back in Xela

We are back in Xela for what will probably be 5 months this year. We have a new Blog site, so check it out http://web.me.com/pngmac2

A Day at the Project (Education and Hope)

Well, Folks. This is our last blog before we head home. Our grandson Patrick and his friend Isaac arrive this Friday for the last week, and then we all will fly home together on the 11th.

This trip has been wonderful for us in so many ways. We are more commited to working with this excellent organization than we were when we came. Our longstanding support of the work has been reinforced now that we have seen first hand how many people are being helped with schooling, jobs, and other forms of support. In fact, We plan to come back next year (or sooner).

www.educationandhope.org

More personally, we have discovered that the act of giving our time to others and, subsequently, receiving love, and affection from the people here, has been the best form of therapy we could have asked for to help us accept the loss of our son, Chris, last summer. Basically, thinking about someone other than ourselves. We are surrounded by people whose daily lives are far more difficult, and whose losses have also been much greater.

Below you will find a nutshell version of the daily schedule at the Project.

8:30 - The kitchen señoras are the first to arrive, their kids in tow. They don their aprons and begin sweeping mopping and cleaning. Only slightly later the daycare workers get there to take charge of the senoras children. There are usually about six 2 to 4 year olds in the Day Care.

9:00 - Office staff begin to arrive. No one ever arrives or leaves without greeting everyone in the room. Greetings include lots of kisses on cheeks and smiles.

9:30 ish - breakfast for the señoras and the little kids, the market veggies arrive with Doña Hortensia. After breakfast, the señoras start cleaning and chopping like crazy, and cooking for lunch. Day care kids get baths and teeth brushed.

10:00 - The morning kids and 2 teachers arrive. These are the older students who will attend school in the afternoon. There are only about 15 that come in the morning for tutoring.

10:30 - Morning snack for students and teachers. Corn flakes, little sandwiches, etc.

10:00 to 12:00 - Most of the cooking gets done during this time. Also, the señoras who aren't cooking, clean in the classroom areas. This place shines! Each tile floor gets mopped at least three times with substances of varying colors and odors.

12:30 - Morning kids eat lunch, brush teeth, take off for school. Pat and a couple of teachers leave (on foot) to pick up a large group (maybe 40 kids) of younger students from on of the private schools, and walk them back to the Project.

1:00 - All afternoon kids ( about 80) arrive and lunch is served. Things really get hopping now. Staff and
teachers (and we) also have lunch.

2:00 - kids disperse into 13 different classrooms for afternoon tutoring. They all brush their teeth first thing (The staff really has emphasized the importance of teeth brushing).

2:00 to 3:30 - Classroom tutoring sessions. During this time the kids can get help with homework and projects. they also get showers (according to a schedule), order supplies and materials from the Project storeroom, or to be purchase outside the Project. The teachers are basically asked to assume a parental role.

3:30 - Afternoon snack (we eat well, and often). The señoras get to rest a bit after the snack dishes are done, after working constantly and hard all day.

3:45 - Class sessions continue.

5:00 - Everyone checks out at the office, gets bus money if necessary, and goes home.

A little wrap up ......The English Lab becomes more popular as the kids get used to going there for help, and we have lots of fun with the little kids, teaching body parts, colors, etc., using games and even the Hokey Pokey. Just within the last couple of weeks, I have been teaching Ukulele to some of the kids. This has been very popular and I am so excited about it that I hope to bring some Ukuleles back here next time we come, and do more teaching. In this culture, joy of music and art are not taught, and it is so wonderful to see them learn to play with such pleasure. I will be looking for donations of Ukuleles, or money to buy some to bring back.

Pat continues to be very much in demand, building and repairing like crazy. The pictures below show a couple of completed bookcases and a drawing board he built for a architecture student.

The other picture is of a stunning mural that our very talented friend, Brendan, painted on what was a new blank wall at the project.

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the art of carrying things

When I was 12 or 13 I heard that fashion models learned good posture by walking with a book on their head. My one small effort towards a career as a fashion model was the 5 mintues I spent trying to walk with a book on my head. I decided quickly that it was ridiculous to try because the tops of our heads aren t flat. Now, humbled, I am filled with admiration for these ladies who constantly carry enormous weight on their heads with such grace, and very good posture. I have checked, and their heads are no flatter on top than ours.















