I am now officially a volunteer. Time flew by after site visit. Actually, it was only five days or so, which really isn’t that long a period of time. My site visit went really well. The volunteer my partner and I are replacing is great and she welcomed us into her home, which will one day become either my home or my partner’s home. We walked around town a bit and got to know some of the families she was friends with. We also visited the host families with whom we are living now that we’ve moved into our sites. The mornings were all made up of visits to schools. We are working with 20-21 schools in two different municipalities, many of which are rural schools. We visited around 18 of those schools in the three days we had to do so. It was a bit overwhelming, but none of the directors ran us off of school grounds, and some were really enthusiastic to start working with us. We already have a meeting scheduled through our counterpart, the supervisor for all of the schools (primary, secondary, etc.) in the two municipalities, to meet all of the directors, after which our work will begin in earnest. My site seems like a really nice community full of really nice, welcoming people.
The end of training was interesting. On Monday we were supposed to have a session at the center in Santa Lucía, but there was a transportation strike and all of the roads surrounding Guatemala City and Santa Lucía were blocked, so people couldn’t get to the center. Basically it was like having a snow day. I finished reading the seventh Harry Potter and started reading a new book (“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Fadiman-a really interesting book about the interstices between medicine and culture, something that has really interested me for a while) and played a little bit of soccer with some Pastores and Las Carretas friends. That evening I cooked eggplant and pasta for my family. I made tons of pasta because I couldn’t pictures how much four bags would turn out to be (there was a deal-buy three get the fourth free-so I bought four), and I ended up making over twice as much as we needed. I also “made” sauce, using tomato paste in a bag and mixing it with a little bit of water and adding some fresh veggies-tomatoes and some really delicious, juicy yellow and orange bell peppers-and some garlic. The meal went over pretty well and everyone was stuffed after eating (I was worried I wouldn’t have enough food). Then Tuesday was a long day at the training center, followed by a shorter day on Wednesday. Wed. was our last day at the school and we were all pleasantly surprised to find that the teachers had indeed (for the most part) made Rincones de Salud (Healthy Corners). My teacher went all out making an entire back wall devoted to health, winning her first prize. She had a little game to check the status of the kids hygiene and had a little spot for their toilet paper, as well as little cups for their tooth brushes and paste. Another teacher had plastic bottles to hold everything, taking our advice to use recycled materials. It was impressive. I’m going to miss the first graders. Later on we went to the hot springs in San Lorenzo as a treat from the mayor to thank us for our work in the schools, then on with Spanish presentations in Santa Lucía.
Thursday was swear-in, the day I officially became a Peace Corps volunteer. The ceremony is usually held at the ambassador’s house, but he was in El Salvador for a mass for Archbishop Romero so we had the ceremony at a nice hotel in Antigua. The sub-ambassador for something (I don’t remember his title) was there to give us the oath (which is pretty much the same one that Biden took when he was sworn in as vice president) and we got little diplomas. There was a nice reception afterward and we took lots of photos. Then we were finally free from the training rules that made us feel like we were back in middle school. I spent the rest of the day and the night in Antigua, eating lunch at a nice restaurant, drinking some good wine and eating hor d’oevures at a nice bar/café. That night a bar had a reggae concert for us and I went and found a dance club with salsa with a friend. I even had some time in there to watch half of Forrest Gump. It was a great night. Then the next morning I went with a group of twelve or so to the beach at Sipacate, about two hours south-west of Antigua. It’s amazing how drastically the scenery changes into tropical the further south you go. There were palm trees, coconut trees, lots of green. It was really beautiful. The beach itself is a black sand beach, so it’s really hard to actually walk on the dry sand. The water was a really nice temperature, so that was nice, but the sand got everywhere. I’m still finding sand in my hair and under my nails. Overall, it was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.
Saturday was a big day. I got up early and headed out, lugging a giant red bag, a heavy backpack, and a small tote. I’m pretty used to riding on camionetas now and I actually enjoy it, especially on long trips when I can just sit and look out the windows because Guatemala’s scenery is so beautiful. But lugging 70+ pounds of extra weight makes it much more challenging. I caught a bus that was heading to Panajachel (on Lake Atitlán) and took it to Cuatro Caminos. Now this was nice because I bypassed Chimal for the most part, which is kind of the armpit of Guatemala and lots of people get robbed there. So I was pretty happy with myself for just randomly finding the one bus a day that goes direct from Antigua to Pana. However, things started going downhill once I transferred to another bus. I wanted to keep my transfers to a minimum just so I wouldn’t have to keep getting my huge red bag down from the top of the bus and then finding someone strong enough to hoist it on top of the next bus. I found a bus that says Xela and the ayudante told me that it went directly to Xela (I made sure to ask because some just take you to Cuatro Caminos, where you have to transfer again), so I got on and wedged myself in the back between two women with small childrens. One girl feel asleep on my shoulder, which was a little sunburned from the beach, so the two hour trip wasn’t the most pleasant, but I was happy envisioning myself getting the Xela, finding a micro to my site and then finally getting to the family with whom I will be living. It turned out, however, that the ayudante lied to me and dropped me off in Cuatro Caminos and I had to find another bus to the city. So I found a bus and they told me it was going to Xela. I was a little wary after the last problem, but I figured that most buses would probably go to Xela. Plus, the guys had run across a busy street to come and recruit me to their bus, taking off with my backpack when I told them I was going to Xela, so I really didn’t have another option. I even asked if we were going to the terminal, and the guy said we were, so I was sure things would be ok. However, this bus was not going to the terminal and I got off in the middle of Xela in a part I had never been to before. There were micros there and I asked them and none were going to my site, but one said they were going to the terminal, so I got on that one, once again lugging my giant red bag and my heavy backpack. However, this micro was not going to the terminal, so again I got off, though this time I was in a more familiar part. A really nice ayudante from a micro helped me find my way, even stopping the van he was in to tell me exactly which way to go to get the right micro. I had to lug the giant bag on my back, the backpack on my front, and the tote on my shoulder for four blocks or so. I’m sure I was a site to see. Eventually I found a micro that told me it was going to my site and indeed it was and I finally got to the house I will be living in for the next three months. One thing I learned from this escapade is that things are not generally as they are said to be and never take a Guatemalan ayudante for his word. Amazingly I kept my cool throughout and didn’t even yell at any of the guys for lying to me.
The family I am living with now is fantastic. It consists of a mom, a dad, and three kids. The oldest is a daughter, Dora, who is 16, then there is a 10-year-old girl, Jaime, and a 6-year-old boy, Gabriel. There was also a 7-year-old cousin hanging out when I got there and I spent most of the beginning of my time here with him, hanging out in my room and watching t.v. Yes, I have a t.v. in my room (something I never had growing up) and I have around 80 channels, much more than the ten or so my parents have at home. So far in the short time I’ve been here I have seen Thomas the Tank Engine, Baby’s Day Out, Sid the Science Kid, old school Blue’s Clues with Steve (I’ve been watching a lot of stuff with my younger host siblings) and lots of other random movies in Spanish, a news program from Los Angeles in English and some old school music videos on VH1. It’s interesting the mixture of random things there are on t.v. I am looking forward to having CNN in Spanish and in English. I haven’t really kept up with any news lately and I really miss knowing what’s going on in the world.
