A Truly Humbling…and Bumpy Encounter

I just had the most humbling experience here thus far….my friend and I were feeling tired and lazy, and decided to leave our Friday evening festivities early. We were both strolling the streets walking home, feeling a little guilty for leaving, and also overwhelmed by the amount of work we have to accomplish in the next few days.

Here’s a little needed back story: every few days I see the same girl in a wheelchair on Calle Rancho Grande ( a street a few down from mine), being pushed by someone, usually a mom or dad, up and down, up and down the street. I've noticed her before. She always moves slowly, obviously….I can barely even walk the cobble stone dangerous streets, let alone push a wheel chair down them….but her family maintains this air of peace and content, moving at the pace that is inclusive of their whole family...patient and kind.

Tonight I turned onto Rancho. It was dark, no people in sight except for this wheel chair creeping along ahead of me, and her little brother, the size of one of my students, attempting to push her up the cobble stone hill. Cobble stone is an understatement…these streets are broken boulders, cracked in all places. There is no level concrete, and occasional 5 inch dips. It's impossible to take 3 steps without stubbing a toe, or tripping.  I watched them for a minute, not really comprehending what I was witnessing. My mind was racing through all the things I need to do tomorrow, all the stress I'm holding in, and all the "Guatemalan inconveniences" I’ve been dealing with this week (nonfunctioning internet stick, troubled students, so much planning etc). The next thing I know, her wheel chair hit a bump and her little brother was not strong enough to catch her, so this girl is lying face first, immobile in the street. I didn't even think,…I just started sprinting toward them. It was like this sense of humanity was driving me…. "puedo ayudarte por favor?" Can I please help you? – My Spanish words jumbled together, in a tone much calmer than my racing heartbeat.

I reached down, and lifted her, placing her back into her wheelchair, and then offered to roll her up the street. The little brother looked relieved, as he was rubbing his hands, like they'd been blistered from pushing her so far up the hill…who knows how far they'd come. We started chatting, and I learned he was only 7 years old. She was 12 and has been handicapped her whole life…everyday someone in her family takes turns rolling her up and down the street. It takes a long time for their family to get anywhere, but they are  used to it. It is they way of life.

After 5 minutes of pushing her, anticipating every bump we hit, and maneuvering around every loose stone, I was sure we were almost at her destination, but we kept going and going. I probably pushed her for 10 minutes up the street.  My hands were blistering, having to lift the chair every speed bump we came across or massive pot hole we had to dodge…it took strength to not let the pain be heard in the tone of my voice while talking to them. My arms were shaking and my hands were burning….to think that she does this trek every single day to just leave her house…and to think that her 7 year old brother was going to roll her all the way home….it would have taken 40 minutes to just get up Rancho.  We finally reached a tin roof shack off the side of the road and she said "mi casa"….my arms practically gave out, as did my voice when she thanked me profusely and the little brother reached out to hug me….I stood in shock for a few seconds…and just 20 minutes prior I had been so consumed with "my issues, and inconveniences"…ya my life is really tough, isn't it? 

Wow- we are all placed with an absolute purpose and I was guided to walk that road at 9:30 pm tonight, just as those children were guided to be there, to put my gratitude and life into perspective. We have so much to be grateful for and the power of human connection and our ability to help others and be rejuvenated by the strength and daily courage of others, should never be overlooked. This is a night, a moment of human connection, that I will never forget.

Giving Thanks: Acción de Gracias

Well I officially survived my first Thanksgiving away from home. In fact, as much as I missed the traditional Schoening family street hockey tournament, cousin dish washing extravaganza, and Auntie Marj’s amazing pies, I more than survived – I had an amazing holiday!

We began celebrating on Wednesday night, when one of our local friend's mom offered to cook us all a pre-thanksgiving feast of an…unidentifiable leg, we think pig? It was incredible! We devoured delicious meat, salad, and loved laughing and being present with this new group of friends. A year ago, I never would have imagined having such a sense of community and support in a land oh so far away! But there I was, sitting around a table, with new friends, speaking a new language, eating a new meat. 

My Thanksgiving morning started with a banana-nut pancake breakfast made by the one and only Emily! Meghan, Emily and I shared stories of what we were doing last Thanksgiving over a massive pile of hot cakes and coffee from our favorite café! We truly have become a family and it felt like the exact right way and place to start our Thanksgiving. I am so blessed and grateful to have such supportive friends here!

