I had lunch today with my host family. It's the first time I've eaten with them in a while. But it was different. There were only five of us at the table. And now, finally, I can write about what's been going on in the past several months. It's a sad story, so sorry for getting everyone down, but it's probably been one of the most powerful experiences I've had here in Guatemala, and it will probably be one of the few things from here that I will remember for the rest of my life.
I think I've written about my host family before. I lived with them my first three months in site and have spent quite a bit of time with them since moving into my house. We eat together, bake together, go into the city together, pasear together, play UNO together. They really have become my family here in Guatemala. I honestly think living with them permanently wouldn't have been bad if it hadn't been for my host dad's drinking problem.
Anyway, my host mom is the sweetest woman ever. She's in her early forties and will go out of her way to help anyone out. She has spent her whole life sacrificing for her family-working all day to make enough money to send the kids to private schools, cleaning the house and washing the clothes, helping the kids with their homework (or rather, doing their homework and projects for them at times, as is the norm here), making all of the food. No one really helps her out so she literally runs herself ragged from before the sun comes up to after it goes down. She confides in me a lot because she doesn't really have anyone else to talk to about her husband's alcoholism or her worries about her children's future. The family is heavily in debt and she is always worrying if they will have enough to pay the debt collectors that come every week. But somehow they always make it.
So one day in April I stopped by their house after a long break and her husband tells me that the youngest has been in the hospital. He apparently had developed juvenile diabetes. My host parents weren't sure what to do with him since this was a whole new thing to them. They had to give him insulin injections twice a day and completely change his diet. They also took him out of school for fear that he would continue to eat the junkfood and sweets that make up most Guatemalan children's snack. They had a lot of trouble getting his sugar to stabilize, finally figuring things out after attending a workshop for parents of diabetic kids at the hospital in Guatemala City. I am happy to say that now he is back on track and they are planning to enroll him in the local school next year. He doesn't fight the injections and he has accepted his changed diet.
In May, my host mom's mother had some heart problems (not sure how bad they were) and she ended up moving into the house with the family. Over a month she regained strength and actually became an extra set of hands to help around the house. She's a really sweet woman and it's been good to get to know her better since she now lives in town (instead of in the city).
Then in June, right before I went back to the States for a visit, I stopped by the house. My oldest host sister had been having problems with lightheadedness whenever she moved and with really intense headaches. My host family finally took her to the doctor in the city and they diagnosed hydrocephalus, or water on the brain. Since they couldn't take care of the condition near my site, they scheduled a date for doctors in Guatemala City to operate on her brain and install a shunt to drain the liquid and relieve pressure on her brain. I stopped by before leaving, knowing that brain surgery is no joke but believing that things would still work out. And I was right. I tried calling while in the States to see how the surgery had gone, but my host mom's phone had died and I didn't have another number. So I somewhat hesitantly visited their home after getting back to site, but there was my host sister, head shaved, doing well. Her vision was slightly blurred in one eye and her speech was a little stalled, but she looked good for someone who had undergone brain surgery a week and a half before. But things slowly started changing. A few weeks after surgery she developed a kidney infection and was on strong antibiotics. Slowly she started losing her vision, so my host parents stopped her antibiotics and took her back to the doctors in Guatemala City, who operated again. Before I knew it, her vision was gone, as was her ability to move, speak, or really do anything. My host mom, of course, was extremely distressed. I tried to comfort her as best as I could, simply hugging her whenever I saw her or cooking food. I didn't visit very often. I just can't express how hard it was to see this sixteen-year-old I had known for being a funny, hard working, and just normal teenage girl (and honestly the only person who ever helped my host mom out around the house), just lying in bed, unable to communicate the pain she was in or do anything for herself. My host mom dedicated all of her time to taking care of her daughter, feeding her through a feeding tube, washing her, giving her pain medication injections, talking to her (the doctors said she could still hear us), giving her oxygen when she needed it. And I noticed one good thing to come from this tragedy-my host dad stopped drinking. He was there for his family, helping out with his daughter, keeping the store open so the family wouldn't go completely bankrupt. It was also incredible to see the community support the family. Everyone knows the family because they own a store right at the entrance into town and my host family has lived here for generations. Everyone brought by food, people donated medicine and the equipment necessary to keep my host siste rat home, her friends from school dropped by nearly every day to talk to her and pray for her. Thus the family was somehow able to cope with the tragedy that just snuck up on them out of nowhere.
