Last Post

Hola a todos,

This is my last blog post since tomorrow is my last day in Xela. Thanks for reading my blog and supporting over the past 4 and half months!

I have been doing a lot of wrap-up stuff which has gotten me a little bit more in the mindset of leaving. Some of the activities that we have been up to at the Guarderia include: a two-day leadership workshop series, a Sex Ed. class with our youth, lots of soccer games since the rains are letting up a bit, arts and crafts with the little ones, and a big reforestation day…we planted 200 trees! Being at the Guarderia for the past 4 and a half month has been the time of my life. This community has taught me so much about life, love, and service. It will be hard to say good-bye tomorrow.

Sean and I paid a visit to all of our favorite Xela spots this weekend to bid the city adieu. We had one last scrabble game with our host parents over a bottle of wine. Starting on Friday, Sean and I are going to be traveling around Guatemala for a week. We hope to make it to Semuc Champey and Rio Dulce, two natural gems of this land.

See you state-side!

Carrie Ray

Carolina ready to plant trees!

Sean and I tutoring at the Guarderia

Sarita

Joy and I right before she left Pop Wuj

Adios Xela

Just Coordinating Away

Hola!

My sincerest discuplas for the blog-neglect. This final chapter of my Guate life has been full of activity. I am starting to prepare myself for the good-byes because it is coming on quick. Two weeks left in Xela…not enough time.

                All is well at the Guarderia. In these past few weeks we have had number of workshops/classes with the kids and other fun happenings. We are collaborating with another organization called Soluciones Comunitarias/Social Entrepreneur Corps  (http://www.socialentrepreneurcorps.com/guatemala.html) to teach a series of classes on personal finance, saving, and smart spending. Their coordinator, James, took into account the fact that these topics could potentially leave the youth yawning so he turned the curriculum into a board game called ¡AHORRA AHORA! (Save Now!) which is a culturally-relevant mix of Monopoly and LIFE… and maybe a little PAYDAY. This group will continue to come to the Guarderia once a week for the rest of the summer to work with the youth. In a country where people are accustomed to spending money right when they get it, even if there is some left over to save, a class of personal finance is a novel idea.

We also have started a five week series on nutrition with the medianos (middle age group). In the first class, we discussed the food pyramid and had a junk food vs health food group activity. I think the kids enjoyed the nutritional peanut butter and banana snack more than the class. Can you blame them?  The lack of proper nutrition is a big issue here in Guatemala. Junk food is cheap and widespread. It’s ironic and unfortunate that many people in rural areas grow plots and plots of vegetables to sell at the market, but then buy pork rinds and ice cream and lots of soda in the street. I was pretty shocked the first time I saw a baby drinking Coca Cola out of his baby bottle. We also had a nutrition discussion with the all of the mothers of the kids at the Guarderia just a few weeks ago. Our goal was to show them that it is possible to eat healthy on a tight budget, especially when most of them grow their own vegetables.

Last Friday we had our first ever Father’s Day celebration at the Guarderia. Many of us were holding our breath beforehand because we weren’t sure if any Dad’s were going to show up. Every kid has a different story at the Guarderia, but many include strained father-child relationships. This can be due to alcohol abuse, lack of emotional and financial support, indifference about education, or even a history of interpersonal violence in the home. Also, there are a few kids whose dad’s have passed away or have abandoned the family. Needless to say, you do not see many men hanging out at the Guarderia, except for Gringo volunteers, which serve as important role models for some of the boys. BUT, we had 10 dads/grandpas/uncles come which was beyond our wildest dreams. Ronnie, one of the directors of Pop Wuj, spoke with the dads for a while (it was men only, so I didn’t get to sit in) and then the kids performed a little dance and recited some poems. While we ate, I got to talk to some of the dads and granddads who said they were happy they came and appreciate what the Guarderia does.

In other news, two weekends ago Sean and I went to Lake Atitlan for a serene lake-side retreat. We stayed in Santa Cruz, a tiny pueblo on the water. We ate some incredible meals, met some people from Duke, hopped over to San Marcos to say hey to the hippies, and kayaked on a crisp Sunday morning. Last weekend we paid a visit to Las Fuentes Georginas, in a town just outside of Xela. The ride on the back of a pickup truck was beautiful, the springs were muy caliente, and the rain kept everyone else from crowding our pool; ‘twas perfect.

Thanks for reading,

Adios!

Carrie

Andres and a little friend

James and the older kids playing AHORRA AHORA!

Lesly, Evelyn, Carmencita, and Arturo

Sean in San Marcos trying to blend in

A great place to Kayak!

Kayaking around Santa Cruz

Announcement!

