Mi hogar, mi comunidad, mi familia.

My home, my community, my family. 

Well once my family left…meant I only had 6 more days in Pana…the place I’ve called home and the people I’ve considered family this past year. I made a list of “lasts,” things I wanted to do one more time but also didn’t want to spend my last week counting down my days or mourning the fact that it was my last blackberry licuado, iced coffee from my favorite cafes, walk with Cafu, Solomon’s porch church service, dinner with Carlos’ family…ahhhh the list goes on and on.  I spent every minute with Carlos and his family, just living the local life. I can’t quite put into words my thoughts about leaving. I know it is time to be back home, and  I am excited about being back in Tacoma next year….I also know Pana will always be there, tucked beneath those 3 majestic volcanos, but I realize coming back as a visitor is quite different than being rooted in a culture, rooted in a community.

When my family was visiting I got a phone call from the mom of one of my students. My student was sick and in the hospital (she’s been in and out all year for a variety of conditions). My student kept requesting to talk to Miss Allison. After my family left I took the chicken bus up the hill to Solola to pay her a visit. I wrote in my journal the following.  (I am going to use the name Irene, for my student).

I visited my student, Irene, in the hospital a few days ago. She has asthma and is under careful watch. Her mom led me into a hospital room with 6 beds – each occupied with a young girl under the age of 6. My first thoughts were focused on the poverty and dank, dirty conditions in which these girls were laying – 3^rd world health care. I felt erroneous thoughts of gratitude that I live in a cleaner, more developed country. Flies swarmed my face, as I inhaled the sour smell of old meat soup. But as I turned the corner I saw Irene, little sweet precious Irene – the same brilliant mind and friend to all that sat in the front right corner of my classroom every day her little body allowed her to come to school, with her dow-eyed eagerness and metal toothy grin. My esteem and discomfort in this unfamiliarity wisped away.

She was a strong reminder of my ties to this country, and this community. I am not just a high school tourist strolling the streets of Pailin ,Cambodia in awe of the poverty – or a volunteer living temporarily among the street dogs and street children of Kathmandu. No that’s not me….not anymore. I am a member of this community. I am a teacher, a mentor, a friend, una novia, una nieta,  una cuñada, y una guia. That face in that hospital bed, that’s not just some stranger in a National Geographic Magazine. That’s my student, or my boyfriend, or my teacher, or my mentor. These are my people. This is my family. I am part of this community. THAT was the strongest realization I could have made before driving out of Panajachel, taking last minute photos of Lake Atitlan. I said farewell for now, but my roots run deep. I will always consider this place a home.

Some pictures from my last week in Pana. 

Carlos Sr. and Jr. taking the boat over to Ven Aca for breakfast 

Ven Aca 

Saying goodbye to two of my favorite baristas (Martin and Naree) Cafe Loco

Mirna, Carlos, Asa and Melanie 

Walking Cafu 

Awesome restaurant with an aquarium 

FINALLY!!!! 

Adios Chicken Buses 

Gracias Birma and Carme por todo! 

Irene and I 

Adios Lake Atitlan

Mi Familia en Pana!!!

First all Schoening Family + Julie vacation…EVER! The 6 of us dropped our busy lives and committed to a week of exploration, laughs, and attempts at the Spanish language together in Guatemala. I knew it was going to be fun, but wow this crew far surpassed any of my expectations. Carlos was a rock star tour guide, helping get mom the local shopping rates by trying to convince the shop owners she was in fact Guatemalan and just can’t speak the local language. He also set up a big soccer game for Dan and Dad, played basketball with Brian and of course graced us with the presence of his beloved Chow Chow dog. We all stayed at the Hotel California, above Solomon’s porch and we were treated like royalty. We did a lot of Guatemalan coffee tasting for mom, I guided Dan, Julie and Dad up San Pedro volcano and we strolled the streets of Pana as a team posing for photos every once in a while for Jules. I love them so much and am so grateful to spend more time with them all next year.

Check out Julie's Blog with some great shots from our trip.
Her eye captures the essence of our adventure! Great job Jules! 

http://www.julieschoening.com/location/guatemala

Too Many Lasts...

The last week of school our PE teacher, Profe Angel, planned an all school Field Day. In WA, a school field day the end of June would ideally be a day of pre-summer sun. However, in Guatemala during a season of tropical storm, a mid June Field day entails mud and precipitation… He had organized an incredible Olympic style event, with the school divided into 8 colored teams. I was a captain of the yellow team with Jason, and each team had students ages 3-18. There were a number of obstacle courses, relay races and climbing through spider web mazes! Naturally all of them ended up in a mud fight or mud slide of some sort. See pictures below.

Tug of War!!

Spider Wed Army Crawls

Team Yellow or AMA-Rillo Captains! (Jason and I)

Half of an All Group Shot

Despite the fact that I told my students months ago that I was going to be moving back home next year, the last day fo school and the idea that this was final farewell was unfathomable…Ya Ya Miss Allison, you are going home and then see you in September. Wait…..you’re NOT teaching here next year? YOU are not going to be our teacher next year…..pause, look around, make eye contact with other students with similar shocked expressions and simultaneously group hug Miss Allison. It was tough…really really tough. I know a teacher’s first year of teaching is always memorable and his/her first class will always be special, but teaching abroad you don’t get the chance to check in with the students next year to see how everyone is doing. I won’t pass their toothless grins in the hallway or get visitation time with them on the playground. I know many of them will be easy to track down if I go back to Pana, because I know where their family shops and restaurants are but wow it was tough saying goodbye. Below are a few shots of my kiddos with their "This year I learned...." posters.

