Long but smooth final journey

On Wednesday at 7.030pm we left La Esperanza, our neighbourhood for nearly 9 months, and after a night camped in Guatemala's airport, a journey of 21 hour and a half, over 15 of which flying, passing through San José in Costa Rica, Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic and Frankfurt in Germany, on Friday at 11.00am we were hugged by our family outside Venice airport and at 12.00pm we were finally at home in Padua, Italy. 

Explosive Xmas

In Guatemala, Xmas Eve is celebrated with tamales (maize-based dish), ponche (mildly spiced fruit drink) and... fireworks! After an evening of small-scale firing (quite enjoyed by M&S, too), at midnight it got was shockingly loud and colourful, all over the city, from small firecrackers to the big sky-high ones, for nearly one hour. Here's a couple of videos for you to get a hint.

Merry Christmas, sung for you all

Listen to our Christmas greetings

Last month

Yes, and last indeed: after nearly 9 intense and difficult months, the 29th of December we're flying out of Guatemala. 'Tis true, the original plan was to spend here 10 more months, but things didn't work out as expected, for various reasons:

- Mattia's job, teaching English in the primary school, turned out to be not so relevant as hoped (the real needs are others, even just at educational level, and there wouldn't be much continuity after primary), which together with the strained relationship with the school direction (so badly managed, such a wasted opportunity...) made it impossible to keep working there in 2017;

- without that job we wouldn't have any financial support given that the promises of finding a fund for Elena haven't been met (and with that small salary we were already using savings and donations to make ends meet and enjoy some necessary time outside this area);

- Mattia's new, much more relevant and promising youth project, based on sport games, athletic training and chess, with good attendance and possibilities of development, much appreciated not only by the kids but also by many people in the community, isn't supported at all by the organisation, which is quite disheartening as working with the youth means to tackle the main problem of the area, i.e. gang violence;

- even Elena's job hasn't been properly valued, as they haven't found anybody she could train to continue the projects well and they haven't done anything to make her stay, not finding a salary and not taking into consideration that rejecting Mattia's project would mean to lose her services too, though they were more closely linked with the organisation's activities;

- UPAVIM, though being a good working opportunity for women of a disadvantaged area, isn't really interested in the community's development, as it appeared when we decided to come, which is a big issue for us, as that's what we believe in most and what we hoped we could somehow dedicate us too;

- living on a roof, in two small rooms with bunk beds, with communal kitchen and toilet-shower room, sharing life with young single volunteers (apart from our dear José&Marlene) isn't easy at all for a family, especially when you've got to deal with stress, tiredness and frustrations coming from a hard working environment and two little sons always happy but going through some difficult times due to the awful influence of school and local behaviour style, so 8-9 months are quite enough, for everyone;

- living with volunteers (apart from a month with Fernanda at the beginning and three with J&M at the end) with no great expectations for their job, no vision, no experience in development or knowledge of third world dynamics, isn't very helpful to overcome work-induced stress, so once again 8-9 months are enough, even though the prospect of having J&M with us until June was a positive one;

- maybe it's down to naivety, or to hope, or misplaced trust, or tiredness, but the fact is we didn't look for other options, that is other institutions o people who could support our community projects, so once we realised there was no future for us with UPAVIM we just had to look for flights; a local lady much devoted to the community told us that something could be found through the Catholic church, but we're not sure it would have been a real option and anyway it turned up too late and the other reasons (see below) would have pushed us to come back all the same;

- Michele&Sam have been amazing at integrating (at school - despite bullying and useless teachers -  on the roof, with the neighbourhood's kids...), at learning Spanish (by now it's nearly their first language), at accepting the unusual conditions (never terrible but still a bit hard), at enjoying what available as entertainment, but have undergone a good deal on other sides - maybe without always realising - especially at school, for the awfully bad level (which made them lose skills and the ability to concentrate and put effort into learning) and the bad influence of classmates and non-educating teachers, so we couldn't possibly "sacrifice" them for much longer, especially for the sake of projects not as guaranteed as ours, given the little or no support;

- we were thinking of home-schooling them, but it wouldn't be actually feasible due to their parents' schedule, so the only other option would be a high-level school, again not viable for costs, dates (enrolling for 2017 stopped last April) and logistics (over one hour by public transport or expensive taxis, as school buses don't come to our far and dangerous zones);

-  after the last two months without salary, our saving were running out and we don't want to have to count even more on our families and church, whom we must thank a lot but don't want to exploit further;

So, we have to leave, which is, despite all these valid-looking reasons, quite sad and very hard, sadder and harder by the day, as the leaving date approaches: we struggled, but we were doing well and if UPAVIM didn't get it, many women of the organisation and many people from outside it keep expressing their strong appreciation, not only those enjoying our services (Elena's patients and Mattia's kids), but even those who simply understand how important and relevant is what we are trying to do. Every positive feedback fills us with joy and satisfaction, but at the same time with regret, as we can't keep working for the local people, with our current projects and other great ideas. M&S are happy to head back go Italy and stay there until the end of the school year (we don't feel like evicting our new tenants so early, it wouldn't be fair) with grandparents and friends, but they're also sad at the thought of leaving, once again too early, all the friends they've made here.

Anyway, we've done what we could, helping some people directly or planting seeds, showing what should be done and how, and most of all we've lived side by side with the least, working for them, which makes us always feel we're doing the right thing, so we leave fully aware we've dedicated 9 months of our family life to a good cause: it might not have been the best choice, but we've taken that step with the best intentions, for the sake of the least, not for us and we surely did some good.

It's been tough, especially for the two adults, who, once again, didn't get it totally right, and for us as a family, quite battered by the tension, but at least it was a relatively short time, so we should be able to recover relatively soon, though it's going to be hard, not being mentally ready to start over again, given that the plans, as to times and satisfaction levels were quite different.

Moreover, we're also leaving with good memories: of the people, the work, the experience of another part of the world, which is always so enriching (especially as it makes up for what the boys went through, so much so that most likely they will have gained more than what they might have lost); we lived in some desperate areas, but we also took in different cultural aspects and wonderful natural and historical sites of Guatemala, which we enjoyed in late November and early December, with the excuse of entertaining GrannyChiara (holiday pictures are coming soon, once we sort them).

