Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Choose your own adventure
When I have in mind both a somewhat amusing tale and one that is quite disgusting and sad, I am uncertain which should go first. Thus, I will label both clearly, and the reader, well-warned as he/she is, may choose his/her preferred order.
Amusing:
On occasion, I see some terrific shirts here. One of the maintanence guys at the Scheel Center sometimes wears a shirt that says "I only drink on days that end in Y." In Spanish, no days end in Y. I once saw a grown man wearing a well-worn, yet classy circa-1999 N*Sync t-shirt. Just today I saw some guy on the street wearing a Justin Morneau shirt. These things, sometimes more than the English-to-Spanish songs, really make my day.
Gross:
A kid at Casa Jackson pooped out a 10-inch worm. I did not see it, but was told about it by another volunteer. I was pretty certain that that kid had more wrong with him than just his malnutrition. He is almost four years old, but would easily pass for two. He has a huge swollen belly and diarrhea every day. They did blood tests on him last week, and found that he had parasites. Of course, they could have skipped the blood tests had they known what would come out of him on Tuesday. I asked the nurse what type of worm it was, and she told me in Spanish. I had intented to look it up, but forgot it. I will ask again, so we can all be more well informed. Do not worry, though. Guatemalan doctors (like the one who oversees the healthcare at Casa) know all about parasites and that pobrecito is being treated.
Amusing:
On occasion, I see some terrific shirts here. One of the maintanence guys at the Scheel Center sometimes wears a shirt that says "I only drink on days that end in Y." In Spanish, no days end in Y. I once saw a grown man wearing a well-worn, yet classy circa-1999 N*Sync t-shirt. Just today I saw some guy on the street wearing a Justin Morneau shirt. These things, sometimes more than the English-to-Spanish songs, really make my day.
Gross:
A kid at Casa Jackson pooped out a 10-inch worm. I did not see it, but was told about it by another volunteer. I was pretty certain that that kid had more wrong with him than just his malnutrition. He is almost four years old, but would easily pass for two. He has a huge swollen belly and diarrhea every day. They did blood tests on him last week, and found that he had parasites. Of course, they could have skipped the blood tests had they known what would come out of him on Tuesday. I asked the nurse what type of worm it was, and she told me in Spanish. I had intented to look it up, but forgot it. I will ask again, so we can all be more well informed. Do not worry, though. Guatemalan doctors (like the one who oversees the healthcare at Casa) know all about parasites and that pobrecito is being treated.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The usual, mostly
Yesterday I gave a tour of the Scheel Center to a group of volunteers from Bismarck. Last week I also gave a tour of Casa Jackson. It is interesting to be involved enough in this organization to be able to inform others of its programs. Or it is interesting that the organization allows noobs like me to show people around. Probably the former. I think.
Casa Jackson, by the way, is still conspicuously empty. Only seven kids. The social worker is out sick, and has been for a week. The director had to go to the U.S. for a couple weeks. They are the ones orchestrating admissions, so without them, we are at a baby plateau. Because there are so few babies, there are often too many volunteers. What is an organization to do with a mass of unskilled workers? Of course, this isn´t the worst problem to have. If the director reaches her goal of having 20 babies at Casa, I´m thinking there won´t be enough volunteers, and that will be more difficult. In happier Casa news, the newer babies who were sullen only two weeks ago are starting to become more comfortable. The kids who come in are often sick, and most likely physically uncomfortable, not to mention confused, sad, angry, whatever because they´ve been seperated from their families. Within a few weeks, though, they tend to feel a bit better. I saw one little boy walk and talk for the first time yesterday. (I don´t mean I witnessed his very first words and steps. I mean that it was the first time he walked or talked in my presence, maybe his first time walking or talking at Casa Jackson.) Whatever the case, pretty neat.
This morning (because there were many volunteers at Casa) I helped to make the sandwiches for volunteers who are out at house-building sites. One of these volunteers was named Ryan Huber. Neat. I know.
