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

In accordance with the strict goals we layed out for April, great festivities did indeed ensue in celebration of the auspicious trifecta of birthdays that the month contained.  Like my thrilling tales of Easter vacation, this is now very old news, but as a birthday-phile, I think the occasion warrants reporting, despite the fact that it is long since past.  Especially since the 23rd anniversary of my birth was such a special and unforgettable day thanks to thoughtful, wonderful friends and students with huge hearts and even huger supplies of energy.

The day started with a morning trip to the market, as every Thursday does for Chat and I.  This is a ritual we highly enjoy, as we face a barrage of determined San Mateo women ready to use any means necessary to obtain the last avocado.  In our efforts to provide nutritious fruits and vegetables for the Foundation family we risk life and limb as we are chucked into baskets of tomatoes, castigated for not having small bills to pay with, and consistently giggled at as we are bumped and bustled by women half our height and three times our age.  It’s a delicious challenge, and well worth it as we stand surrounded by the spoils of our expedition and sip rice drink at the end of the shopping trip.  There are several stands that sell a very sweet, milky rice drink at the market, but we are loyal customers at one owned by the family of some of our students and the royal throne of the Rice Queen, who we are convinced brings in tanker trucks of the delicious nectar every morning to meet the demands of the throngs of subjects who come begging for her wares.

So, a particularly nice market trip began my day on April 19th, but if you can believe it, that wasn’t even the best part of the day!  I went to school and was besieged by sweet birthday greetings from the kids all day.  The casanovas of tercero even stopped throwing desks and notebooks at each other long enough to present me with some wild roses.  A chorus of catcalls and whistles commenced when I discovered a ring hidden in one of the roses from Francisco “Romeo” Eleazar.  Oh those charmers- is it any wonder Mary Beth fell under the spell of their romanctic enterprises and perfectly-gelled hair?

Brian also commisioned all of Segundo to serenade me with Happy Birthday as I passed their classroom.  This was sung in delightfully-accented, but clearly intelligible English and was a very cute surprise.  But wait, not even this was the crowning moment of the day!

That afternoon, the long-awaited, highly-anticipated, tri-birthday, all-school fiesta finally came to pass.  To celebrate the happy existence of Fernando, Chat and I (all April babies) we brought vast quantities of sugary treats and music up to the primero barn (classroom) where all 150 students were patiently waiting.  And by patiently waiting I mean jumping out of their seats every 3 seconds, screaming We Want Cake!  The cake was a beautiful pink and white, frosting-rose-covered confection worthy of any 8-year-old’s birthday dreams.  It was purchased at Chaz Chaz, the finest (and only) restaurant in town.  Sadly, we realized we had not thought to purchase plates or napkins for serving, so as someone ran out to obtain the necessary party supplies, we pacified the restless crowd with cookies, lollipops, sweet bread and watermelon.  Finally the napkins arrived, the suprisingly-tasty cake was served all around, and the party was an overwhelming success.  Almost….   Despite the conclusion of the commestible portion of the party, all the students were still seated in the tiny desks, looking slightly uncomfortable and awkward.  No one was dancing!  Another disappointing reminder that it’s like pulling teeth to get kids to dance in public around here.  I don’t think it’s a social taboo, because marimba dancing is a big part of the culture.  They always claim it’s because they don’t know how to dance, despite my assertions that you can just do whatever you feel like.  Unconvinced, they usually try to bully us goofy gringos into getting out there and dancing while they all form a circle around and gawk.   On this day however, this awkwardness would not stand, and we finally resorted to grabbing students one by one out onto the floor to dance with us until they squirmed around and we had to rope another one in.

Our party also included a very sweet presentation of gifts and cards from several of the classes, which was unexpected and very generous and really appreciated by all three of us.

The day concluded with a fabulous culinary event a la Brian.  After dinner we enjoyed more cake and a viewing of that shining jewel of the Disney collection, “The Little Mermaid”.  What more could a 23-year-old girl ask for?

