Saturday, May 15, 2010

Chicken-killer!!!


Hey everyone -

Sorry it's been so long since my last post...I've been keeping busy! Two weeks ago we were moved to our temporary homes for the next 3 months. I'm living with a family of 10 in a town called San Antonio Aguas Calientes. It's an awesome little town of about 10,000 people. So far the family has been great! I'm living with a couple around 50, Don Francisco and Doña Esperanza, who have 6 kids ranging in ages from 30 down to 7. One of the sons, Hugo, who is my age is married and his wife and 5 year old son also live in the house. I have my own room, which is nice, but I do share one bathroom with the 10 other people! Luckily we all have pretty different schedules, so it's working out okay so far. We do have electricity, running water AND a flush toilet, so I'm not doing too bad! The shower is cold in the morning, but I'm just happy to have a shower and I don't have to take bucket baths every morning. The family has been very welcoming and inclusive...they're making me feel right at home. And I'm definitely eating well! Breakfast normally consists of coffee (instant - they export all of the good stuff!) and freshly baked bread. For lunch, the biggest meal of the day, we normally eat some type of meat - normally chicken, black beans and rice or pasta. And then for dinner we normally just eat something small - tortillas and beans or some type of soup.

My first Sunday here I went with one of my host brothers, Marvin, who's 13, down to the basketball court to shoot some hoops with this friends. We ended up drawing quite the crowd! For some reason the sight of a big white boy playing basketball isn't the norm down here. And the best party was they all thought I was the best basketball player they had ever seen! I'm pretty sure this was all due to my amazing bball skills and had nothing to do with the fact that I'm a foot and a half taller than the average Guatemalan. One kid even told me I was like a white Michael Jordan. I guess all those years playing church basketball really paid off. GO PUMPKINS!!!

And thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes this past Sunday. I had a great first bday down here in Guatemala! The day started with my family waking me up with the Guatemalan birthday song at 600am - Guatemalans don't seem to understand the concept of sleeping in - even on the weekend! I then had the honor of picking out the chicken that we'd be cooking for my special bday dinner and killing it. Yes...I am now a chicken-murderer. Well...more like an accessory to chicken-murder...the freaking thing wouldn't die! So my host mom had to take it from me and finish the pobre pollo off. After that she showed me how to remove the feathers and clean it. The meal she made for me was awesome, it's called Pepillan and is the national dish of Guatemala. It was delicious....except for the chicken. For some reason it just didn't taste the same...

I've finally posted some pics for everyone below. We're starting to travel around more for training, so hopefully I'll be able to take more pics in the future. We're heading to Guatemala City on Monday with our language group to learn where the US Embassy is and how to safely travel in and around the city. Then we're headed to Antigua on Friday. Should be fun!

I've had several people ask for an address for me down here. For the next 3 months, you can send things to the address below, which is the PC Headquarters. If you're going to send anything, it's better to just send cards or letters, nothing bigger than a padded envelope. And using USPS instead of UPS or FedEx will mean I won't have to pay an import tax when I pick it up, so go that route if possible (remember...I'm poor now:) ).

Dirk Davis
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 66
Antigua Guatemala, Sacatepequez
Guatemala 03001

Thanks everyone for the emails and messages! Keep 'em coming!

Hasta la proxmia!
Dirk

My host mom, Doña Esperanza cooking in her kitchen. Notice that she's cooking over an open flame. This is pretty typical of Guatemalan kitchens and is one of the main reasons respiratory illnesses are the leading causes of death among children and women here. One of my projects as a Healthy Home volunteer will be to help build covered stoves to help prevent this problem.

My other pictures are taking too long to upload, so I'll try again later!

1 comment:

  1. My sweet Dirk... do you have internet access often? Gmail the best way to talk to you?

    ReplyDelete