P.S. As you might have noticed, among these reasons for leaving shines the absence of the dangers of living in one of the "red zones" of the world's second most violent country: not because we're reckless, but because actually the risks for us are minimal, as violence is quite carefully targeted, for extortion or turf wars, so there's little to fear, as even the boys have understood, accepting it as a terrible fact, awful for the locals but not so dangerous for us, who have always been able to move around freely and safely.

3S

Super Sam is Seven!

Catch some pictures of his great day here

Just like Michele, even Sam must be celebrated with some special collections:

an album with his Sixth year's Significant Shots

and one with his Super Stills!

"Writing After the Bus" or "The Dead Goat and the Butcher".

Do you remember the post about the poster with the scary data on migration stuck at the back of a bus? We promised some more thoughts on that, so here we go.

First of all, those stats and the stories connected are so horrific some might wonder how people can even think about trying, but unfortunately it's not so difficult to understand them: good employment is still seemingly unreachable for most of the lowest classes and the image of our rich world is so alluring it's hard to resist the temptation; moreover, the examples of those who make it and can send money back or find a life there, though never easily, are strong arguments, hard to counter.
Surely, it is important to remind people of the dangers of the journey, as information is education and ignorance or lies are certainly to be fought, but we doubt a campaign like this can really work well as a deterrent: as it happens around the Mediterranean, when people can't see any future or suffer from, or are threatened by violence, they feel ready to face everything, to take any risk in order to escape, to try it somewhere else - "a dead goat doesn't fear the butcher's knife", as the saying goes among migrants (we can't remember where from, but that doesn't matter). 

We believe the numbers of those fleeing violence from Central America might be exaggerated, as many might be using that as an excuse, knowing their chances are better if they're seen as refugees, however gang violence is surely a huge factor, given that the countries of the triangulo del norte (Northern triangle, i.e. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) suffer from awfully terrible levels of gang activity, with homicide figures similar to those of war torn countries; however, the main problem is, as usual, the economic situation, as it is clearly behind the whole gang issue and because it makes people as desperate as to be willing to try anything. Most people are no way nearer the poverty levels we've seen in Africa and not only those who are in such dire conditions are dreaming of leaving, but again that's understandable, as it's hard to see how they can improve their lives here and they are too close to the rich world, geographically and at mass-media level, not to feel the pull. 

So, what can the answer be and what are we doing about this?

Can teaching English in a primary school help? It could, if that meant to increase the kids' chances of reaching better jobs significantly, but reaching that kind of result would imply much more than adding hours to the timetable: their whole education should be much better and most of all they should move on to secondary schools where they're taught English properly, not just colours, animals and "uoziurnem" (What's your name?), so actually Mattia doesn't feel as having done much on the issue through those months of classes, even though he tried his best to instil a desire for learning and to prove the students that they can actually learn a language and not just the usual 20 words or phrases. 

Teaching English to adults, or young people, makes definitely more sense, so we're glad our dear friends José&Marlene have held an afternoon course here at UPAVIM, still a little thing but a positive one, which we hope they can keep up when they come back in January (they're going back home for the month of December). Their educational activities with the older group of kids at the library holiday programme are good seeds too, as that sort of work can widen the kids' horizons and help them develop critical thinking. 

What else could help? 

Staying in the area of education, our opinion is that training teachers would be the way forward (as Mattia was supposed to do in Rwanda but did very little), but here we are in no position whatsoever to do that. 

Apart from education, another fundamental tool of discouraging migration is to make life at home better, by improving conditions. We can't reshape the economy or create jobs (even though Elena's Paper Furniture would be far from that), yet health, dental and nutrition programmes, which Elena has been working on, are definitely very important too, because if children grow well their lives will be better and if parents see their children taken care of, they've got a better view of their own life too, so she must be proud of what she's done, though she keeps feeling she hasn't been put in the right conditions to do as much as she could and most of all to arrange things so that her projects can have a real, long-lasting impact. 

Being violence such a strong factor, fighting and preventing it are other very worthy efforts; the former is outside our range, as it would require action at higher level (police, government...) or at wider level (the whole community, which we are not such a powerful part of as to be able to move it in that direction), but the latter can be attempted and that's what Mattia has been trying to do (starting from afar, which unfortunately won't work much if there's no way to continue the project for long), first with some input and activities in school, but mostly with his sport programme, which has been going on for over 4 months and picked up a lot in the last 5 weeks, with the creation of a good group of up to 12 kids in their early teens for athletics training 5 days a week and with a bigger group of younger children very happy to play pre-sport games. He's recently added another dimension to this youth project by recovering a relic of his African experience, i.e starting chess lessons/matches in the mornings, sitting on the ground, near the campo: nothing major, but it is encouraging to see how kids like it and how it really helps them put their minds to work, which can mean an awful lot for their lives.

Much more could and should be done on such sensitive issues, but we're doing the little we can and in order to do more we'd need more support from the organisation or better we should work for an organisation dedicated to all this, while UPAVIM's priorities are others, which is the main reason for our troubles, but more on this another time.

12th of October 2016 (2) / Weapon of choice

In order to keep going for full 524 years of conquest, you need plenty of variety in your arsenal, don't you?

Never mind, we did have it: first it was muskets and viruses, then slavery-like exploitation of indigenous labour, later damaging use of the land and management of local produce (coffee and fruit) by foreign companies which profited hugely and crippled the local economy, and finally, in the second half of the last century, political and military support for right-wing repressive governments. And don't worry, five centuries later, we still have that variety...

Clothes', and shoes', charity, which destroys the local textile and shoemaking industries, buries beautiful local dress tradition under a pile of ridiculous t-shirts' wordings, deprives whole peoples of part of their precious identity and lulls Westerners in the damn-false impression of being doing good.

Globalization, which brings in every possible society disease, from TV addiction to videogames-induced brain damage and violent habits, from junk food to shopping mania, from costly cellphones' and internet overuse to misplaced dreams of emigration, from excess of car traffic to horribly out-of-place and money-wasting Christmas silly traditions; globalization, which threatens healthier, more sustainable and economically wiser food traditions and pushes whole countries on a dangerous slope towards overweight and obesity thanks to the introduction of the wonders of McDonald's&friends.