Casa Jackson, by the way, is still conspicuously empty. Only seven kids. The social worker is out sick, and has been for a week. The director had to go to the U.S. for a couple weeks. They are the ones orchestrating admissions, so without them, we are at a baby plateau. Because there are so few babies, there are often too many volunteers. What is an organization to do with a mass of unskilled workers? Of course, this isn´t the worst problem to have. If the director reaches her goal of having 20 babies at Casa, I´m thinking there won´t be enough volunteers, and that will be more difficult. In happier Casa news, the newer babies who were sullen only two weeks ago are starting to become more comfortable. The kids who come in are often sick, and most likely physically uncomfortable, not to mention confused, sad, angry, whatever because they´ve been seperated from their families. Within a few weeks, though, they tend to feel a bit better. I saw one little boy walk and talk for the first time yesterday. (I don´t mean I witnessed his very first words and steps. I mean that it was the first time he walked or talked in my presence, maybe his first time walking or talking at Casa Jackson.) Whatever the case, pretty neat.
This morning (because there were many volunteers at Casa) I helped to make the sandwiches for volunteers who are out at house-building sites. One of these volunteers was named Ryan Huber. Neat. I know.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Festivities
Yesterday was the festival of Santiago, Antigua´s patron saint. All week there has been stuff going on: music, a big book sale, lots of vendors in the central park.
On Thursday I went to a free outdoor concert. It took place in the soccer field that is literally across the street from my house. We saw the Malacates, a Guatemalan ska/pop band. It was pretty fun. I was excited to get to see a Guatemalan concert, and it turns out that it was pretty much just like most American shows. I think the Malacates are a pretty popular group, and I actually recognized one of the songs as something I´ve heard on the radio here. I felt pretty cool.
Yesterday there was a big parade for the Santiago festival. It was composed of entries from each of 30 local schools, including the Dreamer Center school. The parade was neat. Costumes. Dancing. Some good drum lines. The Dreamer Center entry was my favorite, because I got to wave at all the people I know. After the parade, I ate some green cotton candy that tasted precisely like Froot Loops.
That was yesterday. Today I spent the morning at Casa Jackson, then ate a crepe so delicious, it made me feel bad for every person in the world who was not also eating that crepe. After that fantastic meal, I had the pleasure of hearing the Backstreet Boys´s ¨I´ll Never Break Your Heart¨ in Spanish. Perfect.
On Thursday I went to a free outdoor concert. It took place in the soccer field that is literally across the street from my house. We saw the Malacates, a Guatemalan ska/pop band. It was pretty fun. I was excited to get to see a Guatemalan concert, and it turns out that it was pretty much just like most American shows. I think the Malacates are a pretty popular group, and I actually recognized one of the songs as something I´ve heard on the radio here. I felt pretty cool.
Yesterday there was a big parade for the Santiago festival. It was composed of entries from each of 30 local schools, including the Dreamer Center school. The parade was neat. Costumes. Dancing. Some good drum lines. The Dreamer Center entry was my favorite, because I got to wave at all the people I know. After the parade, I ate some green cotton candy that tasted precisely like Froot Loops.
That was yesterday. Today I spent the morning at Casa Jackson, then ate a crepe so delicious, it made me feel bad for every person in the world who was not also eating that crepe. After that fantastic meal, I had the pleasure of hearing the Backstreet Boys´s ¨I´ll Never Break Your Heart¨ in Spanish. Perfect.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Heavy things and light things
I met an interesting person. Erin is an American, volunteering here and also researching for her second masters thesis. She is studying the effectiveness of nongovernmental organizations in local poor populations. This is pretty exciting, considering I´m going to write my senior thesis on something similar. Her argument, she says, is that aid is most effective when delivered through NGOs. This is pretty much the opposite of the argument of Giles Bolton, the author of Africa Doesn´t Matter, a book I finished reading a few weeks ago. Giles says aid is best when delivered through a struggling nation´s government. Yes, sometimes governments are corrupt, but corruption occurs because the state can´t afford to pay its bureaucracy. A police officer (or other public official) who can´t afford to feed his/her family will be quite likely to accept a bribe. And there we have corruption. Giles argues that when sending aid, we should expect to take an initial loss, but that it will be made up in years to come, in trade and other international relations-ish stuff. It´s a good book, very readable, but still thought-provoking. Anyway, Erin is interesting because she is studying what I plan to study, and we talk about it. We are exchanging books, so I can read one that promotes her argument for NGOs. It is great.