After being at home for a little less than a month, they had to take her to the hospital. My host mom called me from the hospital on September 5th to tell me that she had passed away. We talked for about three minutes, me kind of stuttering out whatever comforting words would pop into my mind, and I just kind of sat in my house that night. This wasn't an unexpected outcome. I had talked to my mom and dad about it and they told me that it was unlikely that she would live long at home. I just wasn't expecting it to happen so soon and I wish I had been there more to visit with her and to spend more time with my host parents. I've been trying to make up for it and have spent quite a lot of time with my host family, time that I will always remember-going to the funeral, marching with the procession to the cemetery in the pouring rain, walking back from the cemetery with my host mom, visiting the tomb again the next day with the whole family, attending some of the prayer ceremonies Catholics hold for nine days after the death. The hardest thing for me to see that got me to tear up every time was seeing my host mom and host grandmother in so much pain. They would have never thought about losing a daughter/granddaughter so early in her life. It is also hard to see the younger kids, knowing that this is something they will carry the rest of their lives. They took the whole progression of events very well, but since they're so young they probably don't know what to think or feel yet. It will be especially hard on my other host sister, who is twelve now but still doesn't like to sleep alone. She shared a room and a bed with her older sister until recently. I asked about how she was doing, offering to sleep over if she was taking things badly, and my host mom told me that she was surprisingly doing fine. Hopefully she will continue to be okay.
And then today I stopped by to say hi and drop off some food, and ended up staying for lunch. My host mom is better now-she was able to joke around with her kids and me at lunch-as is my host dad, who hasn't been drinking, and my host grandmother, who is traveling around different parts of the country with her friends. We talk about her daughter a little, especially about how good she was at drawing (her sister wants to be an artist now) or how well she could play the trumpet. There will always be a little shrine for her in the house where her family will remember her as she was in good days. We will go to the cemetery on All Saint's Day to paint the tomb in which she was laid to rest blue, her favorite color. And the family will keep on plugging away, always remembering the daughter they lost.
Whew. Sorry for the emotional roller coaster. I haven't really been able to talk/write about it before now and I've been up and down a lot this past month, but I'm back to normal now. Anyway, what should we all take away from this story? I know it's cliched, but live every day like it's your last. You never know when some rare brain condition will sneak up on you and take you out of commission. And be thankful for your health. And (in what may be a weak/inappropriate attempt at humor), never undergo brain surgery in Guatemala. Also, please pray for my host mom and dad, that they will continue to remain strong and will not lose faith in this difficult time.
It's not just a trip anymore. I am hoping to revamp this blog to include a lot of different things mainly centered around my life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, but also including other random things I find myself reflecting upon. The contents of this blog reflect my opinions and not those of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps program. Enjoy!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Just a thought
Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy.
Today I felt pretty normal. I visited one of our preschools, so it was a good day (the younger kids make my job way more fun). I stopped by my host family's house to drop off some food and my host mom cried, but it was a normal cry instead of a sad cry (but that's another story I will eventually get to), so that was an improvement. And my clothes dried before the rain came. And, I bought a ton of veggies in the market: onions, tomatoes, green beans, carrots (really giant carrots), and spinach, and to balance out my diet a little I took advantage of the dwindling apple season to pick some slightly bruised but hopefully still delicious apples. I had a nice conversation with one of my neighbors walking up the giant hill (we chatted about the weather, of course). I cooked a nice stir fry with some tofu I bought in the city on Saturday (who knew I would find fresh extra-firm tofu in Guatemala?). And I settled in for some work, reading and cleaning, like any normal afternoon.
