My last couple of posts about feeling down about Guatemala and Reina's story related to reproductive health sort of culminate into what Andres' sister just relayed to us from Concepcion this afternoon. Reina, the aforementioned 17 year old girl and Andres' cousin, had her baby a few weeks ago and today we found out that because she hid her pregnancy by wearing a tight belt to hold up her corte and didn't take care to feed herself well, the baby was born a mere 3 lbs. The baby's father is some kid whose "wife" is also pregnant right now. The irresponsibility of this kid, the secret Reina had to keep while endangering her baby, the fact that literally NOTHING will happen to this kid for what he has done... is so maddening. Apparently they can't get a hold of or find this kid now... There is no one to advocate for Reina, or this poor other girl who is pregnant, too, and go "make" this kid answer to his actions. Child support doesn't exist. And Reina's dad nor uncles are around to do something about it.

Just sort of adds to my general "blah" about what seem like insurmountable problems that exist in this country. I mean, this stuff happens in other places, too, but my world these days is Guatemala.

On a positive note, I made a bunch of fudge cakes from a box and gave some to our neighbor who looked at me like I was some kind of snow-colored saint. It is the least I can do to infuse some sort of positivity into this place. Of course, not that everything sucks, but I've been back here for a year now and maybe I'm in those mid-service blues - like 1 year into a 2 year Peace Corps service is when folks often get down, want to go home. I'm starting to need order, peace, comfort, happy stories, things that make sense - things I don't typically equate with Guatemala.