Toto, I don't think we're in Upstate NY anymore

I think not.  After two really great weekends, I was prepared for another mundane beginning to the school week, and consequently was caught completely unaware by MONDAY NIGHT MARIMBA MADNESS!!  Yea you heard right- due to the arrival of a new priest in town, there was a festive gathering last night, to which we gained VIP access through invitation by Eulalia.  The news arrived in the middle of dinner, so we hurriedly finished and strapped on our dancing shoes.  We had to be rushed through the door to keep the other ne’er-do-wells from gaining entrance and were greeted by the sight of many happy couples marimbaing around in a circle.  The dance is kind of a hoppy waltz step- very simple- and the gringao were in high demand to boogie the night away.  We were especially honored by high-energy invitations to dance from some of the most heart-breakingly adorable children to grace this planet.  Before the song started you would see them start to lurk about, staking out their claim, and as soon as the first chipper notes broke the air they would make a mad dash towards us.  The fastest and luckiest would then grab onto your hands and announce (not ask) “Vamos a bailar!”  (We’re going to dance.)  It was the best thing that happened to me all day.  I jived my way around the room with these tiny people with a ridiculous grin on my face the whole time.  It was exactly what I needed, and a perfect reminder of how little it takes to be happy.  This coming after a slightly stressful evening, with the arrival of 2 new Foundation residents (Beth Neville and film-guy Chip) and quite a bit of shuffling around and room change.  Fortunately there are fabulous children in the world to remind me that all you really need in life is a good beat and rhythm in your feet.

As for the aforementioned weekend loveliness- 2 weeks ago, Chat, Angela and Fer went to Xela for a fun timez weekend, and I was bummed because I have 83 classes on Friday afternoon and thus could not join the trip.  My bad attitude was enhanced by lingering illness and a loooong day of classes.  At the end of the day I heaved a huge sigh of relief and headed back to the Foundation to slack and mope a little.  Much to my surprise I stumbled into a kitchen full of ALL 54 primero students making fruit cocktail for their home ec class.  I thought I might lose it, but then realized that the best thing to do was take a seat and enjoy the spectacle of Alejandro attempting to chop open a coconut with our bread knife.    It ended up being a beautiful weekend full of nothing more than good old-fashioned lazing around and good food.  We spent some quality time just hanging out at the ruins, ate awesome challah-bread french toast and generally enjoyed not doing much of anything.  It was good for my soul.

This weekend was slightly more active- activities included a nice hike to a far-away field where I got learned some rugby (not a skill I had anticipated acquiring in SMI) and a death-defying, xtreme-sports-challenge hike up a waterfall.  There was some rock-scaling and near-hypothermia-inducing swim involved.  Fer, Brian and I are a champion trifecta.  Despite the awe-inspiring nature of this traverse, I think my proudest achievement and high point of the weekend may in fact have been the Sunday night pizza.  It had fresh pineapple and two kinds of cheese and my best crust to date.  Please close your eyes and just contemplate this glorious gastronomic feat for a moment.

Also, it must be mentioned and sadly told to the world that Fer and I got into our first fight.  It was a lamentable occasion and we had to write it on the whiteboard for the sake of history.  It was simultaneously remarked that Chip and Brian were talking for approximately 10 hours.  Both of these events are eclipsed by the fact that I made one of the most fabulous fruit salads ever yesterday- mango, zapote, banana, papaya, watermelon and pineapple.  Who can blame Pee Wee Herman for wanting to marry such a delicious dish?

Sorry to be feeding you all this old news, rather than the fresh-off-the-press, up-to-the-minute info you were used to, but as nothing particularly noteworthy happened this week, I figure it’s a good time to catch up on the excitement of the past. When I left off, the 4 intrepid travelers (Chat, Brian, Kati and I) were preparing for our dawntastic journey to the home of Isabela in the aldea of Tiactac. Our REM-inducing behavior paid off and we were indeed able to drag ourselves out of bed at 6 in the morning to amp ourselves up with a little coffee before heading out. The sun was already up and warming us as we began the 3 hour walk with Isabela and her cousin. On our way out of town Isabela spotted two other students who joined us for the trek. Before this I hadn’t realized that Felipe and Diego were brothers or that they lived in Tiactac. But as soon as I saw them coming toward us with their identical radiant smiles I wondered how I could have missed it before.

