La boda de Tia Rosa

Over the last couple of years I've been lucky to celebrate quite a few of my friends weddings including most recently my little sister's wedding. Jamie and Rob got married in St Thomas with only a small group of family there, so it was a little different than the weddings I'd been to in the past (which have ranged from elaborate events in huge cathedrals to small gatherings in the middle of the woods).

I have mixed feelings on weddings, and like most of my opinions on other matters, I'm constantly changing my mind. When I was little I just took it as matter-of-fact that I would grow up, meet someone awesome and get married. Once I actually got into the dating world I started realizing that the "meeting someone awesome" part was a bit more challenging then my 7-year old self had realized. Actually, in all fairness, meeting awesome people isn't hard, it's meeting awesome people that I'm compatible with long-term that's challenging. Anyways, when my parents got divorced and then later as I started having more long-term relationships, it made me really think about the sustainability of marriage. Sure, people can get married for ever and ever and be happy, I know folks like that. I'm not sure if that's what I want though. For me, I feel like the beauty of life is the fact that we're always evolving, always having new experiences that change the way we see the world and what we hope to get from our time here. I can remember how passionate I was about becoming a forensic pathologist when I first started college. That was my biggest dream, I would read everything I could find on the subject and I knew that I could devote the rest of my life to that and be completely happy. Over the next two or three years though, I slowly changed the type of person I was. The thought of working in that field was still interesting to me, but somewhere along the way I lost my passion for it. It's not that I didn't REALLY want to be a forensic pathologist to begin with, I did. I just changed. It's normal. Now I'm in a job that offers a lot of flexibility. I can travel, I can work in an office or hospital or school, whatever appeals to me at the moment. It's a much better fit for me. I feel the same way about relationships. It sounds a bit pessimistic, but I can't imagine myself with one person for the rest of my life. For me, I think relationships are about sharing a PART of my life. The type of person who I need in my life right now may be very different than the type of person I need ten years from now. As me and my partner change, what we need/want in someone else changes too. I think this is normal, and I wouldn't want to try to force longevity from a relationship when it makes more sense for us to find new partners. That doesn't mean I don't want a long-term relationship. I still want someone I can share myself with and raise a family with, it just might mean that while we start out as a couple, we may end as friends/co-parents.

Anyway, that's an awfully long way of saying that I don't really want to get married. I think it sets people up for an expensive and potentially ugly divorce, and if my partner and I are splitting up I don't want any legal mumbo jumbo making it harder than it already is. I'd rather that we were forced to keep civil with one another since we didn't have a legal system to do the dirty work of communicating and negotiating for us. Getting off track again. I don't want to get married. That being said, I find other people's weddings FASCINATING. You really want to spend 10-20k for one day? You're really willing to sign a contract promising to stay with this person no matter what? Even if they cheat on you? Even if you're miserable and want to leave? I don't think all people take marriage seriously, divorce is a safety net and they know it. This isn't the unbreakable contract that it used to be, you're basically just agreeing to give it a go and if it doesn't work, you'll move on to divorce. That seems kind of ridiculous to me. I know at least three people in the last five years who before their weddings said something to the effect of "Well, they're not what I wanted in an ideal partner, but it's they're okay." o_0

ANYWAY, I keep rambling on about my own crap, obviously I have heavy opinions on this subject. This is actually supposed to be a happy post :) I love other people's weddings. I love the crazy elaborateness of them, I love the ridiculous stress for something completely unnecessary, I love the drama. What I truly, truly love though is the simple, cheap wedding that centers a little more around the core of marriage. You don't need photographers and tuxes and live bands. You need to sign a contract and have dinner with your friends to celebrate the huge commitment you just agreed to. And that brings me to my Guatemalan wedding.

I have to say that I've been nothing but lucky since I've been here. Awesome opportunities keep getting thrown in my lap and this week was no different. You may recall that last month I was giving English lessons to my boss Tia Rosa and her "friend" Ezekial. Well, turns out that Ezekial is actually her boyfriend and surprise, now fiancee. Tia Rosa and I were walking around the grounds the other day when she casually mentioned that they were going to get married this month and I was invited to come. Amazing!!! What an great opportunity not only to show support for Tia Rosa, but also to see a true Guatemalan wedding!

She asked if I would mind bringing a few of our frequent-fliers from the clinic; naturally I didn't. Having the kids there actually added to the experience because this was the first wedding for all of them. It was cool that they were as excited as I was to see what it was going to be like.

All the pretty girls together!

One of the kids waiting for the wedding to start

Hannah, Martin and me waiting for the wedding

Tia Rosa arrives!

The wedding was held at the municipal building. I've never seen a municipal-wedding in the states, so I don't know how similar it was to what we do, but I'm guessing it was pretty similar. We all piled into a small room with lots of folding chairs/benches. Tia Rosa and Ezekial sat in two chairs in the front, facing a large desk where a secretary and some government dude was (justice of the peace?). He started off by giving a speech about the promise of marriage, how they were agreeing to be faithful to one another for the rest of their lives, even if they were living far apart. (It's possible that he added that because I don't think they'll be living together right away). After a while he said that they needed to say their vows. They both put their hands on this walking stick (sheathed sword?), stated their names and agreed to stay faithful. They then had to sign a big ledger.

After that they called up witnesses. I think this part was different than in the states because usually we have two people witness. Here, a whole line of people formed and signed the ledger. I didn't know if it was rude not to sign, but since I had no idea what we were signing for I stayed put.

After that they were announced man and wife, but there was no kissing involved. This was interesting to me because Guatemala is like PDA capital of the world (actually I think Central America in general is pretty PDA-friendly). You see people doing some HEAVY making out all over the place, kids and adults alike, so the fact that they didn't even peck each other after the wedding struck me as interesting.

After the wedding we followed them through the streets to a large hall that they had rented out. It was decorated really beautifully, I was totally impressed.

When we got settled in, we were served a plate of OMG delicious pulled pork and rice with home made tortillas. I took an amazing picture but one of the kids accidentally erased it while they were playing with my phone (I need to teach them the meaning of the word "delete" in English). We also had some horchata (one of my favorite drinks here, it's a type of sweetened rice milk). The dude in charge of AV at NPH came and acted as a DJ for the wedding, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the grown-ups wanted a beer or two to celebrate and since half of them were employees of NPH, they couldn't do that in front of the kids, so immediately after eating we were asked to leave, lol. I wish I could have stayed for the adult part of the party (I had shined my dancing shoes just for this occasion) but seeing as how I was lucky to have been invited in the first place, I figured it made most sense for me to take the kids home and let the other staff stay for the party.

So, conclusions from the day: the wedding was remarkably similar to weddings in the US, I'll have to assume that their wedding music is as ridiculous as wedding music in the states since I didn't witness it. I had a conversation on the way with a volunteer from Germany (Nicole, the doctor) and a volunteer from Austria (Hannah, the physical therapist). We were talking about traditional wedding music in their countries and they both started talking about different types of waltzes. I showed them the chicken dance. Sometimes I'm embarrassed of the states ;)

You know you're not in the states when...

..you walk into the clinic to find this on the table.

Today was butchering day for the pigs so the kids in charge of the farm generously gave us the head for our medical experiments (MWHA HA HA!!) Actually it's so we can practice doing stitches. Hopefully this means that a generous person in the clinic will soon be giving me my first stitching lesson!!