In other news, I would like everyone to know how hard some people in Guatemala work. There seems to be very little heavy machinery anywhere near Antigua. Every time I walk to or from Casa Jackson, I walk by a lot that seems to sell cinderblocks. There are probably a few thousand of them stacked up in that lot, and they aren´t always in the same places. This means that they are being moved. I never see machinery there, but I do see people moving them by hand. It is outrageous, the physical labor people do here. I imagine a Bobcat (or whatever other machinery) is pretty much outside the bounds of most companies´ budgets, so manual labor is the way things are done. There are currently a few dudes scraping all the paint off a school building near my house. They´ve been at it for a week or so now. I have seen people walking along, carrying loads that must weigh 100 pounds. It sounds outrageous, but I don´t feel like that´s much of an exaggeration. They carry big loads on their backs, with a strap going under the load and across their foreheads to balance out the weight. Again, it is unbelievable. With a third world economy, people work so hard. Just to live. Unbelievable.
And now for an abrupt transition to something much less weighty (inappropriate pun?), I heard both Beyoncé´s ¨If I Were A Boy¨ and Van Morrison´s ¨Brown Eyed Girl¨ in Spanish yesterday. I was amused. Beyoncé´s was officially Beyonce singing, but singing in Spanish. Thought you should know.
In other news, I would like everyone to know how hard some people in Guatemala work. There seems to be very little heavy machinery anywhere near Antigua. Every time I walk to or from Casa Jackson, I walk by a lot that seems to sell cinderblocks. There are probably a few thousand of them stacked up in that lot, and they aren´t always in the same places. This means that they are being moved. I never see machinery there, but I do see people moving them by hand. It is outrageous, the physical labor people do here. I imagine a Bobcat (or whatever other machinery) is pretty much outside the bounds of most companies´ budgets, so manual labor is the way things are done. There are currently a few dudes scraping all the paint off a school building near my house. They´ve been at it for a week or so now. I have seen people walking along, carrying loads that must weigh 100 pounds. It sounds outrageous, but I don´t feel like that´s much of an exaggeration. They carry big loads on their backs, with a strap going under the load and across their foreheads to balance out the weight. Again, it is unbelievable. With a third world economy, people work so hard. Just to live. Unbelievable.
And now for an abrupt transition to something much less weighty (inappropriate pun?), I heard both Beyoncé´s ¨If I Were A Boy¨ and Van Morrison´s ¨Brown Eyed Girl¨ in Spanish yesterday. I was amused. Beyoncé´s was officially Beyonce singing, but singing in Spanish. Thought you should know.
Monday, July 20, 2009
What it is to burn
I went to the beach last weekend. The waves were big. The sun was hot. The burn was terrible. I put on sunblock (SPF 50) once every hour or so I was in the sun. Honestly. And I still have blisters. Guatemala = close to the sun. Something should also be said re: the temperature. Alicia´s alarm clock also features a thermometer, which informed us that our room was 94 degrees when we went to bed. I am generally not too bothered by heat (better than -30 degrees!) but this was extreme enough to mention. Another extreme-ish thing: Alicia and I paid US$7.50 each for a hotel room. I am continually surprised with how cheap Guatemalan goods and services are. Why do people go to Cancun? Absurd. Overall, Monterrico was good. Swimming, reading, sleeping. Terrific.
I am still teaching English at the Scheel Center. So far, I think it is going well. My sixth grade is pretty good. My seventh graders were kind of noisy turds, but I think they´re getting better. My eighth grade is amazing and one of them, Abraham, is an English whiz. Somehow (He said something about learning from a Canadian volunteer at the Dreamer Center.) Abraham is way ahead of his classmates in English. He and I can have a conversation (a slow one) in English. Every lesson I do with his class, he already knows, so I write up a seperate lesson/worksheet for him to do on his own. I eats it up and so do I. It is just so fun having an especially bright student. I don´t think I could ever be a real teacher, because I am the Michael Phelps of playing favorites.
That, I think, is all for today. I am glad I had the opportunity to complain about my sunburn and to spread the word worldwide about Abraham and his terrific-ness.
I am still teaching English at the Scheel Center. So far, I think it is going well. My sixth grade is pretty good. My seventh graders were kind of noisy turds, but I think they´re getting better. My eighth grade is amazing and one of them, Abraham, is an English whiz. Somehow (He said something about learning from a Canadian volunteer at the Dreamer Center.) Abraham is way ahead of his classmates in English. He and I can have a conversation (a slow one) in English. Every lesson I do with his class, he already knows, so I write up a seperate lesson/worksheet for him to do on his own. I eats it up and so do I. It is just so fun having an especially bright student. I don´t think I could ever be a real teacher, because I am the Michael Phelps of playing favorites.
