My Third Guatemalan Wedding

The Bride and Groom are in the center with their backs to the camera.
The man standing up is giving the bride and groom advice. This advice-giving
and well-wishing takes up a big chunk of Guatemalan weddings)

Apparently Guatemalans only like to get married right after I move into a new house. Obviously it has taken me a while to blog about this since I moved to this house last November. Guatemalan weddings are nothing like American weddings. Naturally it is hard to generalize. I have been to three different weddings here. All of them were very different, but all three were very different from American weddings that I have been to or heard about.

First of all they have all been morning / early afternoon weddings. Each one started out with a breakfast at a family members house where they set up tables and benches outside under a tent. Secondly all three couples were married by a lawyer. The weddings were done in a combination of K'iche' (the Mayan language) and Spanish. There is never any dancing (probably because I live in a predominantly Evangelical town). After the ceremony there is lunch. As a goodie bag each time I have gotten a bag of bread to take home.

What has varied from wedding to wedding was what the bride and groom wore. The first wedding I went to the bride wore the typical Mayan traje. The second she wore a white dress, and the third she wore a more every day looking traje with a sweater. In the first two weddings the groom wore suits, and in this one he was dressed more informally.

I found this wedding to be a little awkward. I had only just met this family and moved in with them a couple weeks earlier so I was still getting to know everyone. The tables were very segregated by status as determined by gender. The bride and groom sat in the middle of the table of men who were served first by the women. As a guest of honor and resident gringa I was invited to sit at this table. It turned out fine, but I felt out of place next to the bride and groom whom I had never met and surrounded by the older men. Oh well it certainly was an experience. And I got two meals and a bag of bread out of it.

 Hearty breakfast

An Extra Long Memorial Day Weekend in Guatemala

So I felt like last week I was really on a role, work-wise. Monday-Thursday I gave presentations to both parents' groups and teachers. All of which I think went well if I do say so myself :). Now I don't think that I have blogged much about the level of productivity here in Guatemalan schools. It can be low. The school day is only from 8-12:30 and there is about an hour taken out for snack and recess. It also seems to me that there are an endless number of days where the kids are not in classes for activities such as: sporting events for the kids, sporting events for the teachers, cultural days (I really am glad that they proudly celebrate their Mayan heritage), holidays (Mother's Day, teacher's day, etc.), and time off when there are all-teacher meetings (because with school as only a half-day teachers couldn't possibly meet in their afternoons off). So as I was chugging along with my week I began to hear from the directors (principals) of the schools that there is no school Friday, May 23, or Monday, May 26 (Memorial Day in the U.S.A.), because teachers from each school are competing against each other in soccer and basketball. Sounds like a worthwhile event to cancel two days of classes. Not to me. So, although I am definitely not in the U.S., I am getting a nice long Memorial Day weekend.

Toothbrushing Charla with Parents

My favorite is the little boy in the front holding up his new homemade toothbrush

Part of my job as a Healthy Schools Volunteer is to work with parents' groups. If I can get kids to wash their hands and brush their teeth in schools that will be amazing, but if I can get them to do it at home as well that will be even better. I haven't worked in a school in the States, but I imagine that the involvement of parents (mostly mothers) here is much greater. Each school has a rotation of all of the mothers who make snack for the kids every day. This means that every day about 5 mothers come to school to make the snack. I find this amazing. I think it might have to do with the fact that a lot of the mothers work out of the home caring for the kids or work in informal jobs (i.e. a little store that sells snacks, soda, etc. out of their home).

Also my schools are willing to give me time at their almost monthly parents' meetings to give a talk on health subjects. They also will call all of the parents there when I have a charla (lesson) to give them. So far I have given talks to parents on basic hygiene practices such as hand washing and toothbrushing. There is usually a good turnout, too! The talks that I have given usually about 60 parents (again mostly mothers), which is the majority. Most of the parents have multiple kids in the school. Big families are still the norm here. 

Presenting to parents is not without it's challenges. In the area that I live, all of the parents speak K'iche' the local Mayan language and if I am lucky about half of them also speak Spanish. Therefore I have to have someone translate my Spanish into K'iche' for me. There is also a very high rate of illiteracy among the parents. I am used to presenting with powerpoints and poster papers with limited words, but I have had to become creative with finding ways to demonstrate and explain using pictures. The sign in sheets are another potential issue. With illiterate parents they cannot write their names so I bring along an ink pad so they can put their thumbprint instead. 

Here are some pictures from one of my toothbrushing charlas. In my talk I taught them how to make homemade toothpaste and toothbrushes. I had each person make a homemade toothbrush. This is where you take a little stick like a tongue depresser, wrap a small piece of cloth around it, and tie it on both ends with dental floss. The toothpaste is made out of baking soda, salt, and water. Once they were completed I then had them all go outside and brush their teeth using the homemade toothbrush and toothpaste. 

Getting homemade toothpaste (not going to lie it tastes really bad)

Yes, that child on the floor is eating junk food

Happy Mother's Day from Guatemala

I am dedicating this post to my Mom who I love so much and miss every day.

It's amazing - I am just starting to repeat holidays in my site in Toto. I arrived April 23, 2013. Last year I went to the Mother's Day celebration at a school. This year I decided that once was enough and celebrated with my new host family instead. Mother's Day in Guatemala is always celebrated on May 10th which means that this year it fell on a Saturday (one day before the U.S.). So Saturday morning I lead arts and crafts with my host siblings and Minako, the Japanese volunteer that also lives in the house. We made lots of cards in four different languages and even a couple of paper roses. It was a lot of fun.

After the activity I was invited to their Mother's Day lunch in which both my host parent's mothers were in attendence. They only speak K'iche' so we didn't talk much, but it was a really good lunch of spicy chicken, a cole slaw-like salad, and a cake.

Most of us with our cards

Princess and I. She is so adorable. She used so much glue attaching
hearts to the inside of her cards that she glued all of them shut.

Like most things in my life right now my Mother's day was very multi-lingual. 

Minako showed us how to write Happy Mother's Day in Japanese

I love you Mom in K'iche' on the left, Spanish on the right, and English on the bottom

Xela is Also Happy

By now I'm sure that those of you in the States have seen a plethora of those Pharrell Williams Happy videos. Well here is one more that is just so happy I couldn't help it. Xela (pronounced Shea-la) is the official nickname for the department of Quetzaltenango in Guatemala. Xela is much easier to pronounce than Quetzaltenango, don't you think? There are some great views of Xela in this video. It is like a mini musical tour. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93raztH6lYQ    

The Sugar Problem

Sorry I haven't posted a blog in a while. April was a crazy busy month filled with holy week, an awesome visit from my parents, and a school gardens training. 

So this funny little green triangle dude is holding up a sign that says "sugar with IRON." Normally I am all for fortified food items, however I have heard a lot of Guatemalans say that they get their iron from sugar. Now I haven't done the calculations, but I'm pretty sure a person would become diabetic before they got their daily recommended iron intake from sugar.

On the whole Guatemalans consume what I consider to be a ton of sugar daily. Like in the U.S. sodas are extremely popular. Unlike in the U.S., both kids and babies are given soda (I have seen both soda and coffee poured into baby bottles). Soda is also commonly called "agua" or water. This is why it is important to specify "agua pura" pure water if you actually want to get water in Guatemala. I am an avid coffee drinker, but I told my host family that I don't like it so that they wouldn't serve me "coffee" at dinner. I put "coffee" in quotes because what they make is more like warm sugar water with coffee flavor. Needless to say not my favorite.