At 10 we all ventured to Alyssa’s house to cook our contributions for that evening’s feast! The idea of baking cornbreak for 25 had been consuming my thought for the past week and I was ready to conquer the task! After 3 trips to the market, and a backpack full of ingredients and supplies, I was ready! …Everything takes a little more planning, patience and thought when baking/cooking …or frankly doing anything in a foreign country. You would think – easy, get my recipe, go to the store, buy the ingredients and BOOM you’re ready. Well here, it’s find the simplest recipe, translate all the ingredients into Spanish, convert all the cooking measurements, visit 3 different markets (because of course not 1 market offers all the ingredients in one place…that would be far too easy), then go on a mad hunt with two empty backpacks for lugging all the ingredients around!

Meghan and Emily…cooking?

the infamous cornbread

Don’t worry folks, the cornbread turned out amazing…well with the exception of one small loaf. I was getting the loaves all ready on the platters, when a small ant caught my eye in one of the loaves…after scrunching down to take a closer look I realized the whole loaf looked as if it was about to crawl away. Yes…somehow one of the loaves had become infested with a colony of ants in the matter of 1 hour. Again- only in Guate. Buen provecho (Spanish Bon Appétit!).

I’ve been attending a Christian gathering on Sundays at Solomon’s Porch (a spot for people to gather and meet and sing and just be joyful!) It’s an incredible mix of people, both foreigners and locals! Thanks to fellow teacher Jason and his amazing wife, Carrie, I have been welcomed right into this community and have so appreciated the spiritual outlet and sense of family! The directors of the Porch hosted 50 some people to their home Thursday afternoon for a full on Turkey feast! It was such a humbling afternoon, seeing this selfless family give their time, opening up their home and preparing such a feast for anybody and everybody! There were visiting volunteers, expat Americans, and local Guatemalans all gathered around sharing gratitude and feasting on turkey!

The group at Solomon's Thanksgiving lunch

I took some “me” time that afternoon and read some Thanksgiving inspiration down by the lake. I cannot get enough of Lake Atitlán!

The feast that night was hosted by Ana, a mother of a AMA alumna. Again, the hospitality of the people here is humbling! She opened up her home to all of us teachers, friends and families, and we ate and laughed and expressed gratitude…and played Catch Phrase…. all night!

The AMA crew 

It was actually really neat spending Thanksgiving in a country that doesn’t celebrate the day. I walked around all day with an elevated sense of gratitude and love. But for them, it was just another day. I loved that. I was so at peace and this peaceful place allowed me to really recognize the peace and goodness of everyday life here, through every interaction and attempted Spanish conversation. Everyday can be like that. I love these spiritual reminders.

Even though they don’t celebrate Acción de Gracias (thanksgiving), I was able to integrate the idea of giving thanks, and communicating our gratitude in my classroom this past week. We are studying families and what makes our families special in Social Studies and… conveniently enough, we are studying Birds in Science. Naturally that meant we had to make gratitude turkeys!  See what my kids came up with below!

Annnd, like every year….with Thanksgiving over, we are officially encouraged to start celebrating NAVIDAD!!! The day after Thanskgiving, we took the chicken bus to the town up the hill, Sololá, to see the Christmas tree in their central park. It is called Árbol Gallo (sponsored by the biggest local beer company, Gallo, which means rooster). So naturally that means they have a lit Gallo logo on the top of the tree)…only in Guate does their city Christmas tree have an iconic beer symbol to top their tree….angels and stars are overrated.

I am really trying to get in the holiday spirit, but with 80% mornings, and no Starbucks red cups in sight…it’s been a struggle. Last night (to prep for December 1^st), I closed by blinds to block out the sun, cranked the Christmas music and put on my Burts Bees Peppermint chapstick. Applying peppermint chapstick prior to sipping on a hot cup of coffee is the closest I can get to sipping on a peppermint mocha. Hey folks…I’m doing what I can! I’m sure I will continue to get creative with my pseudo sense of ‘Tis the Season!

For now I am off to some lesson planning and market shopping! Thanks again for reading. I’m counting down the days until I come home for my dearest Megan’s wedding and the holiday season!!!

