Guatemala: November 2007

My Room During Training (January - April)

Previous Room With Host Family

My House

Just wanted to give you some updated pictures of my house/apartment. My room

Bathroom, located in a corner of my room

Kitchen area

My Walk To Parracana

Just passed the dogs

It's only a 15-10 minute walk each way, mostly uphill going and a pretty easy walk returning. This walk is beautiful and peaceful for 95% of the time. The other 5% occurs when I walk by a house at the top of the hill and its two guard dogs charge me barking. I have to yell for help so that the owners come out and calm the dogs down. The owner had the nerve to tell me one day that I have to walk valiente (bravely) past the dogs so that they won't bite me! He needs to lock his dogs up!!!! I always walk with stones ready to throw, but even this doesn't stop them! Next year I'm going to have tortillas ready to feed the dogs.

23rd B-day Celebration

Rose, Marlene, Ellen, and Myself at Sarita (food could've been better)

Posing over the delicious chocolate cake (C presentation, A+ flavor)

Digging in! Yum

We went out to dinner and then baked a delicious chocolate cake at Marlene's house!

More Tierra Blanca

Kids patiently awaiting their prizes!

Girls lining up to receive their prizes!

Maynor, one of my favorites, trying to hide from the camera

Wow look at those muscles!

Dia del Nino at Tierra Blanca

The whole student body during Seno Yamilet's introduction.

Prizes!

Marcos and Herson race to finish their cokes.

Lixie and Erica race to finish bananas.

This is Jorge... we have a special relationship that involves me holding up a tissue while calling out his name, and him comingto have his nose blown. He then takes the tissue and throws it in the trash. Aside from being one of the dirtiest kids, he's also one of the cutest.

While I would say that Xecaxjoj put together a better dia del nino program, I have closer relationships with the children at Tierra Blanca, a smaller school, and tend to enjoy my time there more. The Tierra Blanca program involved some competitons (banana eating, soda drinking, and singing) for prizes and the teachers speaking about how much they cared for the children. The following are pictures of the program, and some of my favorite students. Who would've thought that I would bond with the pre-primaria (kindergarden) children?

Dia del Nino - last of Xecaxjoj

So sneaky... what happened to the beer? Only seno Irma didn't care.

Profe Julio during his performace... who knows what he's supposed to be!

Seno Sandra and me... I have a basketball story to tell you all courtesy of her kind invitation.

More of Dia del Nino at Xecaxjoj

Third grade happily enjoying their cake!

Seno Yoli cutting cake for the anxious 2nd graders.

Profe Julio and Seno Alicia goofing around with the biggest slices of cake I've ever seen.

The madres cooking the churrasco on an old piece of lamina, very resourceful! That's a lot of meet!

Director Seno Irma performing her drag dance. Don't know if she was imitating someone.

Taking it back...Dia del Nino

Feliz Dia del Nino!

Teachers during the cake distribution fight... I was getting a kick out of it, but looks like they weren't!

Kids in Primaria getting ready to enjoy their cake... I forgot to mention that they lit candles and sang happy birthday IN ENGLISH. I didn't understand why, but smiled anyway.

Profe Miguel chose to lead the 4th graders in a prayer before the cake.

Profe Julio cuts up the cake for the pre-primaria children. In this picture you can see how Guatemalans cut cake. Before cutting slices they cut out a circle in the middle of the cake and take slices from outside the area of this circle. Apparently this is done to create more slices, but I still don't know if this creates more slices.

At the end of every school year, schools dedicate a day of fun to the kids. Usually the teachers come together to buy gifts for each child and collaborate on a nicer lunch for the students, and no classes are held. Xecaxjoj and Tierra Blanca put together nice programs. First I'll begin with Xecaxjoj where under the strong leadership of Seno Irma, the teachers decided to buy cakes for each classroom in addition to churrascos for lunch (beef with a salsa/cilantro sauce) and a performance by each teacher. There was some conflict over whether there would be enough cake for everyone; apparently some cakes were bigger than others and those teachers with the most students felt deserving of two big cakes. Each teacher had their theory on the best way to divide the cakes, and felt the need to share loudly their theory. But as she always does, Seno Irma won out with the loudest voice and the most babble and the cakes were divided up to her liking. During all this I was just an innocent standbyer with a camera, and every time I took a picture of the cake argument people would look at me an laugh. Once the cakes were realized and there were enough pieces for everyone, the day went smoothly. Each teacher put together something for the students with Profe Julio and Seno Irma dressing up in interesting costumes and dancing - I got pushed in with Profe Julio and it was a little awkward. What made this day especially memorable was the weather. It was actually hot enough for me to wear just a t-shirt and the rain held off past it's usual 12:00 arrival. After stuffing the kids with cake and a lovely performance lunch was served, churrascos with pasta and mayo (yea, the pasta and mayo thing is Guatemalan, and the amount of mayo they put on is disgusting). During lunch I sat with the teachers and the junta escolar (fathers that form the school committee), and to my surprise they handed out beers to everyone! When I went to take the group picture everyone except Seno Irma hid their beers under the table. All in all it was a fun day! Here are pics from Xecaxjoj...