Half-way point...

Thanks to everyone who has left comments!!! Feel free to leave comments if you have a gmail or blogger account (it´s good know you care * sniff! *)

Man, I love Guatemala. Maybe I’ll just stay here for a year or so and decide if I want to come back to the States. (just kidding, Mom…)

Time is seriously flying now. I’m at the half-way point. In exactly 5 weeks, I’ll be home. In exactly 1.5 weeks, I’ll be presenting my findings so far to a panel of professors from both Texas State University and Universidad de San Carlos in Xela. Whew, no pressure… We’re supposed to submit a short abstract today. These are my two finalists:

1) In the words of modern philosopher Paul Simon, “how can I be sure in a world that’s constantly changing?” This is the focal challenge of primary education in the rural Maya community of Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, Guatemala, today.

2) Formal primary education in Guatemala faces challenges on global, national, and local levels. This paper briefly discusses each level and focuses on challenges in the rural Maya community of Nueva Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, Guatemala, including and especially the challenge of parental participation in primary education.

Hmm… maybe I should make sure it really was Paul Simon who wrote that song… I guess they both need a little polishing before I choose which one to submit… ;)

Well, this week I continued interviewing teachers and started interviewing parents. The problem with parents is that they weren’t warned about me in a faculty meeting before I met them. It’s pretty dang awkward to show up at someone’s house out of the blue and start asking them questions about their educational background and their involvement in their kids’ education. I think I might try a focus group – gather several parents together and get them talking in a group. That way they feel more comfortable talking – it’s not just one person and me and a notebook all staring at each other (yes, notebooks stare, I’ll have you know…). I just wonder how I’m gonna motivate parents to come… Wish me luck.

My host parents’ daughter Gladys was in town all this week during a college semester break. She’s awesome. We’ve had some good talks about career plans and childhood experiences and dumb boys and the current fashions in dental wear… we’ve had a lot of fun. This is seriously one of the most amazing families ever. I really lucked out in family placement.

Random tidbits I’ve learned this week:
*Fruit doesn’t grown in Nueva because of the cold weather

*Even on market day, you can’t buy a corte (traditional skirt) in Nueva – you have to go to Nahualá or Xela

*There are 2 kinds of buses you can (usually) catch along the Pan-American highway: Pullman buses and chicken buses. Pullman buses are like tour buses or Greyhounds with a separate seat for each passenger and plenty of space. Chicken buses are recycled school buses (seriously – some of them are still yellow and say “Such-and-such-a School District” [in English] on the side!). There are slightly padded benches with backs to them that fit about 2 people comfortably. I say comfortably because they cram a minimum of 3 onto every bench when the bus is full, and then they cram more into the aisle standing. Very uncomfortable. And chicken buses are called such not because people bring their feathered friends along with them, but because (mind you, this is just an educated guess based on observation) on a 2-lane highway, they barrel around blind curves at insane speeds while passing cars, often passing entirely into the oncoming lane; and when an oncoming vehicle approaches, it becomes a game of “chicken.” Seriously, I doubt a single atheist has left a chicken bus on a rainy day without praying at least once. OK, all of this I already knew. What I learned this week is that the drivers are very religious, too! I rode about 5 chicken buses, and all of them had several signs each above the dash saying things like “God bless this bus and its passengers,” “Jesus Christ is coming!”, “God bless my path,” “Bless my car,” and “Deliver your heart to Jesus!”

*The best way to call someone’s attention when you come to their house is to say (loudly) “Aaaa-o.”

*Little children are often very interested in what you’re writing in English in that little notebook until you translate a few sentences into Spanish for them. Then they raise a skeptical eyebrow and ask, “What good is it to write that down?”

*Little girls like to ask me if I’m married or if I have a novio (boyfriend), but they get all flustered when I wink and turn the question back on them. (“No? Good,” I say, “Boys are icky. They’ve got cooties…”) Ah, to be in 4th grade again…

*Some women breastfeed their kids until the milk dries up… even if it takes 3 years… (you’re welcome, Art. I knew you’d want to know that one…)

*Water is only available at individual residences for a few hours every other day. That’s why many houses have large cement containers they fill, then dip out of as needed. That’s also why we don’t do laundry on certain days.

And finally, I would like to express my profoundest thanks to the following for their contributions to my personal comfort here in Guatemala:

Mom – for the Chacos and travel Q-tips, TP, floss, etc… and ESPECIALLY for sending the laptop
Dad – for the sleeping bag
Mochi-chan – for the sign (you know which one…)
Zach – for the coconut soap (I smell like a new woman after every tuj…)
Dan Brown – for writing “Angels and Demons”
That bookstore in Panajachel – for carrying it in English
Pres. Grow – for the Master Teacher program, which I learned in Spanish and am still using (ha! and you probably thought I was in it just for the chocolate candy bars ;)
H. Russell Bernard – for inventing a great way of coding field notes
Whoever invented maize – call me crazy, but I can’t get enough tortillas!