So eb’ li xook have officially infiltrated my room. My only hope now is that the tarantulas and the scorpions have an epic battle with a lot of cockroach collateral damage. The good news is that I won’t be the first one to be stung by a scorpion, that goes to Meghan (another PVT) who got stung on the hand earlier this week and apparently it hurt a lot and for a full 24 hours. I do have an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) in place though. I have my Benadryl and Aleve ready to go and my little sister Bionna on call 24 hours a day to hop on her bike and get me ice from the closest store.
On a lighter note my second flash broke so I am officially 0-2 and night time is not fun (and yes I am very funny). The good news is the moon is half full so it is bright at night and I can actually see pretty well right now, so don't feel too sorry for me because taking bucket baths by moonlight is actually very relaxing.
Other than that I just had a really busy week of classes and entertaining the kids. I taught them the hokey-pokey which was a mistake because now they want to dance it every time they see me. I’ll try and get a video of it up soon because Darrell took one the other day. Other than that I started playing soccer with the locals on a field that is half rocks but it is still a lot of fun. I could go on and give you a daily schedule of my life like some other volunteers are doing on their blogs or write a novel but I don’t think that is what everyone wants so I’ll just say that I am very busy and my life is a lot more interesting than it has been in a while. I instead have some topics such as food, all the fun diseases and diarrhea I will get, and culture that I would like to talk about over the next few weeks.
I will begin with culture because supposedly part of my job as a PVC is to teach people back in the States about the culture I am living in now. As I mentioned earlier I am currently learning Q’eqchi and living with a Mayan family. Q’eqchi is one of three Mayan languages currently spoken in Belize and is prevalent down south in Toledo, which is where I will mostly likely be serving my two years after training. Contrary to what I feel like what I was taught, there are still a lot of Mayans left, specifically in Belize and Guatemala. In Toledo alone there are 38 Mayan communities. In talking to my Language and Culture Facilitator about what happened to them at the height of their power he mentioned that historians have narrowed it down to a few possibilities. As most of you probably know they were at one time a great civilization; creating accurate calendars, doing complex math, and building great temples. However, at some point one of probably three things happened. They either caught some sort of disease, had some sort of natural disaster that killed most of their crops, or succumbed to civil war. One way or another whatever happened led them to disperse throughout Central American (and did not just wipe them all out) and form their own separate communities. While there were in power there were 17 different languages spoken throughout the tribes, but they still more or less practiced the same thing and were somehow one nation (how that actually worked out with so many different languages I haven’t been able to figure out). Most of these languages are still spoken and many of their traditions are still practiced today, although they are running into problems with the government trying to steal their farming land (sound familiar at all?) which is an even bigger issue because historically they never owned the land because they do not believe in taking dominion over the land but rather that they are part of it. I have only been studying their language and culture for about a week and a half so I am by no means an expert but will hopefully update you as I learn more. One way or another it is a very interesting culture.
I think that is it for now. I will leave you with some more pictures because they tell 1000 words. Also, the plan for tomorrow is for me to kill a chicken, so I am excited. I saw him this morning and told him to enjoy his last day on earth. It is for Darrell’s family and his Mom was nice enough to say I could use the chiich (machete) and not have to just snap its neck.
Doing laundry with li chi'na itz'in. I remember a time when I thought laundry was a pain because I had to separate the colors and turn my hand twice and also a time when I could just give my cloths to my Mother and they would magically appear clean in my room (thanks Mom!).
Learning Q'eqchi. Meredith, me, Darrell, and our teacher Pablo.
We go for runs in the middle of the jungle (you can kind of see it in the background) which is beautiful and this is the freaky random part that is completely burnt to the ground.
Shakira, the coolest, baddest 3 year old in the world. And her name is Shakira, come on. This picture more or less sums her up. The other day she came home singing "Teacher, Teacher, please don't beat me cuz I know my ABCs. abcdef..." Her teacher is a PCV and I had a talk with her, she says she did not teacher her this but I don't believe her.
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