The family has been super welcoming in the one day I’ve been here. The kids often drop by my room to hang out and we drew some pictures yesterday. The younger boy and his cousin both told me they want me to stay forever. So at least I’m off to a good start here in my site. I have all next week off because there is no school due to Semana Santa. It will be interesting to see how Easter is celebrated here because it’s the biggest religious holiday in Guatemala. Plus I’m looking forward to spending more time with my new host family.
Happy Easter and hope that spring is finally coming. Take care and I'll update again when I get a chance.
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!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Two Years in Xela
I finally got my site assignment and I'm going to be living in the department of Quetzaltenango in a fairly sized city in the Western highlands. (I know I had the name of a city up earlier, but Peace Corps rules prevent me from actually posting the name of where I'll be so I am editing it out-Sorry!) It’s about 200 kilometers from the capital, which is probably between 4 and 6 hours by camioneta, depending on how many stops, how fast it’s going, etc. It’s pretty close to the city of Quetzaltenango (Xela), which is the second city of Guatemala, so it will be nice to know that all of those resources are close by. About 5,000 people live in my town itself, while another 15,000 live in the many aldeas and surrounding area. More than 90% of the people are of indigenous background and they speak Quiche quite a bit there, so I will probably get to learn a Mayan language. I’m really excited to start my work there and to begin to live in and work with the community. We meet counterparts in Xela on Monday, then on Tuesday afternoon we will be visiting our sites for the rest of the week. I will move there probably around the 27th, after we all swear-in and just in time for Holy Week.
The weather here has been pretty close to perfect lately. It really has been like spring every day, reinforcing Guatemala’s nickname as the “Land of Eternal Spring.” Sometimes when I wake up it’s a little chilly, but it usually warms up quite nicely as soon as the sun comes out. The heat here isn’t too bad because it’s not too humid (for the moment-this might change once it starts raining in April/May). There is usually a really nice, gentle breeze blowing through to cool things off. Then at night, it is perfect sleeping weather-cool but not cold. It has rained a few times, a sign of what’s to come, but otherwise it’s sunny every day.
Things have been going well. I visited some organizations with my free time these past several weeks. We’ve went back to the school last week after a long break due to training activities and the strike that’s been going on. The teachers who work at the schools run by the Ministry of Education are striking because they haven’t been paid in a while, and though my school is run by the muni, two or three teachers are paid by the Ministry so they were all striking in solidarity with one another. Lucky kids had a whole week off-hopefully they’ll be able to go back this week and pick up where they left off. This week we had two training sessions with teachers, one about the Healthy Schools program and one about hygiene. They were good sports about sitting in uncomfortable desks for an hour watching the gringos talk in imperfect Spanish. They even participated in our activities, planning sample health lessons and singing some of the songs we have for the kids. I also taught a mini lesson on clean water because the school now has an EcoFiltro for the kids to drink water from. The kids get it and I’ve seen them using the filtered water to drink, though some drink right from the tap causing a spread of germs. You win some you lose some I guess. We also went on home visits to four of the kids’ families on Friday because there wasn’t any school that day due to a free medical clinic held for the community at the school. It is definitely important to know where the kids are coming from and what many of them are facing at home. Healthy Schools is a great program because it really does work to make kids healthier in simple ways, but when kids come from homes where there isn’t a lot of water or where there is only a mother providing for six kids without a father figure, things get tough. I’m just going to try to stay as positive as possible and focus on solutions rather than getting stuck on the obstacles and problems many kids in Guatemala face.
The celebration leading up to Holy Week and Easter has started. There are prayer/procession events every Friday night. I saw the statue of Jesus and the small procession pass in front of our house on Friday and it was really simple and beautiful. There were a bunch of people following the statue holding candles and singing hymns. Then there was a larger procession in Antigua this past Sunday and some people in my family were involved in carrying the figures (I think), but I didn’t go because I was invited to go to my friend’s house for lunch and then play soccer with all the kids in the area (which was a lot of fun). Anyway, I’ve been going to church most Sundays with my family and it’s been interesting to see how Catholicism is here in Guatemala. We usually go to mass at the town’s church, which is pretty small. Some Sundays there aren’t a lot of people in church, but this past Sunday the priest was blessing those who were sick in the congregation, so more people showed up for that. The church is pretty simple-there are a bunch of pews on two sides of a central aisle leading up to the front of the church, which has a statue of the Virgin Mary and another of a beheaded man (John the Baptist?), as well as the altar and then the table where the priest stands throughout the service and the lecterns on both sides where the priest stands to deliver the sermon or the members of the congregation stand to read from the Bible, recite prayers or sing. Then there’s a saint on one side. There are also particularly bloody statues of Jesus on both sides of the center of the church which I sat right beside this past week. Then one week I went to San Francisco, a large church in Antigua. It is a bit more ornate and there are a lot more people, but I was still the only gringo sitting through the service (though there were a bunch more wandering around because the church is a bit touristy for its ruins and the tomb of a saint). According to my guidebook, the church dates back to 1579, but I’m not sure how much of the original building made it this far, especially because of the large earthquake that hit in 1976. Anyway, it was interesting to see the differences between this church and the one in Pastores-the priest splashed holy water on everyone who made their way to the front, there were people selling candies and food right outside as well as people selling religious artifacts in a bookstore on the side of the church, there were random people wandering around during the service. Apparently my host mom likes to mix up religious experiences, so we’ll see if I get to go to any other churches in Antigua.
It’s a little awkward for me in church because I know I stand out. I don’t really participate in the service because I don’t really feel like I should, like it would be sacrilegious or something since I’m not Catholic. I stand when everyone stands, sit when everyone sits, and even kneel at some point during the service, but I don’t sing (I don’t know the words), I don’t receive communion, I don’t chant the prayers (again, I don’t know the words), I don’t even really pay attention to what the priest says in his prayer because after five minutes or so, my mind starts to wander (it’s a little difficult to process everything he’s saying when he’s talking fast, and one of the priests talks pretty fast). So I don’t really get much out of it, but I go because my family seems to like that I go and it’s sharing a part of their daily life with them (since I’m left out of a lot of other things). Religion is pretty important here, whether the family is evangelical or Catholic. Though the fiestas I have seen thus far haven’t seemed really religious, they have been based off of something religious. Moreover, the church is a central meeting place and some guy shares community information at the end of the service. Also, the bells ring to inform the town if someone has died.
So things continue to go well here. I’m not sick of tortillas or beans yet, so that’s good. One of my bags is packed and ready to move out to Xela and I face the daunting task of trying to figure out what I will need here during my last week and what I can leave in my site when I visit next week.The weather is getting hotter so I'm looking forward to spending some time in the cooler climate of the Western highlands. I'll let everyone know what my new home is like after I get home from the site visit. Take care!
The weather here has been pretty close to perfect lately. It really has been like spring every day, reinforcing Guatemala’s nickname as the “Land of Eternal Spring.” Sometimes when I wake up it’s a little chilly, but it usually warms up quite nicely as soon as the sun comes out. The heat here isn’t too bad because it’s not too humid (for the moment-this might change once it starts raining in April/May). There is usually a really nice, gentle breeze blowing through to cool things off. Then at night, it is perfect sleeping weather-cool but not cold. It has rained a few times, a sign of what’s to come, but otherwise it’s sunny every day.