Lake Amatitlan

So a little update on my Spanish classes. All has been going well with my buddy Juan Carlos. We meet religiously every Saturday afternoon after my gardening work is done. He takes the classes really seriously which makes me way more into it (he records our conversations so he can practice listening to them during the week, plus he always makes me repeat things he doesn't understand which I really like). He keeps pushing me to do these activities with him instead of our classes though. I know that it's only because he wants to milk more time out of the lessons (usually we meet in McDonald's for two hours but if we go out somewhere it's usually for five or six hours). I was hesitant at first; one, because I didn't want to give up so much of my free time, and two because I was entirely sure that he didn't plan to murder me. I've slowly decided that killing me would be very stupid on his part since literally hundreds of people have seen us together in public and I've introduced him to several of my friends, so it would be a pretty tough crime to get away with. Okay, I guess that doesn't mean he isn't going to kill me, it just means that he isn't going to get away with it. Well that still gives me some relief, so I'm still counting that issue as resolved. As far as the second point goes, I decided that since I want to go to these places ANYWAY, if some dude is offering to take me there, pay for all my expenses and a meal, plus act as my personal tour guide, I should take him up on it. So now I've decided that wherever Juan Carlos wants to go, I'll go.

This weekend he took me to Lake Amatitlan which is a big ass lake outside of Guatemala City. It lies right under Volcan Pacaya (the one that I valiantly summited) and because of all the smoke that it gives off, the lake is chock full of sulfer. It's basically just a huge lake of acid rain. It's bright green and totally not okay to swim/fish/play in, though people do use boats. Despite its toxic contents, it's super pretty to look at. They have a gondola that goes up one of the adjacent mountains but it was closed down for repairs. Juan Carlos was super disappointed that we couldn't go into the gondola (quite possibly because he had an elaborate plan to murder me mid-ride and drop my body into the gigantic vat of sulfuric acid). Luckily he knew of a National Park on top of one of the mountains, so we drove there to get a look at the view.

We had to pass through a guard station to get into the park. Juan looks at me and says, "If they ask, say you're Guatemalan" then pulls up to them. WHAT?!? Um, I'm the most Irish-looking Guatemalan I ever met. AND my Spanish may be decent for an American, but it sure as hell ain't gonna pass for a Guatemalan. Luckily three years of intensive training in New York helped me perfect my anti-social scowl. Either my nasty face worked or they didn't really care to talk to me in the first place; we went in without issue. Their National Park was exactly like ours, I loved it! Super clean, tons of trees and areas for camping. I felt like I was in Stokes. We drove up to this overlook and I was able to see a nice chunk of the lake.

We only hung out for a few minutes before heading back to Antigua. On our way we went through Guatemala City (the lake is super close to there) and I got to go to WALMART!! I was so excited! There were so many things I wanted to buy for the house: shower curtains, candles, new ADLs for myself, all sorts of stuff. Then I realized that the prices are not cheap at all! It's way cheaper to grab this stuff at the little mom and pop shops around town, this store only offered a convenience of having everything in one place. I treated myself to a scented candle but otherwise left empty handed (except for some food. This was a SUPER Walmart :)

We're going to try to head back to the Lake again once the gondola gets fixed (the way that Guatemala works, that'll probably be three to four months from now.) I might look into how much it costs to rent a hotel room there for a night and head out with my friends. Do you see those gorgeous blue pools?? I want to go swimming!! Maybe since it's next to a toxic water feature they'll be super cheap!!

Side note: I don't have any pictures to show, but while we were driving I kept seeing these rain drops painted on the roads. Juan Carlos told me that they put them on the streets during Semana Santa. They're teardrops and they're supposed to remind people to drive slowly or else they'll kill someone (and everyone will cry). I like it :)

Cooking

Just want to throw it out there that I've been on a cooking storm :D Last week I paid 65Q ($9) for a fully cooked rotisserie chicken from Antigua. I've gotten these guys in the past, they're insanely delicious and well worth the price. I ate it for a few days as is, then started using the meat in cheese quesadillas. After a few days of that, I didn't have a ton of meat left but there were definitely a few scraps here and there. I decided to make homemade chicken noodle soup just like my mom makes! (Well, not exactly like my mom makes since I don't have her recipe. It DID involve boiling the chicken bones to make broth which is definitely Martha Stewart-esque enough for me to feel good about it ;)
It came out awesome!

I probably got a total of ten meals out of that little chicken, not too shabby!

Sunday all the volunteers had a pot luck dinner around a campfire. It was a lot of fun and there was some AWESOME food. It's really neat having people from all over because we get a good variety of stuff to try. I made some homemade chili (a slight variation from Sean Linehan's recipe) that was ALMOST as good as his. Very delicious indeed, it garnished a ton of compliments which made me feel happy!

Sadly I should've put a little more thought into cooking two different soup-type recipes at the same time. Now I have enough leftovers to last me the next week worth of meals. Not a great thing considering it's been close to 80 degrees everyday... Maybe I finish it all before it goes off I'll treat myself to a watermelon :)

Clinic Stuff

The little boy has been doing good since his surgery, though it's hard keeping a toddler entertained all day long in the clinic while we work. He and I made a deal that if he kept himself occupied in the mornings, then I'd watch a movie with him in the afternoons. Of course that didn't work out too well but everyone in the office took turns babysitting throughout the day so I still gave him a movie. And in reality, having a kid sit quietly for two hours is in everyone's best interest. I was planning on doing work at the same time, but you can see how well that worked out.

Side note, picking noses is a favorite pastime here.

We whipped through all the kids movies I had within a few days. I was a little on the fence about showing him Nightmare Before Christmas since I thought it might be a little scary for a four year old (I'm way stricter with the kids here than my own imaginary children). Turns out he loves it (naturally) so we watched it back-to-back three times.

He's so cute! The next day he had to go for a check up at the doctor's office and he started crying when he heard I wasn't taking him. He started saying, "No, yo quiero Tio Shawn!" (I want Uncle Shawn) AWWWWWW <3 Adoption papers are being filed as we speak.

Luckily he got the all-clear at his appointment so now he's back to his living in the Baby's house. I miss having him around but it's definitely a lot easier to get work done now. Speaking of getting work done... next week I'm filling in for one of the nurses! For the next three weeks I'll be working the normal RN hours here which are 8a-8a (24 hours) followed by 48 hours off. I'm pretty psyched for the new schedule, it's definitely closer to how my body works (not the working part, but the two days laying in bed part). I also get to sleep in the clinic the nights I work! Woohoo!! Almost as exciting as staying in a hotel! I'll have my own private bathroom, a microwave and the ability to stay up as late as I want without worrying about disturbing my roommate! The only thing that I'm not too excited about is that fact that since next week is Semana Santa (Holy Week), the whole orphanage is working with a skeleton crew. All the normal Guatemalan staff are gone for the week and the volunteers are left to run the place. Let the chaos ensue. I'm hoping that the kids will be so enthralled by having the volunteers living with them that they'll temporarily forget about all their medical ailments and stay far away from the clinic until the doctor and Tia Rosa come back. I mean, I can handle a headache and a scraped knee, no biggie, but if the kids here start complaining about possible appendicitis, I'm kind of at a loss. Okay, not at a TOTAL loss, I mean, I did go to nursing school, I just mean I don't want to be in the position to have to make the call of whether or not a kid needs to go to the hospital, especially in another country. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that that doesn't happen...

