Back to School

Images/Themes of the past few week:

1. Parents buying school supplies. All around the city and back in my site, parents were buying the usual types of school supplies for their kids. Teachers make out a list of what they want the kids to bring in to school and parents go into a bookstore and usually buy all of the things at once. My host mom owns a bookstore so she’s been super busy this past week putting packages together, rolling up posters that the kids will eventually use, counting out pencils and pens. I don’t understand why the teachers ask for everything all at once, but it makes the process of buying school supplies longer. In some cases, parents waited until the last minute to buy supplies and lines at the stores were really long (and those working at the stores were very harried). However, seeing all of the business that these bookstores are getting is a good thing. Last year, the government provided a lot of the supplies, which is nice for a poor family that can’t afford everything, but is not sustainable at all-teaching parents to expect handouts all the time-and really put a strain on bookstore owners throughout the year (my host mom included). One of my favorite experiences with school supplies was riding the bus home with a couple who had just bought stuff for their daughter. The dad had a brand new, bright pink “High School Musical 3” backpack slung on his shoulder. I knew that one little girl was going to be very happy that evening.

2. Kids going back to school: Kids carrying backpacks stuffed with all their new school supplies. I remembered back to my primary/middle school days and how I used to stuff my backpack so full of stuff that my parents and other adults would worry about the health of my back. I think the same thing now seeing these tiny kids dragging huge backpacks full of books and notebooks back and forth to school, which is sometimes a fairly long walk (there aren’t really school busses here-kids can take public transport, but most don’t or can’t due to the fact that the school isn’t along a road the buses travel on). The kids all stop and say hi and ask me when I’ll be visiting their school again (which is not until February). Classes don’t start until 9:00 because the mornings are cold, so kids are getting even less learning time now. This will go on until March, and then when the rain comes again in June, kids will often be let out early to get home before the rain. It makes sense, but it really takes time out of the classroom.

3. Inauguration of the school year: One of the schools had the ceremonial start of the school year and we were invited. Most of the parents and all of the students came and got to stand there while lots of people talked and clowns performed and the national anthem played. Guatemalans really do celebrate everything, which I am enjoying. I love the Guatemalan Nation Anthem and I get to hear it every time new bathrooms are opened, a school is certified, there is a feria, a school has an acto cívico (civic demonstration), etc. The principal, some teachers, some women from the Ministry of Education, the president of the parents’ organization, and we were among the speakers. Almost everyone talked about health and how they hope to improve the health practices of the students in the next year. The president of the parents seems like a really great guy, willing to work with us and pressure the parents to buy toothbrushes and toothpaste for this year. There is also a group of high school students who are trained in health outreach who will be working in the community next year-they’re from the community so they are already accepted by parents and community members, so they’re a really great contact to have, in addition to being friendly and interested in playing soccer or basketball on the weekends with us. The mayor of course didn’t send anyone, which was a disappointment to the school, but we’ve given up on ever seeing him again.

4. Imagine a woman in a field enjoying a nice rest with her young daughters while their pig, which is tied up, scrounges around for some food. Now imagine that the pig breaks loose and starts running. The woman starts running after him yelling “Coche, coche!” (Pig, pig!). Then the young girls start running after their mom, the youngest barely making it because she’s still unsteady on her feet. This is a scene I came upon during my walk home the other day. Fortunately, the woman was able to rein in the pig, using a building to corner it and having someone help rein it in. In general, pigs just strike me as pretty annoying animals. They’re always trying to run away when you want them to stay, and refusing to move when you’re trying to get them somewhere. Every Tuesday I wake up to the sounds of pigs screaming as their owners try to herd them to the market. Even the small hill that hides my house from the centro can’t stem the sounds of the pigs. My site mate had a pig that caused problems when he started eating chickens. I also don’t understand why I see so many pigs when people don’t often eat pork. I suppose people raise them to sell them, but I don’t really know what the people do with full grown pigs other than make chicharrones (pork rinds). In general, they seem much more trouble than they’re worth.

5. Kicking up lots of dust: It hasn’t rained here since the end of the rainy season (last time probably in October-I can’t remember the last time it rained). This means that dust has had time to collect and start piling up on the dirt roads. I walked to meet my site mate and to get some exercise the other day and just found myself sinking in dust. It literally just wafts up in big clouds whenever you step into a “puddle”. When a car drives by, it stirs up dust as if it were water after a big rain. I can feel the dust coating my throat every time I go out, and it has started building up in my house despite the fact that I sweep every day. I am actually looking forward to the rainy season again-now I know that I prefer mud to dust. At least mud can’t get into your nose and throat (unless you take a nosedive into it, which I managed to avoid last year).

Things are going well. Just getting settled into the new school year, waiting for things to pick up again in the schools. Still lots of planning to do, especially for the new trainees’ Field Based Training, during which they will spend four days in my site. We have visits to schools, a training for teachers, a meeting with parents, and some lunch meeting planned. It should be fun and hopefully educational for the trainees.

Hope things are well with whoever is reading!

I feel like a Magi

Almost a month later. Disculpe la tardancia!

I went to give my host family their Christmas gifts a few days ago and completely forgot it was Día de los Reyes (Epiphany) until my host sister said that she was worried the kings wouldn’t bring her any gifts until I came. It’s good to know I’m loved for all the wonderful, Target-bought gifts I brought from the States: a Slinky, some note pads, a clutch purse, lip gloss, two decks of cards, lots of candy canes (they don’t have any of those here), and the movie Babe.

Before I start talking about my time back in Guatemala, I need to rewind and update for the last several months now that I have a computer that works (yay!).

