Last I wrote, I had mentioned that PC was giving my women's group and myself the chance to finish our grant application for the stoves project. This was a huge deal because even though there was no guarantee of receiving the grant we were having the chance to apply, giving us hope. Unfortunately, that hope was crushed a week after I wrote my last blog post. I had been planning on submitting the application on Friday, February 3, to the grant committee. Last minute, though, the budget wasn't balanced and we needed to make some changes so I decided to wait until Monday to send it. I did, however, email my Project Specialist the majority of the application on that Friday to review it and give me any suggestions. It wasn't until I got a phone call on Monday from my Project Specialist that I found out that the grant committee, which meets once a month and decides if the applications get approved or not, had met that previous Friday. This meant that our application missed the committee meeting and could no longer be taken into consideration because there wasn't going to be another meeting until April. I had been in communication with the guy whose sole job is to be liaison between the grant committee/fund and PC volunteers. He never once informed that the committee was meeting that Friday. If I had known I obviously would have gotten my application in on time. I had even emailed him earlier that week saying that I was going to try to send in the application by Friday and what the outlook would be. My response: "I think it’s great if you can get the application in. In terms of your chances there is as good a chance as any of being approved." No mention of that Friday being the committee meeting. He later called me explaining that he had assumed I knew and that my Project Specialist had informed me. Neither of which were accurate. I can sit here and get angry all over again at how once again PC-Guatemala's lack of communication has let me down and hurt me, but I won't. I was angry, hurt, and upset for good enough time after that incident and looking back now maybe it was a blessing in disguise. I definitely would have been super busy my last month in site and would have been rushing to get things done. Then I would have left and no monitoring would have occurred from a third party. I believe in projects that not only incorporate and empower the local community but that are also sustainable. It felt like I had failed after fighting for so long for this project, but in reality I trained some of these women in the process in how to even apply for a grant and all the things that need to be taken into account. I also helped them find hope in themselves to do the project in the first place. It may have been a defeat but at least something valuable came out of it. And as Maya Angelou said, "You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated."
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| Doña Paulina (women's group President) in her kitchen where she makes her fire to cook |
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| The community school's "stove" |
Moving on to happier news. I was invited to a meeting about 2 weeks ago that the new mayor of my town hosted in which he invited all of the NGOs and non-profits doing development or aid work in the municipality. As mayor, he wants to know what kind of work is happening and how he can support each organization and wants to make sure that each organization knows what the others are doing so no two things are duplicated. These meetings are going to be held monthly and if they actually live up to their purpose (so far they seem to) it would be a great tool and resource for the community so that all work done is sustainable and effective. I happened to meet some aid workers there from a development organization called Plan International. Plan International used to have a program also called Healthy Schools, similar to the one I work in, in some of the schools in my municipality. They discontinued it, from what I've gathered, because it wasn't sustainable and wasn't displaying good results. It consisted of handouts and isolated activities instead of doing follow-ups and holding the schools accountable for change. It turns out they have hired some other people, one of which I met that day, to restart the program here in Purulhá but to make it better and more sustainable. After I gave my presentation on the PC Healthy Schools, I was approached by the man from Plan and asked more about how we worked exactly. After a short conversation, he told me he was interested in talking more in depth about our program and to collaborate with me so that they could take over where my sitemate Lohmo and I are leaving off. That way, the program won't end and keep going in the schools. One of the biggest things that made me sad about leaving my site was abandoning these schools that had just barely gotten to know the program. Then here comes Plan to save the day and is going to try to do the best they can to continue the program! Needless to say, I am so happy over this. I actually met with this man and another Plan worker today to further discuss how the overlap and continuation can take place. I think they also informally offered me a job. Ha! He asked me if I would be interested to pretty much do the same job I was doing but this time with three towns instead of one but for four years! Honestly, I can't commit my life to something for four years right now unless that something is medical school, so that immediately made it a no-go for me. The prospect was nice though. We're going to be having more meetings in the next few weeks to further make a plan so I'll be updating sooner rather than later. Yay!
Other than all that, the next thing I have planned is a contest of rincones de salud with all of the schools in the Healthy Schools program here. "Rincones de salud" are a vital part of our program and translate to "health corners" or "health nooks". They are spaces created in classrooms where the students keep their toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, towels, etc. It promotes healthy habits and hygiene in the classroom and at school. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this but Guatemalans are pretty creative when it comes to making stuff and are especially good drawers, at least the teachers seem to be. They are so meticulous! So these rincones usually come out looking pretty damn good. Anyways, since I'm leaving so soon I want to at least motivate the schools to make their rincones now that the school year just began. Then, they can at least have the materials there and hopefully by seeing them in the classroom the teachers will have more motivation to make the students wash their hands and brush their teeth. It should be a fun activity and I'll definitely post pictures later.
For the past week and a half I have actually been out of my site and instead have been down by Antigua and the PC office. I had my COS (close of service) conference and then had to stay to do my COS meds (a bunch of medical appointments to make sure Guatemala didn't totally destroy your health). I finished my meds though and accomplished pooping in a cup three times and getting a negative TB test. Woo! It was a stressful and overwhelming week though with so much going on. Two of my good friends in PC that lived up here by me in the Cobán area were finishing up their service and going home. Shout out to Evan and Winfrey who are now Stateside and living the life with good food, smartphones (I know, Win, you don't have one), and hot showers. Hopefully I'll see them again soon. But seeing so many volunteers leave that week was weird and depressing. It makes it feel all the more real that all this is happening so fast and we all move on at one point or another. I'll miss our little Verapaz crew!
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| Verapaz love |
Being back in site after being gone for so long feels weird but so nice. It's even weirder since Lohmo has moved to his new site already so I am here in Purulhá solo. I have less than three weeks left here in my home and then another week of getting things wrapped up in the office and checkin' out the Mayan ruins in Tikal. I suppose this is the beginning of the end of my PC service. I'm trying to really just savor every last moment Guatemala has to offer me because I know I will miss it all in some shape or form. It's crazy how fast everything is happening and I can hardly even believe it. Oh man! I just remembered something I forgot to write about that is so crazy you just have to laugh at it. The day before Valentine's Day, my landlady washed my clothes for me because the sun had finally come out and I had three weeks worth of dirty clothes. Well, it hadn't all dried that afternoon so she left it out on the patio on a clothesline overnight to spread back out in the morning. I was awoken the next morning by a knock on my door from my landlady asking me if I had brought my clothes in that night. I hadn't. All of my clothes were gone. Stolen. I would say it was 65-70% of my clothes. I was obviously mad that day at whoever decided to steal all my clothes and quite frankly just confused. But once I got thinking, I was thankful it was my clothes and not something more valuable or irreplaceable. I was probably going to leave half of it here anyway since Guatemala seems to destroy clothing like no other. And now I have less clothes to pack and space for other goodies to bring back! There's a bright side to everything if you look hard enough. That's what I love about life. Hasta la próxima!
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