Day 11 - Red, White, and PURPLE

Do excuse the tardiness of this post. I still do not have internet at home, but I assure you it actually was written on the Fourth of July.

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Happy Fourth of July! As I’m sure you could guess, Guatemala does not celebrate US Independence Day, and despite the large expat population at Mayan Families, the Fourth of July was just another day of work.

The day started with more preschool computer classes with Paolo. I think that even in two weeks my Spanish has already improved. I’ve got the lesson with Paint down pat as long as the kids don’t get too crazy with what they want to draw, in which case Paolo steps in with an English translation for me if he can think of the English words.

I’ve got enough Spanish to converse between classes, but I probably sound like a child speaking because I have the option to take forever to speak correctly or speak at a normal conversational pace only using present tense. I naturally stick with the present tense option to keep the conversation flowing. Proper grammar will come with time and practice.

Today marked my last preschool science class explaining density. It definitely was my best lesson; I didn’t have to stop to ask my translator Audrey for any words. But today was also Audrey’s last day of work, and next week marks a new session with a new set of vocab words! I might have to run it through with Paolo Monday morning to make sure that even with my poor Spanish it all makes sense. Next week the students will get to build their own Cartesian Divers! The kids are excited, and I think the teachers are looking forward to getting all of the water bottles out of their classrooms and moving on to a drier lesson. The next section…DC motors!

Here's an arbitrary picture of the beautiful Guatemala to break up all these words. I certainly didn't take enough pictures this past week.

Angelica in the Education Department let me know that this evening they were getting together a group to play soccer at a nearby indoor field. I’d been trying to get in on a game since I arrived, but the games were cancelled and moved at least three times. I was very excited to have evening plans to take my mind off of the distinct lack of fireworks. Today was my first Fourth of July out of the United States, and going from good food, family, and fireworks to work and not much else was a big adjustment. So I committed to meeting them in the evening and getting in on the game. But there was a slight catch. I didn’t pack any sweatpants and “covered shoulders, covered knees” is the rule of thumb for women around here, evening while playing soccer. So after work I set out on what turned out to be the most difficult quest since I’d arrived: finding sweatpants long enough for a 5’9” chica in a town where the median height is very probably below 5’0”.

After three stores with plenty of sweatpants options had nothing near long enough for me, I decided that regardless of cost, color, material, anything, if I found a single pair of sweatpants that were long enough, I was buying them and going straight home.

So naturally the next store that I stopped in had ONE pair. One single pair of sweatpants that were the right length. And they were the most vibrant purple sweatpants I have ever seen. They are blindingly purple. As in the things around them start to look purple because the material practically oozes deep purple into the air. I would post a picture if I had one, but I didn’t want to clog my camera lens with that ridiculously thick color. And I have some pride left.

I really hesitated. I really considered continuing my search in some other store. But then I really considered how much less fun soccer would be if I didn’t have time to eat dinner beforehand, and I bought them.

I probably overpaid. I probably will not ever ever wear them once I’m back in the US. But all I needed was one pair of sweatpants for eight weeks of soccer that actually fit. And I found them. And right now I have them hidden in my suitcase, so that I don’t have to look at them, but in the end… they were so worth it.

Soccer was a blast! It was definitely my kind of game. They didn’t keep score, they didn’t even keep the same teams throughout, but every woman out there was playing as hard as she possibly could. I was the only gringa on the field, and I think that they underestimated me at first, but after stopping some pretty hard drives down the field from the other team, they started to accept that Guatemalans do not have a monopoly on good female soccer players.

The hour was over much too quickly, and the buzzer rang for the next group to take the field. I was so exhausted I could barely even speak or comprehend Spanish. My good friend Lydia even walked past her house to the start of my street because I was having so much trouble understanding the directions they were giving me for how to get home from the field.