This year I leraned to be part of a community.

This year I learned math and to make good decision.

This year I learned how to be a goalie and to do my homework and to respect.

This year I learned to respect everyone in our school.

This year I learned to be nice. (As of January, this girl spoke no English and just a bit of Spanish)

A few pics from our last day of school....

Faces of the last day of school

Class Picture ( a few missing)

Meghan and I hosted one last epic trivia night at La Palapa. Our theme was HOME. We both debuted our new caps representing the cities / states in the US we call home CHICAGO and WASHINGTON. Never again in my life will I consider a local bar one of my places of comfort but I consider the bartenders, and guards some of my closest acquaintances in Pana. I guess that is small town for you. When hosting trivia, my goblet of lemonade (sin alcohol, without alcohol) would be delivered to our table within 3 minutes of arriving. They knew me; they knew my order and no questions were asked.

Emily and I also hiked one last volcano…it was the month of lasts! We hitched a ride with a friend to Xela and hiked Santiagito the next day. After a major eruption of Volcan Santa Maria in 1902 that sent ash flying as far as Los Angelos, the volcano established numerous secondary vents to help self regulate. Now, rather than major eruptions, the side vents erupt mildly every 20 minutes. It keeps the ventral vent clear and the lava never has a chance to build up. Santiagito is one of the secondary vents that was established. So we hiked up the side and ate a delicious breakfast on top, watching it erupt every 20 minutes! A cup of hot coffee and volcanic eruptions….breakfast and a show---doesn’t get much better than that…well if you’re into that kinda stuff!

I said a final farewell to all the teachers and other staff at AMA graduation, just an hour before driving to the city to intercept my family in their Guatemalan arrival! The whole weekend was bitter, sweet.

Picnics, La Playa y Kaqchikel

I guess no news, is good news….it meant I was busy and loving every minute of my last few weeks in Panajachel. But, I have missed quite a chunk in my blogging so I am going to take it back to early May.

Jason, who teaches 4^th and 5^th grade (with baby Luke), began planting the idea of a combined class picnic in his students’ brains a few weeks before the end of school. It became incredible incentive to complete all their homework and study for their upcoming finals. They were ecstatic!! We had 2^nd graders holding 5^th graders accountable and older siblings helping the younger siblings to complete their homework at home. The deal was, every student from Miss Allison’s 2^nd/3^rd grade and Jason’s 4^th/5^th grade had to complete and bring their homework for the 3 weeks leading up to this anticipated, epic picnic! I’m not sure Jason and I really realized all that we had signed up for, but sure enough one sunny Wednesday afternoon, our two classes marched through Pana, crossed the river to our designated picnic spot by the lake, and took over the entire park for 2 hours! Parents and students brought food to feed a village! It as an afternoon of basketball, swimming, food, swings and fun! Only in Guatemala can two teachers get away with such a field trip without permissions slips and med forms….but the parents were aware and many came to spend the afternoon with us!

And we are off....crossing the river!

Setting up our lunch spot

Susana and Maria

Yeshua 

One weekend in May, Carlos, Sammy, Michelle and I piled into the Solomon’s Porch shuttle and drove out to the coast to spend a few days in Monterrico. It was a weekend of Spanglish at it’s finest. Carlos and Michelle both speak English and Spanish fluently but Sammy is working on perfecting his English while I am working on perfecting my Spanish so we proved to be a great team. Lucky for us, the UEFA Champions League final was that Saturday afternoon, so the four of us camped out in our hotel restaurant and watched the game with all the waiters and whoever tried to pass by but got sucked in. There were tears and laughter…screams of excitement and horror, as we watched Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid fight till the death. We thought we were in for a long depressing evening, when Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid (Carlos and Sammy’s highly preferred player and team) were down, with only 2 minutes left on the clock. But when Ronaldo scored to tie it up, Carlos began running laps down the restaurants aisle hugging any human that came in his track. Reactions of obsessive soccer fans are truly universal, however this specific scene and line of reactions and events were truly a cultural experience! Soccer IS life!

Another truly cultural scene I experienced in the last few weeks of school occurred on the stage of AMA. Stella, our amazing Kaqchikel teacher, had been rehearsing traditional Mayan dance performances with our students for 3 weeks leading up to the event. The day of the performance all of the primary students came in their full traditional Mayan traje, and preformed a few routines in front of the whole school. It proved to be the event of the year. Parents came from as far as 2 hours away to see their students participate and embrace their heritage with pride. It was humbling to watch the parents who still dress in the typical garb in the audience, beaming with pride as their sons and daughters perform their ancestral routines. In Pana the traditional clothing indicates who is of indigenous decent. However, generally, those of indigenous descent live up in the foothills and have less access to education and resources. This is another grandiose generalization but on the streets of Pana those wearing traditional traje are treated with less respect than those that dress in western clothing. The fact is, most families in Pana are of indigenous descent but have over the generations stripped themselves from those roots. With that in mind, it was a very touching afternoon seeing our AMA families of indigenous descent, watch their sons and daughters in traditional attire perform with pride in front of their whole school.

Family Portrait: Alicia, Ilene, Chico and Gloria

(Alicia and Gloria are sisters, making Ilene and Chico cousins)

Cousins

Jonathan, Rosalio, Joel, Yeshua, William and Ilene

Stella and all her dancers