Paved roads and marching bands

Marching bands in my pueblo? It sounds like they are having practice down on the campo at the end of my street. I haven’t walked down there to confirm my suspicions, but the little neighbors kids across the street just climbed up onto their roof to look in that direction. I hear drums and a xylophone. And it seems that trumpets are increasing in popularity, as well, though it doesn’t sound like they have one in the marching band. In one of the communities I went out to yesterday there were a couple middle school-aged boys taking turns with one, and then when I came home for lunch there was another boy playing one in my street.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on marching band developments. I’m sure you are all very interested in that.

I am a little embarrassed by how little I have posted since swearing in as a volunteer. It’s not for lack of internet. Have I already shared that there are at least 5 different computer centers in town where I can check my email? It’s almost easier for me to get on the internet here in Guatemala than it was when I was living on 10th Street.

Well, if it’s not for lack of internet, is it for lack of blog worthy material? I don’t think so. I’m a novice blogger, and I haven’t quite fine-tuned my judgement of events or thoughts worth sharing, but I have been a Peace Corps Volunteer now for more than 7 months! Surely there’s at least one cultural experience or personal growth realization that would make a decent blog entry every month (if not every week).

So why haven’t I been composing tales from my (most recent) adventure? I just haven’t had the time! I mean, I’m a firm believer that people make time for the things that they think are important. Which is why I’ve had time to play basketball almost every afternoon and hang out with the people I am starting to call my friends in my pueblo. Or running…though basketball in the afternoons has started to replace running (I want to start running in the mornings, but there’s usually no water to shower between 6:30 AM and 8 AM). Or writing in my journal. But even that I seem to have less and less time for.

But I think I’m going to make posting on this blog more of a priority. Mainly because being a Peace Corps Volunteer for 7 months means that I’m already more than a quarter of the way through my service! How did that happen?!? If time continues to go by as fast as it is, it will be Christmas 2011 before I know it!

And maybe if I make posting a priority the entries won’t be so dreadfully long. Or ridiculously short, like the last tease. That’s how I write in my journal, though. I either write 8 page entries or 1 paragraph updates. Clearly I need to explore the short-story format a little more. The haikus and novels I got in the bag. It always is the middle distance, the 800 meter run, that’s the hardest, no?

Goodness gracious. So it’s March. We’re already into the third month of 2010. That scares me a little bit.

I hear it’s been snowing like crazy in Atlanta. It hasn’t snowed in my pueblo. It can get chilly overnight, but by the time the sun is up you could wear shorts and a t-shirt. Which I do wear when I play basketball in the afternoons. It’s the dry season now. Rainy season runs from May-ish to October-ish, but it didn’t strike me as being that rainy. The dry season is dry, though. And extremely dusty. But not as dusty as it was a year ago. Why is that? Because they have been paving roads like crazy!

Let me talk for a minute about paved roads. My pueblo is only 33 km from the department capital (a small city where you can buy JIF peanut butter and Golden Grahams and where you can walk around and be an anonymous gringo rather than the gringo who lives next door to your cousin). The road used to be ALL dirt and gravel. But more and more sections have been paved over the past couple years, until finally it was paved in its entirety by December. A 3 hour and very uncomfortable ride on the camioneta is now under an hour and a half. This makes studying and/or working in the department capital more feasible. Theoretically this means the people of my pueblo have more opportunities, even though they still need money to pay the bus fare. At least the infrastructure is there.

I was a little sad at first that all the roads were getting paved. The two main entrance and exit roads for my pueblo have also been paved, just within the last three months. I was sad because I felt my pueblo was losing some of its romantic rural, highland Guatemalan qualities. Not to mention “hard-core” credit: “What? You have paved roads? And hot water? And indoor plumbing? And electricity? You don’t live in a mud hut? I thought you were a Peace Corps Volunteer!”

But I quickly decided it was silly to be sad. I should be happy that the place that I have been sent to to promote sustainable development is developing. The only thing harmed by paving the roads is my pride. I can’t brag about all of the hardships I confronted during my two years in Guatemala. Oh, the environment may have been harmed a little bit, too. But infrastructure, generally speaking, is good. It connects communities for economic and education opportunities.
One of my favorite quotes is from one of the Peace Corps booklets that came with my invitation packet.

“…This is not to say that sacrifices aren’t a part of the Peace Corps package. It’s just that they aren’t always as obvious, dramatic, or romantic as warding off bat-sized insects and enduring weeks of plain rice. The real sacrifice you make in the Peace Corps is the tremendous daily and hourly effort required to speak in another language and be effective in another culture, the constant struggle to be self-aware and sensitive.”

Peace Corps was never really in my plans. Even when one of my good friends was applying during our senior year at Emory, I thought it was cool and would be a neat thing to do, but I never thought it was something I would do myself.

Cue rejection letters. Plans don’t always work out like you expected.

Your sister-in-law suggests you apply to Peace Corps just to go through the process. It can’t hurt to apply. You tell yourself you´ll only go if you get an assignment in a Spanish-speaking country doing something health related. Then you get an invitation from Peace Corps Washington to serve in Guatemala in a project called Rural Home Preventive Health (now called Healthy Homes). Um…I guess it’s time to pack your bags.

I had more of a heads up than most people on where I was going. Even so I didn’t read up on Guatemala too much because I didn’t want to come into country with a lot of expectations and be disappointed. But as the date got closer, looking back now I feel like I was getting more and more excited about all of the unknown adventures, challenges, hardships, and sacrifices that were to come. What would I have to endure? Could I do it?

Well, as the quote above suggests, I haven’t been struggling with the sorts of things that generally come to mind when you think ‘Peace Corps’. Sure, I don’t always have water and I was all my clothes by hand, but I’m definitely not living in a mud hut. Granted, all you have to do is walk 10 minutes away from the center of the pueblo and you’ll find your mud hut (err, one room adobe houses with dirt floors) without electricity and no latrine. But I that’s not where I live. It’s not like I live like the richest person in town, though, either. I think it’s fair to say I live like a middle class Guatemalan, like the nurses and educators I work with in the Health Center.

MY POINT IS (really, I have one, I promise), I kind of wish I was living in a mud hut and taking care of my necessities in a latrine. I’m sort of jealous of volunteers in Asia and Africa who ward off bat-sized insects and endure weeks of plain rice. So when one of the few unpleasantries I deal with (dirt roads and uncomfortable rides on camionetas) is eliminated, I feel a little less hard-core, a little less of a Peace Corps Volunteer. That’s my point. That I am silly for being bummed that my pueblo is developing.