Breakfast was fresh fruit and french toast. Weather in the morning today was cloudy with a slight drizze in the morning. Drizzles make me nervous because I didn’t bring an umbrella.
One thing I noticed out and about is how there are guards/police everywhere. OK, not everywhere, but in many places – but especially (and for good reason) in front of most, if not all, banks and ATMs.
Lunch was super yummy… whatever it was… the “pancakes” were amazing – not sure what was inside.
At the childcare, the kids just crack up when they say my name. Maybe that’s all you need to do – show up with some weird, uncommon name. Kids are so simple.
I didn’t get to teach any Japanese today. But as promised, Lesvi asked me to help the kids with the computers. In the beginning, she was trying to tell me what she’d like for me to do on the computers with the girls (ages 5-9) she selected. She repeated herself about 8 times, and I just could not understand what she was asking me to do. Then I turned around towards Dorothy and Noga at the table, about 30 feet away, raised my hands, and said “Ayudame!” as Dora the Explorer would say – to ask for help with translating what Lesvi was asking me to do. Dorothy (who is less fluent than Noga) came over, and after listening to Lesvi, looked partially confused and told me Lesvi was asking me to have the girls read up on some facts on Guatemala. So, my first reaction was to go to Wikipedia – not thinking the kids were only 5-9. I had them reading the first few paragraphs, until I realized they were getting bored. Then, I had a not-so-brilliant idea to check out code.org thinking – hey, that’ll be fun for them – and was excited to see I could make it display in Spanish. But once I had one girl trying it out, it dawned on me that they were way too young. Knowing they just needed something colorful to get their attention, I quickly turned them onto Disney Latino, and then saw them get excited – calling out different television characters they knew. I had them playing on Disney Jr games – and then they all got stuck playing different games. The boys later saw what they were doing and crowded around us and wanted to play also, but Lesvi told them that their turn will be tomorrow.
The computers they had were really slow. 4 laptops (1 was a netbook), 1 desktop (which I didn’t use) and pretty outdated. One had a broken/missing power button (needed to stick a pen into the hole to turn it on/off). One didn’t have working sound. Only 3 of them had mice. I asked Lesvi’s daughter, Fabiola (16), where they got the computers from, and she asked her father, who said they were all donated from Canada (through Maximo Nivel) and two were donated from friends. This is where I (geekily) thought Chromebooks would be perfect.
A few of the girls are obsessed with playing with long(er) hairs of the volunteers (Noga in the picture). It’s cute to watch them do that.
The kids are also required to wash their own plates and cups after eating. I’m actually quite impressed with how well behaved these kids are – especially the girls.
The owners (Lesvi and Tino) had to leave early (around 3pm) to go see someone at the hospital. At the end of the day, as the kids started to leave, the kids run around saying “adios/hasta manana” and giving hugs to the adults (volunteers, Lesvi, Tino, Fabiola, etc) – and it was nice. The kids seem to be warming up to me. The volunteers stayed until around 4:30pm when most of the kids were gone. Fabiola told us she can handle the remaining kids for the day.
We had learned previously – and I found an English article on this - that the childcare facility was going to be rebuilt to handle more children (and probably not look like a back yard with coverings). The number of children has doubled over 2 years, and there is a high demand for what they are doing – from families/children in poverty. Their construction is supposed to begin in January, and Tino is supposed to handle hiring people to help him with the construction, while they try to collect funds for the project.
Today, I learned more about my “coworkers”:
Dorothy (28 - guessed my age at 32) was born and raised in Tennessee, went to UGA, quit her job that she hated in Atlanta as a bookkeeper, moved (back) to Memphis, Tennessee, and a week later, came to Guatemala for a month. First two weeks, she took 2-hour daily Spanish classes and traveled the rest of the day, and the 2nd two weeks, she is volunteering at the childcare – this is her last week. She wanted to go somewhere in Central America – she had already been to some other countries including Costa Rica and Nicaragua previously – and, similar to me, wanted to do something more “personal/impactful” than Habitat for Humanity – which were 2-week projects for the same price as the 4-week project she is currently doing.
