So, sorry everyone for not being so consistent with my blogging habits... The fact is, writing up fieldnotes every night for the past 3 months has practically given me carpul tunnel and I didn't really find much motivation for rehashing things out in the blog too...sorry.
I officially finished my research time on August 20th, and worked on saying goodbye to the host families and other important influences in my life from the villages and left for the Capital with the principal of La Salle on Tuesday morning, August 21st. I stayed the night at the Residence of the La Salle brothers and they helped me get to the airport Wednesday morning for a full day of traveling back to Utah, arriving on Wednesday night, August 22. It was a couple of flights where I ran into a group of elders returning from South Korea. Thinking about their upcoming re-entry into American culture and seeing their inability to speak in English as I struggled to do the same, I started thinking about the upcoming month and h0w little time I really have before I jump on another plane headed for South America...
I am now back in the United States and facing a mad-dash month of preparations to get me down to Paraguay at the beginning of October and my Guatemala focus is sliding to the background. I still lots of work to do with the research I carried out in Guatemala but the time in which I have to do that is going to have to spill into Paraguay because of paperwork and bureaucracy requirements. All in all though, I don't think it's every really possible to compartmentalize one's life to completely transition from one place, one lifestyle, or one ideology to another. Being the in the States doesn't mean that I can automatcally switch on my American mentality and in fact it is a lot more difficult to re-enter than to leave a culture. Facing familiar faces, visiting familiar places, and speaking a supposedly familiar language while trying to digest all the non-familiar places, faces, and experiences is like that parable of putting new wine in old bottles only the analogy would probably be backwards--putting old wine in new bottles. Either way the combination just doesn't make sense. Being changed by the world to change the world is difficult when you get surrounded by people that are uninterested in changing either themselves or the world. Reentry culture shock talvez. Whatever it is called, the fact remains that the world remains for the changing and the individuals within it are the only thing stopping that from happening.
So, life goes on. A third field season has come to a close but the "characters" or "research subjects" or "informants" keep on washing their dishes in the morning, drying their clothes in the afternoon, and building their lives day by day. I, too, keep on waking up each morning and lay down to sleep each night. Aside from platitudes and Tzou-inspired dogma, life really is about people and the lives they lead. Truth lies not in the economic theories, the governmental model, or the language barriers. It lies within the construction of the human soul as an extension of an incomprehensibly complex yet divinely orchestrated system--a construction we ironically enough have nothing to do with and have no control over. It is that construction that is left out of the research tomes, ignored in the scientific method, and misunderstood by everyone as we compete with our own deficiencies. Life simply goes on and we stumble around trying to understand our "differences" or "similarities" while cursing our biological necessities and economic annoyances. And such is my reality.
I don't know when I could possibly return to Guatemala. I pray that it won't be accompanied by other field study students or any other type of student for that matter, I pray that it will be in a capacity of change and hope beyond the limitations of "objective" research, and most imporantly I pray that it be soon enough that I can still find all the wonderfully important people that touched my life this time around.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Back from El Salvador
Well, I am now back in Santa Maria after a fabulous week soaking up the sun and suffering from mosquito bites at the beaches of El Salvador.
We had originally left with the intention of renewing our visas and having a student conference in preparation for the community conferences…but found out that starting last August, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua started a new law for looser borders and so crossing into El Sal didn’t help us at all and I’m going to have to go to Mexico or pay a fee and wait for the paperwork in the capital…
We got to San Salvador and then down to La Libertad and took a bus to a smaller town called El Tunco (named after a big rock that looked like a pig) where we stayed in a great little hotel with a patio stretching out over the river that fed into the ocean. The Conference was held in the mornings for 3 days and then we played on the beach in the afternoons. I made a turtle, swam in the ocean for the first time in my life (I’d been to the beach but never went further than my feet could touch or tried to ride the waves) and went boogy-boarding though I didn’t have the guts to try surfing. Dustin was stoked for surfing and got up on his first wave and became a veritable professional in his week on the beach. It was a fabulously beautiful black sand beach with a long sloping beach under the waves that was perfect for playing in and learning to body surf. Miracle of miracles, I didn’t get burned and didn’t even get any tanner…I was slightly paranoid and so I actually put on some 15 sunblock but then the latter days I didn’t even put that on because it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get any browner. Ironically enough, our native Guatemalan David burned his nose to a crisp and was complaining about how much his chest hurt from the sunburn. Go figure.
We met a bunch of international surfers including a pair of guys from Switzerland, a guy from England, another from Boston, a German, a couple from San Francisco, and some Israelis. Most of them hadn’t learned a word of Spanish and were just excited to hit the waves. It was weird to be around tourists again though it wasn’t that full since the rainy season detracts a lot from the tourist trade. I had a hard time being a tourist though and I really wanted to get away from the group and get to know some of the locals without the reduction or our relationship to economic transactions.
On Wednesday, I decided that I was done with the touristy beach and wanted to go up north to another beach with a coral reef and so even though the rest of the group decided to stay, I left. I had to take a round-about trail because the direct route didn’t have any real good direct buses so I went back through San Salvador to Sonsonate and down to the beach of Los Cóbanos. Once there after 5 hours in the buses, I saw that not only were there no tourists but there were no workers or residents either. Well, not NOBODY but definitely not well-visited. Thus, more of my kind of place. I was excited to spend the next 3 days doing NOTHING and chilling on the beach while I worked on catching up on fieldnotes and outlining the rest of my time in Guatemala…but Heavenly Father had a different plan for me.
I went and found a place to stay the night (though he wanted to charge me $10 for the day and $10 for the night explaining that people usually rented the room for one or the other but not for 24 hours like a normal hotel and that the only other hotel would charge $30 a night of 24 hours which turned out to be true…), changed my clothes and went down to the beach. It was a much different kind of beach and it kinda surprised me. The sand was more of the sandy color I would think of and was thicker with lots of little seashells unlike the silty black sand of the other beach. There were lots of large rocks buried in the sand so it was more precarious to jump in, but the waves didn’t crest at all near the shore since the shore just dropped off after a short while and you couldn’t touch down after the first 2 feet of water. So, it was great to swim in and feel the pushing and pulling of the waves without them crashing on your head.
