1 down, 23 to go

What a whirlwind of a first month. April in San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta proved to be a taste test of all the unexpected challenges, new experiences, and emotions that I was expecting from my two-year service. I had plenty of ups-and-downs with work and getting settled-in, but overall I really like my site and the work that I'll be doing here.

The park to which I've been assigned is called the Refugio del Quetzal, a terrain of about 8,000 square kilometers, that the current mayor bought during his first term. It serves as one of the few remaining habitats for the national bird of Guatemala, the quetzal (pictures below). The bird itself has been on the brink of extinction for a number of years due to deforestation and habitat destruction, an unfortunate common theme in Guatemala. Our goal is to preserve their environment, improve their numbers, and hopefully open the park to tourists in the future to generate revenue for the community of San Rafael.

In my first month we've already made some good progress. During Semana Santa we started a log book of all the visitors, giving us good marketing information on the profile our average visitor. We also asked for voluntary donations from our visitors, which generated about Q600/$85 in four days, enough to pay for a few tools and wood to continue building-up the basic infrastructure. As far as the infrastructure of the park, we basically have none. The trails need attention, we don't have letrines, and there's no place to throw away garbage. So we started small this month and are really focusing on improving the entry to our park with better stairs and drainage. I've also put together a budget for our most basic needs (tools, manual labor, and materials) to develop the first part of our trail. The total is about Q14,800/$2000. Now we just need an outside organization to help with the financial support, which is definitely the part that will stall our process the most.

Early pics from San Rafael

San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta

Refugio del Quetzal

Quetzal, national bird of Guatemala

Saul swinging from a vine

Arrival, Training, and Swear-In

The air in the Aurora International Airport was thick and heavy as we walked out of the gate of Flight 1033 from Miami. I drew in a deep breath that quivered with blend of anticipation, anxiety, and the resignation of giving-in to the complete unknown. Looking out from the huge panel windows that enclosed the airport, I could see that Guatemala City was not a forgiving place. Like many third world capital cities it had the corrugated tin-roof hovels, a layer of smog, and vast sprawl of a city that seemed to have crept up on its inhabitants. I had seen capital cities like this before, but knowing that this would be my home for the next two years was a daunting prospect. Not knowing where I would live, what I would be doing, who my friends would be, if I'd have friends, and all the other question marks and unanswerable questions combined into a weight that began to suffocate me. "Well, this is it...Peace Corps," I quietly said to myself.

As I slowly settled-in to my surrounding over the next month, the weight of unknowns slowly lessened. I made friends, felt encouraged by the efficacy of Peace Corps training and their support structure for their volunteers, and formed a great relationship with my host family in San Antonio Aguas Calientes where I lived and worked during our three-month training period. Before I knew it, not only was I accustomed to the new lifestyle complete with chicken bus public transportation and the occasional bucket bath, but I began to appreciate its simplicity and earnestness. Every night I sat around the dinner table with my host family after the standard dinner of eggs, black beans, and tortillas (to fill the gaps that the other two left). With no T.V. or other distractions, we were forced to enjoy each other’s company; chatting, laughing, and sharing stories from the day. Also, being a town with a 97% population of Mayan Kaq'chikel inhabitants, there were many dinner conversations between mothers, grandmothers, and grandfathers in the local Mayan language (called Kaq'chikel). I found those conversations to be the most interesting, ironically enough because I had absolutely no idea what they were saying. The language, phonetically, was like nothing I had ever heard before; a guttural blend of clicks and hard-stopping consonants. Unfortunately, like the other twenty Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala, spoken Kaq'chikel faces extinction due to the disinterest of up-and-coming generations who prefer to invest their time learning English.

San Antonio crew with Jorge (Spanish teacher)

Development work is a slow process, period. It's unlike any other field to which I've been exposed and it definitely has pluses and minuses. During my three months in San Antonio I got my first taste of development work with a local women's cooperative of weavers who were looking to better market their goods and - in general - increase revenues. Luckily I was not alone and had the help of three other stud volunteers: Molly, Brittany, and Maria. Combining our experience, creativity, and problem solving skills the four of us met with the group (or their leaders) every Friday for three months to give them a better set of tools to compete for their share of the incredibly saturated Antigua woven goods market. The philosophy of Peace Corps work is "capacity building". That's to say that in every thing we do, the single objective our work is sustainability. With the women's cooperative, they were involved in just about every step of every process we did. They learned how to organize themselves, how to work as a team, basic business tools (marketing, cost-benefit analysis, etc.), and - at the end of our three months - hosted a two day cultural fair in San Antonio to attract tourists from Antigua where they sold typical Mayan food and their woven goods...not bad for a group of ladies who didn't receive high school education and grew-up in a severely machista culture. There were frustrations, but overall we had a very positive experience and were satisfied with our work.

Doña Irene preparing for Day 1 of the two-day cultural fair

After the three months, the thirty-two volunteers in my class swore-in as real deal Peace Corps volunteers on March 27th, 2009. I had the honor of speaking on behalf of the group at the swear-in event, which was held at the Ambassador's house, and gave a ten-minute speech in Spanish following the Ambassador to thank everyone who helped us during our training.

At swear-in with Ambassador McFarland

Now I start my two-year service where I expect a whole new suite of challenges: gaining the confidence of my co-workers, community integration, and dealing with general isolation. The fact that I'm a new volunteer in a new site adds a whole other layer of complexity as well. The list of challenges is long, but I welcome them with open arms.