My 70th birthday party in Berkeley in 2006 marked the beginning of my trip to Guatemala. I gave myself a party last year with 15 people, mostly from the writers' group, in attendance; this year my “boss” convinced me to have a party at his house. It was lovely. Most of our teachers and the coordinator from the project and my Spanish teacher and the teacher I worked with in San Pedro all came, the latter two ladies brought their teenage daughters. Many people from Fred’s hotel came and two of my gringa women friends from writers’ group. 21 people in all….and we had entertainment by the great clowns that are staying in that hotel and are collaborating with Fred's Payasos Educadores clown project, with whom there were also great connections afterwards for the training the French Canadian clown is giving.
A month or so ago, Fred offered me the (volunteer) position as his coordinator for the young women teachers. I said “No, what I really want to do is work with women and children.” And then pissing and moaning to myself a few nights later about not having been able to find a position doing that, I suddenly thought, “Of course I will be his coordinator. I can continue to improve my Spanish, and eventually I’ll be able to do counseling, etc, but I can’t, now, anyway.” I think it’s about looking at what’s being offered in front of you – not what you want to reach for. So I have started by looking for funding for his project, and have a couple of good leads and one Letter of Inquiry in. Fred has also started considering doing Early Childhood Education training for teachers, expanding our Pedagogia Basic training plan. Well ECE is what I consulted in for 15 years, and I do feel passionately that children need good initial school experiences (if not totally good experiences) so I am happy to help out with that. I have developed a plan for HOW to do that, using the ECCERS, and have written away for materials. So I feel productive and energized about that. I have been attending a training by a professor from Canada on the topic, and contributing somewhat….trying actually to keep my mouth shut because of course I always think that I have ideas better than almost anyone I listen to. Which is silly, really; I have many ideas to contribute on the topic and they have others. Collaboration is the key. So that has been interesting. She will speak about behavior management this week; there I will really have to sit on my hands, or better yet, use all my skills to say what I need to without offending her or taking over the training. That will be hard unless she has a very similar philosophy of behavior mgt….and even on classroom management we have had at least one difference. In my opinion much of the ideas (Montessori, and others) on education were developed in a time and with a culture which was very emotionally restricted, upperclass, needing liberalization. And as much as I believe in this, and taught in this framework myself when raising my kids, I have learned that for kids from chaotic backgrounds, children with emotional and behavioral issues, there needs to be more structure and somewhat more restricted choices. Or at least to start with that until they feel secure about what is expected in class, then perhaps you can allow more freedom and choice. Besides the Circles people found that when choices and group size were limited, children interacted more verbally and tried more different activities. So….at any rate we will see about all that.
Today I attended a Payasos training to attract new payasos to volunteer with us. Very entertaining. Lovely expressive people; and several young teens were there, wanting to become clowns. I have learned there is a strong expressive arts community emerging or growing stronger here. There was a collaborative meeting in San Marcos a few months ago, with dancers, and performers, including some from the Livingston group. This country is not huge, and thus collaboration is easy or at least possible. But I think good things are beginning to happen too. And Guat has a new President who promises to be slightly more liberal than the last. Like a Clinton compared to Bush or one even more militaristic than Bush.
January 2008. I have seen all of 2007 here. I have a brief respite before the school year begins, and then we will see what the year holds. My “boss” said we will have more responsibility this year; not sure yet what that means, or if it involves me.
There have been so many changes in Guatemala in just the short time I’ve been here. First and fore-most their airport, which has gone from a small and funky one, which I liked a lot, to one the equivalent of L.A. Other changes? The highway between Gua City and Antigua has been noticeably improved. That has been going on since I arrived, causing many delays in getting from city to town. On a local level, I notice more kids with bicycles and one with inline skates, though one ten-year-old boy watching the payasos in our park one day in December said he had never had a bicycle. And very close to my house is the first fast-food place in Santa Ana, offering pizza and hamburgers. It has become the front-step hangout for young men and a few women with motorcycles and scooters, or just standing around. The internet shop in Santa Ana - a hole in the wall, previously; the ground-floor front room of a two-story house where the shop-owner lives – has up-graded considerably. New linoleum tile on the floor, two rooms, more computers, internet setup for the kids and young men to play games, AND better quality connections. The owner still has his two young boys - maybe 11 and 15 - run the shop, though I notice they run upstairs to call him if something goes wrong.
