Bienvenido a Guatamala

Central America Caribbean » Guatemala » Capital Region » Antigua
October 28th 2009

Published: October 28th 2009

Hola mi amigos! 26 hours of flying and transiting, tens of thousand of miles covered, an ocean crossed as well as a cultural divide and I have made it to Guatamala in one piece. I was very relieved to see my bag on the conveyer belt at Guatamala City airport. I had visions of my bag either ending up in Havana or Columbia or mysteriously going missing and then catching sight of the airport workers wearing my clothes. After 30 hours of more or less no sleep, I was ecstatic to make my way through the very relaxed customs authorities and see Sarah waiting for me. Sarah is an intern for GVI and arranged for transport from Guatamala City to Antigua.

Unbeknown to me, there was another GVI volunteer, Sandy, on the plane from Dallas to Guatamala City. Sandy is a 19 year old girl from Melbourne who had the foresight to learn Spanish before she came and therefore puts me to shame in the language stakes. We shared a room together for our first night in Antigua in a small hotel. The first night in the hotel was kind of interesting . . .all I kept hearing all night was the sound of firecrackers going off in the streets and cars back firing very loudly (at least I think it was cars backfiring). Sandy was not as jet lagged as me because she has spent the last 7 months in the USA and had less distance to travel. Therefore she was quite chatty when we arrived. Whilst I didn´t want to be rude (especially it being the first night and all and because Sandy and I will be spending alot of time together over the coming weeks), I more or less had a shower as soon as we arrived and got straight into bed. Talk time OVER and sleep time ON!

Antigua

For the next couple of months, I will be calling Antigua home! Antigua is about 45 minutes outside of Guatamala City and is a beautiful town nestled between 3 volcanoes. You can´t walk through the streets of Antigua without catching sight of them. A couple of the volcanoes are actually still active. In fact I saw smoke billowing out of Fuego the other day. I told my Spanish teacher and she laughed and assured me that if it blew it would take out the surrounding towns first before reaching Antigua. You can actually take a tour to Pacaya and get close enough to see the lava. The other volunteers tell me that you can feel the heat coming through your shoes. Needless to say that safety regulations over here aren´t as strictly regulated as they are back home. Not that a bit of flying rock is going to stop me from heading up there. I´ll keep you posted when I head up to Pacaya in the next couple of weeks.

Antigua has been desigated by UNESCO as a town of historical significance. All of the streets are cobblestone and they are the defining characteristic of Antigua. There aren´t any traffic lights as such but there are a multitude of stop signs and somehow everyone knows who to give way to. There also seems to be a code of different sounding beeps/horn blowing which tell people to go/stop/hurry up/slow down etc. I was surprised by the quality of the cars in the streets. I´ve seen brand new Golfs, Range Rovers etc as well as clapped out jalopies. Motorbikes and vespas are also extremely popular on the streets of Antigua. The sidewalks are really narrow and are about 3 feet high so my legs get a bit of a workout stepping up and down all the time!

Antigua is a very popular tourist town and is a mecca for people trying to learn Spanish before heading further afield in Central America. It is only a small town (approx 40,000 people) and is a mixture of traditional Guatamalan shops/restaurants and western shops. For example, in Antigua there is a Dominoes and a Burger King, a gym, several spas where you can get massages and various western bars, cafes and internet places. There are also small tiendas (ie very small convenience stores) on every corner where you can buy everything but the kitchen sink, panderias (ie bakeries) selling traditional Guatamalan pasteries and more latin type restaurants/bars. There is probably about 15 churches in an area the size of Norman Park (and before you ask Dad, I haven´t been inside one yet) and every few hundres metres I seem to stumble across anew garden or courtyard housing little museums or restaurants.

Most people in Guatamala wear western dress and wouldn´t be out of place in Brisbane, Sydney or any other town in Australia. There are also a number of indigenous Mayans that live in and around Antigua. They wear traditional Mayan clothes which, for the women, consist of these beautiful colourful skirts and a plain top. The Mayan men tend to wear plain trousers and button up shirts.

It feels (and it is) very safe to walk through the streets of Antigua though you are always advised to stay on your guard for pick pockets etc. There seems to be Tourist Police (and police/guards generally) on every second corner with big guns. There are at least 2 guards outside every bank with huge shotguns, there are men with guns outside jewelery shops, there are military types with rifles almost as tall as they are (Guatamalans aren´t very tall as a general rule). I think there is less chance of being robbed in Antigua than there is in Brisbane (touch wood). I bet I´ll get robbed as I leave the internet cafe now that I´ve said that.