The hike was absolutely blissful and soul-affirming. I felt happier and happier with every step of my Timberland-clad feet as we passed through sparkling open fields and cool, shady woods and broad dusty roads. Kati and I brought our cameras and let the kids borrow them to take pictures as we walked- it was so cool to see them having fun taking pictures of cows and scenery and each other. Of course all this joy and ebulliance, doesn’t mean that we weren’t exhausted by the time we arrived in Tiactac. We took plenty of ribbing and giggles from the kids about how we must be tired because we’re not used to walk. When we got to Isabela’s house, we were introduced to family, enjoyed some bread, coffee and delicious cauliflower and then sat about laconically until we got up enough energy to wander over to a grassy hill…..where we laid down on the grass and slept for about an hour. This little respite allowed us to muster the strength for another little paseo with Isabela during which she reaffirmed the fact that we indeed don’t know how to walk. That is until she saw Brian flying down the steeply sloped path in his flipflops, which forced her to admit that at least HE knows how to walk. (Si, el sabe caminar.)

We passed the rest of the day communing with the beautiful specimens of chickens living at Isabela’s house and watching Chat attempt to capture their pulchritude with his camera- especially the one we named “Legs” due to its supermodel-like gams. Isabela then showed us to the other house where we would be staying- she suggested that the “senoras” take the actual bed, while the profes share the mattress on the floor- I like how you think Isabela. After we all partook in a much-needed Chuj and closed the Sabbath with Brian, we settled in for a chilly night. It gets even colder in Tiactac than in SMI! I think I would have gotten a lot more rest if not for the fact that after laying in bed for 5 minutes I realized that I really had to pee. There is no latrine up at this house and Isabela had warned us not to walk around at night becuase there are lots of mean dogs. After some valiant attempts, it became clear that this was not a situation I could ignore….at least without some unpleasant consequences for my bunkmate Kati. It was completely pitch black in the cabin, but I remembered Chat had left a little penlight in his shoe across the room. To pump myself up for this little excursion, I told myself it would make me tougher- a real growing experience. With this motivation I sllooooowwwly crawled out of bed in the direction of Chat’s shoes. I slowly shuffled closer and closer with no real idea of where I was going….until I found myself completely disoriented, frozen in indecision in the middle of the darkness. I stayed like this for what seemed like 3 hours. It was probably about 2 minutes.  When I finally mustered the courage to reach out and hope I wouldn’t poke Chat or Brian in the face I miraculously laid grasp to Chat’s shoe and encountered the light.  What a moment of victory.  I feel I am most certainly a stronger person for this experience.  Afterwards I came back and spent most

The next day we ate breakfast and returned to the the  awe-inspiring prehistoric playground that Isabela’s hike had led us to the day before.  It was in a huge bowl surrounded by hills.  The whole area had burned out several years before and there were fallen logs aplenty to satiate our appetite for the “Floor is Lava” game.   As I careened down the slope into the valley, I saw Brian locking eyes with a tiny white fleecy sheep.  With a huge grin I continued racing down the hill to meet our new friend.  The little lamp immediately raced towards the safety of this obviously more gentle and less fearsome creature.  The little guy hung out and bleated pitifully for a while and then left us to enjoy lazing about in this magical place for the afternoon.  When we returned to Isabela’s house we consumed HUGE plates of food and then departed on our death-defying journey back to SMI standing in the back of a pick-up truck with about 10 other people.  It was exhilarating and frightening and incredibly fun.