I have become concerned with a small and simple shift: all the older people always greet one another during the day and evening, with “Buenos dias, buenas tardes, buenas noches…” I love the sound of it as they pass and respond to my greetings. All the different intonations, different styles; it’s really quite lovely – I’d like to record it. But what concerns me is that most of the youth….or maybe half of them, toss off a “Buenas” or a “Hola” or don’t respond at all. Is this just another indicator that the old, polite, slow ways here are passing?? Will it all go in the direction of wanting more things, spending more time in loud bars? Today I read the book by Nicole Maxwell, about hunting for medicinal plants in the Amazon in the late 1950’s. “The younger Indians,” she writes of the Cárdenas, “consider such ‘classical’ sessions [of the men’s secret societies] rather a bore. They aren’t much interested in ancient beliefs, and when it comes to parties, they’d just as soon dance rumbas to the music of the radio on the smooth [new] floors of their living quarters.” So this has always been going on. Is this just because of the North American/European influence? or is this the natural Uranian thrust of youth? Always drawn to the new and different, rejecting of the “old” ways of their parents? I suspect there are always different temperaments, even within this young/old dichotomy………those who move eagerly to the new, those who hang onto the old forever.
Something I love: yesterday on my way into town, a teenaged boy on a bicycle was pedaling his mother who sat on the crossbar in front of him, and a man was pedaling his three little kids: a girl on a seat behind him, and two boys, one on the crossbar in front of him, and one on the front fender, facing and hanging onto the handlebars.
Bad News: My salsa teacher was wounded while taking part in a procession on Christmas day and has been unable to work all during the time I was in New York City for Xmas, so I had a class with a younger teacher in their new “salon,” which is just the large entry way of a small hotel – where they moved way over by the Mercado after the tienda of tipica they had been housed in was robbed during the night a few weeks ago. And that right after a day-time armed robbery of a regular tienda down the same street, which has caused it to bar its entrance. In the same week a young American friend of friends was stopped by a motorcyclist not too far from my area in broad daylight, and robbed at knifepoint, and a chickenbus from Comalapa was boarded, and everyone robbed of their huipils and their Christmas bonuses. So there is more crime and violence here than when I first came, and it is extending to the locals, not just the tourists. The “word” is that gangs from the City are moving out into the rural areas.
On the way to walk out to my salsa class today (now nearly a mile away,) I noticed bundles of pine needles arriving on the main street of my pueblo, and more cars parked than I’ve seen before. I thought perhaps it is a saint’s day or something and that I would find a procession on my return. But coming back, I found the main street of Santa Ana full of people in black, following behind a carried gold casket. Hundreds of solemn people, walking…some singing. Back up the street toward my house there were still people lining the streets, so whatever it is is not over. There were bombas being set off as I left, but none now. We have had our electricity going off and on and off for several days, apparently due to high winds knocking trees onto the wires here and there in Guate. Our water is out today too, and for the first time we have none in our reserve tank. Internet is also out at my house, because the phone in the house I get wireless service from has not been working since the first power outage. We also had a 5.6 earthquake centered in “nearby” Esquintla yesterday evening. It was the first one that has startled me enough to cause me to run quickly out of the house…..where I found my neighbors, too. I thought it all seemed very 3rd world til I read the news today that 500,000 people in California (including my sister, for a time) are without power. My daughter living in my house has snow, no power, and no hot water. I had the house set up for those emergencies, but they aren't sure how to get the generator power going. Much email conversation about that. The huge bunch of bananas that has been hanging in the tree in the yard came down yesterday. And with it came the whole 30 foot tree. My Spanish teacher told me that the tree is no good once it produces a bunch…..that a sprout will grow out of the old trunk to produce a new "tree". It will be interesting to see how long that takes. The bananas are ripening in a wheelbarrow covered with a tarp in a corner of the yard. I’m sorry to see that long purple knobbed appendage come down with it. That was beautiful.
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