Cold, cold, cold

I'm just in the updating kind of mood lately. So here's another post with some thoughts.

I've been confined to the house a lot lately (self-imposed confinement). I think I've spent three weeks out of the past five with a cold, two different times with the same symptoms of stuffy nose, sore throat. This time though I've had a little fever (that goes away pretty soon after it comes up) and a gross cough. I blame it, like most Guatemalans, on the weather. It's been raining and everything is still damp from when the rainy season started months ago. Some of my clothes have gone moldy and I'm sure there is mold hidden away in my house, like where the rain seeps in from my roof (but luckily doesn't quite drop on top of me while I'm sleeping) or where my faucet is leaking away in the kitchen. I know that the mold probably should keep me out of the house, but when I'm sick I don't really want to be anywhere other than in my bed, surrounded by my books and listening to the music collection that has gradually built itself to include 10,900 songs.

Luckily, though, the rainy season will soon be over (or may last until November, as many Guatemalans have sadly explained to me). But this means that cold is coming. I love cold weather. Fall and winter were always my favorite times of the year back in the States. Though we don't get fall colors here, we do get the dropping temperatures and frost on the ground in the morning. And there is no heating in the house, so I feel the change in temperature much more acutely. But I don't mind. It gives me an excuse to wear extra layers of clothing and listen to Christmas music more often.

Things here have been busy. The school year will be over in three weeks, so we are trying to get one last visit in  with all of our schools. Lately we've been doing an activity with the students to explain hand-washing. Our teachers have been great with implementing a tooth-brushing schedule for after the kids finish eating snack, but they haven't quite figured out the hand-washing thing. At one school they were so proud to show me that they would brush their teeth and then wash their hands after, completing the healthy habits we asked of them. I tried to explain that no, we wanted them to wash hands before eating snack, but they nodded their heads and said "Sí, Seño" just to placate me while looking at each other in confusion. So we are explaining in every classroom, with all the teachers present and helping us out, why it is important to wash your hands. One of the skits we use in the lesson is of someone with diarrhea leaving to go to school without washing their hands after using the bathroom. We shake hands with everyone using glitter as the "germs" spreding from one hand to the other. Asking kids what is on a hand after using the bathroom, it takes a little while for them to get to the fact that there is poop on their hands, and when they get it there are giggles all around as Yuna or I explain, "There is poop on your hands. Que shuco!" Then we go to eat a tortilla covered in red glitter to represent the poop that makes it from our hands to our food. No one likes to eat a tortilla with poop. We are also using this opportunity to teach teachers about using dynamic activities during lessons to teach kids in more creative ways. Guatemalans are super creative, but they also don't like to think outside the box because they've never been taught or encouraged to do so. Lessons are generally dictated to students or written on the board, and often involve mountains of busywork. Education here needs a lot of work, but once education improves, so will everything else (health, business practices, science, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, etc.). Anyone interested in working on this for the next 30 years or so? Apparently there is a good head of the Ministry of Education, but she is likely to be ousted when the next president makes his way into office. Asi es.

Some food for thought that my boss brought up: Should I stay for a third year? I love my work here, but I'm also excited to go back to school. I hate making huge decisions like these, always afraid I will make the wrong one in the end. There are a ton of things to consider and I'm taking some time now and then to think about it, which is hard with everything going on right now. I would appreciate any thoughts or prayers as I contemplate what the next year will hold.

That's all for now. Maybe in my attempt to escape finishing up my personal statement tomorrow will lead to another update. Feliz tarde!