RAIN!!

We finally got some rain here!! I know I mentioned this before, but one of the hardest things for me to get used to here is the total lack of precipitation. It's rained all of one or two times in the last four months that I've been here and my body was aching for a good storm. Today while I was having my lunch I started to here the distinctive sound of rumbling thunder. Lo and behold, it started raining pretty hard and held up for a good twenty minutes. I was so excited that I even snapped up a few pics (from the safety of our covered porch)

You can tell I was pretty excited about this due to the that a) I took pictures of it and b)I'm writing about taking pictures of it. I'm REALLY looking forward to the rainy season!! Only two more months!

Horses!

So yeah, I don't like horses. You should know that ahead of time. I don't HATE horses, I just feel really uneasy around anything that's bigger than me (one of the many reasons why I like to keep myself rotund). Well the other day one of the older volunteers Hannah asked me if I could skip out on a few hours of work and help her with riding therapy for the special needs kids. Hannah is one of the nicest people I've ever met so I wouldn't dream of saying no to her when she's asking for help, nor would I say no to helping out my section (though I did silently curse my misfortune).

It was cool to see where the kids go every week for their therapy. I knew it was in the neighboring town of Parramos (only 1/2 mile away) but I didn't really know where. Turns out Parramos is a lot bigger than I realized, especially when you're pushing a wheelchair up hills. The walk wasn't the easiest, but I liked it a lot because we passed a ton of folks in town who stared at us. I love it when people are curious about folks with special needs. I made sure to say hello to every single one of them with a smile and a wave, which naturally led them to interact more appropriately and smile and wave back to us. Oh Willowglen, you prepared me for so much.

We finally got to the stables and four little horses where saddled up and waiting for us. I was surprised by how hands-off the dudes who were working there were. It was basically up to us to walk up to a horse and get our kids on them. Granted, I was the one who was new to this, the kids and other staff do this every week, so maybe I was just nervous by the lack of instruction. Anyway, I'm telling myself not to let the horse know I'm afraid because I'm pretty sure they can smell fear. I'm coming to terms with the fact that the horse is going to bite my face, I'm just hoping it doesn't buck the kid off at the same time. I get the kid on and then the other staff tells me to grab the reins and lead the horse. Now I'm literally ass to muzzle (do horses have muzzles?) with the horse and I'm more concerned with the embarrassment factor of getting bit in the butt then the actual pain issue. I lead the horse through a nice wooded path for ten minutes or so without incident, then switch kids. By the third or forth kid I'm feeling much more at ease. I'm sensing that the horse and I came to some kind of truce, or maybe she decided that biting me wasn't worth the subsequent punishment that would arise from that. Whatever the reason, I managed to escape without any injuries.

Pedro

Well, I thought I had written about part one of this story back in December or January but I can't find the story. I'll have to just write it again, but if all this is repetitive, feel free to skip a ahead a few paragraphs. So way back when, I was living in the language school in Antigua and we had to move to a new building. Remember this? Well the school had hired a moving company and I had offered to help out. There was a TON of shit to move; hundreds of desks and tables, beds, dressers. It was rough. Anyway, while we were busting our humps, a dude off the street named Pedro offered to help out for the day for 50Q ($7). Luckily the teachers jumped on that and this dude did a ton of work to help out, definitely earned his (comparatively measly) money.

As we worked together though, I realized that this guy was kind of a jerk. While he was nice to me the whole time, as soon as we were alone he'd start talking smack about the other people helping (the teachers, who happened to be my friends). One of our teachers has Tourette's and Pedro started saying how they shouldn't hire people like that because it's bad for the image of the school, it makes it seem like the teachers are sickly. So while this dude was a big help, he was also a douche and I felt uncomfortable around him. Luckily we finished soon thereafter and he left with the other guys.

Fast forward a week later. I'm in my room at the new school, eating lunch, when suddenly someone yells up to tell me that someone is at the door for me. Bad news. I have no friends here, I know immediately who it must be. I walk downstairs and there's Pedro. "Hey! Let's go out and have something to eat!" I tell him that I'm sorry but I've already eaten. He asks me to go for a walk with him. I tell him that I have to get back to class, that my teacher is waiting. He tells me that it's no problem, he'll wait outside the school until my classes are done. Fuck. I don't want to go ANYWHERE with this dude, it has danger written all over it. I can't think of what to say (I know what I SHOULD say, but I'm a pansy and I hate being direct with people when I think it'll hurt their feelings). In a horribly stupid move to buy some more time, I tell him that I'm busy tonight, but he can come back tomorrow and we can go out for dinner. He agrees and leaves.

(Now I'm remembering why I didn't put this story up here, I'm thinking I was worried that my mom would end up having a stroke. Don't worry Mom, there's a happy ending.)

So I talk to my friends and my teacher about this and try to solicit help. Maybe I can get one of the students to have dinner with us, that'll drop the danger level down a few notches. Yeah, no one's signing up for that. My teacher gives me the same advice I would give anyone in the same situation: don't be stupid, you can't go with the crazy dude. Cancel. That's all good and great but sadly I don't have this dude's contact info, I can't call him. That means I have to wait for him to come back to the school and cancel in person. I can feel the stomach ulcers starting already.

I go through the whole next day DREADING the approach of 5p. I practice my speech, I stare at the front gate, I stare at the clock. Five comes and goes. No Pedro. 5:30, still no Pedro. By 7p I finally let my guard down and consider it a reprieve from Baby J. Of course that's the exact moment that the bell rings and there's Pedro. I walk out to Pedro and tell him as best I can in my very broken Spanish that sadly I cannot go out with him. (Luckily he's given me a very easy excuse being TWO HOURS late for our dinner date.) He says that he understands, no problem. Maybe we can meet up another day? Nope, sorry Pedro, I'm leaving tomorrow. Where, you ask? I'm not sure. Somewhere in Guatemala. Haven't really decided yet. Give me your email and I'll write you sometime if I'm ever in the area.

Before Pedro disappears into the night, he tells me the story that I had been waiting to hear. He needs food, he needs a place to stay. Then he adds a super creative twist and tells me that he dreams of being a donut vendor but he needs 5000Q to buy a special donut oven. He sure would be grateful if I could help him out. That's like $700!! Cheap as far as donut ovens go, sure, but still that's a lot of money to ask a complete stranger for! (I've since realized that as a general rule, people think that all Americans are just dripping money. Sadly, while I'm FAR wealthier than the folks here, I'm still pretty damn broke.) Anyways, I explain to Pedro that I cannot buy him an oven but I can help him find a place to stay for the night. I give him money for a hotel and he skedaddles off. He mentions on the way out that he lives in Chimaltenango and I should come look for him there one day. I make a mental note to never go to Chimaltenango and that's that.

Okay, that was all the back story. Here we go with today's adventures. So Chimaltenango may or may not look familiar to you, but that's the name of the local city here. While I don't go there frequently, I do go there from time to time to do my shopping and take kids to medical appointments. Every time I go I try to keep a look out for Pedro, but since there's several thousand people in Chimal, I've been fine.

