Inauguration of the new SINKS!!

So we had an inauguration party for one of our schools and the new sinks and multi-faucet washing station they built so their students can practice washing their hands and brushing their teeth daily. Here are the 3 free standing sinks.

The girls were getting ready for the celebration by cleaning up the handwashing station. Red is the school's color. Whenever there's a parade or school wide event, everyone wears red traje (or the traditional skirts, called corte, and the lacy, embroidered tops, called huipiles)

Anyone important in town usually gets an invitation to local events. We're not sure why but the kids seemed to be especially fond of this particular police officer.

Every important Guatemalan event has a a DJ, at least 4 GIANT speakers and a nice mixture of reggaetone and marimba songs blaring from the stage.

Here come the flags!

And absolutely NO ceremony is complete without some child or random adult milling around ON STANGE or a group of 3 kids playing hand-games on the front row or...a child swing repeatedly around a metal post to puntcuate the speaker's main points : )

And don't the random chucho (street dog) sunning himself next to the stage. At least he's not accompanying the new beauty queen down the runway to receive her crown like the last ceremony we went to!

Whether you want to or not, as an invited guest, one must always be prepared with "words" for the crowd. It's always nice to throw in some jokes and wild hand gestures as well.

The kindergartners did a dance to Twist and Shout. It was pretty cute!

Some older students performed a traditional dance in traditional traje.

Other students sang a song with their teacher.

A little blond girl recited a poem.

A finally....The RIBBON CUTTING! Cristina got to cut the ribbon with the mayor, districtt superintendent and other members of the local government. It's tradition to give a little piece of the ribbon to special invited guests.

Cristina with the mayor. He's an incredible mayor because he actually uses the mnicipality's money to do infrastructure projects in the schools, help communities get new wells or pay trucks to pick up trash free of charge in the small outlying pueblos of his municipality. THAT is almost unheard of. We applaud you Miguel González Gómez.

And don't forget the unveiling of the plaque!

And of course, gotta get that face time with the mayor and his officials in front of the mural for a pic. They all have their official walking sticks and cowboy hats!

After a wonderful lunch here we are with the superintendent (left) and the school's principal.

It was a great inauguration party!

I forgot to mention how upset we were at first when we found out that the hand-washing station-which slopes down to accomodate both older and younger students had the drain on the taller side. Not knowing much about installing the tubing and faucets and cement work, Cristina and I were none the less frustrated (I'll be honest, appalled) at the lack of foresight in putting the drain on the wrong side. Strangely enough the water somehow flippantly disregards the laws of physics and gravity (and other complex theories that say it should flow down) and flows back UP to the drain on the higher side.

Our panic and frustration were transformed into awe and relief (that we hadn't funded a failed project after all)!

And that's the story!

More FBT

So here are a few more pictures of our adventures during FBT (Field Based Training) where we had 9 trainees come visit us to see just what life as a Healthy Schools volunteer is like!

Cristina and I started out with an explanation of what Healthy Schools is using this house to represnt the aspects of the program.
The foundation was made of a drop of water, a picture of chorros (water faucets) and a toothbrush. These elements are absolutely fundamental to the program and no one can be healthy without them. We explained that our job is help the communities get water and faucets in the schools so the kids can practice healthy habits such as handwashing and teeth brushing. Their job as parents is to provide the toothbrushes and paste and towels and other items one needs to practice these habits.



The walls of the house were made of health lessons. If the students don't really understand what parasites are or how one can get diarrhea, they won't see the importance of the health habits.

Finally the roof is made of the healthy habits in the house and at school. Many parents themselves don't have healthy habits and therefore don't insist that their kids do. Encouraging parents to wash their hands with their kids, send them to school clean and buy them the items they need to practice healthy habits is all part of their responsibilities as parents.

This group of trainees did a skit using a fresh egg and an egg that had been soaked in a cup of coca-cola. This demonstrates the harm that sugary things do to our teeth.

As part of their section on dental health, the trainees had the moms use homemade toothbrushes and homemade toothepaste (that they made during the meeting) to brush the egg/tooth. Everyone could see the difference brushing made and how if resources are low, one can use items found around the house to make toothpaste and toothbrushes! Having interactive health lessons with parents is an important part of the Healthy Schools program. Otherwise, the students will only practice the habits at school and continue with poor health habits at home.

