ok, i´m posting this again. dodgy guatemalan internet connections, and rainy season power outages have combined to send several of my recent messages and the last post off into the abyss. the short news is that i´ve got my ticket and i´ll be in chicago on the 3rd of august.
the details are that i left the casa in a violent thunder and lightning storm this past saturday, with all the brave volunteers who said the despedida was more important than getting struck by lightning. it was a great night that i wished could have gone on forever.
i´m now in san pedro la laguna on lago de atitlán, a huge volcanic crater that has filled in with a gorgeous lake. there are some active volcanoes that surround the lake, and you can hike up and roast marshmallows on the flowing lava. not sure if i can afford to do it - it´s not very expensive but i´m definitely at the end of my funds. i head to chichicastenango to visit the gigantic market there, then back to the lake if i´m not in love with chichi, with my flight from the city on sunday night.
feeling lonely here, at bit at loose ends and wishing i had a buddy. not wishing i was in chicago really, but excited to be there next week.
my phone will be working hopefully right away.
much love from guatemala!
s
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
casa video
not sure if this posted last time - the electricity in town went out everywhere during a thunderstorm... and it´s rainy season here so it´s happening between 3 and 5 times a week...
it´s surely not professional but it does give a pretty good idea of where i´ve been living the last 6 months
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykzQq0oqN6s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dEXly-fm-w
paz a tí
s
it´s surely not professional but it does give a pretty good idea of where i´ve been living the last 6 months
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykzQq0oqN6s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dEXly-fm-w
paz a tí
s
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
the jungle´s wrath and all that good stuff
buenas tardes a todos!
i´m in town for a short couple of hours...
after my chicago trip, i returned to the casa motivated and very happy to be back. i really like life here, living in the jungle with all the exciting moments it produces in a day, and the sense of community that comes from a small group of people working on the same project. i also returned with some non-refrigeration salami - one of my favorite foods. appparently "no refrigeration necessary" means "in all places except the jungle." three of the 6 of us who ate my special treat of poisonous sausage got sick, and appropriately, i got the worst of it. we speak very frankly of casa guatemala ailments but i´ll spare my few readers the gory details. suffice to say that i was very unwell on the morning of a scheduled descanso with dear friend bart from australia - orientador to little boys. we had planned an ultra-relaxing descanso of 4 days (i took a previous 4 day descanso to tikal, some of the most impressive mayan ruins in the world, found in norhtern guatemalan state of peten). we pushed back our descanso by 2 days and headed straight for finca tatin, a hidden hostel on a tributary of the rio dulce closer to the carribean. it was a fabulous jungle lodge with hammocks everywhere, self-serve refrigerator on an honor system, and family dinner that was wonderful. aka, the perfect place to be quiet and do nothing all day. we read, listened to music, i taught bart scrabble (and won by 60 points - thanks gramma!), had calimocho (spanish high school drink of coca cola and cheap red wine - sounds terrible but is utterly charming and delightful after the first sip). decided to stay an extra day and be even more relaxed, which we were. the day of our planned kayak to livingston on the coast, about 2 and a half hours by arms, my right eye was the size of a base-ball, throbbing our of my socket, and painful to beat the band. my partner chini, nurse, noticed it was red before i left and gave me drops that i applied religiously, but this conjunctivitis was jungle-born and needed to be tamed with more than a week of rest, new drops, and nasty cream. we trudged on to livingston anyway, visiting a health center for more drops. slept most of that day, woke to be taken to an absolutely fabulous "tapado", the typical dish of livingston, one of the homes of garífuna culture. in 1802 a slave ship from africa capsized in the sea off the coast of honduras. the special blend of african, carribean, and ladino cultures populated the coasts of honduras, our small coast of guatemala, and belize. tapado is a coconut based soup of green plantains, onions, garlic, a whole fish, crabs, shrimp, and any other ingredients that are readily available. we also had "flitas", a mash of green plantains and garlic fried to a perfect street-food perfection, with fresh squeezed lime.
the descanso to tikal was breath-taking and a lot of good fun as it was the exit of niñas pequeñas orientadora andrea from england. the temples were massive and i´ve got some great pictures of these monuments of strength meant to attract followers to the city-state. contary to popular belief there are no bodies buried inside, as a guide explained in a patient if slightly annoyed, voice. the buildings, constructed in a mostly lime-stone area, where water is absorbed by land that can´t be cultivated, and crumbles under much weight. they made a cement-like mix that bonded well with the lime-stone and that is what fills these monstrous pyramids. very powerful rulers were buried as close as possible to their thrones.
izabela from brazil, replacing andrea, came and met me for a walk to an unexcavated temple in san marcos, the town across from the island of flores, where we stayed. it´s so overgrown it just seems like a hill, but we met some arheaologists who were very geeked about the shape of the hill which looked like homes and such, to their trained eyes. izabela and i had a great time getting lost in spectaculary beautiful woods which underscored that we live in the jungle, not the woods. it felt like michigan.
i´m back at the casa for another 25 days or so, depending on how training with the next girl goes. chini is going to be leaving (with susi, the other fabulous nurse from españa) around the same time. we´ve (along with mi primera esposita, jasmine) made some great progress with the girls and we want to make sure that they adjust to the new orientadora well, and that she is able to carry on where we leave off. i´m in a state of disbelief that i´ve been here 5 months, and not feeling ready to go home. certainly feeling like there is more to be done with our girls, and not wanting to abandon them when they´ve become better, more respectful, more responsible, more considerate people. the bank account is dicatating otherwise, as is real-life, i suppose.
the whole concept of real-life is a term i´m coming to dislike more and more. what could be more real than seeing a girl smile for the first time in 3 months. the girl with the worst behavior asking me why i´m here, listening, and maybe actually understanding. i´ve not gotten emotionally connected to the degree i could have, knowing that it would be too hard to leave. but we live together and our daily lives are linked and it´s hard no matter what. i like them.
