Ac Yuam

Life at site over the past two months can be described best as nonstop.  I’m not just talking about working at the school or having lessons in the village, but there have also been some very important events that took place, and I was lucky enough to be a part of them.  I was invited by the village Chairman to attend the first communion and baptism of his five youngest children as well as dine with them afterward.  Then, just a few weeks after that, I was also invited to the high school graduation in PG and asked to come eat with two of the students’ families.  In each case, the main dish was pork; however, I don’t eat pork, so I was a little concerned about the possibility of having to refuse the food.  Somehow, though, each family had heard of my dietary habits and cooked a chicken just for me.  There may have been times in the past when I didn’t feel that I was integrating into the village as well as I would like, but after these celebrations, I’m starting to realize that people are slowly beginning to adopt me as a member of the village.

The largest celebration, though, came when my host brother got married.  The week prior to the wedding, people were already arriving.  By the eve of the wedding, there were over 100 people there to help cook and celebrate the event.  One group of people that came was from a village where there was another volunteer, so she came up to be a part of the celebration as well.  It was great to have her company, too, because nothing feels lonelier than being the only American surrounded by, what would eventually be, 250 Q’eqchi strangers.

The day of the wedding was awesome!  Buses had come from three or four other villages bringing family and friends of the couple.  At one point, I was speaking to someone and the conversation went something like this:

"Daniel, are you ready for the couple to tie…"

"…the knot?" I said, being the American that I am.

"No, tie their necks," my acquaintance informed me.

Yes, that is correct.  They do not, in fact, tie the knot in Q’eqchi weddings.  Instead, they tie their necks.  Now if you are like me, you may have the image of this couple walking down the aisle on their way to the gallows (and really, at this juncture in my life, I feel like a trip down the aisle and a trip to the gallows are synonymous); however, the neck tying was nothing like that.  As the couple stood in front of the packed church and said their vows, the preacher put a loosely fitting rope in the shape of an infinity symbol around their necks to signify unity and a connectedness that would last for eternity.  After the kiss (which came as a shock to my friend and me considering how much we know about the lack of affection that many Q’eqchi people show) everyone moved next door to my house where beef was served with a side of poch.  Overall, it was a great experience and something that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Aside from my busy social calendar, I have also been able to make time for work.  Most of my work continues to be at the school.  The world map that the students drew and painted is finally finished in the library.  Yes, there are still some little things that need to be completed, but those are only minor details.  The bulk of the map is finished.  I won’t lie to you either.  Going into this knowing that the map would be drawn by a bunch of adolescent boys, my expectations were pretty low; however, now that the map is complete, I can say that I am shocked.  Never in my mind would I have expected it to look as good as it does.  The students did an excellent job!  They have been able to leave a lasting legacy at the school through this project.  The principal, who will be switching schools next year, even liked it so much that he asked for the resources to do it at his next school! 

Side note: for anyone interested, this is not a project that is strictly Peace Corps.  This project can be done by anyone in any country.  It can be used to teach children about the world and even the different cultures around the world.  If this is something you’re interested in, let me know and I can try and get you the information.  It’s something that I definitely want to take back with me to the U.S.

 

Another school activity that I was fairly involved in was helping to train the boys football (like soccer football, not American football) team in preparation for the district finals.  Really, what this meant was going out and playing football with the boys every day after school for about two weeks.  Tough work, I know.  The kids had won the zone tournament but still needed a lot of work to be competitive in the districts, especially since they are pretty small. 

Training had been going well until the day before the tournament, three of the kids decided to disrespect the principal.  The principal quickly told the students that they would not be going to PG the following day and gave them back any money they had donated to help fundraise the vehicle.  It was immediately obvious that these kids were crushed.  Two walked out of the meeting on the verge of tears.  I decided I should probably go out and talk to them to make sure they were alright.  One of them is extremely smart and has loads of potential, but since he’s 14 he could technically drop out whenever he wants.  I really just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t planning on “sticking it to the man” by dropping out of school and ruining his future.

When talking to the students, they told me that they were just planning on going to the tournament on the bus the following morning separately from the team.  We talked more about it and decided that it would probably be best if they at least got the principal’s approval instead of just trying to show him up the next day.  They came up with a heartfelt apology and quickly went to the principal to get approval to support the team.  More tears were shed during this apology, and by the end, the principal was fully convinced that the kids would never disrespect him or any other authority figure again.  They did, however, also have to apologize to their teammates.

The next day, the whole team was off to PG to compete.  The boys won the first game easily but would have to wait five hours in the sun until their next match against a team that was much bigger and had had a first round by.  The boys came out nervous and gave up two quick goals in the first five minutes.  They held them for the final 15 minutes (the games were only 20) but they weren’t able to ever put a goal.  It was an unfortunate way to end the season but the kids brushed it off quickly as kids usually do and were joking around by the time we’d reached the car.  Still, though, to come from the back o’ bush and finish top 5 out of the 50 plus teams in the district is something to be proud of.  That being said, though, you better believe that I will make sure training starts much earlier next year.

Aside from these mini projects, my main work at the school was in giving lessons on the prevention of non-communicable diseases.  This was something that I had been working on for a few months with the goal of having the students present what they learned at the health fair.  In order for this to happen, though, it was obviously important that my CHW and I were able to set up a health fair.

Originally, we wanted this fair to be at the end of May, but due to questions in the budget, the date continued to get pushed back.  The last possible day for the fair was on June 9, the day my family came into town.  Well, we were finally able to nail down this date a week and a half beforehand giving me very little time to get out invitations.  At one point, I was on the bus and had to give a letter to a villager of a different village and have her pass it off to a nurse in that village.  It was quite a stressful time.  I didn’t have confirmations until the day before the fair, and that wasn’t including the nurse in the neighboring village.  By that point, though, I decided what would be would be.  I could no longer do anything.  Luckily, there were four other volunteers who said they would help, so worst case, we would have three stands on diarrheal disease and hygiene. 

Luckily, though, all but one person invitee came.  Even the nurse from the neighboring village showed up.  The topics of the fair varied from vector control to diarrheal disease prevention to birth control and family planning.  We were even able to do cooking demonstrations for the children and members of the community.  By far, though, the biggest success, in my mind, was the fact that we had 34 women of childbearing age come and for an hour, they stood crowding around the birth control and healthy pregnancy booth.  About 60% of the village is under the age of 20.  This means that people are having a lot of babies and there are a lot of tweens that are going to be popping out kids soon.  To me, maternal and child health as well as family planning is one of the major targets for my CHW and me.  I was stoked to see so many women interested in the topic. 

Then there’s the latrine project.  Yes, that is still in full swing.  It’s a long process and I find myself constantly telling the villagers to just have patience, supplies are on the way.  There have been some major developments, though.  The first came when my CHW and I got a group together that would be in charge of the funds.  The name of the group is Ac Yuam Development Project.  Ac Yuam (pronounced Ak Tyuam) means New Life in Q’eqchi and was something that really resonated with me when brainstorming with my language coach about a name.  The goal of this group is not just to fundraise for latrines but for any needs that they see in the community.  Essentially, this group will hopefully bring new life into the community in a sustainable manner.  The next step in the process is to open up a bank account for the group.  I’m hoping that this can be done by early July.  At that time, we can begin to buy supplies and build latrines.  Expect details to come soon on how to donate to the cause!

All of your support, not necessarily for the projects but also for me, helps more than you can know!  Thanks for everything!