Which brings us to today. You can no doubt see the obvious progression of this story, though it comes in a surprising form. This morning was Dia de Visitas here at NPH, a day when the families of the kids come to visit (I should clarify that by mentioning that not all the kids here are orphans. While this originally started as an orphanage, it has recently been evolving to more of a giant foster home. Many of the children here were placed by the State due to child abuse, neglect, etc. Some children eventually return to their families, most stay here. The parents can come and visit three to four times a year during our visitor days.) During the Visitor Days, all the volunteers have special jobs. Because of the history of abuse for many of the kids, its vital that they are never alone with their families; staff need to be present at all times. That's kind of hard to do with 350 kids, so we just corral them all onto the school playground and kind of form a human fence around them. We block off escape routes and make sure no adults pass those points; the kids are free to roam as they like.

So my job during Dia de Visitas is to stand on the driveway leading to the dorms and not let any parents get by. I do it with my most apologetic look possible and everyone seems to take it well. I make sure to smile and wave at everyone I see to further my image of a dopey American volunteer who's just doing his job. Well I see a dude walking over towards me, I smile and wave and realize its Pedro. SHIIIIIIIIIIIT. Why is he here?!?! He walks right over to me and asks me what I'm doing here. I tell him I'm a volunteer and ask what HE'S doing here. He's super shady about it and evades the subject. I ask him again since now I'm worried he just wandered in off the street. He tells me that he's actually an ex-Pequeno and that he grew up here. To validate his story he calls over an employee who immediately recognizes him and asks him about life. So now I'm on the hook for the next hour and a half, he sits and talks to me about how no one supports him in Guatemala and how he just needs people to take him seriously and give him a chance so he can start his own business. He apparently has moved on from the donut cart and now has an idea for a helicopter motor that runs on magnets. He hasn't built it yet, but he knows it will work and just needs money for a prototype. I remind him that I'm a volunteer and have zilch to give him. I suggest that he tries to contact some local charities to see if they can help him with starting a business but he didn't seem to be interested. Then I asked if he had considered working at NPH. He would be higher on the list for potential employees since he grew up here and knows what it's like, plus he would get free meals and lodging. He didn't seem to be very excited by that idea, so I'm officially considering my part in the life of Pedro to be done. I'm just hoping I don't start to get repeat visitations from him now :/

I feel like I should have a more dramatic ending for my story, but that's that. He ran off to get lunch and I proceeded to run away and lock myself in my room for the next hour. Let's hope that the guard at the front gate earns his keep now.

Santo Domingo en el Cerro

Today was super fun :) Every month we all get a half day to use. Stephanie, Charlotte and I all took ours today and decided to take two of our friends out to lunch. They are also staying at NPH, but they're here for slightly different reasons. They're grad school students from Chicago who needed to do a project for their Master's thesis (or maybe it's just a class? I don't know. They had to interview the older kids here to get an idea of their experiences growing up at NPH.) They seem pretty cool and since they're leaving after being here for the last three months, we didn't want to send them off without a little celebration. I was able to talk everyone into Santo Domingo en el Cerro, that fancy restaurant that I went to a few months ago with folks from the language school. The restaurant is owned by the Santo Domingo hotel, one of the nicest hotels in Antigua.

First we had to go to the hotel and wait for the shuttle bus. The hotel is crazy expensive and it shows. The gardens are really beautiful with fountains and flowers everywhere. There's really nice art work and furniture in the lobby. You can tell it's definitely for wealthy tourists. They even have a bunch of macaws hanging around.

After waiting for a few minutes, the shuttle bus finally came to get us (more like a shuttle trolley. It's just like those little safari cars that they have at zoos. I don't think I ever felt like more of a tourist). It took us down the street about a 1/4 mile, then we drove up the super steep driveway. It's really pretty as you go up. You get continuously more gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and valleys, plus there are different statues and art exhibits on either side of the driveway.

This was the first time I had been there during the day so I was never really able to appreciate the awesome view before (Look beyond the awesome people for a glimpse of the awesome views)

We had a really nice lunch (I had a delightfully rare steak with mashed potatoes, corn and salad, accompanied by a beer and followed by the best creme brûlée I've ever had- all for the incredibly reasonable price of $21). It took us a while to get back (the trolley man kind of forgot about us) but all in all it was a great time. I hope some of my American friends venture out here so I can have an excuse to go again! (I'll go without you too, I would just rather have company)

Oh, side note: There was this weird fruit/vegetable shrine set up next to the entrance of the restaurant. One of the girls said that she had seen something similar in another place in Antigua, so it might have something to do with Semana Santa.

They're all going to laugh at you!

Since as a general rule I usually feel pretty guilty about using sick days, I made sure to come into work yesterday. My stomach was feeling better (not perfect but definitely better) and my only symptom was a persistent headache (which is still lingering a bit in the background, but we're coexisting for now). I'm going to wait things out and see how it goes. I don't want to take medication if I don't need to, and I don't mind sharing my body with some pals as long as they behave.

Another reason I didn't want to cancel yesterday was because I had a charla to do for the kids. I've done a few for staff now, but this was my first one for the kids. It can be hard to squeeze myself into their schedules so I didn't want to go through the hassle of having to reschedule.

After a full day of writing presentations and trying to keep the kid who had surgery busy, I went over the boys section for the inservice. The name of the section I had to do last night is San Antonio, they're boys from 8-12. One of the older volunteers Veronika went with me to help out a bit which was GREATLY appreciated.

As soon as we walked in I knew we were in trouble. The kids were literally hanging off of furniture, yelling and running around. They immediately attacked Veronika when they saw her computer and tried to get online while she was swatting their hands away and telling them to chill out. They were climbing over one another trying to touch buttons on the projector and ignoring us when we told them to back off. There was one kid in particular who I immediately pegged as the ring leader; he was dripping with the nogoodnik vibe and seemed to go out of his way to cause trouble for us. I subsequently deemed him my nemesis.

So I start my presentation and immediately Nemesis starts laughing and points out that I spelled something wrong. Many children laugh at my mistake. I continue. He stops to make fun of the way I pronounced something. All the children laugh. My childhood flashes back at me, Nemesis is every bully I've been teased by. Twenty years of brooding resentment boil up in me. I consider my options...

And then remember that I'm 30 and he's 10 and I only have to deal with him being obnoxious for twenty minutes, after which I can go live my happy life without him annoying me. That helps me chill out until we get to the part where I teach them how to clean their genitals and I make the mistake of saying, "You need to pull back the skin to clean the head of your penis." That's met with gales laughter and giggle fits from everyone. As they mimic washing each others heads with even more laughter, I try to explain that in the US we call the tip of your penis the head and apparently that's not the same here (while silently cursing all the people who helped me edit the presentation and didn't catch that.)

I ended up practically sprinting out of there afterwards, what a stressful way to end my day. On a positive note though, it totally renewed my love for my kids in the special needs house; they're so much easier to work with.

I have to say that I fully embrace the fact that I'm one step closer to being a crotchety old man.

