Disaster Relief: Day 2

And so it continues with the aid and relief projects--though both days have been exhausting, at least I feel like I am doing something. To catch all of you up (who I haven't skyped with)--bear with me--its been a crazy few days around here.

Saturday, May 29th, Guatemala and El Salvador were hit hard by Hurricane Agatha--the first of apparently many to come this hurricane season. Yesterday the story was on the front of CNN World's page. (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/05/30/salvador.tropical.storm/index.html )

73 dead as of yesterday in Guatemala alone. And my guess is that that number is low, as the rescue teams have deemed the areas not safe because of bodies floating in the streets-turned-rivers. Hurricane Agatha has hit Guatemala worse than Hurricanes Stan OR Mitch, President Colom says. The whole country is in a state of devastation, and the beach town Champerico (where Karsten and I spent a weekend this winter) is dealing with some of the worst destruction, being un-accessible to aid.

Yesterday, for those of you who want to know what we've been up to, I spent the morning and evening in the kitchen, preparing mass amounts of tostadas with frijoles to send out to affected families and then a huge spaghetti dinner at night for all the young workers. In between cooking shifts? We packeged many packages of sheets, blankets, clothes, towels, and food to people who had lost everything. One of such families is currently housed upstairs in spare rooms. (Probably one of the saddest sights to see--a young couple with 4 little children, huddled together in a corner, trying to compose themselves after they had lost everything. They slept on mud floors in wet clothes the night before they came here. It's so sad.)

The remainder of my afternoon on Sunday was spent in the clinica, paired with the med school student, because people found out I was a certified First Responder, and apparently that equates to...handling medical emergencies??? Yeah don't ask me. However the majority of the people who came in only needed blankets and hot liquids to warm them up. Fortunately I can handle that, and not once did I have to deal with a medical emergency.

That's pretty much it for Sunday...I crawled into bed half dead and emotionally exhausted. Woke up Monday morning (this morning) at 7 with another headache, rolled out of bed, didn't bother to shower or change clothes, and downed a cup of coffee. 8:15 staff meeting rolls around, and we are informed that we are not conducting business as usual, but hitting the streets and nearby towns to help continue disaster relief.

Sidenote: (Luckily Common Hope is a sturdy, safe housing site with TONS of supplies ready for things like this--because that's what they do. They send clothes and blankets to affiliated families who cannot afford them. So we are well equiped and prepared to be a relief shelter.

Today, however, had a whole different feel. One, we had the entire staff working, instead of just a few of us perma-squatters running around trying to do everything, but two, the sun was out! The day was PERFECT. Humidity was down from 95% to about 75%, and the sun shone almost all day long. I, along with spent the day doing manual labor in the streets--shoveling compacted wet sand/mud that was about 5 inches deep off the streets. Yep I am definitely going to be buff soon. We worked outside in the sun from 9-5, with an hour lunch break. Fortunately for my gelatin-like body, (after 7 days of non-movement,) this assignment was heaven. I finally got to MOVE!!!!!!! Not so fortunately for my body, the one spot I forgot to apply sunscreen, the back of my neck, is now red as a frickin...tomato.

Despite the long day of backbreaking work, (I have a new respect for like, diggers. Landscapers. Whatever) I am somehow full of energy. I am SO HAPPY--I think its the combination of 1) SUN, which tends to severely affect my mood, 2) EXCERCISE and physical MOVEMENT, two things i have been LACKING, and 3) knowing that all my activities, everyday, are directly helping the situation.

Mary, the director, asked me today sarcastically if I was "glad" I came to Guatemala at a time like this, and if my parents were worried about me. I answered honestly--yes, my parents are probably more worried than they let on. But, they know I am safe. And there's nowhere I'd rather be than in Guatemala at a time like this. If this happened while I was in the states?? I'd be worried for all my friends and family here and I'd be wanting to help the people. However, since I AM here, I can directly help, everyday, and there's nowhere I'd rather be than here, doing what I'm doing, when my second-home-country is in a state of disaster.

