http://rigidkitchen.net/
See you there!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Animalitos
I thought it would be fun to show you all a few of the crazy bugs we've encountered here. Without further ado...
This bad boy is called La Madre de Alacrán (which means The Mother of Scorpion). They're harmless and only come out at night but get pretty big - this one was about the size of my pinky.
Giant grasshopper. About the size of Sarah's hand...
Kittens! Their mama, Fuscia, just gave birth to them about 3-4 weeks ago. They are adorable.
This bad boy is called La Madre de Alacrán (which means The Mother of Scorpion). They're harmless and only come out at night but get pretty big - this one was about the size of my pinky.
Giant grasshopper. About the size of Sarah's hand...
Kittens! Their mama, Fuscia, just gave birth to them about 3-4 weeks ago. They are adorable.A "muestra" of our work
muestra = sample
Here's a workshop that Sarah gave today. The 3-hour workshop was about the sanitation and hygiene before, during, and after the birth: How to avoid infections, when/where to cut the cord, stuff like that. The health center holds these workshops for the comadronas (midwives) every other month to review the information - basically to standardize hygienic practices to lower the rate of infant/mother mortality. The pregnant women often do not seek professional medical help due to lack of access and/or cultural beliefs so the midwives may be the only medical intervention that happens in the villages.
(Thanks to Emily Crawford for the materials)
Sarah and Señora Flor
"How to cut the Umbilical Cord"
"The three clean things":
Clean hands
Clean place of birth
Sterilized tools
"Things to watch out for with the Placenta"
Try to make sure that the membranes are complete.
You could imagine them as if they form a bag.
Here's a workshop that Sarah gave today. The 3-hour workshop was about the sanitation and hygiene before, during, and after the birth: How to avoid infections, when/where to cut the cord, stuff like that. The health center holds these workshops for the comadronas (midwives) every other month to review the information - basically to standardize hygienic practices to lower the rate of infant/mother mortality. The pregnant women often do not seek professional medical help due to lack of access and/or cultural beliefs so the midwives may be the only medical intervention that happens in the villages.
(Thanks to Emily Crawford for the materials)
First short video of Sarah! This is at the beginning of the charla - don't forget, there's sound!
Sarah and Señora Flor
"How to cut the Umbilical Cord"
"The three clean things":Clean hands
Clean place of birth
Sterilized tools
"Things to watch out for with the Placenta"Try to make sure that the membranes are complete.
You could imagine them as if they form a bag.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Así es la vida
Lately, we’ve been a little quiet about what we’re doing. I happily report that it is due to being somewhat busy. That’s right, busy, I said it. As Mat wrote, we had some additional training a few weeks ago, including an HIV/AIDS workshop that four people from our Centro de Salud attended. Ever since coming back to site, we have had so much support from the Centro. I think they finally “get” what it is we do and how we can be utilized.
So right now we are planning, planning, planning. We are teaming up with the Centro’s Healthy Adolescents program and will work with the four schools in the urban (I use this term loosely) area on Mental and Sexual Health Education. We are also working with the Ministry of Education and Centro’s Healthy Schools program as educators in any of the 21 healthy schools in the muni that want/need help giving health charlas, concentrating on hygiene.
This past Tuesday, we presented a plan for training every micro-region of the muni on HIV/AIDS to the development committee for the community, called the COMUDE. The micro-regions split the 60 communities into 12 groups. We plan to have 1 or 2 trainings per month until we get through all twelve micro-regions. Leaders of the community, women’s groups, or anyone interested would be encouraged to attend. Unveiling the plan to all of the leaders was a bit nerve wracking due to the subject matter. There was a statistic in the presentation, 75% of the cases in Guatemala are passed between heterosexuals. When I came to this part, I defined heterosexual. Then I went on to say that when discussing HIV/AIDS, people have to get rid of their stereotypes relating to it, including that it is an illness only passed between homosexuals. When I dropped that bomb, there were several gasps and many mouths dropped. I really enjoyed myself.
Finally, the biggest project will be the recruitment and training of Health Promoters. Health Promoters are people who would do what we do: give health charlas based on the needs of the community. And since they would already be members of the community and speak “el dialecto” (the Mayan language K’iché), they would be better able to deliver the information. This is the part of the project that Mat and I believe is most sustainable and worthwhile, and we are therefore both nervous and excited for it.
The computers are no longer the pipe dream they once were either. Thanks to all of our amazing family and friends, we will be able to reach the goal of 10 computers and maybe even have enough left over to buy a projector, making training the Centro’s staff and eventually the youth easier. We are so grateful to you all!