I have to say that I really love the energy of Antigua and I could happily walk aimlessly through the streets for hours on end, interrupted only by a short sojourn for a cerveza and some local music. The people (referred to as Antiguenos and Antiguenas depending on whether they are men or women) are really nice and love to laugh and have a good time like Aussies. They are especially patient when you attempt to speak in Spanish. Not many people speak English in Antigua so learning the lingo is a necessity.

Learning Spanish

My first week in Antigua entailed going to Spanish School every day from 8am in the morning until 3pm in the afternoon (with a one hour break for lunch). My teacher´s name is Annabelly and whilst she understands English and can translate English words, you can´t converse with her in English. It is quite a different way to learn. We sit outside in a lovely little courtyard facing each other across a small table. There are other teachers and students nearby doing the same thing. There is no formal instruction as such (ie no text books to read through) rather Anabelly just starts talking and somehow I have to follow what she is talking about. Well, you can imagine me on the first day when Anabelly is asking my name, where I come from etc. She lost me at Hola! To her credit, Anabelly was very patient and knows enough English to translate what she is asking you. Anabelly´s teaching method is a combination of speaking at you until you can work out what she is talking about and writing things down on paper. It´s hard work but a strangely effective way of learning. You are forced to concentrate so hard so it makes for an exhausting day. I was wrecked by the end of the first day!

It´s hilarious when you´re sitting at the table with your teacher trying to follow what she´s saying and trying to reply because you can see and hear the other students butchering Spanish with their teacher. You share a smirk with each other, sharing a common experience (unless of course you took time to learn the language before you came like Sandy). I can see that Anabelly is bored when I struggle to (a) find the right word in Spanish (b) conjugate it into the right tense and (c) put all the words in the right order (the form of Spanish grammar is back to front from English). By the time I´m ready to reply to Anabelly´s question, she has gone to the toilet, made herself a coffee and reapplied her makeup. Whilst she does appear bored most of the time, over the past couple of weeks we have kind of struck a friendship up and we shared a few laughs quite early on. it is quite amazing what you can talk about when neither of you can speak each other´s language particularly well. She has a good sense of humour and seems to be very intelligent and knows alot about different things. Somehow we managed to discuss the El Nino effect because Guatamala looks like it´s about to go into drought whilst Australia has just come out of drought! She is very patient and I expect that she has seen worse students than me in her time (at least that is what I am telling myself). I´ve actually started to look forward to Spanish lessons because I feel quite excited about learning something new. Don´t get me wrong, it´s very frustrating when you are struggling for words but every day I understand a bit more and I can speak a bit more and that is very rewarding.

My Family

I am living with a woman (a widow I think) called Beatriz. She is relatively well off by Guatamalan standards. By Australian standards, the house would be considered pretty average but it is clean and very livable. I have my own room which is simple (eg it fits a double bed, chest of drawers and bedside table) but clean. Her house is also of a decent size compared to some of the other houses in Antigua. She also has a housekeeper called Carmen who lives upstairs with her 4 daughters (2 sets of twins) who are 11 and 3. Carmen prepares my breakfast in the morning, makes a sandwich for me to take to Spanish school and makes me dinner in the evening. I feel very well taken care of. The food is a combo of western food and traditional food. I am happy to say that my stomach is holding up well.

Beatriz and I speak for a bit in the mornings to help me practice my Spanish. I call them our Spanglish sessions. She cannot really speak English but can understand a bit of English and so we can sort of understand each other. My Spanish gets a little bit better every day so we are starting to have longer conversations. When she is not home (which is often) and I am sitting by myself at the dining table whilst Carmen and the kids are eating in the kitchen, I feel pretty awkward. I think I would rather be sitting in the kitchen with them watching local TV. But it seems that is not what is done over here. The kids are adorable and when I know them better, I hope to show you all some pics. I was in fits the other day when the TV in the kitchen was on the blink and Carmen was just banging the top of it with all her might to get the picture to come back on. There were literally sparks coming out of the TV! But sure enough after a minute or so of banging, back came the picture!

I am able to come and go as I please and as long as I tell them whether I will be home for dinner or not, everyone is happy! Beatriz seems like a very nice woman and I get the feeling that she may contribute to paying for the schooling of Carmen´s daughters. Carmen is Mayan and Mayans tend to be poorer than non indigenous Antiguenos (or latins).

