Bringing Firewood to School

The school day in Guatemalan primary schools is only from around 8:30-12:30 (depending a little on the school) so kids go home for lunch. The mid-morning snack is provided by the school (purchased with funds from the Government). There are no paid faculty members who are in charge of preparing the snack. Instead, all mothers of kids in the school take turns coming in each morning and cooking the snack over an open fire or wood-burning stove. I'm not sure what happens if a mother works and cannot make it, but from what I have seen this is rare. I am not sure why the Government funding doesn't cover all aspects of snack (i.e. fuel for cooking), but to be able to cook the food each kid is required to bring in five pieces of wood each week. 

This girl didn't seem to mind carrying the wood to school today. 

The little boy wasn't quite so happy...

Some examples of snack are: Incaparina (fortified drink that contains protein, carbohydrates, and fat) and an egg, a piece of bread and Incaparina, Corn Flakes in hot milk, Atol (a sweet drink made with corn flower), etc. To help fight malnutrition, the school snack is supposed to make up a fairly large portion of childrens' caloric intake for the day. Sometimes the snack is well balanced, but more often then not it is carbs on carbs on carbs. Thanks to Guatemalan courtesy, schools almost always offer us Healthy Schools PCVs snack when we are there working. I think that this might be one of the reasons why most female PCVs find themselves gaining weight. Also since it is very rude in this culture to straight out say "no" to food I have gotten creative to get out of eating another school snack. 

A couple other things that are very different from American schools: hardly anyone gets dropped off in cars or drives to work, there are 0 parking lots or even parking spaces near the schools, kids seem to walk to school on their own or with brothers and sisters from what seems like kindergarden on so at the beginning and end of the day there are no parents at the school (except for the 5ish mothers who made the day's snack). 

Youth Forum

This past month I attended a Youth Forum workshop put on by the Peace Corps. This two-day event was centered around understanding the National Curriculum Base in Guatemala and how it relates to the Healthy Schools Project. We also participated in a round robin session where groups taught sample health lessons for the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades.  One key aspect of a "healthy school" is that the teachers teach two twenty minute health lessons each week. From my experience, the vast majority of teachers that haven't worked with healthy schools volunteers don't do this. This is one of the problems with the Healthy Schools Project. It is an initiative of the Guatemalan Government (Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health), however no one seems to know about it if there isn't a Healthy Schools Volunteer working in their school. 

For some Peace Corps trainings we have the opportunity to bring work partners. Below is a picture of me with the two work partners that I brought (teacher on the left, and principal on the right). This is also a good example of how I am considered tall in Guatemala! I definitely don't hate it :). Guatemalans love diplomas. I have received so many from various trainings here and have also made many of my own to give to participants of my trainings. 

There are a variety of locations that Peace Corps holds trainings, but this one was by far the coolest. It looked like a little hipster recycled fairy village.

Tamascal - the Mayan in-Home Sauna

Kiwa tuj - que rico es el Tamascal - how rich is the sauna

in K'iche', Spanish, and English

A Tamascal is the ancient Mayan in-home sauna. It is still widely used in many rural communities. Not all houses have one, so I am so glad that I have access to one in my house. It gets so hot in there! I generally flatten myself as low as possible to the floor to try and be at the coolest part.

It is a great family bonding experience. My host family has a big Tamascal that can fit about seven people laying down. Every two or three days all of the women and girls in the family go in together. It took them a couple months to invite me to join them in the sauna, and the first time I went in in my shorts and tank top I found out why. Most of the women and girls go in in a bra and underwear, but most of the older women just wear underwear.

According to another PCV's blog: "in Mayan spiritualism, the Tamascal is the place where the ancestral spirits reside. They say that a cold or sickness represents one being punished by the ancestors for doing something wrong. To cure oneself of the cold and to reconcile with the ancestors the Tamascal is the solution. Newborns are also placed in the Tamascal to meet their ancestors." Now I'm not sure how much of that is true or still believed, but Guatemalans of all ages use the Tamascal. My 4 year-old host-sister, Princess, and three-year old host-sister, Genesis, both get in the Tamascal. I often see them taking quick naps in there.

That little door on the bottom left is where you crawl in and out.

How it works: There is a sheet that they hang across the rope above the door and this is shut to keep all of the heat in. Inside it is totally dark except for a bare lightbulb. They fill that round metal bucket on the right with water and light a big fire under it. I am still a little nervous when I use the Tamascal because it seems to me like it would be easy to suffocate in one of these. There is also the issue of Guatemalans burning their plastic trash. I find this to be a horribly unhealthy habit, but it can be especially deadly when burned in the Tamascal. My host family does burn plastic, but only wood in the Tamascal.

