Saturday, August 6th

Hike – We got up early, hopped on a micro, and rode it to Nebaj. From there, we began our hike through town, and up, up, up the hill. Before long we had an amazing view of Nebaj.

 After hiking for about an hour, we arrived at the top of the hill, where we stopped and took in the beauty for a bit. Then we hiked down the backside of the hill, into Acul, through the aldea, and to Hacienda a Mil Amores, a beautiful country ranch that is known for its amazing cheese. Lunch was fabulous! Hiking a steep hill after a lunch like that would have been impossible, so we took a micro back to Chajul.

Farewell - When we arrived in Chajul, the other LHI staff and many of the scholarship students were gathering at the office for a farewell gathering for us. One girl recited a poem she had written about the significance of the Guatemalan flag colors: blue on each side representing the oceans on either side of the country, and white in the middle representing peace…both the writing and the presentation were beautiful. Eight of them performed a traditional dance.

Several people stood up said in different ways, how much they appreciated us being there and working with them, and that they hoped we would return some day. Several of us stood up and said some thanks, and some significant other little ramblings – Susanna gave them some words of wisdom about how hopeful things were in Chajul because they were working so hard, and would eventually share their knowledge and experience with their community…I think was the general gist of it. One by one, kids stood up and presented each of us with a traditional Chajul-style purse that either their mother or they themselves made. Rosa, one of the girls who cooked breakfast for us in the mornings, presented me with  mine, and she actually made it! I love it! It will be my favorite souvenir from here!

We finished with” leche de aroz con chocolate” (hot chocolate rice milk) and Chiky cookies (store bought little butter cookies with chocolate on one side) – YUM!

Last Supper – Shortly after we returned to our posada and began preparing dinner, the power went out. So we fixed, ate, and cleaned up a yummy meal of chicken and macaroni & cheese that mostly Frank and Susanna prepared, all in the dark. We all teased Katie and Jake that they had sabotaged our power so we’d get to use our headlamps. We also packed in the dark.

Friday, August 5th

Teacher training workshop – After printing a couple things and running copies for the teachers, we went to IMEBCO/IDSI to do the teacher workshop. Frank and I were running the copies and it took a bit more time than expected so we ended up taking a tuk-tuk there. At first, there were only 10 teachers, but a few more dribbled in fairly soon and we ended up with about 15. Once again, the teachers were not getting to paid to be there, they just wanted to get ideas so they could be better teachers. They said that usually Nebaj is as far as anyone or any resources from outside the Quiche area gets. This was the first time they’d ever done anything like this. They thanked us over and over for coming all the way to Chajul and sharing our ideas and they hoped that we would return or that more teachers and even possibly some students would visit Chajul in the future.

Weaving – We broke into three groups and went to different houses to learn about weaving. Susanna and I went to the house of the lady who wove my scarf and the bookmarks. She said her name is Ana, but she also goes by Concha, her 2^nd first name. She has three kids who are scholarship students with LHI, one who will be graduating from “diversificado” (high school, but it’s more like college in this culture) this year and become a teacher. First she did some weaving and we just watched. Then we got a surprise; she started pulling out juipils, cortas, fajas (belts), cintas to wrap our hair with and dressing us in it! Next she started having us do each of the steps involved in weaving: winding the balls of thread off of a wheel, wrapping it around a spindle, doing a figure eight wrap of some of it around tall pegs, then moving that onto the round bars that would be the top and bottom, and finally feeding the spindle of thread through different sections of the main part that had been the figure eight, packing it down after every feed with a wooden blade. It was much more difficult than she made it look, and we weren’t even adding any design to it! At the end of our time there, she told us that she sells juipils and asked if we wanted to buy any. I bought the one that I had been wearing, which it turns out was hers and was torn a bit near the bottom, for 125Q (about $17). She wanted over 200Q for the new ones. I like the idea that the one I have, has been worn by Concha and that it has its own story of daily life in Chajul.

