May pictures

To conclude this second month of blogging in an alternative way, instead of writing other accounts we'd like to direct you to the gallery page to check some various things happened in May, plus our now traditional monthly trip to the Parque Jocotenango (the one with the playground!) through the Paseo de la Sexta, a nice visit to the Museo del Ferrocarril (railway) and a new album collecting views of the volcanoes, which we were lucky to see clearly during our first days here and then appeared only rarely (due to the heat-related haze), though sometimes in charming evenings.

New teachers for Sam, making it fair in the family...

With Fernanda gone since the beginning of May (see post of week 5 further down), her classes of 4th and 1st had to be covered somehow, until another teacher magically shows up, so teacherMaddy and teacherMattia stepped up and offered to add 45 minutes each morning to their schedule, to teach 1st, while coordinatorCarlin is back to class (as she was before Mattia arrived) to cover 4th in the afternoon.

Why is all this interesting for you? Not only to see how good teachers are, but mostly to realise that this way, even though only for 45 minutes and as an interim solution, DaddyMattia is now teaching Sam too! The boy is happy to be like Michele, Mattia likes first class and Sam's presence as well, so everything's fine, apart from a busier day for Mattia... (at the moment, 33 hrs and 15 minutes with students (!), plus several hours of preparation&co, and at least half an hour of teachers' meeting, per week).

La Antigua

Tuesday the 10th, being off school for Mother's Day (see post further down), we decided it was time to enjoy some May birthdays' funds for a good trip to one of most famous tourist spots in Guatemala, the historic town of La Antigua. It should be quite close, but it involves three buses, so in the end it takes us 2.5hrs to get there (and even longer coming back, making it quite a long day). 

Definitely a nice day out and a beautiful town, as you can see from our pictures here, with colourful old colonial-style buildings and plenty of ruins (mostly caused by the 18th century earthquakes); actually, the main attraction for us was the chocolate museum, which unfortunately turned out to be quite disappointing as it was more of an expensive shop with some instructive panels and items on show, plus a quick view on a small, final part of the process and the opportunity to enjoy some workshops which we've decided to keep for another visit (maybe on special occasions), not to spoil all the entertainment chances in the first month. Anyway, we tasted some good chocolate, we learnt something and we bought some cocoa-tea to replace the waning supplies (still from Giacomo&Anna's Mexican travels), together with a fancy earthen cup for our morning chocolate milk, even with a wooden stirring stick.

In the lovely Parque Central, the main square, we also purchased a traditional flute; unfortunately, unless you keep emptying your pockets for very pretty but mostly unnecessary artisan objects, the town itself (excluding the monuments) becomes a little boring, as there's not so much else, apart from an endless series of shops (including those in the big market) showcasing the same kind of material, some exquisitely beautiful but still bordering on the oppressive for the amount on display. 

A perfect case of tourism spoiling the inner beauty of a place (though, of course, this way local artisans find a market, so in a way tourism is good...). 

From a sign seen entering the town, it seems this is even supposed to be a World Heritage Site and actually the historical value of the ruins and the preserved old colourful buildings are charming, but cars driving on cobblestone along 16th century decorated facades look too much out of context to allow a complete appreciation of the place and, for us Europeans, church ruins are not exactly a novelty and for their age they're nothing astounding, as we've already seen buildings way older and still perfectly intact. 

Too picky? Maybe, though it must also have been due to the grey sky, which didn't bestow any good light and contrast on the town and most of all made us forsake the uphill walk to the lookout, as there was no way we could have enjoyed any view of the marvellous volcanoes nearby. Moreover, not being a week-end, we missed possible live street entertainment (music, dance...) which would have taken away the prettily-painted-town-selling-crafts feeling.

However, anywhere is nice if it means to leave the cement and metal-sheets of La Esperanza (our barrio - neighbourhood), and even Guatemala City, for a day and by any means La Antigua is not just anywhere: a lovely place, with some interesting spots (we visited a half-ruined convent and the garden-ruins of another) and a few little museums we've kept for the next time, which we must choose carefully to get a clear blue sky.

Happy Birthday Elena!

