So as the title suggests, this may be turning into a monthly update instead of something more frequently. But that’s ok, as my life isn’t all that interesting and I know you all can only take me once a month, right? ;)
I do have rather excellent news: I am all moved-in into my new house!! Apparently my landlord and I had some miscommunication (welcome to my life…) and he built a whole fence, instead of part one that could be extended. SO once that was finally finished, I snapped some photos, sent them to Peace Corps, and got the approval to move in! The OK came fairly simultaneously with the rest of the furniture I’d ordered from a carpenter in Uspantan, about an hour away. THAT was kind of a hassle; of course it was raining and since the banks were closed and the ATM was out of service, we convinced the poor uncomprehending guy to take American dollars at the current exchange rate. We found out later that Guatemalans can only exchange US$ if they have an account at the bank, so luckily my friend Stephen who lives in Uspantan was able to help the guy out lol, since the rule doesn’t apply to Americans. Anyway, the moral of the story is that I’m living in a wonderful (almost) fully furnished house! I need some more chairs, and mirrors, and pans, and a table, and I’m sure other things, like gardening tools and curtains, but I’m set for now :)
my furnished kitchen:
my furnished bedroom:
my giant pila and part of the backyard:
Hmmm since I last wrote, I turned 23. That was super fun celebrating in Panajachel and Antigua. I was just in Antigua again last week for July 4th. We had a pretty interesting all-volunteer conference last Friday on hot volunteer topics and then a hopping party the next day – the 2nd not the 4th, as a Saturday was unaccountably deemed more appropriate. I mentioned last time that I’m now on the Gender and Development (GAD) committee and my main job is running the 4th of July raffle and selling merchandise during the conference and party…HUGE SUCCESS! We ended up soliciting 96 prizes and raised over Q7,000 between ticket and merch sales, almost $1,000! The only downside was a conflict between GAD and VAC (the Volunteer Advisory Committee, who runs weekend activities) during the raffle drawings, but hopefully there won’t be any lasting issues on that front. And credit must be given to them for a fun party and a great after-dance-party :) A few friends and I decided to stay in Antigua for a few more days, the highlight of which was a redneck party at Mono Loco, the American bar/restaurant in town, on the actual holiday :) As usual, I spent far too much of my meager monthly allowance on excellent food and drink (and less excellent hostels), so I’m a little broke for the second month in a row…oh well, at least I’ve got everything I need! Including internet and a working cell phone…it turns out that losing 2 cell phones in a 5-day period isn’t as hard as you’d imagine, who knew?
my sitemates and I at the party:
The Antigua trip was also inadvertently a despedida for 1, probably 2, friends who have decided to leave early. Or “early terminate” in PC-speak; how awful is that? Anyway, they’ve both been very unhappy with their work situations (aka no work) and are out in the lonely eastern part of the country, where there are very few volunteers. They will both be greatly missed and I hope things work out better for them in the States.
Of course it’s extremely hard not to question my own situation here in light of their decision. I mean, work is…work. It’s not especially good, but I guess it’s not terrible either. And I do have 2 amazing sitemates and a lot of solid relationships, both with Americans and Guatemalans. I don’t plan on going home early, but it has made me think a lot about if I actually like it here or not. On the whole, I do. Life can just be super difficult…my friend Carolyn does a great job of expressing our collective frustrations here. So while I do kind of look forward to the end of my service here, I still have quite a bit of time left that I want to make the best of. Although who wouldn’t look forward to October 2012 plans of traveling through Latin America for a month or 2? (Positions for travel buddies are still open!) I’m also starting to plan for the future by studying for the Foreign Service Officer Test in October of this year! So much for photojournalism ;)
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