survival international

I really love survival international. They were some of the first to open my eyes to the human cost of a diamond.

I'm also excited that tonight I will be blessed enough to go watch Brett Dennen perform a concert at his house in Santa Monica ... I know right?

Since I haven´t been the best about posting pictures, I figured I would make up for it by posting a bunch of super key important ones... here we go
I´m gonna start at the mountain school...

Buster welcomed us into our new home at the mountains.

Here´s me... in my familys kitchen... trying to make tortillas.... In other words, I´m tortillando (one of my teachers told me that in Chile, to tortillar is a bad word. I´m not so sure about it... can someone help me out here. Preferably my family)

The finished product. Not so bad. Also, not so round and a little too fat but it was my first one, what do you expect.
Wednesday nights is noche cultural. Basically a bunch of kids from the community running around in a room playing games. I have a story for this picture but... well, it´s kinda wierd. Ask me and I´´ll tell you. Also, the little kid in the red is flipping the camera off. Kinda funny if you ask me.

Here´s my host family in the mountains. Here we have Lili (10) Piedad (76) Adeliada (?) y Evelyn (7). My first day there I was talking to Lili about her age and birthday and stuff. She mentioned that they don´t celebrate their birthday because they don´t actually have money to buy cakes or pinatas or anything. She then told me that one year, a student brought her family some chocolate cake for her birthday and so she was able to celebrate. The school tells us not to give material gifts to these families because it causes a lot of jealousy in the community. they said that if you want to give a gift to your family to give something that will dissapear, like food. On thursday I went into town to buy a cake for the family. When I arrived, they were thrilled. They tried to make me eat some cake but I couldn´t do it. The next day, they were still thanking me and they told me that instead of eating dinner that night, they had a chocolate cake! I love it. Mom, I figuered you´d love it too...
Here´s my teacher Eunice. Shes little, beautiful, wise and brave. We had some really good heart to hearts in spanish over coffee in a hut. Really, that makes us BFF.
Here´s one of the huts I studied in.

Here´s the toilet that they use to make fertilizer for the medicinal herb garden. The pot on the second toilet is filled with chalk, it helps keep the latrine from smelling bad... and it works. I did my best to contribute to the fertilizer as often as I could. I think they´re stocked up for a while now.
A cute little old man on the side of the road. He would get tired and sit for hours... Santo Lopez... i love him.

Basically, the Guatemalan women here are incredible for a few reasons. One of them being, this woman is basically wearing jellys, with a stack of wood over 100 pounds heavy on her back being supported by her neck with a forehead strap. Oh and the road she´s walking is further than a mile long and starts off as super uneven cobblestone. crazy! On our way to buy the chocolate cake... in our taxi/ pickup truck.

Our very first superchivos game... yay superchivos! Super chivo and grandson mini chivo.

My host family , Alejandro and Blanca Perez. They were such a great host family to stay with, we laughed a lot, they (alejandro) told really not funny jukes... and while somethings could have been lost in translation, i don´t think that was the case.

Here´s Blanca and Alejandros nietas. Melanie on the left and Emily on the right. Emily turned one last wednesday... and I´m missing her pinata this coming weekend. Both girls are so freaking beautiful and Melanie is a little spanish firecraker. Saying ¡no hombre! and other things that I always thought were bad words... I guess they aren´t.

Here´s Erin learning how to shake her caderas. We had a free salsa lessons at the school and you know we were all there trying to learn some O.G. salsa.

Here´s our friend Fedelma. We went out dancing one night and unfortunatley all we got was crazy ranchero music. Don´´t worry, the next night was all salsa (and a little YMCA.... not too sure why but it seems to be a big hit at ¨La Rumba¨here in Xela.)

Mi maestro Estuardo. He took us to a SuperChivos Futbol game and watched us yell things that... I´m pretty sure are foul and vulgur. Okay fine, I know they are but it was still loads of fun. We also spent some of our school days telling jokes and laughing on the roof with Ruth and Milton (her maestro).
the view from the roof of the school.

Fuentes Georginas... look at her pose ladies and gents!




