Week 3.

(Thursday)
It’s been a mildly frustrating week. Working with an NGO definitely has its high and low points. High obviously because the end product of the work we are doing is going to be infinitely rewarding to those who will benefit from the school, or the park, or the water tanks, and also learn about the green processes so that they can continue these methods. Low though because money is short, and the day to day communication and organization is not always there. This week I’ve felt pretty lost as to what I was supposed to be doing. Work up at the school has been stalled for the time being because the final courses of tires on one of the technical buildings was completed last week, and the next steps are hard to complete in the rain. ALSO, most of the staff has gone to the states to work on projects with Earthship, and the staff still here can’t be spread too thin. While it’s nice not to have to dig everyday right now, I would almost prefer it. Currently, all of the other volunteers here are doing internships for school, so they all have set projects to complete while they are here (working in the garden, building water tanks, translating the website). I, however, in my attempt to not mindlessly throw $3000 at GW for internship credit, don’t have a set project. So this week I’ve kind of become the floater. Working in the garden, sitting up at the school to watch the land (there always has to be someone there, and with everyone down at the park working, I was sent to babysit for a day)…I wish that I had something so concrete to be doing everyday, that I came here to complete. Then again, I didn’t come here with any expectations other than to be useful, so I guess in that sense I am fulfilling my “goal.” I was also asked to write about “hurrying” versus taking life too casually. At first I was annoyed and flustered by the fact that I was being abrasively singled out to do this, but the writing exercise was good and really did get me thinking about selflessness in our own slices of the world as compared to though who dedicated their lives to representing something and someone bigger than themselves.

I think next week will be better. More volunteers are coming in, and so organization is going to be key. I’ve been assigned to work on completing the kitchen in the tire house, so that should be alright because I’ll have the chance to learn some new construction techniques. They’ve also asked me to complete a roughly 10-page report on the history of rammed earth practices, how it is used elsewhere, and how we utilize them here. I AM actually glad to be doing this, because it’s something tangible that will help because they plan to put it on the website as a resource and almost as a way to verify the practices they are using here for those interested in the organization. I think this may have come about based on my conversations with the head of the program about how, in my ongoing attempts to do a structural analysis, there are many, MANY questions that are unanswerable about the process and materials being used.

In other news outside of work, this week is Fair Week here in Comalapa. Schools close and people take days off work to spend their time in town at the fair, riding the crazy hand-built ferris wheels, eat tons of AMAZING food, listen to live music, and drink all night. We went to the fair last night to do just that. We ate far too much, listened to Los Conejos, rode the ferris wheels (with my eyes closed for most of the time on one of them because they go SO fast and I was fairly certain I was going to fall out), and drank our fair share of Quetzalteca and Brahva. And still made it to bed by midnight!

I got an email from my old boss at the museum the other day, and she told me she was coming to Guatemala! In the process of trying to figure out how and when to meet up, I sent her the info about LWH because she mentioned wanting to practice Spanish and work, and she decided to apply to come volunteer for a few days! Finally, a visitor! So she’ll be arriving on July 6! I can’t wait, especially since I haven’t seen her in SO long! It should be a pretty groovy time.

I really can’t figure out why this program won’t let me upload photos, so I’ll be making an album and I’ll post the link!