in a faroff place, known as Lago Atitlan, I spent a magical week of vacation and returned home so enchanted by its spell that I fell into a deep, eternal sleep which thusly prevented me from attending to the sacred duties of internet record-keeping in the form of my blog. It was only in recent days, through a stroke of fantastical luck that a strange Mayan beggar woman presented herself at the door of the Foundation, asking for food and shelter for the night. Just as my tragically unromantic housemates were about to turn her away, she presented a miniature carved jaguar of entrancingly luminous black stone as payment that greatly intrigued the three youths. They invited her in for dinner, and after taking a second look at the small carving, decided it was very shiny, but not all that interesting after all. They decided to store it away in the spare room for safekeeping- which just happened to also be the place where I had lain slumbering all these many long months. As they carelessly tossed the precious amulet onto the bed with my lifeless form, it happened to graze my pale cheek, upon which I immediately sprung from the bed, full of vim and vigor as if I had just enjoyed an afternoon siesta. We then proceeded to have an all-out reggaeton kitchen dance party with the old Mayan crone (who does a pretty mean booty-shake) and we all lived happily ever after and I have returned to my blogging duties.

OK, so maybe it didn’t happen exactly like that. But is it not a touch more scinitillating than reading my apologies once again for being busy and lazy and neglecting to update since April? I do beg a thousand forgivenesses for this, and hope that this is the beginning of a new era.

Atitlan truly was magical and I can’t wait to make a second journey there with the padres when they stop here on their grand central-american tour in August. While in Atitlan for the week, Fer, Brian and I enjoyed beautiful weather, swimming, kayaking, horseback-riding, yummy fish dinners, and an amazing view from the balcony of our hotel room which overlooked the lake. We stayed in San Pedro which is across the lake from the more well-known tourist destination of Panajachel. We got there by crossing the lake in a zooming motor boat, which reminded me of summers on Keuka Lake. San Pedro is a bustling little enclave for hippies and backpackers and so they had a lot of delicious vegetarian and ethnic cuisine in addition to the fabulous fresh fish from the lake. I indulged in sweet mangoes and fresh licuadoes (fruit smoothies made with your choice of fantastic produce) daily, and sometimes even woke up early enough to see the sun rise over the lake. We got to see the Semana Celebrations which included parades of people carrying vast quantities of bananas, construction of posts over the street with flowers and fruits hanging from them and the beautiful alfombras (carpets) that are created on the street from flowers, plants, seeds and pine needles. The week also included a jaunt over to Antigua with Brian to celebrate Passover with a friend of his from Israel…and approximately 200 other Jewish travelers. Brian and Pesach both said it was the strangest Seder meal they had ever been to, and although I have nothing to compare it with, it seemed to be somewhat other than the normal way to celebrate the holiday. It was a great experience nonetheless and something that I was really grateful to be able to share with Brian.

In the end, I was very saddened to leave Atitlan, especially during the arduous journey back to San Mateo that followed. As it was Easter weekend, transportation was very scarce, and after an already long trip I arrived to Huehue to find the bus terminal abandonded. As Huehue is still a 5 hour journey from San Mateo, my mood was less than jubilant as I slumped on a bunch with my huge backpack, desperately hoping a micro would be headed that way. I finally discovered to my great pleasure that I could at least get part of the way there on a micro that was leaving. This was good news, because although I could have stayed in Huehue, I had specifically left a day early from Atitlan so I could be in San Mateo for Easter Sunday. So I took this micro (it’s like a small conversion van) to Santa Eulalia, all the time holding out some small hope that I could miraculously arrive at home sweet home that evening. This hope was briefly dashed upon arriving to our destination when I saw that once again there were no vehicles headed to my destination. I was glumly considering my options when my spark of hope was unexpectedly rekindled into a burning flame as I heard my name being called from across the plaza. I looked up to see an unknown ayudante calling “Jessica” and gesturing for me to come over to his micro. Without a second thought I jogged over to this other micro, thinking “I have absolutely no idea who this guy is, but he somehow knows my name, and right now that’s good enough to convince me to go where he’s going.” This turned out to be a good instinct because as I entered the micro I saw the beautiful shining face of Miss Angela Kirkish, my fellow Foundationer who had colborated with a group of Guatemalans to convince a micro driver to take them to San Mateo. It was glorious. Upon arriving safely back in San Mateo, Angie and I consumed massive amounts of beans and tortillas and went promptly to sleep to await the arrival of the Easter bunny with delicious sugary treats in baskets.

We awoke disappointed to find the Easter bunny didn’t dare traverse the treacherous mountain roads. This feeling was short-lived however, and we went to the centro, where I get ice cream for breakfast in the grand Dryden tradition and then spent a lovely morning at the ruins. We attended the service at the Catholic church, where we were banished to the outside porch seating for our apparent non-Catholisicm (not really- there were just tons of people there and we arrived late.) We also colored Easter eggs with markers and stamps. Later that afternoon and even later that evening we were joyously reunited with Chat and Brian who also somehow managed to make it back to San Mateo despite desperate lack of buses and micros. It was an untraditional but exuberant Easter Sunday for me- one I hope to never forget.

