A conversation with an 18-year-old volunteer on my 29th birthday...

Volunteer: "I didn't know Kerry was 30!"

Me: "Does that change anything?"

Volunteer: "We used to giggle about things all the time."

Me: "Yeah?"

Volunteer: "Well, you know, usually you speak more respectfully to older people."

I'm glad I have 364 more days until I'm an older person.

Note: The dialogue style of this post is a direct idea from reading many entertaining dialogues on 65 Maple Ave. Check her out.

Indigenous Style

Last Friday was the last day for 6 volunteers in Itzapa. Along with meaning that next week we is going to be incredibly short-handed and I will basically be teaching in 2 and a half classrooms and monitoring the others, it also means saying goodbye to some great people. Work won't be the same Monday without the normal crew. Since so many were leaving Friday, Elena, the community leader who feeds us and supports/aids the school in many ways, provided traditional indigenous clothing for all of the female volunteers to try on. She also gave us all some of the all-natural shampoo her womens' group makes... I'll have to see if I like my hair in aloe-vera scent! The dressing-up was a lot of fun, and the kids loved seeing us walk in. Most of the girls and women in Itzapa wear indigenous dress. Indigenous dress is also seen around Antigua and even Guatemala City. Most of the kids at our school also speak Mayan Kaqchikel as their first language and Spanish as their second. The thriving indigenous culture differs here greatly from the situation in Honduras, only hours away. The Mayan heritage is just as strong there, with the famous Copan Ruins being about a mile from where I lived in Copan. However, I never saw anyone in Mayan dress. Very few speak the language, and the traditions are basically extinct. There are some controversial political issues going on with trying to bring back the culture.

After the crazy week of work next week, ending with my birthday Friday, I will be headed to San Cristobal, Mexico to renew my visa. I return in time for Semana Santa, i.e. a week off of work (this is just too late for my visa renewal). I head back to work for one or two days, then on April 15 begin my journey home. The director has been promising me a visit to the Nicaragua project ever since my interning there fell through. On the way I am going to visit the Honduras project and see my kids one more time. From Nicaragua, the closest, cheapest way home is via San Jose, Costa Rica. I am excited for the upcoming travel, though have mixed feelings about leaving. I want to come home, but really can't believe how quick it has all gone! Really, just one more crazy week of work. Ending with a celebration and followed by being in 6 countries in three weeks. So, who's up for road trips in May?... it might be hard to stay still!

Turning back a little...

A bit after the fact, I know, but I've been wanting to tell about an experience of a parent/teacher meeting I had in San Rafael, Honduras, before leaving the last time (about a month ago now). The head teacher at the school called a mandatory meeting on a Tuesday at 10am. The kids got to leave early. About 5 parents showed up. The meeting was rescheduled for Friday at 10am, and a note was sent home with the kids saying that families who did not send a parent to the meeting would have to pay 50 Lempiras (about $2.50). Forty-five parents came Friday. Some by means of horseback. The parents sat in the kids desks and chairs in the largest of the schools three classrooms.

The meeting including voting for officers of the Society of Families (like a PTA, I think?) and officers for the Merrienda Committee (they arrange the groups of families who take turns making the rice, beans, and tortilla lunches for the kids each day with government money... when the money shows up). Nobody was volunteering, and everybody was nominating each other. Then they went around the room for each position in each committee to vote outloud on the nominees. Some of the contests were close, and you could sense the pressure on the last few people to have to voice their vote. GVI is also starting an adult literacy program in San Rafael. Once a week the volunteers teach basic spanish literacy to adults. While discussing this program at the meeting, the teacher asked each parent individually if he/she could read and write and if they wanted to participate in the class. They all gave seemingly honest answers out loud, with the majority not being literate.

The parents seemed like students sitting in the desks and being made to speak aloud and answer questions. But they really didn't seem to mind. As the other volunteers and I watched the meeting unfold, we were amazed at how different this was from any such meeting in the states. It worked for them, though. People vented, issues were resolved, and committees chosen. The same results any meeting would hope to achieve.

I thought I'd put up a couple of pics from Honduras with this post. And in about 2 weeks, I'll be going back for a quick visit. More on that and my upcoming journey home via a few different countries in a post coming soon, I hope.

It´s over already?

As I expected, the almost 9 days of Marty´s visit went way too quickly. Trips to Lake Atitlan, Tikal, a coffee plantation, a hike on active Volcan Pacaya, a Guatemalan cooking class, and lots of walking and eating in Antigua kept us busy. I´m sure he´ll fill you in on the details! It was wonderful having Marty here, finally getting to see the things and meet the people that have been part of my stories for so long.

In other news, I finally have a home. Not that I was exactly homeless, but the GVI house for interns has been full since Christmas. I went home for Christmas, and for the first couple of weeks after Christmas I lived with a family in Antigua. Then I headed to Honduras for a month. Back to Antigua, and in with a different family. Then Marty´s visit, so a week of leaving my bags at the GVI house and taking what I needed for our hotels and trips for the week. After far more packing and unpacking than I enjoy in a 10 week period, I finally have all my stuff in a room in a house that should be mine until the end of April! In case you're interested, my new address is Las Arcadas; casa #4; 9a Calle Poniente; Antigua Guatemala Sacateqequez; Guatemala, Centroamerica. Now I just need to somehow adapt to the most uncomfortable bed I´ve had in Central America, and figure out what I´m going to prepare for the intern group once a week on my cooking night!