The rest of our stay in Antigua was nice. We ate dinner at a restaurant, during which there was yet another power outage (4th in 9 days). They had to close the iron doors immediately to keep out thieves. This one only lasted 15 minutes or so. We then paid a short visit to N, a colleague who has hosted Gallaudet Faculty in the past. He was incredibly friendly and knew a member of ASORGUA from a GSL class. In the morning we stopped by a children´s charity and the Hermano Pedro center for persons with disabilities before heading back to Guatemala City.
CA suggested we visit the Camino Real, which is a super fancy hotel on the Avenida de la Reforma, as something of a sightseeing venture (it looked like a palace inside, in contrast to the city outside its walls). There were metal detectors at the entrance and myriad important looking people. The new President, Colom, will be inaugurated Monday, and had invited leaders from many countries to attend, many of whom were staying at the hotel. This was a strategicdecision; not only will it make the event auspicious, but the presence of international leaders and members of the press may help keep disgruntled Guatemalan citizens on their best behavior. Perhaps now they won´t riot or protest so asnot to seem unsightly or embarrassing (asif politics were a WASPish dinner party.)
The climax of this story is that while CA and I were sitting on couches in the lobby, the press interviewed the president of Aruba and the Dutch Ambassador on the couch right in front of us! Wow!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Faire du Nerd
Last night I reuinted with CA and my supervisor in Antigua. CA and I are staying 2 nights in a lovely 12 room hostel/inn run by a family she´s known for a while. We had a wonderful dinner of tortilla soup with my supervisor and her housemates, just after my supervisor returned from her Democrats in Guatemala meeting (yes, you read right. There are a lot of expats here, and they´re rooting for the good guys. :)..)
CA´s dear friend, Latin American Studies Professor B from a college in Maryland, is here with a group of students. What a fantastic opportunity for me--I got to sit in on a lecture about conquistadors and history in Antigua. I guess not everyone gets as excited about optional lectures as I do. While it would have been advisable to be a respectful, passive listener, I started to squirm in my seat like a second grader with a full bladder when Professor B asked the group about Cortez. She generously granted me permission to participate, so as always, I came off as an obnoxious, overzealous nerd. And I have the notes to prove it.
Next came the tourism. I marked the occasion by busting out my shorts. That´s right, shorts. pantalones cortos. Iced the cake with a camera and sunscreen. CA and I accompanied the group on a tour of the Tercera Catedral, which was destroyed by both a flood and an earthquake but is still lovely. We also saw the original University of San Carlos, which is now a museum, the Iglesia de San Francisco and el convento de Capuchinas (¿spelling?...as if I´ve been diligent with spelling in this blog. hah.) The group is very American, which is a bit of a change. In any case, hoorah for learning.
CA´s dear friend, Latin American Studies Professor B from a college in Maryland, is here with a group of students. What a fantastic opportunity for me--I got to sit in on a lecture about conquistadors and history in Antigua. I guess not everyone gets as excited about optional lectures as I do. While it would have been advisable to be a respectful, passive listener, I started to squirm in my seat like a second grader with a full bladder when Professor B asked the group about Cortez. She generously granted me permission to participate, so as always, I came off as an obnoxious, overzealous nerd. And I have the notes to prove it.
Next came the tourism. I marked the occasion by busting out my shorts. That´s right, shorts. pantalones cortos. Iced the cake with a camera and sunscreen. CA and I accompanied the group on a tour of the Tercera Catedral, which was destroyed by both a flood and an earthquake but is still lovely. We also saw the original University of San Carlos, which is now a museum, the Iglesia de San Francisco and el convento de Capuchinas (¿spelling?...as if I´ve been diligent with spelling in this blog. hah.) The group is very American, which is a bit of a change. In any case, hoorah for learning.
Los Padres
Thursday was registration day for the new semester at the school. The social worker has still not returned from holiday, so I was a "floater", helping out the teachers. In Guatemala schools do not get the kind of State funding and support that US schools do, so the families themselves are in charge of providing all art and classroom suppies, in addition to their own notebooks and school supplies. The children are all very adorable (not shocking, I mean, they are children) and sign a fair amount. I was impressed to see that a lot of the parents signed basic things too. About half of the children came for registration with just their mothers, but the other half came with brothers and sisters (many of them babies in Mayan cloth clings) and some dads! I only noted two parents who asked their children to use spoken Spanish to greet the teachers.
Things have gotten a bit befuddled with my schedule; now the social worker is not returning until WEDS, so I have 2 idle days next week. It´s a good thing that I will be able to make up the internship hours with a Gallaudet trained Audiologist working in Guatemala City. I will be following up with patients and their families about use and efficacy of their assistive devices (primarily hearing aids because Cochlear Implants are very rare here).