The Guarderia Cow gave birth last week! Wahoo. She is two days old in the photo above.

-Carrie

The countdown is on

Hola!

My last month in Guatemala is fast-approaching so time is starting vuela (fly).

Right now Pop Wuj is full of students and eager volunteers so things have been a beautiful relajo (mess) of activities. Amy, our wonderful Guarderia Coordinator left today, so I will be taking over as coordinator for the final month. Between repairing the playground, organizing a second photography class, a salsa class, a nutrition workshop series, yoga classes, first-aid class, orienting volunteers, and day-to-day activities, I think I might have my hands full at the Guarderia! But I am excited!

Sean is here now which has been so great! He is here to take Spanish classes and work in Pop Wuj’s clinic, as well as help with a new pilot program to help combat acute malnutrition in infants in the Xela area. This past weekend, Katie came for a whirlwind weekend trip, so the three of us headed to Antigua. We dined fine, strolled along the quaint, historic streets of the city, visited an organic macadamia nut farm owned and operated by a crazy old hippie couple, hiked up to a look -out point of the city, and even found time to do a shift at Casa Jackson, a rehabilitative center for malnourished babies.

Hasta luego!

Carrie

El Dia de Arbol

Planting some trees at the Guarderia for El Dia del Arbol 

She is pumped about El Dia del Arbol

That one on the left going to give birth any day now!

The Foolishness of Volunteerism

Hola y gracias por visitar mi blog.

A series of small events started to wear on me little bit by the end of the week (a day-long fever, a mouse infestation, broken shower, power outage).

On a more significant note, I had a couple unwelcomed moments of feeling overwhelmed with the great need around me. While there are countless moments of joy here, there are other times when the complex social and economic issues of this country leave me feeling disenchanted.   I have noticed that there is a difference between traveling to the developing world and staying here long enough to see the good, the bad, and the ugly. My modest 3 month stay so far puts me somewhere between a traveling-gringa-tourist and a long-termer. I have been here long enough to see how foolish volunteer work can be. That quote I posted early on during my trip by Lila Watson has never been so relevant:

“If you have come here to help, you are wasting your time; but if you are here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

For me, I think real change come from relationships. As I look back on the past 90 days, the relationships I have built with the kids at the Guarderia have had quite an impact on me. I can assure you that after all of my “public health talks,” field trips around town, tutoring sessions, safe stove projects, gringa-sounding ideas for change,  etc., the only impactful thing that I may have done is tried to entered in to their world and love them. Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, poet, and social activist wrote “A Letter to a Young Activist.”  His wise words give me hope.

“Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the truth of the work itself. And there, too, a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down but it gets much more real. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.”

-adios

Carrie

Something Different

Hola a todos,

Life has been a whirlwind of wonderful things.

This past week I decided to change things up a bit by going to Antigua for a week to volunteer at Casa Jackson (casajackson.org/). Before getting there, I enjoyed another weekend with good friends and good food at Lake Atitlan. Apparently, I wasn’t in the picture-taking mood, so I have no photos to share. We passed our time in the typical Atitlan manner: blissful boat rides, tasty lake-side eats, and a leisurely afternoon of kayaking along the pueblo of San Pedro.

Before we knew it was time for some of us to head onward to Antigua while the rest headed back to Xela. Four chicken bus transfers later, Brittany and I (and our backpacks which were carelessly flung on the roof) successfully made it to our destination. We stayed with a friendly Guatemalan couple, Esperanza and Jose, in their beautiful home, complete with a patio filled with tropical plants, a great rooftop view of the city, and real shower (love those). Esperanza’s cooking was top notch and I even got some recipes for my future life as “a person that may actually cook some.” Antigua is a remarkable little town. Very historic. Very beautiful. Very Gringo. We did a little sight-seeing and indulged in some of our favorite American-tastes-like-home snacks like bagels and cheesecake.

                 During our week, Brittany, who is a friend I met at Pop Wuj, and I volunteered at Casa Jackson, a recovery center for malnourished children. There were 13 cuties there, all with their own personality quirks. Their ages ranged from 2 months to 4 years. Malnutrition is a major issue in Guatemala, and especially for infants, it can have irreversible consequences. All of the toddlers are developmentally delayed in terms of motor skills, language, and cognitive skills as a direct result of malnutrition. As heartbreaking as their reason for being at Casa Jackson is, it is a sunshiny-kind-of-place staffed with nurses, a nutritionist, and doctor, with volunteers as well. The kids stay until they are100% healthy again. Also, Casa Jackson focuses a lot of time and energy on prevention, through providing mobile clinics to communities with limited access to health care, educating families on ways to attain a nutritional diet with modest resources, and working with the families to combat the underlying problems of malnourishment. My shift work consisted of changing diapers, feeding the babies, changing their clothes, playing with them, giggling a lot, doing laundry, disinfecting and cleaning the floors, etc.  I walked away from the experience with a lot of thoughts and questions. The worldwide issue of hunger became much more real when you are holding a 12 pound 3-year-old girl. People (in this case little people) can grab hold of your heart in a much more transformative way than statistics ever could.

