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Published: August 31st 2010
I am pretty sure my new favorite passtime these days is playing with the kids in my town! Whether it be playing games with them such as duck duck goose, or they pronounce it as yuk yuk ooose, playing with my hackeysack or a soccerball or just going on photoshoots and adventures around our village as they show me their favorite areas where they like to play. ´´Paseando´´ through forests, running down hills, climbing trees and following rivers...They show me amazingly beautiful places in my town that I would most likely not see or find if it were not for them. I am excited for next week´s class and to see a new favorite spot they have and are eager to take me to! It has been some of the best times spent with these adorable, active and adventurous niños y niñas. We even had a little dance party outside in the forest the other day after class, one girl had some reggaeton on her phone (very guatemalan to play music on their phone all the time). Even though it can be a challenge to teach them English as far as getting and maintaining their attention, I continue to try out new educational games and activities with them, seeing what works best. Although I have found they will do almost anything for candy or to somehow incorporate my hackeysack into the class activity!
We had a big turnout of almost 200 women for the actividad para dia de lactancia materna (breastfeeding awareness activity). Each person that works in the health post where I work gave a talk/presentation on a different aspect about the benefits and importance of breastfeeding. I made posters explaining how to nourish your baby from birth to 2 years as far as breastfeeding and when to start adding in foods, how often, what types and how much. The group seemed very receptive to our all our talks, and all the health promoters came as part of their training and health education, too! It was a great success and I am excited for our next big activity about trash and recycling bottles full of trash to make benches and latrines! We are planning for September to be Mes de Medio Ambiente, or in English it would be Earth Month. Each tuesday we are getting together with the students and doing activities with them about trash and planting trees as well as showing them Captain Planet Shows (in Spanish of course)about Trash and other earth friendly topics. Also we are hoping to launch a trash and compost program with the school in the central part of town where the trash problem seems to be the biggest. The kids have already been filling their recycled plastic bottles with trash and then we will get to work on constructing the benches and latrines hopefully this September and October assuming everything continues to go as planned.
The jovenes (relative to early high school age) put on a presentation to the town about global warming and being environmentally aware, which was a huge success and many showed up and listned and learned to what they had to say! They put together a huge powerpoint presentation and decorated the salon and organized a big event to put on for their community. At the end they presented their bottles they had been filling and asked us (the volunteer who started this project a couple months ago who lives in the Municipial of my Aldea and I) so come up and then we got to talk about our project, which was great to have so many community members there to learn about what we will be doing and of course the most important... WHY we are doing this! Trying to express that this is their community and the importance of keeping it clean not only to make it look nice, but to reduce disease and not let it grow worse continuing to contaminate the little water we have as well as the air from burning heaps of plastic. Trash is a big issue, and we are hoping that they will start seeing why it is and showing them that we can make a difference and clean up our community! We then happened to stumble upon the parents teacher meeting at the ´´elementary´´ school and again presented ourselves and our project infront of them.. I had no idea any of these meetings were happening until the day of, so it worked out beautifully that we could share our ideas at both these meetings!
The cooking and knitting classes have been going well! This week we are making chocolate and vanilla cake wtih frosting using the ovens we made in the last couple weeks to make plantain cake and pineapple mango bread. It is great because they can continue to use these ovens (alumnium foil and wire in the shape of a bird cage which gets put on top of the stove then the water vapor cooks the cake or bread inside). Also this week we are making stufffed peppers (chile rellenos) with the other group and last week we made curry and asian stir fry.. I think they really enjoy being introduced to new flavors, especially since they mainly use salt and sugar when cooking in order to add flavor. I also throw in hygiene and nutrition charlas while we wait for the food to cook. Teaching a 9-year old how to knit last week was the highlight of my week I think, she was extremely motivated to learn and picked it up rather quickly. I lent her my needles and some yarn for the week to continue practicing. We then used the yarn to make a circular string and I taught her how to play cat´s cradle, too! It has been ages since I have played, I forget how fun it is to be a kid again sometimes, being around them almost everyday is such a great way to feel young and to continue being creative and having fun in different ways! I taught the women how to crochet hats, or at least the beginging of hats, and next week maybe we will finish the tops and add in patterns! I am impressed at how quickly they learn since most women already weave here, it is somewhat similar yet they already have learned and acquired what can be one of the hardest parts... patience!