Rebound

Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm back to work today. I spent all day yesterday in bed sleeping and despite having a throbbing headache (which I'm guessing is due to dehydration) I'm feeling a lot better today. As long as everything continues in this direction I'll probably skip out on taking meds and see if I can deal with the parasites for a while. I'd rather only take meds as a last resort! Meanwhile I'll be trying some natural remedies (like increasing my garlic intake and eating papaya seeds). All in all though, looks like things are pretty much back to normal :)

The many uses of urine

I might as well group the gross posts together. Yesterday Stephanie, Charlotte and I had a very interesting talk about urine. I've been reading my homesteading blogs a lot this week (surprise, surprise) and one of the topics that was discussed was using urine as fertilizer in gardens. Urine has a huge amount of nitrogen in it (the number one ingredient in chemical fertilizers). People have had great success in applying urine to house plants and gardens and seeing much healthier, happier crops. An important note though, urine can be too strong for some plants and actually cause them to burn (thus the burned circles in your lawn where your pup pees). To apply urine fertilizer, water it down with 3 parts water first.

Imparting this information to my friends started a back and forth with interesting urine facts. Did you know that during the time of Pompeii, Romans used to use urine to wash their laundry? Urine naturally breaks down to ammonia which is a great cleaning product. Folks back then used to gather their household urine in a pot and leave it on the street to help keep smells out of the house. When it was time to wash your clothes you would walk outside, grab a ladle of your family's urine (or your neighbor's if you were running low!) and clean your laundry.

During World War I, soldiers would urinate on cloth masks and wear them over their mouths as a way to protect themselves against gas attacks. The urine would break down to ammonia and react with the chlorine of the gas, disabling it.

Urine was also popular in medicine. In his story "The Unusual Uses of Urine" Richard Sugg of The Guardian writes:

In about 1550 the Italian doctor Leonardo Fioravanti saw a man's nose sliced off in an argument, and promptly urinated on the fallen organ before stitching it back on. Henry VIII's surgeon Thomas Vicary recommended that all battle wounds should be washed in urine; and others advised the same for potentially gangrenous ulcers, or poisonous bites and stings.

As crazy as that might seem to us now, back then it actually was good advice. Unless someone has a urinary tract infection, urine is sterile. It probably would have been far more dangerous to use the local water during that time. Urine was also a very popular antiseptic for women; they would use it on their faces to help prevent breakouts.

While I'm not about to splash it on my face anytime soon, I think its use as a fertilizer is interesting. I'm looking forward to experimenting in the future!

Guatemala 1, Shawn 0

(An alternate title could have been "TMI", so be forewarned; I will be talking about bowel movements in this post.)

Two things are inevitable for volunteers in Guatemala: lice and parasites. Lice is a personal fear of mine. Though completely treatable, it would be horrific if I got lice. I'm a giant furball (especially since I've been growing my beard out). My body is a lice paradise and after countless sessions of pulling lice from children's scalps, it's a small miracle that I've managed to avoid getting stowaways.

Well I suppose I've been spending too much time focused on the external critters and not enough on the internal ones, because St Patrick has decided to bless me with some parasitic amigos. Some background: I've pretty much had loose bowel movements nonstop since I got here three months ago. I've thought now and again that maybe I had come down with parasites, but I chose not to do anything about it. Medication for parasites can only be taken three times a year. Because of that, the clinic tries to encourage people to wait until their symptoms are really bad (because chances are, you're just going to get parasites again right afterwards and then you might not be able to take meds.) Since I really had no other symptoms, I didn't worry about it. This morning I woke up with awful cramping and diarrhea. That's kind of normal for me after a night of drinking a lot of beer so I wasn't too concerned until I saw the insane amount of blood coming out of my body. I freaked out (more due to the thought of having to go to the hospital here, not about the health issue). After a shower and some thinking, I realized that I probably just had parasites. A quick internet search listed common symptoms of parasitic infection as:

Abdominal pain
Diarrhea
Nausea or vomiting
Gas or bloating
Dysentery (loose stools containing blood and mucus)
Stomach pain or tenderness
Feeling tired
Weight loss
Passing a worm in your stool

Considering I have almost everything on that list (though no visitors as of yet), I think it's safe to say that's what's going on. Also, the list of risk factors:

Living in or visiting an area known to have parasites
International travel
Poor sanitation (for both food and water)
Poor hygiene
Age -- children and the elderly are more likely to get infected
Exposure to child and institutional care centers
Having a weakened immune system
HIV or AIDS

Again, have a few cards stacked against me there. So anyway, despite having semi-frequent bathroom runs this morning, I was feeling pretty decent. I figured I would wait to see if it would pass, and if not I would go to the clinic tomorrow. I went into Antigua to buy some groceries for the week and all of a sudden the inside of my body absolutely exploded. Everything was gurgling and churning and I realized getting back on the bus was not going to be fun. We piled into what is probably the most crowded bus that I've been on to date. I was able to grab a seat in the back (as luck would have it, I was next to a couple making out. Though I had to deal with the super intense tonsil hockey, the bright side is that they were practically sitting on each other laps the whole time so I had extra room and could actually fit my entire ass on the seat :) The bus was jam packed since it's Sunday (every Sunday during Lent there's a big parade in Antigua so folks were trying to get home). I closed my eyes and tried to focus on something other than my rumbling stomach and my building nausea. After half a mile on the road we came to a stop. This in and of itself is odd since the bus rarely stops between Antigua and Parramos, just slows down enough for people to hop out and jump in. It turns out the neighboring town was having a parade too, so we had to wait until they finished before we could pass by. Normally the trip takes 20 minutes, we were on the bus for a little over an hour and a half (by which time I was sweating profusely and trying to calm myself with deep breathing exercises). As soon as our bus pulled into town I started speed walking to NPH, the whole time weighing pros and cons of running into farmer's fields. Thank God I was able to get home before it came to that, I'd hate to try to explain that situation.

Anyway, this is a really long post just to say that I'm sick and I won't be going to work tomorrow. If my symptoms don't improve by the afternoon I'll head to the clinic and get some meds. But hey, on a positive note at least I get to sleep in tomorrow!

Parasite fun fact: Did you know that parasites can help you with your allergies? All allergies (pet, food, seasonal) are caused by a hyperactive immune system. Parasites help your body's immune system drop down to a normal level, therefore making you less likely to respond to allergens! Some people from the United States have even started ordering parasites online as a type of alternative allergy therapy!

St Patrick's Day

One of the first things I'm sure to tell people after meeting me is that my Mom grew up in Ireland and moved to the US as a teenager. I'm super proud of my Irish heritage so I'm always happy when St Patricks Day rolls around. Usually we do a traditional dinner at Mom's house; corned beef, cabbage, carrots and soda bread. I was really bummed to be missing out on that this year (especially after the amazing Guinness-boiled corned beef she made last year). I decided that I would do my best to recreate the dinner here; it would be a nice way to show the other volunteers what my family's customs are. Sadly I quickly realized that corned beef was non-existant here. I was going to try to improvise, but then someone suggested that we all go to the only Irish pub in Guatemala (which is conveniently located in Antigua!) I figured if anyone was going to be able to find corned beef in Guatemala it would be them, so I gladly went along with the plan. A few of us got to the bar early (4:30) and ordered dinner. Sadly, they weren't offering corned beef but they did have a fish and chip special, Irish stew, bangers and mash and a shepard's pie :) I was a little dubious about ordering Irish food in Guatemala (my previous experiences with Japanese and Chinese foods here have left a lot to be desired) so I ordered the Shepard's Pie (I figured they can't mess up a meal too bad if it had cheddar cheese on it.) I was actually pleasantly surprised! The food was really, really good! The pie was LOADED with meat, way more than I expected. I would definitely want to go and check out the rest of their dishes.