Feeling like a Local

Honeymoon stage is over…but really, I’ve been told that the first few months of living somewhere is somewhat like a honeymoon. It’s all new, exciting, and reality is far from your experience. Well folks, it’s set in- I live here. It’s real. Not only is school starting to feel like home, but Emily and I have been fortunate enough to really jump into a fun group of locals. We go swimming every Sunday, kayaking on the weekends, and I’ve even “borrowed” one of their dogs for a nice lake walk! Ya...mom, you hear that? I’m a dog walker! Ever think that day would come? But it’s a Chow Chow…so basically a big fluffy cat (not sure if he even counts as a dog). I actually felt like a celebrity walking Cafu- that dog has more friends in this town than any local I’ve met! I was basically his personal escort, as he strutted down the main street, stopping to let every vendor get their fluff fix!

Last weekend, some of us ventured to one of the biggest markets in the country -  or “one of the largest trading centers in the Mayan community,” as they’ve called it. Chichicastenango is the name of the town. Each pueblo has it's own tradition huipil (garment, textile design to be worn by all the women in that town.) Chichi's huipil had caught my eye months ago, so I was excited to be in the land of my favored huipil! The market was enormous! Colors and textiles block after block, expanding out from a central plaza and 400 year old Catholic church, Santo Tomas.

Chichi huipil

Iglesia de Santo Tomos 

Last week was also an epic evening at Atitlan Multicultural Academy….drum roll please…..THE TALENT SHOW! I bet when you read “talent show” you envision dancing, musical instruments, maybe even the occasional magician….talent is an understatement. One of my students got on stage and announced “I’m going to show you a finger” and proceeded to pop her double jointed thumb for 2 minutes with the accompaniment of her sister on the guitar. Let’s just say, she received a standing ovation and “most creative routine” award. The staff routine was a hit! We all decked out in our AMA shirts, caps, tall socks, and gangster faces, and did a lot of hip hop struttin, fist pumping and the routine ended with Emily and I worming off the stage!

5 year old Rodrigo on the electric guitar! 

Some impressive finger poppin'! 

Our school janitor/guardian/most amazing and inspiring man - showing us how it's done! 

AMA staff (minus a few)

Meghan and I hosted trivia again at the local Gringa bar, La Palapa. We came decked out in our jerseys and snap back caps and really get the people riled up! The bar owner said it was the best turn out they’d seen in years – 50 something people! They’ve asked us to be the regular hosts….can you say FAMOUS!? Ya, so now we are not only feeling like locals, but we are employees at one of the biggest bars in town. This weeks theme was Dynamic Duos. See some of our questions below:

SAMPLE TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

(don't peek at the answers below)

1.     This commercial pair was originally going to be bagel company and switched to making ice cream because it was cheaper.

2.     What complementary weaponry is used primarily for target shooting?

3.     This American multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Cincinatti, produces products such as pet foods, cleaning agents, and personal care products.

4.     These two went up the hill to fetch a pail of water….

5.     The average American Child eats 1,500 of this delicious combination by the time they graduate from high school.

Answers:

1.     Ben and Jerrys

2.    Bow and Arrow

3.    Proctor and Gamble

4.    Jack and Jill

5.    PB and J

Alright- enough about my fun, social life here in Pana! Things in the classroom are going really well too. We’re multiplying in math, identifying Fiction vs. Nonfiction in Language Arts, defining families in Social Studies and …..BIRDS in Science! My kids knew I loved birds, but they’ve really humored me during our Bird unit! I nerd out every day – teaching them a Guatemalan bird of the day, and giving them Bird Eye points everyday they come in and tell me about a bird they saw outside of school! If I do nothing else for this community in my time here, at least I have planted the seed for young Ornithologists!! Right now the average age of Birders is 56, I’m doing my part to readjust that average, at least in Guate! Shout out to ROSS FURBUSH, making my fellow young birder proud!

Well, I think that’s all for now. Getting mentally prepped to cook cornbread for a group of 25 for our Teacher Thanksgiving feast! I’ll sure miss the Schoening family Thanksgiving hockey tournament and famous crescent rolls! Sending you all so much love!

Final Shout Out: A big adios to our friend Carlos - who is headed to the states for a few months to study English! Drink a Starbucks Red Cup for me! Can't wait to see that smile in March! 

Disfrazes, volcanes y barriletes!

Man oh man, my posts take long and longer every time, but I think that’s a sign that I am truly finding my groove and it is starting to really feel like life. It’s hard to believe that we are already half way through November….I was sure that by now I’d be totally settled, but still every day is full of so sooo many firsts and incredibly cultural and educational encounters. As always, the adventures continue.