That, I think, is all for today. I am glad I had the opportunity to complain about my sunburn and to spread the word worldwide about Abraham and his terrific-ness.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sprinkles, construction arguments, sea creatures.
Yesterday I bought a candied apple. It was super sugary. Like eating an apple and half a cup of corn syrup. But delicious. The greatest part was that it cost one quetzal. US$0.125. Did I already mention the one quetzal frozen bananas? Those are good, but this melted-sugar-and-sprinkles-covered-apple is even better. And yes, that purchase is exciting enough to deserve the first topic of my blog.
This week Alexis´s favorite window cutter, Juan, returned to the God´s Child Project. I think he´s here as a service team with his family, and every time I look at him I can only think of Alexis and her great love for and appreciation of helper Juan.
Tomorrow I am going to Monterrico, a little town on the Pacific coast. Alicia (another volunteer who lives in my house) and I are spending the weekend. The forecast is sunny with black sand beaches and a chance of sea turtles (Leaders in a half shell!). I have never seen the Pacific Ocean. I am excited.
This week Alexis´s favorite window cutter, Juan, returned to the God´s Child Project. I think he´s here as a service team with his family, and every time I look at him I can only think of Alexis and her great love for and appreciation of helper Juan.
Tomorrow I am going to Monterrico, a little town on the Pacific coast. Alicia (another volunteer who lives in my house) and I are spending the weekend. The forecast is sunny with black sand beaches and a chance of sea turtles (Leaders in a half shell!). I have never seen the Pacific Ocean. I am excited.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Nine to five
Yesterday two more Casa babies went home. Very sad. But very good. Right now we are back to only seven kids at Casa Jackson because they haven´t gone out on a malnutrition field visit to get some more. (This was planned for Monday, then today, but they still haven´t gone and I don´t know when they will. It´s hard for me to come by good information when my Spanish is so weak and when schedules, etc. aren´t taken as seriously here as in the U.S.) The director of Casa has a goal of filling the place to its capacity (20) within the next few months. If she succeeds, I hope that increase in numbers is accompanied by an increase in volunteers and funding. She also wants to get the word out locally about Casa Jackson. Right now the majority of volunteers are American or European, and it just makes sense to have more local volunteers so they babies can be around people from their own culture, hearing more of their own language. It´ll also be better for the families of the kids. I imagine it could be upsetting to leave one´s kid with a bunch of white people and later bring home that same kid, healthy and smiling more than it ever did at home. Last weekend I talked to a family from Guatemala City who come down every weekend to volunteer at Casa, and they were great. Hopefully once word spreads (Casa only opened last October or so), more Guatemalans will be helping at Casa.
This morning I assembled a portion of a 13,246 piece mailing. This afternoon I am going back for more. This isn´t as miserable as it may sound. I enjoy a bit of tedium from time to time. Especially when that tedium is accompanied by the dulcet tones of Sheena Easton´s ¨Morning Train¨ in Spanish. Fantastic.
This morning I assembled a portion of a 13,246 piece mailing. This afternoon I am going back for more. This isn´t as miserable as it may sound. I enjoy a bit of tedium from time to time. Especially when that tedium is accompanied by the dulcet tones of Sheena Easton´s ¨Morning Train¨ in Spanish. Fantastic.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Happy Streamer
There is a kid in my sixth grade class who looks an awful lot like my little brother Liam. Same hair, same eyes, same devilish grin (notable lack of gap tooth, though). I told him today that he looks like my brother, and I´m not sure how weird that was for him, coming from a blond girl. In any case, Liam and this kid look more like siblings than Liam and I do.
Something I haven´t yet blogged about is my Fourth of July. Some of the other American volunteers and I enjoyed some hot dogs and watermelon. (Never attempt to eat half a watermelon--even if it is quite a small watermelon. Discomfort is inevitable.) We had planned to shoot off some fireworks, too. I hear fireworks here every day. When it is a birthday or a holiday, people shoot off fireworks. Not pretty fireworks. They shoot them off during the day. There are no colorful bursts of light. Only loud loud booms. When they went to buy fireworks, though, my fellow volunteers reported that what they found for sale were sketchier than sketchy, and they bought a ¨Happy Streamer¨ instead. This little cardboard tube was not a firework at all, and was found to contain a large metal spring and some tinsel, which shot out three feet or so when twisted. That was my Fourth. It was pretty enjoyable, though I did somewhat miss lighting Snakes on the sidewalk.
