Hurricane Stan and the ton of mud that came with it.

Hey Everyone,
So these past two weeks have been filled with a ton of rain, flooding and then trying to clean it all up again.

Riding out the hurricane in Quetzaltenango: So we were set to do a week of field based training from Monday to Saturday out of town in the west. Monday was fine but rainy, and then come Tuesday it was pouring, FREEZING, and flooding. So we had rain till Friday and managed to leave our stranded town on Saturday. Out of the 6days of training, one was successful. Big big bummer because we had a lot of fun stuff planned. Here are some random details. Also, check the website for the pictures of what the flooding was like around us.
- No water, electricity or gas for 75% of the time. When you don't have water, well, toilets don't flush, and you can imagine what happens over time.
- I didn't take a shower for 6days, new personal record!
- I have now taught 10 more people Mafia/Murder and worked great at night when we only had a few candles.
- It is POSSIBLE to become sick of peanut butter after eatting it for several days.
- A drive that was suppose to take 3-4hrs took 7hrs to get back. We drove by mounds of mud that were about 15ft. high. It was sad to see looking over the highway into valleys communities that had been either washed away.
- Only place with electricity was this mini mall thing (we were in the 2nd largest city, population, 112,000.) and so that where we got food replenishments. Have to be creative when you don't have water and electricity and I think we had some gas but I didn't find out till the end.
- When we got back we got mail and it was package week for many people, it felt just like Christmas in October. I have never been so excited to see a battery charger in my life. Many people got People Magazines and some got clothes because its sweatshirt weather basically every day here. Sometimes its warm but we are going into the colder months. I just buy my clothes used in the market and then my host mom gives them a HOT wash before wearing them. Can't beat clothes for $1-3 per piece


Relief Effort By Peace Corps- So on Wed 12 volunteers went in the morning with some other volunteers that have been here to a little town outside of Antigua (so the damage is actually a lot closer than I thought it was). The little boot town that I talked about a couple weeks ago. So we went back to visit, this time it was covered in mud. We worked for 3 1/2hrs to dig out roads and houses in mud. Ok, never underestimate the strength of mud! I was walking by homes that were up to the roof (12ft) in mud. He said that is is going to try and fill in the area with dirt and build a house over the house that is under mud. Very convicting. The mud is so thick in some spots that when you step it sucks you in and your boot is stuck and you have to pull it out. Fun for the first 3 steps, then the rest is a workout. The whole town was working together to move the largest amount of mud you can dream of. You would of thought it rained mud! So the men were digging, and digging, and digging! The women were serving hot soup and beans on tortillas (it was already hot out as it is, but any food helped) and were giving out water to the workers. Happyish story, where we were working there were two dogs each with puppies that were maybe 2weeks old. Well, one set of puppies drown in the flood and so the mom of the other set let the mom with no puppies adopt three of her puppies. So they are raising 6 puppies together. All at once! AWWWWWWW I am not sure if Peace Corps is bringing in Crisis Corps but some volunteers communities were in pretty bad shape and may have to leave them for good.

Trying to describe Pearl Harbor in Spanish is harder than I thought. I was telling my host parents about Pearl Harbor and I was trying to describe. My lovely spanish, this is what it literally translated to: "So Japan put some planes into the US boats in Hawaii and many people died and the US was mad. So then the US put a big firework in Japan and then many more people died" Yea.... I know, I need practice.

Weirdest Statement by a Guatemalan this week- "Ice cream is a hot food because it burns you when you eat it" She was serious too!

Fact I still don't understand- "Nov-April is considered Summer here because there isn't as much rain and then May-Oct is considered Winter because it is the rainy season, even though Nov-April is colder"

Must Use Sufficient Floss- So I have one thing of floss with me, and haven't searched to see where or how much floss is here. So I am trying to only use a little bit at a time. I have discovered, using a little bit of floss at a time is counter productive because in the end you can't reach half your teeth! I encounter some very difficult situations here don't I :)

EcoTourism Presentation: So I did my presentation on Ecotourism this week and it went ok. I have decided that I am becoming truly Guatemalan and talking faster than I can even understand in Spanish. So I have one more presentation to make in 2weeks in Coban.

Pictures: I am slowly coming out of my shell in taking more pictures. I am slowly "feeling out" situations in what is acceptable and not acceptable in taking pictures. They told us that some indengous people have been brought up to think that cameras steal souls so they aren't big on pictures. Hopefully in time I will be able to take more pictures of people because there is so much culture to be captured here.

This week I am going to make my family dinner if I can afford it. Veggies and fruits have gotten expensive so we will see. I am going to make some pasta something something with garlic (only thing I have found so far to use). I also am going to attempt to make rice krispy treats. I only need to find the marshmellows and rice krisipies.

I will be traveling out of town not this weekend but starting the following week for the last week of October in Coban. They don't have much if any flood damage so everthing should go ok up there. I will put up pictures and a new blog in two weeks.

I am getting more excited each week to get to my site around Nov. 25th. Hopefully I will be able to find a house that I can stay in for 2yrs and not something that I will have to change within a few months (big possibility). Doing better this week. Thanks for all the support letters and emails. Someone said to me the other day "You got more mail!??!" - HAHAHA, what can I say, I got great people that love me.

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