A few weeks ago I began teaching two sections of 5th grade English Friday mornings in a primary school in Xesacmalja. I can honestly say these are my most fun classes! The kids are extremely enthusiastic and I get an overall really positive vibe from this school and all its teachers. I’ve been reviewing the alphabet, colors, and days of the week, and teaching months, fruits, animals, and foods. Every class after writing words and posting pictures on the board, we play games to practice vocabulary and verbs. Perhaps I feel so good about this because it is a subject I am actually qualified to teach. I’m fluent in English and have studied languages my whole life, so it just seems natural.
In my other classes I’ve started carrying out PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action). It’s a little boring, a little interesting, and I suppose a good way to get to know my communities better. It’s also a good time to do this when I’m new, and also when the students are winding down for the year it is probably better not to start any big projects. The PACA includes a couple different elements. One I did in Xantún last week required the students, divided into boys and girls, to create a daily schedule of activities during the week and on the weekend, both during the school year and during vacations. I was interested to find that almost all my students work – in carpentry, metals, farming, etc. – which helps explain why they only go to school less than 4 hours a day and why there are only 18 students attending school. Today I did a community mapping activity with a couple different classes of students in Chuculjuyup. They have to draw a map of their community identifying major landmarks and the places they spend time. They also have to designate where they enjoy spending time, where they don’t enjoy spending time, where they spend most of their time, and places or resources they don’t have currently but would like to have. They got pretty detailed; none of my classes finished so we will continue next week then discuss. Last week also in Chucul I led a successful charla on leadership with my Primero students. This was the class that in previous weeks I had NO control over, so I was so impressed by some of the answers they came up with to my discussion questions.
Lake Atitlan
I’ve taken several little weekend viajes recently to Xela, Antigua, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala City, San Bartolo, and Zaragoza. I took the bus into San Bartolo/Santa Lucia/Antigua Sunday and because I had to swing by the Peace Corps office Monday, took the time to enjoy the San Bartolo Feria. I visited my old host family, as well as the other host families in town, and met a few of the new trainees, including my host family’s nueva Elizabeth (I wonder if they purposely gave them someone with the same name), in the Agriculture Food Security program who just arrived two weeks ago. I rode the ferris wheel which was the fastest, most thrilling ferris wheel ride of my life. Combined with the sentido that you might die, it’s quite a rush. There were carnival games, food (incredible fresh off the spit, spicy pork tacos), rides, and prizes. I enjoyed a delicious brunch in Antigua at Epicure on its outdoor, vine-covered veranda – it was amusing to find that quiche here is pronounced like the Guatemalan department/region Quiche (pronounced the same as the language K’iche that is spoken in my region).
San Bartolo Feria
Monday morning as I was preparing to depart for home I was informed that the highway by Cuatro Caminos (a main intersection that I have to pass through to return to Totonicapán) was closed and the safety and security office told me to stay in town for another day. Sadly, I had to spend another day enjoying time with friends in the area. I visited Melissa and her site of Zaragoza, which is in the department of Chimaltenango, only about 45 minutes from San Bartolo. She gave me a little tour and I met her site mates. I then headed to Guatemala City to the super fancy mall for a much needed haircut. I also bought a leather jacket at Bershka that I have been dreaming about since I first laid eyes on it in May. It was a bit of a splurge for my Peace Corps salary, but when I think of it as being less than $100 U.S. I felt I just couldn’t afford not to buy it. I saw Inception (titled “Origen” en español) which was great.
I got to experience the joy of the actual Feria of San Bartolo on August 24th by being awoken at 4:20 AM by a loud parade outside the window on the main street of town. It was quite pretty to see the detailed hand-laid carpet made of sawdust, grass, flowers, and fruits later in the morning, but 4 AM seems a little over eager to get things started.
I’ve been reading a really amazing book called Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle by Mortiz Thomsen, who was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador in the 1960’s. I have not been reading nearly as much as I read in the U.S., but this I flew through. Interesting how elements of his Peace Corps experience are similar and also worlds away from mine, at least thus far. It made me feel like I’m living the Posh Corps life, which I have mixed feelings about. But then again I didn’t choose to live in a nice house with a washing machine and internet instead of an isolated coastal village accessible only in low-tide with chickens and pigs in my bedroom…I like to think I could have hacked it though.
The real rainy season has come upon us. It has poured and stormed and seems to start earlier and earlier every day. Tuesday I returned to site to find the power out (it had been out since 7 AM). I sat in the dark reading and planning classes by candlelight watching the gray drizzle outside until the power came on at almost 5 o’clock that evening. It was a little depressing. When I talk to friends back home and I hear about the unbearable D.C. humidity or the hot, sunny beautiful days in San Diego, I’m shocked to realize that most of this hemisphere is in the height of summer. Similar to living in San Diego, though, another place without four discernable seasons, I have to pause and think what time of year, even what month, it is, and I’m shocked by how fast time is going. Since I arrived in site, every week seems to fly by here. Two years does not seem long to me at all.