But it was a good kind of exhausted. It was the kind of exhausted where the only energy you have left in your body is going to your face, which can’t stop smiling. It was the kind of exhausted where you are panting so hard from running that you can barely breathe, yet you spend all that precious breath laughing at yourself stumbling through Spanish sentences. It was the kind of exhausted where you forget all about the lack of fireworks on the Fourth of July, go home to a relaxing (though short) shower, and write all about it on your laptop under your covers before falling into a deep, warm, comfortable, happy…sleep.

Day 9 - Classes in Full Swing

This morning I went to the bank before work to exchange a few American dollars for quetzales. Note to future self: the bank is very particular about the bills that they will exchange. They only exchanged about half of my money for me because my other bills were slightly wrinkly, stained, or otherwise unacceptable. Though the money changers in shops along the street will usually accept bills in slightly worse condition, the bank offers the best exchange rate of 7.6Q to $1, so I suppose for as long as I’m exchanging money it’s worth the line and the bill rejection.

After the adventure at the bank, right at nine o’clock, one of the sistemas, Paolo, and I also started computer classes with the preschoolers. We took three students at a time for fifteen minute sessions and introduced them to computers, keyboards, and mice. We showed them the program Paint and used that to hone their mouse skills. By the end of each session each student had gotten to draw a few pictures of cars, flowers, houses, or stars and hopefully understood how to click and hold. Paolo was invaluable; my Spanish is not quite where it needs to be yet. Those two hours of classes just flew by, and immediately following I had my second day of preschool science classes.

Day Two of STEM classes went quickly, and I think they’re going well! In this Pana preschool “densidad” is everyone’s new favorite word. This week’s Cartesian Diver lesson is definitely still a work in progress, but even changes made from yesterday to today noticeably improved the class. My fear that the students may have trouble understanding the lessons because they are in Spanish (not their native Kaqchikel or Quiche) has been mostly erased. As long as I stick with smaller words they seem to comprehend the Spanish pretty well. Better than I do in fact! I can tell that the students are itching to start actually building the experiments, but they have to wait until next week for that. Fingers crossed that it all goes well.

I think today may hold a trip to the market for some pots and pans. After two days in the apartment our kitchen is just asking to be used, and cooking will lower food expenses significantly. The apartment is truly wonderful, and after a certain unnamed roommate accidentally locked themselves out of their room, we discovered that our apartment is also exceptionally safe. New locks, barred windows, a very comforting line of defense from burglars…or ourselves. But our landlord Santiago returned the next morning with the keys, and we all lived happily ever after with new our standard procedures for not locking ourselves out.

Now off to the market! Pray that the office internet works tomorrow; the past two days it has been functioning at…less than ideal levels. Every day is something new!

Day 7 - Moving Day!

Hey everybody! Happy Army Day!

So today entailed an early morning meeting for my online Humanitarian Engineering class. Then I savored the wifi in the hostel for as long as I could before I had to check out to move into my new place.

The apartment is great, with running water, a fridge, and a stove. It somehow seems tucked away though it’s just a short walk to the bustling streets of Pana. The commute to work is hard to beat; it takes about a minute on foot.

I think I spend at least half of each day here sighing over gorgeous views, and today was no exception.

If I wasn’t concerned about getting caught in the rain I might just sleep out on the apartment balcony every night.

The family that lives underneath us is very friendly, trumped only by their very VERY friendly dog, Puncho.

This post may come slightly delayed as I am writing it in my apartamento bonito, and there is no wifi here. Hopefully, I’ll figure out something, but hasta luego for now! My first day of teaching is tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Day 3 - Work, Old Friends, and National Holidays!

It's officially Day 3 in Panajachel!

My first two days of work have been better than I could have imagined! I was pleased to find that Mayan Families provides their long term interns with Guatemalan cell phones to use during their stay. Work is 9-5 each day with an hour for lunch. I won't officially begin teaching until next week, but there's always something around the office to do. I even have my own desk now, name tag and all! 

(...Until the desk's original occupant Terry returns in a few weeks.)