Ok the end. Miss you all and we´ll be seeing you soon! ... Too soon I´m afraid.

i am still alive. sorry

Things here have been awfully crazy and I know I've been a bad blogger. We've arrived here at the mountain school...aka the most beautiful place I've been to in Guate. I'm also not as organized as Ruth and forgot the cord to hook úp to the computer so I can post some pics. (so lame... i know)

Basically, we took a one and a half hour bus ride up the mountains towards the coast through the forest/jungle. Once we arrived, there was more green than I've ever seen... ever. Our first day here was lots of sun and exploring and walking around. Yesterday though, I sat in a thatched hut (also the place where we have our one on one spanish lessons with our teachers during the day) and read a book. In an instant, we found ourselves in a tropical storm. THE loudest thunder THE brightest lightning and THE hardest rainfall. AWESOME! It was perfect temperature, not too hot and sticky and not too cold. I'm pretty sure somewhere in there the lightning hit the school too. It lasted all afternoon and I just couldn't get enough.

I'm fairly sure this school was made for people like me. That is, the captain planet type. They have an outdoor toilet where they collect poop and make fertilizer with it. I{m thinking this is a good idea for good old 1317. Any takers? There's a chuk? a traditional mayan hot(ish) steam bath type thing... anyways erin and I did it yesterday and even though i took a shower today, i still smell like i spent the night INSIDE a campfire. There's a bunch of banana trees on campus, tons of chickens running wild (no i haven't squished any of them) and a medicinal herb garden also super awesome. The first day here they had a guy, Jorge, come and talk to us about his experience and training as a natural health promoter in the communityHe also gave us some recipes for some natural teas he makes for a lot of the students here. So if anyone has the -reah or ameobas, i got you covered.

My teacher is a 23 year old mother of two. Her name is Eunice Maria Merceded. She has a daughter whos name is Fernanda (3), and a son who's name is... you guessed it Fernando(1). I love it. No really... I love her. She's this super strong feminist who's working to try and do the Vagina Monolouges here in this super small rural farm town. I love it. She's also probably one of the best teachers I've had here.

Tonight we're having Noche Cultural and you guessed it, we're the "cultural." Who knows what's gonna go down tonight. I think we just sit and play with a bunch of the kids that live in this community. My family was telling me how much help the students are here. That sounded kinda funny to me because all we do is eat with them. We don't help them cook or clean or anything. She told me that because 75% of this community is unemployed, the students bring in a lot of extra income. She also told me they eat a lot better and a lot more when there's students staying with them. When it's just the family (which in my case is a single mother, 10 year old, 6 year old and the mother's parents.... the mom is the only one who works and it's only a few days a week, the grandpa is 75+ and everyday he has to take a pickup into town to try and find work which is really hard to find so he has to wake up at about 4am) all they eat is beans and tortillas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Crazy.

Thats all for now... I should head back to town before heaven's faucet opens on us while we're on the back of a pickup truck. ... which around here is a taxi.

Maria Tuilia

So very much has happened and since it´s my day off today, I thought I´d take some time to let you know a little about what´s been going on.

First of all... I told you about my teacher Maria, she´s amazing! I love love love her. More than just a spanish teacher she has told me some incredible stories about her time ¨fighting¨ in the war. There´s a couple stories she told me yesterday that brought me to tears and oh how I could explain to you how beautiful this woman is because of all she´s had to fight through. I´ll give you a quick version of one of her stories because, well, I´m not that great of a writer (she is and I told her she needs to write a book... she´s gonna) and because I think it might take me forever.

During the war she slowly was working at a Catholic school as a teacher. One of the preists that also worked at the school started telling Maria and her friend that they should start reading the daily paper to be better informed about what was going on with their country and with the war. They did. After learning more about the war and what was going on in Guatemala, they asked the preist what they could do to be not only informed, but involved. He gave them some small easy jobs. Jobs like watching for the governments military our in the streets to see where they were going, and how many of them there were. After some time, they wanted to do more. The preist was a part of a guerilla movement called ORPA (Organization of People in Arms). I´ll jump a little more forward here... the more she got involved, the more she wanted to do. At this point she´s 27 years old and ORPA has just offered her an opportunity to be a nurse. She had never be trained in anything other than being a teacher so this was a huge decision for her to make. They offered her a car and because one of her dreams had been to own and drive a car, she said yes. (how awesome is that!)

