Juramentacion & first week...

July 19th we became official peace corps volunteers. The ceremony was at a posh hotel in Antigua and the undersecretary of state for the western hemisphere was there to lead us through the oath. The following day we moved to Salcaja. The first week was a little rough getting settled. It´s interesting going through the readjustment and settling in process all over again. However, it is great to be living together again like a real married couple. We´re temporarily living in a house owned by a widow who lives with her 19 year old muchacha. The Dona has been in the United States visiting family since we´ve been living there so we´ve just been hanging out . There is also another very young Guatemalan couple living in the house with a baby on the way. The living situation is good, but we´re looking forward to having an apartment of our own.

We had a busy first week of work. I (kelly) spent most of my time in the co-operative´s pharmacy trying to figure out how we are going to organize and start taking inventory as that is my first order of business. The co-op opened a pharmacy 2 years ago as part of it´s agenda to help the community by providing low-cost medicine. Mosiah spent the first week in his schools in Cantel and had the opportunity to sub in a few classes... We also joined the municipality of Salcaja´s commission for youth development. We´re lucky to be living in such a progressive town that is activally wroking to imporve the lives of it´s citizens. We met the alcalde (mayor) and staff, however as elections are in September we might be working with a different set of officials, ¿saber? On Thursday Mosiah invited me and another PCV in the area to join his school in re-forrestation project. About a hundred 7th graders, teachers and the American trio climbed up an increadibly steep mountainside, trees in hand, to a clearing half way up the mountain to plant the trees. I have to mention that some of the kids were wearing corte and heels and many we´re carring machaties and not one kid got hurt (and they all made it up and down the mountain before us...) On Saturday my pharmacy had their 40th anniversay party. It was a very guatemalian party with many speaches, marimba (national music) and a lunch that followed. They also had caldo de fruta the locally made fruit liqior... interesting to say the least.

Overall we´re doing well. We think about everyone at home lots and love and miss you all very much!

Whole training group

Youth Development group

Small Business group

Dona Rafa (mo-host mom), Dona Lupe (kel-host mom), Carlitos, Kelly, Mosiah, Don Jose

View from our roof in Salcaja

Kids & Mosiah planting trees

More Photos

Last Days of Training

Well training is winding down and we have finally had sometime to breathe. Actually, I find myself bored now that I do not have every moment scheduled for me. We had our last day at the center and we are glad to report that we both passed our Spanish exams and are all ready to go out to our sites after swearing in on Thursday. The strange thing about swearing in is that it is surprisingly similar to the oath that the army takes. I suppose it makes sense, but it is very easy to forget that we are working for the US Government.

There has been a lot of emotion with our families surrounding swearing in. My family (Mosiah) was good enough to throw us a pizza going away party. It was complete with gifts and followed by a tour of the local fair. After, we were told how grateful they were for our service and how they know that we will go on to do great things for Guatemala. Wow! Talk about pressure. I guess it really put things into perspective for me. Not only do we have a chance to have a great experience with our jobs, but we also have an obligation to try to find some way to improve the lives of people around us. How…? Who knows, but I suppose we have some time to figure it out.

¿Cowboy boots?

We have less than one week of training left until we swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers at a hotel in Antigua. Next Friday we are moving to Salcaja to begin our 2 years of service. This week has been packed with last minute training. We had a day of Mayan culture and language (since most of us will be living in areas where a Mayan language is spoken by at least some if not all of the population). Salcaja is about 40 percent indigenous. There was a day dedicated to AIDS/HIV education and prevention as this is a very important side project for Peace Corps Guatemala. We also had the opportunity to go to a little town out side of Antigua, Pastores, know for their cowboy boots. Three months ago I would never have believed that I'd be buying a pair of cowboy boots... but here I am sitting here writing this blog wearing my new pair of boots. Mosiah got a pair too, of course. The entire town of Pastores is lined with stores selling the boots, however I was told that though the people of Pastores make the boots famous throughout Guatemala, they do not actually wear them... The hand made boot cost only Q300 about $45 so if anyone planning on visiting wants to get a pair, we'll be happy to take you.

Salcajá

We found out last week that our future home will be Salcajá a town of 20,000 about 13k from Guatemala’s second largest city, Xela, in the Quetzaltenango department of Guatemala. “It is the home of the oldest church in all of Central America. The town is known for producting a large quantity of corte, the traditional Mayan dress for women. In Salcaja resides the oldest church in Central America. It was constructed in 1524, only 32 years after Columbus discovered the Americas and is known as "La Conquistadora" because of the period of time and the circumstances under which it was constructed.” Ok… so I just copied that from Wikipedia, but I thought it was interesting. The town is also known for caldo de frutas, a fruit and hibiscus liquor.

Today Mosiah and I are meeting with our host country agency counterpart at the training center and tomorrow we are off to Salcajá for a few days to find an apartment. I (kelly) will be working with a savings and loan cooperative that is looking to expand into new markets. They are thinking about moving into pharmacies, clinics or weaving… Mosiah will be working with youth development in schools around Salcajá and Cantel. Hopefully, we’ll be able to post some pictures of our new home when we get back.