Here, There and Everywhere: May 2010

Last night I made dinner for my whole family, and I used only local ingredients except for one thing: soy sauce. I cooked a stir-fry dish with tons of vegetables served over rice and, of course, tortillas. When I told them I had never in my life eaten stir-fry with tortillas they gazed at me with wide eyes and open mouths for at least 15 seconds, then they began to laugh and giggle. I told them that we, in the US, eat a meal with a lot of rice, bread, pasta, potatoes, or tortillas, we usually don’t combine more than one of those starches in the same meal. They asked me a few times, “so, if you eat potatoes, you don’t eat tortillas?” I told them that not everybody does this all the time, but it’s healthier to limit your intake of complex carbohydrates. They thought it was the strangest thing not to eat tortillas with every meal. Many times a week they ask me, “in your country, do the people make their tortillas out of corn or flour?” I have responded multiple times that we have both types, but people buy them in the stores and they are usually made by a machine, not hand-made. “And in your country, everybody has their own land where they farm maíz?” No, some people have their own vegetable garden, but most people buy their fruits and veggies in a store or market, and we don’t make our own tortillas so we don’t farm maíz. “And, in your country, the people go to the molino or do they grind their maíz by hand?” (The molino is the machine that grinds the maíz into masa, tortilla dough.) Well, we don’t have molinos because people don’t farm their own maíz nor do they make their own tortillas. We only eat tortillas once or twice a week. That’s the point in the conversation when I get laughed at.

Everybody tried my stir-fry food and they said they liked it. I used broccoli, red bell peppers, onions, green beans, celery, radishes, garlic, and a little cilantro. They all commented that it was such a different dish because it had so many veggies, but that it tasted good and seemed very healthy and easy to make. The mom was even asking me about other veggies you could possibly add and I told her you could use whatever you wanted in whatever quantities you like. I just happen to like and have access to these veggies so I used them. I also told her that whatever I have left over the following morning I’ll just scramble together with an egg or two for breakfast. She thought that was pretty creative. (I did have my eggs this morning with veggie leftovers, served with avocado on toasted bread. It was delicious.) Okay, something I have almost always done with my meals: calculate the cost per person. Broccoli – 2, pepper – 2, onion and green beans – 1, celery – 3, radishes – 1, garlic and cilantro – negligible, rice – 2, soy sauce – 2 (and I’m overestimating all the costs that I’m not exactly sure of). Total: Q13, total number of persons: 5, cost per person: Q3 ($0.35) for a filling, nutritious dinner with leftovers.

Entrepreneurship

Sunday 5.2.2010

My counterpart is obsessed with entrepreneurship. He’s always thinking of new career paths and courses he can create for the students at the institute to give them better hands-on practice of running their own business for when the graduate. He, along with his wife María and another relative Yobani (I’m not really sure if it’s a brother or nephew) are taking classes at the Universidad de San Carlos, Nebaj. The University of San Carlos has branches all over Guatemala, and in Nebaj, a 40 minute car ride away, they attend classes from 8am-3pm every Sunday for three years (just about every Sunday that is). I’m not exactly sure what their degrees will be in, but it seems like in Guatemala if you just have a degree period you are well above the rest. The title “licensiado(a)” is like the title “Dr.” but for one with a BA or BS and it comes with a lot of respect. When I was introduced to my town I was presented as “la Licensiada Katerina” and whenever I tell people that I’m not in school right now, that I’ve already gotten my degree, I feel like they look at me with different eyes. School is not a huge thing here in Guatemala. Here’s how it works:

Primario – 6 years of school, you can start at age 5 or 6 or anytime after that. This means that there are students in primario between 5 and 15 years of age. This is supposedly required for all youngsters in Guatemala, however, many children have to work to help their families and many often don’t finish or even begin primario. The government pays the salaries of the teachers in primario because 1: the teachers don’t need as complex a credential to teach primario therefore all are legitimately certified and so the school is equally certified. 2: primario is required by the state so the state has a responsibility to take care of it. In our school we have 145 +/- students in primario, and all of these students come from our town.

