Our Work

Some of you may be wondering what we do all day, and where we spend our time. This last term we have mainly been teaching English classes to adults and children. All levels are beginners, with the exception of Toby's advanced class studying for their TOEFL exam. We seek donations and funding to our programs, whether that's through a formal grant or a motivated individual donor. In addition, we field emails and coordinate arrangements for future volunteers. So far we have 2, and possibly 4, lined up for the next year to teach English classes. Part of our success is due to the creation of our volunteer web page that we worked diligently on, and the formalization of a volunteer program here at Ajb'atz' Enlace Quiché. Check it out and direct any interested parties to volunteer with us.


This is where all the magic happens....at our tiny desks in the crowded Ajb'atz' office.

Apple Picking in Chitatul

Last weekend our good friend and co-worker Hilda asked Toby and me to come pick apples and other fruit with her in Chitatul. In this very nearby town her family owns property and rents out a small home where they lived as children. On their land they have apple, lime, orange, and newly planted papaya trees. They also grow squashes, corn, beans, and tomatoes. It's more than the family can eat themselves, so they sell some of the produce in the Quiché market.


About 20 years ago, during the civil war, the rebel Mayan groups were trying to gain more support and members. However, often when men in the community declined their invitation, the rebels would murder them. One day some rebels came to Hilda's house looking for her father, but he was away. Hilda's mom hid her children in the temascal to protect them from the guerrillas. (Note: The temascal is a home-made mud brick sauna/steam room fed by a wood burning fire. Apparently, it is common for indigenous women to use the temascal during their labor with children - Hilda's mom being one example.) After this episode, Hilda's family moved into the city for greater safety.


Personal accounts like this are what make being in Guatemala really special for us. We get to learn the stories of the people, their history, and culture. It was really fun for us to pluck so much fresh fruit from the trees. But, more importantly for us we had quality time with Hilda, which we took advantage of further by crossing the street and enjoying the lovely Libelula (dragonfly) Restaurant. Being one of the nicest restaurants in Quiché we couldn't resist enjoying a coffee and time on the playground and trampoline. What a perfect way to spend Sunday afternoon!

Quiché Town Fair

Recently while Jerry and LeAnn Piering were in the country we took a side visit to our lovely (though dirty) little town of Santa Cruz del Quiché for the week long town fair. Essentially the majority of the town's residents take the week off to celebrate the Festival of Santa Elena, the town's patron saint. Quiché was unlike any other time we have been there, inundated with people, crowded with vendors selling everything from peanuts and churros to these little rings of bread that about 100 vendors were selling and about 3 people were eating. These are the kinds of things that just make us wonder about businesses in Guatemala. Such a lack of differentiation and diversity. Anyway, the week was crowded with events from traditional dances called Convites to nightly fireworks shows that never seemed to end, a large carnival with rides set up in the town bus terminal, and beauty pageants for a variety of titles. Being only in town for Friday and Saturday during the fair, we didn't have a chance to see it all, but indeed did see plenty.


On Saturday we went with Jerry and LeAnn to the top of Toby's fire station, a four storey building very close to the central park to view the main fireworks show. Although starting later than we expected, the show was one of the best we had ever seen with loads of fireworks both large and small that seemed to go one forever. Our amazing vantage point was to thank for such a great vista yet was far enough away to avoid the crowds, noise, neck aches, and danger of falling cinders, but high enough to tower above the surrounding buildings.


In addition we also took a gander at the carnival games and even tried our hands at one that looked like a good time. It was a game in which one had to land a Quetzal coin (.15 USD) on one of 5 or so large plates floating in a pool. Though both Jerry and Toby failed two attempts each, Brittany was victorious on her very first try. Her prize? Not a silly stuffed animal or a noise maker, no. Something much more practical, a 2.5 liter bottle of Pepsi (which we are still working on). Congrats Brittany! We also enjoyed snacking on fresh churros during the fair as the vendors only come out for special events.

Guatemala Adventures

I am trying to do a little test so the blog can get picked up by more people using the Google Search Engine so I am going to put Guatemala Adventure in the text and Guatemala Blog and Guatemala Adventure Blog. We will see if I get more hits here in the near future

Tikal

During our visit with the Pierings, we had the pleasure of traveling to Tikal and exploring these ancient Mayan ruins that served as a dominating city from around 300 BC to 400 BCE. This visit involved many temple summits, wild animal sitings, and deep cultural and historical appreciation.


We had the pleasure of staying in a hotel within the Tikal National Reserve which allowed us walking distance to the entrance of the ruins. Being so close, Toby and I wanted to take advantage as much as possible and see the ruins extensively. Therefore we entered and investigated the park on 3 separate occasions for many hours at a time.