When I got tired of treading water, I headed to the beach and just played in the waves hitting me. I had seen a group of people swimming next to me and as I was on the shore, I saw they had 2 little boys with them that were playing soccer in the sand and every once in a while the ball would escape into the waves and float with the curves as the waves lapped against the shore. Once the ball escaped toward me and I told him in Spanish to be careful and he grabbed the ball and ran away. Pretty soon, the whole group came out of the water and started playing in the sand. Little by little, the game came my way until the ball was swirling around my head with each play. I wondered what was going on but I liked watching them play and I was really entertained. I was really grateful to be at a normal locals’ beach and kept thinking how simply beautiful that was to see a family playing soccer on the beach rather than chain-smoking Germans and language-illiterate surfers. After a few minutes, the family sat down a little ways away from me and I decided to talk to them and I asked if they were from here. The ringleader young woman got really excited and her eyes lit up as she asked if I really spoke Spanish. I laughed and said yes and we started talking. They asked where I was coming from and if I was afraid to be traveling on my own. I talked about the other students and how I wanted to see another part of the country and get away from the tourists and they said that they had seen some white people occasionally but they don’t ever know any Spanish so they can’t talk to each other. I asked them if they knew places I should go to or beaches that I should visit and prompted them to take me around the next day if they had time. They looked at each other and said that would be great and they would come to pick me up and I said I would go write down my cell phone so that we could call each other if we got mixed up on how to meet up. When I came back with the paper, they said they had been talking and thought it would be better if I just came to their house and stayed with them and that I would save money that way because they wouldn’t charge me for the house or food. I hesitated for a second and said a quick, silent prayer about whether that would be good or not and I felt really good about and said that I would love to go. So, I ended up spending 3 of the most fantastic days of my life hanging out with the family and going on short roads trips around Sonsonate to small El Salvadorian towns and to the beach of Barra de Santiago.
We had pupusas every night—beans and cheese wrapped up in corn dough and served hot with sweet salsa and cabbage topping—and ate rabbit meat (which was way stronger than I had expected and I wouldn’t personally recommend as a meat of choice), had real cold milk, lots of beans, and fresh French bread from the family’s bread shop.
At the beach, I almost died by almost stepping on this dead blowfish that had washed up on shore, I played soccer for hours and beat the natives while we got covered in sand and then jumped in the water, took pictures of fishermen with huge shrimp and small trout—and after taking the pictures of one of the workers, he gave me 2 fish as a present and I gave them to the family to take home—and had the most relaxing and work-free time of my time here.
I also made some incredibly touching relationships with the family and was shocked with how much trust they gave me and how comfortable I felt with them over the span of 2 and a half days. They told me that it was their responsibility as Christians and on Thursday they had a culto (religious meeting) at their house and invited me to participate with them and even lent me a skirt so I could go. The 23-year-old son is looking to become an evangelical preacher and despite his initial timidity, he eventually started some very intense religious conversations with me about his beliefs and attempts to prove that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were all the same God with 3 manifestations. At first I was tempted to be logical and use my debate mode, but as I kept saying silent prayers to be able to say the right things and touch his heart through the Spirit or otherwise do the Father’s will, I found myself just being quiet and letting him explain whatever he felt necessary. I told him that I wasn’t looking to argue with him and there was really only one thing I wanted to tell him. I said that I wasn’t going to fight his doctrinal knowledge of the Bible, instead I just wanted to say that I, personally, knew that God was real and that He was at the head of the Mormon Church and that He had answered my prayers and given me a personal answer to my search for knowledge. I said I wouldn’t try to convince him but instead just tell him what I knew for myself and shared my testimony in that way. He sat back and thought for a minute and then went back to some of his previous citations. We do have a lot of doctrine in common, but it was interesting to me to see how even with those similar doctrines, the different emphases and applications changed the significance. For example I talked about the existence of prophets as in times of old and he said that he believed in prophets too and that a guy named William Brannon was born in the States and was called to be a prophet and now that he has died, his son is the current prophet. I had never heard of other churches that believed in modern-day prophets in the organizational and administrative way that he cited so that was interesting.
I talked to him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and when we were back at the house, I showed him my scriptures and when he drove me to catch the bus, I left my triple with him and told him that I would lend it to him but I would make another trip down to visit his family before I left for the States. Who knows what will or will not happen with that, but it was a touching experience.
The family really received me as one of their own and it was hard to say goodbye even after such a short time. They said they had never actually conversed with a white person before and even with a lot of their family living as immigrants in the States, they didn’t know a lot about Americans or America and were excited to maintain contact with me. I am sad that they are so far from my little niche in Santa Maria, but I am decided to make another trip down there before leaving Guatemala and I hope to keep in touch in the future. It’s frustrating though because Guatemalan telephone companies for whatever reason don’t believe in making it possible to call their neighboring country and I have yet to figure out a way to even call them…but we’ll see how it works out.
In the end, it was a great week off and I was given yet another confirmation that God knows where we are and what we need. He knows me and knows that I am not happy being a normal tourist and being treated as a white girl rather than a complex person, and He blessed me with the chance to get to know a truly Christian family that are now dear friends of mine. As Suzanne reminded me when recounting the story, the best thing I could take away is a testimony that we are all God’s children and regardless of how insignificant we feel in our small little places in life, he knows where we are and what we need. They refused any attempt to pay them for their food and house (which was complete with a 2:30 AM cockroach visit that freaked me permanently out of my mind of living on the coast) but I know that if they are willing to take it, the best compensation I could ever give would be the restored gospel of Christ that they have a lot of but don’t have in it’s entirety.
This coming week I’ll be working on setting up the community Thank You Conferences and probably making a trip to Mexico to renew my visa. I hope all are enjoying the summer and those of you in Utah are living up the Statehood celebrations. I am now 4 weeks from going back to the USA, so I really need to crank for the next while to get things done and I can’t believe how fast the time is going. I hope to hear from you all soon!!
The wonderful familia Arias Polanco (and Carolina's familia that I don't know their last name) in Sonsonate, El Salvador. Carolina is the one in the middle in pink...the one that first talked to me and invited me to her house.