Halloween here was far from traditional. While they don’t celebrate Halloween in these parts, our school is on the American system so our kids were easily spotted walking to school as they were the only ones in costume. I can’t say I came equipped with a Halloween costume…I planned for a lot but not that far, so some friends and I scoped out some of the second hand shops in town. We found retro track jackets, and foam toy bowling pins….so naturally we decided on being the Guatemalan Equipo de Boliche (The Guatemalan Bowing Team). The kids’ response was …. “What? We don’t have a bowling team,” to which we responded “well, you do now….” We spent Halloween at school flying homemade kites and bobbing for apples. It was a true fiesta!

Boliche Champs!

Emily, Meghan and I

AMA ready for the party!

Victor the vampire!

Pre-K bobbing for apples in some gnarly water!

Two of my students decked out

As I mentioned, we flew some homemade kites….ya I thought it would be a treat to work with Mr. Jason’s 4^th/5^th grade class to make kites in honor of the Day of the Dead. The kids brought in their own supplies, and I figured it would be easy enough to figure out….wrong….thank goodness for the few moms that came to help out, because the kids learned quickly that I was of little to no use in kite making and that if they wanted a successful kite, they were better off on their own or with the help of one of the moms. Either way, we had a blast attempting to get them off the ground, “My motto was, if you run fast enough, it’ll fly….”

on our way to fly our kites

determined to get them flying!

That weekend a few of us ventured to Sumpango for the Festival de Barriletes (Kite festival). In celebration of the Day of the Dead, kites are flown in an attempt to connect with the spirits of those who have since passed. It’s such a joyous event, The Day of the Dead, a time for the community to gather, remember, and honor those who are missed. I was ready for a lot of families flying some homemade kites…oh no, this was the real deal. I’m talking kites 50 feet long, made by the technical weave of a rope 9 inches in diameter, and hundreds of pounds worth of bamboo rods. Each kite displayed an inspirational quote, and intricately painted tissue paper murals. That being said, I never thought flying kites could be so peligroso (dangerous). An unsuccessful kite flight, resulted in a  massive kite dive bombing into the crowd. It was a far from a relaxing day, dodging kites, and families fleeing from their flight path, but a truly cultural experience.

the whole crew! 

Trying to soak up the most of our weekends, the next day, Emily, Ani (her friend visiting from home), and I climbed Pacaya, an active volcano that last erupted in 2010, which sits at about 8,500 ft. Don’t worry mom, they ensure at least 2 hours notice before the next eruption….Apparently, every time it erupts it destroys the surrounding pueblos (villages). Carlos, our trusty guide, explained that growing up, rather than fleeing, they all just learned to hide under tables at school, as if it were an earthquake….seems like a pueblo relocation would suffice, but who am I to talk?! We made the climb in pretty good time, but felt slow compared to the “taxis naturales” (as they call them), or those riding horseback instead of hiking.

Saw this written in the stone. Pretty cool. 

We knew once we reached the top, because it truly felt like we had landed on the moon: wide open space, with miles and miles of black volcanic rock pilings and formations. We found a volcanic heat vent and were able to roast mallows and make s’mores. Ya, that’s right folks, I roasted marshmallows in a heat vent on the top of an active volcano (didn’t even know to have that on my bucket list).

Pacaya is near Antigua, so we were able to stay with some girls we met randomly at a crepe place in Antigua a few weekends prior. They are both amazing people, doing great things here! I love that traveling allows you to cross paths with those you would have never had a chance to meet. One of them is planning on grad school at UW, so long term friends for sure!

Walking on the moon

roasting mallows 

Numero UNO, con Carlos!

This past weekend, I experienced my first Panajachel Lancha Fiesta (boat party). One of our guy friends here is headed to school in the states, so as a farewell, we hung out on a boat all day, dancing, swimming, exploring towns across the lake and watching the sunset. Good people, great fun!

I am at Café Moka making this entry. Café Moka sits at the end of the main street of Panajachel and is owned and run by a good friend. This is my spot: lesson planning, sunset watching, card playing, random dance choreographing, and people watching. You could say it’s our Central Perk! You know you go somewhere too much when they know your order and it’s personalized with café art! Life is good.

Thanks again everyone for following along. Tomorrow the teachers are performing a hip hop routine in the school’s talent show, choreographed by “your very own” of course. Stay tuned for some pictures of that!