Peace Corps Masters International Student at the University of Washington currently serving as a Municipal Development volunteer in Guatemala. Originally from Nevada with insatiable love for dinosaurs, roller coasters, penny slot machines, good stories and sushi. And now I blog.
Email:
gilbert.carmen@gmail.com
Attention:
The views expressed in this blog are soley mine, and are not related in any way to those of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.
Tortillas Eaten: 1402
Most Surprising Food My Host Mom Has Served Me: Cow Hoof Soup
Bouts of Diarrhea: 4
Bug Bites: 1134
Camioneta Rides: 330
Best Camioneta Song Heard Lately: Humpty Dance
Guatemalan Doppelgangers Spotted: 22*
Books Read: 104**
Letters Sent: 72
Letters Received: 51***
Letters Lost by Guatemala Correo: TOO MANY.
Packages Received: 23****
Tremors Felt: 41
Giant Spiders Killed: 32
Scorpions Killed: 10
Thing I Am Most Upset I Didn’t Pack: Wool socks and a warm hat. New site is cold!
Food I Am Currently Missing Most: Sushi
Biggest Recent Accomplishment: Got to 100 books!
Best Malaria Medicine Induced Dream: I dreamt I was in a high school cafeteria with all of my friends partaking in a giant fried chicken feast. Literally tables and tables of fried chicken.
Worst Malaria Medicine Induced Dream: I dreamt my sister got married and I wasn’t in the wedding party. And I didn’t even have a good seat to watch.
Weirdest Malaria Medicine Induced Dream: Competing in Legends of the Hidden temple with my sister (we lost). And then hunting for mummies with Dr. Maples.
*I’ve seen a short, pregnant Guatemalan Sami, an internet café managing Guatemalan Travis, a government worker Emi, Evan V. teaching a class of 12 year old girls, a Latino Michael Cera, Priscilla’s Mom, spent a day driving around with an older, ladino Erik R., sat next to a brown Justin Bieber on the camioneta, a crepe restaurant running Frenchman Vinny, Man-capri wearing European tourist Declan, host family cousin Kyle R., Mini Nikhail, Mini Selena Gomez, Women’s Office running Alissar, Rachel A. circa 1994, Birthday Boy Matt M., Brown Justine R., brown Declan twins, Ayudante Max W., Guatemalan JL with a Rogue stripe in his hair, stylish chapina Jen M.
** Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Easy Way Out by Stephen McCauley, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Out of Mao’s Shadow by Philip Pan, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, Dune by Frank Herbert, Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, Plainsong by Kent Haruf, The Next 100 Years by George Friedman, Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, While I Was Gone by Sue Miller, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Longitudes and Attitudes by Thomas Friedman, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, Lucifer’s Flood by Linda Rois Brook, When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe, An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, Eldest by Christopher Paolini, Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon, House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, Ride by David Walton, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov, Little Bee by Chris Cleave, The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox, Emergency by Neil Strauss, The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, A Son of the Circus by John Irving, Prey by Michael Crichton, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, How to be Good by Nick Hornby, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson, The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, About A Boy by Nick Hornby, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Ram Brafman, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larson, Faithful Place by Tana French, Heartless Stone by Tom Zoellner, My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, So Much For That by Lionel Shriver, The Puppy Diaries by Jill Abramson, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, Don’t Know Much About History by Kenneth C. Davis, A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Outcasts United by Warren St. John, A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, Push by Sapphire, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal by JK Rowling, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese, Children of Dune by Frank Herbert, Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, How to Win Friends and Influene People by Dale Carnegie, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Poor Richard’s Almanac by Benjamin Franklin, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July, Bossypants by Tina Fey, Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James, Fifty Shades Darker by EL James, Fifty Shades Freed by EL James, Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larson, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig, God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert, Wheat Belly by William Davis, The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemmingway, The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz, The Art of Political Murder by Francisco Goldman, Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer
*** Gran abrazos to Jenn, Sami, Jen, Dennis, AJ, Jensel, Michael, Alisa, Therese, Meagan, Shaun, David, Garett, Vinny and the boys back home, Ryan, Allan and Amber, Muriel, Gracie, Brynna, Lexi, Eric and Lauren! (Travis and Tanya get credit for trying!)
**** THANKS JANE!! THANKS SAMI!! (I am now the proud owner of a GoGirl. Google it.) THANKS JEN!! THANKS JEN, LINDA, PRISCILLA, MICHAEL AND ELIZABETH!! THANKS LISA!! THANKS JORDAN!! THANKS DENNIS!! THANKS ANDREA AND CHRIS!! THANKS JENN!! THANKS SAMI AND MURIEL!! THANKS JOHN AND AIMEE!! THANKS LANE!! THANKS AIMEE!! THANKS JEN AND LINDA!! THANKS PRIS!! THANKS LIBBY!! THANKS LINDA!! THANKS LISA, JEN, LINDA, CONNOR, SAMI, MURIEL, MIKEY, AJ, ARTIE AND CHRISTINE!! THANKS BRYNNA!! THANKS NOOR!! THANKS SHAUN!! THANKS LEXI!!
Carmen in Guatemala