After a rousing afternoon of soccer games, in which the whole school participated, the Fantastic Foundation Five are preparing for the forthcoming week of rest and relaxation during which we will all be taking off for parts unknown. After weeks of deep thought and discussion, the destination decisions were finally arrived it: Brian, Fernando and I will be spending the week at the mystical and marvelous Atitlan, while Angie and Chat are making a break for the border and heading into Mexico. As I will be again out of internet contact for some time, I thought it would be good to update before leaving and share with you the April goals that have been set forth by our merry band. We have made group goals every month so far and been fairly successful in achieving them and I feel certain that April will be no exception. So here they are, in no particular order, except that in which they spilled forth from our motivated little brains:

1) Throw a HUGE birthday party for Chat, Jess and Fer.- We are all April babies and have thus decided that an enormous fiesta to celebrate us is in order. Some students have even suggested that we hire the marimba band to play. I can’t imagine anything more exciting.

2) Continue work on the pool.- This is the brain child of Brian and Fer who concocted a plan to build a pool on the roof of our house. The cinder blocks and cement have already been purchased and construction is waiting to commence. I’m not particularly invested in this project, but I did contribute money for the building supplies in order to secure my pool membership and not have to pay the required fee for use of the facility.

3) Close 2 of the 3 deals and have “anti-person-who-didn’t-close-the-deal-night”. – This refers to the attempted wooing of Mateanos that is taking place by some of the teachers and their efforts to secure a kiss from their conquests. I am unfortunately not taking part in this exciting event, but on the positive side, this also means I am exempted from danger of being ostracized for an entire night for failing to obtain lip-to-lip contact.

4) Invite 3 new people over.- We would like to make new friends and invite them over for pleasant conversation and/or subject them to our (mostly successful) culinary attempts.

5) Doll up the Foundation.- We recently renovated what was a guest room into a communal living room and we enjoy lazing about and spending quality family time together. Our first decorating effort was huge charcoal self-portraits that we hung up to celebrate how great we are. They are pretty fabulous, but this is only the beginning of our efforts to really put a personal touch on these dreary cement walls.

6) Learn 3 romantic phrases in Chuj.- Further efforts towards progressing the relationships with Matellanos, by whispering sweet nothings in their native language. We may not know how to say, “How much are those mangos?” or “I really enjoy learning about Guatemalan culture” or “Stop doing that immediately students”, but I think it’s really crucial that we can say “I like your eyes.”

7) Go to a cantina. – Usually we get plenty of interaction with local drunks as they stumble up to us as we’re sitting on the stoop eating peanuts and engage us in scintillating conversation about….????various unintelligible topics, but we thought it might be nice for a change to go to them and spare them the long walk. That’s what friends do.

Have and not eat a chocolate centerpiece.- Real chocolate is a luxury here in San Mateo and keeping it around to enjoy has been an issue for us here. In April, we plan to exert self-control and keep a glorious presentation of chocolate sitting in the middle of our kitchen table for at least a week.

9) Have a fun trip! A distinct possibility for fulfilling this goal may be a group excursion to Xela to attend the Potato Festival. We’ll keep you posted.

10) New drink night! – In a stroke of genius, we came up with an idea for a tasty cocktail called cuxagria. This will be probably be a tasty mixture of fresh fruit, cuxa, and artificially-flavored grape drink mix, because wine is too difficult to obtain. This and other fantastic concoctions will be sampled one balmy evening in April when we are all relaxing together in the living room. Dance party will almost certainly ensue afterwards.

That’s it folks. Please feel free to offer your words of encouragement and support in these lofty goals we have set for ourselves.