Basico – 3 years of school, which you begin after you finish primario. There are students in basico from 10-18 years of age. This is not required in the country of Guatemala, and for this reason many students never begin basico. Also, the government is not paying the salaries of the basico teachers because they are actually teaching illegally. The rule is you have to have a “diversificado” certificate to teach primario and a licenciada to teach basico. Nearly none of our teachers have their BA yet so the government won’t recognize the basico section as legitimate. In our school we have about 60 students in basico, only half of which come from our town. The rest come from afar and they are housed and fed in dorms at the institute.

Diversificado: Magisterio – 3 years of school which you begin after completing basico. This degree will allow you to teach at the primario level. There are other types of diversificado degrees; the one that my counterpart wants to start is a degree in “ecoagronomía”, eco-agriculture, which I’m really excited about. It combines everything I’m interested in and have experience in. I can provide the eco-part, he provides the business-part, and the agriculture part comes from….well, I guess we’ll figure that out. We have about 30 students in the Magisterio program, about 20 of which come from afar and stay at the institute and 10 or so come from this town.

These are the programs we offer at the institute, and my counterpart wants to add more. In one of the courses he is taking at the University they had a project to think about, research, and present a career path they were interested in. He chose “ecoagronomía” as a path that we could make available to the students after finishing their studies here at the institute. We are both thinking very positively about this because we already have so many of the resources available; however it’s going to be a lot of paperwork, work, and time before it can actually get started. One of the big reasons I think this is a good idea for the community, students, and myself is that it combines needs with wants, health, interests, and sustainability. Agriculture is the way of life for most Guatemalans, and especially those that live in rural villages like they do here. But, as I described in my entry about my science charla, agriculture here is monoculture which is not healthy for the soils and is not useful in the long run for the people who work the land. Also, all the children here learn how to work the field from their parents, but none learn how to best manage a business if they are going to end up selling any of their product. They are not taught to project long-term goals, form plans, do cost-benefit analyses, or really think at all. They just plant the same crops their ancestors planted because that’s all they know how to do. I think training and a career path in sustainable agriculture is perfect, and it’s something I’d love to learn more about. Luckily, in Guatemala one doesn’t really have to know anything about the subject they’re teaching – they just have to know how to do research. I may find out in another 6 months that I’ll be teaching various courses in agriculture.

Photos: Tour of My Site Part 1

Sunday 5.2.10

I'd like to take you all on a little photo-tour of my site. There is one main road that you take from Nebaj, the closest larger municipality, through my town to the next municipality called Chajul. This is the road coming from Nebaj going towards Chajul, heading roughly NE.

This is the avocado tree that I drool over each time I pass it. It is found on the right hand side of the road just before you get to the entrance to the institute (my school).

The sign to the entrance to the institute.

Everyday I walk down this ramp to go to the school and my office. Other frequenters of this road include: men and children carrying wood for their stoves, children and dogs herding cattle or sheep or goats, horses carrying wood to bring to the carpenter's shop on campus, and various other people just passing through.

View from halfway down the ramp, off to the left, are a bunch of classrooms, the basketball/soccer court (whose hoops are actually quite short), and the building on the right is the boys' dormitory.

View from almost all the way down the ramp, off to the left is the cafeteria, other classrooms, and the girls' dormitory. Out of sight to the left is a greenhouse and a multi-purpose room. Straight ahead hidden is the "hotelito" where tourists are housed, the office, and a couple small gardens that the children tend to.

One of the gardens where they are planting raddishes and some type of lettuce. They dug trenches in geometric shapes so they could count this as part of their math class. I taught them the words for square, rectangle, triangle, and circle in english so it could count for their english class also.

The hotelito has four private rooms fully furnished with private bathrooms and a kitchen common to all four rooms. However, there is usually no water during the daytime so I've been trying to explain to them how they can't host tourists until they figure out a solution for this problem. They think it's important to have TVs in all the rooms. I say water first.

