This is a view at a mirador (lookout), one of many around my CBT site. Below you can see the aldeaan outlying rural village of a larger municipality of Chirijuyú.

Chirijuyú (chee-ree-hoy-YOU) has a small population and is largely an agricultural village. The hills around the aldeaan outlying rural village of a larger municipality are covered with coffee farms, güisquil (a type of squash I think), frijoles, and radishes.

You can also see a stadium there and a school to the right of it. At the stadium on Sundays there are games played by teams composed of adult men and younger men in the mornings and afternoons.

There is apparently a restaurant that’s well-hidden in Chirijuyú that has french fries and milk shakes — a little bit of Americana in a lot of Guatemalana.

The volcanoes in the background are Volcán de Fuego (center) and Volcán Acatenango (center right). Gorgeous, no? And I get to see it every day.

Just a quick little update since there won’t be a major blog post today.

There is a lot happening in Guatemala. Please bear with me as I digest it. And the things that are happening don’t seem related so forgive me if the transitions seem forced or absent. This gringo only knows so much Spanish and Guatemalquismo that he can only see the surface of any event. As I become more comfortable with my surroundings I’ll be able to understand the background and threads of commonality.

Isn’t Guatemala beautiful? Granted that’s just one view of Guatemala but the scenery here is outrageous. The volcano above is of Volcán Agua. To our right (cropped out of the picture) are Volcán Fuego and another volcano whose name I forget. Volcán Agua is dormant but Volcán Fuego is very much alive. Each day that I spent in Santa Lucía Milpas Altas it sent out smoke. Which you can view as a good thing — its pipes are open at least!

Because I’m new to the community I haven’t taken many pictures with my camera. Digital cameras are for tourists and rich people so while I’m a PCTPeace Corps Trainee, after stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country and before active service/PCVPeace Corps Volunteer, an active volunteer serving in country I won’t be either of those. Needless to say I’ll build some more confianza with the locals until I whip it out and take pictures of my rather picturesque CBT site. Until then, here is a photo of the center of the PCPeace Corps offices.

The central courtyard in the Peace Corps offices

To recap my first week here in-country:
Day 0 (20110104) – Stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country in DC. An introduction into the PCPeace Corps and several ice breakers. After stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country you are officially a PCTPeace Corps Trainee, after stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country and before active service.
Day 1 (20110105) – Arrived in Guatemala City and took PCPeace Corps-approved and -rented chicken buses to the PCPeace Corps offices in Santa Lucía Milpas Altas. Paperwork and sessions. Then shown to my home for three days.
Day 2 (20110106) – LPILanguage Proficiency Interview. The interview in the local language upon arriving in-country that sorts you into different language proficiencies: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Native. Those first three are further subdivided into Low, Medium, and High. It's hoped that you can achieve Intermediate Medium at the very least. If you start higher than that it is hoped that you can achieve Advanced Low.. I tested into Intermediate Low (or Intermediate Toddler/Dumb as we call ourselves). Already loving my host family.
Day 3 (20110107) – We find out our CBT site which for security purposes we can’t make publicly available. Mine’s pretty bitchin’ though. We also receive medical kits and chloroquine for malaria. Last night with
Day 4 (20110108) – I arrive at my new CBT site with my new familia Guatemalateca. For rooms for PCTs and PCVs there are certain minimum requirements set by the PCPeace Corps. There must be a door to the outside, any door must lock, there must be a bed, somewhere to put clothes, and a desk. Today is a free day to spend with my family.
Day 5 (20110109) – Today is my first full day with my family and another free day. I awake to my host mother knocking on the door. When I open it she asks if I feel sick. I say No (I don’t feel sick) and she explains that she thought that because I was sleeping so late that I must have been sick. I woke up at 9am.
Day 6 (20110110) – Today is the first day of my classes in CBT. The first few weeks of PSTPre-Service Training, the first 9 − 12 weeks (generally) in-country. For Guatemala, 11 weeks is spent mainly in Spanish lessons while the last few weeks of PSTPre-Service Training, the first 9 − 12 weeks (generally) in-country. For Guatemala, 11 weeks are spent on work skills lessons. We met at another CBT sitemate’s house for the lessons with an hour break for lunch.
Day 7 (20110111) – Today is my first day back at the PCPeace Corps offices. We were issued cell phones with free calls to other PCTs, PCVs, and PCPeace Corps staff. We also have a certain amount of national and international minutes so Mom & Dad expect a call as soon as I figure it out.

Generally though my CBT site looks to be a fun place so far. On the day that I arrived (20110108) the town is celebrating its inauguration as a municipality into the departamentoit's analogous to a state in the United States of Sacatepéquez. There was a feriaa fair, or block party for the city commemorating something for this which included speakers, an unveiling of a plaque commemorating this moment, a ribbon cutting on the new palacio municipal (city hall building), and food for everyone! Well, food for the locals since the PCPeace Corps rightly warns us against eating street food. There was even talk that the vice president of Guatemala would be there but he never showed. The inauguration was fun mainly because I could understand most of what was said but the inauguration was also boring because, in Guatemalan fashion, why say one thing for 5 minutes when you can say one thing for 15 minutes.

This is also the week that the local Catholic church celebrates something. Which means that at 5:30 in the morning they blast music from their loudspeaker and then fire off bombasLoud cracking fireworks. The kind that are shot up and that provide no giltz but whose gunpowder is used solely to make a loud boom.. If you can sleep through this then you must be a saint (perhaps that’s why they’re celebrating?). Which is why I slept in on Sunday morning when I wasn’t sick. Which is also why I’m writing this entry at 5:45 in the morning on Monday.

All in all I am having a thoroughly great time here in Guatemala. Sure I miss my family and pets but I’d rather be nowhere else. Je ne regrette nien.

