World Challenge

There are lots of cool things going on throughout the world. There's a competition going on throughout the world called World Challenge which will fund the project that receives the most votes of people. I voted for a project a past volunteer is working on in Comalapa using trash to build things. My partner and I are planning on working on Manejo de Basura (trash management) for the first part of the next school year becuase trash is one huge problem here in Guatemala. There really isn't anywhere for people to throw trash so it ends up all over the streets, in the river, in people's yards, etc. A Class Apart uses tires and bottles filled with trash to build schools, homes, and other buildings. You can find more information at the site below. I encourage you to watch this video, as well as the other videos, and submit your vote before midnight tonight. It's a little last minute, I know, but I didn't hear about it til yesterday.

http://theworldchallenge.co.uk/2010-finalists-project06.php

Christmastime is here?

Christmas music is blaring in the internet café and radio stations have already started playing some songs. The malls have their Christmas decorations up. Híper (Wal-Mart) has a large section devoted entirely to Christmas stuff. IT'S TOO EARLY!!

I guess to their credit Guatemalans don't have Thanksgiving as the barrier between Halloween and Christmas. If we didn't have Thanksgiving, we might start putting up decorations on November 1st too.

In other news, got computer back but it cannot be fixed. Fortunately the guy didn't charge me anything-I think he felt a little sorry for me and the decrepit state of my computer. Blog updates will continue to be a little sparse.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

All of the kids around here have kites and fly them in the afternoon (it usually gets pretty breezy) so yesterday I went to my friend's house and we flew kites from her roof. Of course it being a holiday I waited about two hours for a bus, which never actually came (none of the busses came-only the micros were working and they filled up before getting to my stop), so I took a ride in a pickup, which was beautiful. The weather has been so beautiful lately-sunny and warm during the day with a nice breeze to cool things off. The day normally starts off like fall/winter (there was frost on the ground this morning), and then becomes spring/summer during the day with the evening finishing out like fall again. So, flying kites was fun but the kids totally showed us up-they sure know how to fly kites. It doesn't seem like it takes a lot of skill to do so, but I could barely keep mine in the air and had no control over where it went, while the kids were good at getting theirs way up in the sky and making them fly in one direction or another. The one things kids here are bad at where kites are concerned is getting their kites stuck on the powerlines. At first I thought people were just handing decorations from the powerlines, but they're really just kites hanging there.

'Summer' vacation is in full swing. The teachers have finally finished paperwork (it took about two weeks of October and they were in the internet café pretty much every day, it was pretty intense paperwork) so things really have finished, although the supervisor is working until December. I still have work, but it’s much more flexible. I spent the first week helping construct a “Rincón de Escuelas Saludables”, or a Healthy Schools corner, in the office of the supervisor de educación. It has photos of the winners of the rincones de salud competition, as well as of the school of the year competition and the certification of Chuistancia. It’s been a pretty full year. Also have been working on the next newsletter but not sure when that’s going out. I’ve also been working on a revision of the sex ed curriculum. This is such an important topic because kids know nothing about it, get married really young, and start popping out the babies (and tend not to stop for a while). The teachers are supposed to teach it but they don’t, so we’re trying to make an easy and more fun way of teaching anatomy, puberty, pregnancy, STDs, etc. and then making a workshop that we can give to teachers. It’s been fun getting together and getting creative. Kids just respond so much better when they’re not being lectured to and copying stuff from the board, which is the normal method of teaching here. I am also looking up information and activities on a variety of different topics to give to teachers next year to encourage them to start teaching health lessons (and to hopefully inspire them to come up with more creative ways of doing things-teachers have proven they can be creative when motivated). I’m also starting K’iche’ classes next week, so we’ll see how that goes. It’s crazy though how time is flying by. It’s already November, and Thanksgiving (and my birthday) is coming up, as well as Christmas, so there are at least two weeks of vacation I’m taking for the holidays. Christmas decorations are already up in Híper Paiz and in the mall and were up in mid-October. I guess Guatemalans don’t have Thanksgiving to wait for before starting to get into Christmas. I will be going home for a week at Christmas to see my family which will be intense. It’s usually one of my least favorite times to be in the U.S. because of all the focus on buying crap and the greed of it all, but I’m really looking forward to seeing my family.

