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...