35 is good looking number, so it deserves a post and even something more:

Enjoy

  Loads of 

Exciting

  New

Adventures

Extolling

  Lilies

Express

  Never-ending

Appreciation

Shots, shots... quiet.

10 to six, yesterday evening, dinner on the roof interrupted by explosive sounds, so the usual question arises: firecrackers or gun-shots? On this occasion, after a week of loud cracking celebrations of mothers, the answer is the second one. Mattia goes with Michele&Sam to the roof's wall (we're high and far enough, no real danger), from where they can see people in the alleys below going back indoor. We hear about ten shots, then another round of ten, then nothing. It sounded to us as if they were coming from behind the last houses in an alley a couple of blocks away from our building and actually there are other people on their roofs watching in that direction. Michele and Sam ask whether it's another police operation against the gangs, but this time it's only "baddies" shooting each other and the saddest, most serious and hardest to explain aspect of it all is that the police won't come soon, or not at all: their presence is constant (we've got two policemen at the corner just under our place), but quite aimless, or at least it serves only to keep violence away from the main road, given that, as we can easily show our boys, those two are there right now, too... and there they stay, without budging, without any intention of moving less than two blocks down the road to do something or even only to check, just as if nothing had happened. The rumours go that it's not just fear or feeling powerless, but being on the gangs payroll, but that is still too hard to explain to M&S...

Anyway, once the shooting is over, life goes quickly back to normal, as around here all this is exactly so, normal.

Mother's day

Big thing around here (click!): on Monday, celebration at school, with all morning dedicated to show mothers the various dances and other presentation prepared by the classes, give them all the crafts and feed them, then off for the afternoon. Mattia's classes prepared something in English too, nothing special but a good excuse for some good work in class the previous week, a bit as it happened with Poetry Day.

On Tuesday it was official Mother's Day, so only some classes had lessons (those with non-mother teachers), but only for the morning and anyway all English teachers were off.

Michele and Sam enjoyed their acts and working on the crafts, Mummy enjoyed receiving gifts, so all was good, apart from our ears not enjoing hearing the latest Mother's song over and over again: at school on Monday, then on the radio everywhere on Tuesday and even later in the week...

Addition: when we thought it was all over, on Saturday afternoon there was a Mother's Party right opposite our building, with plenty of action, though we skipped it as we first took Michele and Sam to a friend's house and then preferred taking advantage of the quiet time to get some things done at home and rest a short while. However, at the beginning, from our terrace, it was fun to see some performers on stilts and other acrobatic devices and to hear music played on the national instrument, the marimba (quite similar to a xylophone), though it was very soon replaced by useless pop or by the silly shouts of the clown, from the loud speakers.

Fuego!

Nasty times for the people living at the bottom of one of the short alleys just behind the sandy football pitch: yesterday afternoon, just after school, a fire broke out, sending black smoky billows up and scattering ashes as far as on our roof. While the boys were playing at Jovi's place (one of Michele's schoolmate), Mattia went down to see if he could give a hand passing buckets of water and despite the arrival of the bomberos (firemen) that was actually the case, as the fire was so big it took the hoses some time to quench it, so in the meantime people kept resorting to their buckets, throwing water from a nearby house's terrace, entered to their eyes and lungs peril, reason why volunteers were taking turns (Mattia did it just once). Luckily, no-one got injured and only one house got badly damaged as the fire then raged through the wood spreading downhill; however, Abigail, in Michele's class, told us this morning that her roof caught fire and her bed too.

Week 5

Monday 2nd

After the big event 10 days ago, this morning more policemen and soldiers deck our street. It's a search operation, which goes on for a couple of hours, so we can still see them from the school windows, though we try to keep the students away, more to keep them focused than anything else, as nothing special happens, apart from a very rare appearance of photographers and cameramen, here to record the numerous arrests; they say they've taken away over 70 people, some part of the extended family of students, but we don't know much more and actually in the school the topic is not encouraged at all.

After school, our integration hero Michele goes to his best friend Estiben's house, to do some Kachikel homework (Mayan language they've got in their curriculum, sort of) and really enjoy spending time with him, before our useful football match, which this time is just playing time on the street for the little ones and more competitive games for the others, which is fine as well.