I’ve also been to a soccer game in Xela, which was a lot of fun. You’ve never really experienced soccer until you’ve been to a game in a country where they love the sport. I sat/stood in the rowdy section and got to help hold the Chivas flag with the other Xela fans. I learned some of the cheers and words used when calls don’t exactly go your way. It was educational and fun. Also went to the “final exam” and graduation of the preschool in town, both of which were adorable. For the final exam the kids just had to participate in a party at the school. The kids love us (we’re different, and for some reason that makes us more appealing to the kids), so we were all dancing and talking and eating some really good carne asada (grilled beef). There was even a piñata for Seño Edna’s 50^th birthday, which the kids went crazy over once the candy started spilling out. The graduation was pretty cute too. The kids wore caps and gowns and received “diplomas” (which were really empty sheets of paper, which I found out after convincing one kid to open up theirs). Harvest time has also come. The corn stalks are drying out with the absence of rain, so farmers have cut them down and started to collect the corn from each stalk, all by hand. Once the stalks are cleared, they clear out the rest of the land (unfortunately this means cutting down the beautiful wildflowers that have sprung up with the daytime heat) and leave it ready for another crop. I’m not sure if they plant something new this season. Right now the land is golden and it’s still beautiful despite the diminishing green, but it will soon be the depressing brown and gray that remind me of Ohio in late winter.

I was kind of under the weather for a few days and had to cancel a trip to Nebaj. My friend was kind enough to leave her computer and her Gilmore Girls dvds so I kind of glutted myself on that for a few days. It made me miss college. I probably also miss college because I have run out of good books to read. The volunteer before me left a ton of books behind which I have been getting through pretty steadily-at least one book a week, usually two-but this means I have exhausted the good titles pretty quickly and am now onto books I would never read unless there was nothing else left. Fortunately Xela has a good used bookstore so I may go in next week and find something at least a little intellectually stimulating. I haven’t discussed anything related to what I studied in college for so long, I’m worried I’m going to lose it. At least I won’t lose Spanish.

This has been kind of a random posting. I get kind of bored in the afternoons so today I decided to spend part of the afternoon in the Internet cafe to listen to some podcasts and do some work. Sorry if it's super disjointed-that's kind of how my brain has been. Happy Election Day (in the States)! Too bad I forgot to apply for my absentee ballot-things seem to be getting pretty exciting politically in the U.S.

Summer

So it looks like Summer has come to Guatemala at last. At least for the most part. There have only been two days of rain in the past two and a half weeks. A tropical storm is currently on its way, but probably won't hit my department too hard. Everyday starts out a little foggy and cold, but the sun warms everything up and it gets pretty hot during the day, only to cool off around 5 or so.

This morning as I was walking down to the centro, the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons were out in force, spreading the word. It was kind of a strange site. The women were all dressed in colorful dresses with large straw or plastic hats, while the men were dressed in dress pants and shirts with a tie. Even the kids were looking pretty smart in dress clothes. When I first saw them walking around from house to house, I thought they were heading to a picnic at 9 in the morning, but then I saw the small blue books they were holding and knew what was up. At least it's a beautiful morning for them to be walking around.

School visits are over, but I'm keeping busy. I'm helping create a new curriculum for sex ed for older primary school kids (4th grade and up) and older kids. The teachers here are supposed to teach it, but hardly anyone does and with lots of teen mothers around, it's an important topic. I'm also hoping to start taking K'iche' lessons, if I can get in touch with the teacher. Also have some vacation time coming up for All Saints Day and Thanksgiving, but nothing set in stone yet.

And Now, A Week of Perfect Weather

I have not seen a drop of rain in the past week. Instead, the weather has been near perfect. It's been warm and sunny dearing the day, and cool and fall-like in the evening. One morning I woke up and walked outside to find frost, but the cold is quickly chased away by the sun. Of course now there's dust everywhere, but I don't mind it.

Also finished school last week. Still have school stuff going on, like lunches with the teachers and students and a graduation ceremony for the preschool. I'm also starting to work on workshops to give to the older primary schools kids with the health center. Ï'm sure I'll keep busy despite not having schools to visit every morning.

That's all for now. My time is running out for the internet. Hope the fall weather in the States is beautiful too.