Visits to the Villages

Last week we completed our delivery of the coffee dis-pulping machines, taking two full days to load up the machines (they are by no means compact), and all eight of us (myself, my counterpart Marvin and the six promoters who work on behalf of SID; Chepe, Efrain, Diego, Samuel, Miguel and Emeliano) in the villages into one small pickup truck. Luckily, I was graciously given a seat in the cab with Marvin, whereas all six promoters and up to four coffee dis-pulpers at a time were stuffed into the truck bed. Although the farthest village was only about 15 km away, it took up to two hours to get to each one, because of the awful condition of the roads; there were certain stretches of trails that were hardly passable on foot, let alone in a vehicle. This really made me think about the accessibility of the far reaching communities from the town center and logically, the availability, or lack thereof, of transportation to and from each one, which directly restricts the flow of information, goods and, most importantly, opportunity. But I digress.

Arriving in one community Wednesday morning, we were greeted by several members of the board of the local organization of coffee growers (and soon to be coffee processors). One of them, to whose house we had arrived, welcomed me to town and quickly started conversing with Marvin in Kaqchikel. When he finished, Marvin turned to me and told me in Spanish what the man had requested. Apparently he had received some boxes that had arrived labeled in English that he needed my assistance in translating. Feeling very excited at the opportunity to actually apply tangible skills, I agreed and allowed him to lead me into his house so I could tackle the challenge.

Once inside his house, he held up what looked like an inhaler, accompanied by a package of pills with a matching label. He handed me the instructions and explained that he didn’t know what they said and therefore could not sell it, because he didn’t know what it could cure. I was unsure what he meant at first, but when I looked around, I saw that he had at least 5 large boxes full of these inhalers and other types of prescription drugs that he had just received from the states. There must have been about 15 different types of drugs in those boxes. And now, the only obstacle between him and the profit was an application for the product.

As you can imagine, I was a little overwhelmed when he continued to place various bottles, boxes and even capsules in my hand to have me translate their purposes and uses. Not knowing what to do, I ended up calling the Peace Corps nurses, who suggested that I play dumb and politely point out that the medications were past their expiration dates, which they all were. In the end, I told him that since I was a marketing volunteer and did not recognize any of the medicine he had, I was not qualified to prescribe it for their respective ailments. Although he was visibly disappointed, he understood and we were fortunately able to move on to the coffee training smoothly.

Aside from visiting the communities to deliver the dis-pulpers, I’ve also begun visiting villages on my own to start to assess the situation of various community organizations. I have two such organizations with which I’m planning to share my time, one which is just starting out (¨just born¨ as they call themselves) and another that is already pretty well established in a village about 5 km away from the first. I visited the first yesterday, and while there we visited various coffee plots, while strolling around the village and intermittently snacking on oranges and breadfruit we picked along the way. Today I visited the second and was greeted by several members of the board along with the coordinator. Although I was initially excited about all the potential work to be done, I was put to work typing up a survey that had been done of the village’s primary school, which wasn’t exactly what I had been expecting. I have to start somewhere I guess.

This weekend, we have our Christmas party for SID. The partner office about two hours away (which also has a marketing volunteer) has arranged for a day of festivities, feasting and dancing – they rented out a dance hall for the night. This being my first official company Christmas party, it promises to be pretty exciting. While I pictured it going a little differently, perhaps with cheesy mistletoe, fake snow and a poorly dressed Santa Claus for starters, a few dozen Guatemalan men with a taste for homemade liquor, a roasted pig and hours of dancing definitely doesn’t sound too boring. I’ll report back.

Until next time..

Back from Thanksgiving, On with Work..

So, I’ve decided it’s a good idea to maintain this blog for several reasons, (maintaining some semblance of English, transmitting my experiences to others, the list goes on..), but most importantly it reminds me to keep track of time and date. Over the past few months I’ve made the transition from the U.S. to Guatemala, arriving only to relocate within mere days. Once I finally started to get comfortable in my training community, after three short months I had to move again. Now in my third, and if all goes according to plan, final site, I’ve completely lost all track of the seasons, holidays, and even days of the week for that matter. I think this may have something to do with losing touch with the things that used to punctuate my daily schedule in the U.S.; visits with friends, regular doctor’s appointments and marathons of No Reservations on the Travel Channel to name a few. So, keeping this in mind, it felt like Thanksgiving snuck up on me, because I hadn’t really looked at a calendar in a while, but I must say, it was a welcome surprise.

I had arranged to meet a group of friends from my training class at Lake Atitlan, a volcanic crater now filled with water and flanked by the 5 or 6 volcanoes responsible for its creation. The shores of the lake, which measures 8 miles in diameter at its widest spot, are peppered with quaint towns each boasting a different unique population. Panajachel, the biggest city on the lake, is known as a tourist destination, thus its Guatemalan nickname “Gringo-tenango,” or, place of white foreigners. San Pedro la Laguna, the second largest town on the lake, is home to a sizeable hippie community, but is off limits to all Peace Corps volunteers, for some reason or another.

One of these towns, Santa Cruz la Laguna, had a number of small hostels right off the dock where we were able to get cheap rooms and a Thanksgiving meal, complete with turkey (my friends said it wasn’t bad), stuffing and, I kid you not, cranberry sauce. After a great Thanksgiving dinner, we got to enjoy each other’s company, Kayak, boat around the lake and explore Panajachel a little more. Having never heard of Lake Atitlan before arriving in Guatemala, I was amazed at how much I had been missing.

Having just arrived back in site, we’ve gotten into the thick of things with the coffee season right around the corner. Today we began to deliver artisan machines that remove the flesh of the coffee bean to initiate its processing. As I learn the process better, I hope to share it here; although I’ve only been here for a few short weeks I already have a newfound appreciation for the coffee I drink.

Aside from work at the moment I’m in a very intensive process of decorating my new house with Christmas adornments and drowning out the barking dogs and marimba music in the neighborhood with Bing Crosby and the Love Actually Soundtrack. Although I lost track of time before Thanksgiving, I’ll be sure to be good and ready when Christmas gets here!

Until next time…