I said my farewells, with hopes of returning soon and hopped on a chicken bus for Xela. I learned firsthand why they are called chicken buses that day. It is not because there are actual chickens on the bus (which there actually were), it is because it can get so packed inside that you feel a chicken smashed together with tons of other chicken. Fortunately I have no issues with claustrophobia because sitting four to a seat with another kid asleep on my lap, zipping around sharp mountain turns on a school bus older than me is no task for the fainted-hearted.

The end of my weekend was spent remembering how much of love Xela weather (comfortable dry Xela > hot humid Antigua), playing soccer with my host brother and his friends, playing (and losing) at Scrabble with Jenny, and countless humorous talked with my 85 year old abuelito.

It is back to work this week with all sorts of activities going on at the Guarderia.

Stay tuned!

Carrie

Antigua

Antigua Host fam's house

Inside a church ruin (Earthquakes were not very nice to Antigua)

Brittany and Aneesh

uh...

Casa Jackson

Alberto!

Alison

Little Jonaton

Scrabble (Es-crab-lay)

Hola familia y amigos,

I am writing from a new place. An opportunity arose for me to move in with a different host family and I decided to go for it. It is a great change because this family is very warm and welcoming. Getting to know them has been the highlight of the week. Last night we played Scrabble (in Spanish) and Rummikube together. Also the location is better because now it is just a short walk to Pop Wuj….as well as four ice cream shops on my block!

Guarderia

 I spent every day this week at the Guarderia. On Monday, I taught another yoga class to the older kids. I made this class a bit harder with different poses. They are already asking when our next class will be, so I think that’s a good sign. Also, in honor of Earth Day last Friday, I led an environmental chat. We talked about some of the environmental issues in Guatemala such as deforestation and water pollution and some of the ways we can reduce our environmental impact such as “The Three R’s” (Reducir, Reusar, y Reciclar). As a follow up, we did a campus clean up the next day all around the Guarderia separating out the recyclable materials to take to the recycling center in town. Carmen, Amy, and I are working on finding a way to make recycling a long term habit at the Guarderia. The week ended with a puzzle-making frenzy on Friday. Amy discovered long ago that the kids have an affinity for puzzles, or in Spanish rompecabezas (which translates to head-breakers). A couple puzzle donation drives later, the Guarderia is fully-stocked with loads of puzzles ranging from 10 pieces to 500 pieces. The kids can’t get enough of them. I have enjoyed getting to know the kids and the ladies that work at the Guarderia of the past few months. I have gotten to know one of the older girls, Yolanda, especially well. She is studying to be a bilingual secretary and is very mature and driven in her studies. The other day, just for fun, she wanted to learn the names of all of the countries in the world in Spanish and in English. It was a learning experience for both of us!

Other fun happenings this week including a couple yoga classes at the Yoga House downtown, a 3-on-3 soccer game with some Pop Wuj students, and a big “breakfast for dinner” feast at Pop Wuj.

Adios,

Carrie

yes that's a pig. Had to take a picture.

Preparing our feast at Pop Wuj

Some of my favorite people

Safe Stove Project

Me with two grandkids of Dona Juana, Yakira and Coco

Dona Juana and her new stove

Her old stove

the whole family came to see!

PS Here's the link to Voces de Cambio...they are so cool! http://www.vocesdecambio.org/

Semana Santa

Hola a todos!

During the beginning of this week I was still in recovery mode from being sick. Ironically, the medicine made me sicker than the parasites, but by Wednesday I was back to 100%. This week has been Semana Santa (Holy Week), a holiday observed by all Guatemalans. The week was full of religious processions, special food for the occasion like dulce de garbanzo, and lots of family time. Central Park was always filled with people and vendors and when my timing was right, I caught a few processions, complete with musicians, incense, and men in purple robes carrying large wooden statues.

