Ioos! (Yo-ss, also hello in Q’eqchi)
People have been asking me about when I’m going to post
again, so here y’all go! Things have actually been pretty eventful since I
posted last; it’s been a pretty crazy ride. Since the last post, we’ve kicked
off our literacy night (Thursdays) and sports clinic (Saturdays), both which
have been awesome, and our trash cleanup was great last Sunday. The two lit
nights had 30+ and 20+ kids respectively, and they were both spectacular. The
first night there was a mad rush at the end of the night to check out books
(which we actually can no longer do without parental permission, really no
shocker there). They were a little disappointed about that the next night, but
they’ll be ready next time. The sports clinics were about the same. The first
had 30+ and we played a bunch of games and ended with an hour of football. The
kids here absolutely love football, it’s great. I’m crap at anything but
keeper, but it’s still a lot of fun. The second time we had 15-20, and that was
just as great. No football, but Grant brought out his slack line and the kids
mega-loved that, so that was pretty sweet.
Training has been the usual, lots of long days, being tired
all the time, and lots and lots of Q’eqchi. The language part is still the best
by far though. We also have to do these practicums periodically where we
present on topics that we’ve learned about through PST. The first we had to do
was on maternal and child health, with our group presenting on antenatal care
and birth, in as much Q’eqchi as we could (which was not a ton at this point).
It was a big wakeup call for what we’d have to do when we’re in our villages, and
how much there is yet to learn. The second was supposed to be Wednesday on
either acute respiratory infections or diarrheal disease, with us having to do
the same sort of thing with treatment and prevention of diarrheal diseases. The
first went pretty well talking for 25 minutes on ANC, the second postponed due
to Hurricane Earl, which I’ll get to later.
My host family has been amazing, though that has a really
large and sad asterisk on it, which again I’ll get to later. I finally got to a
point where I really felt integrated into the family. My relationship with my
host mom was great, she loves playing jokes by lying hilariously about random
things (chik chii) and then laughing about it. She knows I don’t care much for
Coke/pop in general, so she thinks it’s super funny to ask if I want a Coke and
then laugh about it, which is actually really funny. My host dad is great, we’ve
always gotten along really well and it’s pretty cool being able to help out
with random things around the house, learning stuff I never would’ve expected
(like planting corn, building a house and fixing our road). My host sister
finally realized I’m more than just a saq (white person/gringo), and actually
talks to me and calls me by name now. We play a lot and have actually had a
couple convos in Q’eqchi, which is absolutely amazing. She also randomly gives
me parts of her snacks, which is simultaneously really sweet and super
adorable. I absolutely love my host family.
Our second culture day was Mestizo and that was last Friday,
and it was unfortunately kind of a bummer. The morning was alright and we
actually learned a fair bit about the culture, which was cool, but the
activities weren’t super engaging. It didn’t help that it rained a ton and all
we all could think about was the second half of the day when we were supposed
to go to a Mayan ruin, Xutantunich. Because of the onslaught of rain and how
late the morning stuff dragged on, we couldn’t go unfortunately. Huge bummer to
everyone, since we’d all been looking forward to it so much, both for the
experience and because we’ve all been craving a break from PST and some time to
get outside and have some fun. PST has been rough and it’s been getting to us
all a little bit, so that was a rough situation. It could have been planned a
little better in terms of timing, but really it wasn’t anyone’s fault. The one
day we needed there to not be rain so we could do something super fun, there
was a ton of it and we couldn’t go. Just means the next time we get the
opportunity to go to a ruin will be that much better for the wait though.
Not much more eventful to write about until Hurricane Earl
now. Practicum was supposed to be Wednesday, and that’s when things started to
escalate. They postponed it opting to do our 2nd technical
interviews instead, which help determine our site placement. Meanwhile, those
who were done or had later interviews went home to pack up in the event we had
to consolidate in Belmopan. I had packed that morning with a few others, so it
was a lot of waiting around before and after my interview. We got the official
notice around 11 that we were being moved to Belmopan, since Earl had
officially been upgraded from a tropical storm (less than 75 mph winds) to a
category 1 hurricane, with the potential for it to upgrade to a category 2. We
all split up to go home, eat lunch, and get ready to leave for Belmopan. This
involved bagging up all of our stuff to prevent from severe water damage,
taking 1 bag of essentials with us, and telling our families to take care and
that we’d hopefully see them soon. I left saying taawil aawib (take care) and
that I’d hopefully see them in 2 days, then left in the already light rain.
That was incredibly hard actually, because it felt so wrong
to be leaving our families. Here we are coming to help out communities and live
with them, only to say Peace Out when things get crazy. That being said, I
really do get it, Peace Corps has a responsibility to keep us safe and I am
very grateful for that, but that doesn’t make it any less difficult to do that.
I expected to see my family in just 2 days time and with that in mind, left for
the pickup site for us to go back to Belmopan to the Peace Corps office.
