Working on the third day of rain, it is the rainy season and apparently it still feels the need to share it’s wrath. Made it to the market and back dry this morning, the rain started about 1:30ish this afternoon and continues steadily as I write this. I used to be more fond of rainy days. I guess when they didn’t come so often and cause so much trouble. The three days of rain is not good for Guatemala. The interamerian highway (the main drag through Guatemala) has been affected significantly. To create the highway, they cut through the mountains so every where you drive on the highway, there are steep embankments on at least one side. These embankments are not reinforced by anything, so when rain comes, down they come, or at least pieces of them. The highway consists of two lanes heading in each direction with a small median. Many times when landslides take a fall into part of the highway, traffic is redirected to the other side forcing the open side to become two way traffic, but with the excessive amount of rain that has fallen, the ground has become more and more unstable causing bigger and bigger blockages and longer delays in traveling. With today being day three of the rain, Peace Corps has notified us (via text message) that travel is prohibited and that we are in what is called a “Standfast“, meaning that we should stay where we are until further notice.
I guess this is now a good of a time as any to get used to the slow pace of life and the little amount of entertainment that exists. I feel like as soon as I get comfortable in this slow pace I am going to be done here, picking up and heading back to the fast paced US and probably back to school, which would mean jam packed days and little free time. I should learn to enjoy it while I am here. I have tried to think of the things that I have always wanted to do but never felt like I had the time in the States. One thing I thought of was knitting. I tried it once but didn’t stick with it long enough to get good at it. I think that might be possible here, so if you are reading this and thinking of sending me a package, maybe you could add some yarn to it or an instruction booklet on how to knit, maybe knitting needles. I can get some stuff here but I have been told that the yarn here isn’t the greatest.
Another thing, I found out today how much I missed cooking. I just recently purchased my own table top gas range and a small gas tank to go with it. I had been eating out of my host sister’s comedor (or a small restaurant) and realized that it was going to be expensive and I wasn’t too excited about the limited options they had for food. I bought some chicken breasts at the store the other day and decided that I would pick up some fresh vegetables at the market today to make some chicken soup. While making it I realized how much I missed creating food and how much joy it brings me. I was so relaxed and at ease after I created the soup and to top it off I shared it with my site mate along with some fresh bread from the market and a nice conversation. I think my heart is really into the baking though and that won’t be possible until I move to my new place sometime at the end of October. My host family says that a toaster oven would pull too much electricity from an already challenged circuit. There is a way to bake over the gas range, placing the pan of whatever it is you want to bake over a pot of water that is boiling and then covering all this with a large pot creating an oven. Maybe this contraption will be in my near future.
Until next time con mucho amor,
Kelsey
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