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If you are a future PCVPeace Corps Volunteer, an active volunteer serving in country then I highly recommend taking a Kindle with worldwide coverage. Check the coverage map beforehand but at least here in Guatemala there’s plenty. From it you can receive books, sure, but where it really pays off is in its web browser. You’ll have to make a list of the mobile-friendly sites but all you’ll really be checking is email and social networking sites (Facebook sucks on the Kindle, fyi).

Three more days until it starts, four more days until I’m in Guatemala. I can’t believe it. It all happened so fast and yet took forever. It has been over a year since I first submitted my application and yet if I could have just one more day…

These past few months, as the sands in the hourglass dropped grain by grain, I’ve been trying to ease myself into a slower life. Up until then I would have a smartphone on hand or nearby while listening to music or watching TV. There would always be something to keep my mind occupied. I would get bored watching a TV show so I’d flip on my phone only to realized that nothing new had happened in the past 2 minutes since I last checked it.

I’ve dropped 90% of the feeds from my feed reader, dropped almost all of my email subscriptions, stopped watching TV and unsubscribed to all but 3 podcasts. It may be overboard but it was necessary. I was filling any downtime with a distraction; something to divert my attention. No more. I hope to be more present in my life.

In the past week I saw almost all of my family, sold my car, dropped my auto insurance, and I’m poised to drop my cell phone plan tomorrow. It was great to see my family one last time before heading to Guatemala. When I was originally nominated for a September departure I would have missed Thanksgiving and Christmas so I am very thankful for my new January departure.

To all my friends and family thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping make me the person who I am. Please know that you have made this dream possible.

A hearty congratulations to my cousins Shea and Skyler for winning the Tennessee state football championship!

I never would have thought that I’d spend a Saturday at a championship game for any state but I had a great time!
It was bittersweet, too, since I will not see them again until I return from Guatemala. Both Shea and Skyler will be in college by then figuring out what they want to do in life and what type of person they want to become. A heavy burden, but with this championship under their belt hopefully they can carry themselves with more confidence. Best of luck, guys!

Finally the check list is complete!  I have made peace with the online toolkit.

Looks can be deceiving. Expecting a that Magical Blue Envelope? Think again. Think white!

As I stated in my previous post I awoke to the news that I had been invited to serve with the Peace Corps.  From having spoken to my Placement Officer (exactly one calendar month earlier no less!) I had expected to only hear something from the Peace Corps mid-November when, I assumed, I would be asked for an updated resume.  Lo and behold I received my invitation!

But an invitation so soon? I guess with this past brush with my earlier nomination (Paraguay leaving 29 September 2010) I had expected 6 to 8 weeks notice for an invitation.  I was expecting to have to carry this anxiety for another few months before it would be resolved with an invitation.  So an invitation so soon, I thought, would mean that it was an invitation to serve in a country other than the one I have been most recently nominated for (January 2011 in Central or South America).  Thus I raced over to the Peace Corps Wiki Timeline and looked up countries which had stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country dates in the following months.  Costa Rica was the only other CSA country leaving before the New Year but it was way too close to the stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country date to receive an invitation just now.  That left Lesotho, Guinea, and possible Thailand.  To receive an invitation from the Peace Corps is an honor in and of itself so it would not have bothered me to be placed in any of those countries but it Asia or Africa would have been a far departure from CSA like I had thought for the many long months.

I received a call telling me that an envelope had been found on the front door to my place about half an hour before work had ended and I could hardly wait to get home.  Fortunately I only have a 5 minute commute home but I swear there was more traffic today than there ever has been!  After waiting for my parents to arrive I opened it and…

GUATEMALA!

Congratulations! It is with great pleasure we invite you to begin Guatemala for Peace Corps service.

I am absolutely thrilled to be going to Guatemala and I am honored to have been invited.  As a member of the Peace Corps, my job will be Sustainable Community Tourism (it’s in the Environment section).  Basically, what that means is that I will be helping the community to develop sustainable activities and areas for ecotourists.  Doing so will align a source of income and jobs with helping the environment.  I cannot be more excited to start.  Fortunately I have 3 and a half months for this rollercoaster of emotions to work its way out of my system.

Though I have my invitation far in advance than what I thought I still have plenty of things to get done and wrap up before my service starts.  First and foremost is filling out all of the required information that has been sent in the packet.

My table runneth over. In those tan folders? More papers.

After the paperwork I will have to brush up on my knowledge of Guatemala, Spanish and oh yeah Sustainable Community Tourism.  And I could not be any more thrilled to do so!

This past Thursday the Central Indiana Peace Corps Association (CIPCA) played host to Jonathan Pearson, advocacy coordinator for the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA). Jonathan is on a trek across the Midwest to get a feel for what state Peace Corps associations are doing so that as an advocacy director he can inform congressmen of what their constituents are up to. He hopes to show our congressmen just how important the Peace Corps program is by showing that RPCVs are very active members of the community — that the 27 months abroad is only the start of a lifelong commitment to service. Without adequately funding the Peace Corps we are depriving our communities of valuable leaders in the future. In the meantime, though, he was in Indianapolis to see how the CIPCA was faring and to tell us about the NPCA and its plans for the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps.

However, the get-together wasn’t all business. I also met a ton of great people. Most of them RPCVs who have served all over the world and one other nominee, who heading to a Pacific island in May 2011. Many of them gave me great advice (“don’t try to change the world so quickly”, “discover your country and stay with other PCVs”) and many of them told their stories in service.

While there, Jonathan interviewed the other nominee and me to inquire about our decisions to join the Peace Corps. You can read his article at this address: http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/2010/08/networking-with-peace-corps-nominees/