Well... That Was Fun...

My time in Peace Corps has come to an end but I don’t feel like my time with Guatemala is over. I hope to continue visiting my family and friends in Tejutla as well as supporting the school of Vista Hermosa with their art projects. My last week was crazy, very memorable but busy so I have to sum it up.

Jake and I made an “American Style” lunch for my host family as part of their gift and they loved it. We made French fries, hamburgers and brownies.

Vista Hermosa School- I was one of the godmothers for the graduating class at the school in Vista Hermosa so I had to give each kid a gift. They each got a notebook, pen, set of colored pencils and I happened to have a bunch of US change so I glued one of each coin onto a card with their name. The graduation was sweet and they took a traditional woven cloth and wove “Gift from The School of Vista Hermosa” and gave it to me along with long speeches from many people thanking me for everything I have done for them. Managed to not cry. They gave us lunch, which I started to feel sick for some reason so I kind of ran out about to pass out and my goodbyes to them were very brief. I’ll be back.



Cake Group in Vista Hermosa- My last project with my cake baking group in Vista Hermosa was sweet also. WE decorated cookies with icing and then decorations that had been sent to me. The women had a great time and then they all took turns “giving words” at the end with a couple of them crying. They are worried I will forget them, how is that even possible?

Work had a couple going away parties. They had one party where they gave us ceramic pots that said “Welcome” with our names on it. Then we danced for hours which was fun because I am all right at dancing now. But the true symbolic moment was Jake and I dancing together. Two years ago, neither of us could dance that well. Now that we are able to dance with each other, and keep up with the Guatemalans, that was cool. Then one office had a going away lunch where my Spanish was horrible that day so my speech was not that great and then the other office decided they wanted to give us a dinner, but Jake and I ended up doing the cooking because they were all busy working so we made a combo of Mexican/Guatemalan/New Mexican/Who knows what food for dinner. It was good and they gave us each a gift and several speeches which almost made me cry.
The girls of my office had a going away dinner for me which was nice of them and the funny thing is they invited Jake so he was the only guy. He got in touch with his feminine side during the dinner I think. Only bummer was after taking the group picture my camera went for a tumble and then well, decided that was the end of that. So no more camera now.

Up a volcano we go! Of course, I had to wait till the day before leaving my village to climb the volcano Tajulmulco that is about 40min from us. So Claudia from my family and two other volunteers and I got up at 330am to go climb the volcano. Took us 4hrs to get up there with the last hour being really tough because we were literally climbing up rocks. Enjoyed the view for about 30min and then came back down before the clouds came in. We were lucky enough to get free rides in pickups, 3 different ones, back to the village. Just in time for lunch. My host family made a nice lunch for me and I requested Pepian which is a very traditional Guatemalan dish that is a weird sauce, rice and chicken. It was really sweet of them but I was also very tired. So my host mom made a piece of cloth with it embroidered with flowers and my name and I can tell it took her a long time to do so I really appreciated it. She started to cry so I quickly tried to avoid that by bringing out the pictures I had printed for them. I think that helped avoid weird moments.

Time to Leave the Village-Sunday morning I got up at 530am and started doing everything I had left for the VERY end. I had 2hrs to get it all done. So I ran to pay the rent to my house which had not been done in 3months since the owner is always m.i.a and then since it was market day I ran from vendor to vendor that I knew saying good bye, very quickly, and in the process collecting all this fruit and stuff they would give me as an impromptu going away gift while they were crying. Some people cried and I am not sure I even knew their names. Wow. I got back to my host families house, enjoyed my last tortillas with cheese (man I am going to miss those) and said bye to everyone, and jumped on the ones that were still sleeping to say bye to them J Then we went to pick up Erin and her dog and all her stuff and off to Antigua we went. My last two days in the country were very crazy and spent running around doing PC paperwork stuff and saying bye to about 5 different people. My biggest problem with this week has been the different between US goodbyes and Guatemalans goodbyes. In the US, we are more short and simple, to the point type people. In Guatemala, whether you were best friends or they only sold you oranges, all of them give 10min speeches which by the end was driving me nuts and I may have been borderline insensitive but I felt like I had said bye to 200 people that week so I couldn’t take anymore. I got up at 315am on Wednesday to go to the airport. A girl sat down next to me on the plane and asked me how long did I go to visit Guatemala for and I said “2years and 3months” and the look on her face was funny and she said “wow” . She’s right… Wow.

You know you have been in Guatemala 2yrs when you can look over and see a volcano erupting (spewing ash) and you just smile

You know you live in a small town when your host family can call the local radio station and within 30seconds they are saying hi to everyone in the family also mention what business they own even though they just told them their last name.

You know you live in a slow pace of life when you have the time to watch a spider try to catch the same bug twice in about a 7min time period.

Gonna Miss… ON my walk from the art school back to the bus there is this group of little kids that each time I pass they come running and yell gringa at me and I yell Chapin (Guatemalan) back at them. Well, one of the kids is probably young enough that I just might be her first word. It’s pretty funny because she loves yelling that.

Sometimes on the bus when I have a spot next to me the parents will get excited when they see that I am a gringa and they will sit their child next to me on the bus like I am mickey and the parent stares at both of in excitement while the kid just looks up at me in either amazement or fear.

