Casa de Grapas (House of Staples)

Casa de Grapas. I planted some corn in my yard to the right of the house. It has already sprouted and this view should look a lot different in about one month when the stalks are higher.

Kitchen area

Four planks of wood: $8
Eight cinderblocks: $3
One piece of rope: $0.35
Homemade closet: Priceless

Bathroom, complete with hot-shower and pink shower curtain.
Yeah, that's right, pink shower curtain.

"Pila", or "sink that you use to wash everything that's too dirty to be washed inside".
Notice the compost container to the left; never thought worms could be so interesting.

Casa de Grapas

Casa de Grapas (House of Staples) has debuted in San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta. This was a huge personal upgrade for yours truly and has completely changed my experience. I feel much more integrated into the community now that I have my own place. I have neighbors I greet every morning and afternoon as I go to and return from work, I grocery shop for myself, and - in general - I have a much larger ownership over my life. This is not to say that living with my host family wasn't enjoyable, they are really solid people, but I constantly had this nagging feeling that I was a visitor in the town.

I've started to cook for myself a bit. I make my breakfasts and dinners, and eat lunch (the biggest meal in Guatemala) with my old host family to keep that relationship going. The standard breakfast has been either cereal with banana or the occasional four-egg omelet packed with veggies. Thanks to Mac for bringing down my French coffee press because now I can start the day with a freshly brewed cup of coffee, instead of a mixture of watered-down Nescafe and three table spoons of water. Dinners usually consist of some kind of starch and some black beans. I'll mix it up every now-and-then with a pack of mac & cheese from the market in San Marcos, but that's a rarity.

Another development is that I submitted my application yesterday for the President position of the Volunteer Advocacy Committee. The VAC, as it is known, is the elected group of eight volunteers (of 178) that represents the greater group of volunteers in any administrative context and serves as a support structure for all volunteers. Election results should be released in a couple weeks.

That's the latest. I'm heading home a week from Friday for my brother's wedding. Can't wait! More than the wedding itself, I can't wait to see family and friends; especially my sister's children who - I'm sure - have grown a ton since I've been gone.

Oh, and we beat "The Machine" in last Sunday's soccer game. That puts us in third place out of twelve teams. Playoffs bound!

August Action (pics below)

'Slow and steady' should be the mantra for August, which is fine with me.

The boys from the water projects had to return to their primary duties of meter reading and fixing the city's water tanks, which left Marcelino, Saul, and I to continue with the trails and fencing in the park. We lost a bit of momentum, but for our numbers we are advancing considerably. Marcelino and I worked out a system where he would go ahead of me, digging holes where our fence posts would go. I then follow, inserting the posts into the holes he dug and filling-in the space around them to secure the posts in their place. We're focusing on the posting first and are getting pretty efficient at it, having covered about 1km of our 1.5km trail.

The unexpected parts of working in the park have been both the most trying and entertaining. For example, we ran out of posting two weeks ago and had to bring in some more from a nearby coffee plantation. After the load was dropped off, we had to somehow get it from the entrance of the park to the point where we had left off with our work...about 1km away. With the very few resources that we have in the park, both economic and human, Marcelino and I had to haul 80lb loads of wood on our backs down into the park, using a what's called a 'nekapal' (pic below). The first three loads were fine, but after the 4th and 5th, supporting that kind of weight with essentially just neck and upper back muscles started to take its toll. But this is Peace Corps right? This should be expected, and it was actually pretty fun.

Another highlight of August (so far) has been the start of a new soccer league (pic of field below). I pried and searched all over to get myself on a team, and found myself one in '12:30'. 12:30, the team's name, is a San Rafael team made up of a bunch of young guys who I had met in town. Yours truly debuted at goalie, but after realizing how boring that position actually is I asked to be moved to forward. We have a big game on Sunday against 'The Machine', the team currently in first place.

In signing off, the best part of the past two weeks has been moving into my new house, but that is a whole other post in and of itself. More to come.

August Action Pics

The Refugio del Quetzal Team

Carrying one of many loads of wood using a nekapal

One of our trails, mid-construction

Breakfast in the park

Sunday soccer