We had originally left with the intention of renewing our visas and having a student conference in preparation for the community conferences…but found out that starting last August, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua started a new law for looser borders and so crossing into El Sal didn’t help us at all and I’m going to have to go to Mexico or pay a fee and wait for the paperwork in the capital…
We got to San Salvador and then down to La Libertad and took a bus to a smaller town called El Tunco (named after a big rock that looked like a pig) where we stayed in a great little hotel with a patio stretching out over the river that fed into the ocean. The Conference was held in the mornings for 3 days and then we played on the beach in the afternoons. I made a turtle, swam in the ocean for the first time in my life (I’d been to the beach but never went further than my feet could touch or tried to ride the waves) and went boogy-boarding though I didn’t have the guts to try surfing. Dustin was stoked for surfing and got up on his first wave and became a veritable professional in his week on the beach. It was a fabulously beautiful black sand beach with a long sloping beach under the waves that was perfect for playing in and learning to body surf. Miracle of miracles, I didn’t get burned and didn’t even get any tanner…I was slightly paranoid and so I actually put on some 15 sunblock but then the latter days I didn’t even put that on because it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get any browner. Ironically enough, our native Guatemalan David burned his nose to a crisp and was complaining about how much his chest hurt from the sunburn. Go figure.
We met a bunch of international surfers including a pair of guys from Switzerland, a guy from England, another from Boston, a German, a couple from San Francisco, and some Israelis. Most of them hadn’t learned a word of Spanish and were just excited to hit the waves. It was weird to be around tourists again though it wasn’t that full since the rainy season detracts a lot from the tourist trade. I had a hard time being a tourist though and I really wanted to get away from the group and get to know some of the locals without the reduction or our relationship to economic transactions.
On Wednesday, I decided that I was done with the touristy beach and wanted to go up north to another beach with a coral reef and so even though the rest of the group decided to stay, I left. I had to take a round-about trail because the direct route didn’t have any real good direct buses so I went back through San Salvador to Sonsonate and down to the beach of Los Cóbanos. Once there after 5 hours in the buses, I saw that not only were there no tourists but there were no workers or residents either. Well, not NOBODY but definitely not well-visited. Thus, more of my kind of place. I was excited to spend the next 3 days doing NOTHING and chilling on the beach while I worked on catching up on fieldnotes and outlining the rest of my time in Guatemala…but Heavenly Father had a different plan for me.
I went and found a place to stay the night (though he wanted to charge me $10 for the day and $10 for the night explaining that people usually rented the room for one or the other but not for 24 hours like a normal hotel and that the only other hotel would charge $30 a night of 24 hours which turned out to be true…), changed my clothes and went down to the beach. It was a much different kind of beach and it kinda surprised me. The sand was more of the sandy color I would think of and was thicker with lots of little seashells unlike the silty black sand of the other beach. There were lots of large rocks buried in the sand so it was more precarious to jump in, but the waves didn’t crest at all near the shore since the shore just dropped off after a short while and you couldn’t touch down after the first 2 feet of water. So, it was great to swim in and feel the pushing and pulling of the waves without them crashing on your head.
When I got tired of treading water, I headed to the beach and just played in the waves hitting me. I had seen a group of people swimming next to me and as I was on the shore, I saw they had 2 little boys with them that were playing soccer in the sand and every once in a while the ball would escape into the waves and float with the curves as the waves lapped against the shore. Once the ball escaped toward me and I told him in Spanish to be careful and he grabbed the ball and ran away. Pretty soon, the whole group came out of the water and started playing in the sand. Little by little, the game came my way until the ball was swirling around my head with each play. I wondered what was going on but I liked watching them play and I was really entertained. I was really grateful to be at a normal locals’ beach and kept thinking how simply beautiful that was to see a family playing soccer on the beach rather than chain-smoking Germans and language-illiterate surfers. After a few minutes, the family sat down a little ways away from me and I decided to talk to them and I asked if they were from here. The ringleader young woman got really excited and her eyes lit up as she asked if I really spoke Spanish. I laughed and said yes and we started talking. They asked where I was coming from and if I was afraid to be traveling on my own. I talked about the other students and how I wanted to see another part of the country and get away from the tourists and they said that they had seen some white people occasionally but they don’t ever know any Spanish so they can’t talk to each other. I asked them if they knew places I should go to or beaches that I should visit and prompted them to take me around the next day if they had time. They looked at each other and said that would be great and they would come to pick me up and I said I would go write down my cell phone so that we could call each other if we got mixed up on how to meet up. When I came back with the paper, they said they had been talking and thought it would be better if I just came to their house and stayed with them and that I would save money that way because they wouldn’t charge me for the house or food. I hesitated for a second and said a quick, silent prayer about whether that would be good or not and I felt really good about and said that I would love to go. So, I ended up spending 3 of the most fantastic days of my life hanging out with the family and going on short roads trips around Sonsonate to small El Salvadorian towns and to the beach of Barra de Santiago.
We had pupusas every night—beans and cheese wrapped up in corn dough and served hot with sweet salsa and cabbage topping—and ate rabbit meat (which was way stronger than I had expected and I wouldn’t personally recommend as a meat of choice), had real cold milk, lots of beans, and fresh French bread from the family’s bread shop.
At the beach, I almost died by almost stepping on this dead blowfish that had washed up on shore, I played soccer for hours and beat the natives while we got covered in sand and then jumped in the water, took pictures of fishermen with huge shrimp and small trout—and after taking the pictures of one of the workers, he gave me 2 fish as a present and I gave them to the family to take home—and had the most relaxing and work-free time of my time here.
I also made some incredibly touching relationships with the family and was shocked with how much trust they gave me and how comfortable I felt with them over the span of 2 and a half days. They told me that it was their responsibility as Christians and on Thursday they had a culto (religious meeting) at their house and invited me to participate with them and even lent me a skirt so I could go. The 23-year-old son is looking to become an evangelical preacher and despite his initial timidity, he eventually started some very intense religious conversations with me about his beliefs and attempts to prove that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were all the same God with 3 manifestations. At first I was tempted to be logical and use my debate mode, but as I kept saying silent prayers to be able to say the right things and touch his heart through the Spirit or otherwise do the Father’s will, I found myself just being quiet and letting him explain whatever he felt necessary. I told him that I wasn’t looking to argue with him and there was really only one thing I wanted to tell him. I said that I wasn’t going to fight his doctrinal knowledge of the Bible, instead I just wanted to say that I, personally, knew that God was real and that He was at the head of the Mormon Church and that He had answered my prayers and given me a personal answer to my search for knowledge. I said I wouldn’t try to convince him but instead just tell him what I knew for myself and shared my testimony in that way. He sat back and thought for a minute and then went back to some of his previous citations. We do have a lot of doctrine in common, but it was interesting to me to see how even with those similar doctrines, the different emphases and applications changed the significance. For example I talked about the existence of prophets as in times of old and he said that he believed in prophets too and that a guy named William Brannon was born in the States and was called to be a prophet and now that he has died, his son is the current prophet. I had never heard of other churches that believed in modern-day prophets in the organizational and administrative way that he cited so that was interesting.