Laundry – After the weaving experience, I got my laundry from the lines at Elma’s house that Viajita did for me. I sat near her during lunch today and we interacted a bit. She seems to like me for some reason and she and I seem to be  able to communicate at least a little. When I laid my head against the wall and closed my eyes for second, she gently tapped my arm, smiled, and gestured towards the sleeping cat in the middle of the kitchen floor. She is the sweetest little old lady I have ever been around…I hope to get a photo with her tomorrow. Bummer…the photo never happened : (

Thursday, August 4th

Composting with an agronomist – We hiked down the trail that went past Josefina’s house and kept walking on the road to. It was about a 30-40 minute walk to Vizichu Elementary School that has its own garden. Today, we went there with a local agronomist who taught the kids and us how to make compost for the garden. We and a bunch of the boys carried a 100 pound bag of wheat husks over next to the garden, and then dug up dirt from behind the school. After breaking up a pile of coal and a bag of manure with shovels and sticks, we mixed it all together. The ingredients were: dirt, wheat husks, coal, ash, melted molasses, and yeast mixed with water. Then we covered it up with black plastic. Marcelino (the agronomist) said that this is a recipe from Japan.
After the compost was all mixed up, we sang songs and played futbol with the kids. Then the principal and another teacher brought a big pot of atol (a sort of hot milk made from corn) and all the kids got a cup of it and they gave us all some adn we all just hung out and drank atol before heading home for the day. After we left, one little boy followed us for about half a mile and several others joined him as well.

Workshop planning time – Each group of three went into a different room and planned for the teacher workshop tomorrow. My group: Carol Ann, Susanna, and I were assigned to share some strategies for teaching reading, writing, and vocabulary.

Teacher “intercambio” – We met with a panel of teachers and directors from IMEBCO, IDSI, San Gaspar, and one other “primeria” in the Chajul area. Six people showed up for this, which is admirable because they were not paid to be there. The discussion started out slowly, but started to pick up after a couple questions & answers. We asked them how long middle school has existed here, and they said since 1994. We also asked when the national curriculum mandate began and how that has affected the schools. They said that the curriculum requires so many different subjects be taught that there is no way to do a good job with any of it. They also said that it changes every time an election happens and new people are in charge. The way they hold schools accountable is by coming to the school and interviewing kids about the classes they’re taking and what they’re learning. They asked questions about how we approach bilingual education, how indigenous people are treated, how much teachers get paid… It was a rich discussion where we all agreed that even though we have very different resources, we face many of the same challenges like motivating students to learn, teaching everything the government expects us to teach, figuring out how to respect students’ cultures while teaching them the base language of the country.

Friday, August 5th

Teacher training workshop – After printing a couple things and running copies for the teachers, we went to IMEBCO/IDSI to do the teacher workshop. Frank and I were running the copies and it took a bit more time than expected so we ended up taking a tuk-tuk there. At first, there were only 10 teachers, but a few more dribbled in fairly soon and we ended up with about 15. Once again, the teachers were not getting to paid to be there, they just wanted to get ideas so they could be better teachers. They said that usually Nebaj is as far as anyone or any resources from outside the Quiche area gets. This was the first time they’d ever done anything like this. They thanked us over and over for coming all the way to Chajul and sharing our ideas and they hoped that we would return or that more teachers and even possibly some students would visit Chajul in the future.

Weaving – We broke into three groups and went to different houses to learn about weaving. Susanna and I went to the house of the lady who wove my scarf and the bookmarks. She said her name is Ana, but she also goes by Concha, her 2^nd first name. She has three kids who are scholarship students with LHI, one who will be graduating from “diversificado” (high school, but it’s more like college in this culture) this year and become a teacher. First she did some weaving and we just watched. Then we got a surprise; she started pulling out juipils, cortas, fajas (belts), cintas to wrap our hair with and dressing us in it! Next she started having us do each of the steps involved in weaving: winding the balls of thread off of a wheel, wrapping it around a spindle, doing a figure eight wrap of some of it around tall pegs, then moving that onto the round bars that would be the top and bottom, and finally feeding the spindle of thread through different sections of the main part that had been the figure eight, packing it down after every feed with a wooden blade. It was much more difficult than she made it look, and we weren’t even adding any design to it! At the end of our time there, she told us that she sells juipils and asked if we wanted to buy any. I bought the one that I had been wearing, which it turns out was hers and was torn a bit near the bottom, for 125Q (about $17). She wanted over 200Q for the new ones. I like the idea that the one I have, has been worn by Concha and that it has its own story of daily life in Chajul.

