Just Another Day in Nahuala
Sorry if it’s been awhile since I last wrote, things have been sorta crazy lately! I’m not even sure where to begin….But from the recent barrage of emails asking about Wednesday’s earthquake and my own personal safety (thank you all!), I guess I found my starting point. To be quite honest, you guys probably know more about it than I do. We actually had a couple of tremors last Friday while my old college roommate (Anna) was visiting Guatemala. Both of us were sleeping at the time, and we felt ourselves shaking in bed. Only after it was over did we confirm with each other what had just transpired…I personally thought it was all just a dream at first. Yesterday’s quake was a teeeeeeeny bit stronger! It was around lunchtime, and I was at my house typing something up on my laptop. I felt the tremor, and for some odd reason, I couldn’t move. (Thinking fast in an emergency is evidently not my thing!) So I just sat there and watched everything in my kitchen cupboard crash to the ground. Then the whole foundation of my house really started to shake, so I clumsily snapped out of it, ran to grab some shoes and then eventually out the door. I don’t really want to be inside a Guatemalan house during an earthquake, especially the second story. So after it was all said and done, the only evidence is a slight crack in one of the support beams of my ceiling. No big deal right!
Not only has the ground been quivering lately, but buckets have literally started falling from the sky. Another rainy season has arrived! My first clue was the flying cockroaches that took over my house for a couple of weeks. Evidently, they come out right before the rainy season (only at night), and luckily, they don’t stick around too long. These cute little creatures gave me quite a headache for awhile. First of all, they made going to the bathroom just a little bit difficult…as soon as I walked out of my house to get to the toilet, they would attack me and hold on for dear life. (There were mounds of them hiding in the crevices of the wall and lurking around my front door.) I would come back in and have them in my hair and pajamas….disgusting. Also, I have several missing window panes and gaps underneath the door frames, so I had to duct tape any breathing space, previously providing fresh air, because they were getting into the house and into my bed. After waking up several nights in a row with them crawling on my face and hearing them flap around, I developed a nightly routine of 1) going to the toilet before dark and holding it until the morning 2) Investigating the population in my house each night and killing them with a shoe 3) Sleeping in my mummy bag with the zipper all the way up to my face and 4) Wearing my headlamp to sleep so I could at least see them coming at me. So by the time the rain came, needless to say, I was ready for it…enough of those little buggers! Of course, now I have to deal with 1) the flooding of my outdoor bathroom (there is always an inch or two of rain, which means, if I am not wearing high-waters, my pants are always soaking wet from the calf up), 2) sporadic electricity (candle sales are up, and internet in the afternoons is virtually impossible), and 3) walking in the pouring down rain to the villages where I teach (my wardrobe these days consists of a rain jacket, rain pants, and my water-proof boots). And they say the rainy season lasts until September…somebody shoot me now!
At least I have an excuse for not exercising anymore:) I was trying to do a walk/hike everyday to get in shape (if that’s what you want to call it) but it ended up being a brief undertaking. It’s not very enjoyable when you have townspeople stopping you every five minutes to ask if there is an emergency or whether you need a lift….exercise is a completely foreign concept here. (It’s a little tiring when you have to explain why you are walking so fast, and that you are actually enjoying it!) So then I found an alternate route through the woods, but even this became a little depressing. Cutting down trees is illegal here, so people just hack down all the branches, leaving a couple twigs at the very very top. Greeting the lumberjacks each day on my path, I started noticing that I had to walk further and further into the woods to find any resemblance of a tree. Maybe the rain will prevent them from working for awhile…
Speaking of work, I guess I should explain some of the photos that I posted yesterday. You are looking at a Nahuala celebrity…no autographs at this time please. The radio held a huge event in our ‘central park’ – and asked moi to be one of the keynote speakers. I even received a formal diploma for participating (which is now sadly hanging from my wall.) Anyways, I spoke in front of our townspeople for merely 10 minutes, explaining the significance of microcredit, the benefits, the overall process, and where they can get more information. It was raining cats and dogs at the time so who knows if anyone could hear me! But it was a live broadcast so whoever was listening to the radio got to hear my lovely Spanish southern drawl…