I talked to him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and when we were back at the house, I showed him my scriptures and when he drove me to catch the bus, I left my triple with him and told him that I would lend it to him but I would make another trip down to visit his family before I left for the States. Who knows what will or will not happen with that, but it was a touching experience.
The family really received me as one of their own and it was hard to say goodbye even after such a short time. They said they had never actually conversed with a white person before and even with a lot of their family living as immigrants in the States, they didn’t know a lot about Americans or America and were excited to maintain contact with me. I am sad that they are so far from my little niche in Santa Maria, but I am decided to make another trip down there before leaving Guatemala and I hope to keep in touch in the future. It’s frustrating though because Guatemalan telephone companies for whatever reason don’t believe in making it possible to call their neighboring country and I have yet to figure out a way to even call them…but we’ll see how it works out.
In the end, it was a great week off and I was given yet another confirmation that God knows where we are and what we need. He knows me and knows that I am not happy being a normal tourist and being treated as a white girl rather than a complex person, and He blessed me with the chance to get to know a truly Christian family that are now dear friends of mine. As Suzanne reminded me when recounting the story, the best thing I could take away is a testimony that we are all God’s children and regardless of how insignificant we feel in our small little places in life, he knows where we are and what we need. They refused any attempt to pay them for their food and house (which was complete with a 2:30 AM cockroach visit that freaked me permanently out of my mind of living on the coast) but I know that if they are willing to take it, the best compensation I could ever give would be the restored gospel of Christ that they have a lot of but don’t have in it’s entirety.
This coming week I’ll be working on setting up the community Thank You Conferences and probably making a trip to Mexico to renew my visa. I hope all are enjoying the summer and those of you in Utah are living up the Statehood celebrations. I am now 4 weeks from going back to the USA, so I really need to crank for the next while to get things done and I can’t believe how fast the time is going. I hope to hear from you all soon!!
This first picture is me alongside my masterpiece sea turtle I carved on the beach. Didn't last long...but it was beautiful let me tell you!
This next one is a beautiful sunset on the beach of the Barra de Santiago. I loved this beach and spent a good deal of time playing soccer and soaking up the waves on my last day in El Salvador
The wonderful familia Arias Polanco (and Carolina's familia that I don't know their last name) in Sonsonate, El Salvador. Carolina is the one in the middle in pink...the one that first talked to me and invited me to her house.
I had to take a model walk (actually I was playing soccer and it just turned out a good picture lol...) and here's a star in training, little Johan playing soccer in the sand.We next have a tub full of HUGE shrimp and the town drunk that wanted to show them off to me.
Next we have a fisherman holding up his catch. Soon after I obliged when he asked me to take his picture, he gave me two fish to remember him by. Unfortunately, I had to leave them behind and we didn't have time to cook them up since I left early the next morning, but it was cool all the same.
Finally, Gervis of the host family working in his bread shop. The family was so cool and I really wish I could have stayed longer with them...
Saturday, July 7, 2007
This is Ignacio from the Buena Vista Social Club
Next, me working in the bakery at La Salle
The last two are from a visit to the little preschool where two of the girls in my house go to school and where my host mom gives the daily refaccion or treat.
More pictures later when the internet signal is better....I promise!
Well sorry that I haven’t been consistent in writing on this blog. Taking fieldnotes every day is a lot more draining than I remember and so having to maintain two big records is hard for me…
This last week was the feria of
At the same time, I didn’t like the fair because it was an open invitation for the drunks to roam the streets and we even had a good amount of guest drunks from other communities that would come up for the music blaring on the streets. I had wanted to dance but only the drunks danced by themselves and the guys that asked me to dance were too sketchy for my taste until the one normal guy on Tuesday night pushed by his fellow university friends to ask me to dance.
We also celebrated the 4th of July and our half-way point in the program. I was sad to not be at my own family’s get-together but we planned a dinner of hot dogs, watermelon, potato salad, and a homemade red, white, and blue cake. We invited all of our host families to come too and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was really worried at first that people wouldn’t come because Amy’s mom refused to go up to Santa Clara and I didn’t know if the Santa Clara people would come down to Santa Maria but I asked the people at
In other news, Kristine managed to lose her flash drive voice recorder. I had thought maybe I’d taken it to the internet and left it in one of the computers but as I asked at each place they didn’t have it. Finally, late night after the 4th of July party, I got a phone call and found out it had fallen out of my bag when we went down to San Pedro in my friend’s car. Unfortunately, due to a virus that I had already had on there, I lost all the voice files including 3 interviews and last Monday Meeting but the good thing is that I have the flash back and supposedly virus free now. That same night, I had a really interesting conversation about religion. My friend asked what the basic doctrines of Mormonism were and I talked about the nature of God, our potential to become like him, living revelation and prophets, and the restoration of Christ’s Church with His authority on the earth again. From my friend’s point of view, he said that we basically believed the same things and the only difference was that we had more scripture than the Bible. It was a good comfortable conversation on one hand, but on the other it was hard to talk about things I saw as different and he saw as the same. I mean, I do believe that our doctrines have a lot in common but when I tried to talk about authority and permission it didn’t mean anything to him and he concluded that we are evangelical. He talked about how he wanted to play in an evangelical band and make a living playing in concert (which is an amazingly lucrative job here in Guate) and I told him about music in our church and I happened to have my hymn book in my bag and lent it to him to play around with (at least until Sunday when I go to church). It was an interesting conversation too because there are no missionaries here in Santa Maria nor Santa Clara. When the fighting broke out a few years ago they took the missionaries away and they were having to travel a ways anyway since the nearest chapels are in Nahuala and Solola. As students in a Field Study we are not to be proselyting either but I am grateful for the opportunities to talk about the gospel when the other people here bring it up and the fact that we don’t drink coffee usually sparks at least a small discussion about being Mormon and people are incredibly tolerant and kind so it’s been good.
