Remember you got to reach high to be risen

The Christmas Games (A Haiku)
Volleyball star I
aint, but tall gringa I am.
So, I made the team.

In my town they have a volleyball tournament called the Christmas Games, that go from now until (duh) Christmas. Everyoneeee plays, and they have about five games every night. So, one night I of course got roped into playing with a friend of my counterpart’s. Good news is, I didn’t suck (but my team did lose…)

Spent the weekend visiting volunteers in San Diego, Zacapa, where the town was having their "Feria" for the patron saint. There was a rodeo- which consisted of about 5 cowboys being quickly bucked off of bulls, and then a scantily clad cowgirl singing in the middle of the arena for the rest of the time. There was also a dance, and we discovered that dancing in the oriente consists of spinning in circles as fast as you can the entire night. By the end of the night I really was a dizzy blond.

The past week has been quite the whirlwind- we are getting ready to go on some “Giras” with our women’s groups. I am finally starting to grasp exactly what CODEFEM is all about, if not necessarily what my role will be there. Basically, they are currently finishing up year two of a three year plan. Year One was diagnostics, evaluations, etc. Year Two has been capacitating the women on their rights, violence, etc. Now, Year Three is aimed at organizing the women legally so they can participate in decision-making in their towns and hopefully solicit projects that will benefit them and their communities.

So, we are taking each of our three women’s groups to visit another women’s group in Guatemala that has done projects similar to what they might want to do. Two of our groups are from little aldeas, and the women have hardly ever left their town, so to take them on a three day road trip (without their husbands) is kind of a big deal. In fact, it’s such a big deal we had to have meetings in each aldea with the women and their husbands so that they could get permission from the men to go on the trip. Some of them said they wanted to go, but they get sick in cars and were afraid to go. Some had husbands who wouldn’t let them go (one husband looked at me and said “there’s SEVEN of us in the house” as if that was some explanation as to why he couldn’t do without his wife for two nights). Most were excited, but slightly scared to go so far away. Then one woman told them to get over it- the gringa came all the way from the United States, so they would probably survive a 10 hour bus ride.

We leave for the first trip tomorrow, going to Coban. We’ll come home with that group on Saturday, and leave Sunday for El Quiché with our Muni group. Home from that trip on Tuesday, and into the capital Wednesday for Día de la No Violencia Contra las Mujeres activities. Then I’ll go straight from there to Thanksgiving with the Oriente Volunteers, and from there straight back to the capital for a week long end of the year evaluation of CODEFEM. THEN, the next week we’ll take our last group to Totonicapan. Phew. Assuming I’m not completelyyy exhausted after all of that, I’m sure I’ll have some great stories to share. Until then-