we´ve been without water or electricity for the last 5 days, so life has certainly been harder than normal. we´re washing in the dirty, contaminated river - nerve-wracking with this crazy eye infection - and brining semi-clean water from the well behind the carpenteria. i can do without electricity, though we still get a couple of battery generated hours split between morning and night, but the water is a real trial given that the river is no prize. i now know that i could have handled living in times before running water and electricity, but in those times we hadn´t destroyed all of our natural sources of water. this is different, and scary. to see water that i know we and our neighbors have turned to poison, and then wash my body in it, literally makes me want to run in the opposite direction, except there are no other options. it´s a small-scale example of the planet, and that terrifies me.
maybe this eye infection, food poisoning, and lack of water will help me to get motivated to come home! at least my eye was too bad to read at night with a light, so i didn´t need to charge it! the suasage tasted damn good before it made me sick like the devil!
there are always silver linings to be found when publishing for friends and family - thanks for reading and keeping me going!
besitos y paz a tí
s
i´m in town for a short couple of hours...
after my chicago trip, i returned to the casa motivated and very happy to be back. i really like life here, living in the jungle with all the exciting moments it produces in a day, and the sense of community that comes from a small group of people working on the same project. i also returned with some non-refrigeration salami - one of my favorite foods. appparently "no refrigeration necessary" means "in all places except the jungle." three of the 6 of us who ate my special treat of poisonous sausage got sick, and appropriately, i got the worst of it. we speak very frankly of casa guatemala ailments but i´ll spare my few readers the gory details. suffice to say that i was very unwell on the morning of a scheduled descanso with dear friend bart from australia - orientador to little boys. we had planned an ultra-relaxing descanso of 4 days (i took a previous 4 day descanso to tikal, some of the most impressive mayan ruins in the world, found in norhtern guatemalan state of peten). we pushed back our descanso by 2 days and headed straight for finca tatin, a hidden hostel on a tributary of the rio dulce closer to the carribean. it was a fabulous jungle lodge with hammocks everywhere, self-serve refrigerator on an honor system, and family dinner that was wonderful. aka, the perfect place to be quiet and do nothing all day. we read, listened to music, i taught bart scrabble (and won by 60 points - thanks gramma!), had calimocho (spanish high school drink of coca cola and cheap red wine - sounds terrible but is utterly charming and delightful after the first sip). decided to stay an extra day and be even more relaxed, which we were. the day of our planned kayak to livingston on the coast, about 2 and a half hours by arms, my right eye was the size of a base-ball, throbbing our of my socket, and painful to beat the band. my partner chini, nurse, noticed it was red before i left and gave me drops that i applied religiously, but this conjunctivitis was jungle-born and needed to be tamed with more than a week of rest, new drops, and nasty cream. we trudged on to livingston anyway, visiting a health center for more drops. slept most of that day, woke to be taken to an absolutely fabulous "tapado", the typical dish of livingston, one of the homes of garífuna culture. in 1802 a slave ship from africa capsized in the sea off the coast of honduras. the special blend of african, carribean, and ladino cultures populated the coasts of honduras, our small coast of guatemala, and belize. tapado is a coconut based soup of green plantains, onions, garlic, a whole fish, crabs, shrimp, and any other ingredients that are readily available. we also had "flitas", a mash of green plantains and garlic fried to a perfect street-food perfection, with fresh squeezed lime.
the descanso to tikal was breath-taking and a lot of good fun as it was the exit of niñas pequeñas orientadora andrea from england. the temples were massive and i´ve got some great pictures of these monuments of strength meant to attract followers to the city-state. contary to popular belief there are no bodies buried inside, as a guide explained in a patient if slightly annoyed, voice. the buildings, constructed in a mostly lime-stone area, where water is absorbed by land that can´t be cultivated, and crumbles under much weight. they made a cement-like mix that bonded well with the lime-stone and that is what fills these monstrous pyramids. very powerful rulers were buried as close as possible to their thrones.
izabela from brazil, replacing andrea, came and met me for a walk to an unexcavated temple in san marcos, the town across from the island of flores, where we stayed. it´s so overgrown it just seems like a hill, but we met some arheaologists who were very geeked about the shape of the hill which looked like homes and such, to their trained eyes. izabela and i had a great time getting lost in spectaculary beautiful woods which underscored that we live in the jungle, not the woods. it felt like michigan.
i´m back at the casa for another 25 days or so, depending on how training with the next girl goes. chini is going to be leaving (with susi, the other fabulous nurse from españa) around the same time. we´ve (along with mi primera esposita, jasmine) made some great progress with the girls and we want to make sure that they adjust to the new orientadora well, and that she is able to carry on where we leave off. i´m in a state of disbelief that i´ve been here 5 months, and not feeling ready to go home. certainly feeling like there is more to be done with our girls, and not wanting to abandon them when they´ve become better, more respectful, more responsible, more considerate people. the bank account is dicatating otherwise, as is real-life, i suppose.
the whole concept of real-life is a term i´m coming to dislike more and more. what could be more real than seeing a girl smile for the first time in 3 months. the girl with the worst behavior asking me why i´m here, listening, and maybe actually understanding. i´ve not gotten emotionally connected to the degree i could have, knowing that it would be too hard to leave. but we live together and our daily lives are linked and it´s hard no matter what. i like them.
we´ve been without water or electricity for the last 5 days, so life has certainly been harder than normal. we´re washing in the dirty, contaminated river - nerve-wracking with this crazy eye infection - and brining semi-clean water from the well behind the carpenteria. i can do without electricity, though we still get a couple of battery generated hours split between morning and night, but the water is a real trial given that the river is no prize. i now know that i could have handled living in times before running water and electricity, but in those times we hadn´t destroyed all of our natural sources of water. this is different, and scary. to see water that i know we and our neighbors have turned to poison, and then wash my body in it, literally makes me want to run in the opposite direction, except there are no other options. it´s a small-scale example of the planet, and that terrifies me.
maybe this eye infection, food poisoning, and lack of water will help me to get motivated to come home! at least my eye was too bad to read at night with a light, so i didn´t need to charge it! the suasage tasted damn good before it made me sick like the devil!
