Finding my new home

As I write this blog post, I am sitting on the couch in my new home in Santa Ana.  One light is on in our living room/dining room that has only attracted one black moth and maybe a mosquito or two from the open air kitchen area.  I am writing this in Word and then will save it and post it during my lunch hour tomorrow as we do not have internet in the home yet (it’s on the list of things to look into).  Annie, my roommate, has already gone to sleep, I think, though it is only 8:30…the days at work are tiring and I had the day off today so I still have a hour or more of energy left. :)

This week I finished up my orientation which included learning about and working in the clinic, going on another set of social work visits, and visiting a school.  The clinic was interesting - it’s amazing how much they are able to do in such a small place.  They have 2 examinations rooms, one “emergency” room (I believe – if I understood correctly) but it’s not super extravagant…or at least it didn’t look like to me, eye support for the children (not an actual eye doctor but enough to get glasses for children who need them), a nutritionist, and a dentist office (that is filled by volunteer dentists/students).  I believe they have 2 doctors on staff and a nurse….sorry I can’t remember these numbers exactly.  All you health-care friends of mine would be able to assess this better than me – but I was thinking of you all as I was checking this place out – volunteers are always welcome *hint hint* :D  My job in the clinic was to organize the paper charts and then file some various items.

The school we visited was up to 6^th grade.  The atmosphere is definitely different in that there is always at least one class out for what we would call recess and that is going on in the center part of the school which causes a lot of noise…yet the doors to the classrooms are open (probably to keep the air moving so it doesn’t get warm)…so to me it seemed noisy.  The number of kids in a classroom seemed to be about 30 or so…so they were quite large.  Most of the children looked like they were in uniforms, though there were a few that were not.  We had the pleasure of going into two of the classrooms (1^st grade & 5^th grade) when the social workers of the schools went in to give a lesson.  These lessons include teaching about and reinforcing proper behavior in a classroom (respect others, listen, raise your hand, etc.), reading/listening to a story, and then some type of activity.  The children were really well behaved for these lessons and it was fun to be able to interact with them.

Wednesday afternoon I started in my position in Apoyo a Jóvenes.  Monday, Wednesday, Friday is “Club de Estudios” (Study Club) where children can come in to get help on their homework.  So, that’s what I was helping with in the afternoon.  There is a necessity to find the balance between keeping the children on task and yet being patient with them/helping them to have fun too.  If you push them too hard on their homework the whole time, they burn out and you do not establish a good relationship with them.  But if you let them goof around too much, then they do not get anything done and disturb the others.  I am still working on this balance – it is easier with some children than others.  I have to say, there are some concepts that I feel I understand very well, but it is much harder to explain them to a child in another language.  There are times where I just do not have the words in Spanish to say what I want to say – especially when it’s a more difficult concept to explain in the first place! Uffda.  Thankfully, I’m not alone in this and can always ask someone else in the office for help.  Also, it is frustrating when you know the child doesn’t actually understand what s/he is doing, but is just getting the homework done.  Again, you want to explain it to them so they actually understand what they are doing, but sometimes that is not possible in the given situations and you just have to help them get the work done.  Again – frustrating.  I do my best whenever I can to make sure they actually understand, but it’s definitely not at the level that I would like.

It is very fun to slowly be establishing relationships with the youth.  I am learning names, they are learning mine.  Good times.  One afternoon I was substituting for a colleague in the computer room and ten minutes before closing time, the printer jammed – bad.  It ended up being quite a project that involved two other colleagues trying to help me and the printer was not un-jammed/ready until 25 minutes later…and then two homework assignments that needed to be printed were not finished for another 40 minutes because the printer decided it only wanted to print one page of a document several times.  It was quite the evening – very funny actually as it included laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation with my boss and these two young guys.  What could have been a stressful and frustrating situation was really quite enjoyable and bonding for the four of us.  Haha.  I love it!

I have found out very quickly that my office is one of humor.  Which is great!! …except that humor is one of the harder things in another language…though I’m finding that I can usually understand the humor when it’s occurring, but sadly I’m not as good at contributing to it.  That’s one of my goals now = to be able to joke around with my colleagues by the time I leave. :) (sooner would be better!)

Saturday, I was with the youth again.  During their free time I taught a beginning bachata dance class.  I love dance because it’s a universal language – so even though I struggle with Spanish sometimes, I could teach this class because it was dance.  It became a rotating class where I would teach four youth and then two more would show up so I’d teach them and then a few more…and so on.  After over an hour, no one else was coming so I packed up…later to find out that several guys who were playing soccer previously wanted to learn, but they had to play on their team first.  So…I guess next week I’ll have to go longer. :)

I helped out cooking the lunch with some of the youth (when I say helped – I mostly observed – they had this down!).  I was thoroughly impressed by their cooking skills and their wiliness to do it.  This wiliness also transferred to cleaning up afterwards.  They were so thorough – no complaining – and everyone helped.  There was no disputing about who was going to wash the stack of dishes or scrub the stove or mop the floor…they just did it.  And when they were done, they helped out those who weren’t.  Wow.  They rock. :)

This weekend Sr. Dani, a Sister who has been here for 18 years and works at a clinic near New Hope (a site of Common Hope’s), was staying on site.  She comes here once a year or so to take a few days to get some work done when she knows she won’t be disturbed.  It was fun to meet her and have a few conversations.  We also went out to eat in Antigua Saturday night at this beautiful restaurant called Saberico.  There are tables dispersed within these gardens (when I say gardens – I mean almost jungle like gardens) with candles dispersed along the paths – just beautiful.

