Secretary Clinton Visits Guatemala

Last Friday Guatemala had the pleasure of receiving a visit from Secretary of State Clinton. We in the Peace Corps community were invited by the embassy to a small meet and greet session at the ambassador's house about two days before the event was scheduled to take place. For some volunteers, this was unfortunately not enough advance notice to be able to re-arrange work commitments and arrive on time. But, luckily for me, it's still coffee harvest for another month, so my coworkers are busy cutting and processing coffee and all my recent work has been self initiated. Also, I live extremely close to the capital in comparison to other volunteers, something I've usually taken for granted seeing as I don't do much in Guate. But for an event like this, 15 minutes long and subject to cancellation, I was thankful for my site location.

The meet and greet with Secretary Clinton was scheduled to take place at 2:30 at Ambassador McFarland's house in Guatemala City, but all visitors were required to arrive a fair amount of time beforehand in order to 'secure the area.' Our group of Peace Corps volunteers and staff members arrived around 12:30 at the ambassador's house ready to hunker down and wait - something I've gotten suprisingly comfortable with while being here. I'd been to the ambassador's house before, so it wasn't so shocking the second time and we were allowed to explore the grounds while we waited - a full size lawn, swimming pool, tennis court and various meeting nooks scattered around them.

As other guests trickled in, we got into conversations with some of the other people invited,as the invitation was extended to the entire Guatemalan 'mission,' a term with which i was unfamiliar before that day. Apparently that includes the embassy staff, Peace Corps volunteers and staff and the Center for Disease Control among others with the Ambassdor's house being the 'Chief of the Mission's Residence'.

While lounging around the Chief of the Mission's swimming pool, my friends and I got the chance to chat with several people living in Guatemala City working as part of the mission for various other organizations. It was really funny to see how we Americans collided, coming from completely different experiences in Guatemala. All the embassy and CDC workers live in a predetermined area in Guate, with similarly furnished apartments and little freedom to leave their path from Home to Work. (while Peace Corps Volunteers are basically sent off into the rural communities and asked to find their own housing, construct their own furniture etc.) I asked a teenage daughter of one of the Center for Disease Control staff what she did to hang out with her friends, and she said that while she did have some friends from school, and a few friends in her apartment building, she mostly 'just stays where it's safe.'While i was listening to her, i was thinking about all the things I'd done while in PC Guatemala that probably would be frowned upon by the state department, not even because they were not allowed but because of the liability issues. (I've been in a lot of rickety pickups)

Judging from the Foreign Service Officers we met, the embassy staff seeks out the most cosmopolitan setting in each post and tries to adjust accordingly. We got into talking about different restaurants and things to do in the city and somehow got onto the topic of American restaurant chains abroad; Crystal chandeliers in Pizza Huts and Botanic Gardens in McDonald's. After discussing the ambience at a certain McDonald's one guy urged us to 'GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!'Needless to say, it was a nice check on perspective.

Finally, around 3:45 we were alerted to Secretary Clinton's impending arrival and all crowded around the podium that had been assembled for the occasion. She arrived in style, smiling in a pants suit, enormous pearls and a blinding diamond ring that i had not previously noticed (but that didn't surprise me). After greeting several women political leaders of Guatemala - including Rigoberta Menchu - she delivered a short speech to the mission staff (on the importance of our work in Guatemala and its role in the US's foreign relations, http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/03/137891.htm) and stepped down into the crowd to shake hands.

Unfortunately, after thinking about it all day, the best thing i could manage to spit out was 'it's so nice to meet you' and I only got that much out because I heard someone else say it. I'll have to think of what I'm going to say next time..