there are always silver linings to be found when publishing for friends and family - thanks for reading and keeping me going!
besitos y paz a tí
s
Thursday, May 28, 2009
first, everything here is fine!
we had an earthquake last night in case our news didn't reach the states. it was my first but, there was no moment of "what the heck is going on?" i was in bed and woke up just before 2:30 a.m. to my bed shaking like crazy. i knew it was an earthquake but felt it stopping so stayed in bed another minute. (that also means that my super-human power to sleep was in full effect, because i didn't wake up for what everyone says felt like a very long first tremor.) then the a second tremor started and the girls started screaming and crying. i yanked my mosquito net up from under my matress and tried to jelly-walk to the door frame of my bathroom, closer to the outside wall of the building than my room entrance. it felt just like the room in fun-houses where the floor panels move in opposite directions and up and down. i kept screaming "esta bien, chicas, tranquila, todo bien, van a las puertas y quedan!" (it's ok, girls, calm down, everything's ok, go to the doors and stay!) it was long enough that i had time to think about, 1, how molly had had so many earthquakes living in japan so everything would be fine cuz it didn't feel too bad, 2, worry about girls falling out of their beds, 3, wonder at the coincidence that earlier that day i had been thinking about the major earthquake they had in 1999 that devasted casa guatemala, 4, that i better get some pants on cuz we were about to be seeing a lot of people. most of the girls were howling too much to get out of their bunk beds and all was still before we actually headed out of the house. the girls were a bit panicked running out and were caught by our on-site directora seno bea, who instructed them all on where to go... which was great because i didn't know. we've never had any kind of disaster training or information about what to do for what kind of emergency - though i'm sure it will be a hot topic at the meeting tonight.
i grabbed my extra flashlight, paracetamol (our pain killer of choice), a bottle of water and put one of my girls to walk with the little girls. we all went to the soccer field and did second and third head counts (or maybe that's just me...) seno bea sent her brother back with me to the house to get a shirt for one of my girls who ran out with just a skirt on! we were told to wait for a half an hour to make sure there were no more after-shocks, while seno bea and her brothers went to inspect the houses and make a plan for the rest of the night. there apparently were after-shocks that we didn't feel up at the campo, but that were felt back at our houses. the boys house over the river (literally) got quite a dose of water from the waves, and some superficial damage. casa de las ninas is fine, so little girls came up and camped out on our common-room floor, while the boys sat around in the downstairs area - and didn't sleep at all, though of course i fell right to sleep again...
the bbc reported a 7.1 on the richter scale, with an epicenter straight east of our part of guatemala, 36 miles north of roatan, honduras. the threat of tsunami has passed and only one death has been reported. our houses are built on stilts because we're so close to the river, and they definitely absorbed a lot of the shock from the way our huge orange house was swaying to and fro. it really did feel like a ride at a carnival. those stilts probably gave us a better ride than if we were connected to the ground, but whatever our connection, it was completely fascinating and powerful to feel the earth moving, and everything else around us as well. i felt how all of our physical surroundings all go back to the fact that we are essentially just moving plants, rooted to the ground and dependent on everything that it gives and takes and does to us. cool stuff, especially because there was only one casualty, and minimal damage.
hard to top that kind of news, so a quick update since the last blog. i went to the states for an extended break to watch my wonderful friend jessica marry her wonderful man josh. it was a fabulous celebration of these two people that i adore, and a really nice display of their love and the great ways that they balance each other out. then back to chicago with a ride from jeff and molly who came down to lousiville, kentucky to help toast the newlyweds. a nice dinner with mom for mother's day my first night back in the city, a memorable dinner with mom, her dear friend sandy, and my dear friend ashly at bistro campagne - marrow bones, pate, soft shell crab, beautifully done pork two-ways, polenta and a nice red wine. celebrated my nephew ethan's 9th birthday! with his sis maia who's also growing up fast, michelle, sister-in-law, whose so good at what she does the economy can't keep people from booking her design services, and had a great time hanging out with my brother and his band. ballet chicago put on a fabulous spring repertory performance, with dancers looking top-notch, arabesques miraculously all at 90 degrees (finally!), and a great premiere by the ever-entertaining ted seymour. the blamers (the great band that my friends have formed over a year ago) had a great show at their biggest night to date, sounding tremendous, much tighter, exciting, and awesomely dynamic. it's kindof like watching a puppy grow into it's paws; everybody really rocking their niche in the band and looking like complete strangers - rockstars for real! hooking up with shannon, kate the bod, emily shaw, weibke from germany and the like making it a really special trip. about 5 days before my plane i was feeling anxious and that i ought to be home - guatemala home - and what were my girls doing and were they behaving and was my partner chini ok with all the work alone?
it's been very hot here with no rain and high humidity. panic-inducing-hot. dripping, squishing, squeaking hot. it's so humid that i just noticed my pillow has little black mold spots, as do the vitamins, my toothpaste bag and numerous other things. we've had a nasty virus sweeping through the casa with lots of kids sick with high fever, sore throat, ear and eye infections and general misery. not much we can do for them either, which is the worst part. i've had mommy pangs feeling helpless and responsible for them and just wanting to make it better. the nicest thing i can do is put a cool cloth on their head and tell them they can stay in their sweltering beds.
agriculture class is on and off as the kids' behavior is pretty spotty. one day they're great and we learn a lot, partly lesson plan, partly the things i discover they don't know as we go along. we've been learning about irrigation systems, which has lead to the discovery that while they now know that rivers run to oceans, they didn't know it was because of gravity, or what gravity is. had never heard of it. glad nobody video taped me trying to explain that scientific law in spanish... one major problem is that they don't seem to grasp how to define things. they use the word to define the word and don't seem to be able to describe the thing in question. we spend a lot of time on that because most of the rest of their schooling relies heavily on word for word definitions on tests and they don't actually know what they're talking about. frustrating because they seem to be able to talk talk talk when we don't want them to, and clam up when i ask for an alternate description of "pressure."