Other random stuff: I hope to get a weekly women’s health group going at the Centro for the women of the “urban” area. I was also recently elected to be our program’s (Rural Home Preventative Health) project representative for the Peace Corps’ Gender and Development Committee (GAD). Basically I am the go-to-gal for the people in my program for gender related charlas. It also involves doing some training and helping out with fundraising. And Mat already mentioned that he is our department’s rep on VAC. Go extra-circulars!
For you cat lovers out there, one of the cats that hangs out at our house, Fusia, just had three kittens. They are adorable but I bet they already have fleas. I will try to snag fotos when they are a little bigger. Besides that we are baking and sharing the goodies with friends and neighbors. Pretty good way to exchange culture! Lemon Bars and Brownies are a big hit.
So right now we are planning, planning, planning. We are teaming up with the Centro’s Healthy Adolescents program and will work with the four schools in the urban (I use this term loosely) area on Mental and Sexual Health Education. We are also working with the Ministry of Education and Centro’s Healthy Schools program as educators in any of the 21 healthy schools in the muni that want/need help giving health charlas, concentrating on hygiene.
This past Tuesday, we presented a plan for training every micro-region of the muni on HIV/AIDS to the development committee for the community, called the COMUDE. The micro-regions split the 60 communities into 12 groups. We plan to have 1 or 2 trainings per month until we get through all twelve micro-regions. Leaders of the community, women’s groups, or anyone interested would be encouraged to attend. Unveiling the plan to all of the leaders was a bit nerve wracking due to the subject matter. There was a statistic in the presentation, 75% of the cases in Guatemala are passed between heterosexuals. When I came to this part, I defined heterosexual. Then I went on to say that when discussing HIV/AIDS, people have to get rid of their stereotypes relating to it, including that it is an illness only passed between homosexuals. When I dropped that bomb, there were several gasps and many mouths dropped. I really enjoyed myself.
Finally, the biggest project will be the recruitment and training of Health Promoters. Health Promoters are people who would do what we do: give health charlas based on the needs of the community. And since they would already be members of the community and speak “el dialecto” (the Mayan language K’iché), they would be better able to deliver the information. This is the part of the project that Mat and I believe is most sustainable and worthwhile, and we are therefore both nervous and excited for it.
The computers are no longer the pipe dream they once were either. Thanks to all of our amazing family and friends, we will be able to reach the goal of 10 computers and maybe even have enough left over to buy a projector, making training the Centro’s staff and eventually the youth easier. We are so grateful to you all!
Other random stuff: I hope to get a weekly women’s health group going at the Centro for the women of the “urban” area. I was also recently elected to be our program’s (Rural Home Preventative Health) project representative for the Peace Corps’ Gender and Development Committee (GAD). Basically I am the go-to-gal for the people in my program for gender related charlas. It also involves doing some training and helping out with fundraising. And Mat already mentioned that he is our department’s rep on VAC. Go extra-circulars!
For you cat lovers out there, one of the cats that hangs out at our house, Fusia, just had three kittens. They are adorable but I bet they already have fleas. I will try to snag fotos when they are a little bigger. Besides that we are baking and sharing the goodies with friends and neighbors. Pretty good way to exchange culture! Lemon Bars and Brownies are a big hit.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
i wish every month was as fast as february
I can hardly believe it's the end of the first week of March! It's been quite a week... we started on Monday with IST (In-Service Training). Went and watched how some stoves are built in a small community about two hours away from the Peace Corps office. Second and third days involved more technical training and sitting for long periods of time. We then had the two-day HIV/AIDS workshop with our counterparts. It was very informative and interactive, and we think our counterparts are ready to give information and prevention tips to our community in a better fashion than before. We'll see come the 1st of April.
I am now officially the new VAC (Volunteer Advocacy Commission) Department Representative for El Quiche. Sounds fancier than it is - I basically voice concerns brought up to me by people in my department and organize the welcome parties. The other volunteer bowed out so I stepped up to the plate for a bit. We'll see how it goes...
So Sarah went home and I am in Antigua. We've rarely travelled separately so it's a bit strange, but other volunteers do it every day and it's really nothing out of the ordinary. I hopefully get back Monday, and if not I am stuck in the cabacera another night.
no pics this time around, been using the camera less because the rechargable batteries crapped out and I'd prefer not to use disposables if I can avoid it (plus they cost a hell of a lot of money)
have a great month and I hope it's a lamb
I am now officially the new VAC (Volunteer Advocacy Commission) Department Representative for El Quiche. Sounds fancier than it is - I basically voice concerns brought up to me by people in my department and organize the welcome parties. The other volunteer bowed out so I stepped up to the plate for a bit. We'll see how it goes...