Monday came and went as usual and then the we awoke Tuesday morning, awash in a sea of love and pica pica (confetti) for the school-wide field trip in honor of Valentines Day.  We all hiked up to a huge field about an hour and a half into the mountains, serenaded by the romantic sounds of the John Cena theme song played on repeat blasting from boomboxes carried by the kids.  Brian and I made the mistake of following a roving band of segundo students who announced at one point that they had no idea where we were and then took off, leaving us wandering and bewildered.  Luckily we were able to listen carefully for the sounds of whoops and hollers that guided us to our destination.  It was a jubilant and glorious day, filled with Frisbee, TONS of confetti being smashed on my head, soccer, limbo, jumping game and the sweet and tender gift exchange.  Every student and teacher drew the name of another person to buy a gift for and then there was a grand ceremony to present them all.  The giver and recepient stood up in front of everyone, gave their gift and then were supposed to show their deep affection through a hug.  In most cases this involved nano-second-long embraces followed by one student shoving the other out of the way.  Or in the case of firecrackers like Maria de Jesus, punching the other person in the shoulder.  There were many sentimental and thoughtful gifts, but I’m not sure if anything tops the ceramic rooster that Fernando received from Juan Santiago.  Unless of course, it’s the whole lot of peanuts and Kenyan macadamias I received from Brian, cause really, nuts are great.

Fear not! I am alive and well and this brief lapse in journal delight does not allude to an end in the beautiful blog madness. I indeed have a plethora of excuses with which to pardon my indolence. They include the fact that it was a crazy week, I have been sick and the internet connection has been dismal lately. Judge me not. I tried to start this post 2 Fridays ago, but I was in such a daze from the events of the day that I couldn’t even manage to tell my scintillating tale. This is how far I got:

“Today blew my mind a little bit. It’s Friday at the end of the long week, and I’m still trying to process just what took place. This is hindered by a foggy state owing to a lack of sufficient sleep. Last night was Natalia’s last night in San Mateo and we had to see her out in style with one last Foundation kitchen dance party”

Yea that’s it. But that day was truly jam-packed with mind-blowing occurences. As I said, it had been a late night before as we bid a fond farewell to our beloved fraulein Natalia and welcomed in our new friend and housemate, Brian. So as I entered bleary-eyed into my first class to be greeted by all of segundo bellowing at once that we had to cancel class so they could accompany Diego Ricardo(a fellow teacher), I was a bit confused. As it turns out Diego Ricardo’s great-grandmother had passed away and so the whole school was going to walk down with him to what was a sort of wake outside of the family’s house.  We processed down to the house in a not-so-solemn fashion and when we arrived a man was speaking over a megaphone system.  Each class then presented their gift of money that they had collected that morning and a representative from each said a few words.  Mostly kids were sitting around laughing and joking and eating snacks.  We weren’t sure exactly how to react or what we should be doing, so Kati and I sat with the students and drank some sweet juice nectar that Veronica generously gave to us.  After some time of awkward sipping, Eulalia pulled us over to the group of teachers who were discussing that we were going to leave because we had to attend a protest.  Uhhhhhh…..  I was unsure as to whether this was another part of the grieving process, but I soon found out that it was completely unrelated as we arrived to the centro to hear another man on a megaphone- this time speaking about an issue with the highway.  Apparently a family was refusing to knock down part of their house to make room for a new highway to come through- in response, a large group of mateanos, including all the students and Chat and I, marched up to the house to express their discontent.  We were there greeted by a strange and slightly frightening gathering of people- men with sledgehammers and other assorted weapons.  The most distressing thing was to see our favorite friendly shop-keeper, Pedro Pablo, standing there wielding a huge pike.  This is the guy who always greets me with a huge smile and asks about my “amores”….he’s still grinning wildly, but now with an enormous iron shaft in his hand.  After some more confused existence in this new location, I was very pleased to see that we were all preparing to leave and go back to the school.  I’m not sure how effective our presence there was, but I have since heard that part of the house DID in fact get knocked down that day and our students were blamed.  Methinks protest-attendance should not be a continued part of our curriculum.