we don't have school today, excuse being the earthquake of course, and what if there's another? i wish i had been keeping a log of our days off from school because it's pretty extraordinary. the other day instead of school, every kid 5 years and up was set to hauling rocks a long way from river to farm (huerto, really, where my classroom is for those who saw the video). all day.
casa guatemala is in financial crisis right now, with absolutely no donations coming in and major skimping and selling going on. we had a festival while i was gone to sell all the donated clothes that are new, and we're trying to plan more activities to raise money here on-site. there's a threat that the electricity will be turned off here and at the hotel. the hotel isn't even bringing in money right now, as it's only covering the salaries of the people who keep it running. we're also extremely short staffed at the casa, so that everyone is so over-worked they don't have the energy to help each other. i'm going to spend the afternoon helping put the library back together which totally fell apart during the earthquake, and even that small task i'm dreading.
i've got to get my beans and rice before there aren't any left. mom sent me down with a great load of groceries and nothing has been so good as hershey's chocolate syrup, laughing cow cheese, real peanut butter, and the vacuum-packed parmesan that made the trip well. thanks mom! i'm definitely thinking more about descansos and when i'll be going home on this half of the trip, but i'm sure it's a symptom of being alone with 31 girls... next trip is to tikal! some of the oldest mayan ruins around, and the biggest mayan city ever discovered.
anyway, thanks if you read this whole darn thing, and know that i'm grateful that i have people to share the craziness with.
peace to you
s
we had an earthquake last night in case our news didn't reach the states. it was my first but, there was no moment of "what the heck is going on?" i was in bed and woke up just before 2:30 a.m. to my bed shaking like crazy. i knew it was an earthquake but felt it stopping so stayed in bed another minute. (that also means that my super-human power to sleep was in full effect, because i didn't wake up for what everyone says felt like a very long first tremor.) then the a second tremor started and the girls started screaming and crying. i yanked my mosquito net up from under my matress and tried to jelly-walk to the door frame of my bathroom, closer to the outside wall of the building than my room entrance. it felt just like the room in fun-houses where the floor panels move in opposite directions and up and down. i kept screaming "esta bien, chicas, tranquila, todo bien, van a las puertas y quedan!" (it's ok, girls, calm down, everything's ok, go to the doors and stay!) it was long enough that i had time to think about, 1, how molly had had so many earthquakes living in japan so everything would be fine cuz it didn't feel too bad, 2, worry about girls falling out of their beds, 3, wonder at the coincidence that earlier that day i had been thinking about the major earthquake they had in 1999 that devasted casa guatemala, 4, that i better get some pants on cuz we were about to be seeing a lot of people. most of the girls were howling too much to get out of their bunk beds and all was still before we actually headed out of the house. the girls were a bit panicked running out and were caught by our on-site directora seno bea, who instructed them all on where to go... which was great because i didn't know. we've never had any kind of disaster training or information about what to do for what kind of emergency - though i'm sure it will be a hot topic at the meeting tonight.
i grabbed my extra flashlight, paracetamol (our pain killer of choice), a bottle of water and put one of my girls to walk with the little girls. we all went to the soccer field and did second and third head counts (or maybe that's just me...) seno bea sent her brother back with me to the house to get a shirt for one of my girls who ran out with just a skirt on! we were told to wait for a half an hour to make sure there were no more after-shocks, while seno bea and her brothers went to inspect the houses and make a plan for the rest of the night. there apparently were after-shocks that we didn't feel up at the campo, but that were felt back at our houses. the boys house over the river (literally) got quite a dose of water from the waves, and some superficial damage. casa de las ninas is fine, so little girls came up and camped out on our common-room floor, while the boys sat around in the downstairs area - and didn't sleep at all, though of course i fell right to sleep again...
the bbc reported a 7.1 on the richter scale, with an epicenter straight east of our part of guatemala, 36 miles north of roatan, honduras. the threat of tsunami has passed and only one death has been reported. our houses are built on stilts because we're so close to the river, and they definitely absorbed a lot of the shock from the way our huge orange house was swaying to and fro. it really did feel like a ride at a carnival. those stilts probably gave us a better ride than if we were connected to the ground, but whatever our connection, it was completely fascinating and powerful to feel the earth moving, and everything else around us as well. i felt how all of our physical surroundings all go back to the fact that we are essentially just moving plants, rooted to the ground and dependent on everything that it gives and takes and does to us. cool stuff, especially because there was only one casualty, and minimal damage.
hard to top that kind of news, so a quick update since the last blog. i went to the states for an extended break to watch my wonderful friend jessica marry her wonderful man josh. it was a fabulous celebration of these two people that i adore, and a really nice display of their love and the great ways that they balance each other out. then back to chicago with a ride from jeff and molly who came down to lousiville, kentucky to help toast the newlyweds. a nice dinner with mom for mother's day my first night back in the city, a memorable dinner with mom, her dear friend sandy, and my dear friend ashly at bistro campagne - marrow bones, pate, soft shell crab, beautifully done pork two-ways, polenta and a nice red wine. celebrated my nephew ethan's 9th birthday! with his sis maia who's also growing up fast, michelle, sister-in-law, whose so good at what she does the economy can't keep people from booking her design services, and had a great time hanging out with my brother and his band. ballet chicago put on a fabulous spring repertory performance, with dancers looking top-notch, arabesques miraculously all at 90 degrees (finally!), and a great premiere by the ever-entertaining ted seymour. the blamers (the great band that my friends have formed over a year ago) had a great show at their biggest night to date, sounding tremendous, much tighter, exciting, and awesomely dynamic. it's kindof like watching a puppy grow into it's paws; everybody really rocking their niche in the band and looking like complete strangers - rockstars for real! hooking up with shannon, kate the bod, emily shaw, weibke from germany and the like making it a really special trip. about 5 days before my plane i was feeling anxious and that i ought to be home - guatemala home - and what were my girls doing and were they behaving and was my partner chini ok with all the work alone?