The faculty are very friendly, I hope to get to know them all better. 1 of the 2 Deaf teachers has a deaf family and her siblings are deaf and married to deaf people in the US! Everyone takes a short break around 10 for a snack, which entails going to the parking lot of the Robles hospital for a hot dog or something else from a vender. Get this--New York and Chicago may pride themselves on the distinctive condiments adorning their hotdogs, but here in Guate, they put Guacamole, Mayo, ketchup and Onions on them, served on bread or in a tortilla. If you want pop with it, they open the glass bottle, pour it into a little plastic bag, and stick a straw in it, so they can recycle the bottles. Mmmm!
Things have gotten a bit befuddled with my schedule; now the social worker is not returning until WEDS, so I have 2 idle days next week. It´s a good thing that I will be able to make up the internship hours with a Gallaudet trained Audiologist working in Guatemala City. I will be following up with patients and their families about use and efficacy of their assistive devices (primarily hearing aids because Cochlear Implants are very rare here).
The faculty are very friendly, I hope to get to know them all better. 1 of the 2 Deaf teachers has a deaf family and her siblings are deaf and married to deaf people in the US! Everyone takes a short break around 10 for a snack, which entails going to the parking lot of the Robles hospital for a hot dog or something else from a vender. Get this--New York and Chicago may pride themselves on the distinctive condiments adorning their hotdogs, but here in Guate, they put Guacamole, Mayo, ketchup and Onions on them, served on bread or in a tortilla. If you want pop with it, they open the glass bottle, pour it into a little plastic bag, and stick a straw in it, so they can recycle the bottles. Mmmm!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Los Animales
I love animals, heck, I am an animal, but I have to say that the dog in the garage, Yonela, is no longer my friend. I stepped outside for a few minutes for better cell phone reception and came back to find my garbage bag ripped open and the contents strewn all over the floor. She even ate a full egg from my food shelf, lapping the contents out of the half-shell, but managed to dribble some of it across the floor tiles. She is incidentally a cross-eyed, bow legged chihuahua mix with teats so heavy from her nursing puppies that they drag on the ground. Ay, caramba. Oh, and as an added treat, the parrots have learned to mimic the tantrum screams of my hostess´s granddaughter. Hilarity ensues.
Centro de Comunicacion Total
I rode the city bus alone for the first time yesterday, but it was really just a kilometer on the highway loop around the city. 3 minutes and I was at the gate of the school. When I knocked on the giant green cast iron doors, a man who looked suspiciously like the Mayan cousing of the whiskered doorman of the Emerald City let me in. After meeting with K, the very professional VERY young director of the school (27? 28?). All of the staff except 3 or 4 are under 30 it seems. Only 2 mail teachers out of a 20 person staff.
I attended an inservice (workshop) on nutrition with thet rest of the staff. It was facilitated by this animated, guapo homeopath-nutritionalist. I now know how and when to maximize water consumption and the ideal posture for pooping. Also, smoothie lovers beware: fruit from the ground and fruit from trees should NOT be mixed. The presentation had a lot of great info for kids and families, though I´d be lying if I said he didn´t try to sell us chinese herb packets at the end.
After discussing a few more things with K, I got the grand tour of what seems like a campus for Aural-optic deficiency. The school is connected not only to a multi-faceted Comite resource center, but also to the Robles eye and ear hospital. My teacher friend, V, (also a former ASORGUA president), was my guide. I also ate lunch with him and learned a bit more GSL. I came home mid-afternoon and enjoyed having some time to myself (which is ironic, because I´ve had too much of it in recent days.)
This morning we had staff workshops on self-esteem and classroom discipline. I was glad to be able to participate, and actually ended up teaching some attention-getting techniques from my days working at Deaf camps. Tomorrow the parents will come with their children to tour the school and meet the teachers. V said we are getting 50 new students, which is a ton! Monday I will meet with ID, the school social worker, and will be doing a lot of work with her off-campus.
Today ended with a reunion with CA, my mentor-guardian-angel-Gally Alumna who helped make the internship possible. It was greate catching up with her, and tomorrow afternoon I will be joining her and my supervisor in Antigua. Can´t wait!
I attended an inservice (workshop) on nutrition with thet rest of the staff. It was facilitated by this animated, guapo homeopath-nutritionalist. I now know how and when to maximize water consumption and the ideal posture for pooping. Also, smoothie lovers beware: fruit from the ground and fruit from trees should NOT be mixed. The presentation had a lot of great info for kids and families, though I´d be lying if I said he didn´t try to sell us chinese herb packets at the end.
After discussing a few more things with K, I got the grand tour of what seems like a campus for Aural-optic deficiency. The school is connected not only to a multi-faceted Comite resource center, but also to the Robles eye and ear hospital. My teacher friend, V, (also a former ASORGUA president), was my guide. I also ate lunch with him and learned a bit more GSL. I came home mid-afternoon and enjoyed having some time to myself (which is ironic, because I´ve had too much of it in recent days.)
This morning we had staff workshops on self-esteem and classroom discipline. I was glad to be able to participate, and actually ended up teaching some attention-getting techniques from my days working at Deaf camps. Tomorrow the parents will come with their children to tour the school and meet the teachers. V said we are getting 50 new students, which is a ton! Monday I will meet with ID, the school social worker, and will be doing a lot of work with her off-campus.
