This one´s for cousin Nick and my Dad, and I guess everybody on the Roske side who´ll get this joke. Nick, this is in my new city. Dibs, says Sherwin.

A photo of us in the hammock of their hostel when Theo, Katie, and Phil visited me in Antigua. Sorry Katie, the only photo I have with you in it is a terrible photo, I´m not putting it up. I mean, not cuz of you... :) hehe

A group of us on the steps of the municipal building in Antigua, in town to watch the Sunday afternoon Lenten procession - QUITE a big deal here. This was Theo and Phil's last day of their visit, and friends Rachel, Maria, and Francisco are also pictured. This was also the day my host sisters decided that dressing me up in traje would be fun. I was a little self-conscious, but actually really liked it. I was worried I would offend people, and maybe I did, but mostly people seemed amused or pleasantly surprised to see a foreign muchacha in the corte (skirt) and huipil (woven blouse).
My host sister Lili and I. I think she enjoyed herself more with her gringa host sister dressed in traje.

Jesse, Jaime, and Brittany, some of my good friends from training, around the fire roasting the marshmallows I brought.

The four of us in my training group with Brittany´s host family the day they threw us a small despedida, going-away party: Doña Marina, me, Brittany, Jaime, Maria, and Don Enrique.

Same group, with their daughter Clara, in front of the little garden in their yard. Such sweet people!

Jaime, Brittany, and I enjoying some free time in Antigua - on a rooftop café with an obviously beautiful view of one of the many volcanoes surrounding the city. One of our last days together!

Maya ceremony we went to - Amanda and Erin helping organize the candles.

host fam photo no. 2

host fam photo no. 1

small group pizza night in Antigua - this is kinda old, mid-training when we were living near Antigua

Lucky Stars

Life is good. Can somebody send me one of those T-shirts that say that? (haha, kidding… better if you can find it in Spanish!)
Since I moved to Totonicapán 3 weeks ago, I have felt much more “in my element” than I have yet in this country, and I feel pretty satisfied with life. Firstly, my work in the park has picked up speed: I have officially become a guide capable of taking groups on our Sendero (trail/path) and giving our environmental ed curriculum at the various stations (although talking ecological concepts while using non-formal methods of participatory learning, and maintaining group safety in the forest, all in Spanish, is still kind of kicking my butt). This happened last weekend, when 300 Guatemalans belonging to the Church of Latter Day Saints (i.e. the Mormons) showed up and wanted the schpiel on the trail in groups of 50. We had Luís (1 of our 2 Guatemalan guides) and Kate (the current volunteer) available the give it. And me, who had never even done a practice run, although I had tagged along before to listen to the others give the talks. But hey, might as well jump in! And although for many of the reasons described above I felt awkward and nervous, in some strange way I felt like I was back on my home turf! Here I was, setting off with another group of visitors to a protected wilderness area, to tell them all about the ecology of this area, do some fun activities with them, and hope they’ve learned something when we’re finished. It wasn’t perfect, but it went well and, more importantly, everybody had fun and probably learned something.
And speaking of jumping in, last week was also Promotion Week – meaning Yovani and Luís and I drove around for 2 whole days visiting school after school to advertise my park’s environmental education program (which we call the Sendero Ecológico). We’d drive up, walk in and ask where the Director’s office (i.e. principal) was, and give a schpiel about the Sendero, how it benefits both the kids and the teachers to come and have us talk natural science and ecology with the students, how we tailor it to age groups, it fits within the national education curriculum, etc. Then the Director or Directora usually hems and haws, might sound excited, might talk about how the Parent Association probably won’t approve such and excursion, depends on the person. But after a few of these visits, Yovani turned to me as we were getting out of the car at yet another school, hands me the binder and says, “Your turn!” Ah… what? “Yovani, you sure you want the gringa with her so-so Spanish being the first impression these Directors get of the quality of our park??” But I knew he was right, so I did the talking at the next school, and hey – the Directora really liked the sound of our project! I think she’ll organize a student visit for sure.
So far I haven’t really gotten a feel for potential projects of my own yet, but I’m not really suppose to yet either. And for now, Kate has several projects in process, so I’ve been learning a lot just from hopping in on those. For instance, Kate has been working on a Master’s Thesis study of the endemic birds of the Totonicapán area, and I’ve been tagging along many of the mornings when she goes out to her points in the forest to listen for bird calls, record sightings, vegetation, etc. This is a great way for me to learn all the local bird species, as there are about 94 that Kate has recorded in this area and at least 27 of them are endemic to the altiplano of Guatemala. Why does this region have so many bird species? Because the community of Totonicapán is famous in Guatemala for its communal forest, and therefore birds have habitat here. For centuries the people in this area have collectively owned and sustainably used a huge expanse of humid montane coniferous forest. There are over 16,000 hectares of communal forest, plus 4,000 more of “parcialidades” which are private parcels owned by extended family groups (everyone with the last name “Tash”, for instance). If you’ve ever visited Guatemala, you’ll know that deforestation is pretty high, especially in non-tourist areas, so the mere existence of miles and miles and miles of intact, ancient forest is astonishing. This is another reason environmental education with the schools in this area is so important: if the next generation is to care for and justly manage the resources in this communal forest, they need to start understanding why the forest’s existence is so important. Not just for ecological purposes, but for their own livelihoods and their children’s future. That said, another of Kate’s projects that just finished up last week was a training course for local young people in concepts and practices of Resource Conservation and Tourism Guiding. It was so cool to watch and listen to these young Guatemalans get so excited learning about the local species, brainstorm ways they can improve trash management in their family’s zones of the communal forest, master simple phrases in English for the day tourists come, etc. Because one addition incentive for keeping the forest intact is that it could seriously provide some tourism income – and of course, that won’t happen overnight, but the youths understand that they’d need to put in some infrastructure and advertising legwork before foreigners are going to just fall out of the sky. That was really a neat project to get to help out with, and I hope to continue working with these newly-trained guides in the future.
And every day when I leave the park to walk home, I walk through some of that communal forest and thank the powers that be for sending me here, where on that walk home I listen to the wind in the enormous, ancient pines, hear the crunch of needles under my feet, and breathe deep as that wonderful pine scent fills my lungs. And when I get home our puppy Ginger (they let me name her, even though the name Ginger is hard for them to say) greets me romping and chewing my pant leg, and all three of my young host siblings are usually doing homework but look up excitedly and expect a story from me as I walk in the door. I chat with my host mom Emiliana and her mom Abuelita Paulina as we get dinner ready, and I must say I’ve missed quite a few phone calls in the evenings as post-dinner chatting, especially with my host dad once he gets home later, has been keeping us all up sitting around the kitchen table till about 10 or 10:30 every night. But that’s not a complaint, really – I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am thanking my lucky stars.