it's been very hot here with no rain and high humidity. panic-inducing-hot. dripping, squishing, squeaking hot. it's so humid that i just noticed my pillow has little black mold spots, as do the vitamins, my toothpaste bag and numerous other things. we've had a nasty virus sweeping through the casa with lots of kids sick with high fever, sore throat, ear and eye infections and general misery. not much we can do for them either, which is the worst part. i've had mommy pangs feeling helpless and responsible for them and just wanting to make it better. the nicest thing i can do is put a cool cloth on their head and tell them they can stay in their sweltering beds.
agriculture class is on and off as the kids' behavior is pretty spotty. one day they're great and we learn a lot, partly lesson plan, partly the things i discover they don't know as we go along. we've been learning about irrigation systems, which has lead to the discovery that while they now know that rivers run to oceans, they didn't know it was because of gravity, or what gravity is. had never heard of it. glad nobody video taped me trying to explain that scientific law in spanish... one major problem is that they don't seem to grasp how to define things. they use the word to define the word and don't seem to be able to describe the thing in question. we spend a lot of time on that because most of the rest of their schooling relies heavily on word for word definitions on tests and they don't actually know what they're talking about. frustrating because they seem to be able to talk talk talk when we don't want them to, and clam up when i ask for an alternate description of "pressure."
we don't have school today, excuse being the earthquake of course, and what if there's another? i wish i had been keeping a log of our days off from school because it's pretty extraordinary. the other day instead of school, every kid 5 years and up was set to hauling rocks a long way from river to farm (huerto, really, where my classroom is for those who saw the video). all day.
casa guatemala is in financial crisis right now, with absolutely no donations coming in and major skimping and selling going on. we had a festival while i was gone to sell all the donated clothes that are new, and we're trying to plan more activities to raise money here on-site. there's a threat that the electricity will be turned off here and at the hotel. the hotel isn't even bringing in money right now, as it's only covering the salaries of the people who keep it running. we're also extremely short staffed at the casa, so that everyone is so over-worked they don't have the energy to help each other. i'm going to spend the afternoon helping put the library back together which totally fell apart during the earthquake, and even that small task i'm dreading.
i've got to get my beans and rice before there aren't any left. mom sent me down with a great load of groceries and nothing has been so good as hershey's chocolate syrup, laughing cow cheese, real peanut butter, and the vacuum-packed parmesan that made the trip well. thanks mom! i'm definitely thinking more about descansos and when i'll be going home on this half of the trip, but i'm sure it's a symptom of being alone with 31 girls... next trip is to tikal! some of the oldest mayan ruins around, and the biggest mayan city ever discovered.
anyway, thanks if you read this whole darn thing, and know that i'm grateful that i have people to share the craziness with.
peace to you
s
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
not all the days are great ones
got a few notes from people commenting on my optimism and commending my ability to ¨stick it out¨and wanted to set the record straight. all is well, and i haven´t committed any malicious crimes, but life aint easy. twice i have written lengthy posts that belie some of the misery that can set in when living in a situation like this. both times the generator gave out before the post was saved - once on the casa computer, and once when all of the electricity in town went out for the entire afternoon - it was well over 100 degrees that day. maybe that was some form of fate stepping in... imagine how rosy i was after that, and not a cold beverage in sight! i often liken it to the jungle - everything here grows bigger and faster, and so do our emotional reactions. the lows feel lower than normal and are just as extreme as the euphoria of the highs. after 28 straight days of work i am tired. it will be 5 weeks without a day off by the time i arrive in chicago and believe me that this is not ideal for me, my partners, or the kids. really ready to come home for a break, some serious hugs, and temporarily escaping the feeling that i can´t get anything done, i don´t make a difference, and these kids will never learn to read well, say please, or be accountable for their actions. those are the real downer moments. also, that i´m not doing anything as well as i can because i´m too tired. and that these kids won´t have consistent vegetables for so much of their childhood that they will be permanently affected.
one of the girls lost a tooth and gave it to my partner chini, also one of our nurses. she forgot to tell me so that i could put a treat under her pillow and take the tooth. they call it the little rat here - no fairies. actually, if she didn´t have her mosquito net it definitely could be rat under her pillow (stacy woke up with a rat biting her toe through her mosquito net the other night...). anyway, she woke up to still find her tooth there. she asked chini if the ratito didn´t want her tooth. she told her no no - it´s because there are so many beds in your room, he couldn´t find you. the girl said, oh good, i thought maybe he didn´t want it because it´s black. her tooth is decayed straight through, with a hole you can see through. the next morning there was a bag hanging on our door so that ratito could make sure we got the treat to her. normally it´s some candy and 1 quetzal - guatemalan money - about 20 cents. i slipped a toothbrush in too...
all my love and thanks for staying in touch with me here on the blog... it means a lot on those inevitable bad days. chicago here i come!
s
one of the girls lost a tooth and gave it to my partner chini, also one of our nurses. she forgot to tell me so that i could put a treat under her pillow and take the tooth. they call it the little rat here - no fairies. actually, if she didn´t have her mosquito net it definitely could be rat under her pillow (stacy woke up with a rat biting her toe through her mosquito net the other night...). anyway, she woke up to still find her tooth there. she asked chini if the ratito didn´t want her tooth. she told her no no - it´s because there are so many beds in your room, he couldn´t find you. the girl said, oh good, i thought maybe he didn´t want it because it´s black. her tooth is decayed straight through, with a hole you can see through. the next morning there was a bag hanging on our door so that ratito could make sure we got the treat to her. normally it´s some candy and 1 quetzal - guatemalan money - about 20 cents. i slipped a toothbrush in too...
all my love and thanks for staying in touch with me here on the blog... it means a lot on those inevitable bad days. chicago here i come!
s
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
our river connects to an ocean
It´s ridiculous how much has happened since the last time i managed to find time to blog.
