Back to Bartolo

Just got back from my 4-day site visit…not as exhausted from the travel as expected. It's about 7 hours by bus between my site and my training town. It could be worse. And I won't really need to come bck here that often once I swear in next week (official swear-in countdown: 6 days).

Overall, it was a good site visit, although short. I feel like it was just a tiny taste of what my life will be like for the next 24 months. A few of the Alta Verapaz volunteers who I met at the 4th of July party told me that Alta is like a whole different country. I didn't really take that seriously until now. My journal entry from last night:

I'm at my site now, without power for the 4th night in a row. It's really hot here…like tropical hot. And it rains every day, for at least an hour or so. The rain is welcome, though, in this heat. The people have been really kind to me so far…I'm the third Peace Corps volunteer to be placed here, so they're more or less used to having a gringo roaming around the aldea...the kids especially are super curious, and aren't afraid to ask me all sorts of questions. Today was the first day that I didn't really have anything planned…I busied myself unpacking and cleaning my new place (which is nice, especially by local living standards). This afternoon a few women teachers I met the other night stopped by to ask me to play soccer with them. I went (they honestly could have asked me to go slaughter turkeys with them and I would have gone…I need all the invitations and all the friends I can get at this point) and we played a pick-up game in the rain. It was actually pretty fun. They speak in Kekchi about half of the time, and the other half in Spanish (sometimes they'll switch to Kekchi and talk about me...although there's no way to know yet).
Tonight was my first night alone in the apartment since my roomates went home for the weekend. Despite the rain and a lack of appetite, I went back to Dona Ines' comedor for some beans-n-eggs. I just really want to connect to a family here, and they seem really friendly. When I walked in they all said "Your first night alone! Come in! Eat!" They seem like really caring people...they really want me to learn Kekchi, and quickly. I'm going to do my best, but it's pretty daunting.
There's a moth the size of a bird on my wall. Definitely bigger than any moth I've ever seen. I'm going to ignore it and go to sleep...5:30 micro to catch in the a.m.!

Overall, I think I got a good feel of the community and my site. I'm going to try to be patient and open-minded in these few few months, because I know that it will take time to integrate and really get into my role as volunteer. It's particularly hard because it's like they all already know me. I'm the gringa volunteer named Hannah who lives in Kelsey's old apartment. And I'm hard to miss. But they are all new to me, they all dress the same, talk the same, look the same (to my gringo eyes, at least) and names are hard to remember. I just hope I don't make a fool of myself or piss anybody off in my first few weeks. That would be a disaster in a community that size.

It's weird to be back in my training town...it has a different feel now that I know my home is somewhere else now. The kids jumped all over me when I got back today. I'll feel bad leaving them next week. It's hard to explain to a 3-year-old why his "aunt" is leaving yet again.

Off to buy pastries and walk around town...gotta take advantage of good tienda pastries since there won't be any of that where I'm heading!