Saturday Night: 9:42 pm, no internet, and running on the generator

Some of the worst is over. Of the tropical storm, anyways. There’s still the looming threat of Hurricane Agatha…but the storm and flooding has subsided for the time being. Finally. I am so exhausted—emotionally more than anything else. I’ve never seen weather like this before. Soon after I posted my last blog, the comicality of the situation was quickly swept away and it became serious. I wanted to go see the street—so the guard took me out to see through the small peephole/trapdoor that we have…and I looked out to see a river. No kidding. The streets were like rivers, flooding and gushing water with this CURRENT…don’t ask me how roads get currents. Maybe because of the sheer amount of water EVERYWHERE…in any case there was a car and a pickup that were both stuck in the water outside on the street when I looked out. Water past the tires. It was insane. Then when I went inside to towel off and wash my feet, the yelling and crying began…there were people outside with kids, trying to come in to safety, but the guards had to turn them away because if we opened the big doors, the water would come rushing in and flood the whole site. Nobody knew what to do, because we are supposed to be like a shelter to the community, but we couldn’t open the doors because we’d get flooded out. Finally a bus came and the families were able to get on it—by then the guards had decided that we could let people in through the tiny side door. So in case of emergency we were to be a shelter to people, ready with hot water and blankets and rooms/floor space to sleep. This seemed more like it—not turning people away but welcoming them. Luckily, we haven’t reached that state of calamity yet. Although its rumored that the whole country of Guatemala is undergoing severe flooding. The worst part is to think about how many people, even some of our affiliated families in San Rafael, the site about 40 minutes away, live in shacks with cornstalk walls and material that easily would get washed away—these people’s homes, just washed down the “river” that the country has become….its so sad. I can’t even think about that. Some people are going to be going to sleep wet and cold tonight, with their houses either flooded or washed away…and here I am safe and dry…its not fair. Worries in the life of an American are so minute in comparison to worries of some of these Guatemalans living in absolute poverty….going to bed in the dark, cold, wet, rain probably coming through their roof, if they even have a roof to speak of…I just can’t even articulate what I am trying to get across right now. I’m just emotionally exhausted. Whoever reads this, if you are safe and dry in whatever country you might be in, please say a prayer for those who are losing their homes in Guatemala right now.

Rain, rain, go away...

Up until now, the rain hasn't been too bad.
Today, however? It's cramping my style. In a big way. It's been raining constantly since yesterday afternoon. In normal cities, this wouldn't be a problem, because we have nice things called...drainage systems. However, in Antigua, there is no such thing. The roads are just, well, roads. No drains. No gutters. So that poses a problem for car driving when it's been raining for 24 hours straight. Where does the water go you might ask? It just piles up in the streets. Making it quite impossible to go anywhere via taxi. I was tempted to break out the capris and flip flops and go wading, but then one of my fellow captives told me the water was dirty and disgusting. So I scratched that idea.

This weekend was supposed to be my weekend to look for apartments. Now, with Guatemala in a tropical storm warning and Hurricane Agatha forming over Mexico, that makes apartment searching a little hard. I, along with 5 others, (2 directors, 1 dentist, and 2 dental hygenists) are stranded at the Project. Needless to say, I've become accquainted pretty well with the two executive directors of Common Hope. Haha. Also, if we have any dental emergencies during the shut-out, at least we are well prepared.

Now before I continue I would just like to point out how much time I've been spending in this building so far. I live here, eat here, sleep here, work here. It's pretty convenient having your office 2 flights of stairs away from your bedroom, I will admit, but when you've left the project ONCE in 7 days? You start go get a little...nuts. Needless to say, I am STIR CRAZY at this point. Sooooo the rain brought on by the tropical storm did NOT exactly come at a convenient time. I haven't gotten any excercise in over a week, either, so I have resorted to running up and down the stairs, much to the amusement of my, uh, executive directors.

One of which, by the way, (sidenote) is Josh Hartnett's aunt. Yes, AUNT. So since I've figured that out, I've heard many a story about Gisele and Scarlett coming home for Christmas. Holy. Cow. (I told her that if he ever gets tired of dating supermodels and gorgeous actresses and needs a girlfriend, she knows who to call.)

