Back to School

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!