Advertisement and the distribution of stuff to be bought, which replaces people's natural will to improve their lives with a sick drive to spend, spend, spend, for products which are not necessary, or more expensive or less healthy than their traditional alternatives.

Neo-liberism, which cuts welfare, privatises services and cuts down import tariffs to flood countries with cheap products which prevent viable local industries to develop.

Fakeducation, the local version of what should be the main way of give poor people a future and instead, when cynically observed, looks like a repressive tool: keep low classes in school years and years without teaching them anything about history, ensure they won't be able to properly read, write and count, make good efforts to prevent them from developing any sort of critical thinking (which is quite easy when you've kept their brains inactive and avoided giving them the aforementioned necessary tools of reading&co.) and you'll be sure you won't get any more dangerous revolutions. Actually, Guatemalans surprised many last year, when they got out on the streets to oust their top two politicians due to corruptions issues, but that's still a long way from a real revolution, like the one attempted 50 years ago and quashed through over 30 years of genocidal massacres by the army... 

The Continuous Conquistadores seem also to have learnt the Romans' lesson well, as can be seen in the modern local version of the "panem et circenses" (bread and circus) strategy, i.e. "risitos y pista de hielo" (packed-crisps and ice-rink): don't give them development, welfare or proper jobs, just keep them fed (or at least offer them plenty of something-which-looks-like-food available everywhere at very affordable prices) and entertained with expensive foolish shows whose costs could be better used somewhere else, like an ice-skating installation on the main square of Guatemala City, of course in their cold season, (invierno-winter!), when the daytime temperatures won't ever go below 20 degrees... By the way, just for the sake of connecting thoughts, did you know the current president is a former comedian, not a protest-style comedian, just a mere showman?

A final note on food, the focus on which might seem as a picky exaggeration of ours, but we believe is instead quite fundamental, as the current nutrition habits are so damaging, not only health wise, but even financially, since poor people are spending the precious little money they have on something not necessary for their wellbeing (a packet of chemicals-covered crisps has no nutritional value) instead of saving for health expenses or to invest in education or home-improvements. 

A picture should be enough: in the middle of a local, small but not tiny shop on a secondary road of the city centre, you spot a large shelf-unit nearly collapsing under the weight of so many ripe, vivid yellow bananas, a feast of taste and nutritional wonders; the sight makes you not only hungry, but also happy for all these Central and South American countries, blessed with the low cost and easy availability of fruit... if it weren't for that damn tendency of your eyes to keep looking around, which makes you take in the rest of the shop: the wall behind the shelf-unit, which now looks quite small, is completely covered by those ubiquitous hanging stacks of crisp-packets of any possible kind ("taste" doesn't seem the proper word), which cost just as much as one or two of those delicious, filling, healthy bananas, while the wall on the left boasts two full-height fridges full of sodas or sugary drinks, the other nutritional plague of these areas.

Cheer up, the next post in this series won't be about conquest but about resistance.

October news round-up (with pictures)

We've already reported on the end of the school year, so we can just add that the marks were good for both boys, so congratz once again to them, even though the level was quite low (without any reason for it to be so, as there are all the physical conditions, as to number of students, facilities and material, to push for much higher), so we'll have to help them regain knowledge and skills they've been losing, but they're ready and willing and we're already doing something, though slowly, to let them recover after those 14 months...

Mattia tried to organize a post-school trip to the relief map with 6th grade, as he promised them earlier, but after the end of the lessons it was hard to keep in touch with many and some had left for the vacation period, so in the end the turnout was low, only 4, but José, Oswaldo, Joshua and Angel really enjoyed the map, the park where they played later with Michele and Sam (who also got to have a little cycle on rented bikes) the journey on many buses and the Italian home-made pizza which José cooked with Elena in our kitchen on the roof, at 6.00 in the morning. 

One evening we took another long trip (especially coming back, with two very tired kids) to the city centre, to enjoy a concert by an orchestra of wind instruments which includes, on sax, Pato, the boyfriend of one of the volunteer-teachers (who are by now all gone, after a farewell party on the roof with many women of the organisation, as you can see in October's pictures).

On a public holiday, with a family of the boys' friends, we went to a park with miniature replicas of national monuments, where the boys had a good time playing away from here, in a green space.

During the normal days, in the morning the boys have started to attend the library's reading programme (and to play chess or lego with daddy), while in the afternoon they keep going to the pool (unless they're a bit sick due to the windy season and the lower temperatures) or to join daddy's sport&games at the dusty football pitch.

As to our work, Elena keeps being quite busy with nursery kids, management help for the pharmacy, early age developmental checks and more, including a home visit, while Mattia every afternoon organises one hour of games&races for kids from 5 to 10 and the next hour trains a group of 8 older ones, who are now forming a good group and putting some commitment. At times he's joined by our dear friend José (when he's not busy with the English classes, he's recently launched with his wife Marlene), which is a very good thing as this way they can either split the kids in groups or the younger ones can then keep playing in a more organised way while Mattia trains the older group.                                                                                                                              

Sunset gift (from last Saturday)

In "The Mask" Jim Carry praised the wonderful colours of pollution sunset, in the States they boast Sunset Boulevard, here we beat all that with a priceless "sunset eruption" (click on it to view it larger)!

Geo-sociology on the back of a bus, or at school...

"DON'T BE ONE MORE FIGURE! 

In the last 6 months there were: 

269 dead, 33140 deported, 385,357 arrested 

and 70% of women were sexually assaulted. 

DON'T TRAVEL ILLEGALLY TO THE NORTH"

(campaign funded by the US)

From Africa and the Middle East they migrate to Europe, from South and Central America, and in great numbers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, they look for a future, and/or a way of out of gang violence, in the States. Not only the chances of finding a good life are slim, as living as an undocumented migrant is not easy at all, but the journey itself is extremely hard, probably nearly as dangerous as crossing the Mediterranean on an overcrowded inflatable dingy: lead by reckless agents called coyotes they cross Mexico avoiding all formal ways and means of transport, resorting even to long walks, all the way at the mercy of criminals who prey on these desperate people. As the picture above shows quite clearly, the stats are grim... 