Laundry – After the weaving experience, I got my laundry from the lines at Elma’s house that Viajita did for me. I sat near her during lunch today and we interacted a bit. She seems to like me for some reason and she and I seem to be  able to communicate at least a little. When I laid my head against the wall and closed my eyes for second, she gently tapped my arm, smiled, and gestured towards the sleeping cat in the middle of the kitchen floor. She is the sweetest little old lady I have ever been around…I hope to get a photo with her tomorrow. Bummer…the photo never happened : (

Wednesday, August 3rd

Library Showcase Story Hour – We started the day by planning and preparing for the two story hours, one at 10:30 and the other at 3:00. We ended up with 32 kids in the morning session and 54 in the afternoon! There were also many interesting peekers standing in the doorway, most of whom were too shy to enter, but a few mothers did stop in and inquire about it, and two of the kids peeking in did come in and stay once invited. Frank and Susanna read two books aloud, with Aracely translating and explaining each page in Ixil. For one book, Esta bien ser diferente, they had each of us do different little actions to go along with it: Carol Ann danced and talked gibberish, Kim petted a little pet caterpillar, I juggled… The kids loved it all! After the books, we did a craft activity. The morning group decorated foam butterfly cutouts that Kim and Lindsey brought. The afternoon group did two activities; the little kids made “very hungry caterpillars” from patterns that Carol Ann brought. They colored segments, cut them out, and glued them together in a train. We used my idea with the older kids: they made little booklets that mimicked actual books that they liked and were in the library. We taped the butterflies and caterpillars up on the walls, and hung the little books from the big tree painted on the wall and ceiling, like fruit coming off of it. It brightened up the whole library and made it so inviting! We were all really happy with the turnout and how it all went. The new space handled the number of kids really well! Also, we think that the word will spread and more and more kids and adults will start joining the library. I figured, that if families get 150 quetzales a month for sending their kid to school, they could justify spending 7Q a year on a library membership for them.

Boxbol – Between story hour sessions, we split into three groups and went to scholarship students’ houses for a lunch of boxbol, a traditional staple food specific to Chajul. It is made by smearing tortilla paste along the length of your palm and fingers in one hand, then placing a huisquil leaf on top, flipping it over, placing a stick the length of it down the middle, folding it in half around the stick, and then boiling it. It was served with a sauce made from pumpkin seeds (mesillas) and salsa with a slight picante to it. We also were served “leche de oats” with it. I didn’t think I’d like the boxbol  because of the maize base, but I actually did like it a lot! I loved the Mesilla paste and salsa picante on it! The oat milk was good to and a little sugar, which gave it a nice sweetness.

Evening movie – We were going to watch a documentary about the war, but Jake accidentally gave his only copy to Melissa before she left today. So we played a fun game called “Parlor Game” I hope I can remember what to do because it would be fun replacement for “Celebrity” at Christmas time.

Tuesday, August 2nd

IMEBCO/IDSI visit – This morning we went to visit the third middle school in Chajul, IMEBCO, which also shares a building with the high school IDSI. It turns out that the principals of the two schools share the same office, and we talked with and learned the history mostly form the high school director. After a bit the middle school director joined us. It was a fascinating discussion where we heard of similar issues to or own, such as too much different curriculum content to teach and do a good job teaching, too much change every time there is a change in political party, and lack of money and basic resources like computers and text books. They want students to become teachers so that they can teach the next generatin of youth better than their own, and then they will be able to learn about more specific carreers in the near future. As soon as 2013, the IDSI director hopes to offer three more career choices: nursing, accounting, and one other thing???

Library – After lunch we finished moving the last two shelves for the library, and most people painted the big “Bienvenidos! Saber Sin Limites” mural. I worked on drafting a design for the story bleachers, and then we explained it to the carpenter who was installing the door today. I ended up having to change the design into to two pieces so we’d be able to fit it through the door, so I’ll re-draft it tonight and give the final design to him tomorrow. He gave us an estimate to do it – 700Q. His estimate seemed high to us, so we’re going to check with a local to see what they think.