By the Numbers
# of days in Guatemala- Approx 810
# of pictures on flickr- 2,782 www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorpsolivia
# of views of the pictures on flickr- 9704
# of blog entries- 65

Time to go but I haven´t…
- used up all my little travel bottles of lotion
- burnt all my candles
- used all my packs of sushi paper
- read all the books I have waiting
- watched all the movies I have never heard of in my box that I inherited from a previous volunteer
- mastered Photoshop (was one of my goals)
- memorized the order of all the books in the Bible (another goal)
- learned to French braid my hair (yet another goal)
- finished my painting I started 6months ago
- used even HALF of all the art supplies I have been given for my class
- successfully grown a vegetable plant
- gotten enough of mangos
- cooked with everyone I would have liked
- lost my butt yet ;)
- gotten use to the random sound of what sounds like a 40lb cat running across my tin roof
- yet learned that people just are NOT punctual here no many how many chances you give them
- had a pet rooster and named it Phantom and a chicken named Christine (From Phantom of the Opera)
- mastered the art of yeast. Used it twice and both times have not worked
- made my own beans (it takes like 5hrs!)

However, I have...
- seen 50 parades
- eaten a lifetime of tortillas
- learned to dance meringue (I am pretty good too!)
- discovered the new art of coconut painting
- gotten use to 8hr bus rides
- learned to appreciate church in English
- become more creative at cooking
- lived a life for 27months that for the most part, was not stressful
- possibly found my calling in life (working for nonprofits)
- been able to make a tortilla after my many many attempts. I can make the tortilla flat but it’s not perfectly round like the Guatemalans can do it, which means it gets rejected.
- taught a community how to make their own birthday cakes
- gotten good at washing my own clothes
- gotten use to parrots that laugh like humans
- drank a lot of different types of hot chocolate
- gone from screaming when I see a spider to depending on its size, either leaving it or sending it for a swim
- developed a small addiction to the cheese here
- finally gotten the courage to go to a new church by myself
- gotten use to short showers
- learned to appreciate English and in the process of teaching now understand the grammatical concepts even less (how do you explain goose-geese, tooth-teeth but no moose-meese to someone learning English)
- grown to love the rain
- held the world in my hands and then painted it on a wall with the kids
- gotten to know the postman on a first name basis
- had a few mini floods in my house thanks to large rainstorms
- been consolidated to the city thanks to two hurricane threats (that never made it to Guatemala)
- gotten use to walking into my host families house with a hot pot of coffee always sitting on the fire. Granted, it’s hardly coffee and mostly either sugar and ground corn with maybe a pinch of coffee but still, it is hot.
- been kissed on the cheek but the President of Guatemala (picture Bush doing that? Me either)
- had just as many earthquakes here as in Los Angeles
- become use to cheap fruits and veggies. ¨What! $1 for a pineapple! That is so expensive! Maybe next week¨
- climb the tallest volcano in Central America, volcano Tajulmulco 4200meters

Back in the U.S.- As of writing this, I have been back in the U.S. about 18hrs now. Its kinda tough. First stop was sushi for lunch of course. Oh tasty! Then we went to Verizon because I wanted to get a phone to keep in touch with people here and down in Guatemala. The guy asked me how many minutes I want and started thinking to myself in Spanish “Saber!” which means “ who knows”. So I took the cheapest my basic plan available. Then he asked which phone I want “Saber!” again, the cheapest and most basic. The fact that Verizon has unfriendly customer service (that has not changed since I left) did not help the process speaking I am use to overly kinda people. Then we went to the grocery store and that was a bit weird. SOOO many things to choose from! My dad asked me what I wanted and I honestly wanted nothing. Hadn’t even thought about eating at home and what I would need. So I just got some cereal and fruit at which I couldn’t help at cringe at the price. I bought 3 grapefruits in Antigua the day before for $.75, here they were $1.67 each. I know, I am not in Guatemala anymore. We came home so I could start unpacking which at that point, FINALLY, I started to cry. I was wondering when that would happen. I cried because unpacking, I felt like I was almost unpacking someone else’s suitcase. Like the whole thing was a dream. I remember Guatemala clearer than how my life was in the US before PC. So spent the day shedding a few tears here and there randomly (like now). But its ok. They say this is all normal and “welcome to return culture shock”. I really am taking one day at a time which is funny to hear my friends react to because pre-PC I had my whole year planned out. After my MANY hours of thinking about coming back this is basically what I have come to. I have had an amazing, life changing experience in Guatemala. With that, my eyes have been opened to some of the real problems in this world and I am going to do my best to take my life from Guatemala, and join it with my new life in the US and hopefully help make some changes.

THANK YOU God for keeping me safe, healthy (for the most part) and happy. I prayed that each night before going to sleep. Also, thank you to all of you who have kept up on my blogs and pictures the last couple years. It means a lot to me that you were interested in what was going on. Love you all!
-Liv

This is on a sign hanging in the P.C. training center in Guatemala. During training, it made no sense to me. Now, its makes COMPLETE sense and its very true when it comes to the process of development work.

What is Sustainable Development?

Go in search of the people
Love them
Learn from them
Plan with them
Serve them
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
But of the best leaders
When their task is accomplished
Their work is done
The people will mark
“We have done it ourselves”