We saw other discouraging posters at the Mexican border, but we found the figures on these particularly strong and it's significant to see this subject brought so close to the real battleground, to the streets of the city, as the message reflects the reality of the lower classes of Guatemala City: the dream, the only future they see, is to leave. Mostly everyone has a family member, neighbour or friend who's living or has lived in the States and characters like the coyotes are nothing far from people's lives either: one Monday morning at school a child told Mattia a coyote was at his house the previous evening, not because his family was planning to leave, but rather because the man was a dear friend of his dad (who, by the way, lived years in the States) and not just a friend: in the past his dad helped him out with the job, getting some good amount of money, by driving people all through Guatemala, from El Salvador to the Mexican border, where they would swim to the other side (across the river we crossed on a bridge walking with our bags just a month ago - see "photo-tales" a few posts below). 

So, what's the reaction to all this? Let's keep that for a future post...

Church

As you might have easily guessed from a post on local churches a little down below, we haven't dared joining any of the evangelical churches around here, for obvious reasons of mental sanity and hearing-system health, and either the bigger, more established, Catholic Church, just to two blocks away as it doesn't convince us much either, being surely less into crazy singing and not used to mad preaching but a little too devoted to rituals and venerations of saints for our tastes and for what the children are accustomed too; moreover, with so many different confessions and congregations in our neighbourhood, we felt it would be awkward, for us strangers, to choose one and not the other, as the risk is people would start wondering about the reason for the choice and, even more important, we wouldn't be comfortable at all in trying one and then stop going if not at ease, again not to offend anyone and not to start possible attempts at conquering the strangers for one church or another...

So, we didn't go to church for six months, but we managed to make up for that loss, which even the children were feeling as something odd, with some simple but at times very good family-services in our room, something on the line of what we did for a couple of Sundays in Rwanda, when we stopped going to the church we were supposed to work with and we still hadn't found a valid alternative. 

But things have now changed, as from the beginning of October we've been going to a church in the city, thanks to our dear friends José&Marlene, who tried it out before, as they had some connection with it through their church in the States. They said it was a good place, with good people and a good service and we agree: we felt welcome, the service is to our liking and most of all Michele&Sam are very happy, not only for the opportunity to play around (there's some green outside!) with a few well behaved children before and after the service, but also for the sort of Sunday School a lady organises for them during the service. It's a Mennonite Church, which means it's somehow close to the Methodist tradition, which is clear from the way the service is run and even from some hymns, translated from some we are very familiar with. What's more interesting for us is that the Mennonite Church is behind the Mennonite Central Committee, a missionary organisation we were close to work with straight after our Rwanda experience, with a youth project in Nicaragua which we had already been selected for, only to be told at the very last step that the local partners had decided not to request help from outside. So it was quite surprising but very nice not only to meet some other foreigners (from the States) in the congregation, but also to discover they are either are currently working or have worked with MCC; we told them of our "near miss" and about our present situation, we heard what they're doing, we shared opinions and hopefully we'll have more conversations with them in the future (you never know what might come out!). In the meantime, we've started collaborating with a small project of the church, simply by helping a small group serve food last Saturday for lunch at their last meeting (end of school year) with a group of youth who are studying secondary school on weekends and whom they have somehow followed, with encouragement and some extra activities, in a school just down the hill from our area, in the next colonia (sector, settlement...), that is the infamous Bucaro on which we wrote months ago, considered a terrible place but for us not as dangerous as it might be for some locals (at times we go down to play at the sort of playground around the football cement court, we went for lunch at a couple of families' places and the boys to play at some schoolmates'). Of course, the main attraction of that meeting were our two skilled and beautiful little waiters, more than the church members' attempt at doing a bit of evangelism, but it was anyway worthy for us to know something else going on around here, visit another school and help the people from the church, who really appreciated it.

The only issue with this church is the location, as it takes us about one hour and 15 minutes to get there, either with 3 buses, as on the first Sunday with our fellow volunteers, or with 2 buses and a 30-35 minutes walk, as we've done the past two times, when they were not with us. However, when we get lunch at one of the ubiquitous little food shops or stalls, it becomes a good way to spend half of our Sunday (or more if we add a visit to a nearby museum as we did two weeks ago) and proof of this is the fact that the boys, even considering the walking option, keep telling us they want to go every Sunday.

Revelations

We haven't ever dug deeply in the linguistical-theological controversy concerning God's gender and though we do not totally support the conventional theory of a masculine figure, we must admit to unwillingly following it, at least in writing, as we keep using masculine pronouns when referring to the Chief Designer. However, we can announce to you all that we've received clear indications about the truth regarding this matter: not only the Great Movie Director is female, but she speaks Spanish and looks a lot like a short old lady with a wrinkly smile and a gentle voice, who, without having spoken to him more than once before, in mid-September approached Mattia and, sensing he was in a particularly dark moment, told him very softly and firmly that despite all the issues with the school and what some people were saying to the contrary he was doing a very good job, his methods were the right ones and he should not be sad. Mattia would hear other similar voices in the next weeks, but none came at such a right time and with such clarity as hers.

Just to explain, nothing like a miracle: it's simply that Doña Estela, who works in UPAVIM as a cleaner and is one of Mattia's 6th grade student's mother, apparently really appreciates not only Mattia's teaching but his overall relationship with the students and especially the afternoons he dedicates to them.
Oh, by the way, the Great Composer is also quite good at cooking torrejas (some sort of egg-based soft sweet cakes) to cheer up worried volunteers!

Life on hold

So, you've passed the sixth month mark, time for some reckoning. 

Let's start from a very important question: you're back to writing a lot, why so?

The reason is we're not working as much as before, at least Mattia the writer, because school is finally over. At last, because as you've already understood from previous posts, it has been very challenging, for the school is not well run, so the kids are quite badly behaved and violent but not accustomed to being rebuked and are not actually accustomed to learning either, therefore trying to teach them or to educate them was very frustrating, up to seeming a waste of time or a lost cause, given the way the school in general doesn’t seem to be really interested or committed to any of the two aims. Contrasts on the methods of managing the class and the undisciplined kids ensued and the validity of teaching English when their learning needs are definitely others is quite doubtful, so Mattia won’t be teaching any more. He'd like, instead, to dedicate himself to the children and youth, enlarging his afternoon sport programme (which has kept him going, given him a sense of being relevant, made a lot of children happy and receive many positive comments from different sources) into a full blown project of youth activities, which in this context means much more than it seems, as the more active the youth are kept, the further away they stay from the world of the gangs, both as to how they spend their free time and as to their horizons, passions, ideas for the future.

