Buenos Días Canche, que le vaya bien

I am not so fond of that greeting. Granted... it´s not always buenos días. I get this morning noon and night. My family lives about 15 minutes from the main road, which I may have said already, but it certainly makes the morning and evening walks to and from the bus stop interesting. Yesterday afternoon I made a somewhat bad gringa mistake. A group of 5 males was walking towards me and made a show of making room for me to walk in between them. I immediately knew this meant they´d say something to me. The ¨leader¨ said buenas tardes and when I didn´t respond he chided me and basically called me rude, which probably isn´t too far off. A simple buenas tardes is expected so I really should have responded but I haven´t made it a habit of responding to the buenos that are said only because I´m white. Interesting.

School continues to be fun. This week is exams so most often I´m doing homework or ¨assisting¨ with giving English exams. When Ninoshka doesn´t have an exam to give we sit in the 4th grade classroom with Ana Cristina´s class. They love me and I rather love them. Ninoshka recently gave them diaries of sorts to record their feelings every day because a bunch of these kids have family issues. I think it´s a great idea to give the kids some outlet for the tough situations some of them face. Ninoshka and Ana Cristina read the entries occassionally, and this morning two of the entries they read and then showed me had to do with me. One boy, Javier, said that he likes me because I have a happy personality and am always smiling. He said ¨le quiero mucho¨ which essentially means I love her. AHHH! Another kid who is kind of creepy already as a 4th grader, Luis Diego, said that he was happy today because I was there. Oh boy.

Everyday at school there´s a recreo, or recess, and Ninoshka the last two days has brought me huge mangos! She found out that I love mangos and they are so delicious. They´re the big ones, not the small ones you just eat off the mango. Ana Cristina taught me the method of cutting and eating one of the big ones, and it´s a little piece of heaven. Mango season is the best!!!

Spanish classes are a little difficult. I´ve put a lot of thought into it and I will share why I think this is. I´m a pretty shy person when it comes to meeting adults and certain people, especially here. Also, I like to listen. So, I don´t mind if someone talks a lot to me and is sharing things with me, and this is a problem in Spanish when I need to be talking more to improve my fluency and vocabulary instead of just soaking everything in by listening. Lucy talks alot but then when she does want me to talk it´s to use the grammar forms that we´ve just learned, which often feel forced and dumb. I don´t want to talk about what I think the president should have done or should do to help the poor kids in the street. It just makes me depressed because no matter what I say it´s not a sufficient solution so I´d rather not try to come up with one. This isn´t sufficient for Lucy. Oh well.

In addition to my Spanish class reading I´m also reading a truely fascinating book called ¨Breaking Out of Beginner´s Spanish¨ by Joseph J. Keenan which talks about how to improve and expand the beginners Spanish. He learned Spanish in a similar way that I´m learning, and I identify well with what he´s saying. It´s so fascinating! He talks about manners in the hispanic culture, adjectives used to describe people, and Spanish ¨tricksters¨ that look like English cognates but don´t mean the same. And that´s only the first 3 chapters. YESSS!

It rains here all the time... The worst though was Tuesday when it was raining in the morning. I woke up to pouring rain and it kept pouring as I went to school. Sonia went with me that morning since she had to go to the university and we occasionally had to run with our sombrillas to avoid being splashed by passing vehicles. The rivers that used to be streets are amazing. Most days it rains either when I´m in class or when I´m already home so I don´t get caught in it, but it´s so unpredictable that you can´t really make generalizations about the rain in Guate. Today is a beautiful day, so far. It´s sunny, and warm, but with enough clouds that it´s not hot. mmmm.

Que Dios les bendiga!

