It's Been A While!

So what' s been going on in Guatemala for the last month and a half? Not much, just rolling with it. Really starting to feel comfortable here; I'm realizing after 9 months in country that my life is here and not in the States. I can't even imagine exactly what it is I would be doing in the States if I were there. I'm also beginning to understand why Peace Corps is a two year commitment - it really takes time to make connections with people, to feel comfortable in a new environment, and to make progress in your project. Just visiting a place doesn't require any time at all, but to integrate oneself into a foreign community so that people start seeing you as a neighbor and not just a visitor takes time. I've been in my site for 6 months now and am just starting to know my neighbors, and it's not just time for my neighbors to accept me, it's also me slowly opening up and trusting them. Ever since I got my own place, I've taken great solace in having personal space to do everything - sleeping, cooking, bathing, just living. While with my two host families for a total of 6 months, yes I had my own room, but I had to eat when they were eating and eat food that I didn't want to eat, I had to shower at certain times and rush so as to not take up all the water, I couldn't make the spaces more comfortable because technically they weren't my spaces and I'd be moving out anyway. In general it was only a semi comfortable feeling; I wanted to relax but couldn't quite do it. Having to make sure all your actions are considerate to the lives of the family is tiring; my actions were too closely tied with those of the family. Once I got my own place I had no desire to share it, but now, slowly but surely, I'm inviting more people over and getting used to having closer relationships with my neighbors - this is something I didn't do in the States. Most Mondays (market day, so it's easier to buy ingredients) I cook dinner at my house with Ingrid and we split the price of supplies. I'll spend some time with the girls who run the Hotel across the street from me, and this past Sunday I forced myself to invite them over to bake cookies. I decided to take advantage of the time to show them some pictures of friends and family from home, and they ate it up! Ingrid also saw the pictures, and the following night when I went to her house to cook Pepian she showed me pictures of her family and even gave me a picture of her and her brother. So I'm slowly learning that it pays to put yourself out there. My next stop is the family who runs the Ferreteria next to me - I'm thinking a nice dinner. Will keep you posted!
Water has been a real issue for me. My landlord told me that the house always had water, but turns out that it doesn't. Basically my house is hooked up to a tank that always has water, but the tube connecting the tank to my house and whoever else uses its water, breaks when there's a lot of rain because it's located in an area susceptible to mudslides. At first I thought the situation pretty unfortunate, but when I went 5 days without bathing during my first week in the house, suddenly my perspective on the worthless tube changed! First of all if something doesn't work when it rains, that means that it'll never work because it rains just about every day for 6 to 7 months a year in Guatemala. Second, I'm just mad that the tube had to be located in an area where there are mudslides - isn't that just stupid? Third, you would think that because people depend on this tube for their water supply the town would fix the tube immediately after a hard rainstorm broke it. Well that doesn't happen here. My landlord's pretty sneaky because all along he kept telling me that he would fix the problem. I believed him until I started my series of water conversations with my neighbor who owns the ferreteria. Me neighbor told me, not my landlord, that the tube will never be permanently fixed. I thouhgt to myself, 'how can people be okay with the inevitable breaking of this tube?' Then my neighbor, again not my landlord, told me that most of the people in the town paid a one time payment of 5000 quetzales to receive their water from an infallible water source- oh, that's why they don't care. I later discussed this with my landlord and he tole me "no monay." So I would say that during the past two and a half months that I've been in my house, I've had water for about 3 weeks, and let me just say life without water is rough. Unlike my first week in the house when I was unaware of the water situation and had no basins filled up, I've adjusted to the situation. I bought a basin that holds about 11 gallons of water. Luckily I'm close to the water tank in the market. I make three trips to the market with my 5 gallon water tumbo (5 gallons is pretty heavy by the way) and have 15 gallons of water to wash my face, hands, and food with. This lasts about a week. To wash dishes I go to Dona Fina's comedor (eatery) and use the kitchen. How do I bathe? I would bucket bathe in my house, but I'd have to carry more water from the market and that's just too heavy. I've paid Q5 to shower in the hotel on my block, but the best solution came when I joined a pretty classy gym. The gym, even though an hour away, guarantees me 3 hot showers a week plus I get to work out which I've been craving to do. At most I go two days without showering, and while that sounds bad it's actually good. Currently I've had water for a week, so I've been bathing just to bathe (it's funny or gross, but I really don't feel the need to bathe every day now), and I washed all my clothes instead of wearing them dirty. Life is good with water!
Other than water issues and getting to know my neighbors, school finished just last week so I'm technically on vacation. I'll be leaving in two days to go to Livingston where Guatemala's only black population lives, and then on to the Honduran Bay Islands. So life in general is pretty chill! Wanted to give a heads up to you all that as of January 2008 I will officially be accepting visitors. I know Guatemala isn't what you envision as a vacation spot, but it actually attracts many tourists, there are some very cool places to see, and it's CHEAP!! Just let me know dates!