Noga (19) from Israel, after this trip (ending in 2 weeks), is going to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Peru for 1 month each – mostly to volunteer. She’s going alone, because none of her friends and boyfriend were interested, or’ had the money to do so. Her trip is being completely funded by her father. She had “married and divorced” her “10 years older” boyfriend – married just to not have to go into the army. Interesting. And she has terrible memory – even worse than me – that’s pretty scary.
Lesvi’s daughter Fabiola (16) knows a decent amount of English (she helped me a few times) because she is learning English at Maximo Nivel to study Tourism. It seems like many Guatemalans try to learn English to become Tour Guides.
After the bus ride back into Antigua, Dorothy, Noga, and I went through the supply closet at Maximo Nivel, where you can check out many things – including books, games, arts & crafts, etc. We checked out Twister and Junior Pictionary, and photocopied some word search puzzles, drawings for coloring, and sticks to glue the drawings on for tomorrow.
I had to stick around the Maximo Nivel office because I had to call my father (thank you Google for free VOIP long distance calls via Google Voice!) who thought I got a new GF and ran away somewhere because I was not replying to emails fast enough. When I explained to him where I was, he was not understanding of why I did this trip. Obviously, as I told him, that was one of the reasons why I didn’t mention it to him – another reason being I didn’t want to worry my mother, who worries too much about everything.
During another yummy dinner (some kinda soup, ham sandwich, and cucumbers/onions), a new person arrived. An older lady named Sue from Alberta, Canada. She works as a “wildfire lookout” so she only has to work 5.5 months out of the year, and can go some place warm during the winter. This is her 4th time in Guatemala, and had chosen it initially as a recommendation from one of her friends as a very cheap place to go learn Spanish.
The housemates and Olga poked fun of me taking pictures of the food. The Canadians thought it was quite odd, while Chelsea commented it’s quite common and normal for people in the US. I had to explain to everyone it was for a blog.
I also learned that Dennis (older man from Toronto) came here to learn Spanish because it’s the most affordable he can find, even compared to Costa Rica and Mexico. He pays US$5/hr for private lessons. My Spanish lessons through Maximo Nivel costs US$10/hr for private lessons, but we assumed Maximo Nivel gets a US$5 cut.
Chelsea (31 from DC, although born/raised in Los Angeles) is half-Irish (Mother – who “only likes Asian men”) and half-Pilipino (Father) is here to study Spanish for 3 weeks for 7hrs/day in private lessons. In the summer when she was last here, she took the same full-day private lessons for 4 weeks – and that’s how she’s the most fluent of everyone I’ve known so far. She’s also definitely the most intelligent of the bunch as well - she’s like a walking encyclopedia – but she’s quite humble about it.
It’s funny that the conversations at lunch and dinner almost always starts out in English until Olga walks up and says “en Espanol” and everyone switches to Spanish – until about 10-15 minutes later, it starts to break apart and everything goes back to English.
Being “off the grid” has been partly stressful – but I realized the worst part is not being able to look up something – and somewhat bad that I can’t reply to emails quickly enough. I realize it’s probably something good to get used to. My current patterns seems to be settling on “Internet access” (at Maximo Nivel) between 10am-12pm (laptop) – this may become 11am-12pm next week as I plan on increasing to 2 hour lessons - and between 6pm-6:30pm (phone only) – since I have my Spanish lessons from 9-10am, lunch at 12:30pm, I need to go to the bus stop for the volunteer work at 1pm, and I am back around 6pm. The days have been busy.
Pictures of the courtyard and the classrooms around it at Maximo Nivel:
Some more beautiful pictures from around Antigua:
Sandra, my Spanish teacher, asked me to practice/study before tomorrow – but honestly, I am/was so tired, I passed out this night before being able to study much. I feel like I am getting more tired every day – but at least the volunteer work seems to be going well so far.
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