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