Today is my last day in Guatemala. Of course, this is both good and bad. I will miss lots of things here. I like the project, I like the other volunteers, I like my host family and all the food here. It is strange leaving when there is so much more to be done. At the same time, I am excited to see my family and friends at home. I am excited to eat American cereal and milk. I am excited to sing karaoke. I am excited to start school again.
Bah. Good and bad. Bad and good.
Other little notes:
My third trip up the volcano Pacaya was a successful one. I saw lava and it was cool.
I finished up my English-songs-in-Spanish experience nicely with Bob Dylan´s ¨Butterfly Kisses¨ today.
See you Friday.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Volcanoes, all around
The rumors are true. Lake Atitlán is beautiful. I got there early in the morning, so it was nearly cloudless. Big lake surrounded by hills and three volcanoes. Very neat. If you´d like to see what it looks like, I recommend a Google image search.
As it turns out, there isn´t a whole lot to do in Panajachel other than shop. So I went to San Pedro, a smaller town across the lake. Mostly I just wanted to go for the boat ride, but the town was interesting, too. I didn´t get past the tourist-y section because I didn´t want to wander far by myself, but what I saw was more shopping.
Overall a good trip. This morning I walked around Antigua, San Felipe, and Jocotenango and took pictures of some of the amazing things I see every day. Probably half of these pictures are of Volcán de Agua. A big giant volcano is endlessly interesting to me. I live in the Red River Valley. This afternoon I am going to climb another volcano, and this time there will be lava.
Again, I will let you know.
As it turns out, there isn´t a whole lot to do in Panajachel other than shop. So I went to San Pedro, a smaller town across the lake. Mostly I just wanted to go for the boat ride, but the town was interesting, too. I didn´t get past the tourist-y section because I didn´t want to wander far by myself, but what I saw was more shopping.
Overall a good trip. This morning I walked around Antigua, San Felipe, and Jocotenango and took pictures of some of the amazing things I see every day. Probably half of these pictures are of Volcán de Agua. A big giant volcano is endlessly interesting to me. I live in the Red River Valley. This afternoon I am going to climb another volcano, and this time there will be lava.
Again, I will let you know.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Nothing much
I have already spent enough time today on a computer, and I am thoroughly tired of it. Thus, this is just a quick post to let everyone know I am a responsible and reliable blogger.
I am going to Lake Atitlán tomorrow. I went last year, but it was overcast and rainy, so I didn´t get to really see it. Rumor is, it is exceedingly beautiful. I´ll let you know.
That is all. Take care.
I am going to Lake Atitlán tomorrow. I went last year, but it was overcast and rainy, so I didn´t get to really see it. Rumor is, it is exceedingly beautiful. I´ll let you know.
That is all. Take care.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Teaching is hard
On Monday I gave all my students quizzes to see what they know. They have exams in all their classes next week, and I only have one more class to review before their English exam. As it turns out, they don´t know a lot. It took me a long time to figure out that I had to actually teach them, not just present material and expect them to study at home (like a theoretical college student). One of my classes is typically out of control, talking and walking around and stuff. And most of the students in all three of my classes are fervent cheaters. It is for these reasons, I think, that my students have learned little more than what they knew when I started, and apparently don´t even know things they supposedly learned before I started. And, well, I guess English is hard.
Now I am stuck with this question: Should I make the test too hard for almost all of them, but representative of what they could know, or should I make it easy enough for most of them? I think I am going to give a tough test. Well, a bit easier than the quiz I gave them. Some of the students actually do know the material, and the others can struggle. The school can apply a curve later. This might sound harsh, but whoever the next teacher is can then have an accurate picture of what I have been teaching them and what they know.
So if my service at the school looks a little bleak right now, Casa is good. One of the babies who went home about a month ago (José Angel) came back for a visit, and he is still as fat as ever (even fatter, really), and has grown quite a bit more hair. I didn´t even recognize him at first. Let´s hear it for healthy babies.
Now I am stuck with this question: Should I make the test too hard for almost all of them, but representative of what they could know, or should I make it easy enough for most of them? I think I am going to give a tough test. Well, a bit easier than the quiz I gave them. Some of the students actually do know the material, and the others can struggle. The school can apply a curve later. This might sound harsh, but whoever the next teacher is can then have an accurate picture of what I have been teaching them and what they know.
So if my service at the school looks a little bleak right now, Casa is good. One of the babies who went home about a month ago (José Angel) came back for a visit, and he is still as fat as ever (even fatter, really), and has grown quite a bit more hair. I didn´t even recognize him at first. Let´s hear it for healthy babies.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Two interesting discoveries
On Saturday I did some mad shopping. It was my biggest spending day of my trip so far. I spent a total of $45. Guatemala is cheap.