I must make my apologies once again for the lapse in information flow from this SMI-dweller.  But do not for a moment think that this has been an apathetic or merely laconic dismissal of my blogging duties.  Nay, let the fault be laid squarely at the feet of those tyrannical controllers of internet who have been carelessly toying with our worldy connections as they fail to provide sufficient bandwidth.  We are not your puppets you unfeeling business-types!  Yes our connection was completely lost for over 2 weeks, and has been sketchy since then.  This is actually the third time I’ve tried to write this post, so please be patient with me and forgive the delay in news.  Somehow we muddled through without the latest celebrity gossip and infinite accessability of facebook photos, and even managed to have some good times away from a computer screen!  Here are some of the exciting happenings that took place:

A group of musicians from the US came for a week to work with the students recording a CD of marimba, vocals, rhythm and some music the kids wrote themselves.  Watch out Latin Grammys, here come the kids of Centro Comunitario.  This was a slightly hectic time for all of us here at the Foundation, as we were serving as headquarters and dining establishment for 14 people.  Our friend and companero Chat, was sadly forced to flee into exile from this madness and now lives upstairs with our landlord and his adorable family where he feasts like a king and enjoys the company of great kids.  We miss him….but he’s in a better place.  Anyways, the music project was a lot of fun and I had a great time hanging out, helping to translate and occasionally amping up the creativity of the kids.

Beth Neville, our director and her videographer friend Chip, enjoyed a 3 week stay here at El Hospedaje Fundacion.  They cheerfully tolerated and sometimes even participated in the shenanigans of this group of youngsters.  While here, Chip worked on a short film starring some of our students that was a brief interpretation of Romeo and Juliet entitled “Xapin y Axul: A Mayan Romance”.  Don’t miss it when it comes to theatres near you- it features some of the most beautiful people you will ever lay eyes upon.  Upon the departure of Beth and Chip last week, we threw a small farewall party complete with snacks and party games.  A very successful round of telephone took place, which was enjoyed by all.  Providing extra-hilarity was the fact that one of the guests got “slightly” tipsy and kept changing the message to “I Love Jessica.”

One beautiful and sunny Saturday morning we set out on an expedition to the top of Cerro Bobi- the highest point around San Mateo, which is home to the cell phone towers which provide the wonderful opportunity for all of our students to chat with friends even outside the school during class.  We went with some friends who served as wonderful guides and forcibly conquered the 2-hour uphill battle.  When we arrived at the top we then proceeded to climb up the rickety ladders to the tops of the towers, which luckily were not protected by any sort of gates or fences- lawsuits must be slightly less common here in SMI.  About half way up I realized that I do in fact still have a slight fear of heights, but I completed the ascension and the view was definitely worth it.  It was frightening and exhilarating and probably dangerous and great for me.  After laying our feet on solid ground again we enjoyed a hearty lunch of beef, onions, beans and tortillas, flame-grilled to our liking over a roaring fire.  We sunned ourselves and gathered up strength for the break-neck race back down the mountain to our beloved little pueblo.

On one of our traditional Sunday pizza nights we had the pleasure of teaching Maria, Eulalia and Andres, the kids upstairs how to make a pizza.  In return, they laughed and sang and danced and entertained us and made our kitchen a beautiful place for a few hours.  After dinner we played telephone- hey, it’s a Foundation favorite.  There were also some discrpancies in the transferred messages in this game- most of them ended up being jokes about Chat.  These changes were traced back to the mischievious grin of tiny Eulalia.

I have become friends with two very sweet girls from 9th grade, Juana and Maria who assisted me in the crucial and immensely thrilling task of purchasing a corte!!  Cortes are the long skirts that are the traditional indigenous clothing of the women here.  They are basically extremely long, heavy pieces of beautiful fabric that you wrap around you and tie tightly around your waist.  Mine is bright pink and red with shiny thread and I love wearing it, although I am still getting used to taking tiny little steps rather than my long-hurried pant-wearing stride.  It’s nice to feel like I’m a little more a part of the culture and all the kids get really excited to see the gringa teachers wearing cortes.  They are a little disappointed to see me return to wearing pants for part of the week, but I’m still unable to resist the siren call of the practicality of jeans.

I have received the fabulous news that Miss Mary Beth Butler will be gracing SMI with her presence in mid-June.  Preparations for her arrival have already commenced, including the writing of love poems and romantic songs by most of the boys in my primero class.  They are not deterred by either her age or her height, and have assured me that love is the most important thing and one of them WILL marry her.  Watch out Mary Beth, for the battle for your heart is about to begin.

Well, I believe that is sufficient for the moment- this is the last week before we have vacation for Semana Santa.  Plans for our travels are still uncertain but we are thinking about visiting Lake Atitlan for at least part of the week.  I will try to update soon after my return on the wonderful sights we are blessed with.  Hope everyone enjoys their holidays!  Think of me while you’re eating jelly beans and Peeps!  Poor disadvantaged Jessica with nary a Cadbury egg to her name. 

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!