The Project

I could write another three pages about the project but I know most people have short attention spans (as do I) so I will TRY and be brief!

The indigenous Maya in Guatemala make up a huge percentage of the population, yet many live off just $1 a day. Global Vision International (GVI) has set up its own schools in two indigenous communities in Guatemala, San Andrés Itzapa (where I am working) and Santa Maria de Jesus, which are both within a 45 minute bus ride from Antigua through lush mountain scenery and typical Guatemalan villages. GVI’s aims are first and foremost in education, paying particular focus on literacy and educational reinforcement for the children of each community.

I have the luxury of having a class room with walls and a door that shuts. All the other´class roòoms´ are actually just concrete slabs with a tin roof over them! We have white boards to write on and we supply the kids with note books and pencils (all of which have to be returned at the end of the day)! All this comes at a cost because GVI receives no government funding and relies entirely on donations and volunteer contributions! Can you imagine a situation where pencils have to be used until they are about 3 cm long before they get replaced! If anyone knows a stationary supplier with a benevolent heart - they would be welcomed very warmly over here!

Volunteers have the option to take their own class, or assist other volunteers until they feel they could take their own class. I was flying solo with my class during the second week I was there. Each class size can range from 5-20 children, depending on the collective ability or the attention needed by the children. Lessons include a range of subjects, from basic literacy and numbers to English, educational reinforcement to games and sports, help with homework to other activities. Full records are kept of each child’s progress on a monthly basis, to facilitate the volunteer changeover and allow the continuity of the child’s education process.

I guess we would have about 50 or 60 kids in the morning and about the same in the afternoon. I have about 8 kids in my morning class and up to 15 in my afternoon class. The kids can't always show up everyday because they have to work with their parents to support their familes! The way it works is that GVI pays for the kids to attend a government school in either the morning afternoon and then they come to us for the other half of the day. So, I will prepare a lesson for the day and teach from 9 to 12 (the morning kids) and then present the same or smilar lesson or the afternoon kids from 2 to 4. During the lunch break, I plan lessons for the next day! Lesson planning is tough work especially when you have to translate everything from spanish to english and then back to spanish for the kids! I now have the deepest respect for teachers! Keeping a bunch of 8 year olds engaged and under control for 2 to 3 hours is tough! However, the kids are amazing and so affectionate! They just want to hug you and play with you during break and get the attention that they don't receive from their parents. The contact you can have with the kids would never be allowed back home! What are you going to do when a little girl or boy just comes up to you with their arms outstretched for a hug?

Our role is to reinforce the education that they receive in their government schools. Apparently in the government schools all they do is copy huge chunks of writing and there is no real interaction netween the students and the teachers. In our school, we plan lessons (eg maths, idioma/english, science etc) for the kids and try to guide them more interactive learning experiences than just copying information down. We have a lot of freedom in terms of developing our own lesson plans. For example, last week I decided I would teach my kids about the world, ie continents, oceans etc. So I helped them make a collage map of the world, where they had to stick the continents in the right places and then stick colourful pictures from the various continents in the right places! They loved it! I have to say that dealing with 11 8 year olds with glue and scissors makes for an interesting day but the end result was well worth the effort along with seeing their joy at looking at pictures from different places! One little boy even put a picture of a kangaroo (meant for the collage) in his pocket because he wanted to keep it - I looked the other way!

The project directors are a married couple (Dom is from the UK originally and Doreen is from Guatamala). Dom is like the principal in Itzapa whilst Doreen is kind of like the principal in Santa Maria. As well as being our bosses, they are like our big brother and sister because they make sure we are looked after, going okay with our families, planning lessons and having fun whilst we teach. Being in Itzapa, I know Dom a bit better than Doreen. He is a typical English larrikin who is always quick with a joke, loves a beer and smokes like a chimney. He gave up a career at an investment bank about 8 years ago and has dedicated the last 8 years of his life to starting little community schools in South and Central America! He knows every kid in our school by name, what their family is like, what kind of problems they experience at home etc. He is very much loved in the community and has a lot of influence in encouraging families to send their kids to school!

The Volunteers

This blog is really really long (sorry - I meant to write a little each day but have had no time). If you are still reading this I commend you. I promise the next blog won't be this long and will have pictures (small technical