Sorry about that, but at least the prospects seem good. What about Elena?

Elena has done a lot but at times she feels she's done very little, as in some areas there's no real support for her projects, meaning the association doesn't really care so they're not looking into finding people for her to train so as to continue programmes like the early development check ups, the dentist appointments or the P.E. classes for the school, while in others they're leaving her to deal with people not interested in changing, as it happens in the pharmacy, where she's trying to help arrange the managing of products but the nurse doesn't seem to appreciate, to say the least.

Mmm, we're sorry for you all again, but it seems she's done a lot indeed, as we didn't doubt. 

And the boys?

The boys' experience in school was not so great either, mostly from our point of view, though Michele really had a few tough moments and admitted he didn't liked it completely. Academically, they've not advanced much and at times it seems they've even unlearnt a bit, but that can be easily mended as they're still only midway through primary and are still good enough to recover soon; more worryingly, they've instead learnt (especially Sam) behaviours, not properly sanctioned in school, that we would have preferred not to see in them.

Oh dear, from what we've read you've worked a lot and sure you've done some good, but the situation doesn't look very nice, at the moment. How do see your future there?

Right, the situation is not the best, but it's not too bad either: despite some hard times for Michele, the boys are happy with the place and their friends, as to daily life we are by now able to feel sort of fine everywhere, we get on very well with our half-new roof mates and as to our work we're sure there are serious needs we're somehow trying to fill. Moreover, things should now improve, as the stress of school is over, for Mattia and the boys. However, the future is definitely something we're thinking about a lot, but basically we're on hold, as we're waiting for the results of the application with a big organisation for the youth project (we submitted the proposal at the end of September and we thought it would be a matter of a couple of weeks, but the third week is already gone): if the grant is not given, we can't continue working here, because we were already stretched with only Mattia's teaching salary and sure we can't afford to stay with none, as they haven't found anything for Elena, as instead they let us believe they would, and there are no signs they will in the near future; if instead the grant comes, we would not only have a salary but also a very good project to work on, which would include Elena too, which might help her arrange times and effort in a more satisfying way. However, we would still have to meditate on what to do with the kids, as we would like not to send them to this school next year: one option is  to find a different school, but the good ones are very expensive (we can't afford it and anyway we wouldn't be comfortable with it after having  already done that in Rwanda) and are already booked, while others might not be much better than this, so it might not be worthwhile to move them again for nothing; the second option is to dive into another adventure, ie. home-schooling, which might seem too much of a burden, but many have done it before and many are doing with good results, so it could be a good solution, especially because they would not only study by themselves or with mummy&daddy, but then join other activities in the youth project.

Well, we understand the difficulty of living with the uncertainty and we'll be eagerly waiting for news. In the meantime, what are you doing?

Elena keeps working nearly as usual, given that only P.E. in primary is finished (she still does it with pre-school) while the all the rest is going on; the boys will be busy every afternoon with their swimming vacation course (and the long journey there and back) and from next week two hours per morning, at different times due to their different age groups, with a reading programme organized by the library; Mattia carries on with his sport afternoons (and some Saturday mornings, now to a different stadium, only with dirt track but closer) which are going to get bigger from next week when he'll be at the campo 3 hours per day as he's offering sport to the kids of the reading programme, with the help of our dear friend José for some time.

School ranking

Among the five schools our globetrotter boys attended up to now, the Rwandan  one was the biggest and a very good school (some could think "of course", being it a private school for rich kids, but that is not necessarily a guarantee), not only with good facilities but most of all with good teachers, or wonderful ones for Michele in 2nd grade and Sam in 1st. The kids both loved it, it was hard for them to leave it and they remember it fondly, for the place, the teachers and the friends. 

As far as teaching and teachers are concerned, the one they went to in Italy, even if for only a month, was just as good, and not because we're partial to it, having it been Mattia's, Giacomo and Marta's school, but because they were learning well and in a nice environment. Once again, they both had a good experience, as they would have liked to finish the year there and would gladly go back when we return to Europe. 

In England, for those four months, we ended up in a low class school, in an area of popular housing, last in the preference lists of the area, but we didn't mind and actually we didn't dislike it at all, for the facilities, the overall organisation and most of all Michele's great teacher; sure, many of his classmates' academic level was very low and the class was a bit too rowdy at times, but he could learn anyway; Sam was unlucky with the teacher, as she was very nice but would soon be off for maternity leave and that might have stopped her from striving to make that pre-elementary class into something different from a pre-school, but it was still OK. All in all, it could have continued as a good school year, as they boys were both happy, learning and making friends and we were content too. 

School in Ireland was good as well, but Sam hadn't started at all and Michele hadn't entered proper primary yet when we left, so we can't really say much and most of all we'll have a lot more to say  about it in the future, because they're going to study some more time there, sooner or later.

The one in Guatemala has been the worst, as Michele explicitly commented: "Dad, why isn't this school like the others?" He was referring to the lack of discipline which makes everything hard and therefore not worthy, but unfortunately it applies to every aspect; you might tell us it was to be expected, in a disadvantaged area of a developing country, when it's not a high-class institution however, being private it was supposed to be much better than standard public schools and according to what we had been told it was so, but sadly it doesn't seem to be true: the facilities and, partly, the materials are better and some other aspects might be as well, but in general terms there's not much difference, as kids are just as badly behaved and violent, if not worst (as here they are spoilt and display the arrogance of kids knowing they are in a private schools) and the learning is not more advanced, or in some cases is even less, than what is achieved in nearby schools. What's really worrying is that being a project started by Westerners and still run with Westerners' support and partly with Westerners' funds, it should definitely be a high quality, proper, "different" school, but unfortunately at the moment it's only a wasted opportunity because it looks more like a summer camp with some educational themes rather than an educational and learning institution. 