Guarderia

There was no school during Semana Santa, so Amy, the coordinator, decided to make Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday field trip days with the jovenes (13 of the oldest kids) at the Guarderia. On Monday, we headed to COPAVIC, a glass factory in Cantel where they make decorative chalices, margarita glasses, vases, etc. out of recycled glass, which are shipped all over the world. We got to see the glass blowers at work, using hollow metal rods to pull out molten glass from big brick ovens and then blowing it into something as intricate as a wine glass. Tuesday, we collaborated with Voces de Cambio, a local nonprofit that teaches photography classes to adolescent girls as part of their self esteem/women empowerment program. Three young women who had participated in their program taught our group the basics of photography, as well as led some team building activities. Afterwards, we headed to the park to let the kids try out their skills with their new disposable cameras. Next week, we are going to get them developed and have a little exhibition at Pop Wuj. On Wednesday, the kids got to experience yet another first, a trip to Las Piscinas (the pools) in the beautiful agricultural community of Alomolonga. For most of them, it was their first time in water. Fortunately, the pools were shallow and no one had to know how to swim. I attempted to teach them some of the basics of swimming and floating. As an extra treat we took them out for pizza and ice cream as nice way to end the week. Along with everything else, the Guarderia was closed Thurs and Fri.

Stoves
Thursday was an ad-hoc stove building day. We completed the third and final stage of Dona Juana’s new stove. Since I did the initial interview, heard her story and met her family, and helped purchase the supplies, this stove seemed extra special to me.  After a long morning of putting on the finishing touches, she served us big bowls spaghetti as a way of saying thanks. Next week, the volunteers start a completely new stove project with 10 families in another rural community.

Pues, es todo por ahora,

¡Tenga un buen día y Feliz Pascua! (Easter)

Carrie

COPAVIC glass factory

a finished piece

Veronica posing proudly after doing some glass blowing herself

In the park with their photography teachers

At the pools in Almolonga

ice cream in the park

one lonely blurry photo

The videos of the fiesta are not uploadable, so all I have to share is this one blurry picture.

Bob Esponja

Hola,


This week included some of the best and worst moments for me in Guatemala


On Tuesday, I taught a yoga class to the older kids at the Guarderia. They got a kick out of it and for the rest of the week kids would come up to me to show me their arbol (tree pose) or montana (mountain pose). I plan to do another class next week. On Thursday, we had a big Fiesta del Cumpleanos, complete with a Sponge Bob (aka Bob Esponja) piñata, chocolate cake, gifts for the birthday kids, and an Easter Egg hunt. Yes, an Easter Egg hunt. It was a joyous afternoon that will stay with me for a long time.


I also had the regrettable experience of getting royally enferma (sick) after eating questionable leafy greens for lunch at the Guarderia. Three days later the doctor informed me that I have parasites inside me. Wahoo! But the medicine seems to be working and all is well again. First time for everything right?


That’s all for now.


Adios,


Carrie and the ‘sites

(My internet connection is too slow to upload photos today, lo siento...)

Cuales son los germenes?

Hola familia y amigos,

Hope everyone had a good week. Mine was pretty low-key: went out to the Guarderia three days, traveled back to Buena Vista, helped grill hamburgers for Thursday’s big dinner, and went to a lecture on the education system in Guatemala. 

Guarderia

This week I gave two workshops on personal hygiene at the Guarderia, one with the jovenes (ages 12-16) and one with the medianos (ages 8-11). I focused on discussing what germs are and how they can be spread and what good habits of personal hygiene are that can help prevent getting sick/spreading germs. We played “germ tag” with baby powder (it was like Carnaval all over again!) and “hygiene charades” to keep things interesting.  Also, coincidentally, I found tons of hotel-size shampoo and conditioner, soap, hand sanitizer, and toothpaste in the donations closet at Pop Wuj that needed a home, so I gave all 40 kids little hygiene goodie bags (not quite as fun as candy, but still well-received).

Water

On Friday, Carmen, Alejandra, and I returned to the village of Buena Vista to meet with about 20 women who had received water purifiers a few weeks ago. The lack of access to clean water is the biggest obstacle that keeps Guatemalans from drinking an adequate amount of water, but also, most are not in the habit of drinking water. Disconcertingly, soft drinks, sugary fruit drinks, and atol (a hot corn drink) are also referred to as water here. For example, after doing a stove interview the other day, I was offered a glass of water by the mother of the household, which ended up actually being a glass of Pepsi. So, Alejandra and I talked with the women about the benefits of drinking water (the real stuff), what happens to our bodies when we are dehydrated, and how to create the habit of drinking water throughout the day. The community leader, Doña Juana, translated what we said into Mam, their local Mayan language. Even though the women were very welcoming of us Gringas coming into their community with our Western ideas, I think it helped that everything we said went through Doña Juana, someone who is well-respected in their community. She also added some extra commentary that kept cracking the ladies up, which made it a fun, lively atmosphere…even though we had no clue what was so funny! 