Just now, though, I was going to fold my clothes (I was too lazy to fold them when I had first taken them down from my roof) and I noticed one of my new shirts was missing. I don't normally pay a lot of attention to clothes, but this shirt was one I had just bought on Saturday to replace my super-raggedy black shirts that have gross white pit stains. I layer a lot because it is normally cold here in the morning, so I was happy to find a nice black shirt in good shape for less than a dollar. This morning I went to wash some clothes, along with this shirt, and didn't notice it was gone until just now putting my clothes away. I searched everywhere, retracing the few steps from my roof to the rooms I inhabit in my house. I searched through my dirty clothes hamper, the clothes hanging up around the house to dry, the kitchen, the bathroom, the roof again. Nowhere to be found. I even checked to see that the clipped off tag was in the trash to reassure myself that I didn't lose it on the way home on Saturday and that it indeed did exist this morning. The tag was in the trash can, where I left it this morning, but the shirt was nowhere to be found.
This bugs me because a similar thing happened last week. I had just washed a few things, including this blue shirt that I've had for ages. I have really good memories of things I've done in this blue shirt-helping out at a minga in Ecuador and shopping in Otavalo, walking around dusty Uganda, attending a Mayan ceremony here in Guatemala and burning a little hole in the bottom with one of my lit candles. This shirt has literally been everywhere with me because it's a really nice shirt, made with quick-dry material that is super light. And it just disappeared from my roof. I thought that maybe the wind blew it away, but that has never happened, and it was never dry during the period it was on my roof (one of those lovely rainy periods when my clothes stay wet for days), so it wouldn't be floating around. I can visualize it hanging on my clothesline with two clothespins holding it in place. And one afternoon I went to take the stuff inside to try to dry it, and it was gone. The same thing happened quite some time ago but I didn't think anything of it. Yet again I thought this one shirt had just flown off the roof, but recent events have led me to believe that my clothes are either disintegrating or there is someone behind these disappearances.
I don't really know what to think. The only way to get on my roof is from my neighbor's house. Do I knock on their door and ask if someone has been sporting some new clothes lately? I don't want to start problems up, especially with only six months left. Or maybe since there isn't much time left, it wouldn't matter if my neighbors thought I was framing them for stealing clothes. I guess I'll see if anything else goes missing and I'll have to be more careful with my favorite clothes, maybe only drying them inside. Again, my clothes don't matter all that much to me, only that most of my clothes are in pretty bad shape and when something nice goes missing, I definitely notice it. And I feel like maybe I just imagined everything.
Just wanted to share the newest strange happenings here in Guatemala. Hope all is well. Happy Wednesday!
Today I felt pretty normal. I visited one of our preschools, so it was a good day (the younger kids make my job way more fun). I stopped by my host family's house to drop off some food and my host mom cried, but it was a normal cry instead of a sad cry (but that's another story I will eventually get to), so that was an improvement. And my clothes dried before the rain came. And, I bought a ton of veggies in the market: onions, tomatoes, green beans, carrots (really giant carrots), and spinach, and to balance out my diet a little I took advantage of the dwindling apple season to pick some slightly bruised but hopefully still delicious apples. I had a nice conversation with one of my neighbors walking up the giant hill (we chatted about the weather, of course). I cooked a nice stir fry with some tofu I bought in the city on Saturday (who knew I would find fresh extra-firm tofu in Guatemala?). And I settled in for some work, reading and cleaning, like any normal afternoon.
Just now, though, I was going to fold my clothes (I was too lazy to fold them when I had first taken them down from my roof) and I noticed one of my new shirts was missing. I don't normally pay a lot of attention to clothes, but this shirt was one I had just bought on Saturday to replace my super-raggedy black shirts that have gross white pit stains. I layer a lot because it is normally cold here in the morning, so I was happy to find a nice black shirt in good shape for less than a dollar. This morning I went to wash some clothes, along with this shirt, and didn't notice it was gone until just now putting my clothes away. I searched everywhere, retracing the few steps from my roof to the rooms I inhabit in my house. I searched through my dirty clothes hamper, the clothes hanging up around the house to dry, the kitchen, the bathroom, the roof again. Nowhere to be found. I even checked to see that the clipped off tag was in the trash to reassure myself that I didn't lose it on the way home on Saturday and that it indeed did exist this morning. The tag was in the trash can, where I left it this morning, but the shirt was nowhere to be found.