We returned to the safety and comfort of the Foundation and had lunch and then proceeded with the rest of the “normal” day at Yinhatil Nab’en.  This probably means I went into the primero barn for 2 hours and  got crazy with them and acted really over-the-top and got exhuasted and loved it.  I had a lot of trouble with them at the beginning, but thanks to the divine intervention of Fer and a new behavior management plan, they have been really great lately.  We started a geography unit, so I split them up into 7 teams and each one chose a continent and now we have a Mundial competetion.  Let me tell you, those kids will do just about anything to get a little tally up for their team.  And they’re really great- I know almost all of their names now and fall in love with them a little more each day.  My heart almost burst the other day when Kati told me that they were looking at the map and could identify tons of countries and the continents.  They’re learning!!!

That night, to soothe our weary souls we engaged in a pleasant and calming game of…..putting puzzles together in the dark, while racing to be the first to finish.  Hmm, maybe that would have been fun if the other team had not taken the easiest puzzle in the world and given us a demonically-frustrating conglomeration of poorly-photographed flowers to put together.  They then proceeded to mercilessly trash-talk and degrade us as human-beings as we VALIANTLY struggled to reassemble this wretched melange of flora.  After enduring this terrible mistreatment as long as we could bear it, Chat and I retired from this extreme sport to rest up for the dawn journey to Tiactac the next morning.  Tiactac is a small aldea outside of San Mateo where a lot of the students come from.  Isabela, a very charming and sweet sexto student invited us all to come visit her there for the weekend, so on Friday night we prepared for the 7 am departure and subsequent 3 hour walk.  Details of this beautiful weekend will follow in the next installment.

Dear Residents of Foundacion Ixtatan: You’re Invited!

The Occasion: Inauguration of the New Municipal Laundry Washing Station!

Schedule of Events:

5 am: Celebratory Pyrotechnics (17 deafening firecrackers set off right below your window for your listening pleasure)

5:10 am: Reprise of aforementioned explosive symphony

5:30 am: Commencement of a delightful marimba concert blaring for the enjoyment of citizens for miles around, courtesy of a megaphone anchored to the roof of the building directly across the street. Duration of said production TBD, most likely in excess of 11 hours.

And don’t forget the intermittent caterwauling of mangy neighborhood dogs and anachronous crowing of the confused resident rooster who don’t want to be left out of the fun!

Don’t even think about attempting to sleep through this extravaganza! Believe us, you wouldn’t want to miss such a fabulous fiesta in honor of clean clothes and early-morning excitement.

Unfortunately this friendly invitation must have gotten lost in the mail, and we gringos were taken quite by surprise by the ample exuberance that greeted us in the crepuscular hours of Monday morning. Upon awaking to what she assumed were gunshots around 5 am, Angela announced “We’re living in Crazyville”. I wholeheartedly agreed, as I squinted out the window to identify the raucous culprit before realizing I didn’t have glasses or contacts on and am as blind as a bat. Perhaps Crazyville is just the right place for me.

Natalia and I have discovered the this is one of THE funniest words in the English language.  Don’t argue with me- it’s scientific fact.  Try it yourself- take any utterance containing the word eyes, replace it with the word eyeballs, and watch the humor content rise exponentially.  Works great at parties.

In other breaking news- I got paid this week and promptly purchased a haute couture Centro Comunitario forest green sweater vest.  I love it.  I think my teaching ability has dramatically increased as a direct result of this purchase.

We’re just about to head out on our Saturday hike- didn’t get started quite as early this morning, but we did have a productive kitchen table grading session.  It was like a middle school faculty lounge but with less dougnuts and mean-spirited gossip.  We’ll have to work on that.

