Sunday, October 01, 2006

Olopa

These are the famous women of Olopa. They are a common topic of conversation in our household, given their immense beauty, intelligence, sensibility, humor, and general all-around awesomeness.

Ángeles is on the left, swigging a beer. She is the logistician. Most MSF logisticians are male. They need to know how to fix the truck, install sanitation systems, deliver water to refugee camps, etc. Montse is in yellow. She is a doctor from Barcelona. I can´t understand her accent, but word has it that she is very funny. Gemma is in the pic below with Conrado (in disguise in my hat and glasses). Gemma drives the truck around to remote villages to draw blood samples and teach the locals about Chagas.

The women live together in a combined house/office in Olopa, a mountain village too small and poor to make most maps of Guatemala. Olopa is 2.5 hours from the nearest highway. It does not have any restaurants or hotels, but there is a small store and another business or two. The locals wear sombreros and carry machetes.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holaaaaaa!!!!
This is Rafa, i am the logistician of Puerto Barrios project. This crazy girl is telling a lot of lies about our free time. All these photographs are tricky, after work, we continue working and then, to have a rest, we do work too. I will translate into spanish:

Guatemala esta lleno de mujeres bonitas con ganas diversión. La cerveza es muy barata y el país es muy bonito. Estáis todos locos si no venís a visitarnos!!!!

Anonymous said...

Holaaaaaa!!!!
This is Rafa, i am the logistician of Puerto Barrios project. This crazy girl is telling a lot of lies about our free time. All these photographs are tricky, after work, we continue working and then, to have a rest, we do work too. I will translate into spanish:

Guatemala esta lleno de mujeres bonitas con ganas diversión. La cerveza es muy barata y el país es muy bonito. Estáis todos locos si no venís a visitarnos!!!!

nomad said...

It turns out Rafa speaks English! I found out after about a month of utter isolation inside my english bubble. he just tortures me by pretending he doesn´t speak my language. until he gets drunk and let´s down his guard. Incredible how well he writes. He knows a lot of vocab. too. pronunciation is still a wee problem...

Anonymous said...

Hi friends of this crazy girl!
This is A (a-logistician).
Why is it the first time i see this blog? Oh my god! it's really funny.
My english isnot very good. But anyway my spanish isnot perfect at all. I speak better the monkey language(Hip, hip, hip!! uh, uh, uh!).
I like beer, run, and specially the special medicine our doctor from Puerto Barrios bring to us each time we see her (thank you Nell!).
I hope you can visit Olopa as soon as possible and have hippy parties....

nomad said...

hola chica. estoy feliz que encontraste la página de web. que feo el lunes aqui. prefiero fines de semana. no tuve tiempo que poner las nuevas fotos. sería manaña...

espero que tenga una buena semana.
hasto luego.

PS--hablas mejor inglés que hablo español. este idioma es tan difícil!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear that you peoples in Puerto Barrios are enjoying our crazy Nellie. We miss her very much in NYC! Can wait to have a beer at tap a keg. xoxo

nomad said...

ahhh... a note from my favorite transplant social worker perhaps?

nobody else appreciates the beauty of tap a keg.

I miss you.

Anonymous said...

Hi!!
I am sure we all meet at tap a keg or wherever, but always with a beer!!!
See you ny people
Rafa

nomad said...

¿o podemos reuniarnos con gente de NYC en Olopa el 3 de Noviembre?

Anonymous said...

I always say YES.

Angeles-Olop(ix)

nomad said...

hey OLOPA--

La gente en NYC quieran venir a la fiesta el 3 de noviembre en olopa. Puedo mandarles un invitación?