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 4th and 5th 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 2nd graders holding 5th
graders accountable and older siblings helping the younger siblings to complete
their homework at home. The deal was, every student from Miss Allison’s 2nd/3rd
grade and Jason’s 4th/5th 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
