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, or 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 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 all the four of us for lunch at a couple of families' places and took 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 completely like it. 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.