be the greatest nickname ever.

Some of my lovely co-trainees

And now, because I’m trying to keep this blog as honest as possible, it’s only fair that I share some of the things that have been difficult for me to process here:

• Gender roles. During an average afternoon jog, my fellow trainees and I get 3-5 catcalls from local men. I don’t like it. What’s more, at every meal, all the women are expected to serve all the men (who immediately start eating) before serving themselves. If a man comes home late from work to find his dinner on the stove and his wife watching TV, it’s quite standard for him to demand that she serve him. And it’s not uncommon for him to acknowledge the meal with a “Gracias, mujer.”

• Fleas. Most of the street dogs have fleas, which means that most of the streets are full of fleas, which means that it’s very easy to get fleas. Our training manager told us that when she served in Guatemala, she got fleas about once a month, and one of my fellow trainees has already gotten them. I’m trying to be careful not to get too close to any of the street dogs, and to keep my backpack off my bed, and all good things, but I’m also trying to come to terms with the fact that I will almost definitely have fleas at some point in the next few months.

• Lastly, and most importantly, the state of health in Guatemala. As of 2009, HIV/AIDS transmission is on the rise, 48% of children under the age of five are stunted by malnutrition, and approximately 140/100,000 mothers die during pregnancy or childbirth (for comparison, the same statistic is 28/100,000 in the U.S. and 6/100,000 in Japan). Most tragic to me is the huge discrepancy between indigenous and non-indigenous maternal health statistics. A single, powerful example is the maternal mortality rate for indigenous women (163/100,000) versus for non-indigenous women (77.7/100,000).

On that happy note, I’m signing off. I promise another, happier blog post soon, after my weekend trip to Antigua. Much love.