Moving on to more general reflections on education in Guatemala, let's answer a question put to us by Lukas, the Belgian volunteer, when he was here a month ago: how do we compare it with Rwandan education? We must start saying that we haven't got any similar direct experience of other developing countries "normal" schools, as we didn't send our boys to national or low level private schools in Rwanda. However, we were thinking those schools could be an option for our boys if we had remained there without our two high salaries or our free house, so we enquired about them; most of all Mattia visited them often for his work and we knew plenty of kids studying there (our "adopted" ones plus those of Mattia's groups and those we helped financially), so we have some basis on which to draw a comparison and we believe schools in Rwanda, despite worse overpopulation issues and worse facilities, are better than Guatemalan ones as there is definitely a stronger emphasis on learning, with simpler, maybe old style but more effective methods, and kids were better organised and more focused; on the other side, the worst aspect of Rwandan schools is hard physical punishment, but, surely to a lesser degree, that is still present in Guatemalan public school too and the absence of it in private schools is not enough to make them better than Rwandan ones. 

Photo-tales from Mexico

As promised in the September's diary, here comes the story of our holiday-for-visa-reasons to Tapachula, in Chiapas, Mexico. Apart from some money lost due a wallet misadventure, everything went well, with a good journey, shorter than feared (only 5h45m by coach, less than 8 hours door-to-door), good accommodation, good, slightly different food (buying it at markets or take-away we chose not to have rice for 4 whole days), worthy trips and the pleasure for kids&parent of going away for it all for a simple but good holiday. Given the amount of writing we've been doing recently, we let you enjoy a photo-album with narrative captions.

Recipe

After 14 months of school, with the last 6 not totally nice, take a 9 year old boy to the Saturday morning athletics training session with his brother, father and daddy's group of teens, with a 1.5km walk from the bus-stop to the track, and let him train as hard as the older kids, with warm-up, special gaits, long jump, 2x200mts and relays; then, another walk back to the bus. Remember to check the lunar calendar and the orbit's current inclination and, if everything goes right, you might be as lucky as to conjure up the yearly event you've been longing for: the next morning, Michele will wake up, as shocked as you all ("How long have you all been awake?"), not only later than everyone else in the family, but even only 5 minutes before 8.00, that is after sleeping over 11 hours and a half!

N.B. This recipe cannot guarantee success, but it is safe: the boy will not suffer permanent changes (on Tuesday morning he woke up at 5.30).

Inspiring singing

There are many churches around here - no, that's not right...

There are myriads of churches around here (we can see a handful just looking out of our window and we lose count going by bus to the shopping centre), only a few as big as you imagine a church to be, most of them as big as a local house, some of them as small as a room. They have services on Saturday evening or on Sunday morning (and/or evening) and some of them one or two evenings per week. Being the vast majority of them on the evangelical-pentecostal side, they mostly sing, or they only sing apart from when the preacher screams at them (1). With this set of data, you can do your own calculation and grasp the amount of religious singing our hearing system undergoes on a weekly basis. Once you reach that piece of information, please add a fundamental element to the equation: most church musicians, sorry, keyboard players, around here know from three to four chords (maybe not most, only the skilled ones) and the number of tunes they can play with those is quite low, let's say it rarely passes half a dozen. 

All in all, a very grim outlook for our hears? Maybe, but wait till you read more... 

Solo singers, sometimes used by congregations for mysterious reasons, are not much better than the musicians and quite a few preachers opt to sing from the microphone, or more precisely eating the mike, though whatever kind of training they received or self-inflicted for preaching, it didn't include singing.

Still, despite the dramatic reality of the situation affecting our ears, we found this singing quite inspirational and our prayers often raise up on the wings of those notes.

Unfortunately for the local churches, the content of those prayers is not exactly benevolent towards the musicians or their instruments, the buildings or the whole congregations, or simply their electricity connections...

Actually, luckily for them, our faith has recently developed to a point where we don't really believe in supplicating prayers, so the congregations are still safe, unless one evening Mattia or Elena are too tired and can't stop the other from going outside and mete justice out by themselves.

(1) As to the preachers, we are eternally grateful to our dear friend, fellow volunteer and next-door  (behind-the-wooden-wall) neighbour Marlene who, one of her first nights here, asked us whether there are preachers coming to these small congregations or they only sing; we were scared to answer, but out of courtesy we told her that preachers do come down here. Of course, our fears came true, with a vengeance, and since that fateful conversation we've had a spate of dreadful screamers tormenting our ears even more than before.

2x14x3x3=1!

Last Friday at 12.30, our 2 extraordinaryboys have finally completed their 14th straight school month, in their 3rd different school in 3 different countries: 

from mid-August 2015, when they started 3rd and 1st grade in Rwanda,   

through a month, March 2016, in Italy,

 up to now, here in Guatemala.

(comments on the three schools in a future post).

In total, adding his first years in Ireland and nearly four months in England, Michele has already studied in primary school in 5 different countries (Sam as well, but in some he was in nursery/pre-school).

What an experience!

To celebrate the end of this long school year, at the end of which they were both surely tired but so accustomed to go to school and in general so passionate about it that they were not sure and not completely happy it was over, they received two stellar little gifts, we had a rare chocolate pudding dinner on Friday and a movie night on Saturday (to be completed...). Today, Sunday, we might travel to the city centre to take a stroll for more rewarding stuff, like some different food and a trip to our favourite playground.

The wisdom of words

Hopefully you've already noticed the new section on the right hand corner of this blog: it's going to be the place for us to present you with nice phrases we discover here, or while staying here. It will be hard to live up to the heights of the first one (go and read it if you haven't done so already!), as it is so powerful, poetic and relevant to the country, but, a bit unwillingly, we'll change it soon to stick up some new ones on our wall of words.

12th of October 2016 (1)

To celebrate the 524th anniversary of the discovery conquest of America, yesterday Mattia was wearing this wonderful historic t-shirt, brought home by grannyChiara from a conference in Florence on that theme, right in 1992. The picture makes it particularly relevant to us, living here in Guatemala, because this is was really Maya land, but those 524 years, despite the "resistance", have taken their toll and now that culture is confined to museums, dances and other occasional events, tourism and artisanal products for roadside stalls, or fair trade markets in the better cases, but still considered as gift objects or stuff for neo-conquerors who can take an exotic piece back home...
The over 20 Maya languages are still alive and some studied at school, or at least they are part of the curriculum, but surely they're not official and there doesn't seem to be any push to learn them, and obviously so, as they represent only the lower levels of society. As it was quite interesting for Elena to hear one of them spoken "live" some time ago, it was particularly touching for Mattia, still a bit of a linguist and in love with these pockets of cultural "resistance", to hear, yesterday, 12th of October,  a middle-aged couple chatting in one Maya language on the transmetro, the nearly-free bus who moves hundreds of millions of people along the main routes of the capital. Nearly as touching as listening to the elderly (and some adult) sing traditional songs or the national anthem in Irish in the pubs of our dear Ireland, another country where the local language was nearly buried by the foreign rule.