The day offered me two bloggable events:
Talking to a woman who had a handicrafts/souvenirs stand near an Antigua church, I found out that both she and the two other women there had been helped by the God's Child Project. They seemed to have a positve view of it, and the woman (Isabel) even asked me if the kids who attend school at the Dreamer Center have to buy a lot of paper, presumably thinking of the education of her own son (who was standing right there). Unfortunately, I told her that that was a question for the project, not for me, because I wasn't sure. Kind of stupid of me. I hardly needed to give her another hurdle to getting her kid in elementary school, especially since after a bit of thought I feel certain that the kids attend school totally free of charge. Aside from that conversation, I also taught her some words in English. She asked me to. I just taught her ''purse'' and ''pen'' and a couple other things she sells. I am thinking she wanted those words for when foreign tourists come by. Before I left, I bought some stuff from her stand. Hopefully our encounter was profitable for her, because it was interesting for me.
Later, I was beebopping around a used book store and audibly gasped when I found Roxanne Henke's After Anne. For those who don't know, Roxy Henke is an author from my town. In terms of popularity, she's not quite Stephen King, so it was a cool surprise to find a Wishek book in Antigua. I was pretty excited about it, so of course I told the shopkeeper about Wishek, showed him the book, and told him I know where Roxy Henke lives. I told him we are related (through two marriages). It is tiresome to say ''It's a small world'' but not tiresome at all to experience those small world moments. First Stacy Schaffer in Guatemala. Now After Anne. What next? Fingers crossed for a Wishek Locals jersey.
The day offered me two bloggable events:
Talking to a woman who had a handicrafts/souvenirs stand near an Antigua church, I found out that both she and the two other women there had been helped by the God's Child Project. They seemed to have a positve view of it, and the woman (Isabel) even asked me if the kids who attend school at the Dreamer Center have to buy a lot of paper, presumably thinking of the education of her own son (who was standing right there). Unfortunately, I told her that that was a question for the project, not for me, because I wasn't sure. Kind of stupid of me. I hardly needed to give her another hurdle to getting her kid in elementary school, especially since after a bit of thought I feel certain that the kids attend school totally free of charge. Aside from that conversation, I also taught her some words in English. She asked me to. I just taught her ''purse'' and ''pen'' and a couple other things she sells. I am thinking she wanted those words for when foreign tourists come by. Before I left, I bought some stuff from her stand. Hopefully our encounter was profitable for her, because it was interesting for me.
Later, I was beebopping around a used book store and audibly gasped when I found Roxanne Henke's After Anne. For those who don't know, Roxy Henke is an author from my town. In terms of popularity, she's not quite Stephen King, so it was a cool surprise to find a Wishek book in Antigua. I was pretty excited about it, so of course I told the shopkeeper about Wishek, showed him the book, and told him I know where Roxy Henke lives. I told him we are related (through two marriages). It is tiresome to say ''It's a small world'' but not tiresome at all to experience those small world moments. First Stacy Schaffer in Guatemala. Now After Anne. What next? Fingers crossed for a Wishek Locals jersey.
Friday, August 7, 2009
A morning with the guias
On Wednesday I got to follow two of the project´s social workers to home visits. I went to see a man who had contacted the organization (it is that well known, I guess) asking for a wheelchair. He had one foot that was swollen and awful-looking due to diabetes. His other foot was in a cast because he broke it (or his ankle?) walking with his crutches. The rest of his body was skinny and he moved, it looked like, with difficulty. He doesn´t have any family and can´t leave his bed to work. He seemed to be living in a rented room. He had electricity and a television, but that was about it. It kind of smelled in there. I was uncertain how much a wheelchair would help him (Guatemala is the absolute opposite of handicap accessible.), especially considering the bumpy incline/steps one needs to walk up just to get to his residence. However, whatever little extra mobility a wheelchair might give him is way better than his current situation. Laying on an old bed in a smelly room all day and all night. One of the project´s social workers talked to the man and took a couple pictures while the other social worker took notes. After that visit, they decided they would give him a wheelchair.
The other visit we went on was just to pick up the mom of one of the kids who goes to school at the Dreamer Center. This kid doesn´t live with his mom (I think the social worker said that he lives with his aunt and uncle because his own family treats him badly.), but we brought him with to get his mom. I think we had to tell her that her other kid is sick and in the hospital, then we dropped her off at the hospital. I´m not completely sure about this situation because my Spanish is so bad. Maybe she already knew her kid was in the hospital and we only had to pick her up. She didn´t look that surprised. Anyway, there are two notable things about this second visit. First, this lady lives up a steep hill. The social workers and I were totally out of breath by the time we got to her door (which was not a door but a piece of painted corrugated tin). Again, people here go the extra mile just to live. It is wild. Second, I had a failure of a conversation with the kid who was with us. He told me he was in third grade, and I asked him if that meant he was 9 or 10 years old. I thought that that was old for a third grader, but I also thought he looked bigger than 8. Turns out he´s 13. A lot of poor kids here are smaller than they should be (due to being undernourished for parts or most of their lives) and obviously some of them are behind in school. I am hoping I didn´t embarrass him too much.