Things have been going well. I visited some organizations with my free time these past several weeks. We’ve went back to the school last week after a long break due to training activities and the strike that’s been going on. The teachers who work at the schools run by the Ministry of Education are striking because they haven’t been paid in a while, and though my school is run by the muni, two or three teachers are paid by the Ministry so they were all striking in solidarity with one another. Lucky kids had a whole week off-hopefully they’ll be able to go back this week and pick up where they left off. This week we had two training sessions with teachers, one about the Healthy Schools program and one about hygiene. They were good sports about sitting in uncomfortable desks for an hour watching the gringos talk in imperfect Spanish. They even participated in our activities, planning sample health lessons and singing some of the songs we have for the kids. I also taught a mini lesson on clean water because the school now has an EcoFiltro for the kids to drink water from. The kids get it and I’ve seen them using the filtered water to drink, though some drink right from the tap causing a spread of germs. You win some you lose some I guess. We also went on home visits to four of the kids’ families on Friday because there wasn’t any school that day due to a free medical clinic held for the community at the school. It is definitely important to know where the kids are coming from and what many of them are facing at home. Healthy Schools is a great program because it really does work to make kids healthier in simple ways, but when kids come from homes where there isn’t a lot of water or where there is only a mother providing for six kids without a father figure, things get tough. I’m just going to try to stay as positive as possible and focus on solutions rather than getting stuck on the obstacles and problems many kids in Guatemala face.
The celebration leading up to Holy Week and Easter has started. There are prayer/procession events every Friday night. I saw the statue of Jesus and the small procession pass in front of our house on Friday and it was really simple and beautiful. There were a bunch of people following the statue holding candles and singing hymns. Then there was a larger procession in Antigua this past Sunday and some people in my family were involved in carrying the figures (I think), but I didn’t go because I was invited to go to my friend’s house for lunch and then play soccer with all the kids in the area (which was a lot of fun). Anyway, I’ve been going to church most Sundays with my family and it’s been interesting to see how Catholicism is here in Guatemala. We usually go to mass at the town’s church, which is pretty small. Some Sundays there aren’t a lot of people in church, but this past Sunday the priest was blessing those who were sick in the congregation, so more people showed up for that. The church is pretty simple-there are a bunch of pews on two sides of a central aisle leading up to the front of the church, which has a statue of the Virgin Mary and another of a beheaded man (John the Baptist?), as well as the altar and then the table where the priest stands throughout the service and the lecterns on both sides where the priest stands to deliver the sermon or the members of the congregation stand to read from the Bible, recite prayers or sing. Then there’s a saint on one side. There are also particularly bloody statues of Jesus on both sides of the center of the church which I sat right beside this past week. Then one week I went to San Francisco, a large church in Antigua. It is a bit more ornate and there are a lot more people, but I was still the only gringo sitting through the service (though there were a bunch more wandering around because the church is a bit touristy for its ruins and the tomb of a saint). According to my guidebook, the church dates back to 1579, but I’m not sure how much of the original building made it this far, especially because of the large earthquake that hit in 1976. Anyway, it was interesting to see the differences between this church and the one in Pastores-the priest splashed holy water on everyone who made their way to the front, there were people selling candies and food right outside as well as people selling religious artifacts in a bookstore on the side of the church, there were random people wandering around during the service. Apparently my host mom likes to mix up religious experiences, so we’ll see if I get to go to any other churches in Antigua.
It’s a little awkward for me in church because I know I stand out. I don’t really participate in the service because I don’t really feel like I should, like it would be sacrilegious or something since I’m not Catholic. I stand when everyone stands, sit when everyone sits, and even kneel at some point during the service, but I don’t sing (I don’t know the words), I don’t receive communion, I don’t chant the prayers (again, I don’t know the words), I don’t even really pay attention to what the priest says in his prayer because after five minutes or so, my mind starts to wander (it’s a little difficult to process everything he’s saying when he’s talking fast, and one of the priests talks pretty fast). So I don’t really get much out of it, but I go because my family seems to like that I go and it’s sharing a part of their daily life with them (since I’m left out of a lot of other things). Religion is pretty important here, whether the family is evangelical or Catholic. Though the fiestas I have seen thus far haven’t seemed really religious, they have been based off of something religious. Moreover, the church is a central meeting place and some guy shares community information at the end of the service. Also, the bells ring to inform the town if someone has died.
So things continue to go well here. I’m not sick of tortillas or beans yet, so that’s good. One of my bags is packed and ready to move out to Xela and I face the daunting task of trying to figure out what I will need here during my last week and what I can leave in my site when I visit next week.The weather is getting hotter so I'm looking forward to spending some time in the cooler climate of the Western highlands. I'll let everyone know what my new home is like after I get home from the site visit. Take care!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Photos (Por fin!)
Ruins at Tecpán Iximché
With the first grade class I've been working with.
The class with the poster we made after they learned how to wash their hands, and why they should.
Coolest t-shirt ever-brushing teeth time
View from right outside my room
Covered in pica pica from the Carnaval celebration at a school during field-based training.
One of the most colorful churches in Central America, in San Andrés Xecul
Monday, February 22, 2010
We're not in Toto anymore.
It’s been a pretty busy week. The group of 27 Healthy Schools volunteers went out to Totonicapan in the Western highlands of Guatemala to spend some time with volunteers to know what it’s like being a PCV. We visited schools, spoke with the volunteers, and got to know each other better, so it was a pretty helpful week overall. All of the volunteers we visited were really great and were full of information and advice, most of which I have already forgotten. They all also live in pretty nice houses and have pretty comfortable lives, which surprised me. We’re not getting a huge allowance to live here because we’re supposed to live like the people we’re working with, but it seems to me like most volunteers live a little better off, with somewhat expensive wireless internet service from Tigo, nice fairly spacious houses, and even t.v.s with cable. It’ll be interesting to see where I’ll end up and how I’ll be living a year from now. Only two more weeks or so until we all learn where we will be assigned and with whom.
Visiting schools was pretty interesting. We got to see schools in all phases of the program, from being pretty far away from being certified as healthy to being already certified. In Toto, we were present to celebrate Carnaval at one school on Tuesday, which turned out to be pretty crazy. I’m a target for kids because I’m short and they can reach my face and head more easily, so from the start at the school kids were throwing pica pica (confetti) on me. I don’t mind this, as long as it’s not aimed at my mouth or it’s not picked up from the ground and then thrown at me. I even bought some to throw back at the kids. It was fun until I made the mistake of saying that I liked pica pica and a few boys heard me, so they went to buy some pintura stuff (like face paint, but metallic) and rubbed it all over my face and neck. I looked kind of like the tin man, even after rubbing it off onto my hands. It looked like I had spray painted my face and hands. They also brought out the glitter and started putting that on my face as well. How this works is the kids sneak up on you and then kind of slap your face to try to rub some of the paint or glitter on you from the packages it comes in. Pica pica is a little different because you can just shake it off, but it took a shower (and then some extra scrubbing) to get the silver stuff from off of my face, ears, neck and hands. Hopefully it didn’t seep into my bloodstream.
Another school we went to served us lunch and made us some recuerdos. It was a certified school, so we were using them as an example of what a certified school looks like, what resources they have. We saw all of their rincones de salud (little spots in the classroom where students store their hygiene things, like toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, soap, etc.), which were pretty creative in some classrooms. One teacher used butterflies, and made the toothbrush the body of the butterfly. Other teachers used other animals, like bunnies, or kites for each student to store their materials. The kids also sang some of the Healthy School songs to us or told us what they thought having a healthy school meant. After touring the classrooms, we went to one room to hear some bienvenidos greetings and to receive a recuerdo from some of the teachers. They had made all of us (including the Spanish teachers who were with us and the training directors) a woven scarf made with the traditional colors of the area and a different woven design at the ends of each scarf. Then we ate a lunch made by the children’s parents. We had a really delicious chicken soup with tamales and rosa de jamaica to drink. Overall it was a good day and it was nice to see that the project was so well-received in this one school.
