Inaugural Entry

Today marks the end of my first week in Guatemala. It’s been really great so far; I’m dusting off my Spanish and really getting into the whole Peace Corps mentality.
I’ve been dispatched to a town about 2 hours from the capital city in the department of Sacatepéquez, comfortably situated between three volcanoes – one of which is active and emits smoke daily. I have yet to figure out if the red patches that are visible on the face of the volcano by day are running lava. For now, I’ll assume they are - because it makes me feel more extreme.
Here in our town, where half of the marketing group to which I belong is located, I’m living with a relatively modern family (Don Jaime y Doña Aurora). Despite all signs of modernity, the house is very Guatemalan, in that is more of a compound that is continuously entertaining additions to the piece of land inherited by the matriarch of the family. I can’t really tell where my house ends and the others begin because it shares a common corridor with the rest of the complex. Also, many people come in and out of the house, so much so that I can’t really tell who lives here and who doesn’t.
Thus far I’ve been waking up each morning to the dissonance of a few dozen neighborhood roosters and the slapping hands of local women making the days’ tortillas. While I could definitely do without the roosters (I have yet to eat any meat) I can’t bring myself to complain about the tortillas because the tortilleras have them fresh and readily available three times a day, for each meal.
We began our community based training on Saturday, which entails Spanish class with Maestro Eduardo in combination with grass-roots ventures with the families with whom we’re living. I’m still not quite sure what my specific project will be, but it definitely promises to be interesting and challenging – in that I have no agricultural experience whatsoever, apart from the inherent affinity for agriculture from having lived in Minnesota for 10 years.
I’ve already gotten several shots in series of about ten, and am taking various preventative medications –including one which is particularly unpleasant for Malaria. Although I haven’t gotten sick yet, several members of my training class have succumbed to various maladies, and I feel as though it’s only a matter of time before it catches up to me too.

Until next time..