This bugs me because a similar thing happened last week. I had just washed a few things, including this blue shirt that I've had for ages. I have really good memories of things I've done in this blue shirt-helping out at a minga in Ecuador and shopping in Otavalo, walking around dusty Uganda, attending a Mayan ceremony here in Guatemala and burning a little hole in the bottom with one of my lit candles. This shirt has literally been everywhere with me because it's a really nice shirt, made with quick-dry material that is super light. And it just disappeared from my roof. I thought that maybe the wind blew it away, but that has never happened, and it was never dry during the period it was on my roof (one of those lovely rainy periods when my clothes stay wet for days), so it wouldn't be floating around. I can visualize it hanging on my clothesline with two clothespins holding it in place. And one afternoon I went to take the stuff inside to try to dry it, and it was gone. The same thing happened quite some time ago but I didn't think anything of it. Yet again I thought this one shirt had just flown off the roof, but recent events have led me to believe that my clothes are either disintegrating or there is someone behind these disappearances.
I don't really know what to think. The only way to get on my roof is from my neighbor's house. Do I knock on their door and ask if someone has been sporting some new clothes lately? I don't want to start problems up, especially with only six months left. Or maybe since there isn't much time left, it wouldn't matter if my neighbors thought I was framing them for stealing clothes. I guess I'll see if anything else goes missing and I'll have to be more careful with my favorite clothes, maybe only drying them inside. Again, my clothes don't matter all that much to me, only that most of my clothes are in pretty bad shape and when something nice goes missing, I definitely notice it. And I feel like maybe I just imagined everything.
Just wanted to share the newest strange happenings here in Guatemala. Hope all is well. Happy Wednesday!
Monday, September 12, 2011
This just in...
The awful mayor of my town LOST in the elections!! I am so happy for the people of my community--hopefully they will finally get what they deserve, which is a mayor who doesn't squander all of their money and spend all of his time paseando everywhere but here. I don't know much about the new mayor, but he has got to be an improvement because you can't get too much worse than now.
And, there will be a presidential run-off election in November. And Congress is divided more fairly than people were saying. Maybe things won't be too bad for Guatemala after all.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Out with the old, in with the new?
Today is an important day, not just because it is the tenth anniversary of September 11th. Of course I have mused over what that day meant for me then and what it means for me now. I remember a brief article I wrote for the local newspaper's high school page about how we all came together and worked to fix things and to never forget. Then I remember watching a documentary on the attacks and how it was all a big conspiracy with my host family in Ecuador on the anniversary of the attacks in 2007. And now here I am in another country and honestly, things going on here have taken more precedence that Guatemalans likely hardly realize that this is a day of remembrance in America.
What's going on here in Guatemala? Read this article for a hint. If you're not here, you probably haven't really heard of it, but there are some pretty big elections going down here. Guatemalans have been going to the polls since this morning to vote for president, congressperson, and mayor. Let's start with president.
There are three front-runners for president. One is a former military general who held onto positions of power in intelligence and the military during Guatemala's 36-year civil war/internal conflict. Another is a doctor with little experience. And the third is an older intellectual/scientist who was originally born in Switzerland. This has made for an interesting race. The next president of Guatemala faces increasing violence, a growing presence of drug gangs, and neglected health and education sectors. According to polls, the former military general will likely win and implement a program of "mano dura" policies (strong hand), which have been attempted in other countries to fight violence but have failed. It is also unclear where the money will come from to increase the police presence and improve security. Guatemala does not have much of a tax base so money for programs is very limited. I really think anyone other than the former military man is a better choice for Guatemala, but it seems unlikely that they will be able to build a strong enough voter base. A majority is needed to win, so a run-off election is likely to take place in November. Honestly, most of the candidates have similar positions on everything and aren't offering any concrete, realistic, practical solutions for Guatemala's many problems, so it seems unlikely that anything really new will be taking place over the next four years, no matter who wins.