First, the big news: i´m the new agriculture teacher. A large part of my initial interest in casa guatemala was to live more sustainably and closer to the land. I wanted to learn about agriculture and farming by doing it, not reading about it. Alas, that has not been the case. With the hours of my orientation position there´s not much energy left for hanging out with the guys in the farm and observing their self-taught or family-learned methods. However, seño angie was dead-set on having an agriculture teacher; bravo. No one else was interested except me, so they made me an offer i couldn´t refuse: work two jobs for free, and we´ll give you beans and rice! Hahaha, that´s casa humor, not bitterness! I´m loving being in a classroom again, and finding that the teaching gig at my beloved Ballet Chicago is more than a love of ballet.
That said, the kids are a far cry from the enthusiastic, well-behaved, self-disciplined kids of SBC. I´ve spent all of my classes trying to work on rules, classroom behavior and showing them that i´m serious about discipline. After witnessing the classes of other volunteers, i´m determined not to let them get away with disrespectful behavior.
I wasn´t able to get any information or materials prior to my first class so i´ve been feeling it out as i go. We reviewed very basic parts of the plant and the basic process of photosynthesis that they had been learning for a couple of weeks with a guatemalan teacher.
Volunteer Hani from Denmark-Finland found me a science text with a couple chapters on ecosystems and pollution, although they´re a bit ahead of the learning curve here. I´ve also got a packet from Oxfam on building an irrigation system. Volunteer Bob, so dear to my heart, was here working on drip irrigation for a couple of months so this will tie in nicely with what we´ve actually got. I´m taking my time with the kids. When we come across words they don´t know, i give examples, ask for the common factors in the examples, ask for their examples, come up with our own definition, look it up in a spanish dictionary, and talk about how that definition is better or worse than our own. We spend the beginning of the next class reviewing all of those things.
Today, we reviewed contamination and began reading the Oxfam material on irrigation.
On Sunday, all of casa guatemala was taken to Fronteras, the town in Rio Dulce across the bridge from hotel backpackers. It was their first time away from the casa since sometime before christmas. We walked in a parade with banners to advertise the fruits and vegetables that we grow. (It was a very long, hot, 4 hour walk in the sun that took so long there was no time for the kids to do any of the fun things at the fair. All of the volunteers were upset that the kids didn´t get to ride the ferris wheel, or zipper, or tilt-a-whirl, so imagine how sad the kids were. The teachers told them we would come back this week to do all of that, and then we heard from higher up that that was too much time away from school classes, and the kids were super let down.) The current crop is a whole lot of sandía – watermelon. We have it for each snack and watermelon juice for each beverage. (It´s not the most nutritionally beneficial fruit but it fetches a high price in town.) one of our banners said: no contamine el río. Hence, our lesson on contamination. I explained about the organization of Oxfam, and how they have a project on Lago de Izabal, which feeds into Rio Dulce. Oxfam is trying to prevent some american companies from drilling through the middle of the lake, and kicking the indigenous people out of the area. Finally something they had some interest in! More than half of each of my classes is Mayan and most of those speak Que´qchi as their first language. (an amazing language to listen to with sounds like choc, bu, pop. Those are all very common last names, in fact.) We talked about how drilling could contaminate the lake, which connects to our river. From there, however, they didn´t know where the river went. So we spent time talking about how rivers generally connect to oceans, and that the ocean is not far from where we live! This was news to them.
Once we get going, and i can spend more time teaching and less waiting for them to be quiet or sending them out of the classroom, we will be learning about root systems by growing coleus plant cuttings. Everyone has been saving plastic bottles for the class and it´s nice to know that they weren´t burned. Ask my class, they´ll tell you that contaminates the air, and in turn the earth and the water... i contacted my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Giles, who did an awesome year-long project with us on horticulutre and the environment. He graciously sent me some ideas and will hopefully send some more. One of his projects is seed germination in plastic bags with a bit of dirt and water, breath in some carbon dioxide and watch your greenhouse grow! Now all the voluteers are saving plastic bags too!
I took a trip to Semuc Champey, one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala. Had a great time swimming in the limestone pools, dining on all-you-can-eat buffet, tubing slowly (no danger!) down the river, watching a mass exodus of bats from a cave at sunset, and showing off Rio Dulce to some travelers.
Semana Santa, holy week, was filled with special activities, as we had only the kids without families for the most part. The first three days were special seminars on guatemalan identity, personal hygiene, self-reliance, etc. The people who conducted the seminars were really great with the kids on some things, then shied away from other important topics, like boy-girl relationships and how to avoid having babies. They gave the kids a couple hundred pounds of candy - plastic that i´m still picking up every time i walk from one end of the casa to the other. We had a special fish dinner, smores, a dance party, manicure-pedicure for the girls, etc. All in all, the kids had a pretty great time, and i finally got to know some of our most difficult girls, as they let their guard down with fewer girls in the house. The best part is that those relationships have mostly remained intact even with the return of girls with families.
I´ll be coming home to chicago, my favorite town! from may 10 to 20th. I´ve got the wedding of Jess and Josh in Louisville just before that – so excited to see these great people marry each other, and so proud to be one of her bridesmaids! Also, Ballet Chicago´s Spring Repertory program is the weekend of the 15th, with a new ballet by Ted Seymour, long-time dancer friend, and i´ll definitely be there. Balletchicago.org. The other venue where you´re sure to catch me is Martyr´s on Saturday the 16th, for the Blamers headliner show! This is gonna be a big one so come show you´re support!
I´ll be at about 5 weeks of work by then so i´ll plan on taking a short 3 day trip to livingston on the caribbean – where our river meets the ocean... to eat and relax. It´s uncanny how you can see people´s lights burn out as they get close to three weeks of work without a break, it never fails. For me it starts with the food. Then my patience with the girls starts to go, then my patience with everyone around me. I started skipping meals in the comedor yesterday officially, and making something up at the volunteer house. I can´t wait to bring good food from home back here. I miss hershey´s syrup! I´ll be on a serious search for non-refrigerated foods to bring back.
Hope this finds everyone well. Time down here has flown, but when i think of all the people i miss it seems like it´s been years. We talk a lot about how we feel like we live in a bubble, like some piece of fiction that requires a time-machine and a very large needle to pop it and get you home. I´m sorry if i´ve missed birthdays or important news, but know that i´m thinking of all of you with love.