Aside from the always upsetting view of poverty, I got something else from these visits. Confidentiality is a luxury. I walked into the social workers office and it was so easy for me: ¨Yeah, we´re going to see this guy. Here is his file. Look at pictures of his foot. Read this information about his condition. You´re free to know the names and whatever else we know about the people we´ll visit today. And yeah, go ahead and blog about it later.¨ I take a lot of things for granted, and now I can recognize confidentiality, also, as something to appreciate.
Since this post was kind of a downer, and since my language became a bit yucky and cliché at the end, I will leave you with the knowledge that I have heard Roxette´s ¨It Must Have Been Love¨ in Spanish. It was mindblowing.
The other visit we went on was just to pick up the mom of one of the kids who goes to school at the Dreamer Center. This kid doesn´t live with his mom (I think the social worker said that he lives with his aunt and uncle because his own family treats him badly.), but we brought him with to get his mom. I think we had to tell her that her other kid is sick and in the hospital, then we dropped her off at the hospital. I´m not completely sure about this situation because my Spanish is so bad. Maybe she already knew her kid was in the hospital and we only had to pick her up. She didn´t look that surprised. Anyway, there are two notable things about this second visit. First, this lady lives up a steep hill. The social workers and I were totally out of breath by the time we got to her door (which was not a door but a piece of painted corrugated tin). Again, people here go the extra mile just to live. It is wild. Second, I had a failure of a conversation with the kid who was with us. He told me he was in third grade, and I asked him if that meant he was 9 or 10 years old. I thought that that was old for a third grader, but I also thought he looked bigger than 8. Turns out he´s 13. A lot of poor kids here are smaller than they should be (due to being undernourished for parts or most of their lives) and obviously some of them are behind in school. I am hoping I didn´t embarrass him too much.
Aside from the always upsetting view of poverty, I got something else from these visits. Confidentiality is a luxury. I walked into the social workers office and it was so easy for me: ¨Yeah, we´re going to see this guy. Here is his file. Look at pictures of his foot. Read this information about his condition. You´re free to know the names and whatever else we know about the people we´ll visit today. And yeah, go ahead and blog about it later.¨ I take a lot of things for granted, and now I can recognize confidentiality, also, as something to appreciate.
Since this post was kind of a downer, and since my language became a bit yucky and cliché at the end, I will leave you with the knowledge that I have heard Roxette´s ¨It Must Have Been Love¨ in Spanish. It was mindblowing.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Food
I am having trouble thinking of a little anecdote for today´s blog. So I´ll follow the advise of my hungry stomach, who is telling me to just talk about food.
I eat six days a week with my host family. The meals are ¨typical¨ Guatemalan food maybe three fifths of the time. Esperanza also makes pancakes and spaghetti and stuff like that. More Guatemalan are the tortillas we have every day at noon (Not tortillas like you might be thinking. They are smaller and thicker than what you buy in a Grand Forks grocery store, and always warmed.) and black beans every day at supper. Guatemalan food, you might be surprised to know, is not the same as Mexican food, especially Americanized Mexican food. There are differences, and I have yet to be served a burrito or anything like a Taco John´s taco. My favorite things to eat here are guacamole (Didn´t love this before I came here. Now, the mere thought of it brings a happy tear to my eye and a hungry drool to my mouth.), plantains (Esperanza makes these two ways--fried or cooked in sugar/water/cinnamon/vanilla. I am planning on attempting to cook them the tastier way--sugar water way--when I get home.) and of course the fresh pineapple.
Around Antigua you can get all kinds of ethnic food because it´s a pretty tourist-y place, and most restaurants are pretty cheap. I have enjoyed the billion bakeries they have in town, practically one on every block. Guatemalans know how to make $0.12 sugar cookies like no one else.
Wow. How did blogging about food seem like the thing to do when I was already hungry? I´ll be done now. Sugar cookies of Antigua, look out.
I eat six days a week with my host family. The meals are ¨typical¨ Guatemalan food maybe three fifths of the time. Esperanza also makes pancakes and spaghetti and stuff like that. More Guatemalan are the tortillas we have every day at noon (Not tortillas like you might be thinking. They are smaller and thicker than what you buy in a Grand Forks grocery store, and always warmed.) and black beans every day at supper. Guatemalan food, you might be surprised to know, is not the same as Mexican food, especially Americanized Mexican food. There are differences, and I have yet to be served a burrito or anything like a Taco John´s taco. My favorite things to eat here are guacamole (Didn´t love this before I came here. Now, the mere thought of it brings a happy tear to my eye and a hungry drool to my mouth.), plantains (Esperanza makes these two ways--fried or cooked in sugar/water/cinnamon/vanilla. I am planning on attempting to cook them the tastier way--sugar water way--when I get home.) and of course the fresh pineapple.
Around Antigua you can get all kinds of ethnic food because it´s a pretty tourist-y place, and most restaurants are pretty cheap. I have enjoyed the billion bakeries they have in town, practically one on every block. Guatemalans know how to make $0.12 sugar cookies like no one else.
Wow. How did blogging about food seem like the thing to do when I was already hungry? I´ll be done now. Sugar cookies of Antigua, look out.
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