Chonimacorral celebrates their new school!!!

This past week we celebrated the completion of the school in Chonimacorral. The school was funded through a group of donors from Switzerland who partnered with a local NGO to find an appropriate site for the school and for a community deserving of the funds. After a few months construction has been completed and the only thing left to do was to have a big party and give diplomas to the representatives of the swiss group and the NGO here. Celebrations started at 8 and were rumored to have ended well after midnight. Liz and I had a great time, got severe sunburns from being outside all morning (even with spf 30) overate and made new friends in Switzerland. Congratulations to the community of Chonimacorral.

Painting the letters on the school. These are two of my students.

A new addition to the school, bathrooms. Before this they had to use the cornfields.

The kids made their own flags and I taught them a few german phrases to say to the visitors.

Diplomas being made by the director of the school.

These women were in charge of getting decorations ready for the outdoor mass they held in front of the school

There were over 60 women from the community helping to prepare for the celebrations. These women were in charge of peeling the carrots.

Here are the huge cauldrons of soup. They cooked for well over 200 people this day.

These are filled with tamalitos, which are like mexican tamales minus the meat and sauce in the middle.

Here is the finished school with the tent where the ceremony was held.

Some of the students did this traditional dance of thanks to begin the inauguration ceremony.

The unveiling of the plaque.

The ribbon cutting ceremony to the classrooms.

Here is one of the members of the Swiss delegation receiving his certificate of thanks

Here is the other member of the delegation, Esther, receiving hers.

Liz in front of the school with two students.

Eating lunch after all was said and done in one of the new class rooms.

Tire Garden Completed

Cutting the tires in a basin of soapy water. The soap lubricates the tires so its easy to cut through the rubber and the clean tire is much more pleasant to try and flip inside out.

In honor of my Dad's birthday today, I am posting pictures of our latest project, a tire garden that we put on our roof to provide us with some greenery. Happy birthday Dad!! Wish we could be working in your garden with you today!

Melissa and Lizzy painting. 

Flipping the tire, this one took three of us.

After painting we lined the bottom with a frame of sticks

...then we covered the stick frames with plastic grain bags to hold the dirt in.

Here is our corn...

...and here are our flowers.

We are hoping that the beans will grow tall and we can string them up to create a natural green wall to provide us with some privacy...I just wish they would hurry up and grow already!

Just over one year completed...and the thoughts to go along with that

What Guatemala has taught me during my first year here:

-Dogs are not your friends and the second you take your eye off of them they will bite you on the leg (true story). It is also beneficial to learn the “I’m bending down to pick up a rock to throw at you” move so that you can dissuade would be leg biters from coming near you.

-How to deal with bed bugs…remove all sheets, put them in plastic garbage bags, spray an entire can of Raid in the bag and leave them outside in the sun for a few weeks. Meanwhile you have to buy huge amounts of plastic sheeting and wrap your bed in it while using all of the duct tape you brought with you for 2 years in order to secure it.

-How to deal with fleas…first you have to determine that they aren’t bed bugs…we did this by catching one of them right after it bit my leg and burrowed into the blanket and then took the body to the internet café…thanks to google we confirmed that it was in fact a flea. Flea powder seems to work, but they just keep coming back, especially after packed bus rides…thanks neighbors for being so willing to share with us!!

-There is no shame in pooping your pants.

-There is definite shame in vomiting on the nice American man sitting next to you on the bus.

-There is also shame in having your child pee in a plastic bag and then you vomit in a similar type of bag which you then put on the floor of the bus which eventually ends up spilling all over the feet of the same nice American man sitting next to you on the bus.

-It is not necessary to throw your trash in a garbage can if it is easier and more convenient to throw it on the ground or out of a bus window, whichever is closer.

-Most meat tastes better unrefrigerated and marinated in fly kisses.

-Don’t ever buy spinach or lettuce in the local markets, unless you want to lose a good 5 to 10 pounds over the course of a few days.

-No matter what scent of laundry soap you use, all your clothes are going to end up  smelling like smoke.

-If a man is seen doing laundry in any rural community, it is the job of any and all surrounding women to harass said man and to ask him when he is going to wash their laundry as well.

-Don’t eat before going to anyone’s home around meal times.

-Anytime you are invited to a local event, expect to sit up front and say a few words to the crowd…no matter how irrelevant you may feel your presence or your remarks might be. If there is a road in town that was just built you had better comment on it.

-Never bother leaving a voice mail, just keep calling until someone picks up. This also goes for knocking on someone’s door. If they don’t answer right away, keep knocking, it literally makes people appear, even if they aren’t home.

-Don’t bother telling someone they’ve dialed the wrong number. If you tell someone they’ve dialed the wrong number they will just keep calling you until they’ve determined that it is in fact the wrong number no matter how many times you explain it to them, in Spanish or in English.

These are but a few of the pearls of wisdom I have obtained in this first year. Can’t wait to see what the next year holds!!

Mother's Day in Guatemala

Mother's Day was a very festive two day celebration here in town. The morning started out with a celebration in the center of town for one of the schools that Liz is working at. Here she is introducing her game for the mothers, because here Mother's Day is a day to make moms stand in front of a crowd and compete for plastic utensils, like bowls and strainers and cups. Its kind of like a tupperware party competition, only the tupperware is super cheap and donated by the local political party. At any rate, it was an entertaining morning. They celebrated the oldest and the youngest moms in the audience, the oldest being in her 60's and the youngest being 15 with a one year old strapped to her back. I felt a little strange clapping for her achievement and stranger still when she was given a gift for said accomplishment. 

 One of the other ways that Mother's Day, and almost any other day worth celebrating here is celebrated, is with choreographed lip syncs. Typically there is a male singer in front who knows just enough break dance moves to make him feel confident (usually 1-2) and in between these break dance moves he waves his hands in front of his face a lot while the girls in the back look back and forth at each other to confirm that they are in fact all doing more or less the same dance move. Not quite sure how much the mothers enjoyed it, but its the thought that counts, right moms?

 In between celebrations, Lizzy was able to get a family picture with Lydia, Melissa and Brian on our roof. How cute are they in their traditional dress?

 Moving to the next celebration in Chonimacorral. I thought I had walked into a frat party with some of the contests. This one the women raced to chug a bottle of coke. The winner also won something made of plastic that could be used in the kitchen.

 Here they had to blow up a balloon to the point of popping. Unfortunately the balloons were of higher quality and we almost had one of the women pass out before anything came close to popping. We ended up voting on who had blown theirs up the biggest.

Here is the 3rd celebration for me in Cuesta del Aire. The rain was so loud on the tin roof of the school that no one could hear much of anything being said. After an hour the power went out and the 3 hour program was scrapped.

 Here the students are singing to their mothers before the power went out.

 These little girls really wanted a picture taken of them after they ran out and played in the rain.

 After the power went out everyone rushed to clean up all the decorations, then it turned into a big photo shoot since my students saw that I had my camera.

 Here are the 7th graders after cleaning up everything. It was a lot of fun, too bad the power cut out on them. Happy mother's day to all the moms out there. Thanks for having us kids and know that you are loved and appreciated...even if we didn't send you cheap plastic kitchen utensils.