Of course we're well aware of the fact that Ireland can thrive on the world market thanks to the English language and that a big chunk of Latin America is easily in touch with the rest of the world and with itself thanks to Spanish, but the economical advantages cannot hide the huge losses suffered at cultural and identity level: it's nice for us to be able to travel or serve abroad using familiar languages, but how sad it is to reflect on the millions of people who've lost their historic way of expression, which is just a symbol of a whole culture (tradition, life-style, world vision, art, music...) chocked by the homogeneous blanket of the West: most likely only a few members of the new generations, apart from those coming from deep inside the countryside, can understand or speak Maya languages; the current typical clothes, at least in urban areas, are American T-shirts, apart from 1 or 2 women in a hundred, wearing traditional fabrics; the coolest music is certainly typically Centro-American (raggaeton, if you haven't got a clue about it... you haven't missed much), but it doesn't surely stem from the indigenous music modes, being just a local version of shabby modern pop; traditional food, at least, is indeed still available at every corner, but is now living side by side with the worst of imported habits, from the fast-food restaurants of decently well-off areas to the obiquitous junk-food, thrown into your sight on the front of every single tiendita (little shop), in any area, poorest included; Mayan history is not even studied at school; Maya ruins, given the economical and cultural level of most people are known only as poster images or pictures to print and cut out for  homework on the national heritage, but not often visited... 

Yes, it all looks just like another tirade against globalisation, but we feel that's just an aspect of a deeper, longer-running process, started exactly on that glorious 12th of October. 

A detail summing up the whole concept from the ethnic, economic and cultural point of view? On most advertising images, despite the vast majority of the population being of indigenous origin or mestizo (mixed), faces are nearly always those of people of the white minority: 524 years of domination, quite successful.

Revamped gallery

Just to let you all know, the gallery page has been tidied up a bit, with a better structure for all of you to enjoy the most recent albums and have the classics available as well (check out "gems" and "tradition" to see some funny or interesting shots).

September's diary

After a long chronicling silence, we'll make up with a full diary-style account of the last month, as it was quite eventful or at least not a standard work&family-life one.
(You're officially entitled to blame those who complained we hadn't written much in a long while...) If it's too much, check just the pictures.

1- Nothing special, but being Thursday we can remind you of the sport afternoons, which over this month were quite good (apart from some missed sessions due to the rain), with 10 to 16 for the young group and up to 8 with the older kids, who are starting to train harder and harder.

2- Past volunteers started flocking back for visits: at the moment we've got 2, but over the month there will be 5, some staying nearly a month, some just ten days. Among them we mention Lukas, a very tall Belgian who became a good friend; one afternoon, and even a Saturday morning, he will join Mattia's sport programme and confirm our feeling that is really a good project. Tonight, dinner with many volunteers at Reyna's place; she's the force behind Reforzamiento (morning/afternoon school-help programme) and is a really open lady, sharing food and her simple house not only with us today, but with many people, mostly youth, on several occasions, especially at Christmas, when she cooks for plenty of friends and neighbours.

3- Visit at the optician's for the boys; they suggested a better check with a doctor, so we'll arrange that for another time, looking at the best options.
In the afternoon, Michele at Jaciel's house, where there's Jeffrey too, another good friend and classmate, and Jaciel's cousin; Sam plays on the roof with his best friend Matthew.

4- Two new long-term volunteers join the community on the roof: Marlene&José, a young newly-married couple from the States, but with Mexican origins (he was born and lived there for 9 years). We liked them from the very start and we keep loving them and enjoying their presence a lot, not only for the good friendship and nice communal living on the roof, but also, or especially, for the sharing of beliefs and vision, on this place, on our call, on development....

Michele, and even Sam, are invited by Jaciel's family for a day out at a park with plenty of attractions: guess what? They liked it immensely!

5- With an acto cívico, a gathering of all classes for a patriotic ceremony with anthem singing and poetry recitals, the school started the period dedicated to the celebration of Independence Day (read post below for more, with plenty of photos and videos).

6- Morning birthday party for Barbara, the amazing 80 year old founder of UPAVIM, here since mid July and until the end of the month, with firecrackers at 5.30am and tamales with hot drinks for breakfast, all on the roof, with many women from UPAVIM coming to celebrate the lady who started and keeps driving forward this organisation with her strong character. In the evening, Elena joins the group who take the birthday "girl" to dinner; when they come back, they find a lovely surprise: the rain, with the cooperation of a blocked draining hole, have flooded the first (ground) floor, so they keep mopping up till past midnight.

8- The morning party is now a roof tradition, though luckily this time the firecrackers start at 6; for Michele and Sam it was a surprise, as you can see in the pictures and most of all in the video (downloadable from dropbox) in the relevant post down below.

9- We can't get through to him due to various issues, but we send Birthday Grandad Ezio a nice sound recording.

10- Great celebrations in UPAVIM for Barb's birthday party: lunch for dozens of people, with marimba music (played ensemble by a group of students of a nearby school - video to download from here), piñata (the papier-mache figure smashed by birthday children all over Latin America - in this case in the shape of Donald Trump, to let the democratic old lady beat him hard at least once), speeches and dances (even for Daddy&Mummy).

11- Michele's birthday party at the park (see post below).

13- Mattia meets a lady from MercyCorps, the organisation who might give UPAVIM a substantial grant for the youth project he is setting up (in collaboration with Viviana, from the library and Reyna from Reforzamiento, to make it as big as necessary for it to be hopefully approved); the lady seems happy with the ideas, which is encouraging.
Michele, again together with Lucky Sam, goes to his great pal Jaciel's birthday.

