Life on the coop

Living on the coop has been a cool experience. The community has embraced the Q´an Is, qeqchi for gringo or yellow hair. I have been invited to graduations, baptisms, and weddings. I´m currently living with the president and his family, which is a stones throw away from the office. This is my view when I shave in the morning.

I´ll be living there until the middle of January. After that, I´m moving to a two room apt in Coban. I´m slowly accumulating furniture for it. The food out in the coop is ¨different.¨ I haven´t ¨become adjusted¨ to cow stomach in salty broth or kidney soup; however, I tried them. Lets just say I´m looking forward to cooking my own food. The cooperative currently does not have running water, so in periods without rain I have been praying for downpours, so I can continue pooping inside. They tested the pump which will take water from a natural spring the other day. 20 men dragged a generator down a hill. They test was succesfull, but they realized their error when they had to bring the generator back up the hill. The solution: 2 oxen. This is me and the oxen.

The coop is also scheduled to get internet soon, so it will be amusing to see which service they get first: water or internet. As a result of always being around qeqchi speakers and classes several times a week, my qeqchi is coming along. I know its about as useful as learning German; however, it has really helped me intergrate into the community. And I now know if they are talking about me.

To use internet, I have to go into Coban and use an internet cafe. My intention was to post last Saturday, but Coban had no power...so it goes. I played on a YMCA-like baseball team for the day instead. I hope that becomes a routine saturday thing for me becasue it was a blast. But in terms of internet and posting, its not as easy as getting on the computer back home. Its slow, far way, and the guys who work at the internet cafes blair horrible music.

In terms of work, I has sent samples of tea home in the hopes of making some contacts for exporting with the help of my dad. I took pictures for their calenday/poster, which looks pretty good. I´ll try to bring home a bunch in March. I have begun trainings in Agricultural Best Practices for pruning and harvesting tea plants for the associates on the coop. How do I know how to prune and harvest tea plants? A previous volunteer left a text book on tea, so I have been studying up. Since Chirrepec is the only black tea farm in Guatemala, there aren´t alot of technicians around like the coffee industry. So, they appreciate all of the training they can get. There are about 300 associates, so training all of the pruners and pluckers will take some time. But, a group I trained last week has already implemented the new pruning technique and others are catching on. Since a powepoint presentation is kind of out of the question, I painted the proper pruning technique on wood boards to show the associates. I like to call it my Guatemala powerpoint slide. The idea behind pruning and harvesting trainings is improving the overall quality of their product. I´m also trying to organize their commercialization commitee. They don´t really have a sales team, so their is alot of room for improvement. The only hiccup regarding work was during a session in the field, I stepped on an ant hill and failed to realize it for a few minutes. I spent the next ten minutes getting the biting ants off of me as the guys I was with were laughing and saying that the ants only wanted the imported meat.

I got to meet a bunch of volunteers from Alta Verapaz two weeks ago, which was a nice break from life at the coop. My plans for Christmas/New years includes hanging out with some buddies in Coban for Christmas, hiking in Qiche, and New years at Lake Atitlan. Its been weird being here for the Christmas season. The plastic snowmen just don´t have the same meaning. But, I have been able to hear spanish christmas songs I haven´t heard since I was little. I hope everyone is doing well. My plan is to come home the first week in March for a week. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Swearing in, Chirrepec living situation, and Thanksgiving

After my site visit to Coban, where I met with all of the people from the coop office and a handfull of others, I returned for my last week of training. We went to the main office in Guate for an orientation with reps from USAID, the regional security officer for American Affairs, and the head of the US Consulate in guatemala. Peace Corps issued me a bike (a bicycle: peace corps used to issue out motor bikes but it was the number one killer of all volunteers), which will arive at my site the next time my APCD (associate peace corps director) visits me at my site over the next few months.


My host family, who recently was able to get a visa to visit their son in Boston, threw me a despedida dinner (going away dinner), which included fireworks.