This group was responsible for talking to the moms about a homemade rehydration solution made of salt, sugar and water and most importantly explaining why it's important to make sure your child is taking in fluids when they are sick. (some people believe that a child shouldn't eat or drink when sick.) It was a cute demonstration because they used a bag of water as the child. It had a face and body parts etc. The child becomes sick and start vomiting and having diarrhea and crying etc. The trainees poked holes in the bag at the child's mouth and eyes and butt (the moms thought it was hilarious!) to represent how the child loses fluids. If the child continues losing fluids without the mom replenishing the supply, the moms noted that the child will die. It was a messy but fun way to illustrate health concepts to moms who have probably never though of illness affecting their children in that way.

We had a great time!

Cristina and I were lucky enough to have "Field Based Training" come visit us for an entire week.

....Ok so we begged since the moment we arrived at site to have the trainees lol but we got our wish and had 9 trainees come to Olintepeque to see just what it's like when theory and training meet real life in Guatemala. It was an exhausting (and I do mean exhausting) week full of workshops, trainings and meetings with parents, schools already certified in our program and schools still working to acheive certification.

The workshop started out with the teachers doing a short skit about things their students do that drive them crazy. As you can see here, this student is standing on their desk throwing papers at his classmates. Although it was a dramatization, it was certainly not an exaggeration.

We designed this workshop, entitled "Classroom Management", to teach teachers how to manage their students and activities so as to maximize the 4 hours the students spend in school (from 8-12:30 -minus the half hour lost when students arrive at 8:30 - with about 45 minutes to an hour for snack and recess ).

The teachers did a great job on their skits and it was a great way to start the day with something fun and show why the workshop was necessary.


As "practice what you preach or model what you teach", we treated the teachers like they were our students in our classroom. One way to track good behavior was by putting candy or marbles (the little boys LOVE marbles) in a jar for every person who participated or had a great comment or did an activity well and according to the rules (for example without talking). We also removed candies or marblees from teachers who arrived late from snack, who were chatting or if a cell phone rang.

As another way to illustrate how one can develop a discipline system (as in the vast majority of classrooms the teach will say empty threats that they have no intention of carryin out)-we used a volunteer from Cantel's soccer "yellow card, red card" system. If someone was talking to their neighbor, or answered a cell phone, or left to answer a cell phone, or was reading a magazine (it's hard for us to imagine that someone would wip out a newspaper and start reading during a workshop but it happens regularly!)---they would get a yellow card. Another offense warrented another yellow card and finally a red card, after which disciplinary action was taken (for teachers in the form of not receiving their diploma).

Here's a picture of my work partner, Cristina, and I in front of a few posters the trainees made to help them facilite their part of the workshop.

Due to a series of events that lead to the taller we had planned for our 260 teachers falling apart just days before the training events, we gave the presentation to the teachers of "magesterio". Magesterio is the school that aspiring teachers must attend to get their liscense/certification to teach. It was great because we were teaching teachers of teachers! They could either use the classroom management directly in their classes or present the info they recived to their students. They staff of this particular magesterio were extremely participatory and well behaved! We enjoyed working with them and will continue to do so in the future.

After the final session, the teachers broke into groups and played Jeopardy for a prize. They were extremely "pilas" or they knew their stuff!! They didnt' talk when we were presenting and took some notes and made plenty of comments! (sometimes with less "pilas" teachers it's hard to get them to comment or say that they disagree or that they have other ideas that compliment the ideas presented.)

Here's a picture of the diplomas that they received for participating in the workshop.Diplomas are of the utmost importance here. One makes their resume by compiling diplomas to show what they have done in their career.

Finally, to celebrate being doing with a stressful workshop that took waaaaaay too much planning : 0), we went out for Indian food. It was AMAZING!!

Captions to Fried Chicken

So, for some reason I couldn't post captions for the pictures I posted about Guatemalans loving chicken, but essentially, some of my neighbors who are well-behaved and super cute told me that their family had never been to Pollo Campero. I was shocked! That's like an American saying they've NEVER been to Burger King, McDonalds OR Wendy's (except Pollo Campero is way more expensive than fast food). It's practically unthinkable that any Guatemalan family-no matter their income level-had not at least sampled a tasty morsel of this universally loved and attended restuarant's famous friend chicken.

The pictures below are of their first offical visit to and tasting of Pollo Campero chicken. Judging by the empty plates and licked fingers, I think they liked it : 0)

We had a lovely picnic in the zoo and the weather was perfect! I made rice and Dona Jauana made tortillas and we shared a 2 liter of Coke along with out 14 pieces of delighfully crispy chicken, french fries and special Pollo Campero ketchup (it deserves a place next to the mentionin of chicken and fries because it is SO...and I mean SO good!)