I’ve had to make some adjustments to my plans with the arrival of Dr. Williams. I have some pending publications to put together with him and he realizes that once I finish here in Guatemala I’ll be on double time to get ready for Paraguay and I won’t be of any use to him and his research anymore. So, as much as I love getting primary information and talking with people and researching
I hope all are doing well and enjoying the summer sun. I heard a heat wave and drought has struck Utah while I’ve been suffering through daily torrential rains. Ironic. We plan everything around the rain and usually it strikes in early afternoon which is lunch time so it works out pretty well but not all the time. I’m pretty used to it now though and kinda like the atmosphere of sitting inside and pondering the cultural universes while the rain pounds against my tin roof. If I could send some up your way I would, but alas… Have a great week and keep me in touch. Lots of love!!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Some pics
I wanted to share some photos now that it isn't raining and I have enough internet time and signal to send these to you. They are kinda jumbled but show some of the highlights of both my project as I get more involved with La Salle school and the other students and the two communities we are in.
Andrea, one of the students in Santa Clara with her host brothers in the town plaza. They just built the plaza last year and to attest to its newness they still have the speakers installed and they haven't been stolen yet :)
The wife and daughter-in-law of Don Pedro, one of the most hilarious and genuinely interesting maya men I've ever met in my life. This is the more modern though still wood-burning planchas that they make all the meals on as well as use to dry things, start the fire for the tuj, and general home entertainment.
Walking out of Santa Clara onto the main two-lane road that connects up to the Pan-American Highway (also currently a two-lane road though they are doing construction right now to expand it.) For those that don't speak Spanish, the sign says "dangerous curves." I thought it was hilarious seeing the women waddle with the weight on their heads while walking past this sign, though they were still a little far away for the camera view...I need to go back and get a personal photo of me standing by that sign don't you think?
My host father working on his latest project...a flushing toilet and shower behind the house!! I hope they don't stop using the tuj just because they add a shower but I am definitely looking forward to a flushing toilet.
Little Diegito helping sift sand for the concrete his dad is using for the bathroom.
He's one of the most cariñoso and cuddly kids I've ever met and constantly asks me questions about what we have in the states...like if we have food there and if we use toothbrushes. Basically adorable.
These are the tuk-tuks that constitute inner-city transportation. You can pick one up as they make periodic rounds throughout the city (or call someone that you know including two of the host families' teenage sons) and for 2Q (about 25 cents) you can go anywhere in Santa Clara. Be careful though because according to the municipal decree the tuk-tuks can longer cross city boundaries with Santa Maria and Santa Maria only has one tuk-tuk driver of it's own.
The kids of sexto magisterio (ages range but normal matriculation would put them at 17-18 years old) including my good friend Williams
(first guy on the left with red shirt) still healing from a broken heart due to my rather surprised rejection of his love.
Me with the home ec teacher of the bakery and one of the students of sexto magisterio.
My wonderful host mother walking back from the little preprimary school that her daughter Teresa goes to, complete with Jessica on her back and leftovers from her job as lunch lady on her head.
The products of my labor as a temporary student in cuarto magisterio--making the typical breads they sell every day. Most Guatemalans have 5 meals a day they tell me...breakfast, a morning snack of bread with a hot drink, lunch, another "refaccion" or snack of bread with a hot drink, and dinner. The breads sell for between 25 centavos (about 3 US cents) to 2Q (25 cents). Some are better than others but all come complete with a whopping amount of shortening...mmmm.
This is Santa Maria from a hilltop of Santa Clara (in case you don't remember, I live in Santa Maria but 4 of the students live next door in Santa Clara.) The communities are distinct in a lot of ways even though they are right next to each other and for the most part get along in a sort of repressed, conscious negation of long-standing town rivalries.
This is one of the students, Amy, learning how to weave on a backstrap loom. To my shame, she actually finished this belt and did a fabulous job for never having touched a loom before while I can barely make a straight row...but you can't do everything right!
This is me getting my belt ready to be put on the loom. Pretty much a professional at this step...it's the actual weaving that gets me down.
After church we all climbed into a pickup to go over to Nahuala so the students could go to the market and get lunch and I went to visit my old translator and her daughters. Pretty unique seeing 7 gringos crammed in the back of a pickup truck. It's the only mode of transportation between the two towns though so you hold on tight!
Andrea, one of the students in Santa Clara with her host brothers in the town plaza. They just built the plaza last year and to attest to its newness they still have the speakers installed and they haven't been stolen yet :)
The wife and daughter-in-law of Don Pedro, one of the most hilarious and genuinely interesting maya men I've ever met in my life. This is the more modern though still wood-burning planchas that they make all the meals on as well as use to dry things, start the fire for the tuj, and general home entertainment.
Walking out of Santa Clara onto the main two-lane road that connects up to the Pan-American Highway (also currently a two-lane road though they are doing construction right now to expand it.) For those that don't speak Spanish, the sign says "dangerous curves." I thought it was hilarious seeing the women waddle with the weight on their heads while walking past this sign, though they were still a little far away for the camera view...I need to go back and get a personal photo of me standing by that sign don't you think?
My host father working on his latest project...a flushing toilet and shower behind the house!! I hope they don't stop using the tuj just because they add a shower but I am definitely looking forward to a flushing toilet.
Little Diegito helping sift sand for the concrete his dad is using for the bathroom.
He's one of the most cariñoso and cuddly kids I've ever met and constantly asks me questions about what we have in the states...like if we have food there and if we use toothbrushes. Basically adorable.
These are the tuk-tuks that constitute inner-city transportation. You can pick one up as they make periodic rounds throughout the city (or call someone that you know including two of the host families' teenage sons) and for 2Q (about 25 cents) you can go anywhere in Santa Clara. Be careful though because according to the municipal decree the tuk-tuks can longer cross city boundaries with Santa Maria and Santa Maria only has one tuk-tuk driver of it's own.
The kids of sexto magisterio (ages range but normal matriculation would put them at 17-18 years old) including my good friend Williams(first guy on the left with red shirt) still healing from a broken heart due to my rather surprised rejection of his love.
Me with the home ec teacher of the bakery and one of the students of sexto magisterio.
My wonderful host mother walking back from the little preprimary school that her daughter Teresa goes to, complete with Jessica on her back and leftovers from her job as lunch lady on her head.
The products of my labor as a temporary student in cuarto magisterio--making the typical breads they sell every day. Most Guatemalans have 5 meals a day they tell me...breakfast, a morning snack of bread with a hot drink, lunch, another "refaccion" or snack of bread with a hot drink, and dinner. The breads sell for between 25 centavos (about 3 US cents) to 2Q (25 cents). Some are better than others but all come complete with a whopping amount of shortening...mmmm.
