cell phones

Yes... I know cell phones in the Peace Corps... Most of the volunteers get cell phones as it´s a cheap way to communicate with each other and with the Peace Corps Office for security.

If anyone is interested our numbers are:

Mosiah: 59054853
Kelly: 59085840

We're here!

We are alive and well! Our apologies for the delay to those waiting for a post... There has been very little "free" time and competing for time on the Internet is difficult. Enough "excusas"... Thanks for your patience! We have been in Guatemala for almost 2 weeks and are living at 7,000 feet between Guatemala City and Antigua near the Peace Corps training center in Santa Lucia. After the first few days at the training center where we were drilled on how to keep safe and healthy in Guatemala we separated into groups and moved to our villages where we will live and train for the next 3 months. We were placed in 2 wonderful families in neighboring villages, only about a 20 minute walk apart. Both families are sympathetic to the fact that we are living "separado". Our days have been filled with Spanish lessons, safety and security training, technical training, health lectures; thrown between long meals with families as we struggle to have menial conversations. Also lots of homework! The Peace Corps keeps you busy during training!

Some interesting tid-bits

- 5/7 - We experienced our 1st earthquake
- We haven't actually had a cup of Guatemalan coffee yet as it's mostly all exported (Guatemalans drink instant)
- Trying to Explain why I'm a vegetarian in Spanish (kelly)
- Watching a gigantic Elmo piñata get beat to a pulp at a birthday party (pictures soon to follow)
- Working at a center for street children (mosiah)
- Getting sick and having to give a stool sample... (kelly) i'm better now :)
- Host mom holding my hand as i walk around town (kelly)
- Fireworks at 4:30 am and singing to celebrate Mother's Day
- Getting "used to" dead dogs in the streets (mosiah)
- Visited a Mayan women's co-op and green been factory (other PCV's projects)

These first 2 weeks have been challenging and we're learning a lot. You are all in our thought and we love you!

Oh... we found out that the Guatemalan postal Service is now being run by a private Canadian company and is now much more reliable. So... care packages of all shapes and sizes are now safe to send :). For those of you that forgot our address it is:

Kelly & Mosiah Montoya, PCT
8 Calle 6-55, Zona 9
Guatemala City, 01009
Guatemala, Central America

Note: PLEASE only send via US Postal Service and NOT FedEx or UPS.

We love and miss you all!

Until next time,
Kelly & Mosiah

hasta luego

One more day in beautiful Colorado. We can't believe the time has finally come. Everything has been packed, sold and stored. We'll miss everyone greatly and hope to see many of you in Guatemala. Thanks to everyone for your help and encouragement. With much excitement, hope and anticipation we take this next step. Please feel free to email, write, send cookies and above all keep in touch.

much love,
k&m

Word of the Day: Flexible

We received a call last week from the Latin America Desk, telling us that they forgot to inform us that we would be unable to live together during the training portion of our service (3 months). Kelly and I were immediately concerned with this. From day one we were told that we would not be away from each other for more than a three week time period.
Our first reaction was to ask what concessions could be made on our behalf due to the situation. In our mind we thought that since they waited until the last moment to tell us, that they could be flexible. WRONG! The staff of the Peace Corps have my utmost respect, but when they told me that there was just this minor change a month before departure, I have to admit that I over reacted a little. Sorry… The truth is I know realize that while they did make a mistake, they need to be consistent for all of their volunteers married or not.
It all boiled down to this. How flexible are we? We thought and thought about it. It is not a question that we have to answer all that much. I think that perhaps we are too familiar with getting our way, too accustomed to demanding what we know is right, and overall not challenged to do things that we do not want to do. After a lot of deliberation and discussion we came to the conclusion: We have to be as flexible as the demand us to be and not the other way around.
I hope to think that this is one out of many lessons that we will learn being Peace Corps Volunteers. Are we flexible? Yes. Maybe not as much as we thought, but I think we are on our way to learning how to be more so.

Step 1. Freak out a little

Okay, here it goes. A little while back Kelly and I started talking about the Peace Corps. It had been a dream of hers to join the Peace Corps since she was young and I had toyed with the idea myself since getting out of the military. So we thought what the hell, lets see where an application will lead us.
We passed the application and health checks and waited and waited. We did some more volunteering and waited and waited. We took some Spanish classes and waited and waited. Then… BANG here is your assignment and your projects be ready to leave the country by the 30th of April.
That was probably a little dramatic, but it feels really really soon. So we are getting ready to start the marathon. Step 1. Freak out a little. Step 2. We need to develop a plan as to what to do with our stuff. Step 3. We need to find out what it is we have to pack for a two year adventure. Step 4. Dive in head first and see where this takes us.
So far we are just at step one and I feel the clock ticking. Hopefully we will be able to get all of this done and not stress out too much right before we go. I suppose overall we are just so excited that this is happening.
PS. Does anyone have a backpack that they could recommend for an adventure like this?

First Post

Since we will no longer be able to update our website we thought that we would create this blog to keep in touch with our family and friends. I hope that people will read our updates over the next few years and comment on the things that we are doing. We will be sure to update K&M Guatemala as much as possible. Thanks to all those who have supported us and this new adventure that we are embarking upon