So Sarah went home and I am in Antigua. We've rarely travelled separately so it's a bit strange, but other volunteers do it every day and it's really nothing out of the ordinary. I hopefully get back Monday, and if not I am stuck in the cabacera another night.
no pics this time around, been using the camera less because the rechargable batteries crapped out and I'd prefer not to use disposables if I can avoid it (plus they cost a hell of a lot of money)
have a great month and I hope it's a lamb
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Afternoon Delight
Some thoughts on the musical choices of Guatemalan transport
Mat and I went to Santa Cruz del Quiché today to run some errands. As usual, we took one of our friendly camionetas, known in the English speaking world as "chicken buses", to the capital of our beloved department. Fortunately or unfortunately it was a rather uneventful ride. As I am sure we have touched on before, camionetas can be a life-altering experience. If you are very unlucky, like our dear friend Ellen, the driver loses control and flips the bus, or only slightly unlucky like Mat and get puked on by a motion-sick child who can shoot vomit great distances while you happened to wear a pair of pants with a hole in them, allowing for the throw up to find its way to the underwear, or whether it is just your average uncomfortable ride, being packed in like clown car while some woman´s breasts hang on you left shoulder, the camioneta is sure to be an experience.
However I do not believe I have ever talked about the musical choices of the camionetas. You have your highly popular ranchero music which I am not sure how to describe except to say that it is like a state fair had an affair with the polka and came out with ranchero. Needless to say, it is not our favorite. Of course there is the marimba, the country’s national instrument - neat to see in person, but gets old after a couple of songs. Then you have your more tropical selections like salsa, meringue, cha-cha but these are rare for us in El Quiché (very unfortunate). And how could I forget the wonderful Reggaetón which is a mix of Reggae, Hip Hop and even R&B, the rave of all the teens here with a lot of videos including close-ups of women shaking it “like a Polaroid picture” to quote Andre 3000. These are pretty much your run of the mill musical stylings likely to be encountered on the local transportation.
However, there have been a couple times where it was a very memorable musical experience. Let me first take you back to an earlier moment when Mat and I were on a camioneta back to our site. There were only 5 other passengers of mixed genders left on the bus, all of whom were over the age of 50. A song came on the radio which had the chorus of “Métalo papí, métalo” which translates to “Stick it in daddy, stick it in.” Everyone just sat there like it was the most normal thing in the world but I was trying my hardest not to laugh out loud. I am still surprised the ayudante (person who collects the money) didn’t change the station.
Today was even better though. We opted to take a microbus back to our site. They are a more comfortable ride but tend to be packed tightly. To be exact, there were 26 adults, 1 young girl, the driver, and the boy collecting money. Anyway, the musical selection of the microbus happened to be some classic songs in English. No I am not talking Beatles, Led Zepplin, or Zappa. We were treated to a great mixed CD with songs like “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “It’s a Heartache,” “Rock and Roll Girl,” and “Playin’ with the Queen of Hearts.” So who went to the US, spent some time there and then after hearing the diverse array of music available to him/her decided this was the mixed CD for him/her? Seriously! Then came the climax (HA!)…”Afternoon Delight.” Whether it was the song itself and its content of lovers meeting to get busy before the sun goes down, the lyrics of which were unknown to our fellow passengers or my associations of the song with Arrested Development, I was definitely laughing out loud! And those near me certainly gave some curiously disturbed stares, not that that is different from most days.
Oh it was great. I can’t wait to see what my next ride has in store for us!
Mat and I went to Santa Cruz del Quiché today to run some errands. As usual, we took one of our friendly camionetas, known in the English speaking world as "chicken buses", to the capital of our beloved department. Fortunately or unfortunately it was a rather uneventful ride. As I am sure we have touched on before, camionetas can be a life-altering experience. If you are very unlucky, like our dear friend Ellen, the driver loses control and flips the bus, or only slightly unlucky like Mat and get puked on by a motion-sick child who can shoot vomit great distances while you happened to wear a pair of pants with a hole in them, allowing for the throw up to find its way to the underwear, or whether it is just your average uncomfortable ride, being packed in like clown car while some woman´s breasts hang on you left shoulder, the camioneta is sure to be an experience.
However I do not believe I have ever talked about the musical choices of the camionetas. You have your highly popular ranchero music which I am not sure how to describe except to say that it is like a state fair had an affair with the polka and came out with ranchero. Needless to say, it is not our favorite. Of course there is the marimba, the country’s national instrument - neat to see in person, but gets old after a couple of songs. Then you have your more tropical selections like salsa, meringue, cha-cha but these are rare for us in El Quiché (very unfortunate). And how could I forget the wonderful Reggaetón which is a mix of Reggae, Hip Hop and even R&B, the rave of all the teens here with a lot of videos including close-ups of women shaking it “like a Polaroid picture” to quote Andre 3000. These are pretty much your run of the mill musical stylings likely to be encountered on the local transportation.