After the dinner we proceeded to get our drink on :) I had green beer for the first time ever and liked it so much that I went on to drink two pitchers of it on my own.

The bar was pretty cool. The were playing some good music though they seemed to only have a playlist of about 15 (kind of surprising considering they have to play Irish music every day). The night started out with a small friendly crowd which turned into an obnoxious group of drunk tourists before long. We ended up leaving by 8:30p and going home but I was totally okay with that :) I still had an awesome time (though I still missed mom's corned beef!)

I do it for the children [wink]

I haven't been able to access my blog or facebook in two days! I felt so disconnected from the world! They have been playing around with a newer, stricter internet blocker at work (I hope my last post wasn't what pushed them over the edge), so we've been banned from lots of different sites (including MSNBC and NPR!). Usually I wouldn't mind that, anything that forces me into paying attention during the day is appreciated. The only problem is that they never turned it off at night! That means I couldn't write in my blog or even check my facebook since Wednesday :( First world problems, I know. It was great to help me think about what I want in the future though. Would my life improve without the internet? Clearly I'm addicted, I spend somewhere close to 14 hours a day online and somedays it's what motivates me to get out of bed. To be fair though, I'm not spending 14 hours a day on games. I'm reading and learning and could argue that it's comparable to waking up to read a text book (which I doubt anyone would consider a "waste of time"). Having internet in the future would help me tremendously with building/planning (yes, I'm alluding to when I live off-the-grid, though I told myself I would write a post without discussing that). The only thing is, if I decide to have the internet then that automatically means some other things. I will need to have electricity. I will need to have an internet provider which means I will have a monthly bill. Could I manage to just use the internet once a week at a library or cafe? Would the convenience of being able to lay in bed on a cold day and blog be worth the extra money? And how realistic is it to live without electricity in the first place? Lots of things to think about.

Well since I already broke my rule, let me just share one really cool thing with you. While I was thinking about the pros and cons of living without electricity, I was running down the checklist of what that would mean. No lights. No problem, I can use oil lamps at night (though I'd have to calculate long term cost effectiveness). No electric tools. Not an issue, I'm excited by the idea of just hand or gas powered tools, and a generator can be used for big stuff. Water pump. I don't think it would be too hard to rig up a hand pump system, and then I would have continuous access to water without depending on an automatic pump to bring it to me. The bottom line with all of this is that it's been done before. People lived for hundreds of years without electricity and while the idea might seem unthinkable to some people, after some initial adjustment I think I could be quite comfortable, especially considering I plan on having a very small home. But then I started thinking about refrigeration. Winter refrigeration isn't a huge problem, for years my family has used our outside porch as an extended, walk-in fridge/freezer during the colder seasons and I know I could easily make something to help with day/night temperature regulation. That leaves the summertime though. How do you keep food cool without electricity? I had a hunch because of some backpacking experience. To keep perishable food from rotting or our drinks cold we simply put them in a waterproof container and plopped them in a stream with a few rocks or rope to keep them from floating away. Well, turns out that before electricity folks used the same idea. They built what's called a spring house. A spring house is basically a small shed that's constructed over a mountain fed stream. The water runs through a trough on the floor of the shed and out the other side. The cold water helps to cool the air, which basically turns the entire shed into a fridge. You can build shelves inside and keep vegetables/fruits on the walls. For things that need to be kept very cold (like milk or butter) you can put them in waterproof containers and place them directly in the trough of water on the floor. The cold water will keep them from spoiling just like a refrigerator would! If you aren't lucky enough to have a natural spring on your property you can also rig up a similar set up by diverting a small creek or part of a river.

Another option is an old fashioned ice box, but my initial reaction is that it wouldn't be effective since they rely on a steady supply of ice to keep foods cool. Still, I like the look of them! Maybe I can use the design for part of a pantry or something

Okay, I'll stop now. This stuff just gets me all worked up :) Back to the real world now (if living in Guatemala can be considered the real world). Things here have been going really well. I've been plugging away at my charlas, turns out writing them in English got me over the major roadblock I was facing. I'm hoping to wrap up my Childhood Development one today and then start the translating later this afternoon/this weekend. In other news, remember that little kid I told you about a few weeks ago, the one with the amniotic band syndrome? Well let me give you a little update! Two weeks ago I brought him to the orthopedic clinic in the city. I was a little nervous because this was an appointment with a hand surgeon to discuss what our options were. I was worried that he would say something to me that I wouldn't be able to understand enough to accurately relay the information to the medical team at NPH. To help matters along, the kid was puking in the waiting room because of the three hour car ride we had just taken. We're called in relatively quickly (hooray for vomit!) and take a seat across from the doctor. He's a young dude, maybe 35. He looks at me and asks if I'm from the United States, then proceeds to do the rest of the appointment in English! Woohoo!! He explains that he wants to do a pretty intricate surgery for the kid, but unfortunately their surgery center doesn't have electricity right now because they're in bankruptcy. They're trying to arrange more donations to get the power back on but he doesn't expect that it'll happen anytime before May, so we'll have to wait until then. No prob, I tell him, we're not in a rush. I reach up to rub the kids head which flashs my tattoo. I see the doctor notice it and brace myself for the inevitable question to follow. Here is the rest of our conversation:

Doctor: Hmmm. So, where are you from in the US?
Me: New York City
D: Ah. I did my residency in Minneapolis. I loved it there, but I also loved NYC.
M: Yeah, Minneapolis is great. That must have been a big adjustment for you.
D: Yup, but it was great, I loved it because it's much more liberal than here. It was a good fit for me [wink]

I should add here that he DID ACTUALLY wink at me. I was like, whooooa. This appointment is taking a very different turn than I expected.

M: Yeah, that's why I like NY too. It's nice to be able to be myself. That's a lot more difficult here. [attempted wink which was more like a prolonged eye twitch]
D: How long are you here for?
M: One year. I don't leave until next February
D: Oh, that's great. [moment of thoughtful silence] Hey, I just remembered that there's a group of Americans from the Mayo clinic here right now. They're doing hand surgeries for kid's with congenital anomalies. I'm volunteering with them next week, let me make a phone call.

So he calls the head of this program, explains this kids case and that's that. They agree to do the surgery and we just need to call to set up a date. All I can say is hooray for family connections.

So this little dude had his surgery on Wednesday. It's pretty amazing, they removed his thumb (he didn't really have much of a thumb, just a knob where the first knuckle was), opened up his whole hand and slid his index finger down to where his thumb was. They didn't have to cut anything off, just slide it all down internally, so they don't have to worry about the tissue dying and him losing the finger. We just have to wait for everything to heal up now, and then we can start doing physical therapy to strengthen it all up. I can't wait to see it! Right now he's all wrapped up in a cast, so I'm doing what I love best, entertaining him with movies and cartoons on my comp. I'll have to download something new this weekend in Antigua because we've already blown through all the cartoons I have saved.

Boring day at work

Let me preface this by saying that I truly love when children perform. I think its super important to support creativity in kids and was always happy to go to one of my sisters' plays or band performances. I'd like to think that years of sitting through countless recitals has helped me develop a forgiving ear. That being said, our band here needs help. Serious, serious help. It's like they handed the kids some instruments and said, "Good luck!" They all play at the same time, but for the life of me I can't figure out if they're supposed to be playing a song or if they're just trying to see who can make the most noise. And lucky me, they've been doing in front of the clinic for the last hour! I think they're supposed to be "sending off" the visitors that have been here from Canada and it seems to be working well; I've never seen anyone load a car that fast before. Haha, ok, I'll stop being a jerk. All I can say is I hope the next batch of volunteers has a few more music teachers in it.

