November 2008

Apparently, November is the end of the raining season. We had about 2 lovely weeks and then the cold arrived. Believe it or not, it does get quite chilly here. For me it one thing to be cold outside, but in the U.S there is always a warm inside place to go and thaw out. Here there are no heaters, so the cold outside stays cold. The women all wear scarves - it is very fashionable. By the afternoon, the cold is gone and the days are beautiful.

This was a bit of a tough month. Haviland took her first Master's class. It was a brutal beginning... night school, a professor that did nothing but lecture for three hours every night for two weeks, special education. To her credit, she kept a good attitude throughout - we just hope the next class is better. Besides the over-worked, stressed Haviland. We also had an unfortunate event of bullying that happened at school. In this case Sam was the victim. This was bad enough, but then we (Haviland) had to battle the principal of the lower school about how she handled the situation. We brought our concerns to the head of school with very little change happening. As the month wore on, we had to meet with Sam's teachers about his socialization and behavior at school..... agh! With all of this going on, we were very excited for Thanksgiving break!

We did have some good weekends. Sam and I joined a school organized trip to an archaeology site and museum. We were guided around three areas that were discovered in someone's sugar cane field. The artifacts were pre-mayan - Pipil Culture. Sam liked the carvings but enjoyed the swimming portion of the trip the best.

We finally fond a bike for Sam. Haviland used her bartering powers to her fullest potential and got a good little bike. We also found a little climbing gym here in the city and had a fun afternoon feeling muscles that haven't been used for months.

Remarkably, we did make it to Thansgiving. We got to spend a portion of it with Haviland's friends, Karen and Brian. We met them back at Santiago - this time we explored a new hotel called Hotel Bambu. It was a good decsion, as the grounds were stunning. We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Posada de Santiago (it is always nice not to cook!), we explored two other towns around the lake - San Juan and San Marcos, and I got a free day to hike Volocan San Pedro (3020 meters).

After a crazy month, let's hope we all can make it two more weeks until Christmas break!

October 2008

The month of October was our third month here in Guatemala and we are finally feeling settled. In the beginning of the month we had the pleasure of seeing our first visitors. Jake, Elaine and their two kids - Cooper and Sierra flew from Kentucky to explore a bit of Guatemala. They had a great week based out of Panajachel and we joined them in Santiago Atitlan for the end of their trip. Of course getting to Santiago was yet another driving fiasco, we did end up seeing some nice small towns around the lake. One town, San Antonio Palopo was off the beaten path and was a quiet weaving cooperative. Haviland was invited into a women's weaving "studio" adjacent to the house so that she could show off (and hopefully sell) some of her weavings. She offered some of her small beautiful weavings for 10 quetzales (about $1.00). Even Haviland the amazing barterer did not even try to bring the price down. Once we found our way to Santiago, we enjoyed two nice days with friends. The highlight was taking a tour of a Mayan site across the lake. We had a very nice, knowledgeable, english speaking guide take us on a hike on the lower slopes of Volcan San Pedro. The ruins were undeveloped and required a lot of imagination for both me and the kids. Haviland of course was in history heaven. The hike however was stunning. We walked through forested farm land - with corn, avocados and hundreds of other edible plants surrounding us.

The rest of the month was focused on work and exploring around the city. I am determined to someday understand the sprawling craziness of Guatemala city. On the Dia de Revolution, Sam and I found the Parque Central and the Palacio National de la Cultura. Since it was a holiday many people were there and a big stage was set up for live music. Sam enjoyed feeding the pigeons. I liked seeing the herd of goats and the goat herder wander through the major urban area.

Sam is still doing great with his spanish. I am thrilled that he has such a great attitude and excitement about learning the language. I think he and I know about the same amount of spanish right now and within a month or two he will be surpassing me. He is getting more comfortable at school and is starting to have some bad days again -he is not listening to the teacher or is bothering his friends. For the most part, Sam is going to be fine at school, but I think we are going to always have some trouble with his behavior. I am bracing myself for 13 more years of it. I do enjoy doing homework with Sam. He gets homework in english and spanish each week. Sam can now point out about 20 "kindergarten" words and spell them. He is working on writing his letters and he is so excited to write words. His numbers in english and spanish are great and his can do simple addition and subtraction problems. As a parent it is so cool watching all the things that he is learning now!

We ended October looking forward to the Day of the Dead - November 1st. Halloween is not really celebrated here, but the Day of the Dead is. School gets around Halloween by doing a dress up as your favorite book character. Kids do not generally like to read here, so this was a way to encourage reading. Sam wanted to be the "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree" and so his mom made a great costume. I was the magic school bus.

The Day of the Dead was another adventure. We headed to a small town around the area of Antigua called Santiago Sacatepequez. It is known for their big kite flying festival. Thousands of people come to this town's cemetario to place flowers on the graves, fly kites and be spectators. The kites are beautiful pieces of art that deliver special messages to their loved ones in heaven. It sounds touching, but the result is thousands of people congregating in the cemetary to see the kites. The people step on graves, vendors are selling everything under the sun and the kite flyers are running through the crowds trying to get their kites into the air. It is a bit of chaos - especially when the large kites take a dive into the crowds. I was ready at a moments notice to throw Sam aside if a 10 foot kite came zooming toward him!

Enjoy the pictures - there are a lot of them this month. Remember, if you want to see the pictures bigger....just click on the slideshow!