There are three phases in the healthy schools program, the first of which is ending with our group of volunteers. Only four of us are involved in this phase, and they already know who they are. They will be more directly involved in the schools, working with the students and teachers in two to four schools and helping get funding and starting the infrastructure projects necessary to be certified (latrines, hand washing stations, better ventilated kitchens, a water deposit if water is not readily available). I will be in phase two or three with a partner. Phase two involves working with a whole municipality, so between 20 and 40 schools. This involves more working with teachers and training them to carry out the healthy schools project on their own in order to make it more sustainable in the long run. Then phase three involves working with a whole department, so from between 50 and 400 schools. The way it is set up now, the volunteers in this phase will work more closely with superintendents, who will chose certain schools to participate and then become example schools for the rest of the districts once they are certified. In this phase, the superintendents take ownership of the project and have a more active role in implementing it in their schools. The last two phases also involve doing a lot of training sessions, in phase two with teachers and in phase three with teachers, directors and superintendents. So on the last day of training, we went to a training session given by phase three volunteers for teachers and directors in one region of the department of Chimaltenango. They went over the basic information of the healthy schools program, like what it is, what the requirements are to be certified as a healthy school, how to plan lessons, etc. A lot of the teachers were really enthusiastic so it was good to see that the program is well accepted by them. They had to plan pretend lessons and everyone seemed to be involved in trying to think of ways to actively involve students in the learning process. I’m now a lot more excited about doing these training sessions with my own schools once I get my assignment. My training group in Pastores needs to plan a shorter version (1-2 hours) workshop for the school we are currently working with, so it will be interesting to see how that goes this week.
I also got to know the other trainees in healthy schools a lot better over the past week. This is especially helpful because we will be partnered up for our assignments and the two years would be a lot more pleasant if we were paired with someone we can work well with. We had a brief “speed-dating” session to get to know each other’s work styles, what they were looking for in their PC experience, etc. so I feel like I know some people I could work well with and others that I probably couldn’t work as well with. It’s just a little difficult planning for two years of working with someone because we really don’t know each other that well (except for the people living within the same communities). I’ll just have to hope that Sergio and the rest of those in charge of training have been watching us and have some insight into the matter. Everything will become much more clear and certain on March 11 when we find out our site assignments and who we’re working with (which we might find out even sooner). I’ll let everyone know when I find out.
On to a more interesting topic (maybe), I haven’t really talked about food yet. I know that this interests a lot of people, so I’ll briefly write about it now. The food in Guatemala has been pretty good so far. To break up the day, I eat breakfast between 7 and 7:30 (usually), lunch between 12 and 1, and dinner around 7:30 at night. Breakfast normally consists of corn flakes with warm milk (made with Nido milk powder and hot water) or mosh (oatmeal with milk and water), to which is added a lot of sugar. Usually I have fruit in some form, mostly cut up. I often have pineapple, papaya or melon pieces or orange, pineapple or papaya juice. I can’t wait for mango season. Sometimes I also take tea with breakfast, and on the weekends we usually eat eggs and beans with tortillas and bread. Then for lunch, I eat a variety of different dishes: sometimes pasta with tomato sauce, sometimes soup with chicken, a lot of beef with a tomato salsa, occasionally tamales or chiles rellenos, sometimes a side of avocado, a really good soup-like dish with chicken called pepián, rice, carrot salad, always tortillas, etc. For the most part, everything is really good. Then for dinner, we usually eat half-scrambled eggs and beans with tortillas and bread with tea. There is usually sweet bread to dip in the overly sugared tea, which is especially good. Sometimes we have tortillas with melty cheese in the middle, which is probably my favorite type of dinner, or salty ramen-like noodle soup, which is also good. Talking about specific foods, first I’ll mention tortillas. Tortillas are to Guatemala what matooke is to Uganda. It’s the staple food that pretty much everyone eats with almost every meal (not with cereal, but with beans and eggs at breakfast). I typically eat between 6 and 8 tortillas a day, 3-4 with lunch and with dinner. One uses tortillas to scoop up beans or other soupy items, or to eat with avocado (my favorite use of tortillas). The dog and the bird in the family also enjoy tortillas. Many families make tortillas, but mine buys them fresh everyday. I also eat a lot of bread, mostly with dinner. The bread my family buys is called pan frances (French bread) and it’s bought fresh daily so it’s pretty good. There are also sweet breads which are good for dipping in tea or coffee. Eggs are the other food I’ve been eating a lot of here. My family has them almost always with dinner and occasionally we’ll have them for breakfast. I’ve been making them but I like to cook them all the way and my family doesn’t like them like that (too dry), so they’re usually a little soupy (and occasionally very much so). Black beans (frijoles) are also huge and we eat them with dinner and occasionally with breakfast and/or lunch. They can be a really soupy dish to be eaten with tortillas, volteados (like refried beans)-good with tostadas, and whole beans. Also, salt and sugar are used quite a lot here. If a food isn't salty, chances are that it is sugary. My family adds a teaspoon or more of sugar to one cup of coffee or tea, as well as to already sweet fruit juice. Meanwhile, salt is added to eggs, rice, avocado, other veggies, soup, etc. So I constantly feel like my teeth are rotting and my blood pressure is rising.
So far I’m not tired of these staple foods, which is a good sign. I’m pretty flexible when it comes to eating, so all should go well, as long as my family doesn’t start feeding my the chicken soup they feed the dog (with chicken feet and fully intact heads, along with tons of tortillas). This soup is supposedly good for her milk production for the puppies. I guess my favorite food would have to be pepián, which is usually served with chicken, potatoes, and other veggies. I also really love tortillas with avocado or toasted with cheese between two. I also ate pupusas while on field-based training, which are like tortillas with cheese, beans, or meat cooked inside, which is pretty delicious.
I haven’t gone out a lot for food because I’m trying to save money, but I have eaten at Pollo Campero 3 or 4 times. This is a Guatemalan-owned restaurant chain you can find in countries around the world (including the U.S.) that has really good fried chicken. I really like their chicken sandwich, which includes chicken, lettuce, tomato, beans volteados, and guacamole. It’s about Q25 ($3) for a meal with fries, a roll and a drink (a meal big enough to split), so it’s a good deal. We’ve also found a good cookie shop in Antigua where a reasonably sized cookie is Q2.50 ($0.30), so that’s a good find. I also like the McDonald’s chocolate sundae or an ice cream cone from Sarita or somewhere else for less than $1. There are tons of restaurants in Antigua that I want to try out (Italian, Indian, Guatemalan, etc.), but we aren’t supposed to be out of our communities after dark, and around lunch we’re usually around our communities and eat at home, so eating a good dinner in Antigua is going to be difficult.
Some other time I’ll write about my experiences in church, my fun camioneta (chicken bus) rides, Antigua, etc. If you want to hear about something, let me know in the comments. I’m also going to try to start putting pictures up, depending on how cooperative the computers I use and the internet are, so we’ll see. That’s all. Que todo vaya bien!
