Things at site over the past month or so have been picking
up faster than I ever could have anticipated.
I decided to spend New Year at site instead of going into the
village. Six hours into the church
service, around 1 AM, I began to think that maybe next year it could be fun to
see how they do things in Punta Gorda next year. After church, though, I got to spend some
time with the other members of the Baptist church and eat some caldo chicken
and poch before heading to bed.
Caldo is one of the major foods for the Q’eqchi people. It’s essentially a naturally colored red soup
that is flavored with cilantro, oregano, and other herbs. The Q’eqchi people are known for this and can
caldo anything: chicken, cassava (yucca), chocho (chayote), anything. This, along with either corn tortillas, is
definitely one of the foods that is incredibly important to the culture. If you were to walk up to a random person in
my village and ask them what their favorite food was, there’s a very good
chance they’ll say caldo chicken. Poch
is another food that is important to the culture. It’s known as the traditional Q’eqchi
tortilla, and is essentially corn masa placed in a large leaf and steamed. Some people also call it a grenade because it
blows up in your stomach. Despite that,
though, I still think it’s delicious.
Aside from caldo and poch, I’ve had the opportunity to taste
all sorts of other foods. There are
loads of fruits and vegetables that I’ve been introduced to that I had no idea
even existed. I had never heard of
chocho before coming here, but now it’s something that I’ll eat at least once a
week. One of the fruits that I’ve
recently discovered is the ch’elel, a pod fruit that essential looks like a
large string bean and requires that you suck the meat off the seed in order to
eat.
Then come the foods that are a little tougher for me to eat:
the meats. Being a former vegetarian (or
vegetarian away from site, as I like to refer to my situation), trying
different meats was something that I knew I’d have to get over. Though I still don’t eat pig, I have had the
opportunity to try brocket deer, coati (a raccoon-like animal), and, the strangest
animal by far, the ground mole.
Tyuuk, or brocket deer
And this terrifying creature is the ground mole, a little bigger than in the States
Shortly after New Year, school started again, and I was back
to work! My goal for the school going into this year is to get the student leaders
group up and running. If I can get it
solidified this year, then I can work on making it sustainable next year. Essential, my vision for the group is to get
students from Standards III-VI and have them come together and advocate for the
students. If the students want a sports
club, let’s try and get it to them. Before the break, the nominees campaigned
and were elected. There wasn’t someone
from every standard, but I was able to get five students. I’m happy to say that the more we get into
the term, the more excited they seem. I
really think that next year, I’ll have a full eight kids to work with. Children in Std. II are already telling me
that they want to make good grades to become a student leader, and the students
in the group have said that they are going to study to make sure that they can
remain a member.
The main clubs that the students wanted to begin were a
sports club, a gardening club, and a chess club. Yes, I said chess. The sign-up sheets filled up right away, so I’m
hoping that we can get the chess and sports clubs started next week. The gardening group will take a little longer
to get situated but I’m hoping in the next few weeks we’ll have one up and
going. Each of the leaders will team up
with a teacher to make sure that the group works as effectively as possible. The student leaders and I agreed that the
students in the different clubs would have to pass next term in order to remain
in the club the next term. If they don’t
pass, then the student leaders will open up a tutoring program for the students
who weren’t able to pass. I’m hoping
that this will encourage the students to study, thus lowering the 33% fail rate
that was present last term.
The student leaders are also working with fundraising for
the school. Right now the goal is to
raise money to help fund the World Map Project that some of the students and I
are drawing on the library wall. I’m
hoping to incorporate the map with some of the books in the library to spark
the children’s interest in the world. To
make money, the student leaders and I were first selling rubber bands, but
after the students began to shoot each other, we had to stop. The next products are going to be bananas and
popcorn – far less dangerous, I believe.
Maynor and Manuel working on the World Map grid
One of the down sides of going back to school was that I
noticed the children that were no longer there, either deciding to drop out or
forced to by their parents. There was
one boy who had been living with his mom and siblings while the dad was in
America. When the mom decided to move to
a different village, the boy decided to drop out to take care of his grandpa’s
farm and his siblings. Two other girls
were forced to leave by their parents.
Both were smart girls who wanted to be at school but were no longer
allowed. Luckily, one of the girls came
to me, so I spoke to the principal on her behalf. He spoke to her dad and, though it took two
weeks, I’m happy to say she’s back at school!
Still the fact remains that children in fifth and sixth grade are ending
their education, and that bothers me.
One of the goals that I’ve set here is to try and turn that around. I want to spark an interest in the world that
will make students want to stay in school.
I want them to find their strengths and interests so that they can see
how much more there is in the world and all the doors that an education can
open.
I guess this is a good time to throw in that I am a health
volunteer, for those that didn’t know.
The work that I’ve done at the school is all secondary projects that I
believe will be very important to the students and, hopefully, their futures
and the future of the school. Aside from
the school projects, though, I’ve been making plans for future health
projects. As I said in my last post, I’m
going to be focusing on a latrine project which involves four classes and
random house visits. I’ll also begin
fundraising sometime in the next few months.
Aside from the latrine project, I have plans to give a lesson on
diabetes and nutrition to the futbol team in the village. Hopefully all this will work out, and people
will start getting healthy!
Around the middle of the January, I took some time to go
into Placencia for a night for the College Football National Championship game. Placencia was a different world! The beaches were awesome, even with the
little sun that we had, and it was great to catch up with some friends. After leaving Placencia, I went to my friend
Dan’s site in San Pablo, a little Q’eqchi village near Bella Vista. It was interesting to see the differences
that existed between the two villages, mostly size, dialect, and geography. Plus it was just crazy to be at someone else’s
site and see how they live and their interactions with their families. Over all, it was a great few days! I’m looking forward for an equally exciting February!