So October, November and December were off months. There weren’t any classes so people automatically assumed that I would take time off, spend a lot of time in the States, etc. However, I worked through the schools’ break, mainly planning for next year and working on some secondary projects. Planning takes up a lot of time, especially after the superintendent told us that it would be best to have most of our workshops for teachers at the beginning of the year. This month we have three workshops, then one in February, and another in March. A lot goes into planning what topics to include in four hours, how to run it, what posters to make, what copies to make, making worksheets for the teachers to fill in, etc. The first workshop will be on designing projects, which is important because almost all of the schools lack something important, from water to faucets to sufficient latrines. Then we’ll be working with a nursing school in the city on learning styles (Guatemalan teachers typically cater to only one learning style, that in which kids learn by repetition, writing something over and over, copying things off the board, etc. There is no or very little learning by doing here, watching movies, doing experiments, using music, etc). Also coming up is a workshop on classroom management. There have been countless times when I have entered a classroom to find a majority of the students up and about, sometimes dancing on desks, sometimes walking around the school compound. Teachers often answer phones during class or receive visits from other teachers, which disrupts the class. So we’re going to discuss things like making rules with the students, enforcing rules (mainly positive reinforcement), physically setting up a classroom, and some other topics I can’t think of right now. That’s pretty much it for January. Visits to schools won’t start until February, which is when students will start their classes again.

I’ve been working on a variety of other projects on the side. With my site mates and a few other volunteers who live close I’m helping write a new curriculum for sex ed, including more stuff about body parts, puberty and STIs. Teachers of the older kids are supposed to teach this stuff but they usually don’t and students go on into middle school knowing nothing about what’s going on with their bodies. Girls get their periods and think they’re dying-not a good feeling. Moreover, there are tons of teen pregnancies because kids don’t know how to prevent pregnancies. We’re hoping to make lessons more dynamic and fun for the kids and teachers. I’m also part of a group that is working on creating an American culture fair. I went to a Japanese culture fair put on by the Jica volunteers who are working in Guatemala and learned a ton. We’re going to focus our fair on the different seasons and within seasons, on holidays, sports, food, activities, crafts, etc. It should be a lot of fun for the Guatemalans in my town. Not sure yet when that’s going to happen-we’re still in the money-raising, planning stage. I’ve also been learning K’iche’, the local Mayan language. My teacher isn’t that great but I’ve learned some important words that should come in handy when I’m talking at parent meetings. People are generally impressed when I manage to slip a few basic K’iche’ words in.

I’ve also been travelling a bit. For Thanksgiving and my birthday (on the same day this year), I went with one of my site mates to Belize, which was a great trip. We were there for three days, four nights, apart from two full days of travel, and despite the stress of travel across Guatemala and then in Belize, it was a very relaxing trip. We stayed in Placencia, a really beautiful, laid back beach town on the Caribbean Sea. The white-sand beaches were clean and empty-luckily we were there at the beginning of tourist season, so there was hardly anyone else there. The town is really small but has everything you need based around what used to be the world’s most narrow road (apparently it was in Guinness Book of World Records) and another road which cars can travel on. There are a bunch of restaurants and hotels, but nothing too big. We got to eat a nice Thanksgiving dinner with real turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, weird stuffing, canned cranberry sauce, rice and beans, and a rum cake dessert. I swam every morning, read on the beach and walked around every day, and ate gelato for dessert two nights. I’ve never been on a vacation like this before and probably won’t take one any time soon, but I enjoyed it. Three days was just enough though-I would have gotten bored with any more time there. Then for Christmas I went home and got to see my parents and sisters for the first time in almost a year. I was only there for a week so the time passed by so quickly, but it was great to be home again. I didn’t do much because I was tired and had stuff to catch up on, but I did spend enough time in grocery stores to stock up on lots of food and get to eat all of my favorites that week-lots of cheese, a real Thanksgiving dinner with all the sides, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, chips, candy, etc. I also made it to church a few times and got to see some friends from high school. I brought a lot of clothes and souvenirs home with me to leave in the States and was looking forward to taking a fairly empty bag back to Guate, but I underestimated my cravings and ended up with lots of supplies for this year. After a delayed flight and the longest, most uncomfortable bus ride I’ve ever taken (which involved me leaving my backpack with computer in the front with the driver-stressing out about it the entire 3 ½ hour trip, standing up with another bag for the first hour, finding a seat but only managing to fit half of one buttcheek on the seat-I would rather have been standing, and then freaking out a bit when I got to the front to get off to find my backpack missing-they had put it on top while I was distracted by not falling in the aisle and everything was there. Without any major mishaps I was back in time for New Year celebrations. For New Year’s Eve, I ate lunch at Yuna’s house and then had people over to my house for a dinner of pizza, scones and rum and coke. Despite my exhaustion, I stayed up for the fireworks that all the families set off at midnight (or around then). It was a really beautiful sight with fireworks exploding on one side and then more on another. And at approximately 12:10, I went to bed and quickly fell asleep despite the noisy celebrations continuing. People have been really happy to see me again. I think they thought I had left for good, and are surprised that a gringa would want to continue to live here.

And this week marked one full year in country! To celebrate we ate Indian food in the city. I can’t believe I’ve been here for a year. Despite the days that seem to take forever, time in general has flown by. The school year officially started on Monday so now I’m getting back into the swing of things. Met with all of the directors yesterday-it was good to see them again. We really are fortunate with the great directors and schools we are working with. And now, with workshops coming up there won’t be any dull moments. And if there are, I have my new Kindle to keep me entertained with lots of books to read (Thanks Dad!). I hope everyone’s Christmas went well and that the New Year has started off well.