Mi Vida Chapina: Did March happen?

I realize it’s been quite a while since I’ve written a life update, and actually quite a lot has happened since then…more of which was out of site lol. I’m looking forward to being in Cunen for most of April, though I realized that with Semana Santa (Holy Week) coming up, this will be yet another short work-month! (At the end of which, Kevin will be here! Happy for your shout-out?)

Of course the most exciting event was my parents’ visit during the first week of March! It was a lot of running around, but such a great time. They got to see my favorite playing-grounds of Antigua and Panajachel, shop and fill up an empty suitcase of crafts from Chichicastenango, and conocer lovely Cunen :) Actually, even though we were only in Cunen for a few hours, I think they really loved meeting and lunching with my host family, touring my house and office, meeting my sitemates, and overall seeing with their own eyes that I am happy here! But I was completely spoiled by all the amazing food and fancy hotels – I always forget that Guatemala is super cheap on an American budget and places I think are expensive are not for normal people with real paychecks! I was sad to see my parents leave at the end of the week, but it was nothing like when they dropped my off at the airport in New York in August and all 3 of us were bawling – a very rare event if you know any of us ;) The hardest part, however, was checking out of the most fantastic hotel in Antigua and then taking a chicken bus back to site. And then hand-washing my clothes the next day lol.

That was followed by a marginally productive week and a half at site, and then I found myself back in Antigua for a variety of Peace Corps events: 50th-anniversary celebration, Nicole learns K’iche, and the ag Project Design Management (PDM) workshop

The PC anniversary celebration was very nice, though mildly boring. I only say that because it was very heavily concentrated on swearing in the new group of PCVs (we got 2 newbies in Nebaj!) and recognizing the COS-ing (Close of Service, aka leaving after your 2 years are up) PCVs. So while I found that aspect very interesting, there was no real reason for me to be there. And they ran out of food! I did get to see my host family from training, though – thank god I’d called them recently! So I went to visit them on Sunday…a very weird experience. Not with them – we had a nice lunch and caught up – but just being back in the town I lived in for 3 months but hadn’t been back to for 5…I seriously didn’t recognize some of it! And back to Antigua afterwards was a serious pain as all the streets were blocked up for one of its MANY Lent processions (Antigua supposedly has the biggest Semana Santa/Lent celebrations in the world).

Then came 2 days of 1-on-1 K’iche classes, which was very helpful as a base from which I can now find a teacher at site that I can improve with. Look what I can say:

Nub’i’: Nicole. In voluntaria rech Cuerpo de Paz. In aj Estados Unidos. Kinel Cunen. Kinchukun kuk’ le winaq ple tinimit.

Translation: My name is Nicole. I am a Peace Corps volunteer. I am from the United States. I live in Cunen. I work with the people of my town.

Obviously I need more work…!

Last but not least was PDM, a very interesting but extremely tiring workshop. We each brought a Guatemalan guest – my official counterpart Juan went with Stephen and I brought Don Alejandro from the association I work with in the community of Trigales – and worked in groups to identify a community need and then take every step to turn that into a viable and successful project. While it was a little awkward having Alejandro around because I don’t know him very well, I think he really enjoyed the experience and took a lot away from it. And at least he is fluent in Spanish, unlike some of the other guests…good luck on your future project plans, Whitney! ;)

And now March is over and I am back at site for more normal times. I should also mention that I’ve started cooking more – my host mom brought it up to me that I should cook more for myself, so now I only eat lunch with them, which is the biggest meal of the day here…one more step towards independence; now I just need to find my own place!

Here are some photos from March:

my parents and I on Volcan Pacaya (not shown is the horse that took mumsy to the top!)