I've had a hard time concentrating on work today (though I can't solely blame my spontaneous orchestral accompaniment). It's really hard to write a Power Point presentation on a topic that I'm not really interested in, in a language that gives me a headache. Every time I try to do research I read one line and immediately think of 50 things that I would rather be reading. Staying focused has been a slight problem (as evidenced by me writing a blog post in the middle of the day). I'm giving myself twenty minutes to clear my head and then I'm going to get back to the grind, hopefully with a little more enthusiasm/determination.

Right now is fly season here which is just as enjoyable as it sounds. There are literally hundreds of house flies everywhere. You can't sit at your kitchen table without being constantly bombarded by them; a lot of people have taken to eating outside since the flies seem to prefer being indoors (or maybe they're just more tolerable when not sharing an enclosed space with them). We have fly traps everywhere but they're only moderately effective. We've been setting up more elaborate traps to trick them, like laying out a plate of food and then draping sticky paper on top. With the cold nights, the flies get really slow and just crawl all over the counters and floors; you can easily just walk around with a sticky trap and pick them up with it. It's pretty nasty. I'm hoping that this is a temporary thing and the flies aren't planning on sticking around all summer or else I might be eating my meals in my bedroom pretty soon (which so far has managed to stay fly-free). The two hottest months here are April and May and I don't know if that'll help or hurt things (my theory is a bit pessimistic but I'm holding out hope). Even though I don't really like hot weather I'm looking forward to the season change. The nights here are so cold but apparently not enough for us to be given thick blankets. Then again, I've spoiled myself the last few years with amazingly thick down comforters, so it's no surprise that I'd be cold with these thin little numbers they have here. I've managed to squirrel away a nice pile of them to help a bit, but I'm looking forward to getting to the point where the nights stay around the 50 degree mark. After that is rainy season which I REALLY want. I'm sure I'll change my tune once it's here, but it's really odd not having ANY rain for half the year. I've been here for three months and it's rained exactly two times, both of which caused the locals to proclaim how crazy global warming is and how they've never experienced this kind of weather before. I was super excited both times; I miss sitting inside listening to the sound of heavy rain. And how do all these plants stay alive with no water for eight months?! It makes no sense to me. The weather in the Northeast is much more understandable to me.

Okay, what else can I share with you... I started my monthly workshop with the HIV kids yesterday. It went really well, I've spent a lot of time with them so we're relatively comfortable together. Yesterday was more of a "hang out in the same space" day, we'll actually start talking about medical stuff next month. I learned something interesting though, apparently the stereotypes about Justin Bieber never made it down this way. All the guys (16-18 year old kids who are relatively cool) were thoroughly disappointed that I didn't have any of his songs on my computer. For a split second I thought about downloading some for them, but then I decided I'd rather help them develop better taste in music. I do need to download some Spanish music on my computer though, all I have now is English stuff which they seem to lose interest in really quickly.

Another lesson that I learned yesterday is that it's a good idea to visit the cafeteria workers mid morning. Tis Rosa needed to ask them some questions so I tagged along. They were busy preparing beef stew for lunch and gave us each a bowl. IT WAS SO GOOD! It reminded me a lot of my Mom's Irish stew which I've been craving hardcore the last few weeks. Here's some other dish that they're making to go along with the stew. I though it was salad until they added water to it and started boiling it, so who knows. Maybe cabbage and carrots? Anyway, that's not the important part. Check out the size of that pot! And I support cooking anything that requires you to use two hands to operate a wooden spoon. Love it.

This week on the homesteading front I've been researching using chickens to help with making compost, framing a simple building and off the grid toilet options! (I use an exclamation point to show that this is very exciting!) You should see the pages of notes I have on this stuff, too bad no one here wants workshops on how to build an outhouse.

Update

The sun finally found me! After three months in Guatemala, I now have my first sunburn. I'm actually really surprised that I was able to evade it for this long; my skin tends to act as a super UV concentrator and I feel like I'm burned more often than not. Luckily I brought a bunch of Irish caps here so I can protect my poor little bald head from further damage. I'm so glad this gives me a chance to stick out even more walking around here :P

Ah, but how did I get sunburned you ask. Let me tell you! It happened on my first day of interning with the gardener (okay, so I'm not REALLY interning with him, more like following him around bugging him to let me help him.) As would be expected on my first day, I was put to work doing menial tasks, namely bagging saplings for three hours in the sun. He showed me what to do and left me so he could go take care of his other work. It was actually really great, probably the quietest moment that I've had at the orphanage. I sat there on a log, digging out baby pine trees that had been started in the green house and then clumped together in the garden while they waited for bigger pots. I would fill a plastic bag with a combination of wood shavings and chicken manure, put a little tree in there, pack down all the filler and then line it up against the fence. It was mind-numbingly repetitive which is actually a good thing in my book. I love having time to zone out and let my mind wander, I feel like I dont have enough opportunities for that. I've watched The Karate Kid enough times to know that seemingly boring work assigned by master's in their field are never without lessons; lesson number one: wear a hat when you're outside. My head is on fire! And I know in three days I'll have to deal with a peeling scalp which is always horribly embarrassing.

The tree comes out of the ground. The tree goes in the bag. Repeat times 50.

The gardening was a lot of fun though and I told him that I want to start doing it every Saturday morning (which he seemed happy to hear). I'm hoping that as my gardening-vocabulary increases I'll be able to start learning a lot more from him. It helps that he has a special interest in foreigners, so maybe we can become chummy :) I'm already looking forward to next weekend!

After my garden stint I went into Antigua for English class with Juan Carlos. I worry that I started a bad trend with him, he's already asking if we can go on another trip together. Part of me is considering taking advantage of the offer since it's an easy and free way for me to see the country, but I really want to be having these experiences with my friends. I was able to brush him off but I know he's going to ask me again. I'll have to think about it this week. We did have a very interesting conversation this week about a wood stove he's building in his backyard though. He's using sugar cane and salt to cure it which sounds absolutely fascinating to me. I asked him if I could go to his house and check it out when it's done; the idea of cooking my food all with firewood is really appealing, especially if I'm going to off the grid. I doubt it would be something I could do all the time, but a wood fire pizza is always delightful ;) Anyway, I love to learn about construction and since I have limited masonry experience, it'd be a cool thing to see. And hello?! Curing with sugar cane?! Sounds super cool! He told me that he's afraid of spiders and scorpions (which apparently are NUMEROUS at his house) crawling into the cabinet he has for wood storage but he's afraid of using saws. If it looks simple enough I might offer to build some doors for him. Also, he wants to build a small pond in his yard and since I have some experience with that I might help him out with that too. He wants to build a filtration system that works with plants and rocks which sounds really interesting. I read about something similar a few weeks ago on a blog; its nice when different parts of my life line up nicely.