This is Santa Maria from a hilltop of Santa Clara (in case you don't remember, I live in Santa Maria but 4 of the students live next door in Santa Clara.) The communities are distinct in a lot of ways even though they are right next to each other and for the most part get along in a sort of repressed, conscious negation of long-standing town rivalries.
This is one of the students, Amy, learning how to weave on a backstrap loom. To my shame, she actually finished this belt and did a fabulous job for never having touched a loom before while I can barely make a straight row...but you can't do everything right!
This is me getting my belt ready to be put on the loom. Pretty much a professional at this step...it's the actual weaving that gets me down.
After church we all climbed into a pickup to go over to Nahuala so the students could go to the market and get lunch and I went to visit my old translator and her daughters. Pretty unique seeing 7 gringos crammed in the back of a pickup truck. It's the only mode of transportation between the two towns though so you hold on tight!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
A lot of delays
Well I took some time off from my blog...actually I kept trying to publish the same page for days but with the constant rain we couldn't get a constant internet signal to get things uploaded. So, here's a quick update of my life as facilitator and student in Santa Maria Visitacion...
I got extremely sick and was in bed for 3 days with a fever that made me so cold with chills I wanted to die. Accompanied by frequent trips to the bathroom and the occasional dizzy spell, I would say that I am pretty thorough when it comes to getting sick. But, I am feeling miles better right now and getting back into my groove.
I have been spending more time at La Salle including trying my hand at the daily Guatemalan breads that we eat at every meal. It has been really fun even though the students think I'm nuts...
We have worked on group unity and had a lot of big discussions about what the role of a field facilitator and field study student should be. But, group drama is just, well, dramatic, so I'll save you the pain.
I got to go up to Xela for a short while with David and Matt as we looked for harmonicas. We enjoyed pizza in a sit-down Pizza Hut restaurant and got soaking wet in the rainstorm that hit right as we starting looking for a return bus.
I have now completed 2 official months from returning from Argentina. It feels so far away now. Guatemala culture is definitely more reserved and a-political but the community atmosphere is a lot more inviting than the sprawling metropolis of impersonal Buenos Aires. I still confuse a lot of people with my hint of Argentine accent (though I have made some great strides in working on masking it...even though my Spanish suffers in having to do that...) and I am continually making new friends just by the fact that I speak K'iche'. Quick story, I was walking down the street in Santa Clara, enjoying my water in a bag and toasted cheese junk food that I had bought at the corner tienda when I saw a group of women sitting on the grass embankment outside their house. I didn't know them but greeted with by saying "good afternoon" in K'iche': "Xek q'iij." and I kept on walking. Ten steps down the road I hear this shout behind me "CRISTINA!!!" and turning around I see one of the women motioning me to come back. I do but I was really confused that they knew my name because I was positive that I didn't know them. They then asked me if Cristina was, in fact, my name and I said yes, but that I didn't know them. They broke out in bursts of "it's true it's true!!" and preceded to tell me that there were rumors of a girl named Cristina that spoke K'iche' and so when they saw me and I greeted them they wanted to know if it was true. Slightly awkward conversation but you know...go with the flow. I decided to bring up the fight between Santa Clara and Santa Maria and they said they weren't a part of it but that we were all children of God and we shouldn't fight. I then continued on my search for high strength antiobiotics to fight the rest of my stomach infection...good story uh?
I am now in the midst of teaching the panaderia teacher how to make chocolate chip cookies and fudge...pretty fun stuff. I have really bonded with the high school students in the group and they now talk to me in "vos" rather than "usted" even though I had tried to get them to do that the first day, they only now are catching on. For those that don't speak Spanish it basically means that they are talking to me more as a friend and less as a distant adult that they have to revere. One of the students jokes every day about how he's my boyfriend and is going to lose everything the day that I leave...guys are definitely a lot more upfront and flirting is a whole different ball game down here. NOT that I'm flirting, I just haven't ever had to face cat calls from someone that I work with and don't just walk past and avoid. I give it back to him and tell him how I'd be robbing the cradle and whatnot and so things are just jokes and the whole group joins in so it's no big deal. I kinda freaked out the first time but I'm feeling better about it now.
We've had a bunch of small earthquakes recently but nothing big enough to crack foundations or hurt anybody, just long enough to freak out the Americans and get a couple phone calls from concerned relatives.
More pictures next time, sorry the limited entries. Happy birthday Jennifer, Josh, Mom and Happy Father's day dad!
I am now in the midst of teaching the panaderia teacher how to make chocolate chip cookies and fudge...pretty fun stuff. I have really bonded with the high school students in the group and they now talk to me in "vos" rather than "usted" even though I had tried to get them to do that the first day, they only now are catching on. For those that don't speak Spanish it basically means that they are talking to me more as a friend and less as a distant adult that they have to revere. One of the students jokes every day about how he's my boyfriend and is going to lose everything the day that I leave...guys are definitely a lot more upfront and flirting is a whole different ball game down here. NOT that I'm flirting, I just haven't ever had to face cat calls from someone that I work with and don't just walk past and avoid. I give it back to him and tell him how I'd be robbing the cradle and whatnot and so things are just jokes and the whole group joins in so it's no big deal. I kinda freaked out the first time but I'm feeling better about it now.
We've had a bunch of small earthquakes recently but nothing big enough to crack foundations or hurt anybody, just long enough to freak out the Americans and get a couple phone calls from concerned relatives.
More pictures next time, sorry the limited entries. Happy birthday Jennifer, Josh, Mom and Happy Father's day dad!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
One week along...
DATE NOTE: SO this note was made when we had actually been here for a week but the internet signal kept crashing every time I tried to upload the pictures and publish the page, so sorry for the delay. Otherwise, enjoy.
So we have officially completed one week being in the communities of Santa Clara La Laguna and Santa María Visitación. It's been a real up and down week, but hopefully things are off to a good start for everone. We got the students into their host families and they have been getting out and making contacts with various organizations in the communities. I had no idea that the two towns would actually hate each other so much, but apparently the rivalry is so strong that 2 years ago they lynched 2 Santa Maria teachers for going over to Santa Clara to teach, and now they won't let the little taxi drivers cross community boundaries. Santa Maria started it's own very small market and a lot of people refuse to cross the community line even to buy their biweekly food.
This is one of the coolest Maya papas I've ever met, and our key contact in Santa Clara as he gets ready to head to his milpa fields for work.
