39days till i come to the states!

(pretty shot in one of my communities)

Cost of my goalie shirt that was made for me- $1.75
# of days of rain this week- everyday
# of hours of rain on Thurs/Fri without stopping- 36hrs (the drops were so small but so many that it sounded wind on the roof)
# of times someone was looking at the pics on my camera and accidentally deleted all of them (luckily they were already saved on my computer)-1
# of guys that wanted to take me home to show their wife how to make the hot cereal drink we sell (after he bought a bag)- 1
# of volunteers that have left PC early due to medical, school or whatever other reason from my training group- 7
# of volunteers remaining- 25
# of days of work I have left before I go to visit the states- 14!!!!
# of times I ate eggs for dinner this week- 4 (out of 5 dinners)

(Tom's last night in Guatemala before he went back to the states)

Funky Food of the Week- A pair of bulls testacies. Yep! So, this is a big one. I am in Fear Factor. So on Sunday for an afternoon snack before lunch with some coworkers, they told me we were having them for part of lunch in a ceviche. She held them up in a bag waiting to be pealed (kinda like taking the outer skin off a sausage). AHHHH!!! I was very grossed out but agreed to try it. So I ate it, actually wasn’t so bad. Didn’t really taste like much and kinda had the consistency of soft tofu. Pretty picture huh J

Making mashed potatoes using a wood spoon is a serious arm workout!!!

Cat doesn’t like pancakes

Guatemalan Proverb- Be friends with thy mango seller, for you never know what discount may lie ahead! (we-hew! Saved Q.25 on each mango because I gave my mango vender banana bread I made last week!)

Did you know that if you leave Crystal Light in a pitcher for more then 2days (not in a fridge of course) it gets moldy? Yea..I didn’t know that.

I have discovered my dishwasher! So I found that if you put dirty pans and what not in strategically placed sections of the patio (mainly where the water falls from the roof) that they get a through rinse cycle before I clean it out when the rain stops. Now, if its an extra dirty one, I put some soap in the pan, and the rain does the rest of the work J

96yrs old! So I went to one of the communities and I stayed at a house while one of my coworkers went to visit the greenhouse. I walked over to talk to this man who was sitting by himself at the house. He was sitting in the only chair and I sat on the ground which was no problem and he insisted on giving me the chair and he sat on a piece of a tree stump next to the chair. Thing is, he is 96 yrs old! I insisted he have the chair but he moved anyways showing that the chair was for me. So we chatted for a bit (which was an effort since he can’t hear that well) and I found out he has 40 grandkids and who knows how many great grand kids. The house we were at he was born in and he said that is where he was going to die at as well. Can you imagine living in the same house for 96yrs???? At least he has an awesome view!

Jakes Birthday- So it was my site mates birthday and he made his own cake and wanted to make dinner and set off his own fireworks which left me little to do for his birthday. So I decided to decorate his motorcycle helmet with balloons and a birthday sign taped to the back. That night went to his house and we made empanadas (kinda like a Guatemalan hot pocket) for dinner and his parents sent down a chocolate cake mix and German chocolate frosting. Let me tell ya, I have never had so much appreciation for a birthday cake in my life! It was so tasty!

La Mesh!- So all the teams decided to get team jerseys made for the soccer games. Since I am the goalie I got to design mine. I was assigned #1 and we decided on the name La Mesh for my jersey which means “The Gringa” in Maya’Mam. Thing is, there is no el/la in the Maya’Mam language so it should just say Mesh but oh well. So got my jersey back on Thursday and they made it long enough to go almost to my knees and then the design isn’t exactly what I pictured so it looks kinda funky but oh well. Fun souvenir from Guatemala!

Shoe Shine Boys- So my shoe shine boys that walk around Tejutla all day staring at peoples feet saying “Lustre!” which means “shine” are growing in numbers. I originally had 2 who were brothers that lived 2hrs away and now I am up to 4. Ahhh! So they come visit me at work usually everyday or every other day. On Thursday I had left over birthday cake and told them to come back in a few hours for a surprise. Well, they moved about 50ft from the building and sat there waiting till I came back a few hours later for whatever I had to offer them. I gave them each a piece of cake which they inhaled very quickly. Then I offered to take their picture so they could give a copy to their parents since most people in the aldeas (communities) don’t really have pictures. I have to be careful with them because I would love to be more generous with them and take them for ice cream or something like that every now and then but when you start giving some stuff, they don’t stop asking and I don’t want that to start. I already told them that if I have something to share I will, but otherwise not to ask for money or anything else so they are learning.

Soccer update- So my team which we still don’t have a name for won last Thursday night. That makes something like 4 losses, 2 wins and one tie. I had to actually play (go for the ball) a few times and I managed to have one block that even I was amazed that I managed to do. Then the crowd which is 99% my coworkers starts chanting “Olivia, Olivia!” or “La Mesh, La Mesh!” which I give them the shush with the finger reaction because I just can’t focus on a ball flying at me while people are yelling my name. Not that talented.

Famous! So we were at the waterfalls in Coban a few weeks ago and there was a guy there with a camera and his family taking pictures. Thought nothing of it. Well! Turns out he works for the national newspapers so here we are featured on a page. I am really tiny. I circled where I am in the bottom picture.

Ever grilled inside the kitchen before?- So at lunch the other day at work since it was raining and today was a grilling day, they moved the grill into the kitchen. Made for some coughing and a few tears but at least our grilled onions, chicken and guacamole were worth it J

GOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!! So going back to soccer being a religion in Guatemala. Few highlights this week thanks to the start of the World Cup
- I am able to walk from my house to work and never stop hearing the soccer game. Between all of the stores and homes blasting the game on usually the radio or sometimes tv and then the town square has a large speaker (one of the old school out of tune speakers) that blasts the games during the day. Usually this radio is reserved for marimba music in the afternoon for a few hours.
- I was working in the office with one of my coworkers on something and upstairs the game was on and we could barely hear it. However, when a goal was scored, you could clearly hear the “GOOOOOOLLLL!” that goes on for about 10seconds which I have decided is more of a call to everyone not right next to the radio or tv to start running and that they have 10seconds to get to wherever the game is in order to hear or watch the replay. So of course, he went running upstairs as did others and returned about 1min later until the next goal was scored.

I am a good little team mom! So when I signed up to be a team mom 4months ago the directions stated I had to kiss each player on the cheek, bring the refreshments, buy the ball and a few other things. I changed the rules in protest. So I bring them a liter of whatever Tang stuff I can find in the store and the newest addition which has become not only a team favorite but everyone enjoys it thoroughly is popcorn. Yea, they will work up a huge sweat running around and at halftime they yell my name and ask for popcorn. Not exactly the most refreshing/hydrating snack but it started when a few months ago I brought popcorn in a plastic tub that I made in the pot on the stove for dinner (didn’t have time to eat dinner) and it was a huge hit. So now I am at the point that I am bringing two tubs of popcorn. One for everyone to share and one for my team.

Medicine Time Again! So went to the central office with some community members again to make medicine. This time we made cold medicine, gastro something medicine and, nerve something medicine out of plants. Well, I had fun with the baby that came along with the woman from the community and put one of the hair caps on him which he was very amused by.