As for the other pics, they are of me teaching class to my women’s groups. Lesson topics can vary considerably….because if I do too many business charlas in a row, the women tend to get a little bored. For example, after giving a class on quality control, I spiced up the next session with a recipe for carrot cake. (The women here use the firewood stove shown in the picture – and they are usually not aware of how to create a make-shift oven for baking cakes and cookies. Of course, I try to do recipes with veggies or fruits to subtly give a lesson in nutrition). And then following a charla on how to look for new markets and new opportunities, I taught them how to make home-made candles. We are still in the process of creating a catalog of all of the products that they can make, and we plan to stay overnight in Antigua in July to visit some potential vendors. I am trying to get them to think outside of the box as far as products that they are able to produce. So, as an example, I took some of the headbands that my mother is currently making in the US (she sent some in a package that are made of ribbon) and showed them how easy they are to make and how little materials you need. I meant them only as a demonstration, but then ended up giving one to each of the little girls because they absolutely fell in love with them! Another material that is really easy to find around here is thread (duh, cause everyone weaves) – so I came up with a design for earrings made out of only thread. BUT, I can’t teach them how to make them until I learn myself!! It sounded like such a good idea, but I am having trouble getting a pair to actually look decent…I know, I’m not my mother’s daughter. But if you want to know what I do at night, it’s basically arts and crafts class with me being the only student! (As mentioned above, the women typically bring their children to these classes – so I started a game with all of the children on learning how to save money – well, in this case, learning how to save candy. At the beginning, I gave each kid one piece of candy and told them that if they had the same piece of candy for next time, I would give them a second piece. The second class rolled around, and the kids that still had the one piece of candy were given another. And so it goes…The kids are up to four pieces of candy now, and they are DYING to eat one! I told them that if they still have the four pieces for next time, they will get to eat the fifth. I am extremely surprised with their restraint….I would have been too tempted by now. So, anyone that is sending me a package, please include some yummy candy for the kids!)
Another project that has been keeping me pretty busy is the Nahuala Center for Women, which is through the mayor’s office. This project is in its beginning phases and we haven’t actually accomplished much so far. But, funny story, I had to go visit the mayor one day to get his approval for a project and to see whether we could open up a bank account in the name of the center. So, I am waiting outside his office, and his secretary tells me I can go ahead in. I step into the office, and evidently he is holding his weekly cabinet meeting. There are about 20 men inside, all sitting or standing around the exterior of the room. There are a couple of chairs placed in the middle, right in front of his desk, so he asks me to take a seat. Talk about intimidating! I had to sit there and explain the project, what kind of help we needed from him, and the impending budget – all with the knowledge that all eyes were on me. You would have thought he would have told me to come back another time, or excuse the gentlemen in the room, but NO, I think he did that just to be a jerk! Anyways, it wasn’t the most pleasant experience, and he also wasn’t the most pleasant person to have to deal with (cough, arrogant). He told me that we couldn’t open a bank account in the name of the center, but that we could have the money deposited into his wife’s account, and then she could hand over the money from there…now that doesn’t sound sketchy does it???
In order to get things going on this project, we needed the support and participation of the elected board. So, I, along with a local NGO called CODEIN, made a house visit to each one of the members of the board (9 women) to get their buy-in and prod the process along. One woman lives pretty far out of town in a really small village, and when we arrived by pickup, it was evident that the children in town had never seen a gringo (white person) before! Also amazing, none of the children spoke Spanish, couldn’t even understand Spanish. I tried to ask one kid what his name was, and finally asked the question in Quiche so that he would answer me back. The kids were pretty scared of me – if I even walked near them, they would scatter about. It was pretty crazy to see the differences in communities when you go just a little bit further out! This particular community is pretty sheltered from the outside world…and I mean just Guatemala.
Alright, this particular post has gone on long enough….I am way too long-winded! More to come soon….
Besos,
Carin
P.S. Okay, I have one more story! I ran into a friend yesterday that was breast-feeding, so I commented on how beautiful her baby was. Come to find out, this wasn’t her baby…it was her brother’s baby! She was breast-feeding her niece…No offense, I love my sister-in-law, but the idea of breast-feeding Halle or Grant makes me want to vomit!
posted by Carin Robinson @ 7:27 AM