I spent the last few days trekking around to the houses of all the evangelical ministers and the catholic priest to let them know about our arrival in the communities. I also met with the mayors of both towns and we had formal audiences with them where the students presented themselves as well. I ran around to get things set up so that we would have a place to hold our weekly classes too but it might not work out because the students failed to come back when the directora was there and she was had conditioned giving us the building on meeting the students so that she would know who would be coming and going...I wasn't very happy with that but the students will have to learn to be responsible one way or another...
The rainy season has officially started and is in full swing. I made a quick trip up to Ixtahuacan for a fiesta and decided to visit Xela while I was nearby and we got caught in the middle of a monster rainstorm...thoroughly soaked we finally made it to a bus and headed back down to the communities. But, as the road is far from being completed and workers limiting the lanes down to one way moving at a time, I get really nervous about traveling and there have been 2 deadly bus crashes in the last week up near Nahuala.
I got to hike up with one of the host dads to a beautiful overlook over the lake. With all the twists and turns of the road I didn't realize that we were so close to the supposed "waters of Mormon." Once we started hiking up there it was back to the aldea mentality that I had been in the middle of up in Tambrizap and huge bursts of laughter and shock everytime I said hi to someone in Kiche. While it is still a novelty, I have really appreciated that most of the people in the town center actually start conversations with me when I talk to them in Kiche rather than breaking into uncontrollable fits of laughter that keeps us from moving beyond "what's your name?"
My host family is fantastic too and my host mother sits and talks to me in Kiche most every meal. I brought some bubbles for the kids to play with and they went crazy chasing them around. See picture.
Yesterday morning a lady on our corner passed away and the whole city was kept awake by the evangelical music pouring out of their house all night as they kept a candelight vigil for her. My mom said that rumors were flying about how she had been poisoned or had a spell cast on her. She was only 32 and never married, no children. People had apparently gotten jealous of how successful she was becoming in school and gone to a witch to cast a spell on her and she suddenly started failing her classes and dropped out of the university, then she had a problem with her chest and had surgery only to get infected and after having the swelling gone down she went home and died 20 days later. Pretty interesting stuff...
I got to go to church up in Chirijox and a lot of the members remembered me though they still didn't find enough courage to talk to me. I just got lots of long stares and whispers of "Cristina!" all around me. It's definitely different having to learn to be the odd one out again when I really felt so integrated in Argentina.
I have also run into a fantastic private school called La Salle where I am now taking weaving lessons. It is dedicated to Christian principles and run by a group of brothers that was founded over 300 years ago. The bread teacher is now a dear friend and I am going to spend time learning traditional marimba music as well. They have a great program combining traditional classes in the morning and workshops of trade skills in the afternoon--I really kinda wish I could have gone to high school there!! Apparently they have branches all over the world. I don't remember if I am repeating stuff, but I'm in a kind of hurry to get this up and get back to my house for lunch.
I hope all are doing well, thanks for your support. Happy first birthday to little Maxwell, happy 13 to big Spencer, and happy 25 to big bro David.
So we have officially completed one week being in the communities of Santa Clara La Laguna and Santa María Visitación. It's been a real up and down week, but hopefully things are off to a good start for everone. We got the students into their host families and they have been getting out and making contacts with various organizations in the communities. I had no idea that the two towns would actually hate each other so much, but apparently the rivalry is so strong that 2 years ago they lynched 2 Santa Maria teachers for going over to Santa Clara to teach, and now they won't let the little taxi drivers cross community boundaries. Santa Maria started it's own very small market and a lot of people refuse to cross the community line even to buy their biweekly food.
This is one of the coolest Maya papas I've ever met, and our key contact in Santa Clara as he gets ready to head to his milpa fields for work.
I spent the last few days trekking around to the houses of all the evangelical ministers and the catholic priest to let them know about our arrival in the communities. I also met with the mayors of both towns and we had formal audiences with them where the students presented themselves as well. I ran around to get things set up so that we would have a place to hold our weekly classes too but it might not work out because the students failed to come back when the directora was there and she was had conditioned giving us the building on meeting the students so that she would know who would be coming and going...I wasn't very happy with that but the students will have to learn to be responsible one way or another...
The rainy season has officially started and is in full swing. I made a quick trip up to Ixtahuacan for a fiesta and decided to visit Xela while I was nearby and we got caught in the middle of a monster rainstorm...thoroughly soaked we finally made it to a bus and headed back down to the communities. But, as the road is far from being completed and workers limiting the lanes down to one way moving at a time, I get really nervous about traveling and there have been 2 deadly bus crashes in the last week up near Nahuala.
I got to hike up with one of the host dads to a beautiful overlook over the lake. With all the twists and turns of the road I didn't realize that we were so close to the supposed "waters of Mormon." Once we started hiking up there it was back to the aldea mentality that I had been in the middle of up in Tambrizap and huge bursts of laughter and shock everytime I said hi to someone in Kiche. While it is still a novelty, I have really appreciated that most of the people in the town center actually start conversations with me when I talk to them in Kiche rather than breaking into uncontrollable fits of laughter that keeps us from moving beyond "what's your name?"
My host family is fantastic too and my host mother sits and talks to me in Kiche most every meal. I brought some bubbles for the kids to play with and they went crazy chasing them around. See picture.
Yesterday morning a lady on our corner passed away and the whole city was kept awake by the evangelical music pouring out of their house all night as they kept a candelight vigil for her. My mom said that rumors were flying about how she had been poisoned or had a spell cast on her. She was only 32 and never married, no children. People had apparently gotten jealous of how successful she was becoming in school and gone to a witch to cast a spell on her and she suddenly started failing her classes and dropped out of the university, then she had a problem with her chest and had surgery only to get infected and after having the swelling gone down she went home and died 20 days later. Pretty interesting stuff...
I got to go to church up in Chirijox and a lot of the members remembered me though they still didn't find enough courage to talk to me. I just got lots of long stares and whispers of "Cristina!" all around me. It's definitely different having to learn to be the odd one out again when I really felt so integrated in Argentina.
I have also run into a fantastic private school called La Salle where I am now taking weaving lessons. It is dedicated to Christian principles and run by a group of brothers that was founded over 300 years ago. The bread teacher is now a dear friend and I am going to spend time learning traditional marimba music as well. They have a great program combining traditional classes in the morning and workshops of trade skills in the afternoon--I really kinda wish I could have gone to high school there!! Apparently they have branches all over the world. I don't remember if I am repeating stuff, but I'm in a kind of hurry to get this up and get back to my house for lunch.
