Last week was the busiest of my Peace Corps life.  Every day from morning until late at night, Christina and I were hard at work painting and constructing sets, leading practice every day, and running around for all the thousands of things that putting on a play entails.  On Tuesday I finally was given the money promised by our mayor a month ago.  They kept giving us the run around, telling us a million excuses why our money wasn’t ready.  Finally on Tuesday the check was ready.  There was a stack of official looking papers with a post-it on top that said “Cuerpo de Paz” and under it “(gringas).”  However, the check was not made out to me.  They guy in the treasurer’s office said that he’d cash it later and I could come back the next morning, but that they were closing the office early that day.  I told him to give it to me (our play was in 2 days!) and I’d cash it myself.  He explained to me how to get to the ferreteria (hardware store) that would cash it.  This is all very sketchy.  The check was made out for Q3,360, although we’d been promised only Q3,000.  The guy working at the ferreteria took the check, kept Q360 and gave me my cash.  I asked why the money from the muni/mayor’s office was coming from him and he just casually explained it as the way they “facturar” it; basically, a matter of bookkeeping and how they document where the money they spend goes.  Muy interesante.

Opening Night

Me, Martha Keays, & Christina, Teatro Municipal

Sabrina, Martha, and all the PCVs who attended opening night

Thursday was opening night.  Early Thursday morning we had the older kids in the play come to Christina’s house to help us transfer everything to the Teatro Municipal.  As luck would have it, in the middle of dry season it was raining!  This delayed things a little.  We spent the morning setting everything up and making fake snow out of sheets of styrofoam.  We came back in the afternoon and got all the kids dressed and ready.  Our friend Maggie Kelly, who is a master braider, came from Patzún, Chimaltenango, a few hours away, and did the girls hair, and sold tickets out front along with Molly, our site mate.  Our other site mate Keisha did all the music for the show.

In the hours leading up to the performance and throughout our one and only dress rehearsal the kids were terrible.  They were running around, not paying attention, touching everything, moving props around, asking a million questions, and just being bad.  About 10 minutes before the curtains opened they all of a sudden got very nervous and quiet and sat the stillest and quietest I had ever seen them.

Christina and I gave an opening speech welcoming everyone, thanking all the people who helped us, and explaining our reasoning behind doing this play – our work here with youth and our desire to share a part of our culture with them.  Martha Keays, the Country Director for Peace Corps Guatemala, and Sabrina Villatoro, the Project Specialist for the Youth Development program, both came to Totonicapán for the event, which was a big honor.

With only a few very minor glitches, the show went very smoothly.  Deciding to have it snow on stage (suggested by our students in the morning as we were setting everything up) in the first scene when all the kids come out skipping and dancing to the “wahoo dorus, wahoo forest, welcome Christmas….” song was a really sweet touch.

Feliz Navidad

Friday’s preparations were a little less stressful, and we had more time to enjoy getting ready, putting fun hairstyles, glitter make-up, and peppermint stripe nail polish on the girls.  Friday night was much better and much smoother than opening night and afterwards I think the kids were a little sad that it was all over.

At the end of the show, after the part in the poem where the Grinch’s heart grows and he returns all the gifts to WhoVille (“Villa Ju”), Christina and I joined the kids on stage and the Grinch began singing “Feliz Navidad” and then at the “I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas….” part we and the rest of the kids all joined in.  The show concluded after that with a dance that the kids choreographed themselves.  Of our 19 participants in the camp and show, nine are cousins, most of whom live together, and they choreographed the dance then taught it to the rest of the kids.

It was cool watching certain kids grow and change throughout the camp.  Two of the girls in the show are 13-year-old students of mine from my most rural school.  They were always the most punctual to practices, and while really shy at first, one in particular I really noticed a huge boost in her self-confidence and ability to speak in public.  Two other girls, cousins, 12 and 13, were too cool for everything in the beginning, but after a few weeks became friends with the other kids and were able to get into the spirit of it all.

Tomorrow we will be concluding everything with a final fiesta with our cast in the Casa de la Cultura.