14- On the eve of the Día de la Independencia, Mattia joins the people of the cuadra (literally "block of houses" but used to name our neighbourhood) for the Antorchas: a "run" with torches from the city centre back to our place. It's nice to be invited and to be part of the tradition, but it is quite a long night, first with the long journey in the jammed traffic, on a full noisy bus (not all with run, but there are over 50 people), then the long wait to start (the bus must follow the runners and it took it ages to go round the meeting area) and finally what turned out to be a long jog-stop-run-jog-stop exhausting move back home, topped by the nasty habit of some young people to transform the tradition of throwing water onto the runners into a water-bag throwing sport which hurt Mattia a few times. The group stayed up late in the callejon (narrow alley) in front of our building for dances and drinking, but Mattia managed to slip quietly away...

15- After all the school events and last night's celebrations, the day itself is quite calm around here and we take it that way, rather than going to the centre for crowded events; we still have some very good time, with sport for the kids in the afternoon and celebrating José's birthday in the evening on the roof. 

17- Weekend at home, which can be hard, as Michele is a bit sick, though nothing serious.
Second trip to the athletic track, with José joining Mattia (and Lukas too for the first part) in taking a bigger group of kids to train: 7 rather than 3, with 3 of them not from our school and even 2 girls!

18- After the August Olympic break, this month we're getting back on track with our Shakespeare nights: to celebrate his year, every second Sunday, we either read an adapted tale or watch one of a series of high quality animated movies. Tonight's is time for gruesome Richard III.

19- Nothing special, but like every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, patient mummy takes M&S swimming; they are slowly improving, thanks to having nearly learnt to stay in the water the whole lesson, enduring the moderate chill of the rainy-season, both for pool and outside temperature.

20- Another birthday party on the roof, this time for Hannah, Sam's English teacher.

21- Lovely stay of Giorgio, an Italian whom we didn't know, but who was here from a Fair Trade organisation to check UPAVIM's work: we were glad to lend him the kids room and the 3 crammed nights were more than compensated by the great company, especially for the long interesting conversations, where we were able to share a lot, with a man of solid views and experiences, about this area, our work, modern cooperation and what's working and what could be better in this organisation. 

22- 3rd and 6th grade perform a concert of English songs, which they've practiced for a long time, each class their own, for Barbara, to thank her for the new classrooms and give her a good farewell.
25- For Mickey's birthday, and for Sam's too, in advance, we took our second trip to Antigua, with a specific target: the workshop at the ChocoMuseum! Read post on the birthday below for more, or go to the gallery page for pictures, which unfortunately you can't taste...
29- Mattia is busy writing the application for the grant for the youth project, as he's been the whole week, long nights included, when someone pokes him on the shoulder... it's Fernanda, past volunteer and great friend of ours, back for just a few days to get an MRI on her knee (cheaper to fly and have it done here than to do it in the States...): BEST.SURPRISE.EVER.
30- Día del niño (Kids' Day): another opportunity to miss school, which is replaced by a show by the teachers (long silly dances by the ladies, storytelling by Daddy, who saved Michele from brain-death and captived all the children with a colourful-clothed rendition of the Pied Piper, flute playing included), plenty of junk food, some games for each class and an awful fight-for-the-sweet version of the piñata, plus gifts by the local Rotary Club, who apparently still believe it is good for children in disadvantaged areas to receive plastic toys (all for the same age, from 1st to 6th grade...) and t-shirts from people dressed as Super Heroes... Apart from schools' events, the day and the following weekend (or week, or month) are also a great opportunity for shopping centres and fast-food restaurants to lure people to spend more and eat worse.
Not to finish the month and the post on such a negative note, the evening, or better the night, is dedicated by Mum&Dad to packing clothes (and food for the journey), for our upcoming long-weekend escape, as in the morning, as early as we manage (possibly before 6.30), we're going to México for VISA reasons: the first 90-day tourist VISA can be renewed once, but then, at the 6th month, you must leave the country for at least 3 days and then come back and start again; given that Honduras and El Salvador don't count and Belize is too expensive, we're having a short holiday in Tapachula, just north of the Mexican border, the closest we can go. So, 6 or more hours on the bus are awaiting, but after that it will be a nice, much needed break, sooner or later to be described on this blog!

Patriotic September

15 of September 1821: Guatemala's independence from Spain.

First half of September 2016: school is dedicated to the preparation and performance of various activities which entertained the kids and provided some glimpse of local traditions, though it meant skipping approximately two weeks of lessons one month before the end, without any addition of historical  knowledge to make up for the loss...
We got: two parades (video) - one with all the schools of the sector (fun at first, boringly long in the end), one just for our school, with guest band (better but by then it felt as a useless duplicate) - a good morning of traditional dances (video) and another one of decent but a bit meaningless (at least at that time of the year) gymnastic-dances. The classes also arranged a snack-exhibition of typical dishes, as you can see in Michele's 3rd grade.

The best part of this was to see so many students (even M&S, thanks to a family of friends who hired-lent them to us) in their beautiful traditional dress, which is great but at the same time quite sad as it makes you realise how modern colonisation robbed these countries of culture and traditions (without mentioning the economical aspects), as now only women and girls wear those nice fabrics, on some occasions.

1 month on...

...here come some pictures from Michele's glorious day: 

at home early in the morning (with UPAVIM women taking the local explosive tradition and song - see video), at school (where they were all dressed in traditional clothes due to a dance scheduled for that day) and at last back at home in the evening, on the roof with the volunteers, and another lovely cake by mummy! A few days later, we celebrated once again, with a "party at the park", unfortunately attended only by two out of eight friends, but still very nice and much loved by the always-happy birthday boy and by Sam, Hammilton and Abygail: we took three buses per trip (but it was part of the programme, in a way, rather than a nuisance) and the weather was menacing, which might have scared some friends away, but we didn't get a single drop... until we dropped off the bus and daddy got totally soaked walking the two friends back home, having also to carry one in his arms to cross the flooded football pitch. Finally, gift trip to Antigua, where we had already been in May, for a fantastic chocolate workshop for our two very good and very happy would-be chocolate makers: from the cocoa pod to the bar(s), with tea and drinking chocolate along the way. 

The picture of our new trip to the town, including panorama with volcano in the background, have instead been added to the old Antigua album.