Wow. No seriously, wow. Saturday was my 2-year anniversary in
Guatemala. I read on another Peace Corps
blog that we volunteers actively keep track of our time in country and count
down the days left. Because I have yet
to set a final ending date, I cannot accurately say how many days I have left,
nor am I sure I want to. But I do think 2
years is a significant anniversary for any occasion. These have not been an easy 2 years. However, I would not trade them for anything.
Surprisingly
or unsurprisingly, this past month has seen huge advances in work productivity and
community integration on my part, to be continued until I leave Cunén. “Zumba” classes with my sitemates are a
massive success: at least 30-35 women have been showing up every week ready to
dance and sweat their butts off. I have since
been asked to help choreograph dances for youth groups, been invited to participate
in community events with a youth association I hadn’t known existed, and met
many new people. I’ve attended more
children’s birthday parties. I went to
Mormon church and (mistakenly, in hindsight) invited the missionaries over to
dinner. I fulfilled a personal goal of
mine to visit the tropical and electricity-free Zona Reyna of Uspantán, 5 hours
away from the town center on a windy dirt road through the mountains in a
cramped microbus. As painful as the
journey was, it was definitely one of my favorite weekends here, celebrating my
friend Laurie’s birthday. Work-wise, the
school kids and I harvested radishes and made healthy salads; I conducted a
market visit to Antigua with Allan, my Save the Children coordinator, and
scored some business for my artisan groups; and most excitingly, received
approval for my onion warehouse proposal!
While waiting to receive the money, I’ve begun workshops with the
association on proper post-harvest handling of their product. Construction is set to start in September :)
at my host brother Fernandito's 5th birthday |
the final 13 (of my group's original 32) at COS conference |
the celebratory happy hour... |
Now I’m back
in site, planning out the limited time I have left here. I’m anticipating a lot of self-reflection, to
which I’m sure you will all be treated to as it comes. GRE-studying is well underway, to varied
degrees of success, and grad programs are picked out. Crazily enough, I even have a job interview
lined up for when I get home, with the tech company Dropbox in San
Francisco. I’m really excited about it
and waiting to see how it goes before sending in the Masters applications. Expect a phone call soon, friends and family
in the bay area!