For our swearing in ceremony, we went to the ambassadors residence in Guate. It is an amazing place with a huge garden, which includes a swimming pool and tennis courts. The rear wall of the compound is the old aqueduct of Guate City. Here are some pics from swearing in:

Picture of my training group:




Picture of my host mom and I:


Me and my buddy Joseph with our rockstar boots (about 15 out of 33 of us sprang for some rockstar boots):

After the ceremony, we headed for a night of partying in Antigua. The next morning I took a direct shuttle from Antigua to Coban, which is a million times easier than taking a camioneta to a point in Guate, taking a taxi to the bus station, and then taking a coach bus up to Coban, which was the way I took the first time. The price is about the same and the direct is not sketchy.

I met another ag markting volunteer at his house, for i had left all of my stuff there from the previous visit. The headed to my host families house on the coop (pictures to come over the next week or so.) My host dad is the president of the coop, and is extremely busy with other jobs also. My host mom works at the municipal office in Coban. They have a five year old son, and a woman fot the community that takes care of house hold jobs and looks after the son.

That first sunday, I went to see the coop soccer tournament, went to mass in Q´Eqchi´(i start lessons on Monday or tuesday of this week), and was invited to a graduation party, where I was asked to dance. This was a little awkward considering a previous volunteer at this site married someone from the community. This is not part of Mike´s Peace Corps plan. Anyway...

It is a weird, scary, overwhlming transition from being so close to all of your buddies, tech teachers, and then being sent all over the country to work for two years. Community Based training is supposed to simulate this, but it is still hard. Luckily, Thanksgiving was right around the corner and I was able to look forward to that to get me through the first week. Peace Corps set up interested volunteers with Embassy families, and PC directors for Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily, the ambassador invited 20 volunteers and me and 20 other volunteers from my class got to go. So, I left wednesday morning, met up with most of my training group buddies in Antigua, and went to the Ambassadors residence in Guate. He told us to bring our bathing suits, so I swam, played tennis, and had an amazing meal. The meal was extremely rich compared to the beans, eggs, and tortillas which has been the base of our meals for the past 3 months. So, many of us were queezy afterwards. But is was still awesome to have candid conversations with the ambassador. I spent Thursday and friday night in antigua, and then left for Coban again.

My plan is to live in the coop with the president for at least a month to integrate with the community, learn their customs, increase my q´eqchi learning, and gain some confidence with them. I will also save a significant amount of money not living in the center of coban or chamelco (7km away) So, I´m getting used to bucket baths, and life on the coop little by little. The bucket baths are actually better than the cold showers I was taking in santo tomas becasue they are warm. And, there are a handfull of volunteers nearby, so I´m not out in the middle of nowhere by myself; eventhough, it feels like it sometimes.
So.....

• Completion of training: check
• Move to my site: check
• Found place to live for the time being: check
• First of two thanksgiving away from my family out of the way: check
• First six months of TB pills out nof the way and three months till I can get drunk with my friends: check

Thank you for all of your emails, packages, thoughts, and prayers. This would be infinitely harder without them. Hope you are all doing well. Keep sending me updates from back home.

Packing plants, fender-benders, boots, and site assignment

Ok. So, its been a while since I posted, but this last week has been quite busy. Time is flying by. So...intro....I met other ag marketing volunteers, visited San Martin Hilotepquez, watched South Africa win the rugby world cup, went to a soccer game, met the US Embassador to Guatemala, worked in a packing plant, bought some awesome boots, took a field trip to Guate for ag marketing stuff, got my site assignment...Coban at the tea coop....holatchboi, got in a camioneta fender-bender, went to Santiago to watch 30ft. diameter kites fly in the air on All Saints Day, starting learning learning the mayan language Q'Eqchi'...now let me explain some of this nonsense.

Ag MKT Volunteer meet and greet:
All 12 current ag mkt volunteers came into the training center to discuss what they've learned over their time here, what they would do differently, etc. It was also really nice to meet all of the volunteers in our program to be able to network, etc.