I hope all are doing well, thanks for your support. Happy first birthday to little Maxwell, happy 13 to big Spencer, and happy 25 to big bro David.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Settling In
After a ton of help from Malcolm and his local contacts, we finally got all the students into their family housing and had our first full group meeting today. I left Panajachel and stayed in Santa Clara La Laguna as we went around and met with the potential family contacts and thought about who would fit best where. I was still going through the shock of being back in Guate and so I don't think I was as effective as possible, but things got worked out and I have been really happy with the families that were willing to take a student in. The funny thing, when I arrived at the house that we had envisioned me living in, I just got the strongest feeling that I wasn't supposed to live in that home. I didn't feel bad about the family at all and ended up placing one of the other girls there, just that I wasn't supposed to be there. SO, I stayed with them for 2 days and then moved over to another community called Santa Maria Visitacion. It's a lot smaller than the first community and acclaimed to be a Tzutujil town (another Mayan language), but my host mother and more and more people that speak Kichee and I've been really happy to see how it is coming back to me. I am still not the most conversant and I would love to keep formally studying to work on the more complex verb forms, but I have sincerly understood between 80 and 100% of all the conversations I've been in even with the other people who slur their words or talk softly and I'm getting a lot better at speaking faster and having people understand me. It helps that these communities are a TON more bilingual and I can ask them in Spanish to correct things or help me with the application of the words and so I am learning faster than I was up in Tambrizap.
On Saturday and Sunday the students met us to come down to the communities. I went up to Nahuala early in the morning to go to Church because they are working on the PanAmerican and so they have huge long lines of cars as they shut things down to one lane in order to add on the additional two lanes they are working on... though they've been working on the road for the past forever and probably won't finish the new lanes any time soon. Church in Kichee was refreshing and I even saw my old president from the Chirijox branch. Then, as I left church, I figured that I wouldn't have a lot of time so I didn't expect to see my host family, but some of them had come down the hill to go to market and so I got to see them anyway! It was great to see them and some of my neighbors too. But, as I had them help me go find the bread vendor that they always went to, I ended up getting robbed of my 90Q I had in my bag (like
$15). It was the first time I've ever been robbed in Guatemala (well I had my debit card number stolen...) but at least it was just the cash and nothing more. I went back to the church to meet up with Malcolm and the two students that had come on Saturday so that I could get some money to get home. Maybe it was my punishment for buying bread on Sunday...even if it was for my host family. Saber (who knows...)
We had our first full meeting with the students today and I have had some fabulous encounters talking to the community members about the students' arrival and what they are planning to do here for the next three months. They have been much more warm and friendly and not nearly as intimidated by the foreign presence. I think there is a lot owed to the increased outside contact because the road that leads through Santa Maria and Santa Clara goes down to the big tourist towns on the lake and so they see more and more gringos passing through. Also, there have been a lot of international organizations involved in these communities including Habitat for Humanity and help for the victims of Hurricane Stan. So, I'm excited not to be TOO novel and yet have some interest and curiosity since I'm not like one of the regular tourists and passersby.
My host family is fantastic and I'm really pleased with the change. The mom speaks Spanish but is much more comfortable in Kichee and her kids speak both languages. She has four of the most adorable kids I've ever met in my life and the little 5 year old girl just clung to me and from the first day was telling me that I was beautiful and that she loved me. It was really sweet. The little 9 year old boy started out only talking to me in Spanish but after seeing me talk to his mom in Kichee the whole time, he now talks to me in Kichee and says that I am teaching him. I like the idea of them seeing value in their native language and I think that the novelty of a foreigner from the US knowing enough to converse and being comfortable enough to initiate conversations means a lot.
Well, I have to get back to the house to eat my dinner and also get one of the students hydrocortisone cream for her recent flea bites...sad story. Sorry no pictures but I'll put some more up next time!!
On Saturday and Sunday the students met us to come down to the communities. I went up to Nahuala early in the morning to go to Church because they are working on the PanAmerican and so they have huge long lines of cars as they shut things down to one lane in order to add on the additional two lanes they are working on... though they've been working on the road for the past forever and probably won't finish the new lanes any time soon. Church in Kichee was refreshing and I even saw my old president from the Chirijox branch. Then, as I left church, I figured that I wouldn't have a lot of time so I didn't expect to see my host family, but some of them had come down the hill to go to market and so I got to see them anyway! It was great to see them and some of my neighbors too. But, as I had them help me go find the bread vendor that they always went to, I ended up getting robbed of my 90Q I had in my bag (like
$15). It was the first time I've ever been robbed in Guatemala (well I had my debit card number stolen...) but at least it was just the cash and nothing more. I went back to the church to meet up with Malcolm and the two students that had come on Saturday so that I could get some money to get home. Maybe it was my punishment for buying bread on Sunday...even if it was for my host family. Saber (who knows...)
We had our first full meeting with the students today and I have had some fabulous encounters talking to the community members about the students' arrival and what they are planning to do here for the next three months. They have been much more warm and friendly and not nearly as intimidated by the foreign presence. I think there is a lot owed to the increased outside contact because the road that leads through Santa Maria and Santa Clara goes down to the big tourist towns on the lake and so they see more and more gringos passing through. Also, there have been a lot of international organizations involved in these communities including Habitat for Humanity and help for the victims of Hurricane Stan. So, I'm excited not to be TOO novel and yet have some interest and curiosity since I'm not like one of the regular tourists and passersby.
My host family is fantastic and I'm really pleased with the change. The mom speaks Spanish but is much more comfortable in Kichee and her kids speak both languages. She has four of the most adorable kids I've ever met in my life and the little 5 year old girl just clung to me and from the first day was telling me that I was beautiful and that she loved me. It was really sweet. The little 9 year old boy started out only talking to me in Spanish but after seeing me talk to his mom in Kichee the whole time, he now talks to me in Kichee and says that I am teaching him. I like the idea of them seeing value in their native language and I think that the novelty of a foreigner from the US knowing enough to converse and being comfortable enough to initiate conversations means a lot.
Well, I have to get back to the house to eat my dinner and also get one of the students hydrocortisone cream for her recent flea bites...sad story. Sorry no pictures but I'll put some more up next time!!
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