After class yesterday I hung out in Antigua with Charlotte and Stephanie. We went to see The Mechanic which was ridiculous but enjoyable since it was free. After the movie we went to this new American bar that went in a few weeks ago. I might have mentioned it in a past post, we went there a few weeks ago too. It was ok, not quite as enjoyable as the first time though (this could be because I didn't order mozzarella sticks last night). It's still nice hearing American music though. Nothing like some Sweet Home Alabama to make you feel like you're at home ;)

I hung out with my section today and watched Beauty and the Beast. For a lot of them it was the first time which I LOVE! I get such a kick out of them getting into the movie, laughing hysterically at the furniture fighting off the angry villagers and then getting amazingly silent when the Beast dies. It was a lot of fun.

Missing my family and friends a lot today. Only 11 more weeks, sounds like so much even though I know it'll go fast :(

I can't end on a depressing note, so here's my latest installment of "Look at this super cute kid I found"

Immigration

Charlotte, Stephanie and I were walking home from the market in Parramos last week and we started reflecting on how quickly time goes here; one day it's Monday, the next is Friday, and before you know it you're at the end of the month. I pointed out that this past Monday was going to mark my three month anniversary here (3 months of 14 months is 21.5%, not that I'm counting or anything...) Very nonchalantly Charlotte asked if I had gotten my visa renewed yet. I FORGOT ABOUT MY VISA!! This is TOTALLY my fault. Two weeks ago a group of volunteers went to the capital to get theirs renewed and invited me along but it was last minute and I didn't want to cancel all the things I had planned at work without proper notice. I didn't think it was a big deal since I'm in the city several times a week for med runs; I could just do it one morning before we went to the doctor's appointments. Well things kept moving and I totally put the visa out of my mind. Good thing Guatemala is a lot more forgiving with their foreign visitors than we are at home. I ended up going this morning to immigration and got away with paying a small fine (50Q or about $6.50) on top of the charge to renew the visa for three more months (117Q or $15). They need to keep my passport for a week to "process my request" which is silly, but I go back next week to pick it up with my new extension stamp. They let you stay for three months when you arrive, then you can ask for an additional three months; after that you have to leave. I'm very happy to report that when my visa runs out in three more months I'll be high-tailing it back to NJ to spend a week or two with my family and friends, something that I'm already needing, so I can only imagine how crazy I'll be then.

Other highlights of my day include calming an angsty teenager, scheduling several more charlas (now I'm doing 4-5 a week. I'm starting to think that my med runs may soon come to an end), and then I spent five hours reading about ducks for the Livestock 101 class I'm teaching myself ;) That by far was the best part of my day. Did you know that some breeds of ducks can lay more than 300 eggs every year? That's the same as chickens!

Homesteading

As much as I've been loving my experience here, my mind has been focused elsewhere for the last few weeks. I've always been a planner; I love to have at least a basic idea what direction I'm heading in. I find that when my future is murky I tend to feel like I'm in a rut and depression charges in fast and hard. After spending a few weeks feeling super depressed here (and after determining that home sickness was a contributing but not causing factor) I figured that it was time to sit down and start thinking about what my new and improved one, three and five year goals were going to be. That seems to have hit the nail on the head because now that I have my cogs rolling, I'm feeling a lot more enthusiastic and focused. Naturally, that doesn't mean I have my plans figured out yet. Right now I'm just brainstorming, but I'm doing it at a much larger level than I have before.

This trip and the months leading up to it threw me into new territory financially. Quick background: I moved out of my parents house when I was 19 and aside from a one year stint at Mom's house (which was not done out of necessity), I've lived relatively independently since then. There've been times when things were tight and I had to borrow some money to stay afloat, but those were few and far between; for arguments sake, I've spent the last 10 years supporting myself yet like most middle-class folks, in a near-constant battle to keep myself in the black. The last few years I've found myself in jobs that weren't satisfying or enjoyable but offered a larger paycheck. I feel like I was always looking for more money to give me just a little more breathing room (and therefore a little more freedom to do fun things). I'm now considering going back to school for a degree I'm not terribly passionate about simply because it'll give me more money. Is this really how I want to spend the rest of my life, constantly chasing down a bigger and better job to match my bigger (not better) lifestyle? Do I want to be 50, counting down the years until I can retire and FINALLY start living the life I want?

Obviously the answer to that is easy. I want to live my life now, not pass it off until I'm old enough to retire and hope that my body will cooperate enough to allow me to still enjoy myself then. I want to do the things that make me happy, even if that means living on a meager amount of money and making heavy cuts in the way I live. Seeing how people live here has opened my eyes to how wasteful we are in the states. People here are way ahead of the game when it comes to reusing items and energy efficiency, not because of environmental concerns but because of lack of money. It's made me realize that living frugally is totally possible and would open up a lot more opportunities for me to do the things that I REALLY want to do with my life.

So I sat down and thought, if I had all the money I needed and could do anything I wanted for the rest of my life, what would it be? I'd want to live in a cabin deep in the woods, have lots of privacy but still be close to my family. I want to have the opportunity to travel and help people, but I also want to spend the majority of my time at home, so I can raise a family of my own. I want to do build my own furniture and dig out a root cellar. I want to spend all day in my garden and fall asleep under the stars. Why not do that now? I can't imagine anything that would make me happier.

I've wanted to "live off the land" since I was a little kid. I remember reading My Side of the Mountain and falling in love with the idea of being completely self sufficient and surrounded by nature. That's one of the reasons I love backpacking so much, I love knowing that I can survive with some basic tools and supplies, all the other crap I have is fluff.

I've been really inspired by a ton of blogs I've been reading lately, especially www.WaldenEffect.org. There are tons of stories out there of people who got tired of the endless grind and constant need for MORE, so they simply took themselves out of the equation. They saved enough money for a bit of property, moved into a tent or built a little shack and lived there debt free forever. You can grow plenty of food to support a family, raise chickens and pigs for meat and manure and use the trees for heat and fuel. I would have no mortgage and super low food costs, that accounts for a huge chunk of my budget now. My bills would be limited to property taxes, electricity (with the goal of eventually switching to solar), propane for cooking (which could also be switched out to wood if I got REALLY gung-ho), phone/internet (which I couldn't live without-at least not right now), gasoline and car insurance. There would be start up costs but once I was established I should be able to live a relatively cheap existence for a really great lifestyle. Also I'm actually have a huge advantage as a nurse because I can even work telephonically part-time and continue to earn a pay check.

If you're wondering where travel fits in here, I figure if I want to do a volunteer stint like I'm on now, the winters will be dead time. I can easily travel and volunteer during these times (provided that I had someone to feed my animals while I was gone).

I've been doing a ton of research into Homesteading (the practice of living off the land) and I know that I can make this work. I'm going to use the next nine months here to build up my knowledge base, determine how much I need to save up, and then work my butt off for an early (semi-)retirement in the next three years :) To help me on my way I've taken up another volunteer position helping out on the farm here. Staring Saturday morning I'll be out there building up a relationship with the head gardener who will hopefully take me under his wing and teach me all there is to know about growing amazing organic vegetables! After an "internship" there for a few months, I plan on switching over to the granja or farm, where I'll learn about raising livestock like chickens, goats, cows and pigs. Hooray for a free education!

Here are some pictures that have had my heart racing lately, enjoy!

This house is a cob house, a home thats made from mud and straw for around $8,000. Lots of homesteaders have them since they're sustainable and super cheap to construct! DREAM. COME. TRUE.