Hamburgesas

On Thursday, I helped Jon (a student a Pop Wuj who loves to cook) and others prepare an American meal with a Guatemalan twist: Hamburgers, black bean paste, and lots of guacamole. I always look forward to the cooking (and eating) of Thursday dinners at Pop Wuj. It’s a chance for the students, teachers, and volunteers to get together, eat good food, play ping-pong, and say farewell to departing students.

Education in Guatemala

This week I also attended a lecture on the education system here in Guatemalan. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very positive chat since there a lot of issues with education here (Guatemalan is the most illiterate Latin American country). I learned that in many rural areas, school takes place under a trees or in  little shacks without walls, because there are no school buildings. Also, since there are no supervisors or principals in these areas, there is a lack of accountability for the teachers. Moreover, all teachers in public schools are required to pay for their own teaching supplies and they only get paid around $2,900 a year. Another thing that causes setbacks, is that with every new president (every four years), usually comes a completely new education system with different requirements, curricula, exams, etc. This week, there is no school because all of the teachers are on strike because the President’s wife took 10 quetzales from every teacher’s monthly salary for her political campaign. This is an election year, and even though it is illegal for spouses of current presidents to run, she is going to anyway.

Well that´s all for now. Hope you have a good weekend!

-Carrie

 

                                                    Amy, the youngest at the Guarderia

                                      A terrible picture of a wonderful Super Chivo victory

                                                      A big yellow church near my house

                                                                    Sunset on my roof

                                             Just a taste of the kitchen chaos on Thursday

                                                             Jon, El Cocinero

Super Chivos

Hola a todos,

Espero que esten bien. I just realized I completely missed April Fool’s day. Hope nobody got fooled too badly!

This week I spent some time at the Guarderia, traveled to the village of Buena Vista with the mobile clinic, prepared the curriculum for my first workshop with the kids next week, went on a shopping spree for stove materials, and managed to make it to a Super Chivo soccer game.

Guarderia

I took two groups of volunteers/students out to the Guarderia to hang out with the chillens, play soccer (always a big hit), help with homework, draw, etc. Also, Carmen, the social worker, and I led the monthly Mothers meeting on Friday which included a kids’ clothing sale. Whenever Pop Wuj gets a healthy dose of clothing donations from students and volunteer groups, we take them to communities that have women support groups and have a “venta” (sale). All of the money earned goes towards the womens group. At first, I was confused why we would sell things that are meant to be donated, but then I learned that when things are given out for free here the service/product are often considered to be rubbish. It is very common for NGOs and cooperatives here to charge a “symbolic fee” for the services they provide.  For example, Guatemalans are charged 20Q for a doctor consultation and any medications at Pop Wuj’s clinic. That’s about $2.50. When we distributed water filters a few weeks ago, the families were charged 10Q ($1.30).  The fees do not actually cover the cost but encourages Guatemalans to take ownership in their health and well-being.

Stoves

On Wednesday, Carmen, Caleb (another social work volunteer), and I went out to the vibrant and lush village of Buena Vista. We met with a few different families to see what kind of need there was in this community for safe stoves. Buena Vista has no home addresses or street names and the narrow dirt pathways we took to get to different homes were being taken over by beautiful tropical plants. I met many cows, goats, and turkeys along the way. I am going back a couple more times next week to meet with more families. In addition to the Buena Vista trip, I went around town in a pick-up on to get bricks, cement, clay, etc. for the next couple of stoves. I was grateful to have Carmen there to do the haggling of all the prices. I would have been a helpless gringa being overcharged due to my naiveté.  

Xela fun

This week I started taking little Shakira for walks around Xela. She is a quick learner and already knows how to fetch. I’m impressed. I also took a couple yoga classes and played a rousing game of soccer with some students from Pop Wuj and some Guatemalans. Friday night, I headed to the city’s soccer stadium to support the Xela’s team, the Super Chivos (Super Goats..haha!). We cheered, learned malas palabras (bad words) to yell at the other team, ate questionable street food, kept a safe distance from the diehard fans who were throwing fireworks at each other, and walked away satisfied with yet another win for the Super Chivos.  Hasta la proxima!

Adios,

Carrie

PS If anyone knows of any quick and easy art activities or outdoor games for kids, I am all ears! You can email me at carrieray5@gmail.com.  The art activities would need to require very few supplies. Gracias.

Finger Painting

before things got messy...

Algunas Fotos Mas

Almost done with the second phase

Shakira!

cuteness

I found a chicken coop on my roof the other day. Now I know why I eat eggs for breakfast everyday.

Joel helping sand the playground

The Guarderia