San Martin:
We visited a volunteer who lived at the bottom of a hill from San Martin. She showed us the green been packing plant that she worked at and basically gave us a tutorial on better busines practices (structure requirements, cleanliness requirements, etc.) needed to obtain sanitary licenses in plants. There is only one road in and out (the road being dirt) so the security officer came and did a land survey to be able to land a helicopter in the soccer field if needed. The volunteer there was able to reduce the plant transport costs by $68,000/year because she read the fine print in english on the existing contract. And she got them $100,000 in retroactive taxes becasue she heard of a change in the tax law for exporting non-traditional goods(tea, beans, basically anything besides coffee, sugar, and a few others.) Thats awesome.

South Africa:
SA won the rugby world cup. I was able to catch the game in Antigua.

Santa Lucia vs. Chimaltenango U-22 soccer game:
I went to go see my host cousins team play. It was awesome soccer. For having such a shitty national team and league, these guys were pretty good. It was a close game full of fireworks after goals, yellow cards, guatemalan trash talking. But, they lost.

US Embassador to Guatemala Q & A:
The embassador came to talk with us last week. He is a career foreign service officer, an spoke to us about the elections (Colom ended up winning:he has been accused of corruption and narco trafficking), narco trafficking, and US /Guatemalan adoption, etc. Our swaearing in ceremony will be at his residence on the 16th in guate.

4 Pinos Packing Plant:
After visiting the smaller packing plant in San Martin, we went to go visit the varsity coop packing plant called 4 Pinos. These guys export a ridiculous amount of veggies a month and have Costco on their client list. We visited the fields, then sported the white lab coats and hair nets required to enter the packing plant. i was extremely impressed with the setup they have. the plant included packing areas, cleaning stations, labs, cargo platforms, etc. The point of the visit was to see that our small coops have the potential to turn into a well oiled machine with time, hardwork and dedication. After the tour, we got our hands dirty and helped the employees peal carrots, dehusk beans, pack, etc. Its really hard work. We left after an hour and the employees still has a long shift left.

Pastores Boots:
So I ordered some handmade leather boots. Think halfway between rockstar and cowboy boots. After trying to convert the size into a 40 something, the guy said,"Put your foot and the paper. I'll draw an imprint and fit it to that. " Sounds good. A week later and $40 US I had a baddass pair of boots.

Guate Ag MKT Trip:
We took another trip to Guate to find out about obtaining bar coades for products, visited the main tax office(SAT), and visited the country legalization inspector for the ministry of agriculture (a nice contact to have considering nearly all of our assignments could potentially involve this guy. In fact, my site (read on for site info) will be inspected by this guys this week. The following day we also visited La Terminal (really crappy dangerous market) and CENMA (the really clean and organized market none of the vendors like. Change can be a long road here)

Site Assignment:
I got assigned to the site I requested: The Chirrepec tea coop in Coban. Basically i am helping them increase sales, reduce production costs, in order for them to make more profits. According to guate law, profits from a coop have to be invested into the coop like infrastructure and services (electricity, water, schools, etc.) Five years ago they didn't have electricity, but they now have it because of the gains from selling tea. They have piping for water and are waiting for the pump to be installed. So, I might have water by January. So, by helping the coop make more money by selling tea, the quality of life of the coop is directly improving. I'm really pumped. i also have to learn Q'Eqchi', which is spoken by everyone. Most of the men speak spanish, but not all. More on Q'Eqchi to come in future postings.


Camioneta Fender Bender:
My camioneta got in a wreck last week. The bus driver hit the gas and the car in front of him did not. We waited for a few minutes and someone ran on the bus and told everybody to switch buses. So, I got on a bus with 600lb of tomatoes in the aisles. Each wooden box is 50lbs. The 1st had camioneta busted out the tail light of the car.

Todos Santos:
On all saints day, we got the day off and visited the town of Santiago, known for their humongous kites in order to communicate with the dead. Picture the number of people at a concert looking up at the sky and in front at 60ft stationary kites and smaller flying one, in the middle of a cemetary overlooking a huge valley. I forgot my camera like an idiot, but i'll try and get some from other peeps. A buddy of mine got his wallet stolen...bummer.