Today ended with a reunion with CA, my mentor-guardian-angel-Gally Alumna who helped make the internship possible. It was greate catching up with her, and tomorrow afternoon I will be joining her and my supervisor in Antigua. Can´t wait!
El Comite
The phrase ¨go with the flow¨was created for days like these. I awoke at 7am to confront my rite of passage as a newbie in Central American: a bout of stomach illness. Fortunately this only lasted a few hours. I was supposed to meet up with M a little after 2, to go to the central office of the Comite, but she was coming on the city bus (which I did not know) and did not arrive until 330. You know me, a bit of a nervous nelly. I had already called a cab by the time she showed up so we took it together and arrived at 4 (serendipitous, because my meeting with the Director, LP, had been moved to 4 earlier that day after it took like 11 phone calls to get through.)
At the office we connected with President C, who had brought some forms from ASORGUA for LP to sign. I got to sit and discuss details with LP for a bit, he´s a very sweet man. Afterward, M left and I took the bus with President C to the ASORGUA building in Zone 10, which was an interesting experience. The buses are old American School buses painted red or blue, with handrailson the ceiling for standers. Always packed to the gils. People are very stoic, just sitting and not talking (unless they´re pushing through the crowd to get off). President C knows some ASL and can use some speech, so we got to talks about a lot of things. I got a more in depth tour of the ASORGUA office upon arrival and chatted it up at a snail´s pace in GSL-Spanish Pidgin.
As the only hearing person, M´s role of making calls for Deafies on their cell phones was thrust upon me. A man I´d never met put a cell phone in my hand and I had no idea what he wanted, but realized someone was on the line already. It was his daughter, calling to wish him a happy birthday, hoping there was a hearing person in the vicinity to interpret. Then Pres C gave me his phone to call M, who was to call a cab for the 5 of us going back to Zona 11.She then called Pres Cback, Pres C handed me the phone, M said a cab was on its way, and I signed it sloppily to the others. Whew! At least I got home having gained some experience with the logistical ways of this city.
At the office we connected with President C, who had brought some forms from ASORGUA for LP to sign. I got to sit and discuss details with LP for a bit, he´s a very sweet man. Afterward, M left and I took the bus with President C to the ASORGUA building in Zone 10, which was an interesting experience. The buses are old American School buses painted red or blue, with handrailson the ceiling for standers. Always packed to the gils. People are very stoic, just sitting and not talking (unless they´re pushing through the crowd to get off). President C knows some ASL and can use some speech, so we got to talks about a lot of things. I got a more in depth tour of the ASORGUA office upon arrival and chatted it up at a snail´s pace in GSL-Spanish Pidgin.
As the only hearing person, M´s role of making calls for Deafies on their cell phones was thrust upon me. A man I´d never met put a cell phone in my hand and I had no idea what he wanted, but realized someone was on the line already. It was his daughter, calling to wish him a happy birthday, hoping there was a hearing person in the vicinity to interpret. Then Pres C gave me his phone to call M, who was to call a cab for the 5 of us going back to Zona 11.She then called Pres Cback, Pres C handed me the phone, M said a cab was on its way, and I signed it sloppily to the others. Whew! At least I got home having gained some experience with the logistical ways of this city.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
La Casa de Las Tres Gracias
¨Hayley, veni, es tu mama¨said the Senora, holding the house telephone at 830 this morning. I answered the phone and realized that it was not my mom, but a different middle-aged white woman, my supervisor Mykell. She was calling to invite me up to Antigua for the day to lunch at the home she shares with 2 retired friends. I managed a ride to the airport where I met up with another member of their home, ¨La Casa de las tres Gracias¨. In about an hour, I found myself in the most beautiful place I´ve seen so far here, the world famous Antigua. The house was more like a small utopia, dripping with gardens, indigenous art and beautiful verandas. I had seen photos, but I was really astounded by this decadent, beautiful cooperative. The meal was 9 Americans, 1 Guatemalan and 1 Chileno, mostly former Peace Corps workers, and montones of vegan-friendly food.
These folks are really inspiring. They´ve done so much in their careers, and it is nice to see that people in their 50s and 60s can still be so idealistic, ambitious, and adventerous. They shared peace corps stories, and at one point, one of the ¨Gracias¨(women who own the house) read us a hippie children´s book from the southwest US. Needless to say I was in heaven. I look forward to working with my supervisor and spending more time with the Gracias.
These folks are really inspiring. They´ve done so much in their careers, and it is nice to see that people in their 50s and 60s can still be so idealistic, ambitious, and adventerous. They shared peace corps stories, and at one point, one of the ¨Gracias¨(women who own the house) read us a hippie children´s book from the southwest US. Needless to say I was in heaven. I look forward to working with my supervisor and spending more time with the Gracias.
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