Her very first ¨mission¨ was to go pick up a wounded soldier in the guatemalan mountains. The house they gave her was in Mexico because they didn´t want to risk being in Guate for their own safety. The house was, I think, in Chiapas Mexico. Orpa gave her a husband too...well not really but kinda. She moved in with a guy/pretend husband named David who had also recently joined the movement. On the way to her first mission, she had a car in front and one in back, both with Guatemalan preists who were like her security. Once she got up to the top of the mountain where the soldier was to be waiting for her, she saw him. He was a mess. His face was completley disfigured, two of his fingers had been blown off and he had shards of bomb lodged into his face. He could still walk but his hand had a horrible infection. His left arm had been amputated previously, she thinks with a swiss army knife in the mountains and now his right hand was missing his pointer finger and ring finger and part of his palm.

His name is Pedrito. For the 15 days after the bomb explosion, he lived under a coffee plant in hiding. He had very little food, if any at all, and a severe infection in his hand. His fellow soldiers couldn´t take him out of the front lines because it was too dangerous so they waited until the fighting settled a bit before they got him help. 15 days. During the explosion, his left eye had been blown off and his right eye became blind too.

Maria took him and changed his clothes so he could be a little cleaner and less obvious when they crossed back over the border. He looked like death she said but his spirit was incredibly hopeful. After putting him in the car, she drove back to her house to start treating his wounds. Luckily the guards at the border let her pass without question and she arrived home. Once inside, she stuck him in the bath and cleaned him up. His hand was the worst of it. He had pus and a bunch of maggots there living in his wound. After cleaning out his wound, she called a friend to find out how to get the maggots out. Apparantley, boiling some water with basil in it and then putting it on your maggot infested wound makes them scurry off.

Eventually they got him food, antibiotics, and prostetic devices for his arm and hand. He lives in Mexico City now with a group of blind people. Maria says that he kinda fell in love with her during the time she took care of him. During that time he would ask her what she looked like and they would spend lots of time together, especially during meals when she had to feed him. She never had feelings for him so it never really worked out.

I guess what I find so great about this story is that she was never trained to do anything. She had no supplies and no training but it seems like she did everything perfectly. (from a nursing student´s standpoint that is) He would have suffered without her help yet her hours and hours of time and care got him back to a place of functionality and life. Eventually she got some medication and some supplies and a little bit of training but for the most part, everything was on the spot, think for yourself kinda stuff. Seems to me she did okay.

She has told me some other stories too. Stories of amputations in her house, getting arrested and tortured by the mexican police. Stories of running an underground radio station. Stories of being dropped off in Cuba after being beaten. Stories of being awesome.

Listening to some of her stories, I asked her if she was scared (like before she was stripped naked and tortured). She said no. I said yeah right. She said well... I´ve studied psychology so I know that fear is man made and your fear only had as much power as you give it. Who says that? Maria Tuilia.

Mi primer dia de classe...que bien

Today was my first day of class. So good. We started out with some history of Guatemala and how Xela, the city we´re in, was highly active in the recent civil war. We were told that one of the purposes of the school 20 years ago was to raise money for the families of two students who were drug out into the streets, tortured and murdered. The income from the school was to pay for lawyers and help support the families. Since then the school has had a hang in many of the social justice issues of Xela and Guatemala. Right now they work with an after school program for children, reforestation up in the mountains, the one and only local women´s shelter, and with different indigenous people here securing their rights.

After a brief overview we met our teachers. Aparently, my teacher is one of the best in the school and kinda badass. She fought as a guerilla in the civil war for 25 years, helped out during the war as a nurse and is barely 5´foot tall. She also might be the cutest thing I´ve ever seen. I can´t ever look at her and think she ever fought in any war. I´ll tell you more about her once I find out more.

I got hooked up with my family on Sunday afternoon. An older couple with12 grandchildren. Two live down the street and met up with us for some lunch. They little one, Emily, is almost one and the older girl, Melani, is 6. We played some bingo today after lunch but she called it loteria like lottery. We had some amazing noodle chicken soupy thing that tasted like gormet top ramen with veggies. So good!