So, I finish training and move up to Coban on the 16th of November. I'm going to visit to find housing this wednesday-sunday. When I get back, I wrap up training, swear in, and become a PCV. Hope everyone is doing well.

Projects and Field Based Training in Coban

So, over the last 2 weeks I've been busy with marketing work and field based training up in Coban.

Marketing work

Just after the last post, I got extremely busy with my project work and preparation for my first "charla" or talk given to the family I've been staying with here in Santo Tomas. The charla was on the Five P's of Marketing, so hopefully the family can apply it to their farming business. I also had to turn in my project proposal to my tech trainer. All of the Ag. Marketing trainees have to take on a project with their families that can improve their income. I have chosen to "add value" to their tomato patch by making salsa. By the end of training, I have to give my family a post-harvest manual for how they can make more money by processing the tomatoes and selling it as salsa instead of selling it at the market as plain tomatoes. Needless to say, training has been hands on.

FBT in Coban

We drove four hours north to Coban in the Alta Verapaz department. Coban used to be a German settlement until the US preassured Guatemala to expell them at the beggining of WWII. Before the Germans were "asked to leave," they had extremely succesfull coffee and tea plantations all over Coban. So, we went there to learn about the coffee and tea process. We stayed at the Chirrepec Tea Coop for five days with Q'Eqchi families.

The accomadations were pretty rustic. My room had no door, a bed, a wooden chair, and a wooden shelf. The house had four 10 x 10 rooms. The bare bulb in the middle of the house hanging from the corragated tin roof could be seen from every room. In the mornings I would wake up and take a bucket bath in the corner of the cement kitchen. The corner had a little hole for drainage and was "covered" by a doubled over nylon tarp. I thought the nylon tarp provided some sort of barrier between my naked body and my host mom smacking tortillas every morning; however, I quickly learned otherwise after my host mom started bathing while I was eating my bean and tortilla breakfast. Lets just say the next day I faced the other way.

I was one of the only one of the trainees with a matress, which I thought was extremely fortunate until I got flees. Out of the training group of 33, about 20 have fallen victim to "pulgas." Bummer. However, the experience at the Tea Coop was amazing and I wouldn't have traded it for a five day stint at the Ritz. It is one of the possible sites for an Ag. marketing volunteer, so we'll see what happens.

Besides the tea coop at Chirrepec (Q'Eqchi word for cave of stone), we visited the Asociacion Nacional de Cafe Demonstration plantation. We learned about the coffee plant and processing.

We also met with a womans waevings group in Carcha, which is one hour away from Coban. I gave a talk on steps to obtain new clients and contacts. Unfortunately, the waevings market is completely saturated and these groups often don't cover costs.

After 5 nights at the coop, we moved to a hostal in Coban with running water, comfy beds, and a tv with dvd's. So, Coban is an very cool place, and its a jumping off point for all of the sites up in the Peten region like Tikal.

In summary, I saw coffee and tea plantations, a mayan woman saw me naked, and I got flees.

Guate, Weddings, SJP, and Hikes

Hello all. The last two weeks of training have been extremely busy with trips to the capital , 2 weddings, the indigenous kaqchikel town of San Jose Poaquil (near Tecpan), and a weekend filled with a hike, bbq, and rugby. My dad has warned me several times of my misspelled words, so I will do my beast. ;)