Peace to you
s
First, the big news: i´m the new agriculture teacher. A large part of my initial interest in casa guatemala was to live more sustainably and closer to the land. I wanted to learn about agriculture and farming by doing it, not reading about it. Alas, that has not been the case. With the hours of my orientation position there´s not much energy left for hanging out with the guys in the farm and observing their self-taught or family-learned methods. However, seño angie was dead-set on having an agriculture teacher; bravo. No one else was interested except me, so they made me an offer i couldn´t refuse: work two jobs for free, and we´ll give you beans and rice! Hahaha, that´s casa humor, not bitterness! I´m loving being in a classroom again, and finding that the teaching gig at my beloved Ballet Chicago is more than a love of ballet.
That said, the kids are a far cry from the enthusiastic, well-behaved, self-disciplined kids of SBC. I´ve spent all of my classes trying to work on rules, classroom behavior and showing them that i´m serious about discipline. After witnessing the classes of other volunteers, i´m determined not to let them get away with disrespectful behavior.
I wasn´t able to get any information or materials prior to my first class so i´ve been feeling it out as i go. We reviewed very basic parts of the plant and the basic process of photosynthesis that they had been learning for a couple of weeks with a guatemalan teacher.
Volunteer Hani from Denmark-Finland found me a science text with a couple chapters on ecosystems and pollution, although they´re a bit ahead of the learning curve here. I´ve also got a packet from Oxfam on building an irrigation system. Volunteer Bob, so dear to my heart, was here working on drip irrigation for a couple of months so this will tie in nicely with what we´ve actually got. I´m taking my time with the kids. When we come across words they don´t know, i give examples, ask for the common factors in the examples, ask for their examples, come up with our own definition, look it up in a spanish dictionary, and talk about how that definition is better or worse than our own. We spend the beginning of the next class reviewing all of those things.
Today, we reviewed contamination and began reading the Oxfam material on irrigation.
On Sunday, all of casa guatemala was taken to Fronteras, the town in Rio Dulce across the bridge from hotel backpackers. It was their first time away from the casa since sometime before christmas. We walked in a parade with banners to advertise the fruits and vegetables that we grow. (It was a very long, hot, 4 hour walk in the sun that took so long there was no time for the kids to do any of the fun things at the fair. All of the volunteers were upset that the kids didn´t get to ride the ferris wheel, or zipper, or tilt-a-whirl, so imagine how sad the kids were. The teachers told them we would come back this week to do all of that, and then we heard from higher up that that was too much time away from school classes, and the kids were super let down.) The current crop is a whole lot of sandía – watermelon. We have it for each snack and watermelon juice for each beverage. (It´s not the most nutritionally beneficial fruit but it fetches a high price in town.) one of our banners said: no contamine el río. Hence, our lesson on contamination. I explained about the organization of Oxfam, and how they have a project on Lago de Izabal, which feeds into Rio Dulce. Oxfam is trying to prevent some american companies from drilling through the middle of the lake, and kicking the indigenous people out of the area. Finally something they had some interest in! More than half of each of my classes is Mayan and most of those speak Que´qchi as their first language. (an amazing language to listen to with sounds like choc, bu, pop. Those are all very common last names, in fact.) We talked about how drilling could contaminate the lake, which connects to our river. From there, however, they didn´t know where the river went. So we spent time talking about how rivers generally connect to oceans, and that the ocean is not far from where we live! This was news to them.
Once we get going, and i can spend more time teaching and less waiting for them to be quiet or sending them out of the classroom, we will be learning about root systems by growing coleus plant cuttings. Everyone has been saving plastic bottles for the class and it´s nice to know that they weren´t burned. Ask my class, they´ll tell you that contaminates the air, and in turn the earth and the water... i contacted my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Giles, who did an awesome year-long project with us on horticulutre and the environment. He graciously sent me some ideas and will hopefully send some more. One of his projects is seed germination in plastic bags with a bit of dirt and water, breath in some carbon dioxide and watch your greenhouse grow! Now all the voluteers are saving plastic bags too!
I took a trip to Semuc Champey, one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala. Had a great time swimming in the limestone pools, dining on all-you-can-eat buffet, tubing slowly (no danger!) down the river, watching a mass exodus of bats from a cave at sunset, and showing off Rio Dulce to some travelers.
Semana Santa, holy week, was filled with special activities, as we had only the kids without families for the most part. The first three days were special seminars on guatemalan identity, personal hygiene, self-reliance, etc. The people who conducted the seminars were really great with the kids on some things, then shied away from other important topics, like boy-girl relationships and how to avoid having babies. They gave the kids a couple hundred pounds of candy - plastic that i´m still picking up every time i walk from one end of the casa to the other. We had a special fish dinner, smores, a dance party, manicure-pedicure for the girls, etc. All in all, the kids had a pretty great time, and i finally got to know some of our most difficult girls, as they let their guard down with fewer girls in the house. The best part is that those relationships have mostly remained intact even with the return of girls with families.
I´ll be coming home to chicago, my favorite town! from may 10 to 20th. I´ve got the wedding of Jess and Josh in Louisville just before that – so excited to see these great people marry each other, and so proud to be one of her bridesmaids! Also, Ballet Chicago´s Spring Repertory program is the weekend of the 15th, with a new ballet by Ted Seymour, long-time dancer friend, and i´ll definitely be there. Balletchicago.org. The other venue where you´re sure to catch me is Martyr´s on Saturday the 16th, for the Blamers headliner show! This is gonna be a big one so come show you´re support!
I´ll be at about 5 weeks of work by then so i´ll plan on taking a short 3 day trip to livingston on the caribbean – where our river meets the ocean... to eat and relax. It´s uncanny how you can see people´s lights burn out as they get close to three weeks of work without a break, it never fails. For me it starts with the food. Then my patience with the girls starts to go, then my patience with everyone around me. I started skipping meals in the comedor yesterday officially, and making something up at the volunteer house. I can´t wait to bring good food from home back here. I miss hershey´s syrup! I´ll be on a serious search for non-refrigerated foods to bring back.