One final comment: This weekend I heard Alicia Keys´s ¨No One¨ en español. It was terrific.
Something I haven´t yet blogged about is my Fourth of July. Some of the other American volunteers and I enjoyed some hot dogs and watermelon. (Never attempt to eat half a watermelon--even if it is quite a small watermelon. Discomfort is inevitable.) We had planned to shoot off some fireworks, too. I hear fireworks here every day. When it is a birthday or a holiday, people shoot off fireworks. Not pretty fireworks. They shoot them off during the day. There are no colorful bursts of light. Only loud loud booms. When they went to buy fireworks, though, my fellow volunteers reported that what they found for sale were sketchier than sketchy, and they bought a ¨Happy Streamer¨ instead. This little cardboard tube was not a firework at all, and was found to contain a large metal spring and some tinsel, which shot out three feet or so when twisted. That was my Fourth. It was pretty enjoyable, though I did somewhat miss lighting Snakes on the sidewalk.
One final comment: This weekend I heard Alicia Keys´s ¨No One¨ en español. It was terrific.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
A short list
Along with the work I do, the awesome setting, and the fact that my Spanish is improving, here are two things I really like about being in Guatemala:
1. I meet people from all over the world. Or America and Europe, at least. A lot of people come to Antigua to learn Spanish (Antigua is known for having a lot of Spanish schools, and for being a generally cool hang out), then end up looking around for volunteer work after they finish school. This brings them to the God´s Child Project. I spend time with people from Germany, Norway, Holland, France, Belgium, England, and of course the U.S. It is really neat.
2. I have had time to read. I just finished ¨White Teeth¨ by Zadie Smith. It is a novel that she published when she was only 25. It is really well done, colorful and amusing. I would recommend it. I also just finished ¨Nickel and Dimed¨ by Barbara Ehrenriech. This was also good, though it didn´t contain much I didn´t already know from watching the working poor episode of ¨30 Days.¨ It is a quick read, though, and a good chuck of it is about the author´s experience in the Twin Cities, which is extra interesting because of its proximity to my home. In any case, if you care to know about how difficult it is to earn a living in the United States, I would recommend that book, too.
That is all for today.
Take care.
Smile or something.
1. I meet people from all over the world. Or America and Europe, at least. A lot of people come to Antigua to learn Spanish (Antigua is known for having a lot of Spanish schools, and for being a generally cool hang out), then end up looking around for volunteer work after they finish school. This brings them to the God´s Child Project. I spend time with people from Germany, Norway, Holland, France, Belgium, England, and of course the U.S. It is really neat.
2. I have had time to read. I just finished ¨White Teeth¨ by Zadie Smith. It is a novel that she published when she was only 25. It is really well done, colorful and amusing. I would recommend it. I also just finished ¨Nickel and Dimed¨ by Barbara Ehrenriech. This was also good, though it didn´t contain much I didn´t already know from watching the working poor episode of ¨30 Days.¨ It is a quick read, though, and a good chuck of it is about the author´s experience in the Twin Cities, which is extra interesting because of its proximity to my home. In any case, if you care to know about how difficult it is to earn a living in the United States, I would recommend that book, too.
That is all for today.
Take care.
Smile or something.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Casa and Carlos
I have two thoughts to share today.
My first is about Casa Jackson. When I began working there, it seemed like most of the kids were pretty healthy. This is because they were. A lot of the babies were nearly finished with their time at Casa. For this reason, a lot of the kids have since gone home (or in the case of Antonio and his brother [and my favorite kid at Casa] José Luís, to a ¨children´s center¨ because of custody issues and problems in their home). Currently, Casa is emptying out. I have been told three more kids are going home tomorrow or Friday. At that point, there will only be five kids at Casa. This is good for the kids, but bad for me. It´s fantastic that the kids are healthy enough to go home (along with some nutrition and health education for the families) but I miss them. Also, Casa with just a few very young, very weak babies is less fun that Casa with six or seven active toddlers. My complaining about this situation is pretty much useless, but I thought I´d write it anyway, as it is what I spend my time thinking about. I should also add that Casa will be, of course, admitting more children. They are going on a field visit on Monday to scope out some more sick kids.