Monday, August 1st

Library Move – We went to the current library and took a look at the space, books, and furniture that we would be moving into the new space. Next we walked to the new space and discussed ideas for arranging it all. Then the move began! Before lunch we moved everything except for two book cases with glass doors on the front. The fairly intense rain did not make the process any easier, but we are quickly learning that “lluvia” is just a part of everyday life here. We did have to be careful about not letting books get wet because if one starts to mold, then they all get it and have to be thrown out. Apparently book mold spreads here like the common cold in a kindergarten class in the U.S.!

Photo: Old library...

Photos: New library (amazing view of valley hills out those windows - very rare to have a view here!)... 

Photo: Moving a bookshelf...

Melissa drew the base design for a welcome mural in the entry hallway – it’s going to look amazing! Also I suggested a sort of bleachers for the story corner so that they will be able to fit more kids in a smaller space and they will all still be able to see the book being read aloud and said that if it was within reason and they wanted it, that I would pay for it. I think they liked it.

Visit to San Gaspar Basico (aka Middle School) – After lunch we broke into two groups and each went to visit a different middle school. My group (Susanna, Carol Ann, Jake, Katie, and Aracely the librarian) went the private school, San Gaspar. First the “director” told us about the history of the school and how he just started it up a few years ago and how before that there really was no school available for kids that age. He told us that that what set his school apart was that he and his teachers believe in and teach critical thinking skills, and not just rote memory of information. He sounded very passionate about wanting to make a difference for the youth of Chajul.

We went to a classroom, but didn’t get to see any teaching. They were reviewing for exams, and there wasn’t really a lesson going on. So, we sat at the front of the orderly dirt-floored classroom, with students in desks around the perimeter, introduced ourselves, and took questions from the kids. The rain poured down as we answered questions such as: What is the language difference between Boston and New York? Is everyone in the USS rich? Does each state have its own laws? Is it illegal to be homosexual in the US? Interesting questions, but we didn’t learn a ton about how they learn. After class was over however, we talked with a different teacher at length about curriculum and teaching methods. We got the most interesting responses form two other teachers there though when asked, “What made you decide to teach?” One said two reasons – 1) to make a difference for children in Chajul and 2) to earn better money than if he didn’t teach. The other, a quiet man with an interestingly quiet and calm yet intense way of speaking, told his life story in an explanation about his passion for making things better for kids here than it was for him. Because he grew up not knowing Spanish, school was very difficult for him. Back then the teachers were from other areas and did not know Ixil, so everything was taught in Spanish, making it difficult to fully understand explanations of new concepts. He wants the future kids of Chajul to have better chances for getting an education, more choices about what to do with their lives, and better opportunities to not live in poverty, but to remain residents of Chajul.

 

Sunday, July 31st

Hike to waterfall in Chichel w/ LHI honor students (grades of 75% or higher) –

Once we got out of town, much of the trail was muddy and steep, but had beautiful views. In a fairly steady rainfall, but not a complete downpour, we crossed through several gates, a good size creek, two cows, a horse, a couple more small creeks, and found ourselves in a park with small palapa-style tables next to a beautiful waterfall and river.  A man was even cutting the grass when we got there…with a machete! The only other kid-oriented NGO group in the area showed up at the same time too – a fairly big coincidence it turns out. There was even a three-stall dressing area. Several of us teachers and adults in the other group went swimming in the river after the rocks at the waterfall. The kids didn’t swim…people here don’t usually learn to swim because they don’t really have many bodies of water to swim in, so it’s just not something they do.

After a refreshing dip, we hiked a short ways out into the “aldea” called Chichel and got onto a smallish sized old school bus which drove us back to Chajul. The hike took two hours. The bus ride back took about 45 minutes and went on roads that no bus driver in any school district in the US would attempt.

Ixil language lesson – After a scrumptious lunch by Elma at LHI, we had a beginners’ lesson in the Ixil language from Adilma. She recently became a teacher and this was her first teaching experience – talk about intimidating! Anyhow, she did a fantastic job, and has some natural teaching skills, and we are all now completely fluent in Ixil – NOT! The difference between four of their letters is almost indistinguishable, and there are several pairs of letters that are exactly alike except for one has a stronger delivery, more curt and with a bit more force. It is an unbelievably complex sounding language with about eight minutely different ways to say what we would consider to just be “sh” and “ch”. It only started being translated into a written form about 5 years ago, so very few people know how to read Ixil, but they are teaching it in school along with Spanish now.