Tuesday 3rd

It's the last full day for Fernanda, so Mattia can't help going down with her for the last kick-around with our kids, while Michele&Sam stay home to help Mum with the cooking, as we've got a special dinner to celebrate Evelyn's birthday (from Belgium, she teaches 2nd and 5th), Mattia's (a little in advance), Fernanda's leaving and Carlin's mother's arrival from the States for a visit. Elena's cake is a big success, of course!

Wednesday 4th

Sadness abounds in our family, as our dear Fernanda is leaving at lunch time: we'll miss her terribly, as a teacher (Sam), lovely sort-of-aunt (M&S), very dear friend (M&E) and a special person with whom to laugh aplenty and most of all share a lot, from world vision (anti-war, anti-death penalty, Bernie's fan, equality and justice fighter...) to Christian faith, from specific work in school to what really matters around here and what we could/should do about it (gang violence, rubbish, what future fort the kids, sport as a great tool, re-appropiation of community spaces). 

Why is she leaving if she cares so much about all this and was so devoted to these people? Other volunteers unfortunately didn't get it, but we do: the US is not an easy place either and when your mother and your younger brother, whom you've been supporting for years, call you to say they've lost their jobs and now they've got no money to pay rent, what would you do, knowing you can go back to your previous jobs and help them? Hopefully, one day we'll meet again (she even left PR, her "teddy bunny" with the boys, so...)

Thursday 5th

It's Michele's time to feel sick, luckily not as badly as daddy, though he's definitely worried about that; other visit to the doctor and once again the medicines do their job and he's soon OK, even for afternoon football.

But the day is Mattia's, with his 39th birthday, celebrated with a rejuvenating shave ("where are you last 10 years gone?"), plenty of singing and hugs at school (and even a couple of birthday cards and small gifts) and pizza&custard by Elena!

Friday 6th

After a normal sport morning, "integration hero" dares even further, going after school to Seño Keila (his teacher)'s house to help her with some crafts for next week's Mother's Day celebration and then to stay there for dinner and even sleeping! He gives up after dinner, citing stomach issues, but it was already a great feat, after such a short time!

Saturday 7th

The Guatemalan birthday present: one year more, one tooth less! Mattia's birthday week had been plagued by quite a bad toothache, which prevented him from enjoying food and drink much, and after days of surviving thanks to painkillers, he finally took the time to go to a dentist and... dig to the root of the problem!
While Michele&Sam play with the others, Mattia gets a good long conversation with one of his student's father: nothing special, but it helps feeling more real, more inside the community rather than just teaching in class.

In the evening, we realise it's already been a month here: it definitely flew by and it's been good!

Sunday 8th
Integration progresses well, even for Mattia, invited to play one of the several matches which take place every Sunday in the sand field, with Michele & Sam among the spectators: despite his poor technique not having improved with age or with the over-a-decade absence from the game, a shoe breaking apart mid-game and the unhelpful conditions of the very rough pitch, the old man is still passable and even appreciated for the long throw-ins, so they'll want him again.
In the afternoon, M&M&S abandon football to accept an impromptu invitation to Ricardo's birthday party (he's one of Michele's classmates and therefore Mattia's students): just pastel (cake - plus tostadas con frijoles, as beans cannot fail to appear), a couple of presents and some small talk with the family, but much appreciated and again helping us integrate!

N.B. With the first month gone, we can delight you with the news that the weekly format stops here, as you should have got a decent insight in our Guatemalan lives, so we'll post only significant events or comments. 

Big joint security operation... opposite our building!

Saturday 23rd, 6.15pm, Mattia and the boys go down to see what kind of local food is being sold on the pavement near the wall of our building; they also cross the street to keep company to a couple of co-volunteers, buying ice-cream or choco-fruta at the little shop. While they wait they comment on what happened about an hour before, when police cars and ambulances, sirens on, were rushing down to Búcaro, where some violent events must have certainly taken place.