Visiting schools was pretty interesting. We got to see schools in all phases of the program, from being pretty far away from being certified as healthy to being already certified. In Toto, we were present to celebrate Carnaval at one school on Tuesday, which turned out to be pretty crazy. I’m a target for kids because I’m short and they can reach my face and head more easily, so from the start at the school kids were throwing pica pica (confetti) on me. I don’t mind this, as long as it’s not aimed at my mouth or it’s not picked up from the ground and then thrown at me. I even bought some to throw back at the kids. It was fun until I made the mistake of saying that I liked pica pica and a few boys heard me, so they went to buy some pintura stuff (like face paint, but metallic) and rubbed it all over my face and neck. I looked kind of like the tin man, even after rubbing it off onto my hands. It looked like I had spray painted my face and hands. They also brought out the glitter and started putting that on my face as well. How this works is the kids sneak up on you and then kind of slap your face to try to rub some of the paint or glitter on you from the packages it comes in. Pica pica is a little different because you can just shake it off, but it took a shower (and then some extra scrubbing) to get the silver stuff from off of my face, ears, neck and hands. Hopefully it didn’t seep into my bloodstream.
Another school we went to served us lunch and made us some recuerdos. It was a certified school, so we were using them as an example of what a certified school looks like, what resources they have. We saw all of their rincones de salud (little spots in the classroom where students store their hygiene things, like toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, soap, etc.), which were pretty creative in some classrooms. One teacher used butterflies, and made the toothbrush the body of the butterfly. Other teachers used other animals, like bunnies, or kites for each student to store their materials. The kids also sang some of the Healthy School songs to us or told us what they thought having a healthy school meant. After touring the classrooms, we went to one room to hear some bienvenidos greetings and to receive a recuerdo from some of the teachers. They had made all of us (including the Spanish teachers who were with us and the training directors) a woven scarf made with the traditional colors of the area and a different woven design at the ends of each scarf. Then we ate a lunch made by the children’s parents. We had a really delicious chicken soup with tamales and rosa de jamaica to drink. Overall it was a good day and it was nice to see that the project was so well-received in this one school.
There are three phases in the healthy schools program, the first of which is ending with our group of volunteers. Only four of us are involved in this phase, and they already know who they are. They will be more directly involved in the schools, working with the students and teachers in two to four schools and helping get funding and starting the infrastructure projects necessary to be certified (latrines, hand washing stations, better ventilated kitchens, a water deposit if water is not readily available). I will be in phase two or three with a partner. Phase two involves working with a whole municipality, so between 20 and 40 schools. This involves more working with teachers and training them to carry out the healthy schools project on their own in order to make it more sustainable in the long run. Then phase three involves working with a whole department, so from between 50 and 400 schools. The way it is set up now, the volunteers in this phase will work more closely with superintendents, who will chose certain schools to participate and then become example schools for the rest of the districts once they are certified. In this phase, the superintendents take ownership of the project and have a more active role in implementing it in their schools. The last two phases also involve doing a lot of training sessions, in phase two with teachers and in phase three with teachers, directors and superintendents. So on the last day of training, we went to a training session given by phase three volunteers for teachers and directors in one region of the department of Chimaltenango. They went over the basic information of the healthy schools program, like what it is, what the requirements are to be certified as a healthy school, how to plan lessons, etc. A lot of the teachers were really enthusiastic so it was good to see that the program is well accepted by them. They had to plan pretend lessons and everyone seemed to be involved in trying to think of ways to actively involve students in the learning process. I’m now a lot more excited about doing these training sessions with my own schools once I get my assignment. My training group in Pastores needs to plan a shorter version (1-2 hours) workshop for the school we are currently working with, so it will be interesting to see how that goes this week.
I also got to know the other trainees in healthy schools a lot better over the past week. This is especially helpful because we will be partnered up for our assignments and the two years would be a lot more pleasant if we were paired with someone we can work well with. We had a brief “speed-dating” session to get to know each other’s work styles, what they were looking for in their PC experience, etc. so I feel like I know some people I could work well with and others that I probably couldn’t work as well with. It’s just a little difficult planning for two years of working with someone because we really don’t know each other that well (except for the people living within the same communities). I’ll just have to hope that Sergio and the rest of those in charge of training have been watching us and have some insight into the matter. Everything will become much more clear and certain on March 11 when we find out our site assignments and who we’re working with (which we might find out even sooner). I’ll let everyone know when I find out.
On to a more interesting topic (maybe), I haven’t really talked about food yet. I know that this interests a lot of people, so I’ll briefly write about it now. The food in Guatemala has been pretty good so far. To break up the day, I eat breakfast between 7 and 7:30 (usually), lunch between 12 and 1, and dinner around 7:30 at night. Breakfast normally consists of corn flakes with warm milk (made with Nido milk powder and hot water) or mosh (oatmeal with milk and water), to which is added a lot of sugar. Usually I have fruit in some form, mostly cut up. I often have pineapple, papaya or melon pieces or orange, pineapple or papaya juice. I can’t wait for mango season. Sometimes I also take tea with breakfast, and on the weekends we usually eat eggs and beans with tortillas and bread. Then for lunch, I eat a variety of different dishes: sometimes pasta with tomato sauce, sometimes soup with chicken, a lot of beef with a tomato salsa, occasionally tamales or chiles rellenos, sometimes a side of avocado, a really good soup-like dish with chicken called pepián, rice, carrot salad, always tortillas, etc. For the most part, everything is really good. Then for dinner, we usually eat half-scrambled eggs and beans with tortillas and bread with tea. There is usually sweet bread to dip in the overly sugared tea, which is especially good. Sometimes we have tortillas with melty cheese in the middle, which is probably my favorite type of dinner, or salty ramen-like noodle soup, which is also good. Talking about specific foods, first I’ll mention tortillas. Tortillas are to Guatemala what matooke is to Uganda. It’s the staple food that pretty much everyone eats with almost every meal (not with cereal, but with beans and eggs at breakfast). I typically eat between 6 and 8 tortillas a day, 3-4 with lunch and with dinner. One uses tortillas to scoop up beans or other soupy items, or to eat with avocado (my favorite use of tortillas). The dog and the bird in the family also enjoy tortillas. Many families make tortillas, but mine buys them fresh everyday. I also eat a lot of bread, mostly with dinner. The bread my family buys is called pan frances (French bread) and it’s bought fresh daily so it’s pretty good. There are also sweet breads which are good for dipping in tea or coffee. Eggs are the other food I’ve been eating a lot of here. My family has them almost always with dinner and occasionally we’ll have them for breakfast. I’ve been making them but I like to cook them all the way and my family doesn’t like them like that (too dry), so they’re usually a little soupy (and occasionally very much so). Black beans (frijoles) are also huge and we eat them with dinner and occasionally with breakfast and/or lunch. They can be a really soupy dish to be eaten with tortillas, volteados (like refried beans)-good with tostadas, and whole beans. Also, salt and sugar are used quite a lot here. If a food isn't salty, chances are that it is sugary. My family adds a teaspoon or more of sugar to one cup of coffee or tea, as well as to already sweet fruit juice. Meanwhile, salt is added to eggs, rice, avocado, other veggies, soup, etc. So I constantly feel like my teeth are rotting and my blood pressure is rising.
