The amazing thing about Peace Corps Guatemala is that just when you feel like your life is headed in a downward spiral, something amazing comes along to lift your spirits and set you back on the right path. Let me start with my arrival in Guatemala after an amazing two weeks spent with family and friends. I can’t say that coming back wasn’t hard – it was. I resolved to hit the ground running and jump right into work. This was a great plan, except that work wasn’t ready for me to jump right into it. On Monday I went to my school in Tojcheche to find that there are only 27 students enrolled so far, with only four in primero. If we couldn’t get at least six more enrolled in that grade, one of the teachers would lose her job. We spent the afternoon wandering around the community, trying to enroll a number of girls who had graduated from primary school but had not enrolled in básico. We spoke to a number of mothers, all of whom gave us the same response: “I asked my daughter, but she doesn’t want to study.” It was a little heartbreaking to hear this over and over again. I returned home Monday evening feeling pretty sad.
On Tuesday, I made the hour-long trek (through the mid-day blazing sun) to Chixal, which is my favorite school. I got there a little early, and sat in the shade reading. It wasn’t until an hour later that I realized that someone should have shown up at some point during the past 45 minutes to open the school. I called the secretary to ask her why no one was there, and she told me that a number of students hadn’t returned from the coffee plantations yet, so they weren’t starting classes until next week. It was still incredibly hot out, so I stayed in the shade and read a couple more chapters of my book. I walked back home, and found that I was feeling a little depressed. I locked myself in my house for the rest of the afternoon, feeling useless.
Wednesday morning, I figured I should call the director of my school in Taltimiche to see if there were going to be classes, but I decided that if classes were in fact cancelled, I would most likely sit in my house all day feeling sorry for myself, so I headed out on a nice walk to find out first-hand. About ten minutes into my walk, Amilcar, an acquaintance of mine, drove by in his tuk-tuk (3-wheeled motor taxi), and told me he was on his way to Taltimiche, and to hop in. I got a free ride all the way to Taltimiche! This day was already shaping up to be better than the beginning of the week. I walked down the hill towards the school, and an old man greeted me and asked me ja ma tchayiy?, which means “where are you going?” in Mam. I told him I was going to the institute, and stopped to talk to him, since my free ride had made me about 15 minutes early. We had a nice talk, and it turns out that although the man never once set foot in a school, and is completely illiterate, his daughter is a university graduate! Very cool. My spirits were lifted another notch.
I walked down to the school, and waited until ten minutes after classes were supposed to start, and then decided to call the director. He told me what I was expecting to hear – that there were no classes. He said that he and the secretary would be there soon, and to wait for him. I should stop here to note that Taltimiche is my least favorite school. I never feel like I’m being taken seriously there, and I’ve had trouble getting the director to listen to me. Anyway, the director showed up about a half hour later, carrying an English textbook. We sat together and I helped him with his English pronunciation. After about an hour and a half, he said “ya me cansé,” which basically means “I’m worn out.” He then said “I invite you… orange. No, no, no, I invite you gaseosa.” He wanted to buy me a soda. We headed down to the nearby store, and we got drinks and sat and talked for a long time. We told each other about our families, and he was really interested in my travels, so I pulled out my planner, which has a world map in the back of it, and we had a little geography lesson. Then, we talked about my plans for the coming school year, and I felt like, for the first time, he was really listening to me. The whole experience left me feeling excited and ready to start work in Taltimiche – I’ll have to wait until next week, however.
