Going into site, there were the obvious concerns about integration and kind of just figuring out what it was that I was going to be doing. After being at site for a month, though, these concerns are slowly starting to diminish. Before integrating with the community it's important to integrate with the host family, and that's been something that has come pretty easily to me with the help of Uno, coloring books, and Pokemon. My host brother isn't in town too often, but my thirteen nieces and nephews are always around wanting to color and play Uno. That's right, THIRTEEN nieces and nephews, most of which are girls. In the states, I have one brother, so this is completely unlike anything I've had to live with before. I'm still having to figure out how little girls think, but I'm learning pretty quick.
I've also been getting to know my host parents, too. My host mom only speaks Q'eqchi, but as my Q'eqchi improves, so do our conversations following meals. I get to talk a lot more with my host dad, though. He speaks mostly Q'eqchi, but also some English. We generally communicate pretty well, but there are still times when there are some misunderstandings. I'm sure I've had some, but one in particular stands out in my mind from his end.
One of my first days at site, my host dad looked at me and said, "Daniel, do you ever cream at night?" Naturally, I was pretty taken aback. Apparently it was obvious because he decided to elaborate.
"Last night, I creamed that someone was trying to kill me and I was running away."
"Ahh, dream. Yes, I dream at night."
Needless to say, we were able to get through that miscommunication and continue on with integration. Probably the single best way I integrated was going to chop with my host dad and about 20-25 other men. The day started bright an early around 5:15. Around about 6:00 my host dad and I made our way out to the farm where we met up with the others.
We chopped from around 7:00 until around noon with a few breaks in between. I had never chopped before, so my hands were torn up by the end; however, going into it, I was determined for everyone to see that I was a hard worker. I didn't care so much about how good of a chopper they thought I was (even though they said I was pretty good by the end). I just wanted them to see that I was determined to work hard to help out. Unfortunately, when I was filing the machete near the end of the morning, I cut my finger a little so had to end about 15 mins early. Either way, I think going out there and working hard helped exponentially with integration. Whenever I see the men in the community, they give me a smile, say hi, and occasionally we'll have a conversation in (broken) Q'eqchi.
Right after chopping, I went home, ate some Caldo, and went to the futbol field for some Independence Day Weekend celebration (Independence Day was Sept 21, the following day). Upon arriving to the field, I had been informed that I was going to a horse race. When I got there, I got to see about 25 horses lined up at one end of the field. One by one, they would ride as fast as they could and try and get a pen through a key ring that was hanging from a string.
It was at this point that I spoke to my host nephew and asked when they were going to start actually racing. He looked at me confused and said that they were racing. Oops, my bad. Well the "horse race" was far from over. There were still two more surprise events to come. I should note here that if you are an animal lover, skip this paragraph. You may also want to try and ignore the following pictures. Actually, I'll let you know when you'll probably want to start reading again.
The next event that was on the agenda was "Rip the Head off the Duck." In this event, someone tied a live duck to the same string that the key rings were tied on. Here, the riders one at a time rode there horse at the duck and gave the head a good yank. They did this until someone finally ripped off the head. Winner gets the duck. When I showed up for what I thought was going to be a horse race, I was not ready for this. Definitely and experience that I will never forget and probably never see again outside of Belize. It was just crazy.
The fun didn't stop here, though. The next event involved burying a duck up to its head and then trying to road a lasso around it and pop it off. This one was slightly more humane, but still tough to watch.
Alright, animal lovers, hope you were able to ignore the pics. You can come back in now. The day after the "horse race," there was a futbol marathon at the field. It was really nice to watch some futbol and talk with some people from the village.
I've also been able to make some friends in the community. It's great to hang out with the kids, but I was really trying to find someone a little closer to my age that I could hang out with. Well one weekend, a high schooler named Mario came over and actually wanted me to teach him cribbage. I obliged and was surprised to see that he picked up on it really quick! He seems like a good kid and could be a great resource in the village, especially for that age group. I really want to build up that relationship more over the next few weeks.
I've also been lucky in that there's a census that the Ministry of Health gives to the Community Health Workers (CHWs) in each village to find the population of the community as well as the lifestyle and health concerns that exist. This has been a great way for me to get out and meet the people in the village. I also get to practice my Q'eqchi with them. Plus, anyone who knows me knows I love data, so getting information like this and compiling it and sifting through it is something that I really enjoy!
I also feel like a lot of my work will come at the school, especially early on. One of the main needs the school had as soon as I got there was to revitalize the school library, so I worked on that with some of the teachers for the first few weeks and opened it up this past Wednesday. The first day it was opened, 67 kids came to check out books! The kids just came, checked out their book, and left, but I'd eventually like to sit down and read with the kids some once all the excitement dies down. I'm stoked that there is so much hype surrounding the grand opening! It reminds me of when Super Walmart came to Moncks Corner.
There's also a problem with lice in the school that I'd like to start taking care of. I just need to speak with my CHW and see when he is free to start doing lice checks at the school. After that, we'll get the shampoo and start doing house visits to knock it out. At least that's my plan. Like I said, still need to talk to my CHW, though.
I can't really think of much else that has been going on. Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better first month! Sa inch'ol.
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