Saturday evening as well, two other volunteers that are here for six weeks were at the site cooking in the kitchen and ended up spending the night because they missed the time for the last bus.  It was fun to have some company on site with me for my last evening.

Sunday afternoon I moved to Santa Ana.  Annie and her friend picked me up with my stuff and we brought it to the house.  I have decided that we have the BEST landlord possible.  When I got to the house, it was all cleaned up beautifully and my bed was made with sheets and a comforter.  We had 2 plates, 2 glasses, 2 mugs, 2 forks and spoon already here for us.  How nice!!  To add to it, when he came today, he brought two small pillows and changed out our refrig immediately when I said it wasn’t working.  Also, when he saw we didn’t have pots or pans, he returned this evening with his wife (whose name is Teresa too :) ) with a frying pan, pot, tea kettle, cutting board and some other cooking utensils.  SOOO NICE!!!  They told me – “if you need anything else, just let us know.  You don’t need to go buy these things.  When you are happy, we are happy!”  I HAVE THE BEST LANDLORDS EVER!!!!

Okay, back to Sunday.  I then went to the grocery store with Kate and Sarah to get a few basic food items.  Can I just say, it is really hard to decide what to buy when you have nothing to start with.  Thankfully, I only have to take care of breakfast and suppers during the weekdays…but still…what to buy?

In the evening we met up with some friends at a place that was having Quiz Night.  It’s a quiz game in English where you can have teams of 5 and the winning team wins 500 quetzales.  It was really fun – not that I was able to contribute anything at all (I am really not knowledgeable in music, movies, planets, etc.).  The answers I did know, everyone knew – but still super fun.  We did not win (just in case you were wondering).

Monday (today) was my day off, but everyone else I know works.  My plan was to sleep in – get some shopping done at the market – walk around Antigua a bit – and update my journal.  Sleep in was a fail.  I found out that there are many noises here in the evenings…such as dogs barking constantly in the middle of the night, roosters crowing at 4:30am, music blaring very early in the morning, and the van distributing propane gas driving around with its loud horn and megaphone voice shouting “Hay Gas” (there’s gas – or something like that) at daybreak…I think at 6:30 or 7:00am.  I still laid in bed, just enjoying not having to get up…that was until a bug fell IN MY HAIR!

So…here’s the deal.  I have two windows – the head of my bed was under one window – the windows do not have screens – I had to choose between being really warm/hot or having the window open to potential bugs (I chose potential bugs over certain heat – it’s psychology, I know :) ).  Well, a bug fell into my hair, I couldn’t get it out right away in my freaking out state…when I did it sat on my bed…it was smooshed and swept away.  It was then decided that it was time to get up and my room needed to be rearranged so that my bed was not near windows.

The morning was spent unpacking and putting my room together.  It felt so good to finally unpack after three weeks.  Also, navigating the house made me realize all the little things we still need, like a garbage can in the bathroom and bedrooms and a broom.  It’s amazing how many little things you don’t even think about until they aren’t there. :)

In the afternoon, I headed out to Antigua.  It is about a 10-15 minute walk to get to the edge of Antigua from my house and then it depends on where you are going.  I successfully navigated my way around without a map!  Whoot!  I had a light lunch along the way and then headed to the market.  I perused the Artisan market because I wasn’t in a hurry and it’s always fun to look.  Then, I headed to the market market (food).  Wow.  There are so many vendors and so many options.  I had no idea from who I should buy…so I just picked.  First of all, remember that $1=7.5 quetzales.  Here’s what I bought: 1 onion & 3 potatoes (3Q), 1 large carrot and cucumber (3Q), 1 pound strawberries (5Q).  NOTHING was over a dollar, and many things were not even close.  1 pound of strawberries for 75 cents?!?!  Crazy.

On the way home I stopped at the famous Doña Luisa bread shop and bought some banana bread – an easy delicious breakfast.  The bread was so fresh that I could feel the heat rising from the bag as I walked home…when I got home and had a piece it was uncomfortable to have the piece laying flatly on my palm because it was so warm (that’s after 25 minutes of walking) – SO GOOD!

It is quite blissful: walking along the cobblestone streets with fresh produce tucked under one arm and warm banana bread heating the other hand, as you greet those you walk by with “Buenas tardes.”  Such a simple, relaxing afternoon.  Much needed and much enjoyed.

Sorry for the long and not as well organized post…so much to say and not much time to write it. Enjoy! :)

Bachata lessons

The kitchen. To the left you can see outside - open air. to the right are the doors to our bedrooms.

You are basically seeing the whole house right now. Straight ahead is the living room, to the right are the stairs to the bathroom, to the left of the living room are the bedrooms...

This is the stairs/door to the bathroom

The bathroom is super small, so this is the best shot I could get. If I turned to my left, there would be the toilet.



The living room/dining room - love this room!



Living room/dining room continued - it came fully furnished..even with the classy wine bottle decorations



My bedroom!! You can see in the mirror that on the other side there is a metal clothes hanger/shelf combo that hold my clothes. Again - fully furnished.



Looking at the open air area from my room - the stairs up lead to the roof!

The roof! So it doesn´t look like much...but do you see the potential?!?!

View from the roof