• Guate. So we took a trip into the capital, according to the Peace Corps plan of taking a bus to a certain stop, calling a specific cab company, and taking the cab to our destination in Guate. The city buses, prohibited by PC, look like they are nearing imminent explosion. So we followed PCs plan into the city, checked out the PC center (thats where my packages get sent to. Ahhheeeemmm!); however, the center will be moved to Santa Lucia in January for safety reasons. We also checked out the Ministry of Agriculture Prices office to find out price history on certain ag products for our projects, we found the embassy in case of something horrible happening, and found the hospital where PC has us go for anything from high fever, stool samples, broken bones. One of the volunteers had a bad stomache ache, and the nurses had her go to the hospital. The called her parents back home to tell them she was in the hospital. Basically, don´t freak out if you get a call from the PCMO saying i´m in the hospital. I might just be pooping in a cup.
• I went to two weddings last week. So, after seeing multiple weddings ion Magdalena(I´m not that popular. The host famlies here invite us) I noticed certain things. At both receptions, the music was extremely loud. I´m talking 6 ft speakers in front of the weeding party table at full volume. It is a very serious even with a handful of people smiling. A couple people dance, but not like weddings in the US. However, there is alot of good food and I feel lucky that I got to experience them.
• San Jose Poaquil was where PC sent me for my Peace Corps Volunteer Visit. I visited another Ag Marketing volunteer, which was nice because she gave me her view on everything, we got to see their places, and ask a gazillion questions. On the second day, I got to go with the volunteer to a talk she was giving, along with some people from her NGO, to a room full of kaqchikel woman about secret voting to elect an executive board. It is a weird feeling sitting in a room of indigenous woman, in a foregin country, in a strange town, and feeling comfortable. Besides getting caught in a wicked downpour on the way there, and sleeping on a inflatible matress not build for 200 lbs of fighting fury, I had a really good time.
• Last weekend we, trainees from Santo Tomas (where I am) and Magdalena, met up to go hiking up to an Ecological Park, created by a past PC volunteer, bbqéd, and caught the USA South Africa Rugby game in a bar in Antigua (about a 45 camioneta ride away)

The website is not letting me put any photos on the post for some reason, but check out the link on the right to check them out. Hope everybody is doing well. I love getting email updates, so please keep ém coming...

Par For the Course

So after being in country for almost 3 weeks, I have observed a few patterns:

1. My main mode of transportation has been the North Miami Community and Tippicanoe Valley County Yellow School Buses. The original designers of these buses intended the seats to hold 2 children per seat; however, Guatemalans like to squeeze 3 adults in the same seat. Par for the course!



2. Municipal Elections, as well as national elections, occured last week. My host family is very pro-"Mano Dura." (Hard Hand) I woke up at 11:30 Pm ( I go to bed early b/c the rooster wake me up early) when someones phone went off with the news that the Mano Dura candidate for mayor won. The house erupted (all five people sleeping in the parents room, even though i only live with one couple) and fireworks were set off (m-80 cost 25 cents at the local tienda.) Guatemalans love fireworks and set them off at a hint of a reason to celebrate. Caravans of honking cars drove through the streets until 1:30AM. Then roosters woke me up at 5:30Am. Par for the course!



3. Last Saturday was the Guatemalan Independance day. Myself and some other trainees near Santo Tomas went to the Park to see some of the local customs including the Palo Asavado or greased pole. We were sitting on a bench at the park waiting for the event to start, when a drunk "bolo" with rubber boots, dirty black jeans, and a independance skating hoody approached us with an outstretched hand. His fly was down and his "situation" was visible. The Municipality was passing out chicha (think papaya, gasoline with eu de fart.) The bolos did not need any more but were being handed free cups of chicha. Par for the course!



4. So, the greased pole. Think of a 65 ft telephone pole stripped and greased with cash prizes at various heights with Q500 at the top. At 3:00PM the drunks attempted to conquuer the greased beast. The would stand on top of eachothers shoulders (an impressive feet in itslef becasue they had a hard time standing) They would fail to get any higher than 15 ft, would slide down and fall over. Finally after the bolos had lost all strength to continue, the varsity greased pole team stepped in. They would systematically climb the pole that had been wiped down by someone before them, climb alittle higher, wipe a little grease, and trade off.

They managed to climb the first half in the first hour, and the last part took about another hour. By then, only won had the skillz needed to master the climb and wipe method.

Check out the video that I took of the guy reaching the top.

The town does this every year on Independance Day. It was a blast to watch. And was par for the course!

I'm doing well and I'm happy to be here. My host family has taken me in as one of there own. Although not close enough to sleep in their room. Spanish and tech training are going well. I'm currently working on a project to help my family understand costs of producing tomatoes and how to add more value to some of their products. I feel much more relaxed about the whole thing here. But still miss everyone at home. This Sunday I head out to San Jose poaquil. a.k.a. SJP to visit a volunteer for 3-4 days to see what its like to be out on your own. Let me know how things are going on the home front.