My week looks awfully packed with some incredible trips (like the one to the midwifery in a rural village and the one to the largest market in Central America) and a lot of studying. Looks like I´m going to be learning a lot here especially regarding the social issues facing the Guatemaltecas. It´s so good to be around people passionate about learning more than just the language but the culture as well.

Here´s a picture from one of the streets here in Xela. We were looking for a used book store but we found a good photo op.

Here´s a graffiti stencil from one of the polictal patries running here in Guate. I don´t think this is the good one but I should find out.

I can´t figure out how to arrange my photos so here´s a cool building and my bedroom. oh and Erin finally got here too... los tres amigas!

I´m here.
After a gruelling long day of traveling, I´ve finally made it here. I made friends with the woman travelling with me on the bus so she gave me a ride to the school. By made friends, I mean she talked a lot while I smilled and nodded my head. She told me all about her kids, husband going in for surgery, friends she has in Boston, and how to make dulces. It was good practice for me as I listened to her speak with an accent different than I´m used to. When I finally arrived at the school it was pitch black and looked like we were in a dark sketchy alley. Turns out, all the streets in Xela look dark and sketchy and like alleys at night. They aren´t, but they look it.

Ruth and I spent the day walking around Xela today. Breakfast at a small cafe over looking the Central Park then off to but some probiotic yogurt and a cell phone. No trip is complete without a cell phone.

So far it looks like our weeks will be filled with lots of viajes and mercados, trips and shopping. I´m also looking forward to some good eats. That´s it for now. Ruth is kinda blogging for the both of us so check out her blog for some good pics.

Also... mom I want you to know that we´re talking to eachother in spanish about 75% of the time. It´ll get better once we´re not so frustrated looking for the right words and know more vocab. Love you all... adios

ahh Mexico City

After a three hour flight, I arrived in Mexico City. I slept next to a limo driver from Oakland. He claims to have driven around "50 cents." It was hard not to laugh at that. I think I missed the dinner they served. I figured sleep was more mportant. After my 7 hour layover here, I still have a two hour flight to Guatemala City 4 hour bus ride. Long day ahead of me with only 3ish hours of sleep.

On a positive note, my backpack is breaking. I bought one of those travel pillows that you wear around your neck but it´s super bulky. I had it in my backpack for a while until it started ripping my zipper at the seams. Whoops. It´s still dark outside here (6am) so I don´t think I´ll be leaving to find a mochilla but hopefully can find one here in this ginormous airport. If not I may be pressed to buy a Nacho Libre wrestling mask and use it as a patch. They have enough here to sew a whole new backpack and I have the time to do it... we´ll see what happens.

By the way, while I´ve been at this internet cafe, I´ve heard almost every 90´s blockbuster hit theme song. For example, Don´t Wanna Miss a Thang by Aerosmith, Celine Dions Titanic theme song, ... that´s enough for me. The best part is that of the five people, including me, in here, four of them are singing along. Can you guess who isn´t?

Okay. I´m all done. I should go look for a backpack so all of my belongings don´t spontaneously drop onto the floor...which would be hilarious. Now Sweet Child of Mine is on so I might have to stay a bit longer.

maatiam

I just found this website that makes donations to the nonprofit of your choice with every online purchase you make.  (if the company is participating)

I think it's crazy. It's like the (RED) campaign but better cause you don't have to shop at GAP. 

The only purchases I make these days are for cheap text books  but... I can use that website for them too. They take a cut from the donation which is understandable. Otherwise,  it seems legit. 

So if you're shopping online and feeling bad about your purchase, go through this website and maybe you'll feel a little better cause you're giving to a nonprofit at the same time. 

maatiam

I feel like I don't know of many non-profits to give to. Maybe you can comment with some of the ones you  support. 

Here's my very short list. 

Rise Up Inc.  (Bend OR)

Kiva Microfund

Africa Aid

Venice Family Health Clinic

World Vision

Habitat for Humanity

 

i really like this

"It is our routines and our comforts that allow us to ignore social issues. For some of us, it is our privilege to be ignorant. This video tells the story of social issues challenging our privileges and entering our routines making them impossible to ignore. Social injustice cannot be ignored when you are forced to deal with them. That is the idea behind this video.