6.30 they're all back on the roof, Michele&Sam putting on their pyjamas for a movie night.

6.45 we start hearing noises down below: from one of the rooms' windows we can see the military coming, with a couple of pick-ups letting soldiers off on the street underneath our terrace, right were we were a little while ago. 

While Elena keeps the boys in our room, Mattia and some of the others keep watching, peeping from the bottom of the window. Shots are heard, shouts keep coming to our hears.

There's a brave soldier clambering up to the roofs of the houses on the other side of the street and moving on, walking on metal sheets to the centre of the block, while his colleague are moving in from the two small streets on the two sides. More military personnel are around, struggling with local inhabitants, who don't seem to realise the seriousness of the situation (they're quite accustomed to shots and all, so they seem to keep going as if anything is normal), and finally manage to empty those two streets.

The soldier on the roof fires some warning shots, bright strips of light in the dark, and calls his mates to go in somewhere.

Police personnel are coming too, now, plenty of them. It's a major operation, nobody seems to remember any tale of something similar. There must be over 30 armed people involved, including special forces, streaming in and out of those alleys, while cars and pick-ups keep coming and going. 

More shots go off.

It's not hard to understand that they must be after gang-members involved in the shootings earlier in the afternoon, 2km down the road, and they won't get caught easily.

After some confused time, during which panic starts spreading at the news that a woman working in UPAVIM couldn't find her daughter, though everything gets solved soon (she was with a neighbour), we see a couple of young adults and a woman being carried away by the police, but it's unclear what their position was. An ambulance goes into one of the two streets along the block, but we can't understand whether there are actually wounded or dead people to take. Local women rush in the alleys, going to check if everyone is safe at home.

Things are calming down now, most of the police seem to go away, though many stop just a few blocks away; some military and police chiefs are now here, exchanging opinions. 

The locals understand the worst has passed, people start moving around again, and then a familiar cry gets heard again, signalling the end of the troubles: tamales, tamales, tamales... the shouting lady is back in business, selling her evening food, so life is back to normal, according to local standards.

The boys of course want to know what all that fuss and most of all the shots were about, so now daddy takes them to the window and then the terrace, just to show them all the military and police presence. Then back to their movie and more talk on all this will be done the next day.

The next week, talking at school over lunch with his students (especially Waldin, who lives in the very road where everything was happened, so much so that gang-members tried to seek refuge in his house, banging on the door, luckily in vain), Mattia finds out that most of the wanted men managed to run away, sliding down the ravine at the other end of the block. 

Week 4

Monday 25

Today, instead of football, Fernanda and Mattia start a basketball game and it's another great afternoon, with no rain: it's a good bonding experience to play a few of your own students, it creates unity between students of our school and other local guys, it helps Michele and Sam to integrate with people outside school hours and some sport is always good. 

Elena has her first very busy day, working a lot to organise activities, preparing meetings and training and translating material into Spanish.

Tuesday 26

Elena leads a few other volunteers in their first yoga morning session, at 6.15am, before school duties and it seemed as a good start, so most likely it will become a regular things, once or twice a week.

In the evening, it's our turn to cook community dinner and they'd like Mattia to be in charge; not only his cooking repertoire is quite limited and he doesn't like cooking, but he gets quite disheartened at the thought of having to cater for the vegetarian-vegan requirements of some of the roof gang: its take on this would be: "if you want me to cook, either you accept steak with cheese omelette on the side, or I don't do it", but Elena comes to the rescue and suggests bruschetta (ch pronounced as K, please), so that's our Italian success for the night!

Wednesday 27

He's usually the one with he toughest stomach, but this time Mattia is the first to go down with a pretty bad case of intestinal infection (followed by colic pains due to extreme dehydration) which knocks him out for a night and the next day. However, a visit to the UPAVIM clinic and a trip to the pharmacy by his caring wife saves him and on Thursday he's still weak but back to teaching. He misses football, but Elena takes the boys down, so they don't.

Thursday 28

Great Spanish and training success for Physio Elena, who delivers her first session on normal children development!

