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!