So far I’m not tired of these staple foods, which is a good sign. I’m pretty flexible when it comes to eating, so all should go well, as long as my family doesn’t start feeding my the chicken soup they feed the dog (with chicken feet and fully intact heads, along with tons of tortillas). This soup is supposedly good for her milk production for the puppies. I guess my favorite food would have to be pepián, which is usually served with chicken, potatoes, and other veggies. I also really love tortillas with avocado or toasted with cheese between two. I also ate pupusas while on field-based training, which are like tortillas with cheese, beans, or meat cooked inside, which is pretty delicious.
I haven’t gone out a lot for food because I’m trying to save money, but I have eaten at Pollo Campero 3 or 4 times. This is a Guatemalan-owned restaurant chain you can find in countries around the world (including the U.S.) that has really good fried chicken. I really like their chicken sandwich, which includes chicken, lettuce, tomato, beans volteados, and guacamole. It’s about Q25 ($3) for a meal with fries, a roll and a drink (a meal big enough to split), so it’s a good deal. We’ve also found a good cookie shop in Antigua where a reasonably sized cookie is Q2.50 ($0.30), so that’s a good find. I also like the McDonald’s chocolate sundae or an ice cream cone from Sarita or somewhere else for less than $1. There are tons of restaurants in Antigua that I want to try out (Italian, Indian, Guatemalan, etc.), but we aren’t supposed to be out of our communities after dark, and around lunch we’re usually around our communities and eat at home, so eating a good dinner in Antigua is going to be difficult.
Some other time I’ll write about my experiences in church, my fun camioneta (chicken bus) rides, Antigua, etc. If you want to hear about something, let me know in the comments. I’m also going to try to start putting pictures up, depending on how cooperative the computers I use and the internet are, so we’ll see. That’s all. Que todo vaya bien!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
One month!
It has now officially been a month (and then some) since I got to Guatemala. Time has simultaneously flown by and moved at a snail’s pace, but I’m continuing to really enjoy Guatemala and training (for the most part). My continued positive attitude is certainly enhanced by the time spent in a local school, which is probably what the majority of this post will be about.
The Healthy Schools trainees started in their communities’ schools last week, and my compañeros and I go to a fairly small school on a hill. There are six classrooms for kindergarten through sixth grade (fifth and sixth grade share a classroom). The school is separated into two buildings, the newer of which is still under construction. An NGO was building another classroom below where the current new ones stand, but they went out of business in the recession and what remains is a pit with metal spikes sticking out of it and a really bad drop off with an eroding path leading to the classroom. This would definitely not fly in the U.S. School starts each morning at around 7:30 (although kids were showing up later) and then ends around 12:30 (in time for the kids to go home for lunch). This is typical of most schools in the country, though some private schools have more classroom time (but not much more). The walk to our school takes about half an hour and the last part is up a really steep hill, which provides pretty good exercise, but it also means I arrive sweaty and tired to class.
I’ve been working with first graders at the school. The first day there, last Wednesday, was mainly spent observing during class time and being swarmed by kids during recess. The first class the kids had the first day I was there was gym, so I walked further up the steep hill to the campo, where the kids ran around the field and did some exercises with their instructor. Back in the classroom they learned simple prepositions, like above, below, inside, outside. One thing that’s big here are dinámicas, or activities that involve kids in games or dances and songs to help them remember the lesson. We played cat and mouse, with the mouse inside the circle and the cat outside the circle trying to get the mouse. The kids also sang a song about these prepositions and drew things inside and outside of a circle in their notebooks. Eventually came snack time and then the kids had some more time for snacks and recess outside of the classroom. The other gringa in my group and myself were roped into playing cat and mouse again, and freeze tag. It was a little crazy, and pretty dangerous, because there were simultaneous games going on and kids were barely running by without knocking into each other. Some boys were rolling on the ground fighting. There wasn’t a whole lot of supervision (leading to my growing belief that it would probably be pretty fun to be a kid in Guatemala-playing with fireworks, being spoiled by your parents, having pretty nice weather all the time, etc.). It was a lot of fun, but really tiring. After recess, the kids in my class colored in a picture of a caterpillar and drew pictures of their families. The next day I was there was Friday and the kids continued to learn prepositions, like behind and in front. They also learned about rights, like the right to live, the right to eat, the right to breathe, etc. and drew pictures in their notebooks. After snack and more craziness at recess, the kids colored in pictures of elephants and drew pictures of things, which they all gave to me. It was really cute. They were really excited to give me their creations. I was also helping some kids to learn to write their names, which was going over really well with some, and not so well with others. Then this week on Wednesday I gave a presentation on hand washing as part of my training. The kids were pretty good throughout, but I definitely realized that I need to learn a whole lot more about classroom management. I started the lesson with an activity spreading glitter to the class in small groups to teach kids how germs spread. Then we talked about why you should wash your hands, what you need, how to wash, and when to wash. We practiced washing in the classroom and then went outside to the pila to wash hands. One of the problems that the school has is that there is only one pila (sink) to wash hands at, so it takes a while for a whole class to go and wash hands before a snack or after gym class. So it was a little hectic washing everyone’s hands at the same time, but we got through it and the kids were practicing the techniques I taught them. Then I finished by having the kids trace and color their hands to hang on a poster for the classroom. Of course I had to bribe them (which is pretty much the only classroom management type thing the teacher does) so they all got dulces I had bought from this cute old guy who sells a few things by the muni in Pastores. It was slightly unfortunate that I hadn’t done my presentation before snack time (snacks came much earlier than normal today), but hopefully now the kids will know all about washing hands. On Friday, when we went back to the school, the teacher for my class didn’t come because she had some doctor’s appointment with her baby, so I was pretty much on my own. Another teacher was supposed to help me, but she only stayed five minutes and pretty much said I could teach them whatever I wanted in my own “manera” (way). The kids were learning cursive vowels, so I did o and u with them, and then started on consonants with m, going on to ma (because some kids wanted to learn mama). It was interesting trying to manage them all because some were really into it and really wanted to write more while others (mainly the boys) just wanted to sit and do nothing. It was a little hectic getting them all to wash their hands before snack, but a lot of the kids were using what I taught them yesterday (while before they were barely washing their hands), so that was good to see. Then brushing teeth was also a challenge after eating the snack. Fortunately for them (and me) there was a weird pageant going on where they were crowning the queen of the school, so voting led to chaos and the kids just taking a very extended recreo with teachers and kids all in the concrete school yard just eating snacks and running around (and some fighting and climbing on the gringos). Things settled down when atol was delivered for the kids to drink (as their third snack of the day), but they started getting restless again so we went outside to play gato y ratón, which wasn’t working out. They went home early with all of the other students due to the fiesta, so I finished up the day without completely losing my cool. I just wish the teacher had left some lesson plans because it would have been nice to have something to go on.
It’s a little strange being in my position in the classroom. The kids really look to my approval on things as much as to the teacher. I was grading their work (putting the date and signing my name, as per the teacher’s instructions) and handing out candy to the kids who were behaving well. The classrooms are very different than in the U.S. The obvious thing is that there aren’t many resources. The kids provide notebooks and writing utensils and there is a white board, but there aren’t any books or maps or posters. When the kids color in pictures, it is from a traced outline that the teacher made (or that I made on the days I was there). Another thing is that lots of kids repeat grades because they pull out of school for some reason or another. A large number of the 13 kids in my class are 9, and the oldest student is 12, which are both old for first grade.
