Well, I am back in Guatemala, and the month of
January is quickly coming to an end. As promised, the end-of-the-month blog
post his here for all to read and enjoy. You will notice a few changes I made
to the style in which I summarize the past month… if you were an avid “Guat’s
up” reader last year, that is.
In A Nutshell…
To put
everything that has happened to me in the past month in a “nutshell” would
require a rather large nut. The first half of the month I spent in Canada,
enjoying the short time I had to spend with friends and family. I had a very
wonderful, relaxing time at home, and witnessed a complete Canadian winter (ice
storm, huge blizzard, and meltdown) all in the span of three weeks. Also, my
good friend Ian Roth got married to my good cousin Tamara Martin. I was the
best man, which of course made the wedding more exciting for everybody. I could
write a lot more on these things. I could write about how I got to play hockey,
did not go snowboarding, spent time with my girlfriend, and gave my brother the
gift of leaving his presents on his birthday (usually I take them). But since
this blog is called “Guat’s Up” and not “Canuck’s Up” or something witty like
that, I will jump right to the day I arrived in Guatemala.
On
Monday, January 13th, my parents and I left for the Buffalo airport
at about 8:30 AM. We arrived in good time, and I breezed through security and
made it Atlanta without any problems. Before boarding the plane for Guatemala,
I ate one last meal… at McDonalds, of course. On the flight from Atlanta to
Guatemala, I sat in the emergency exit row, and there was no seat in the row in
front of me. No one was in the seat beside me, but a fairly grumpy lady was
sitting in the aisle seat of my row. She put her carry-on under the seat in
front of her and it extended into the region under the seat next to it, where I
had my backpack. She asked me if it was all right if she took up a bit of space
under the middle seat. I responded with, “Yes, that’s fine.” She then said,
“Well it better be… you’ve got all the leg room you want.” I’m glad I didn’t
say “no.” Thankfully, I was able to “overcome rudeness with good” when she
couldn’t get her headphones to work for the movie and I kindly helped her.
I landed
in Guatemala at 8:30. Galen and Craig picked me up and headed straight for the
bus station. Steve Steckly and I traveled to El Chal that night. I arrived in
El Chal the next morning in time for day two of a little teachers institute
thing that was held at the school in El Chal. I struggled to stay awake during
most of the sessions. It wasn’t because they were boring… they were just too
Spanish, and I was just too tired. We played soccer during one of the recesses
and Douglas made sure that I was aware of how much my skill level had
decreased. He kept making comments about the snow that was still in my shoes.
The following day went a little better. I was more awake and I got more out of
the sessions. It was that day (Wednesday, January 15th) that I
realized that school started in exactly one week. I knew before I left for
Canada that I was going to be the homeroom teacher in grade seven this year,
but being back in Guatemala made it seem more real… and scary. The following
week went by really quickly. It was filled up with things like making “Bienvenidos”
posters, moving desks around, painting, and getting used to Guatemala again.
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| It mean's "Welcome" |
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| My Classroom |
On the
morning of the first day of school, I was feeling slightly nervous. I wasn’t
really sure what to expect. I had never been a homeroom teacher before, and
certainly not a Spanish-speaking homeroom teacher. And then it was 8:00 and my
twelve students filed into the classroom. They all sat down and looked at me
like I was in charge or something. That is when I remembered, “Oh yeah… I AM in
charge!” So I welcomed them all to another year of school. I asked them to tell
the rest of the class their names. Then I tried to say all their names back to
them. I didn’t get them all right, but I do know all of them now. And that was
pretty much how my experience of being a homeroom teacher started. So far, I
have really enjoyed it. The kids I teach really seem to be enjoying school as
well. I know that I still have a lot to learn, and there might even be times
when I say to myself, “Why am I teaching? I’m not a teacher!” But I think I am
going to enjoy this year.
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| A typical scene at school |
Another
new thing in my life is my new brother. Samuel Molina is teaching third grade
this year, and he is living at the mission house with the rest of us. It’s
always nice to have another guy my age around. He is a year older than me, but a bit shorter than me, so I call him my “hermanito grande.”
Well,
that is all for now. I hope that you were able to deal with the slightly
revised style. “WOW” stands for “Words of Wisdom.” And just because the
“Highlights” section is shorter than the “Not so highlights” section, it does
not mean that I had a bad month. The “Not so highlights” are just more fun to
write about. Have a great Febrero, people! Remember me in your prayers as I
continue to teach.
Highlights…
>>Riding with Steve Steckly to El Chal. That guy makes me laugh. Plus, I didn’t sleep through my stop in El
Chal this time.
>>Iced coffee for desert. It
was good, and it reminded me of Tim Hortons. Not that I’d remember or anything…
I didn’t actually drink any iced caps or iced coffees while I was home because
it was too cold.
>>Being a part of “Las Grandes Ligas.” Douglas likes to tell me that I’m in the “Big Leagues” now. It’s
quite an honour, really.
Not So Highlights…
>>Spike finally killing a pig. Since I’ve lived in Guatemala, pigs have frequently entered the
mission grounds and have barely escaped the wrath of our watchdog. One day
however, a little pig entered and didn’t get out alive. The owner of the pig
soon showed up wanting money for the pig that our dog killed. There were
different opinions on if we should pay the full price or not. I mean, the pig
came into our yard and the dog was just doing what he was trained to do. I
guess the key is take responsibility but not give the owner so much that he
starts sending his pigs through the fence on suicide missions. The last thing
you want is a kamikaze pig farm across the street.
>>Marshmallow slingshot. Dylan got a new slingshot and I had the
brilliant idea that we could use marshmallows instead of rocks and have a war.
This was out of the question of course, because that would be a waste of
perfectly good food. One evening however, Dylan and I finally convinced Lucinda
to let us try it, but only one, and only if it was aimed at Spike. I was curious
to see if a marshmallow would actually fly. Dylan tried shooting it, but it
wasn’t working very well. The marshmallows were actually flying backwards. I
was pretty sure that I could do better, so I gave it a try. I aimed at Spike
and let it fly. It was heading right for spike, but veered off to the left and
hit Lucinda. That was the end of the marshmallow war.
>>Chi- Hubener. I was
explaining to my class that here at this school, we don’t use nicknames. We
call people by their real names. Hubener then raised his hand. “SÃ, Chi- uh…
Hubener?” Whoops.
Top 5 Quotes…
“When the soccer ball is square, Guatemala will
qualify for the World Cup.” – Marvin (Sounds about like Canada’s soccer team)
“I could say something, but it would sound too
much like Tricia.” – Dylan
“My buddy used to tell me that I made my eggs
so raw that if you’d put a Band-Aid on one of them it would cluck and walk
away.” – Kenneth
“It almost makes me want to do a load of
laundry.” – Lucinda (On a sunny Sunday morning when the previous week and been
dreary. She is a great house mom)
“His name is Durrell and I don’t like him.” –
Jeffrey (After I asked him who his new friend was)
WOW from Ricky…
>>I think that a good, balanced diet is
pancakes for breakfast, tamales for lunch, and hamburgers for supper... And eat a
grapefruit at about 3:00.
>>One should not use the snooze button if
the “Snooze” and “Dismiss” buttons are very close together.
>>Everyone should have to learn a new
language at least once in their life.
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| "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" …even learn the words to "In Christ Alone" |
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