Saturday, July 30th

We began the day with a walking tour of the town of Chajul with one the LHI scholarship students, Domingo Axel  Caba Asicona – he goes by either Domingo or Axel . We all look like giants compared to the local people. There are a few streets with concrete on them, but mostly they are dirt/mud. There are pigs wandering the streets, eating whatever they can find in the gutters. Three cows were tied up on a little hill in town and will be slaughtered for a big political rally & feast tomorrow. The President’s wife wanted to run for president, so she divorced her husband and is running. She’s supposed to be in town tomorrow. Wow! That seems messed up! Axel showed us the animal jail yard, where they put animals who have gotten out and gone on a crazy eating rampage in other people’s yards, and they hold the horse or cow or pig until the owner pays for the damage done. Then we saw the church – the doors were ornately carved with symbols that are typical in the town, many can be seen in the designs on the women’s juipilas (blouses). We made our way to the big sort of “town hall” place where we played futbol and basketball with about 40 kids for about an hour. Then we crossed the street and went into the LHI office and played games with them – several of the boys I’d played soccer with had to leave to work. I taught a few kids how to juggle with 9 kick-sacks that I bought for 40Q at el mercado de artisans in Antigua. One girl named Micaela and a boy named Axel, both picked it up really quickly. Some of the others struggled with it more, but still had fun.

After that, we all separated into groups of about three and went out to different students’ homes for lunch. We took a tuk-tuk with Josefina to her house. There we helped make tortillas and I also tried my hand at making salsa on with a stone rolling pin and curved stone platform – I’ll have to learn the name for these. Lunch was tortillas, black beans, salsa, a boiled egg, and atoll, a hot drink made from corn and a little sugar that is grainy, with a texture kind of like watery malt-o-meal and a taste much like very smoky creamed corn. We met her mother, an aunt, and two cousins, one was a boy who appeared to have Down’s Syndrome and autism and the other was a cute little girl who will grow up speaking Spanish because Josefina will teach her. Josefina will graduate from “high school” this year. She is currently doing the equivalent of student teaching and will be able to be a teacher after she graduates. I was amazed that they had a TV in their little two-room shack of a home. She said that she likes to watch soap operas and The Discovery Channel. No one else in her family understands Spanish so sometimes they watch and she translates for them.
Photo : Melissa & Angie making tortillas with Josefina cokiing tortillas in background...)

 Photo: Josefina's mom making salsa...

After lunch we walked on a winding, hilly, muddy trail back to our posada and had a couple hours of down-time while we waited for a guy to come and talk to us. He is a former guerillo from the civil war here. Eduardo Cruz Cruz told us his life story. It was both fascinating and disturbing. It is amazing that he is still alive and has no injuries from it all. Then he answered many very sensitive questions in great detail, about the war and politics, both past and present, in this area. My head is still swimming with the stories and issues that still exist today and the seemingly endless cycle of it all.

Friday, July 29

After an amazing crepe with Nutella, bananas & strawberries at Don Diego Cafe, and a short visit to show my roommate Carol Ann “El Mercado” (the market), the nine of us left in a microbus for Chajul. After I think a couple hours, we stopped in Chichicastenango for lunch and had time to explore a little. We’ll return there to spend a couple hours visiting the biggest market in Guatemala on our way to Lake Atitlan. I had a scary, but eventually successful encounter with an ATM machine – at first it didn’t give me my money, but then I realized that I’d pushed a wrong button and it worked when I tried it again. An adorable little old toothless lady gestured for me to take her picture, so I did…

After about four hours of driving on roads that had more speed bumps and washouts than I’ve encountered in my whole life put together, we arrived in Nebaj, where the the LHI program directors live so they could drop off and pick some things. We had time to explore that town a bit, and then left for the last 45 minutes into Chajul. It was raining and dark by the time we got into town, so we couldn’t see much. We started to drive down narrow, muddy sort of road, but abandoned the idea after spinning out a bit. So we unloaded all our gear and hoofed it in the rain and complete darkness (street light definitely do not exist here) down a moderately sloped muddy sort of road about 100 yards to our posada (little hotel). We divided up into rooms, each took a bunk, and crashed for the night. (Below is a photo I took of it the next day.)