However, there have been a couple times where it was a very memorable musical experience. Let me first take you back to an earlier moment when Mat and I were on a camioneta back to our site. There were only 5 other passengers of mixed genders left on the bus, all of whom were over the age of 50. A song came on the radio which had the chorus of “Métalo papí, métalo” which translates to “Stick it in daddy, stick it in.” Everyone just sat there like it was the most normal thing in the world but I was trying my hardest not to laugh out loud. I am still surprised the ayudante (person who collects the money) didn’t change the station.
Today was even better though. We opted to take a microbus back to our site. They are a more comfortable ride but tend to be packed tightly. To be exact, there were 26 adults, 1 young girl, the driver, and the boy collecting money. Anyway, the musical selection of the microbus happened to be some classic songs in English. No I am not talking Beatles, Led Zepplin, or Zappa. We were treated to a great mixed CD with songs like “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “It’s a Heartache,” “Rock and Roll Girl,” and “Playin’ with the Queen of Hearts.” So who went to the US, spent some time there and then after hearing the diverse array of music available to him/her decided this was the mixed CD for him/her? Seriously! Then came the climax (HA!)…”Afternoon Delight.” Whether it was the song itself and its content of lovers meeting to get busy before the sun goes down, the lyrics of which were unknown to our fellow passengers or my associations of the song with Arrested Development, I was definitely laughing out loud! And those near me certainly gave some curiously disturbed stares, not that that is different from most days.
Oh it was great. I can’t wait to see what my next ride has in store for us!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
More Fotos
It's February! Here are some photos!
Things are going relatively well here. We were offered the use of the kitchen and a bigger room tomorrow, so things are looking up. Work starts next week, more or less.
Modifying a USB "y" cable with a female port so we can use the modem. Soldering irons are only Q15 here! Still working a week later...
Sarah showing off her skills with the new toaster oven. Homemade wheat bread!
What happens when I ask for a tall table.
Shot of Sarah cooking from the patio at night.
View from the roof looking north towards Utspantan and ultimately, Mexico. The big cloud formation to the left is more or less due north.
Front of the house! It looks nice, and it is, but we also share the house with 5 other Guatemalan renters.
*Bonus: Dad teaching pre-teen to ride motorcycle on far left of shot*
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Things are going relatively well here. We were offered the use of the kitchen and a bigger room tomorrow, so things are looking up. Work starts next week, more or less.
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Here are a couple of shots of us giving one of our typical "Preventative Health" talks. This talk is about the importance of hand-washing in maintaining one's health. We made Liquid Soap dispensers using old plastic water bottles to reduce the trash in the community. Unfortunately we don't have any more shots with them because they're still incredibly camera shy... the community is one of the hardest-to-reach in our municipality.
Here are a couple of shots of us giving one of our typical "Preventative Health" talks. This talk is about the importance of hand-washing in maintaining one's health. We made Liquid Soap dispensers using old plastic water bottles to reduce the trash in the community. Unfortunately we don't have any more shots with them because they're still incredibly camera shy... the community is one of the hardest-to-reach in our municipality.
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Other goings-on:
Other goings-on:
Modifying a USB "y" cable with a female port so we can use the modem. Soldering irons are only Q15 here! Still working a week later...
Sarah showing off her skills with the new toaster oven. Homemade wheat bread!
What happens when I ask for a tall table.
Shot of Sarah cooking from the patio at night.
View from the roof looking north towards Utspantan and ultimately, Mexico. The big cloud formation to the left is more or less due north.
Front of the house! It looks nice, and it is, but we also share the house with 5 other Guatemalan renters.*Bonus: Dad teaching pre-teen to ride motorcycle on far left of shot*
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have a good mid-february!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Domestic Violence Charla and English Class
Welcome all to the blog once again! We have a few updates...
Sarah was offered a chance to do a workshop on Domestic Violence for the women's group that meets monthly at the Catholic Church at our town... here are some photos:
Power and control wheel for Sarah's Violence Prevention charla with the women's group at the Catholic church in town.
The women making their posters of different aspects of how violence affects the community.
The women's group! (background: Jesus)
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Bonus: Our English class
Our weekly English class. We had them run a race to match colors from Spanish to English.
Sarah teaching the colors.
Mat teaching some grammar.
Sarah was offered a chance to do a workshop on Domestic Violence for the women's group that meets monthly at the Catholic Church at our town... here are some photos:
Power and control wheel for Sarah's Violence Prevention charla with the women's group at the Catholic church in town.
