Volunteering at Primeros Pasos continues to go excellently, and as promised in my last entry, I have photos from the Puberty Game we teach the 5th and 6th graders. We're now seeing 3rd and 4th graders in the clinic, so we're only talking about general healthy habits and nutrition, but I wanted to share the images from last week anyway.
As you can see below, the students come up to the front of the classroom with their card listing some sort of change experienced during puberty, and with the instructor's help (Scott in this instance since I'm taking photos), decide as a class which category best describes this particular change.
Here is a student deciding that producing seminal liquid is a physical change that happens only to men:
After each student places their card on the wall, they receive a round of applause from their classmates. It's really great to watch the students react to positive feedback - I get the impression that few of them get consistent praise in their homes or schools, which is a sharp contrast to the prevalent American 'everybody's a winner' mentality.
Though we've moved on from puberty for the time being in the clinic, we play a similar game over Good Foods & Bad Foods (and which foods contain which vitamins and minerals) with the younger classes. The niños each receive a card with an illustration of some sort of food, and the students come up to the wall individually and decide whether it's healthy or not, and if it's healthy, which vitamins it may contain. While nutrition is certainly not as titillating as puberty, the game is still loads of fun.
Scott and I have some new friends on the Education Team, too! The clinic received a big group of Vanderbilt undergrads for 3 weeks yesterday, in addition to two new health education volunteers who will be working with us for two months. Because our ranks have swelled and Scott's becoming quite popular with the niños in his role as a clinic educator, this week and the next will see us resume our in-school workshops in the surrounding communities. We should have two pairs of educators presenting lessons in the schools, while Scott holds down the fort in the clinic. I'm excited to begin teaching in the communities again, since I feel like I have a much stronger grasp on the materials as well as Guatemalan youth culture in general than my first go-round. More updates to follow.
Also, May 15th marked my 90th day in Guatemala. As an American on a tourist visa, I'm only allotted 90 days in the 4-country block of Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras at a time. Consequently, I had to leave the country (and the closest neighbors) for 72-hours in order to stay in compliance with visa regulations, so we went to San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. Many shuttles run convenient daily dashes to the border, so Scott, Joe, and I rode in style (and Air Conditioning!) for another international adventure.
San Cristobal is a lot like Xela in some ways - it's a larger city (150,000ish) with a strong indigenous culture and plenty of tourists. Unlike Xela, however, Chiapas has been the site of an on-going revolutionary struggle for the past 15 years. The EZLN, or Zapatistas, actually seized control of San Cristobal in 1994 as a protest against the Mexican government's continual failure to enact meaningful legislation protecting indigenous rights, welfare, and abilities to earn a living. The Zapatistas today act primarily through political channels, but the Mexican government maintains a very heavy military presence in the area. We were actually delayed an hour coming into town because of construction on the highway by a new army base. In the city though, there's very little sign that indigenous populations and advocates are clamoring for reform and San Cristobal is full of foreign tourists with dreadlocks and/or capri pants.
Additionally, in a weird juxtaposition for a socialist revolution, many stores and restaurants proudly feature pseudo-Zapatista regalia. For example, you can buy handmade dolls of Zapatista guerrilla soldiers in the market place, and there are t-shirts with SubComondante Marcos smoking a pipe emblazoned across the front. This mural was painted in the courtyard of our hostel:
I've never thought of the Virgin Mary draped in bullets before, but the image certainly made me stop and think a bit. The Zapatistas do empower women more than other socialist revolutionary movements have traditionally (think Fidel Castro), and I enjoyed seeing Girl Power imagery across San Cristobal, but overall the city's feel was more touristy/capitalist than genuinely revolutionary.
San Cristobal also has two main pedestrian-only thoroughfares, something that certainly contributes to its consumerist vibe. It was a welcome change to not have to dodge honking cars every few seconds like in Xela, and it was nice that the commercial districts weren't solely populated by tourists, like they are in Antigua. Here's a snapshot of one of these avenues:
And the other pedestrian section of town:
This photo was taken Saturday afternoon. Whereas Xela wakes up at dawn, San Cristobal didn't really get humming until after 10:30. Definitely a more laid back vibe!
And here's the cathedral:
The city recently finished refurbishing the facade. I don't think this picture does it justice, but the carving and stonework is unbelievably intricate. The tents in the bottom corners of the picture are the outer fringes of the artisans' market. I enjoyed wandering through the aisles of crafts and textiles and comparing the wares to what I've encountered in Guatemala - the two countries' products are similar enough that both are clearly Mayan, but there are sufficient differences in materials, colors, and patterns to demonstrate the distance between highland Guatemala and southern Mexico.
The highlight of my four days in Chiapas was undoubtedly a speedboat tour through the Sumidero Canyon. The canyon is a natural formation, but the boat excursions have been facilitated greatly by the construction of the dam to regulate water levels. Here's a picture of the hydroelectric dam, with an imposing sculpture commemorating the engineers and workers who made it all possible:
And here is a sample of the stunning scenery within the canyon:
I took almost a hundred other photos from the tour, so if you're particularly interested you can check out the shutterfly account (katyphelpsmiller.shutterfly.com; password is rice09). The point in the canyon pictured below, with the three walls converging around the river bend, is found on the departmental crest of Chiapas:
We saw all kinds of wildlife on the tour, as well. Here is buzzard beach (playa de los zapilotes):
And a crocodile!!
And finally, the triumvirate of traveling champions:
And that wraps it up from Chiapas.
In other non-traveling, non-clinic news, the city of Xela suffered a terrible sporting blow Saturday night when the Super Chivos (super goats) of Xelaju MC lost in the soccer season championship to the Rojos (reds, like the color) of Municpal from Guatemala City. Though the citizens of Xela were upset to lose the game, they couldn't in good conscience let their firecrackers and noisemakers go to waste, so the city was noisy - if defeated - until the wee hours of the morning. It was a disappointing way to commemorate the 486th birthday of the city.
The coming week should hold lots of educational excitement in the clinic as well as a trip to Lago de Atitlan to meet up with the Rice international group service project over the weekend. I also have plans to implement my Nana's suggestions for cooking turnip greens tomorrow evening, hopefully continuing my string of successful transfers of Southern American recipes to highland Guatemala. If squash casseroles and hash browns can make the transition, I'm hoping greens cooked with bacon can follow suit. Stay tuned! Until next time,
Katy
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