Anyways, Josh Hartnett aside, the weather is preeety bad here. Power flicks in and out, the streets are flooding, and we're all hoping that Hurricane Agatha decides NOT to touch down...or formulate...or whatever it is that hurricanes do. (And yes, Uncle Steve, your joke about hurricanes couldn't have had better timing!!) It's really weird being stranded here...and I can't imagine what I would do if the power goes out. I spent 3+ hours scrapbooking today, which was actually really fun. Went up to my office, cranked up the Spanish radio on my boom box, and scrapbooked away. Finally making headway on my scrapbook from my LAST Guatemala visit.
I also played around on the piano this morning....which YES Common Hope has and YES it is in tune! I was sooo excited to find that out. :)
However, my plan for the night is to skype and watch movies on my computer, so if the power goes out, that is going to SEVERELY hinder my plans. And my sanity. I'm past being caught up on sleep, so the thought of returning once again to my bed for....the entire evening...with no power really is disturbing.
On the bright side, however, I'm still not homesick at all! Although insanity is quickly approaching, being cooped up unable to dance, go out, or explore the town, I'm not the least bit wishing I was in MN. (Well, except for missing the wonderful weather I've been hearing about)
That's all for now...bear with these looong blog posts, as I have not much else to occupy my time with! Love to all, and if you want to skype, this weekend is the perfect time :)
More later!

Finalmente Friday!

Oh boy has it been an eventful day around here! Yesterday afternoon, there was a volcano about 45 minutes away (Volcano Pacaya, near Guatemala City) that erupted and simultaneously caused a mini temblor—which is like an earthquake. This would have been just fine and dandy, except for the fact that the whole airport in Guatemala City is covered with volcanic ash. Just the day that the Glen Taylor team was about to arrive! So now, the Taylor team is stuck in Houston, with no idea of when the ash cleanup will be done. All of the preparation work that has happened for these T-wolf people—down the drain. And yes, my part is very large—yesterday I made and laminated nametags and water bottle labels. (I know right—I’m so important. Ha. Ha.)
In any event, however, they’re looking for alternate ways for the team to get here—maybe going to El Salvador’s airport and then driving into Guatemala. But everything is kind of at a standstill right now while we wait for news—which is why I’m sitting in my office blogging.
I’m also taking the afternoon off to go look for an apartment in Santa Anna—which is halfway between the site here and Antigua. Antigua is about a 10 minute taxi ride from Common Hope, but Santa Anna is about 10-15 mins walking distance to both Antigua AND Common Hope Site. I cannot wait to have my own living space—it’s been wonderful here, but I can’t wait to move, unpack everything finally, cook for myself, and go dancing! The curfew while I’m staying here is 10pm, so that pretty much eliminates any salsa/reggaeton dancing that I would have been able to do this weekend. So my Friday night tonight? It’ll be spent in my room, skyping  Which, would be LOVELY to talk to my dear parents, but APPARENTLY it takes a genius to run skype these days  Haha just kidding Dad…but I hope you can get it fixed soon.

Climate

On a different note, the climate here is chilly, rainy, and humid. I’ve never experienced COLD humidity, cause in MN when its humid, its almost always HOT HOT HOT and muggy. However, here it’s about as humid as can be, (papers wilt, faces get this moisture-y, oily film,) but its still chilly! I wear jeans and sweaters! It’s the weirdest thing—cold humidity. Not sure how I feel about it. Right now, for example, I’m wearing capris and a sweater over my t-shirt and drinking hot tea to stay warm—but all the while with my hair freaking out, curling and my face all MOISTURe-y and annoying.

It also rains everyday—at least twice. But its not a constant rain, something I am thankful for! Rain depresses me, you see, but this isn’t bad. The sky is bright almost all the time, and a gentle rain just happens every couple hours. I can tell when its raining only because I hear the rain on the tree leaves outside my door.

Wednesday Surprise Visit!