The midnight hour was upon us, and yet we refused to retreat to the comfort of our beds in defeat.  In an unequaled show of dedication to our students, Chat and I stayed up past midnight (I know it sounds crazy), racking our brains for ideas for a fun math/music field day for the students in tercero.  After the conclusion of our rowdy game of charades last night, Chat nonchalantly mused that since half of the students would be away at a soccer tournament the next day, perhaps we should think of something creative to do with the poor saps who got stuck in class with us instead.  It’s unfortunate that we are incredibly dull and mundane individuals who had to spend the next 2 excrutiating hours racking our brains to come up with novel ideas such as “Rhythm Telephone” and “Adding Fractions Steal the Bacon”.  It is however fortunate that we are also incredibly stubborn individuals who refused to rest without creating plans that would rival stunts seen before only on “Wild and Crazy Kids”.  The only thing that could possibly rain on our learning parade would be….rain.  Lucky for us that never happens in San Mateo….

OOh I bet you were all ready for a big tragic let-down there.  But have no fear-this morning dawned beautiful, warm and sunny!!  I think I can claim that day as a success- we formed two teams which competed against each other- Chat captained Team Kaxlanh (Chicken) while I served as fearless leader of Team Yax (Green- one of about ten words I know in Chuj).  Unfortunately at the end of the day the Chickens reined victorious, but I think us Greenies really put up quite a fight- we only lost by one point.It was a glorious beginning to a marathon day for me in which I ended up teaching every period of the day- 7:30 am to 5:20 pm.  I really enjoy going into the English classes with Angela so I hung out and spoke in my native tongue for 2  classes.  After lunch I was selected for the prestigious honor of assisting Miss Natalia Silvio in instructing physical education for the afternoon.  This was of course due to my infamous skill in all things sports-related.I  I spent a good two hours jogging and panting my way up and down the soccer field, prancing about wilidy when the ball came my way and pushing around the 14-year olds in my 8th grade class.  That’ll teach them to respect me- I’m a 22-year-old gringa twice your size who plays too rough in phys ed.

The man who came to dinner- was an aged Israeli traveler, who jsut happened to be passing through San Mateo .  Yes, it’s not just the title of a humrous play, but it actually hapened- Fer and I were sitting at the kitchen table making plans yesterday when a curious gentleman poked his head through the door, and began peppering us with questions about the town.  We were very little help, but but we did offer an invitation to dinner that night.  We had no idea what a brilliant thing we had just done.  He came to dinner all right….bearing gifts beyond compare!  A whole wheel of delicious cheese upon which we gorged oursevles like the dairy-philes that we are, while he regaled us with tales of his travels and Israeli-style dodgeball  He stuck around for a little bit of the charades, but I guess he wasn’t too familiar with films such as “Attack of the Killer Tomoates” because he shortly bid us goodnight and left, leavin gus in poseession of the chesse.  What a saint.

Speaking of saints, we spent Monday affternoon in the small town of Snata Eulalia attending the graduation of our co-wroker Eulalia from the school.  The ceremony varied slightly from that which I am used to in the States.  In place of Pomp and Circumstance, they played a MIDI file of Cielito Lindo from a Casio keyboard.  The graduates’ biggest fear was probably a wardrobe malfunction rather than tripping while receiving their diploma because we all watched as they were all individually ceremoniously arrayed in their robes and capes on stage.  One common denominator that assured me of the unviersality of graduation rituals world-wide was the mind-nubming banality of the keynote speaker’s address.  I was pleasantly awakened from my speech0induced siesta however, by the sweet strains of Bryan Adam’s “Everything I Do”  drifting from the aforementioned Casio keyboard.  Following this, the crowning moment of the commencement, we were treated to a montage of appropriate of this classics such as “Twinkle Twinkle” “Ants go Marching” “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and “La Cucaracha”.  I honestly don’t know  how people restrained themselves from just breaking out into song and dance.  After we all mourned the conclusion of this blessed event, Eulalia treated all the guests to a very-much appreciated dinner of roasted chicken, rice and beans.  It was really generous and greatly enjoyed. We were informed that the Feria of Santa Eulalia is coming up this weekend, so we have made plans to travel the exhuasting hour and a half there to join in more feasting, parade-viewing and dancing!