Tis the (Easter) Season…

A journal entry from Saturday, April 11:
Today was such a great "Peace Corps" day. Mostly in the non-work-related sense, I guess I have to admit, because though the park I work in was absolutely crawling with Guatemalans on their Holy Saturday holiday, I didn´t feel very useful - too new to know how the park handles so many people (I think this is how anybody new on the job is bound to feel.) I learned a lot though.
But today when my host mom Emiliana and host dad Arnulfo came with the whole family in the back of the toyota pickup to get me for an extended-family picnic lunch, it was as if I were among my own aunts and uncles and cousins. It´s so strange how at home I feel here with them! We explored caves, we jumped rope forever, and the food itself was pretty similar to what we Roskes might´ve had at a family picnic. The chatter of aunts and the rambunctiousness of the cousins was so familiar! But I guess the emphasis here should be less on how similar it felt, because of course it was completely different; the point is moreso that I already feel like I could belong, eventually. There were so many moments when I thought, I should have my camera for this, I really want to remember this... jumping rope with the kids but especially when the adults joined in, running around with the toddler Irene and thinking up all the possible imaginary uses for the sticks she found for us, hearing my little host brother Hugo explain my name over and over to his cousin (even though the only time I ever hear Hugo say my name is when he says thanks after meals), sitting and chatting with Emiliana and her sisters tía Rosa and tía María in the shade of the big cypress tree as the sun was slanting beautifully through the giant pines, the needles drifting down to join the laughter below. This family reunion ranks (not that it´s a competition, oh actual family members reading this) among my favorites, though it wasn´t even my family! Well, it is now, in a way.
And I guess I can´t totally write off work today. As I was collecting garbage with Doña Delfina at the end of the day I started talking with an older woman who had come with her family all the way from the capital. While her complaints about our rudimentary bathrooms made me at first write her off as a high-maintenance, non environmental type, I soon realized I shouldn´t have judged so quickly. She and her elderly mother and I talked and talked about why they had come all this way to our little private park, that they value the space and the existence of a clean and healthy natural area. They get it! We talked about the problem of trash management for a while, because they sympathized with me walking around bent over for an hour cleaning up other people´s mess, and they were so adamant that what we´re doing in our park is reallyimportant. They were so encouraging to me personally, that I´m in Guatemala working hard on something like this, it simultaneously humbled me and made me proud of myself. And thankful that by pure serendipity I stumbled upon this great conversation with these two older ladies. Sometimes, I am amazed at the way human beings can connect with each other, under such unlikely circumstances, if we´re open to the possibility.
Same goes for the evening I spent at the home of Don Nico (our park guard) and his wife Doña Delfina, after the three of us had cleaned up the park and walked home. They are my neighbors now that I live up the mountain in the village near the park. I told them I didn´t mind walking the extra little bit past my house down the mountain to theirs, to help carry things the rest of the way, though I knew that meant I´d be staying for a little while. I didn´t realize that "a little while" actually meant I´d take my leave three mugs-full of coffee and two huge Semana Santa breadrolls later. But I had such a pleasant time with them. Either I´m getting the hang of social graces in the different social spheres that exist here in Guatemala or it´s simply that this family, parents and all those kids, are just good people. It´s amazing how good people can be found anywhere in the world - I´ve decided the planet is absolutely full of good people like Don Nico´s family, who will send the aunt and the 8-yr-old daughter to walk with you in the dark up the mountain to your house, one clinging to each arm as we ascend the mountain in the dark, unable to see our feet but walking in sync anyway as we watch the brilliant stars instead. The evening ends with many hugs and kisses and "Adios"es and "Cuídese"s, and I am left with a heart that overfloweth.