I have really been enjoying getting to know Xela better (Quetzaltenango, 2nd biggest city in Guatemala). It has some great places to dance and learn mroe authentic salsa, merengue, banda and of course they always throw in reggaeton, electronic, classic hip hop and I have recently learned how much the Guatemalans love YMCA so at times it feels like we are at a huge wedding... it is great, I love dancing here! And the best part the guys here can dance extremely well and are teaching me how to better dance with a partner. I feel as though in teh states I was more of a solo dancer, as are most of the girls, but here it really is true partner dancing, being twirled around the dance floor learning new moves wtih both the feet and arms! I am excited to continue in my ´´dancing education´´ through out my time here!
Last week I helped my friend who is another volunteer living in a site near me give an HIV workshop to a group of highschool aged students. It was their first time ever hearing about HIV and I think we really did a good job not only scaring them about this disease at first but then explaining how to prevent it and showing that it is their choice and decision to be safe. Thus we did the condom demonstration and each health center or post typically has a dildo of some sort used for condom demonstrations and most of the time they happen to be made of wood.. I really find this comical and hard to keep a straight face when showing the demonstration on a wooden dildo, especially to a group of teenagers. But they thanked us afterwards for introducing them to this disease and the importance of being safe. I am planning to do one in my town for the students hopefully in October or November after our bottle project and trash activities.
I still have beeing going into the elementary and middle aged schools twice a week for a mini health class with the health educator I work with here. We usually start with a game such as telephone or a song about washing hands or brushing teeth then go into an activity or small lecture about a various health topic such as rabies, respiratory diseases, first aid basics (we taught them how to find and check their pulse, cover a wound properly and care for a fever by taking your temperature). I think next week is chronic diseases and mental health. We have a book of various topics that my health educator has to accomplish each week and get signed off, so I tag along with her and help her out giving these talks and health classes. It is a great way also to get to konw the students better especially in the small schools we walk to that are in the further parts of town (they are called parajes, there are 21 parajes in my town which could be related to a really small neighborhood that is part of our big town overall).
The rainy season has about one more month, but I hear it is worse in September where it will rain both morning and afternoon. Where right now it is typically sunny and beautiful in the morning. The sun wakes me up most mornings at 6:30 mas o menos, and then around noon or one it usually starts raining, pouring typically for a while with thunder and sometimes lightning even. This usually will continue through out the afternoon, with maybe another sunbreak but it has been fairly cold when the sun is not out. Supposedly starting in October the rainy season comes to an end and thus starts the dry season until April, so it will be interesting to transition soon!
My kombucha has been fermenting right along since I first started it a few weeks ago, and I had my first cup last night = delecious! I used green tea to brew it with, and it is quite medicinal so maybe it will help me get over this cold I have seemed to acquire in the last day or so! I ended up using the frame of the cot I do not sleep on as my new ´´closet´´. I put down a colored cloth I obtained over teh entire cot, folded one half up and put my clothes folded on the other half... at least they arent in a heaping pile falling out of my backpack on the floor. I am not the only one living in my room.. it is also inhabited by spiders, beetles, flies and other bugs so I try and do my best to shake out everything before putting it on, especially your shoes since they love to live in the dark areas. But its not too bad, just get startled every once in a while when one quickly crawls from underneath something and catches you by surprise. Now I just need to make a shelf for all my books, papers and work supplies for those are still on the floor in piles.
My Ki´che´ Mayan Language classes are coming on slowly but surely, little by little I am learning more but it definitely is a challenge. I learned that about half of the sounds come from animals mainly the birds since you have to use different parts of yoru throat to obtain the correct sound, the littlest change can mean something entirely different! However I think it is beautiful, and I love hearing my community talk, and I am eager to practice and learn more!
Well I think that is all for now! I hope all is well and feel free to send emails anytime, I love hearing from you! Se Cuida (take care).
Peace and blessings, Alyssa
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Mom
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Puttin' along
You aren't puttin'....you are cruisin'! So many goals and actually obtaining them. Congrats to you and your community for taking on the projects with such vigor. You are becoming such a teacher! Our love is with you always....