And speaking of rescues... (Please excuse my arrogant Western volunteer attitude.)
Last Friday I was hanging out at the Dreamer Center (the project´s Guatemalan headquarters) with some other volunteers and this 10-yearl-old kid, Carlos, comes up and talks to us. In general, the kids at the Dreamer Center are super-affectionate and friendly, and this one especially so. He taught me and the other volunteers a couple of hand-clapping games (like ¨Miss Mary Mack¨ but faster and furiously Guatemalan) and had a good time laughing at our inadequacies. Also, every time he cracked up, I would too, and vice versa. We laughed much mroe than it really made sense to. I´m pretty sure he was amused by my goofy smile/teeth and I was just amused by his extreme giggly-ness. Anyway, Carlos was a good time.
Yesterday, I was talking to some other volunteers, and they told me about Carlos´s awful past. He was a victim of both sexual abuse and child trafficking until the project more or less ¨rescued¨ him. He´s now the adopted son of Bernardo, one of the GCP´s employees.
I really have no words for this. I am so amazed at how Carlos can go on being as fun and carefree as he is after what he´s gone through. I can´t imagine how that has affected him. I might extend this idea to all of Guatemala. It´s wild to think that people just go about their ordinary lives less than 15 years after a civil war and under what is currently more or less a failed state.
Something to ponder, I guess.
Oh, and one last thing: I might mention, though I shouldn´t be counting, that today marks my first complete month here. And so far, I am very glad I am here. Hope all is well wherever you are.
My first is about Casa Jackson. When I began working there, it seemed like most of the kids were pretty healthy. This is because they were. A lot of the babies were nearly finished with their time at Casa. For this reason, a lot of the kids have since gone home (or in the case of Antonio and his brother [and my favorite kid at Casa] José Luís, to a ¨children´s center¨ because of custody issues and problems in their home). Currently, Casa is emptying out. I have been told three more kids are going home tomorrow or Friday. At that point, there will only be five kids at Casa. This is good for the kids, but bad for me. It´s fantastic that the kids are healthy enough to go home (along with some nutrition and health education for the families) but I miss them. Also, Casa with just a few very young, very weak babies is less fun that Casa with six or seven active toddlers. My complaining about this situation is pretty much useless, but I thought I´d write it anyway, as it is what I spend my time thinking about. I should also add that Casa will be, of course, admitting more children. They are going on a field visit on Monday to scope out some more sick kids.
And speaking of rescues... (Please excuse my arrogant Western volunteer attitude.)
Last Friday I was hanging out at the Dreamer Center (the project´s Guatemalan headquarters) with some other volunteers and this 10-yearl-old kid, Carlos, comes up and talks to us. In general, the kids at the Dreamer Center are super-affectionate and friendly, and this one especially so. He taught me and the other volunteers a couple of hand-clapping games (like ¨Miss Mary Mack¨ but faster and furiously Guatemalan) and had a good time laughing at our inadequacies. Also, every time he cracked up, I would too, and vice versa. We laughed much mroe than it really made sense to. I´m pretty sure he was amused by my goofy smile/teeth and I was just amused by his extreme giggly-ness. Anyway, Carlos was a good time.
Yesterday, I was talking to some other volunteers, and they told me about Carlos´s awful past. He was a victim of both sexual abuse and child trafficking until the project more or less ¨rescued¨ him. He´s now the adopted son of Bernardo, one of the GCP´s employees.
I really have no words for this. I am so amazed at how Carlos can go on being as fun and carefree as he is after what he´s gone through. I can´t imagine how that has affected him. I might extend this idea to all of Guatemala. It´s wild to think that people just go about their ordinary lives less than 15 years after a civil war and under what is currently more or less a failed state.
Something to ponder, I guess.
Oh, and one last thing: I might mention, though I shouldn´t be counting, that today marks my first complete month here. And so far, I am very glad I am here. Hope all is well wherever you are.
Monday, July 6, 2009
So little qualification, so much broccoli
The most notable new development in my life here in Guatemala is my teaching English at the Scheel Center, so that is where I´ll start my post. From now on, every Monday and Thursday morning I will be teaching English to three of the classes at the Scheel Center. The Scheel Center, if I haven´t mentioned this already, is a school run by the God´s Child Project specifically for poor kids who are something like 3 to 7 years behind in school (because they have to work, because they have crappy homes, because whatever).