Friday 29

Maddie has proposed holding Poetry Day in our English programme and Mattia supported the idea, so today 4th, 5th and 6th grades gather for teacher's and classes presentations. Mattia stuns the audience with Hamlet's "To be or not to be" and the Jabberwocky, not for them to understand but just to acquaint them with the greats and let them experience the power of words and recitation, an aim which seems to have been achieved. 6th grade performs very well, given the low standards, by delivering with confidence and decent pronunciation the few rhyming verses they had composed and learnt with so much effort in class in the past two weeks.

Saturday 30

These days are not only Shakespeare's, as "great minds die alike", i.e. William died approximately the same date as Miguel de Cervantes, so the Centro Cultural de España en Guatemala has arranged some events on Don Quijote and after missing the best one (activities for kids, on the street) two weeks ago, as we didn't find out about the programme in time, we venture out by big bus to La Sexta again, for a screening of a 2007 animated version which seemed quite fun and interesting. Our first visit to the Centro Cultural let us appreciate the new big mural on Cervantes (with a great quote: To change the world, Sancho, that's not madness or utopia, it's justice!) and some items and boards in a small exhibition, but the movie is quite disappointing: there was an issue with the DVD they received, so they showed us and the few others (nice but very small space) a less-than-interesting adaptation from the 70s, mostly out of focus and badly digitalised. A movie is still a movie (it wasn't horrible) and an excuse for a trip out of here is always good, but the journey by two buses and the missed attraction makes the trip only half enjoyable. Luckily, an helado / ice-cream (or choco-fruta, iced-fruit covered in chocolate) at our favourite shop, just outside our gate, makes up for it and most of all the afternoon football game is a good way of finishing the day actively and positively. At night, the old ones find out that we didn't miss much, as the modern movie was definitely bad.

Sunday 1st of May

Nothing special, as given yesterday's morning outing, the usual Saturday's tasks of laundry (we are trying to do it only twice a week) and homework have been moved to today, adding some good playing time, with Lego and several card games.

Week 3

Monday 18th

Two days of training, plus a full school week and yesterday's trip seems to yield the desired effect: we wake up after 6.00am!

Now, the boys are in full uniform, as you can see in our picture gallery (April album).

Training continues, today on a new track, i.e. around three blocks just outside the UPAVIM's gate: a bit short, but with 10 laps our 2km are done; not so nice, but better than the previous two options, so probably we'll stick to this.

Tuesday 19th

We've had to wake them up! No worries, no major natural disasters on the horizon: it was only one, Sam.

Physio Elena's had another meeting, this time also with the doctor and it went well again, so things are looking interesting there.

Reading week at the school, so today all teachers dressed up for a little story with different characters: quite improvised, but it was still good, to shake things up. Profe Mattia's quite colourful Rwandan clothes worked well as el pajaro (bird) africano.

The most interesting event of the day, however, happened in the afternoon, when the 3 male lions and Fernanda went down to the nearest cancha (sport court, in this case hardcourt fitted for basketball and football) to play with kids from the school or simply from the area: we started with a very good dodge-ball game then surrendered to the pressure and moved to football. It was good fun, which turned epic when the first rain of the season came and we kept playing, until Sam let us all realise we were soaked enough to head back home. Fernanda had already had a few of these sport outings with previous volunteers, so it is good not to let the good tradition die down, as it seems as if fear and lack of organisation would otherwise prevent kids from enjoying those little and few spaces and ways of entertaining themselves healthily that they have around here. 

Wednesday 20th

Elena's growing programme now includes working with Anya (the current health volunteer) to organise simple but highly important sport breaks on Wednesdays: they take each class out for a short time to the very small patio on the second floor for simple exercises which will not only help students not get claustrophobic but also keep them fit, as they tend to get overweight and out of shape quite easily and soon, due to unhealthy eating habits and lack of daily sport activities. Anya was already doing this, but she definitely needed and appreciated a boost as to willingness, enthusiasm and new ideas.

After yesterday change, last classic training for tomorrow's run, with only a few laps of our "round-the-blocks" track: the boys are ready!

Thursday 21st

Gran Maratón, a.k.a. gran confusión!