Hurricanes are some crazy things, but I’ll be honest, we all
needed some consolidation time together (consolidarity 2016!), even given the
circumstances. It was so nice to just be able to hang out for a night and not
have to stress about training, integrating, studying, practicums, sleep,
eating, illness, and really just everything about being a PCT. We also got to
hang out with some COSing (close of service) volunteers and current PCV’s,
which was spectacular. Every volunteer I’ve met is absolutely incredible, it’s
kind of mind-blowing actually. I really get the Peace Corps bond thing now,
especially with PCV’s who’ve served so long and just took us and as if we’d
already known each other a long time. Plus being able to talk openly to
everyone about literally (read: litRally) everything (yes, that includes poop,
there’s actually a lot of talk about poop, it’s ridiculous how comfortable we
are with each other) is really something else. Everyone is so nice, friendly,
helpful, and all around wonderful. The support system here is actually ridonkulous,
and that’s really, really good. Especially with the next part of the story
about to come up.
Cue today. The storm was crazy, but we were all fine and had
no issues short of a little flooding on the second floor in one room. We’re
waiting around hoping to hear from families and wondering when we’ll get to go
home to our host families, and most everyone’s heard by midday. I texted my
family at 8 and hadn’t heard by noon, so I called. What I heard shook me up,
but didn’t rock my world yet. Everyone was fine, which was the important part,
but 2 of the 3 houses (the ones with thatch roofs) lost their thatch roofs. The
3rd has a zinc roof, but many openings at the top, so that got hit
too. Suddenly, my family has no home to sleep in and I don’t have a homestay
home anymore. I’ll be honest, it was pretty devastating, but knowing my host family
was okay was the biggest thing. I didn’t care about the non-essential stuff I’d
had to leave at home, all that’s replaceable, but I did care about them and the
idea of living with them the last 5-6 weeks of training. They were staying
safely with family, but the house was in shambles. Thankfully, everyone’s
families were safe and sound, so that was definitely a huge sigh of relief
across the board.
I wasn’t the only one unfortunately, two others were in
similar boats. We got called down to speak with Racquel, the host family coordinator,
Anna, Nick and me. Being told to meet with her was immensely ominous, and I
went down with the others holding my breath. Anna’s family lost part of the
roof and part of a wall, but she could stay with her host brother, who was the
backup Q’eqchi family, which is great, it just might take a couple days. No one
could get ahold of Nick’s family, so that was up in the air. We found out later
that two trees had fallen on their house and he was in the same boat as me, but
everyone was okay. It was then I found out that there was not another backup Q’eqchi
family, and my return to homestay was indefinite. That was the point I teared
up, because this family that I’d been living with for 6 weeks was very likely
no longer going to be my family. That was going to be hard enough in 5-6 weeks
time when we were set to leave, but getting that ripped away so prematurely was
beyond heartbreaking. I’m not much of a
crier, but I definitely did a little bit there, and I was teary-eyed for awhile
after. Nick and Anna are stellar though and stayed down to hang out with me for
awhile before we had to go back up. They’re going to try and find new host
families for Nick and I to live with to go back to our communities, but I’ll be
honest, that sounds harder to me that not going back at all. It would kill me
to not go back to live in Valley the rest of my time in PST, but I think it
would kill me more to go back with another family and have to say goodbye to
two families in 5 weeks.
I was a wreck the rest of the afternoon, but everyone, and I
mean everyone, is so incredibly wonderful here, that I felt so much support
from all sides. Some of them went out of their way to buy us dinner and snacks
to cheer us up, which was so incredibly thoughtful and we were so grateful and
lost for words. We spent the rest of the night hanging out, talking, playing
cards and cards against humanity, which was a blast. It really helped take my
mind off of things and demonstrated how truly amazing these people are. I will
never forget this day for multiple reasons, but the most glaring of which is
that I love these people so very very much. By the time evening rolled around
Nick and I were doing much better, rolling with the punches and treating this
as just another Peace Corps challenge for us to get through. There’s nothing we
can do from here except move forward. It’s still hard to think about and I’m
still really sad about it, but I’m moving forward. We both are. At the end of
it all, everyone’s families are safe and sound, and that’s the most important
part.
Tomorrow we have some training and everyone goes back to
their sites, except Nick and myself while the search begins, and maybe Anna
depending on when she can go back as well. Tomorrow was also supposed to be our
shadowing day, visiting a current PCV at their site for a day, and that was
cancelled and another huge bummer, but understandable given the damage from
Earl. Most of the country is fine and safe, but there was a lot of water, wind,
down trees and flooding, so moving around is still tough. They’ll try to
reschedule it, but there’s so little time left that while I hope that works
out, I’m not sure it will. There are things to look forward to though. Just
over a month of training left, and we find out our site assignments next Friday
the 12th, which we’re all super anxious about. We’re all ready to
move on and get to our sites, but even that is bittersweet having to leave our
first host families and each other until reconnect in December. Before we know
it, it’ll be September 15 and we’ll be swearing in. It’s been a crazy few days
and though it’s bound to not get much crazier than Earl and its wake, it’s sure
to fly by even faster than the past 6 weeks have. If anything, we’re much
closer now as a result of getting through all of this together, and I can
honestly say that it’s something I will never forget.
So here we go - 1 week to site assignment, 2 to site visit, 5
weeks to be done with PST , and 6 to swear in and move to our permanent sites.
Yo’o! (Let’s go!)
Bryan
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