Hora pico

Rush hour, that´s how my life feels right now. But to back up, let me fill you in a little bit on my life this week. Tuesday morning I woke up in CASAS and went with Lucy, the CASAS language program to the school where I am volunteering. We got there, had a 5 minute or less meeting with the English teacher basically presenting me and giving her the dates for when I´ll be here, and then she asked if I´d like to stay the morning to meet the students and attend her classes. Of course I said yes, and off we went. Her name is Ninoshka, and she has quickly welcomed me into her classroom. She´s only 20 years old and is currently studying psychology in university. She took classes in high school for teaching primaria and has been for two years, I think. She speaks online in English with her students, mostly, which is very interesting. Today I was also with another teacher, Thelmie, and she´s older and speaks in Spanish somewhat frequently with her students. Quite a different set up.

The students have quickly captured my heart, which shouldn´t be a surprise to anyone. Everyone morning when I arrive a couple run to meet me and give me hugs. The 4th grade class is constantly hugging me and chanting, ¨Peyton, Peyton, Peyton¨. All the classes are learning dances (SO CUTE AND HILARIOUS) to show to their parents at the end of the month. The 4th graders want me to dance for them, but if you know me, that´s not going to happen!!! They´re also probably the most loving class and they give group hugs constantly which really makes the morning amazing.

I´m also taking classes again at CASAS with Lucy, for those of you who know her. It´s kind of interesting because she gives me a ton of homework everynight, so I´ll talk more about that later. I´m also living with a host family, though it´s only a young couple. Julito and Sonia live in San Cristobal, about 20 minutes from where I lived last year. It´s quite an adventure to get around from there as buses don´t really pass by there to go directly where I need to go so I do a fair amount of walking and catching microbuses.

My host family is just Julito and Sonia. They´re great. They´re still pretty young and don´t have kids yet so at times it´s a little lonely in the house. I have so much homework that I don´t feel like I get to spend a lot of time with them but I did try to teach them 6 Nimt and we´ve watched a couple of the movies I´ve brought which all have Spanish on them, luckily.

This weekend I spent a fair amount of time with my old host family. I went to their house early Saturday morning and returned in the evening before supper. In the morning we went to El Guarda which is a market in Zona 11 where almost anything you can think of is sold. I saw a lots of fruits and vegetables that aren´t sold in our grocery stories as well as many used tools and technology as well as clothes and even live fishes sold by one young man in little plastic bags. We were there for about an hour and a half and I got a nice burn, lovely. In the afternoon Henry came from Coban and us kids played Dutch Blitz and then I had to leave. Sunday morning I went with Sonia and Julito to their church, which is called Elim Central, in Mixco. It´s similar to the Frater where I went last year but not as big... and people are constantly jumping and clapping. I felt a little out of place, more than when I was at the Frater. It`s just such a different way of worshipping than I`m used to! After church we came back to the house where I took a good hour nap, then went to the grandma´s house for lunch.

In Guatemala right now rainy season has just begun. Like since I´ve been here. It rains every day, in the afternoon, and when it rains I mean it pours and the streets temporarily turn into rivers. It`s so strange but also refreshing as afterwards the heat is much decreased. I have yet to be soaking, but I´m sure that will come with time.

To give you an idea of my day, this is approximately my schedule. Wake up at 5:15, shower and force myself to eat the huge breakfast they serve and am out the door by 6:30. I walk 15 minutes to catch the micro bus to La Fuente where I get out and walk 10 minutes to the school where I´m volunteering, arriving around 7:30. I´m helping in English classes until 12ish when I leave early to catch a bus to CASAS. In CASAS I´m lucky to have 30 minutes to eat lunch and be ready for my class which starts at 1:30 and goes until 4:30. Then Lucy takes me to Burger King at La Fuente where I again catch the Microbus (which is always packed and I have issues getting out... usually) and then walk again back to my house. At home I have refa with whoever is home and then do homework before and after supper depending on the day. It´s crazy. I feel like I am always running, but that´s just the way it is. This week should be better as school ends at 11 since they have exams.

Well I´ll stop there as I started writing this Friday, it´s now Monday, and again I have to go to class! Love to all of you, and thanks for the emails I´ve received so far.