Michele, Sam and daddy, together with Carlin&Maddie and Paula, directora of the school, reach the meeting place by bus, where they meet fewer than 10 other students from our school (including a good friend of Sam's, hence greeting hugs); there's plenty of kids, as many schools from the area are joining and some time after the expected start-time we're finally ready to go. Luckily they've split children according to age categories, but still it doesn't look well organised and it shows soon: right after the whistle, the mass start proves a wrong idea and more than a few little ones have a close encounter with the tarmac... Sam of course can't escape doom, though luckily he has a soft landing, as he only trips on others who fell before him. Michele somehow manages to jump over them and then helps Sam up and on, until daddy takes that role and the big good brother can start running to catch up; he will finish in the first ten or so, well done! Sam finished quite strongly too, once he recovered from the shock. It was even too short, just 1k, after all that training, but they both enjoyed it. Confusion still reigned supreme at the end, as nothing happened for a long time, waiting for the next two categories to end their race; the 3 lions left as late as possible, to get participation medals and/or refreshments, but school duties were calling so it was all in vain; we then walked back, to make it a complete sporting morning (and no buses passed in time, anyway), getting some snack on the way. 

Friday 22nd

Back to "normal": all awake at 5.55.

Another morning at the sport park for Sam, this time with Mummy Elena trying to explain to the useless skating instructor that maybe helping children to choose the right size of skate would help quite a bit... To Michele's delight, a second instructor showed up at the pool, so that he could join the "advanced" group and have some near-proper swimming lesson in the big pool. With Fernanda joining Elena in their stressful attempts to improve things there, Mattia had some swimming too, enjoying the challenge of the 50m long pool for those 25-30 minutes between changing-room duties.

In the afternoon, it's time for more football, again under the rain.

In the evening, the roof has guests: Jody and Douglas, an elderly couple from the States, here to visit UPAVIM's projects as buyers for the American market; they had great stories to tell, either their or  from friends (ranging from Afghanistan to Iraq and the US) and we all had plenty to share on the current world situation (they happened to be not only supporters of Palestine, but even family friends of Rachel Corrie's, one of Mattia's personal heroes), so it was a very pleasant and interesting evening and, to Uncle Giacomo's delight, or envy, Mattia and Fernanda even got to receive a Bernie doll (check pictures, again in April!)

Saturday 23

Getting worse: the day starts at 5.45.

Morning at home, then usual trip to the big bus station, but this time it gets interesting: Mummy takes the family to the big market, where she had been guided to by Fernanda a couple of days back. Not a very picturesque setting (a big open tarmac space used as loading/unloading area, with selling going on under high metal-roofed sections), but we all enjoyed the colours, scent, variety and quality of fruit, vegetable and other produce, getting back with our bags full.

On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, we terribly missed being in Clon, where sure daddy would have delighted the boys and the town organising another memorable Festival, but at least the night-time storytelling was fitting, with a kids version of Midsummer's.

Before that, big joint police-army operation in the area, but that deserves another post.

Sunday 24

5.55, these are becoming dangerous standards, back to Rwanda ways, but with no need, as nobody must be ready for any bus at 6.30! Luckily Mum's delicious pancakes can make up for anything, especially when you add local honey and strawberries (check photos, you know where!).

Like on our first Sunday, we take a bus ride to the centre and a walk on La Sexta, this time allured by the Festival Cultural; it was a good move, as we really enjoyed the well planned culture touch applied to the square, which included traditional dances on the monumental permanent stage, a modern art exhibition, spaces for chess and other games, book stalls, a wooden-box maze for kids, a workshop dedicated to art with recycled material, by mentally ill people, and more. 

We took advantage of the bigger than usual food market for lunch and then by foot and bus we went  back home, to finish cook pizza for Maria's 25th birthday: another great success for Cook Elena!

Apologies for the long posts, but we are confident soon things will become more standardised, so we won't have so much to tell per week; we should then catch up with lost time and things will be easier (read: shorter) from then on!

Photo links

Apart from the proper page, with links to all albums, we've just added a few direct links from the first two posts, so scroll down, find them (light blue) and have a look!