This is another garden of raddishes started by a different classroom.

Our office. Usually there are 3 of us working in there full-time, but students and other members of the organization filter in and out throughout the day.

The greenhouse where they have started planting chili peppers and a few tomatoes.

The building on the left has a "comedor" or cafeteria on the bottom floor and classrooms and a large sewing room on the top floor. The middle building has more lodging for visitors on the bottom floor, and on the top floor is the computer classroom, library, and music clasroom. The building on the left is the girls' dormitory. Below is an area where they want to try and farm fish.

This is the inside of the multi-purpose room, which was completely filled with chairs and desks and students during my charla last week.

A mural on the outside of the multi-purpose room

The downstairs view of the main building complex and courtyard. Beyond the building on the left is the kitchen and the panederia, the bread-making building.

The view of a meadow from the main floor

Returning on the main road, the view continuing on towards the main part of town

All the families, or almost all, have their own "terranos" or terrains, where they farm their corn and beans. This is a small terrano on my walk today

This is another small farm that also has potatoes

Almost to the intersection of the two main roads. The yellow building is where they sell the things made at the institute (furtninture and woven goods). The pink building up top belongs to my counterpart and is where he and his wife and daughter lived while they were building the house we live in now. The pink house is right now unoccupied and also without electricity. The white building is, obviousy, a church. Catholic, where my family attends mass every Sunday.

Facing the opposite direction; the road on the left is where I came from, the road on the right is the direction I'm going.

The store on the corner. Managed by one of the aunts of the family who also live in the same building. I buy sodas, cookies, beans, rice, sugar, and not much else there because they just don't carry much stuff. However, they have more selection than any other store in town (of which there are 5-6).

Continuing down this road toward the soccer field. It is said in Guatemala that a man or woman never goes to work in the field without his/her hoe and machete.

This is one of the 4 Evangelical churches in town that blesses me with its music for the majority of the day.

One of the friends I encounter daily on my walks

On the right: a house in the process of being built. In the street: lots of trash.

One of the side-streets. There are only two roads here that are suitable for cars, the rest are all foot paths that get washed out daily with our afternoon thundershowers.

Photos: Tour of My Site Part 2

Continued from my walk toward the soccer field. You can see another little road running parallel to the one I'm on off there in the distance. Also just a foot path

The house of my counterpart's mom and dad and some of their other relatives. They have a little store where they sell sodas and cookies and sweets, but not much. There are also always and I mean always people there. It seems to be the hangout of all the young people in this family.

There's a creek that runs perpendicular to the road I'm on right before you get to the soccer field. It's a popular place to graze your livestock.

Soccer field

Basketball courts in the distance, and the big building on the left I believe is another school.

The wood house on the left belongs to my counterpart's brother. It has a dirt floor and is incredibly cold, otherwise I'd like to live in it. Actually the dirt floor I wouldn't mind. The cold, very much so.

A little ways past the wooden house is a path that takes you to this green house at the top of the hill. This is the house I covet, but I don't know if Peace Corps regulations will be okay with me renting it. It's not within 50 meters of a neighbor (less than 100 though, maybe they'll make an exception...)

Another neighbor. If happy cows come from California, than angry cows come from Guatemala. This bull does not look happy.

My dream-house.

An unfinished addition. This is where I plan to keep my chickens.

The view to the South-East from the green house

View to the South-West

A couple more friends

Back here at the intersectin, now I'm following the original road straight up towards the Church.

The building where we sell our stuff, and on the top floor lives the aunt and uncle and their kids.

A young corn plant

From the Catholic church I can see:

1) The parking lot where the micrubuses wait to take you to Nebaj, the municipal salon, and the house on the left is where we grind the corn to make masa, or tortilla dough

2) The church in the foreground, and my house in the very back - the white one that's two stories

3) The house without electricity where my counterpart's family used to live

4) Almost all of the town. The road to the left is where I started the tour, the road to the right takes you to the soccer field. On the very very leftest of the photo you can see a few specs of white: that's the institute.