This lady is tying a case of beer to her small son s back with a sweater .... resourceful









On the right, a couple of young boys carrying firewood down a very steep mountain road.

Our neighborhood and tidbits

There are two of these types of shops within one block of our house. Truly, just a hole in the wall, but with an astounding array of goods. Everything from beer to tomatoes to toilet paper. We can even buy more minutes for our cell phone.

Early this morning we suddenly heard very loud military-type band music being broadcast from the nursing school on the other side of the little, directly across from our house. some sort of celebration was going on, and this was the scene at 7:00 AM. It was all over by 7:30.

From our front door we look across a little park to INVO, a boys school that is an institution in Xela. A recent article in the local newspaper said that INVO officials believe that there is a hidden underground tunnel(substantiated by a couple of former students who say they were in it 50 years ago) to - guess where? The nursing school across the street. Some things are the same in every culture, and generation. They are beginning to excavate to look for it in the hope that it will be a tourist attraction

Bus stop and orange juice stand across the street

Our closest internet access. Dusty and noisy from buses and adolescent boys playing WarCraft all day, but still the fastest and most reliable machines in our area. It costs about 3 Quetzales per hour (about .40)

The pinata store next door where we buy our 5 gallon bottles of water.

In addition, within a 2 block radius of our house there is a University, the main police station, lots of office supply stores, farmacies, copy centers, tortillerias, lawyers, restaurants, shoe and clothes shops, computer sales, etc., etc., etc. Three blocks away is the main soccer stadium and the second largest market in town. 5 blocks away in the central plaza. In short, we can get anything within a short walk from our house.

The English Language lab is going very well. Things are shaping up. We have painted the walls, made some posters, added some color, and obtained a book case. We have been quite busy lately with classes of small kids and indivuduals from the classes of older kids. We have discovered the joy of using matching (memory) games. The kids who have very little interest in English, and very little background, will jump with vigor into a game that is competitive, and actually learn something in the process. If has been fun and very satisfying.

Pat has been doing lots of repairs around the place (just like home) and has helped a couple of boys with a small building project (tool boxes) he is just about to start a couple of more book cases. He is just waiting for the lumber to arrive, which for some (unknown) reason, is delayed.

The weather is warmer now, although it is still quite cold in the night (in the high 30´s) At least we don´t have to wear our hats and scarfs in bed anymore. Days are quite warm (70´s) and it heats up a lot earlier in the morning than it did in January. Last night it rained (a tiny bit) for the first time since we have been here.

markets, mostly pictures

These shots were taken at the main market (Minerva) and the Friday market at San Francisco del Alto

The picture below is Lety from the project shopping with her baby (Brian bundled in the red and white blanket on her back.

On the right below is Hortensia (the main cook at the project) shopping with one of her regular vendors, a deaf mute. She has no trouble driving a hard bargain with hand signals and she usually is flashing a beautiful metalic smile. I don´t know how I missed it.

I love the markets in Guatemala in the same way I love New York City. It is crowded, noisy, dirty, smelly, and dangerous at certain times. But is so alive and so colorful, that it is thrilling and exciting. The markets are vibrant with colors of nature (tomatoes, bananas, mangos) and with the stunning indigeneous clothing of the lady vendors and shoppers. The markets are still the place that most of the people do their shopping for food, and a variety of other things.

The women are the vendors and the men, the workhorses, carrying impossible loads on their back, in carts, strapped to their heads. If you could lift the roof off of the market you would see an ant farm of activity. Everyone moving with grace and fluidity around one another, as if dancing: smooth and organic.



My market nightmare is that I, in my galumpish, Western way, will make a too jerky a movement into one of the beautifully dresses ladies who is carrying a bag of vegetables in each hand, and has a baby on her back, upsetting the 20 pound basket of tomatoes she carries on her head.


This lady walks her two goats around the market and, when she gets an order, milks directly into the glass of the customer. Possibly the freshest milk on earth.