(cut and pasted from Lisa's email, sent earlier today)
Well, it has been a very interesting and challenging week for us. We started school and are living with our host family. School is great. Our teachers work with us 1:1. My teacher Hugo is as popular in the town as the Mayor. He is a very charming older man, who has had many jobs in his lifetime, even in medicine. I am learning at a surprisingly noticeable pace. I am able to make my needs known now, and understand the locals like 60% of the time.
Our family is really great, and I LOVE their kids. The living conditions, however, are not so desireable. The showers are COLD, and the bathrooms are not very clean. That part, however, does not bother me as much as the TWELVE other ENGLISH SPEAKING students that live in the house. It is really crowded, and there is impossible to have mealtimes with the family, and so we are not speaking Spanish as much
as we would like. We are trying to have our house changed to a more low-key situation, and believe that we may be able to get this done by the end of the week.
Chloe, sweet Chloe has also been a bit of a nuisance. She has gotten the boot from her cozy little babysitter, and is now in the "clink" until we find a better solution. She has really been acting out....possibly separation anxiety, but the death toll rises, and we
cannot leave her with anyone else in good conscience (unless of course they are a specilist). She has been picking on ALL domestic animals now, not just cats. Poor girl, and you can imagine what kinds of conversations Alan and I have been having over here!! If anyone has any suggestions, we would love to hear from you.....BTW, this email does not come as some shameless plug......that was last week. (smiles)
She is at Bed and Biscuits if you want to give her some love, I am sure she would be happy to see you. Let us know so we can add you to the "guest list".
Finally, we may have found an acceptable volunteer situation today.
Hermano Pedro hospital was just not what I had in mind to do with our time here. We found a free clinic in the outskirts of town that has family planning, vaccinations, and treatment for those who are HIV÷ . Today and every Wednesday is Prostitute day, and all of the prostitutes come in for their checkups. Their sense of what is sexy is really something, and almost pathetic. So this clinic does the "quality control" if you will.
It feels better to be doing this (family planning), and actually last night, Alan and I went to a lecture in town about the state of matters in Guatemala. We will include more in our blog. Basically this country's government does not function well at all. The Catholic
church is still promoting the "go fourth and multiply" concept. Most families average 5 kids and that is only an AVERAGE, women start VERY young, and many of them are malnourished. (Alan adds: about 50% of the population is under 18, and there are a number of woman who've had 5 kids by the time they are 19! Tubal ligations are being offered by an organization here for about $14 each!!!. If you want to hear more about this organization, and would like to donate, drop one of us an email).
There is little in the way of resources, and with thier medicine improving, infant mortality is decreasing. This is actually a problem, because the population is growing too fast for the amount of resources that they have. I am not exactly sure what Alan and I will do b/c our Spanish is so simple, but I think Alan will work with computers, while I may be
administering vaccinations or doing some primative form of teaching with my limited Spanish. Anyway, we are delighted to be there. Our teachers will go with us for the first few days to hold our hands.
And now, a few words from Alan. We are living like dogs! And Chloe is living a dog's life! She gets taken out to play on the playground ALL BY HERSELF 3 times a day, an hour each time, while Lisa and I have to sleep on a cardboard box stuffed between wet laundry and about 25 ashtrays filled with Israeli cigarette butts. Where's the justice in that? We live on $50/wk, while Chloe lives on $30/day???? I think Chloe is actually a lot smarter that we'd all want to believe. She's managed to get a free upgrade to the canine equivalent of the Hilton, while we've had to move the the Guatemalen Motel Six to compensate. One more move like that and we'll be showing up as customers next Wednesday at the Free Clinic (nudge nudge wink wink).
We're actually getting into a groove here, no thanks to Chloe, and are hoping to work things out for her so we can continue. I'm very happy and excited to be starting our volunteering in earnest. And maybe we'll actually get to do some touristy things sometime soon.
You can buy Mojito's here for about $1.50. Wouldn't you know, Lisa and I foreswore alcohol just before we left Belize, so we could save money!! God is indeed playing cruel tricks on us. Well, at least when we get to Chile (where you can buy a Mojito for about $450) we've agreed to return to our evil ways...
More later!!!
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