So, being plopped down in a school with no qualifications whatsoever is a little difficult. I am working with a woman named Susan, who actually is a qualified teacher in the U.S., though she taught science classes there. She has never taught English, and obviously neither have I. I´m pretty much caught between thinking that my teaching is better than nothing and thinking that the students deserve a whole lot more than ¨better than nothing.¨ In any case, it is maybe going as well as it could, considering all the guesswork we do. Today I had the pleasant surprise of teaching by myself because Susan is sick. I was pretty freaked out, but it turned out to be fine-ish. I didn´t really have to teach, because the students had a test. Poor kids. Two strangers who have never taught English and who had only spent 40 minutes with them flipped through their former teacher´s lesson plans and made up tests that turned out to be wildly difficult for two of the classes, and just challenging for the other. It´s difficult to find a good pace. Because we only teach twice a week, we can´t spend a lot of time going easy and finding where they are comfortable. In reality, I only have 12 lessons with them left. Hm. My thoughts on my teaching job are all kinds of conflicting. I´m not sure exactly how I feel, but I know I am going to keep doing it.
Other than the difficulty of not knowing what I am doing at all, being at the Scheel Center is pretty cool. The students are very friendly, and they like to talk to me. The teachers are super nice, too, and very considerate re: my pathetic Spanish-speaking ability. I get to watch a recess when I am there, too, and that is cool. The kids either just hang out at the school or go outside to the dirt lot with two soccer goals. The kids are pretty good, and it´s quite the picture. Kids playing soccer in the foreground. A hillside covered in mad poverty and the Jocotenango slums in the background. Brandon, the director of the Scheel Center, told me that some of the houses on that hill are little more than sticks, mud, garbage, whatever, and absolutely wash away when it rains hard enough. It is wild.
So, that´s a difficult place for a transition. Um. Just imagine that that paragraph flows nicely into the next.
Last Friday at the vegetable distribution, we gave out a ridiculous amount of frozen broccoli. Ridiculous. I wish I had counted all the half-full garbage bags. 60? 70? It was a small hill of frozen broccoli, a giant donation from I don´t know where. Some of the women ended up walking home with one of those garbage bags-o´-broccoli on their heads, a full bag of other veggies over their shoulders. It was absurd watching it all come out of the freezer. I laughed. But I also thought it was fairly representative of the wild donations received by the nonprofit sector. My friend Jess told me all her first grade students went home last week with two free bottles of lotion, one of which was a sunless tanner for ¨fair skin.¨ Yeah. I know.
Dang. Okay, I actually did make an organized-ish list of things to write about, but I have been on the internet for a long time, am itching to get outside, am not thinking terribly lucidly anymore, and do not care to write more. So, know that more is coming. Just...later.
Kudos for reading this, or for taking the more efficient route of skipping to the bottom.
Adios.
So, being plopped down in a school with no qualifications whatsoever is a little difficult. I am working with a woman named Susan, who actually is a qualified teacher in the U.S., though she taught science classes there. She has never taught English, and obviously neither have I. I´m pretty much caught between thinking that my teaching is better than nothing and thinking that the students deserve a whole lot more than ¨better than nothing.¨ In any case, it is maybe going as well as it could, considering all the guesswork we do. Today I had the pleasant surprise of teaching by myself because Susan is sick. I was pretty freaked out, but it turned out to be fine-ish. I didn´t really have to teach, because the students had a test. Poor kids. Two strangers who have never taught English and who had only spent 40 minutes with them flipped through their former teacher´s lesson plans and made up tests that turned out to be wildly difficult for two of the classes, and just challenging for the other. It´s difficult to find a good pace. Because we only teach twice a week, we can´t spend a lot of time going easy and finding where they are comfortable. In reality, I only have 12 lessons with them left. Hm. My thoughts on my teaching job are all kinds of conflicting. I´m not sure exactly how I feel, but I know I am going to keep doing it.
