El Futuro

1/26/2008

Living at the end of the world gives me a lot of time to think, especially at night. And what else is there to ponder, but my future? I suppose some people would chastise me for not living in the present, but it is kind of hard to live in the present after seven o’clock when the whole town shuts down. In order to entertain myself for the next three or four hours I watch movies on my laptop, read books, write blog posts, work on puzzles, muddle over what projects I can start so that I am not such an ineffective volunteer, crash in on Brian or fret about what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.

Being that I had NO idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, the last 6 months in Cabricán have been very useful in narrowing down the possibilities:

A) Writing – My mother loves this idea. I’m not certain. I’ve never believed myself to be a good writer, but recently it’s become not only therapeutic but also extremely enjoyable. Travel writing would be my dream job. How great would it be to travel for free?

B) International Development – Broad category, I know. To broaden it even further, development in general. I would love to go back and work for the Latino Community Credit Union again, but I also want to work in a big city for a while. Washington, DC captures my attention because of all the opportunities in development. San Francisco as well, not because of development, but because I would love to work on the west coast and San Francisco seems like it would be a great city to live in.

C) Masters – Go back to school and get my masters in…? (Obviously not well thought out).

D) Veterinary School – This would clearly take a little extra work, given that my last science class was intro to biology my Freshman year at UNC and my last math class was AP statistics… which, scary to say, was five years ago now. I’m currently reading this book, “Mountains Beyond Mountains” about Dr. Paul Farmer a graduate and now professor of Harvard Medical School who spends half of his year providing free medical treatment in Haiti. He is also, coincidentally, a Dookie, so I guess some people who graduate from that place turn out okay. I think it would be neat to do the same thing but as a veterinarian.

E) Dirty Hippie – My definite plans upon completing my service, are either motorcycle diary-ing it backwards to Tierra del Fuego (sans the motorcycle, although I haven’t ruled that out completely) or buying a piece of junk car and driving up through Mexico back to the states and hitting all those places I’ve always wanted to see like Yellow Stone National Park and the Grand Canyon. Of course, by that point, maybe I will be ready to come home… or maybe I will become a professional dirty hippie and book it around the world on a shoestring budget for the rest of my life or until I get bored of seeing new things.

Of course, maybe I’ll just be a professional dirty hippie with a masters in (fill in the blank), who travels the world providing international development in veterinary care and writes about her experiences. Perfect!

1/22/2008

I am the proud parent of a new kitten! Xpint (pronounced Shpínt) is quite the devil child, not to mention an expensive addition to my Peace Corps budget. He enjoys climbing up my pant legs while simultaneously clawing my leg, dumping over the trash bin, chewing on electrical wires and my books, sitting on my face while I’m trying to sleep, and chasing all manner of things around the house. This is not to say Xpint does not have his benefits. He keeps me warm at night, he’s entertaining when he is not getting in to trouble, and, just yesterday, he killed his very first spider! I was getting used to killing my own bugs by letting them starve under mugs, but I am ecstatic that I won’t have to do that anymore.

Xpint in Mam, means manchas or pintado in Spanish, and stained or painted in English. I was toying with calling him Chewbaca because he makes the Chewbaca noise when he gets excited, but I decided since he is a Guatemalan cat he needs a Guatemalan name. Because I’m obsessed with my new baby, I’ve posted pictures of the adorable little devil below.

Juliana's Quinceanera

Why you should come visit me!

Christmas and Costa Rica

Thanksgiving... and the Death of Tonto

Kites!

12/3/2007
Kites decorate the electric wires in Cabricán like garlands down the stairs at Christmas. They hang there in deference to the dead.

Instead of celebrating Halloween like we do in the states, Guatemalans celebrate All Saints Day and the Day of the Dead on the first and second of every November. Being biased to my own culture, I much prefer Halloween, dressing up in goofy costumes and scarfing down candy. I suppose that the original purpose of the holiday has been lost in our consumerist culture. In Guatemala they spend the days cooking huge amounts of food which they bring out to the graveyards to offer to the dead. Family members clean off, repaint and decorate their relative’s graves. Graveyards in Guatemala are not filled with the creepy grey tombstones of the states, but a bonanza of brightly colored tombs.

These two days are also celebrated with huge kite flying festivals. Kids roam the streets with kites they’ve fashioned out of tissue paper. Most of them end up on the electric wires and I’ve heard quite a few stories of children getting electrocuted trying to get them down. In towns like Sumpango and Santiago in the department of Chimaltenango the kite flying festivals have become quite famous and large tourist attractions. Kites created out of bamboo and tissue paper and so large it takes eight or ten people to carry them are set loose in the skies. It’s amazing to see them go up; especially considering we PCVs could not even get a normal sized kite off the ground. It’s amusing to see them fall; as the massive kite plummets toward the earth people set off screaming and running trying to get out of its way. I imagine you could be quite seriously injured if you were actually hit by one. The towns also create even larger kites that actually do not fly but are dedicated to various social, environmental and other worthwhile causes. My favorite was one about global warming.

The kite flying is not limited to these two days, and has only recently begun to taper off. The kites, however, will probably remain up in the wires until the elements bring them down.