The sun is up and so am I

Good morning friends,

Here it is only 6:56 and I have already taken a shower and am ready for the day. I had very uneventful flights yesterday including a layover in Houston where I was dropped off at the same gate where I boarded my connection on the exact same plane about 20 minutes later. Not a whole lot of turn around time as we were already late getting there.  When I arrived in Guatemala at La Aurora my host family was scheduled to pick me up and since I was late arriving, I was hoping they would be on time to pick me up! I scooted through customs and immigration with most of them thinking I didn´t speak Spanish. I slipped through the check point where we were supposed to declare things we were bringing in behind a girl who spoke no Spanish and I think they just lumped me with her. I didn´t correct them. As I went through the first set of doors into the foyer that then went outside I took a moment to gather my bags around me and say a quick prayer before going outside to face the crowds. No sooner had I started to walk again then I glimpsed my host dad outside waving at me. You can imagine my relief at not having to figure out if I should take a taxi, borrow a phone, or wait longer for them to arrive.

We hopped into a car of a friend of theirs, Miguel, and headed to Abuelita´s house in San Cristobal where my family now lives. I was amazed at how quickly my Spanish came back to me. I have been attending a Spanish church for the last school year so I knew my listening skills were great but I was sure my speaking skills were awful. Turns out not so much. Words came quickly and somewhat fluently. I could understand much of the conversation even when I wasn´t participating, and I even conjugated verbs somewhat accurately. My first mistake came at the dinner table at Abuelita´s house where we had a huge feast including 3 HUGE slabs of meat. Pork, beef and chicken. I did my best to eat as much of the first two as I could, not wanting to offend them on their Mother´s Day, and then said ¨Estoy llena. No puedo comer todos¨ translated ¨I´m full. I can´t eat everyone¨. Oops. Take off the s on todos and I would have been correct.

It was wonderful to spend time with my old host family again and especially with the kids. Julian has grown and slimmed quite a bit. Mitzye and Lorenita are exactly as I remembered, and just as loving as ever. I talked with them quite a bit and even went to a Karate class of Julians... very amusing. Lorenita started to cry at one point as she was explaining how difficult their living situation is. Without a house she also has no room and her and Mitzye sleep on thin foam mattresses in the living room with their clothes in cardboard boxes. They have no personal space and no privacy. They continue to pray that a new house will be provided to them by God, but it´s been about 11 months without one now.

After a lovely afternoon visiting with them I was brought to CASAS where I stayed the night. It kind of felt like returning home as I was greeted at the door by Rigoberto, and shown to my room where I had stayed last year on cross-cultural. I even remembered to throw toilet paper in the trash. This morning I am meeting with Lucy, the language class director at CASAS and the director of the primeria, school, where I will be assisting in an English classroom. I´m excited to see what this day holds, and hopefully meet a new host family sometime in the near future! Love to all!

Destination: Guatemala

The day has arrived, el dia ha llegado. In so many ways I'm not ready to go, and yet I can't wait to get there! Details have shaped up for some things and yet there are still many unknowns. However, my suitcase is packed and tomorrow morning at 8:20 I leave from Reagan International. I arrive in Guatemala City early afternoon and will be (HOPEFULLY!) picked up by my former host family. There are pieces of me that wonder if I'll have to wait for them since they aren't necessarily a prompt family and yet, what can I do? I have the address of CASAS and phone numbers just in case :) Taxi's are pretty cheap and trustworthy in the city so I'll hope for the best.

A list of a few things I'm taking:
-too many clothes
-peanut butter, it's expensive there
-glow sticks
-Reeses, yum
-Brownie and cake mixes
-a head lamp
-4 pairs of shoes, ONLY!
-4 EMU shirts for my old host siblings
-pictures of my lovely family and friends
-one lone reading book
-Spanish/English dictionary and Bilingual Bible
-umbrella, it's rainy season there... yipes

I would appreciate prayers for safety and trust as I travel alone tomorrow for the first time. I only have one layover, and I'm not afraid of asking for help so I think I'll be fine. I would ask for prayers while I'm in Guatemala as I meet a new host family, take classes, help with English classes, ride buses and am immersed in the Latino culture that I love so much! I will do my best to update this con frecuencia but no promises.