What would happen if you were forced to deal with something that you may think has nothing to do with you? If suddenly the world's problems came into your
own home? You would have to realize that you are connected to everything and everyone one earth." -brett dennen

love it

It's official. I love nursing school. My first clinical has been at a Catholic all women nursing home. A lot of the women that stay there are nuns and the other's are always giving praise to God. 

At first, it was the most frightening thing ever to introduce yourself to a complete stranger and then two seconds later, you're taking their clothes off to start bathing them. They trust you. Completely. I'm not even sure I'm worthy of the trust they give me. It's my first time doing any of this. How can they trust me? My first patient was completely dependent. Couldn't even eat so she had a tube coming out of her stomach that feeds her. My second patient swore and was very hard of hearing. She was a riot. This week I worked with a woman that has Alzheimer's, dementia, and Parkinson's. She's an artist. She's beautiful. I gave her a coloring book so she could color a bit while I was doing other stuff. When I came back to check on her, I realized she could color better with a tremor in her hand than I ever could with a steady hand. 

I've cleaned these ladies butts, washed their bodies, cracked jokes they don't really get, broken up an almost fight, and picked out 95 year old clothes and yet my favorite part has been with a woman who doesn't speak. At 12 they get their lunch. We sit with the ones who maybe can't feed themselves or don't want to eat. I sat with a nun. She's sleeping most of the time with her eyes closed and no real muscle strength to do anything for herself.  She stirred a bit as I sat next to her but still had her eyes closed. As I placed food near her lips she would smell it and open up her mouth to receive it. I feed  her lunch for about an hour and she was still then she was only half way done. She would fall asleep in the middle of it so it was hard to keep a good rhythm. As I sat and fed her I thought about all the good she had to have done in her convent. I couldn't imagine the stories she could tell me about the children she worked with and the people she got to love. I dreamed about the life that she had lived and quickly became sad at how she had no family to visit and love her in her most vulnerable state. I guess I just felt honored that I could serve a woman that spent her whole life serving. It was kinda amazing to be needed. 

I hope everyone could feel needed like that at least once. 

It's a rare treat but I have a few minutes before I hit the sack and so much has happened. 

school... amazing. super difficult but amazing. Tomorrow morning I have orientation at the nursing home where we'll be learning the basics. Vitals, butt washing, and diaper changing on people larger than 20 lbs. and older than I can imagine. I'll be working at a nursing home for old retired nuns. I'm so excited to hang out with nuns. I mean really how often do you get the opportunity to serve someone who spent their whole lives serving everyone else? 

When I started school, I thought that nursing would basically be everything we have already learned in the last two weeks. Now I'm figuring, what do they have to teach us, we know everything we should know. I'm in for a treat! Had my first midterm yesterday (two weeks into nursing school they give you a midterm, crazy) got 92%. Hope we can keep this business up.

my new macbook air... I don't even remember life before her. She's a beauty. Super light, easy to use however, doesn't work for 5 real hours but more like 2-3 solid. 

risen... I just signed up to be risen's mission advocate. Basically I'll be kind of in the know about what people are doing missionally and helping them out. I think right now more than anything we need a bit of encouragement with our mission dept. I'm excited to hopefully be that person for our community. 

food... I'm a vegetarian right now. It's wierd. It's also a little difficult. I figure that if Pamela Anderson can do it, so can I :) . There are many reasons why I've decided to change this about my rhythm of life. Maybe I'll post about it soon. 

well kids. that's it for now.

moving forward

My brand new baby is on it's way to me. My MacBookAir has been shipped out to my apt. and should be arriving sometime next week. I've never had a brand new laptop and this one looks real fragile so I hope I dont break it. I'm pretty sure I'll spend a couple days emersed in it's awesome features and trying to figure it all out. My first new laptop. My first mac. My new love.

I also start school on the 11th. I kinda can't believe it's really happening. I decided to go to SMC which is nearer and much much cheaper. Again, shocked that it's actually happening.

My life is in the midst or renewal. It's painful at times, beautiful at others. Change is usually good so... I'm eating healthier thanks to some good reads, shocking videos and good conversation. I'm moving forward. I'm simplfying my life in hopes I can see some true value in the things I do. I'm attempting to consume less (minus my new laptop). And the hope is, that I will be blogging a bit more regularly. Who knows though. I've made this promise before.