Other than the difficulty of not knowing what I am doing at all, being at the Scheel Center is pretty cool. The students are very friendly, and they like to talk to me. The teachers are super nice, too, and very considerate re: my pathetic Spanish-speaking ability. I get to watch a recess when I am there, too, and that is cool. The kids either just hang out at the school or go outside to the dirt lot with two soccer goals. The kids are pretty good, and it´s quite the picture. Kids playing soccer in the foreground. A hillside covered in mad poverty and the Jocotenango slums in the background. Brandon, the director of the Scheel Center, told me that some of the houses on that hill are little more than sticks, mud, garbage, whatever, and absolutely wash away when it rains hard enough. It is wild.
So, that´s a difficult place for a transition. Um. Just imagine that that paragraph flows nicely into the next.
Last Friday at the vegetable distribution, we gave out a ridiculous amount of frozen broccoli. Ridiculous. I wish I had counted all the half-full garbage bags. 60? 70? It was a small hill of frozen broccoli, a giant donation from I don´t know where. Some of the women ended up walking home with one of those garbage bags-o´-broccoli on their heads, a full bag of other veggies over their shoulders. It was absurd watching it all come out of the freezer. I laughed. But I also thought it was fairly representative of the wild donations received by the nonprofit sector. My friend Jess told me all her first grade students went home last week with two free bottles of lotion, one of which was a sunless tanner for ¨fair skin.¨ Yeah. I know.
Dang. Okay, I actually did make an organized-ish list of things to write about, but I have been on the internet for a long time, am itching to get outside, am not thinking terribly lucidly anymore, and do not care to write more. So, know that more is coming. Just...later.
Kudos for reading this, or for taking the more efficient route of skipping to the bottom.
Adios.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
La Pared
Even I am surprised at the difficulty I seem to have with blogging at least every other day. It seems I haven´t blogged since Wednesday. Hm.
Sadly, this is going to be another short post. I feel like I have a number of things I could write about, but my brain is not organized enough to write something respectable. This post, then, will serve 1. as a simple reminder that I am still alive and well, and 2. as an addition to the list of English songs I´ve heard in Spanish:
Where, Oh Where Could My Baby Be - Pearl Jam
Another Brick In the Wall - Pink Floyd
Longer post tomorrow? Could be.
Sadly, this is going to be another short post. I feel like I have a number of things I could write about, but my brain is not organized enough to write something respectable. This post, then, will serve 1. as a simple reminder that I am still alive and well, and 2. as an addition to the list of English songs I´ve heard in Spanish:
Where, Oh Where Could My Baby Be - Pearl Jam
Another Brick In the Wall - Pink Floyd
Longer post tomorrow? Could be.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Updatez
It has been a while since the last post. My apologies.
Sunday was the day I climbed a volcano for the second time. Again, no lava. A third trip up Pacaya is on the agenda for a few weeks from now. Silly volcano.
Monday I worked another overnight shift at Casa Jackson. That was, again, not as bad as you might expect.
Yesterday was more Casa Jackson.
Today I went to the Scheel Center and met with Susan, who is teaching English with me. Tomorrow we´ll be diving into that head first-ish. It should be fun.
At lunch today I ate some unidentifiable animal part. Esperanza was eating it, but made chicken for everyone else. She asked if I wanted to try some, and not knowing what it was, I agreed to a little. It tasted like liver smells, but I am pretty sure they said it was a part of the head. Brain? Tongue? Of what animal? I really don´t know. Language barrier FTL.
I´m surprised I don´t have more to say about the past four days. I thought they were pretty good days, but apparently they were mostly uneventful.
I´ll let you know if anything exciting happens in the next four days.
Sunday was the day I climbed a volcano for the second time. Again, no lava. A third trip up Pacaya is on the agenda for a few weeks from now. Silly volcano.
Monday I worked another overnight shift at Casa Jackson. That was, again, not as bad as you might expect.
Yesterday was more Casa Jackson.
Today I went to the Scheel Center and met with Susan, who is teaching English with me. Tomorrow we´ll be diving into that head first-ish. It should be fun.
At lunch today I ate some unidentifiable animal part. Esperanza was eating it, but made chicken for everyone else. She asked if I wanted to try some, and not knowing what it was, I agreed to a little. It tasted like liver smells, but I am pretty sure they said it was a part of the head. Brain? Tongue? Of what animal? I really don´t know. Language barrier FTL.
I´m surprised I don´t have more to say about the past four days. I thought they were pretty good days, but apparently they were mostly uneventful.
I´ll let you know if anything exciting happens in the next four days.
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