After only one day of apartment shopping with another intern, I think we found a place, and it'll be ready as soon as the paint dries! I certainly will miss my current view, but I am excited stop living out of my suitcase...s.

Though it's rainy season, it hasn't rained very much at all since I arrived. Some people that I've talked to say they prefer the rain because without it it's getting rather hot, but I really don't mind the clear view of the volcanoes.

I've already met some old friends from our trip here in May. Our first and foremost shoe shine boy Samuel even shined my boots the other day. He caught me yesterday morning in a restaurant and recognized me as a girl from the group he met in May. We chatted for a while, and then I really couldn't refuse the shine since I actually was wearing shoes that could use it. He kept asking about mi papa, Kevin. I can't seem to convince him that I was travelling with my professor and other students, not my father and siblings. We seem an unlikely family in my opinion... then again we did manage to have a lot of fun together goofing off, as siblings do.

Samuel told me that he is twelve years old. He started working as a shoe shine boy four years ago, when he was eight, and he hasn't gone to school since then. He can't be more than five feet tall, most likely from poor childhood nutrition. But he loves to play soccer, and he and the other shoe shine boys play together whenever they can and when they have a ball. He told me today that I could be their goalie for only 10 Q (about $1.28). I may have to consider it. 10 Q would be worth it to see Samuel smile.

I must away; there's work to be done tomorrow! But after that I have a long weekend to look forward to. No work on Monday; it's a national holiday! Happy Army Day everyone!

A Trip in Two Parts

May 17, 2014 - Fly to Guatemala with professor and three other Ohio State engineering students to assess several organizations to partner with for an OSU engineering service trip for Summer 2015.

June 24, 2014 - Fly to Guatemala for two month internship with Mayan Families Organization in Panajachel.

As you can imagine, a lot happened between those two dates.

Originally, my summer consisted of the usual: classes, research, and skydiving. (Ok, skydiving is not the usual, but for one credit hour I said why not!) But working extensively with Engineers for Community Service (ECOS) during Spring Semester introduced me to Professor Kevin Passino, who first suggested to me the idea of a Guatemala trip in May. He had several groups who were interested in starting service trips catering to their specific skills, and Guatemala had come up as the ideal location. The next step was to send a group to Guatemala to assess some organizations and locations there to make the potential trip(s) a success.

I jumped at the chance! My volunteer work with ECOS, WiE, and countless other groups had started me thinking on how I, as an engineer, could apply my knowledge to solve real world problems in areas that would not otherwise encounter people with engineering experience. This Guatemala trip seemed like a great opportunity to see firsthand the technological needs people living in poverty in a third world country. As my father used to tell me, "If you want to save a life, become a doctor. If you want to save the world, become an engineer."

So we, along with three other engineering students from the university, headed south for eight days to find where in Guatemala engineers could be the most useful.

The trip was quite a success. On our third day there, after struggling to find a fit with the other organizations that we had met with, we entered the Mayan Families Organization. They are a growing, well-run organization with numerous programs to help some of the poorest communities in the Lake Atitlan region. We discussed a number of programs that could strengthen and grow with the help of engineers from their education to construction departments. Though they have a strong organization, they are in constant need of more volunteers, and it was on this day that they first told us of their internship opportunities for volunteers willing to spend two or three months in Panajachel working on programs that matched their skills and interests.

When I got home - after an extensive discussion with my mother of course - I submitted an application for the internship with a strange feeling that nothing would come of this wild dream. Just a few days later, I received my acceptance email!

And that is why instead of sitting in a classroom in Columbus on Tuesday, June 24 as expected, I will be boarding a plane to Guatemala City, Guatemala. During my time in Guatemala this summer I hope to pilot a STEM Education program in Mayan Families preschools and middle schools using experiments from the STEM Education Outreach Program run by Prof Betty Lise Anderson so successfully in Columbus area schools.

I am excited to see what the future holds! For now, skydiving will just have to wait.