Today I was visited by Alejandro y Didde from Xela!!! (Well ok, it was only Alex, cause Didde was sick and sleeping.) But I got to FINALLY see someone I knew! Last night I had written on all my Guatemalteco friends' walls saying I was in Antigua...and then today Alex skyped me saying HE was in Antigua too, and had been there since Saturday! We could not believe it. ...so ironic. So we arranged to meet in the Central Park in Antigua :)

Loved having a cafe with Alex. And yes he is my ex-salsa teacher and boyfriend from Xela...but that almost makes it better, to have someone who knows me that I could be myself around for the evening. I was so so incredibly happy to see him, because being in this country and NOT being in Xela with all my queridos is a little weird. Its like I associate Guatemala with Xela and my friends and family there, and being in Guatemala without the comfort of my Xela lifestlye is weird. At the airport, all I wanted to do was go to Xela! So to have Alex and Didde in Antigua was wonderful.

And, Alex of course, blunt Latino that he is, told me that I had gotten fat since Janurary and that I needed to dance Salsa. Hahaha thanks buddy. Him and Didde had been in Antigua dancing at a competition, I guess, so he was telling me about all the good salsa schools. Cannot WAIT to dance!
That's all for now pues...anyone who wants to Skype, we must do it soon! I am LOVING the wireless internet, and even though it is quite slow and makes skyping somewhat obnoxious, its still WIREless. Love it. Adios y buenos noches a todos!

Second Night: Taking Advantage of the Wireless!

There seems to be a crack in my stone wall that a mouse could fit through.
Luckily, the crack is right next to my bed, flush with the mattress. So if a mouse so desired, it could step right out of the crack onto my mattress. Que suerte.

On another note, I had a pretty good first day, aside from waking up at 7am and thinking it was 10. At least the staff was impressed that I showed up to work at 8. (It wasn't until what I thought was 11:30 that I realized it was like 9am.) But its not my fault. My U.S. phone was on Miami time, my Guatemalan phone was somehow 3 hours ahead, and my computer was on MN time. Neither of which is Guatemalan time.

So I spent the day in my office (yes I have an office) organizing my desk and throwing out piles and piles of old material left from past coordinators. Also spent the day reading through the Hospitality manual, which is when I discovered that I have a full time job in the hospitality industry. It reminded me of what the Group Planners do at Madden's, except for the fact that this is in Spanish and English, so it is so much cooler. There are not a lot of people who can translate (less than 10 on the staff) so I will be doing a lot of that, which is really exciting for me.

This Friday, we have Glen Taylor (owner of the T-wolves) and a team coming in with him for a week, which is why all the St. Paul directors are down here too. Pretty big-time :) It's too early for me to do any work of any sort, so I will just be running around as an extra pair of hands, helping the St. Paul staff with errands and translation. I am assigned to my own first group the first week of July, however. Seems like plenty of time to learn the ropes...but the preparations begin so much earlier than the group comes, that I feel like I barely have enough time to get the hang of it before I am handed over the company cell phone and assigned to making the group's preparations all by myself. Eek!

It'll be a great experience though, and definitely help me in jobs when I return.
As for now, I'm dead tired (its only like 9:20 here) but working 8-5 after a day of travel is kinda exhausting.
I just sincerely hope a mouse doesn't decide to crawl through the crack and visit me tonight :) This place has been known to see mice! (Or, 'mouses' as my cute very-basic-english speaking boss calls them)
Love to all in Minnesota, and I plan to write a lot more before I have to move out of the place with free wireless!