As for congressional elections, I really have no idea what is going on. People don't seem to care much about this election. I honestly don't really know what congress does here in Guatemala.
And as for mayor, I have been praying the last nine months that our current mayor will not win again. I have yet to hear anyone say anything good about this mayor. The roads are full of potholes that grow by leaps and bounds. Schools end up paying for their own projects with the support of the parents, with NO support from the municipality. I went to turn in a request for funds from the muni and explained that I would simply be happy with a letter explaining that the muni didn't have funds so that I would have something to turn in with the grant application I was writing, but they kept telling me to come back within 15 days, at which point they would stall even longer. One school has been constructing bathrooms for the past 2 years, waiting for the muni to pull through and pay for the toilets, which they promised at the beginning of the project. Yes, the mayor did pave a road last year from the center of town through three different communities, but that is it. We only have one health center/post. For a big community, we lack things other communities, many of them smaller, have-library, computer lab, functional women's office. Other than the road, he hasn't done anything else in the time I have been here. And it took forever for him to finish the road. Meanwhile, he skims money off the top to build hotels on the coast (as well as one huge hotel here that no one ever stays at, partially because there isn't anything here and partially because it's an expensive Q100 a night). The mayor is never around because he's always passing time away from town. To actually meet with him, you essentially have to be in the right place at the right time. I don't know much about the few men running against him, but I do know that we really can't get much worse. Unfortunately, because his party was paying people to put up signs or paint their houses and was giving out food, it looks like he might win. The mayor in the other community I work with has been the complete opposite: he has managed to extend potable water coverage to almost the entire municipality, he has installed drainage, built projects (sometimes more than one project per school) in 5 of the 6 schools in the municipality, built a new health post, and is always around. He's a fantastic mayor, but he's also super old and is not running. Someone who is currently working under him is running, but he is losing, but a former teacher is apparently winning, so there is a possibility that things will continue to go well in this muni.
I'll keep people updated as to what happens as far as politics goes. The polls closed an hour ago, so what happens now is that one member from each party running in the election meets in a room and they count the votes together. This is a pretty transparent way of doing things, if only there wasn't the opportunity to stuff the ballots before the counting begins.
People have been hanging out all day. The firecrackers will begin as soon as someone is reported the winner. It will shortly be legal to buy alcohol again so the drunks will be out in greater numbers. Luckily, I am safe at home, ready to settle in for the night. Tomorrow should be another interesting day. I suppose I should just be thankful that the noise will be a little more tolerable now that cars won't drive around blasting propaganda.
What's going on here in Guatemala? Read this article for a hint. If you're not here, you probably haven't really heard of it, but there are some pretty big elections going down here. Guatemalans have been going to the polls since this morning to vote for president, congressperson, and mayor. Let's start with president.
There are three front-runners for president. One is a former military general who held onto positions of power in intelligence and the military during Guatemala's 36-year civil war/internal conflict. Another is a doctor with little experience. And the third is an older intellectual/scientist who was originally born in Switzerland. This has made for an interesting race. The next president of Guatemala faces increasing violence, a growing presence of drug gangs, and neglected health and education sectors. According to polls, the former military general will likely win and implement a program of "mano dura" policies (strong hand), which have been attempted in other countries to fight violence but have failed. It is also unclear where the money will come from to increase the police presence and improve security. Guatemala does not have much of a tax base so money for programs is very limited. I really think anyone other than the former military man is a better choice for Guatemala, but it seems unlikely that they will be able to build a strong enough voter base. A majority is needed to win, so a run-off election is likely to take place in November. Honestly, most of the candidates have similar positions on everything and aren't offering any concrete, realistic, practical solutions for Guatemala's many problems, so it seems unlikely that anything really new will be taking place over the next four years, no matter who wins.