The women making their posters of different aspects of how violence affects the community.
The women's group! (background: Jesus)------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bonus: Our English class
Our weekly English class. We had them run a race to match colors from Spanish to English.
Sarah teaching the colors.
Mat teaching some grammar.That's it for now! Have a great weekend and try to stay warm in February.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Poco a poco
It has been a while since we have been able to write anything on the blog. Just thought we should give an update. Basically it was a rough transition from the beach back to site. Why can’t all of our sites be like Monterrico? But we are still here! The last two weeks have been somewhat busy. Here are some of the exciting things that we have been up to:
We have continued working in our rural community with a couple of charlas this month. We gave the last one on Sunday and it was crazy! This drunk showed up and was speaking some wild mix of Spanish, Ki’ché, and English. The leader of the community, Roberto, was pissed but he couldn’t really do anything about him. Due to this, we were afraid that the message was lost. Luckily, Roberto is amazing and will review what we covered. Mat met up with Roberto later in the week and he told Mat that they are really happy about the work we are doing. And while there are troubles with language at times, we make our charlas short and simple (plus we are constantly repeating EVERYTHING) so they are getting a lot out of the presentations. And we are a form of entertainment for them as we provide lots of laughter since we are always making asses out of ourselves and are continually talking about poop. There are so many days when Mat and I feel so much hate for our program so it felt damn good to have someone tell us we are doing good work.
We are hoping the doctor will help us get to working in 2 more communities with adults. But he is of the “there’s no rush” mentality so even though we are constantly bugging him it could be a while before we get going. In the meantime, when school starts in the next two weeks, we are going to start giving our health charlas in 4-6 schools (2-3 per week). We also give English classes to about 30 people (from ages 12 to mid-40s) on Tuesdays and Fridays. We tried to avoid doing English classes for as long as possible but so many have asked us to give them that we finally gave in. We had our first one last week and it went really well. Actually it was very fun! Plus we have been able to meet some new, good people.
Mat is planning the computer café for the Centro. Thank you to all who sent or plan on sending money!!! The community and we are very grateful to everyone for their support. You are all Buena Onda (good people) and amaze me with your generosity! While I am throwing shout outs, thank you to those who sent Christmas cards. We received Aunt Mary’s first of course. But also Joe Allan, both sets of parents, Grandpa Allan and Grandma Allan, and the Joliat grandparents! Thanks for the cards. It was fun to get so much mail!
Mat has also been busy helping out his friend who owns the local internet café. He has been doing free tech work for him and has found himself helping out about 3 days a week. He loves it. And when he is feeling less than thrilled about health charlas, he can go listen to the sweet, sweet hum of computers.
I have begun working on my secondary project: a series of presentations on the prevention of violence against women. With the wonderful help of SARNCO of Columbus, I have some great resources ready to be put to use. I also got together
Besides work stuff, we have been trying to get the internet. It is a little modem that the cell phone companies sell which then uses the cell towers/satellites for signal. It won’t be super fast here but will be great for research and emails. The problem is that the companies have the worst business model: make it as hard as possible for the consumer to buy your product. We had to get together so much crap. Three months of banks statements from both US and Guatemalan accounts, copy of passport, three months of some type of bill (which is in a Guatemalan’s name and it doesn’t matter whether you even know them-they just want to see some bills!), and even a copy of a Guatemala’s license. They may want more. We are waiting to be authorized at the moment. We have also been thinking about moving but we have very limited choices: adobe house and possibility of Chagas or living with one of
That is about it for now. We would also like to add that it feels good to no longer be working for “W”. Work it Obama!
Here are a few pictures from the New Year. Love and miss you all!!!
¡Bienvenidos a 2009!
Antigua, Guatemala
Antigua, Guatemala
Mat and Sarah hanging out at our favorite place to crash, Dia Verde.
The fabulous (L-R) Thea, Ellen, and Emily!
(L-R front row) Zach, Amanda, Lynn, Ashley, Ellen, Thea
(L-R back row) Dan, Mat, Sarah, Emily
(photo compliments of Lynn)
The famous Arch street where we rang in the New Year with some colorful friends!
(photo by Lynn)
Very vibrant!!! (again Lynn)
Mat and Ashley (below) with (L-R) Thea, Ellen, Lynn, Zach, and Sarah up top.
(Many thanks to Lynn the superhero for being the only one who brought out the camera!)
Cafe 2000, January 1: Mat, Ellen, Zach, Ashley, Dan
Mat at our favorite movie, eghm, "store".
Mom! Check out The Thing we found!
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