The good news about the school is that they have running water and electricity regularly. The bathrooms are also decent and have sinks with soap, and the kitchen is fairly clean (though it isn’t used for snacks). The snacks that kids can buy at recess include healthy things (different types of fruit, bread with beans) in addition to the things kids typically like (chocolate covered bananas, chocolate covered bread, cookies), and kids were picking the healthier stuff over the not-so-healthy snacks. Hand washing is not quite regular, but they do sometimes wash hands before snack time, and the teacher used a fluoride rinse with the kids on Friday to clean their teeth. The kids look fairly well groomed, with clean faces and clothes, and everyone had shoes. On Monday more will start wearing uniforms, which are mandatory, so it will be interesting to see which kids will have the uniforms right away and which ones will have to go without for some time. Although public school is free and any kid is allowed to attend, not everyone will be able to afford uniforms, which is somewhat problematic as the costs of these, as well as all of the school supplies, may prevent some kids from taking advantage of free primary education.
This past Saturday the whole group went to the ruins at Tecpán Iximché for a Mayan ceremony performed by one of the Spanish teachers, who is a Mayan priest. The ruins used to be the capital of the Mayans in the area and were still standing when the Spaniards came. The ruins consist of a couple of plazas and pyramids, though most of the structures that used to be here have eroded away. Towards the back of the ruins is where Mayan ceremonies still take place and the day we went was the beginning of a new year, so there were lots of different things going on. It always makes me feel intrusive when I just show up to these ceremonies uninvited, though we were there to take part in our own ceremony. There were tons of gringos just walking around, taking pictures, taping the ceremonies. One random gringa even grabbed a candle from the middle of our circle and dropped it in our fire. It’s kind of annoying to see these people tramping all over the culture and sticking their obtrusive noses into it, taking photos and videos without asking.
Before the ceremony, some groups presented short segments of Mayan culture, like the calendar, the most important values, etc. My group had nahuales, which are animal spirits that every Mayan gets upon their birth, determined by the day, month and year in which they are born. Our ceremony was to celebrate the end of one month here in Guatemala (to the day) and to celebrate the beginning of our projects (working in the schools for Healthy Schools). We all stood in a circle around a fire, in which there were lots of candles of different colors, each of which represented something different. Black for example represented peace, while yellow/orange represented hope (I think). The priest kept adding candles to the fire, as well as some type of grain and occasionally some aguardiente. After about an hour, we finished up. It was interesting to see a ceremony, especially because I may be living in a part of the country where they are common. I also really want to learn more about the Mayans, especially the language of where I will be placed (if I am placed in a part of the country where a Mayan language is spoken). We’ll see how placement goes in about a month.
After the ceremony we had a lunch of this really good chorizo sausage typical of the area, as well as tamalitos, different types of spinach salads, and two different types of tortillas (corn and bean). It was really good and the weather was perfect for a picnic. Afterwards we all took the hour-long trip back to our communities and I just relaxed for the rest of the day, watching Ice Age 3 with my family that night.
Also in the past couple of weeks, I have learned how to make chiles rellenos, which are peppers stuffed with a mixture of meat, tomatoes, carrots, green beans, and onions. They’re pretty delicious, but they take forever to make. I also had my last Spanish class, and next week will start more independent work. I’m hoping to learn about gardens and how I can build gardens at the schools I will be working with, as well as maybe looking into indigenous medicine and learning how this will affect the work I will be doing in the schools, especially if I am in an area that has a large indigenous population. I’ll have time to visit current volunteers and NGOs around Antigua, so we’ll see exactly what I will get to do. Something cool that I got to do as part of my independent time was go to a macadamia nut farm about fifteen minutes outside of Antigua, in San Miguel Dueñas, named Valhalla. It’s run by an American who just started this farm 30 years ago or so. It’s totally organic and sustainable. The macadamia trees are really good for the environment because they remove a lot of gases from the air and don’t require a lot of water. The trees produce after three years and remain producers for another hundred years or so, while they can survive in many different climates (although tropical climates work best, especially with rain-they can’t tolerate snow). The outside of the nuts (the cancha) can be used for compost while the branches that are cut back every year can be used for firewood. Moreover, macadamias are really healthy and could be a good protein source for those who have access to the plants. The farm is run without electricity, so the machines they use are pretty neat. The one that separates the nuts from the very outer shell has a motor (although there is also the same one with a bicycle that doesn’t use any gas), but the sorting machine needs nothing except for human labor. The guy who owns it gives trees to interested communities or sells them for reasonable prices to interested individuals and then provides education to help the people learn how to plant the trees and how to take care of them. He also has blueberries and bees. Needless to say, it was pretty cool to see this going on.
Next week is field-based training so Healthy Schools is going out to Totonicapan, which is about four-five hours away. We’ll be there for a week, pretty much observing what volunteers are doing and participating a little. I won’t have a chance to write until after I get back so have a great week.
The Healthy Schools trainees started in their communities’ schools last week, and my compañeros and I go to a fairly small school on a hill. There are six classrooms for kindergarten through sixth grade (fifth and sixth grade share a classroom). The school is separated into two buildings, the newer of which is still under construction. An NGO was building another classroom below where the current new ones stand, but they went out of business in the recession and what remains is a pit with metal spikes sticking out of it and a really bad drop off with an eroding path leading to the classroom. This would definitely not fly in the U.S. School starts each morning at around 7:30 (although kids were showing up later) and then ends around 12:30 (in time for the kids to go home for lunch). This is typical of most schools in the country, though some private schools have more classroom time (but not much more). The walk to our school takes about half an hour and the last part is up a really steep hill, which provides pretty good exercise, but it also means I arrive sweaty and tired to class.
I’ve been working with first graders at the school. The first day there, last Wednesday, was mainly spent observing during class time and being swarmed by kids during recess. The first class the kids had the first day I was there was gym, so I walked further up the steep hill to the campo, where the kids ran around the field and did some exercises with their instructor. Back in the classroom they learned simple prepositions, like above, below, inside, outside. One thing that’s big here are dinámicas, or activities that involve kids in games or dances and songs to help them remember the lesson. We played cat and mouse, with the mouse inside the circle and the cat outside the circle trying to get the mouse. The kids also sang a song about these prepositions and drew things inside and outside of a circle in their notebooks. Eventually came snack time and then the kids had some more time for snacks and recess outside of the classroom. The other gringa in my group and myself were roped into playing cat and mouse again, and freeze tag. It was a little crazy, and pretty dangerous, because there were simultaneous games going on and kids were barely running by without knocking into each other. Some boys were rolling on the ground fighting. There wasn’t a whole lot of supervision (leading to my growing belief that it would probably be pretty fun to be a kid in Guatemala-playing with fireworks, being spoiled by your parents, having pretty nice weather all the time, etc.). It was a lot of fun, but really tiring. After recess, the kids in my class colored in a picture of a caterpillar and drew pictures of their families. The next day I was there was Friday and the kids continued to learn prepositions, like behind and in front. They also learned about rights, like the right to live, the right to eat, the right to breathe, etc. and drew pictures in their notebooks. After snack and more craziness at recess, the kids colored in pictures of elephants and drew pictures of things, which they all gave to me. It was really cute. They were really excited to give me their creations. I was also helping some kids to learn to write their names, which was going over really well with some, and not so well with others. Then this week on Wednesday I gave a presentation on hand washing as part of my training. The kids were pretty good throughout, but I definitely realized that I need to learn a whole lot more about classroom management. I started the lesson with an activity spreading glitter to the class in small groups to teach kids how germs spread. Then we talked about why you should wash your hands, what you need, how to wash, and when to wash. We practiced washing in the classroom and then went outside to the pila to wash hands. One of the problems that the school has is that there is only one pila (sink) to wash hands at, so it takes a while for a whole class to go and wash hands before a snack or after gym class. So it was a little hectic washing everyone’s hands at the same time, but we got through it and the kids were practicing the techniques I taught them. Then I finished by having the kids trace and color their hands to hang on a poster for the classroom. Of course I had to bribe them (which is pretty much the only classroom management type thing the teacher does) so they all got dulces I had bought from this cute old guy who sells a few things by the muni in Pastores. It was slightly unfortunate that I hadn’t done my presentation before snack time (snacks came much earlier than normal today), but hopefully now the kids will know all about washing hands. On Friday, when we went back to the school, the teacher for my class didn’t come because she had some doctor’s appointment with her baby, so I was pretty much on my own. Another teacher was supposed to help me, but she only stayed five minutes and pretty much said I could teach them whatever I wanted in my own “manera” (way). The kids were learning cursive vowels, so I did o and u with them, and then started on consonants with m, going on to ma (because some kids wanted to learn mama). It was interesting trying to manage them all because some were really into it and really wanted to write more while others (mainly the boys) just wanted to sit and do nothing. It was a little hectic getting them all to wash their hands before snack, but a lot of the kids were using what I taught them yesterday (while before they were barely washing their hands), so that was good to see. Then brushing teeth was also a challenge after eating the snack. Fortunately for them (and me) there was a weird pageant going on where they were crowning the queen of the school, so voting led to chaos and the kids just taking a very extended recreo with teachers and kids all in the concrete school yard just eating snacks and running around (and some fighting and climbing on the gringos). Things settled down when atol was delivered for the kids to drink (as their third snack of the day), but they started getting restless again so we went outside to play gato y ratón, which wasn’t working out. They went home early with all of the other students due to the fiesta, so I finished up the day without completely losing my cool. I just wish the teacher had left some lesson plans because it would have been nice to have something to go on.