The Tikal ruins are spread out amongst the dense rain forest jungle, with temples popping up over the canopy in various spots. One of our favorite places was on top of Temple IV where we watched the sunset, sunrise, and rainstorms from this 70m tall structure. We had to climb some pretty shady ladder steps to reach the top and Brittany almost killed herself slipping on the wet stairs descending for the 3rd time. It was worth it though because Temple IV has a great position towering over the forest from where spotted the other temple peaks and Mundo Perdido.


We also climbed Temple II and the very scary and steep Temple V. Summitting Temple I (Jaguar Temple) is not permitted and neither is the largest Mundo Perdido structure due to recent falls, one resulting in death. Temple III is still buried and overgrown quite extensively and therefore is not accessible to climb. We did however, investigate many other structures in the plaza complexes and even crawled on ours hands up one building in Mundo Perdido in a torrential downpour one afternoon.


Animal sitings in the jungle included toucans, iridescent oscillated turkeys, a red-headed wood pecker, and leaf cutting and other varieties of ants. We also had multiple encounters with spider monkeys (one nearly pissed on Jerry...ha ha), but only heard the screams of howler monkeys. We spotted a gray fox climbing some ruins, got up very close to a coati, and saw some crocodiles.


Overall, it was a very spiritual and special time we spent within the park. Both evenings we stayed late until it closed and felt like we were the only ones wandering the grounds. This allowed us to spot more animals and appreciate the grandeur of these structures and an ancient culture. We are lucky Tikal has been preserved, reconstructed, and protected. Now tourists and scientists alike can visit these monuments and study the glyphs to learn what happened in this region so many years ago.

Coming Soon on Guatemalan Adventures!

After a hectic week of vacation around the country with the Piering Family who came to visit, we are slowly settling back in the swing of things here at work. Fortunately for us we have another week long vacation coming up in September where we will likely head to Honduras with the hopes of SCUBA diving with the elusive whale shark that is found off the coast of the Honduran Bay Islands. Coming soon we will post a few blog pictures and post about our recent visit to the jungles of Tikal with Jerry and LeAnn Piering.

Xatinap Segundo Visit

On Sunday, Toby and I had the pleasure of traveling with Andy and Tomasa to the neighboring village of Xatinap Segundo. There are actually 5 Xatinaps all around the same area, but separated by huge valleys, making it quite a scary 4-mile ride as we stood in the back of the pickup getting wet. Between Xatinap Primero and Xatinap Segundo is a huge ravine that we have to drive down into and wind back up to the other side. Only a small portion is paved (thanks to the corrupt FRG political party) but otherwise the road is potholed, muddy, and quite dangerous. The trucks try to speed up the hill to make it over bumps but then get stopped with wheels spinning, and almost go over the edge with a truck bed full of standing passengers. It is quite difficult to safely hold on while all this is going on. The photo below is where we ended up after our attempts to make it up the hill. The car stalled out and was over heating so we decided to walk the rest of the way. BTW...this photo does not accurately portray how freaked I was on this journey.


When we made it up the hill we headed over to Tomasa's mother's house, where Tomasa and her siblings all grew up. We were very sweetly invited to have lunch with the whole family, some of which we already knew and some new faces. We all crowded under the porch around miscellaneous tables and shared a very pleasant lunch of chicken, tortillas, beans, and cucumber salad.
After we ate, we were able to visit further with Tomasa's family and play games with the kids. Above we are playing the card game Kings (or Reyes) that Toby and I taught Lisa and her cousins. It seemed to be a pretty big hit with them once everyone understood the game. Below shows us playing a local game called Aguas (or sodas) where 1 person is the store owner, 1 person is the shopper, and the others are flavors of sodas. The first round I played the shopper and had to guess what flavor soda the kids were. Once I guessed right then the store owner (Lisa) would "open" the bottle and then the soda had to run to across the courtyard to a set location before I tagged them, or they were out. It was fun to play something local here, but really tested my soda flavors and tired me out running each turn!

The fair in Xatinap Segundo was taking place so we followed the blaring music and all went over to watch the dancing outside of the church. Because of the fair, there was a greater number of people in town, and an exhibition soccer game taking place for the festivities. Normally, the population of Xatinap Segundo is only around 200, without any kind of town center, except the church and school. Most men travel to Guatemala to work at factories or tire repair places during the week and only return home on the weekends. So the fair was quite the treat for everyone in town.

Below are the costumed dancers stomping through the mud in front of the church. As the live band played the masked pairs of dancers changed their positions. If you look close you can see only 1 full-body furry costume of a cat. This one cracked us up because it was unlike the others, which were all dressed in fancy medieval type costumes in matching pairs. This white cat danced around without a partner getting its white suit all nasty and muddy at the bottom. We don't know what it was doing there, or the significance of the costumes in general. However, we've learned this is a common scene during feria week.

Above all, Toby and I really appreciated spending time with family and seeing a new way of life here in Guatemala. It's great to put a picture with the place Tomasa and her family grew up. We hope to spend more time out there with the Bulux family, possibly staying out on Andy and Tomasa's property someday in the future.