A different voice

Hello fellow blog readers,
I spent the second half of this last week visiting another volunteer. This time there were two other trainees and I visiting a volunteer and getting a better idea of what the day to day experience of being a volunteer is like. I was able to come up with a topic and prepare a charla (spanish for a talk) on the cycle of contamination, that is the flow of fecal matter from it's original point of deposition to being consumed by humans and thus causing diarrhea and other sicknesses. I touched on ways that this cycle could be stopped and contamination prevented by things like washing your hands or cleaning your fruits and veggies before you eat them. It was a relaxing experience with a pace that was a lot more relaxed than training. It gave me a heads up about the adjustment I will have to make once I get to my site, living life a little slower, which I am pretty sure right now I am ok with.
Stemming from the experience of this past week, I have realized how much different I am from the average PC volunteer. I have realized that the typical volunteer is a whole lot more liberal than I am. Many of the people have come in contact have lived lives so different from mine. Growing up in West Michigan was almost like living in a box of conservativeness (for lack of a better term). Before coming here I have had little contact with people who have such drastically different views of the world than I do. A lot of times I just sit and listen to conversations that are happening around me without opening my mouth for fear that I will be targeted or belittled. After talking with individuals from my training group I have found out that even though there is a drastic difference between our views of the world they are respectful of differences. Some of them have encouraged me to put my opinions out there and let people know what I think. I have come to realize that maybe God has called me here to be a different voice among the crowd of liberal individuals and I pray that I may have the strength and courage to voice what I believe and stand up for my opinions.

I have wanted to share this entry from my journal that I wrote when Agatha was coming thru so here goes it:

5/29
Its raining today, I've heard its a storm thats coming thru. It's been heavy since around 2am and it is now close to 10am. Just sitting outside thinking and pondering on why I am here, not in a negative sense, there is nothing troubling, simply a welcomed pause in my training to ponder. From my perspective I couldn't have told I was going to do this as I went thru college, such an "easy" way of taking care of the next two years of my life. The physical process was easy but the emotional is another story. To be here stretches every part of me sometimes to the point of wanting nothing but to return back to the way things were, easy and comfortable, but I know why I am here, at least to a certian extent. I am here to grow and discover things that I never knew about myself, to have experiences that will challenge my thoughts and cause me to evaluate my life. Realizing that maybe I didn't have everything figured out, maybe life is ment to be lived to such a deeper extent than any American had ever lived. This is a big leap of faith, bigger than I realize. Me being here and following the calling makes my faith all the more real. If I am willing to take up an action for my faith how much more reald does my faith become. I am someone who chose to follow a calling in my life. I don't see myself as courageous just as one who is following her directed path in life. If only I could know where it will all lead and what adventures it will hold. But this experience isn't ment to be totally unrolled at the beginning but slowly laid out. Its a journey and it's not just about the destination. So I say to myself and also to you: May your always grab life by the horns and never settle for less than the best. Always leave your hands open so that when you give you may also receive.

A week in field based training

Hello all fellow blog readers,
I returned Saturday from a week of field based training which entailed a group of 6 of us staying and working with a current volunteer. We were able to put into practice the techinical skills we have been learning. It was great to get a taste of life on the other side of training. Days in training can be intense and full of technical training and language classes so it was nice to get out of that. We gave talks to food vendors on proper hygiene, to those working at the health center about how to work best as a team and a nutrition talk to a group of health promoters in a mayan village. It was great practice and interesting to be able to learn a little bit more about the mayan culture. The city where I am currently living isn´t really mayan but mostly ladinos which are a mix of mayans with europeans. It´s all been a great experience and I am looking forward to finding out my site on July first. I will post it when I find out. Sorry this has to be short but I need to do some research for a project.

Much love,
Kelsey

check out new pictures here.
http://s898.photobucket.com/albums/ac188/demullk/Tropical%20Storm/Second%20Month%20in%20Guatemala/
http://s898.photobucket.com/albums/ac188/demullk/Tropical%20Storm/

Rain storm and then some

I was able to experience my first tropical storm last week Saturday. It rained pretty for around 20 hours. We lost power for a couple days and didn´t have water for a few days and had to carry it from a nearby source. We were supposed to attend a Mayan ceremony but that got cancled because of the excessive rain, so we had three days of rest because Monday´s activities were also cancled. I got in some good quality time with my host family especially my two host brothers who are 8 and 11.

I have sucessfuly made it to the spanish level required but the Peace Corps to be sworn in as a Volunteer but I still have a long ways to go. It´s a good feeling to have that down but I still wish I could be a lot further along. As they say here I will get there "poco a poco" or little by little.

We are heading out on Field Based Training which entails a group of 6 or so training working at a current volunteers site. We will be putting into practice a lot of the technical skills we have been learning for the past month. I am excited to get to the point of working hands on doing things that I could potentially be doing at my site.

Feeling like home

hello all time for another update....

So I have been here for little less than a month. It is starting to feel like home. It's been a really slow process but it's getting easier. I am finally starting to feel a part of my host family, laughing with my 8 and 11 year old host brothers and sharing laughter at the dinner table. They are a little crazy like my family back home, but I like it :) The rain is picking up and our power flashed on Friday during the thunder storms. It's pretty amazing watching the storms come in over the mountains. Life is so different here but I like it :)

One Day at a time

Hello again everone,

I have made it to an internet cafe inorder to update my blog,. Life is going well, weather is 80 and sunny most days with a few days of rain mixed in. This experience is about as challenging as I thougth it would be. So many times I wish I could back out and then it would be so much easier and I could be with my friends and family but I have to remind myself why I am doing it. I have come here to grow, to learn about myself, to learn another culture and language and to help people. I am still in the phase of transition and time will make the adjustment easier.

My host family is great but it´s been a challenge to converse with them. I am lacking some confidence in speaking spanish. I don´t want to mess up but I know I have to so I just need to work on putting myself out there. Conversations are about superficial things right now like the weather and how their day went but I hope with time to broaden our topics.

We went out on Thursday to visit a volunteer that is just finishing up her service. It was nice to see what life is like on the other side of training. It helps make my long days of classes bearable when I know what is coming on the other side. She is working about 2 hrs from where I am now. She lives in the city but hikes up in the mountains to work with people. It´s beautiful out there and hopefully I can post some pictures sometime soon.

I added more picutres to the link above, check it out!

1 Week in country

sorry, I 've been here for a little over a week and I have yet to update this so here it goes. It has been a challenging experience that I have needed to be take a day at a time. It's getting easier to be here.

I am living with a host family now and have been since last Saturday. They are very welcoming and have a lot of patience with me learning spanish as I stumble through my communications with them. We have spanish class everyday in our communities and we also have some techinical training. There is a group of 5 of us that are about the same level. We all live with host families in the same community. We have class until about 4:30 or 6 depending on the day. After that and on the weekends we hang out at the soccer field or go to the basketball courts. There is definately less to do here than in the states. I have gotten some good reading in with more of the free time :) Sorry this is so short but hopefully I can get into more of a routine.

Check out this link for pictures
http://s898.photobucket.com/albums/ac188/demullk/