A little background on the situation: In the last week Peace Corps Guatemala has made the decision to drastically lower the number of volunteers in the country down to around 100, from about 220 that are here at the moment. The group that came before me was told they would be leaving one month before their scheduled COS (Close of Service) date, which was March 24th and is now February 24th. Shortly after they got their news my group received notice that we would have to leave four months before our COS date which was July 18th and is now March 24th. Everyone else who is left will have to deal with stricter rules and possibly having to leave their sites. Part of this whole process to make things safer involves a good portion of the remaining volunteers having to leave their homes, friends, and communities to be moved to departments that PC Washington feels are the safest. The reasons they decided to take these actions is because of the increasing problems with drug traffickers and security incidents that all too often are felt by the volunteer community in the "Northern Triangle". The Northern Triangle consists of three countries in the northern part of Central America; Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. There has been plenty in the news of the murders and drug related crimes going on in all three of these countries and as such it has been named "the most dangerous part of the world outside of an active war-zone". All three countries are in the top 10 for most murders in the year 2010. The staff in charge of Latin America in Peace Corps Washington decided that in order to continue serving in these three countries, all of the PC populations would have to be reduced in order to provide better security and safer services to its volunteers.
First of all, I would like to note that I feel safe in this country. I haven't had a single security incident and have never felt unsafe to the point where I couldn't continue living here, but I know people who have been in serious incidents (i.e.- Armed Assaults, Bus Robberies) and know that they don't feel the same way that I do. I also feel that, as much as I disagree with what is going on, that PC Washington had no choice but to take the actions they currently are to make things safer for us. It is unfortunate that my whole group are the ones who are really losing out in this situation, being forced to leave 4 months early in the prime of our service, but the most important thing is that PC Guatemala will continue to exist and work with the people of Guatemala for as long as possible. When I say in the prime of our service I mean it takes a long time for people in your community to trust you, to believe you are here to help and more importantly believe that you are capable of delivering the help that they need. Factor in that for most people it takes about a year in site to fully master the language whether it be Spanish or a local Mayan Language. The point is that where we our right now in our service is the time when you really get things done, when you really have the ability to reach out to all the connections and friends you have made during your service and get them to work together to strengthen and help your community. Losing the ability to do projects that you have planned and worked on for months is hard to deal with. Luckily, I will be able to complete my projects by the time I leave in March, but for some of my friends that isn't the case. The worst part of the whole thing is that I have been telling my schools for almost two years now that when I leave someone will come in to replace me and continue working with them, and I just don't know if that is true anymore. There is a slight chance that I might be getting a volunteer who is being moved from their site to another one, but its not looking too good.
When I got the letter a week or so ago from our Country Director that I would be leaving four months early I had heard about it from the rumor mill earlier that day. So, receiving the letter finally didn't come as such a surprise, but it still affected me. Right after I read the e-mail I got texts and phone calls from a lot of my good friends and fellow volunteers, all of us just wanting someone to talk to about something we had no control over. I didn't really have any reaction to the news. I knew that it meant that I would have to head home well before I was ready to do so, also that I would have to leave my house, community, friends, work and new life earlier than planned. But, I didn't feel anything. Not anxiety or anger, just nothing. It was almost as if I was at peace with it. Ever since we got the option to leave early a month ago I had felt that I would probably use it and go home sometime in May, just to take advantage and get some extra time to travel before I headed home. Leaving four months early was something that I wasn't prepared for. It put a kink into my plans that I am still trying to unravel as I write this. Travel plans are being bumped up and so is the need to prepare myself for life in the US. From what I understand going back home is somewhat difficult and it takes time to get back into the swing of things after having been in a completely different culture for such a long time, I expect all of that to be true, I just assumed I would have time to mentally prepare myself for it.
A few days after getting the e-mail we had an All Volunteer Conference in Xela for 3 days and it was basically to explain to us why these steps were taken and what will be happening to PC Guatemala in the coming months. It was a good time to see a lot of the people I probably won't run into again with all the craziness that is going on for everyone at the moment. Some people already left, some will leave in the coming weeks and some will extend for a third year. I still haven't decided when I will leave, depending on when (or if) a new volunteer comes to my town I will decide then. I am thinking I will COS on March 19th or 20th, then stick around Guatemala and Central America doing some travel until the middle of April, after that I go home and into the unknown. I like being in the unknown, I seem to put myself there a lot. Traveling around moving from place to place and the biggest one to date was coming to the Peace Corps not speaking the language and having no idea where I would end up and who I would meet along the way. Its very possible that an even bigger unknown is the one that I face after I COS. Once I am done traveling and being with my PC friends I will head home to try to figure out the next step. Where will I live? Where will I work? What kind of job do I want to get? Will I go to Grad School? It's all kind of up in the air. I think I like it that way. Keeps me from being stuck in the same situation all the time, I could end up anywhere, the same way I did when I decided to join Peace Corps.
For now, I am spending time with the people who have made an impact on my life during my time here, and those that I will miss dearly when I am no longer in Guatemala. I am doing the work that I wanted to get done before I left, seeing the things that I had missed out on before, reading the books I didn't get to finish, going out when I don't really feel like it, laughing at the things that used to frustrate me, enjoying living in my house with concrete floors that is cold at all hours of the day even when its 90 degrees outside, saying hello to everyone I run into, talking with the kids who pass my house yelling PROFE KEVIN!!!, checking out the stars at night, stopping to appreciate where I live, hiking volcanoes I have no real interest in getting to the top of, enjoying being bored at all times, drinking with my friends, and taking some time to enjoy the sunsets I get to see every day and have not appreciated. Soon enough I will be back home with my friends and family being able to spend time with my new nephew, see my brothers and sister for more than a couple days, hug my parents, play with my dog, speak English, get back to the CHI!, and find a whole bunch of other things that I will miss when I move onto my next adventure. I look forward to seeing What Dreams May Come.
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