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So I let that last post stay up for awhile as I don’t think I’m gonna be able to top it any time soon. However, the last month and a half or so of “post-trauma” have been busy and really rewarding, so here’s the story. I finished my first school year, I worked some more medical missions and it´s harvest time for corn on the cooperative.
With my schools, this last month has been pretty fun as we harvested the gardens and I got to work with the kids showing them how to cook the veggies. More importantly however, one of my schools won a prize for best school garden in Alta Verapaz and third best on the national level. As such, the Ministry of Agriculture lent us a bus to take all the kids to Salamá, the capital of Baja Verapaz. Most of the kids had never left their village, so just getting a ride out was a big deal for them. At the ceremony, they also got some prizes such as wheel-barrows and hoes—not terribly exciting, but the spectacle of watching the kids out of their element getting this kind of attention was hilarious. The all got dressed up and when they were formally recognized they had to get up and sing some school songs. They started singing in front of the whole audience at a just-barely audible level. The kids in the front row were terrified and kept turning around while everyone else just kind of looked down. Most people in the audience kindly smiled while I was busy laughing my ass off and taking pictures. Besides the stage fright, they all seemed to love it and I got a real kick out of just witnessing the whole spectacle.
After the ceremony, I spent the rest of the week running around with the ag. trainees who were up in Coban for a field-based training with me. They worked with some of my schools practicing lesson plans, working in family gardens, playing soccer etc..it was a blast.
Since the trainees visit, the school year ended, so I’ve got some more time than usual on my hands. This past week, I ran around a couple weeks translating for some Canadian doctors. Monday, we drove way out to some remote villages in Northern Alta Verapaz and Tuesday we worked in the Polochic Valley south of Coban. Both places were fairly remote, so we got to see patients who rarely get much medical attention. We worked straight from about 7 to 5 with no more than a 10-minute break for lunch. Each day, I sat with a doctor and translated either directly to the patient or to a Pokomchi or Q’eqchi translator. I translated for a few patients in Q’eqchi, but my vocab is small and mostly limited to agriculture, so answers to questions like “Describe your menstrual cycle for the past 3 months” blew right over me. The patient lines were out the door, so the days were long and totally exhausting. We saw all kinds of ailments from hernias and prolapsed uteruses to lipomas and a couple depressing cases of terminal cancer. With these missions, most people walk out better than how they came in, so every now and then, it’s good to work in something that sees immediate results.
Besides the medical missions and everything else, I’ve been spending a lot of time with families on the coop outside of work. Right now is the corn harvest, so most people are busy with that and love to invite Marsha and myself along. It’s an all day affair of breaking down corn stalks and hauling around big gunny sacks of the ears. Between the work, we just joke around and eat a ton of tortillas and tamales. With the end of the school year there’s also been a lot of graduation parties and even some weddings. Yesterday, I started with a wedding at nine, the reception at noon and then a graduation party in the afternoon. Overall, I think I racked up about 4 hours of Marimba dancing.
These activities are so much fun. Compared to where I was a year ago, I’m so much more comfortable around everyone. It used to be that I was too worried about offending someone’s cultural sensibilities and didn’t know enough people to feel at ease. At this point, I know most everyone pretty well, so it’s really fulfilling to be able to participate in the events and just hang out all day.
From here, I’ve got about a month and a half more before my trip home for Christmas. I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am for that. Till then, my biggest event is the Shakira concert I´m headed to this weekend.
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So I let that last post stay up for awhile as I don’t think I’m gonna be able to top it any time soon. However, the last month and a half or so of “post-trauma” have been busy and really rewarding, so here’s the story. I finished my first school year, I worked some more medical missions and it´s harvest time for corn on the cooperative.
With my schools, this last month has been pretty fun as we harvested the gardens and I got to work with the kids showing them how to cook the veggies. More importantly however, one of my schools won a prize for best school garden in Alta Verapaz and third best on the national level. As such, the Ministry of Agriculture lent us a bus to take all the kids to Salamá, the capital of Baja Verapaz. Most of the kids had never left their village, so just getting a ride out was a big deal for them. At the ceremony, they also got some prizes such as wheel-barrows and hoes—not terribly exciting, but the spectacle of watching the kids out of their element getting this kind of attention was hilarious. The all got dressed up and when they were formally recognized they had to get up and sing some school songs. They started singing in front of the whole audience at a just-barely audible level. The kids in the front row were terrified and kept turning around while everyone else just kind of looked down. Most people in the audience kindly smiled while I was busy laughing my ass off and taking pictures. Besides the stage fright, they all seemed to love it and I got a real kick out of just witnessing the whole spectacle.
After the ceremony, I spent the rest of the week running around with the ag. trainees who were up in Coban for a field-based training with me. They worked with some of my schools practicing lesson plans, working in family gardens, playing soccer etc..it was a blast.
Since the trainees visit, the school year ended, so I’ve got some more time than usual on my hands. This past week, I ran around a couple weeks translating for some Canadian doctors. Monday, we drove way out to some remote villages in Northern Alta Verapaz and Tuesday we worked in the Polochic Valley south of Coban. Both places were fairly remote, so we got to see patients who rarely get much medical attention. We worked straight from about 7 to 5 with no more than a 10-minute break for lunch. Each day, I sat with a doctor and translated either directly to the patient or to a Pokomchi or Q’eqchi translator. I translated for a few patients in Q’eqchi, but my vocab is small and mostly limited to agriculture, so answers to questions like “Describe your menstrual cycle for the past 3 months” blew right over me. The patient lines were out the door, so the days were long and totally exhausting. We saw all kinds of ailments from hernias and prolapsed uteruses to lipomas and a couple depressing cases of terminal cancer. With these missions, most people walk out better than how they came in, so every now and then, it’s good to work in something that sees immediate results.
Besides the medical missions and everything else, I’ve been spending a lot of time with families on the coop outside of work. Right now is the corn harvest, so most people are busy with that and love to invite Marsha and myself along. It’s an all day affair of breaking down corn stalks and hauling around big gunny sacks of the ears. Between the work, we just joke around and eat a ton of tortillas and tamales. With the end of the school year there’s also been a lot of graduation parties and even some weddings. Yesterday, I started with a wedding at nine, the reception at noon and then a graduation party in the afternoon. Overall, I think I racked up about 4 hours of Marimba dancing.
These activities are so much fun. Compared to where I was a year ago, I’m so much more comfortable around everyone. It used to be that I was too worried about offending someone’s cultural sensibilities and didn’t know enough people to feel at ease. At this point, I know most everyone pretty well, so it’s really fulfilling to be able to participate in the events and just hang out all day.
From here, I’ve got about a month and a half more before my trip home for Christmas. I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am for that. Till then, my biggest event is the Shakira concert I´m headed to this weekend.
