Today I left Cabrican for the last time. The past two weeks have been a mess of going away parties and Peace Corps events. One of our fellow trainees got married, several people from our training group have already left the country, and now the few of us who remain, and are not extending, are counting down the hours until we are officially freed from our Peace Corps Service this Saturday. It was sad leaving Cabrican, but I am ready to move on to new things. Luckily, I am being replaced by two new youth development volunteers who will be continuing on with the library and the basicos in town.
Sometime next week I will be attempting to enter into Honduras and meet up with some friends from the States who are flying into San Pedro Sula on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed that the borders stay open!
The first lady of Guatemala came to Cabrican yesterday to drop off an ambulance for our town. She flew in on a helicopter was shuttled into the center of town and gave a speech and then was shuttled right back out as quickly as she came.
The Municipality provided a lunch for her, which was to be held in the library, so it was blocked off and searched for bombs etc. For some reason (I guess I look sketchy), one of her body guards wasn't going to let me in, even though I worked there and the staff had told them I would be coming (or rather, a gringa would be showing up). All the security turned out to be a bit unwarranted though, because a medical doctor showed up, supervised the packing of her food and took it to go. In the end, she never actually came into the library.
We had the inauguration for the mini-library project this Monday, June 1st. Once again, THANK YOU to everyone who donated. Some pictures from the event are posted above. If you would like to see all of them please check out the link below.
My mother has drawn it to my attention that I’ve gone almost two months without making a blog post. As a result I’m going to try and do a rapid fire update.
In April, we had the week off for Semana Santa so I hiked through the jungle to the Mayan ruins of Mirador on the Mexican border with Peten with some of my fellow volunteers. Mirador was built between 600 BC and 150 AD at which point it was almost completely abandoned for still unknown reasons. It houses one of the largest pyramids in the world and was recently in the news over the discovery of a nearly completely intact panel that is believed to depict the two Mayan twins from the Popol Vul (Mayan equivalent of the bible). Mirador has no road connecting it to civilization and can only be reached by a two day hike or by helicopter. Still mostly covered by vegetation (it took 30 years to uncover Tikal), it was an interesting experience to see an ancient Mayan city mostly still in its forgotten form and to be able to see the pyramids before they are restored.
Cabricán’s mini-library project was put on hold until now. The municipal government ran out of funds and we were unable to collect those which they had promised us. As a result, we put the book purchasing on hold until new funds were received from the national government. These should be coming in next week. Hugo, the library’s director, and I are going into Xela tomorrow to make initial purchases. All of the books should be purchased by the end of next week and we are hoping to turn over the mini-libraries and train the school directors and teachers on Monday June 1. Once again thanks to all of you who donated!
Rainy season has begun again. It’s my third here in Guatemala. I’m dealing with water flooding under my doors and leaks in my ceiling. A temporary bridge set up between my town and Xela has almost completely washed out and there are mini mudslides are everywhere. The good news is that I don’t have to sweep my house daily due to dust anymore and that things are starting to turn green again.
I turned a quarter century.
My little brother graduated from UNC. I went home to surprise him for graduation and to drop of Xpint, who is now a US citizen. He behaved himself beautifully on the plane, sleeping for most of the flight and only crying during take off and landing. Many people in town have been asking why it so much easier for an animal to get a visa than a person. I cannot explain this to them in terms they would understand.
I already really miss my cat. I keep expecting him to come flying through the window from outside. I found a huge spider in my bedroom today that I was unable to kill/trap and flush down the toilet (it escaped into the wall), and, had Xpint been here, he would have had that completely under control. He on the other hand, doesn’t appear to miss me all that much. According to my parents, he’s settled into life at 1483 beautifully and he and the dog are fast on their way to being friends.
My training group had our COS (Close of Service) Conference last week. There are less than two months left our service for those of us who aren’t extending. It is shocking how fast the time has gone. July 18, 2009: the official date I am allowed to leave Guatemala.
That’s it for now. I will try and be more on top of things in the future…
I've taught the staff at my library how to blog. The link to Biblioteca Nuevo Amanecer's new page is available below, or permanently on the side bar at the right. Check out their page if you get the chance. (Even if you don't speak spanish!)