I love the first picture because the baby is hidden in most of the pics but in this one, he was determined to show his face!

The one with the boy holding a stick with a bag on it was especially funny because this little jokester saw the fish in the pond at the zoo and decided to make himself a weapon so he could bring a few home for dinner. When he realized the stick wasn't long enough, he used the plastic bag to tie two together. He eventually put one on the end like a net...future engineers of Guatemala man....

I wish the pics show how high up these slides really are...It's probably totally unsafe for children under 10 lol It looks like I'm scared to go down but really the boys wanted to go down slowly the first time and I'm just wondering how my skinny little arms are going to support my weight as I try to slow myself down using the sides.

It was a great day and I know they really enjoyed the whole experienc, the bus ride to Xela, setting up the picnic in the zoo, getting to see the animals and going down the slides...well, if they didn't, Cristina and I sure did!

*Sigh. Another great memory to tuck into the memory box.

Guatemalans Love Fried Chicken Too

Home Sweet Home

So just a quick update (I'm vowing to be better about updating in 2011...we'll see how long it lasts : )

REALLY enjoyed my time in the States for Christmas. I have to thank my mom for bringing me home, she did a GREAT job keeping it a surprise. I don't think I've ever seen my dad or my sister so surprised!

We ate so much: went to the Indian buffet, had steak, shrimp and twice baked potatoes for Christmas dinner, had dal (lentils) and a delicious asian dish by my sister....I must have gained 4 pounds while home!

One of the best things...SPICES! Mom is so generous. She really hooked me up. I brought home Garam Masala, Chipotle Chile Powder, White Pepper, Paprika, Cumin Seeds and SO much more! Ahhhh!! I'm excited to try new recipes with all my goodies. And thankfully mom and dad made bags and bags of delicious granola.

The time just flew by of course! Glad to be at home and working again...I will say that when I walked into my living room it seemed so naked until I remembered that we don't use carpet in Guatemala. I'm still getting used to it even though I've been home for 4 days already.

I'm missin mom's food but glad to be home : )

Will post pics of our humble but entertaining New Year's Celebration.

IT.IS.SO.COLD

Soooooo let me describe for you what my hygiene life looks like now that it's winter.

First, imagine that you live in a house made of cement bricks. Now imagine that somewhere in the house there are gaps where there is direct contact with outside air (i.e. a gap between the walls and the roof or a HUGE space between the door and the floor where air and dust creep in.

Now imagine that it's....oooooh between 38-41 degrees fahrenheit. (When I originally looked up the temp is said 55 but I'm pretty sure the ground and plants don't freeze at 55 degrees fahrenheit....I'm just sayin)

Now let's add the most important detail of all-there is no central heating (or heating of any sort for that matter) and NO insulation.

Let's recap:


Cement block walls + gaps where outside air can seep (or flow) in + no central heating.

What does that translate to?
Looking like this INSIDE the house between the hours of 4pm to 10am.
I'm talking a heavy jacket, long-underwear, long socks, a hat and a scarf.
And of course less time spent here...

showering.

Yep you heard right. Sometimes I won't shower aaaaaaall week.

Now you might think that's appalling. Under normal circumstances, I would tend to agree. BUT when it's so cold that you can't possibly sweat and you refuse to work out both because you're almost at 8,000 feet (aka the air is too thin to inhale once walking velocity has reached faster than a stroll) and because Guatemala is extremely-extremely mountainous (where 80% of the time you honestly do walk uphill both ways)...are my failure to exercise excuses sounding valid? In any case, the main point is that the reasons for showering have also declined.

There. My secret's out. I don't shower in the winter.

But think it through. Most of you have no idea what it's like to actually live in a cement building with cement floors and gaps in the walls. Now picture trying to strip down like your clothes are infested with fireants and jump into your cement shower before the freezing air can touch your ashy skin (again a product of the intense, indoor cold).

Trying not to convulse too violently, (lest you chip a beautiful tooth) you soap down. Finally the bathroom is heating up to a bearable temperature but you're already thinking about how you dread shutting off the hot water.

Although you know that running the shower directly affects your electricity bill, you say "screw it, it's too cold to get out" and bask in the warmness/continue to worry about how your this will aversly affect your electricity bill. BUT you remember that this is your first shower all week and it's Thursday and take those few extra minutes to enjoy those minutes of bearable temperature that you so desperately need.

The "fireants in your clothes" speed returns for steps 1-3 (dry off, put on lotion, put on clothes) and finally you're back to the status quo-two jackets, scarf, hat and visible breathe.

Aaaaaaah winter in Guatemala : )