Training Started

Hello all. So, I arrived in Guate a little over a week ago. During a 4 day in-country orientatation in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas (location of training center), we got a crash-course in Peace Corps policy, multiple immunizations (more to come), a Peace Corps suitcase full of meds, health ed, language training, etc. The rest of the trainees are all very nice and come any where in between Puerto Rico and Alaska. The average age is 26. During the orientation, most trainees stayed with families, but a handfull of trainees, including myself, stayed at a local hotel. Our meals were prepared by the owner and served in her garage at a table. After the orientation, they broke us up into 3 different projects: Ag. Mkt, Ag. Food Security, and Municipal Development. Within those groups, they broke us up again into language profficiency groups. They sent us to other surrounding towns to live and study (community-based training.) So, I currently live in a town called Santo Tomas Milpas Altas about 1.5 km away from the training center. There is only one other trainee in my town. We meet up with the rest of the big training group about once a week, and we meet with othger Ag. Mkt trainees about 3 times a week. The towm I live in is the real deal. Some people live in cinderblock houses with corragated tin roofs, while others linve in houses made of wood. The house I´m living in now (see pictures) is nice. I have my own room, there is running water, and there is electricity. I take a cold shower everyday (my host mom calls it ¨tivio¨ which means lukje warm. Its not. I brush my teeth, clean my hands, etc in a pila (see picture.) For brushing teeeth, i use purified water becasue the tap water can make you really sick. I have been using purified water, and I have had an interesting experience with bowl movements. I´ve been super busy with technical training, spanish classes, meeting the mayor of Santo Tomas. I visited Antigua, which was beautiful. And I bought a phone. Almost all volunteers have them. Peace Corps provides you with a small amount of walk-around money, so i used mine i saved up to buy a phone. Peace Corps almost requires you get one, so they can keep in touch with you for safety reasons, health, etc.

So, thats what I´ve been up to. How am i taking all of this in? It was cary as hell when Peace Corps vans dropped you off at a strangers house, in a strange place. And, the thought of staying in this environment for two years really freaked me out. But the initial panic of being dropped in a different cluture (not traveling but L-I-V-I-N) eventually wore off. And, sharing experiences with other trainees helps. You aren´t doing this by yourself. Let me know what everybody is up to, so I´m not completely out of the loop. I think I want to visit home in 6 months for about a week to recharge. After that, I would love visitors.

Guatemala Rankings and Fun Facts

World Rankings

According to The Economist World In Figures 2007, Guatemala has the 2nd highest concentration of ozone in the world. Their Air Quality Score is the 2oth lowest in the world. They are the 39th most economically dependant on Agriculture. They have the 9th highest % of men in the work force. And, they have the 59th highest number of marriages a year.

Fun Facts

Guatemala has two Nobel Laureates. Rigoberta Menchu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples," making her one of three Latin Americans to ever win the award. Miguel Angel Asturias won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967 "for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America," making him one of five Latin Americans to ever win the award.

Guatemala has 3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites:
1) Antigua Guatemala
2) Archeoligical Park and Ruins of Quirigua
3) Tikal National Park (pictured at the top of the blog)

Assignment

I received a phone call 3 months early inviting me to Guatemala. I accepted the position of Marketing Facilitator for the Sustainable Agricultural Development Project. What does that mean? The overall purpose of the project is to increase the quality of life of Guatemalan rural communities by promoting sustainable farming practices for food security and income generation.

I have two objectives:

1) Provide techincal training and technical assistance with efficient practices and functions in agricultural marketing to 940 farmers in 40 communities.

2) Provide technical assistance in adding value to farm products in harmony with the environment to 280 farmers in 40 communites.

The main focus of the Marketing component is to show small farmers how to earn mopre money from their farms. This involves market research, analyzing production costs and profits, and developing a marketing and production plan.