Guatemalans use it not only as a sauna, but also to bathe. After they are done in the sauna they sit right outside of it and use the water heated up by the fire (mixed with cold water) to take bucket baths. Minako (the Japanese volunteer) and I both use the Tamascal from time to time, but we shower downstairs in the bathroom. I'm not sure we are THAT integrated enough yet to bathe with all of the women of the family.

A view from the inside

The metal and rock contraption on the inside of the Tamascal covers the fire, so when they throw water on this contraption it immediately turns to steam and heats up the Tamascal.

You can't stand inside of the Tamascal - it is only probably 5 feet high on the inside (nor would you want to - it's way too hot).

Another cool thing about the Tamascal is that they use small leafy branches of this special plant (I've asked but I'm still not sure what it is called) to wave the hot air down to themselves mixed with the scent of the plant. I think it is similar to eucalyptus. They also gently hit themselves with these branches which apparently helps "quitar el cansancio" remove tiredness from your limbs / body. So as I am laying on my back in the Tamascal in my shorts and tank top, sweating up a storm, I hear the gentle thwack thwack thwack of branches hitting skin. I'm not sure if this has done anything for me, but I go along with the routine.

This more accurately shows what it looks like from the inside while in-use

Second Market Day in my Town

For the longest time we just had one big market day on Monday. This means that if I wanted to buy fruit or vegetables Monday was pretty much my only option. This worked out pretty well except that the market is basically only open during school hours (well it starts early in the morning but I don't like to madrugar (rise early)). Luckily for me we now have a second, albeit smaller, market day on Thursday mornings. Living without a refrigerator it is much better if I don't have to rely on my fruits and vegetables lasting a full week.  

Naturally in true Guatemalan style my town had a big celebration for the first day of this second market. They set up a big stage in the main square where all morning they had loud live music playing and dance performances. 

Public restrooms - you pay this man a couple of quetzales and get a little bit
of toilet paper

Two women praying at a Mayan altar

Woman selling sugar cane on the street

Live Marimba and brass band

Then there were the dances. All of the performers were men dressed up in these elaborate costumes and women's masks. They didn't so much dance as sway from side to side as the dance/marched around in different formations. You really have to see it to understand it.

Shopping here takes longer than usual. The market in my town is open air and takes up the whole "downtown" area which is the equivalent of a very small U.S. block. None the less walking up and down the streets, stopping to ask prices, and bargaining takes time (although I would say that it is worth it). 

Trash Management (or Lack Thereof)

There is no trash pick-up in my town so most families and schools burn their trash. All of their trash: paper, plastic, and organic. I personally separate my trash. I take my plastic trash into Xela when I go to do work or meet up with friends, I burn my paper trash in the plancha in my kitchen, and about once a week I feed my organic trash (aka food scraps) to the pigs. My host family has a lot of them and often times they can be found walking around the backyard and throughout the house. I don't have a sink and I have yet to see anything that looks like a garbage disposal anywhere in Guatemala so I store all of the scraps in a bucket and then whenever it gets full I take a little walk out back and give it all to the pigs. 

This is my kitchen when I am burning my paper trash. There is a chimney, but a lot of smoke escapes from the top nonetheless.

The to-be happy recipient of my organic trash

Election of the Madrina - Guatemala's Beauty Pageant for Teachers

Last week I went to the district-wide event in my town hall. A beauty pageant for teachers with four teachers competing. There was no school Friday so that all of the teachers could attend this event. It was on the hora Chapin (Guatemala-time). It was supposed to start at 8am, but when I got there at 8 there were only five people sitting in the audience. Finally at 9:15 they started with the national anthem, the anthem of Central America, the song Mi Linda Totonicapán (my beautiful Totonicapán), and a prayer. Finally at 10:00am the first contestant walked out. I should really know by now that late is on time.

Derrumbes (Landslides)

This word wasn't a part of my Spanish vocabulary before I came to Guatemala or even before I experienced a rainy season in Guatemala. It certainly is now. During the rainy season it rains almost every single day in the afternoon from May-December. It's not my favorite, although it is an excuse not to leave the house in the afternoon because Guatemalans don't like to go out in the rain either.

I have to pass by this to get from my town to Xela. Luckily they opened up a side path for cars so that traffic can pass by one way at a time. This probably adds about half an hour to my trip each way.