Hope this finds everyone well. Time down here has flown, but when i think of all the people i miss it seems like it´s been years. We talk a lot about how we feel like we live in a bubble, like some piece of fiction that requires a time-machine and a very large needle to pop it and get you home. I´m sorry if i´ve missed birthdays or important news, but know that i´m thinking of all of you with love.
Peace to you
s
Friday, March 27, 2009
this is waaaaay better than tv
just a quick post since i´ve not written for over a month! time really flies down here and when i´ve had computer time i´ve tried to get pictures downloaded to the blog. after 45 minutes it poops out at the last minute, very fustrating. the first moments that come to mind are environmental. i´m loving living in the jungle and there´s no way to forget it - from cows politely nosing me off the path, to the giant snake that lives in the kitchen, to those darn howler monkeys starting up at 4 am. los monos son mui normal, pero todavia, cada tiempo que los vemos es un momento especial. my spanish is coming along, though i make lots of mistakes. i have chini and jasmine, the two other orientadoras for ninas grandes to correct me, and chini and i have a daily swap of words and pronunciation. so, back to those moments i´d like to share... i sat on the dock the other night during our hour of free time from 6:30 to 7:30 when the girls have activities with the other volunteers before bed. there is a great big white neon light. staring up at the stars, millions by the way, tiny bugs caught the light and looked like shooting stars. something kept flying by but i didn´t realize i had seen it until it was gone. after 4 passes i realized it was a bat. we´ve got lots of bats and they like to live under our house but it never gets old. it did it´s circular flight pattern getting closer and closer to me until it was within 4 feet every time it passed me. i looked over toward the light and the river below was alive with plop plop sounds. instead of something falling into the river, it was fish jumping into the air to eat the bugs that the light attracts. the image was very cool and another nice river-life moment.
i´ve begun working in the farm and am excited about spending more time there - though it is hot and sunny like nothing else. bob from minnesota just left us for home and i´ll be picking up some of his projects. he was working on installing drip irrigation in several zones of the farm - right now growing cucumbers, watermelons, and shortly replacing the green beans in the green house with tomatoes. also, seño bea, the on-site director of casa guatemala is going to teach me how to rejuvinate the worm farm. she used to be in charge of the agriculture and livestock aspects of the project, and now that she is responsible for the whole place she doesn´t have the time to focus on the farm. change is hard though, and i´m sure i have many battles ahead of me. for instance, after installing so many drip lines we found the (lazy) farm workers watering right over the drip lines by hand. watering by hand tends to soak the soil and the water only reaches an inch or two below, while most beneficial is an 8 inch penetration so that the roots are fed. this is the point of the new drip system... ideally we should only need the irrigation to run twice a week. if we get more rain or it´s especially dry and hot, then we increase the hours that the pump is on, rather than adding more days. i looooove learning about the farm.
just heard that we can hitch a bus in a half hour rather than walking across town so i´ve got to go. i´m in coban right now, travelling solo, which of course, is never alone. met a nice guy from germany and we have the same itinerary and now we´ve picked up a wonderful spanish and american couple so we´re all heading to lanquin and semuc champey together. it´s supposed to be the most beautiful place in all guatemala and we´re all going out of obligation but i´m pretty sure it will be spectacular. i´ll be there for a couple days and then head back to the rio dulce, stop at ak tenemit, a mayan village and school with 12 grades and a graduating class of 90! the study mostly community organizing for maya and maya trades and crafts. then on to livingston on the carribean coast of the river for a couple days with claudine from south africa whose descanso overlaps with mine. the 4th through the 13th is semana santa - a very big deal holy week with parties and family time. that means that we only have around 50 kids - the ones without family. we´re preparing many activities and i think we´ll have a nice meal at some point too.
haven´t been eating well at home obviously, so this descanco is about food. can´t wait to get some soon...
peace and love to all, te extraño!
s
i´ve begun working in the farm and am excited about spending more time there - though it is hot and sunny like nothing else. bob from minnesota just left us for home and i´ll be picking up some of his projects. he was working on installing drip irrigation in several zones of the farm - right now growing cucumbers, watermelons, and shortly replacing the green beans in the green house with tomatoes. also, seño bea, the on-site director of casa guatemala is going to teach me how to rejuvinate the worm farm. she used to be in charge of the agriculture and livestock aspects of the project, and now that she is responsible for the whole place she doesn´t have the time to focus on the farm. change is hard though, and i´m sure i have many battles ahead of me. for instance, after installing so many drip lines we found the (lazy) farm workers watering right over the drip lines by hand. watering by hand tends to soak the soil and the water only reaches an inch or two below, while most beneficial is an 8 inch penetration so that the roots are fed. this is the point of the new drip system... ideally we should only need the irrigation to run twice a week. if we get more rain or it´s especially dry and hot, then we increase the hours that the pump is on, rather than adding more days. i looooove learning about the farm.
just heard that we can hitch a bus in a half hour rather than walking across town so i´ve got to go. i´m in coban right now, travelling solo, which of course, is never alone. met a nice guy from germany and we have the same itinerary and now we´ve picked up a wonderful spanish and american couple so we´re all heading to lanquin and semuc champey together. it´s supposed to be the most beautiful place in all guatemala and we´re all going out of obligation but i´m pretty sure it will be spectacular. i´ll be there for a couple days and then head back to the rio dulce, stop at ak tenemit, a mayan village and school with 12 grades and a graduating class of 90! the study mostly community organizing for maya and maya trades and crafts. then on to livingston on the carribean coast of the river for a couple days with claudine from south africa whose descanso overlaps with mine. the 4th through the 13th is semana santa - a very big deal holy week with parties and family time. that means that we only have around 50 kids - the ones without family. we´re preparing many activities and i think we´ll have a nice meal at some point too.
haven´t been eating well at home obviously, so this descanco is about food. can´t wait to get some soon...
peace and love to all, te extraño!
s
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