As for congressional elections, I really have no idea what is going on. People don't seem to care much about this election. I honestly don't really know what congress does here in Guatemala.
And as for mayor, I have been praying the last nine months that our current mayor will not win again. I have yet to hear anyone say anything good about this mayor. The roads are full of potholes that grow by leaps and bounds. Schools end up paying for their own projects with the support of the parents, with NO support from the municipality. I went to turn in a request for funds from the muni and explained that I would simply be happy with a letter explaining that the muni didn't have funds so that I would have something to turn in with the grant application I was writing, but they kept telling me to come back within 15 days, at which point they would stall even longer. One school has been constructing bathrooms for the past 2 years, waiting for the muni to pull through and pay for the toilets, which they promised at the beginning of the project. Yes, the mayor did pave a road last year from the center of town through three different communities, but that is it. We only have one health center/post. For a big community, we lack things other communities, many of them smaller, have-library, computer lab, functional women's office. Other than the road, he hasn't done anything else in the time I have been here. And it took forever for him to finish the road. Meanwhile, he skims money off the top to build hotels on the coast (as well as one huge hotel here that no one ever stays at, partially because there isn't anything here and partially because it's an expensive Q100 a night). The mayor is never around because he's always passing time away from town. To actually meet with him, you essentially have to be in the right place at the right time. I don't know much about the few men running against him, but I do know that we really can't get much worse. Unfortunately, because his party was paying people to put up signs or paint their houses and was giving out food, it looks like he might win. The mayor in the other community I work with has been the complete opposite: he has managed to extend potable water coverage to almost the entire municipality, he has installed drainage, built projects (sometimes more than one project per school) in 5 of the 6 schools in the municipality, built a new health post, and is always around. He's a fantastic mayor, but he's also super old and is not running. Someone who is currently working under him is running, but he is losing, but a former teacher is apparently winning, so there is a possibility that things will continue to go well in this muni.
I'll keep people updated as to what happens as far as politics goes. The polls closed an hour ago, so what happens now is that one member from each party running in the election meets in a room and they count the votes together. This is a pretty transparent way of doing things, if only there wasn't the opportunity to stuff the ballots before the counting begins.
People have been hanging out all day. The firecrackers will begin as soon as someone is reported the winner. It will shortly be legal to buy alcohol again so the drunks will be out in greater numbers. Luckily, I am safe at home, ready to settle in for the night. Tomorrow should be another interesting day. I suppose I should just be thankful that the noise will be a little more tolerable now that cars won't drive around blasting propaganda.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
How to Keep a Room of Pre-schoolers and First-graders Occupied Here in Guatemala
Here are some ideas. They all seem to work well when used for very short periods of time before switching to another activity.
1. Ask them how they are, what they're doing, what their favorite foods are. When they start staring at you with blank looks on their faces, move on.
2. Revise hygiene. The second go around was met with pretty emphatic no's by many of the kids, so this only lasted a few minutes.
3. Sing a song. The Itsy Bitsy Spider works well, especially with keeping the kids occupied trying to figure out the hand movements. Also Con Un Cepillo. They might not quite get the movements and all, but at least you're wearing them down little by little.
4. Start talking in English. They will laugh for a few moments at how silly you sound, and then get bored again.
5. Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes also worked pretty well. Slowing up and speeding down was a winner with the kids.
6. Ask about all of the parts of the body. They love it when you tell them to touch their pompis (butts).
7. Make a train and go in circles around the room. Caution with having them walk backwards-the domino effect is likely to take place and take out a few kids and desks along the way.
8. Eventually demand that the teacher come back and take control over her class again, then move along with the scheduled activity.
Any more ideas are welcome for activities to do during classroom visits while waiting for a teacher to show up.
I love my job. The kids cheered me up after a rough week.
Expect a post in the next day or so about elections!
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