It’s a little strange being in my position in the classroom. The kids really look to my approval on things as much as to the teacher. I was grading their work (putting the date and signing my name, as per the teacher’s instructions) and handing out candy to the kids who were behaving well. The classrooms are very different than in the U.S. The obvious thing is that there aren’t many resources. The kids provide notebooks and writing utensils and there is a white board, but there aren’t any books or maps or posters. When the kids color in pictures, it is from a traced outline that the teacher made (or that I made on the days I was there). Another thing is that lots of kids repeat grades because they pull out of school for some reason or another. A large number of the 13 kids in my class are 9, and the oldest student is 12, which are both old for first grade.
The good news about the school is that they have running water and electricity regularly. The bathrooms are also decent and have sinks with soap, and the kitchen is fairly clean (though it isn’t used for snacks). The snacks that kids can buy at recess include healthy things (different types of fruit, bread with beans) in addition to the things kids typically like (chocolate covered bananas, chocolate covered bread, cookies), and kids were picking the healthier stuff over the not-so-healthy snacks. Hand washing is not quite regular, but they do sometimes wash hands before snack time, and the teacher used a fluoride rinse with the kids on Friday to clean their teeth. The kids look fairly well groomed, with clean faces and clothes, and everyone had shoes. On Monday more will start wearing uniforms, which are mandatory, so it will be interesting to see which kids will have the uniforms right away and which ones will have to go without for some time. Although public school is free and any kid is allowed to attend, not everyone will be able to afford uniforms, which is somewhat problematic as the costs of these, as well as all of the school supplies, may prevent some kids from taking advantage of free primary education.
This past Saturday the whole group went to the ruins at Tecpán Iximché for a Mayan ceremony performed by one of the Spanish teachers, who is a Mayan priest. The ruins used to be the capital of the Mayans in the area and were still standing when the Spaniards came. The ruins consist of a couple of plazas and pyramids, though most of the structures that used to be here have eroded away. Towards the back of the ruins is where Mayan ceremonies still take place and the day we went was the beginning of a new year, so there were lots of different things going on. It always makes me feel intrusive when I just show up to these ceremonies uninvited, though we were there to take part in our own ceremony. There were tons of gringos just walking around, taking pictures, taping the ceremonies. One random gringa even grabbed a candle from the middle of our circle and dropped it in our fire. It’s kind of annoying to see these people tramping all over the culture and sticking their obtrusive noses into it, taking photos and videos without asking.
Before the ceremony, some groups presented short segments of Mayan culture, like the calendar, the most important values, etc. My group had nahuales, which are animal spirits that every Mayan gets upon their birth, determined by the day, month and year in which they are born. Our ceremony was to celebrate the end of one month here in Guatemala (to the day) and to celebrate the beginning of our projects (working in the schools for Healthy Schools). We all stood in a circle around a fire, in which there were lots of candles of different colors, each of which represented something different. Black for example represented peace, while yellow/orange represented hope (I think). The priest kept adding candles to the fire, as well as some type of grain and occasionally some aguardiente. After about an hour, we finished up. It was interesting to see a ceremony, especially because I may be living in a part of the country where they are common. I also really want to learn more about the Mayans, especially the language of where I will be placed (if I am placed in a part of the country where a Mayan language is spoken). We’ll see how placement goes in about a month.
After the ceremony we had a lunch of this really good chorizo sausage typical of the area, as well as tamalitos, different types of spinach salads, and two different types of tortillas (corn and bean). It was really good and the weather was perfect for a picnic. Afterwards we all took the hour-long trip back to our communities and I just relaxed for the rest of the day, watching Ice Age 3 with my family that night.
Also in the past couple of weeks, I have learned how to make chiles rellenos, which are peppers stuffed with a mixture of meat, tomatoes, carrots, green beans, and onions. They’re pretty delicious, but they take forever to make. I also had my last Spanish class, and next week will start more independent work. I’m hoping to learn about gardens and how I can build gardens at the schools I will be working with, as well as maybe looking into indigenous medicine and learning how this will affect the work I will be doing in the schools, especially if I am in an area that has a large indigenous population. I’ll have time to visit current volunteers and NGOs around Antigua, so we’ll see exactly what I will get to do. Something cool that I got to do as part of my independent time was go to a macadamia nut farm about fifteen minutes outside of Antigua, in San Miguel Dueñas, named Valhalla. It’s run by an American who just started this farm 30 years ago or so. It’s totally organic and sustainable. The macadamia trees are really good for the environment because they remove a lot of gases from the air and don’t require a lot of water. The trees produce after three years and remain producers for another hundred years or so, while they can survive in many different climates (although tropical climates work best, especially with rain-they can’t tolerate snow). The outside of the nuts (the cancha) can be used for compost while the branches that are cut back every year can be used for firewood. Moreover, macadamias are really healthy and could be a good protein source for those who have access to the plants. The farm is run without electricity, so the machines they use are pretty neat. The one that separates the nuts from the very outer shell has a motor (although there is also the same one with a bicycle that doesn’t use any gas), but the sorting machine needs nothing except for human labor. The guy who owns it gives trees to interested communities or sells them for reasonable prices to interested individuals and then provides education to help the people learn how to plant the trees and how to take care of them. He also has blueberries and bees. Needless to say, it was pretty cool to see this going on.
Next week is field-based training so Healthy Schools is going out to Totonicapan, which is about four-five hours away. We’ll be there for a week, pretty much observing what volunteers are doing and participating a little. I won’t have a chance to write until after I get back so have a great week.
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