I wasn't able to snap a picture myself so I downloaded this one off the internet

I feel like if one were to pass by this in the U.S. one would think that a mini disaster had happened. Not here. Landslides are very common during the rainy season due to the poor infrastructure, overly saturated ground, and location of the roads. A lot of the roads are built right into the sides of mountains. I highly doubt this this will be the last time that my travel will be delayed due to landslides. That's just how it is here.  

I Think That I was Extra Hungry When I Went to the Market Today...

Total cost: $9.75 or 75.5 Quetzales

On the bright side, for less than $10 I bought: 30 eggs, cilantro, 1lb potatoes, cauliflour, 6 avocadoes, 6 red peppers, 3 cucumbers, 2 lbs tomatoes, a bag of carrots, a larger version of a zucchini, 2 heads of broccoli, a bunch of swiss chard, and 3 pineapples. A vegetarian's delight. I am not a vegetarian for the record. The only downside is that I then spent almost the entire afternoon disinfecting all of this in water and bleach. 

Also this happened:

$0.39 or 3 Quetzales worth of beet leaves

I saw that one of the venders had a lot of extra beet leaves laying around so I asked her if I could have them. Usually they just throw them away or leave them on the ground when they go home for the day. She said that she would sell me a bag for 3Q. Trying not to be stingy I agreed. Little did I know what size bag she was referring to. I'm not sure if you can tell exactly how big this bag is from the picture. It is about the same size as my entire torso. When she handed the bag I must have looked surprised because she offered to put more in the bag. I said thank you, but that wouldn't be necessary. I have NO idea how I am going to use all of these leaves in addition to the other vegetables that I bought before they go bad... My creativity and my stomach have its work cut out for it.

My Kitchen

All 5 of those windows are my kitchen

I have been cooking for myself. I found that when I was eating exclusively with my host family that I did not get enough vegetables. So when I moved into my new house I rented two rooms. One is my bedroom and the other is this kitchen. To get to my kitchen I have to go outside and downstairs.

As you can see in the picture on the left, the tin roof doesn't completely cover my kitchen – there is an overhang that overlaps the roof so I guess they felt no need to use more tin. This means that all kinds of things fall into my kitchen. Sometimes I am startled half to death by a chicken, turkey, or cat landing loudly on the tin roof over my head.

My host family left those two huge bundles of corn to dry in my kitchen. I like them as decoration although I kept on hitting my head on one of them before I rearranged my table.

I never knew that mold likes cement so much, but it is a big problem here, especially during the rainy season. Luckily there is a pretty easy fix for mold: spraying bleach mixed with water. 

My pans and mold

Under my toaster oven, water filter, egg carton, etc. is a plancha. Guatemalans use this to cook by lighting a fire inside. More on this later.

My industrial-sized stove top (the gas tank is behind it)

My shelves. This is where I keep my plates, silverware, etc. I keep all of my produce in the green basket covered by a towel. I also cover my silverware with a cloth (second shelf from the top) because the dust and dirt problem is so terrible that otherwise they would be constantly dirty. 

Here are some of the issues that I have with my kitchen:
- I have to get to it from the outside which is annoying in the rain.
- I don't have a refrigerator.
- There is no source of water anywhere on the same level of the house. This means that I am constantly hauling water down stairs to fill my water filter to have both drinking and cooking water.
- I have to bring my dishes upstairs to wash them.
- The tin roof doesn't fully cover my kitchen so rain water, dirt, and leaves are constantly covering everything in my kitchen. The cats have also discovered this entrance to my kitchen so I have to put my bread under a big bowl so that they don't eat it. Side note: Guatemalan animals are a lot like Guatemalan people. They love to eat bread.
- There is only one exposed lightbulb in my kitchen. This means that it is pretty dim in there at night and I have to prepare my food at an angle or else my body blocks the light on what I am preparing completely.

It's not much but it gets the job done. 

Guatemalan Mop

It is really quite practical and I for one am going to use this technique back in the States. This has probably already made its way there, but I haven't seen it. Here in Guatemala I have not seen a single conventional mop. Just these. They are so easy to make and economical too!                 
- All you do is cut a rectangle of an old towel.                                        
- Cut a hole in the center.              
- Put the broom handle through the hole and voila!  
                                                                          
It's also easy to clean because you can just take the towel part off and wash it.

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.

Puppies!

My host dog had five adorable puppies! They are going to sell them in the market for 50Quetzales ($6.45) each! I'm not going to lie I am tempted to get one, but I am showing great restraint (although I think I would pick the one on the top left with the two spots on its back).