First Night in Guatemala

Day 1 in Guatemala:
Arrived tonight! I am currently in Antigua, Guatemala, in a wonderful temporary shelter at Common Hope, with a lack of way to communicate with the outside world except for a blog that they can read later. So here I go—the itch to call people and vent about my day has left me no other option than to type on my computer and upload it to the blog later.
I have been in the country for a mere four hours but already had more than my fair share of first-day experiences.
Soooo, Mom and Dad (Mainly, Dad,) you were right. I should have called someone from Common Hope during my layover in Miami. BUT since they had my flight information and details as to my arrival, and had told me there’d be a shuttle waiting, I naturally assumed that there would, in fact, be a shuttle waiting.
However, I was mistaken. Upon getting off the plane and somehow carrying 115 pounds of luggage on my body to the exit, I wait around and wait around and discover that there in fact WASN’T a shuttle waiting for me. Pretty much the worst case scenario that I had played out in my mind, coming to fruition. (Yes, Angelo, I just used the word fruition) Turns out my coordinator had been out of the office for the last few weeks having a baby and my unanswered emails weren’t just Guatemalan slowness….I guess the plane information wasn’t enough; I was still “unexpected” in the Antigua office!
Soooo after about 40 minutes of waiting for the non-existent shuttle, I decided that it probably wasn’t going to come and that I was in Guatemala City by myself. It being Guatemala City, (the most dangerous city in Guatemala,) and with darkness approaching, I had to make an executive decision: I had to take a taxi to Antigua and hope that I could get to Common Hope by myself.
Now. Let me just preface this next part by saying that I am currently happy and comfortable and VERY excited about Common Hope, and I couldn’t have been more welcomed (by the St. Paul director herself) when I finally got here.
However. The airport was a different story. Being the last one standing outside waiting for said non-existent shuttle, I was a liiiiiittle stressed. I was trying to use my head, and make a relaxed, logical, decision, but after 11 hours of traveling, I was really not as composed as I would have liked to be. Yes, I started crying in the taxi. Being forgotten, especially in a foreign country, is not the best way to start the stay. Luckily, the taxi driver was a nice old man who had daughters my age and after about 5 minutes of me crying he cautiously asked me “porque lloras?” and upon trying to explain to him why I was crying, I realized how ridiculous it was that I was in fact crying. I mean, the situation could have been so much worse! I knew the country, I have friends a couple hours away, I speak good Spanish, and I knew how to transport myself from one city to the next without getting gypped. And it was my third time arriving at that same airport. I really don’t know why I was so upset; it probably was the fact that I got four hours of sleep last night and had been traveling all day.
So anyways, nice old taxi-man proceeds to chat me up, and soon after chatting away with him, my tears stopped and I remembered how much I love the Spanish language and how that absolute passion is what brought me down here in the first place. As soon as I started speaking conversationally with him, I got excited at myself and my Spanish capabilities. Haha geeky I know. But it really made me feel better.
So after a stressful ride to Antigua, (darkness, which is scary in Guat City, combined with me trying not to think about worst-case scenario #2, Common Hope not being open) we finally made it. We found Common Hope, and rang the doorbell about 80 times until the security man told us to go around to the side door and let me in. I go “Hi. My name is Brianna Jensen and I have absolutely no idea where I’m supposed to be.” Nice man # 2 brings me upstairs where I find three English speakers from the St. Paul area—one who is Mary, who had just flown in the same day, and then two photographers, Buck and Patti, who immediately strangely reminded me of Aunt Karen and Uncle Dave --and made me feel at ease. I literally almost started crying again I was so happy to be with people who were nice and welcoming and actually knew who I was. I explained to them my experience at the airport-- and they couldn’t believe it. They were very shocked that I had been forgotten. Here’s Mary, receiving me in the Guatemala Office before the Guatemalan directors did. Go figure, right. Wonderful . Long story short, I sit in the kitchen with these nice nice people who already are treating me like family and just was so thankful for the good people who work with Common Hope.
After 45 minutes of socializing with them, ( I felt like I was at the cabin, it was just such a low-key, great atmosphere) they found me a temporary room, and put me on the phone with the Guatemala Director, who apologized a million times and told me she’d find me first thing in the morning to get everything straightened out.
So here I sit, on my temporary bed, strangely happy and at home and excited! Somehow, my headache is gone, as well as my extreme exhaustion and starvation. I am also not one bit homesick, which is kinda weird  I have this overwhelming feeling of…belongingness…which is definitely not a word…but I don’t know what word would be applicable here. I just feel like I’ve FINALLY arrived and that this place is definitely going to be the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me. It’s like the comfortable, familiar feeling of being at the cabin….combined with the feeling that you get when you just finished a 50 page thesis….combined with a feeling of …of….I don’t even know. But its absolute complete contentment.