Manna Project: Return of the PD

Last week, one of last year's Program Directors came to visit us. It was so much fun to be able to meet "Camaron Sin Cola," hear about his adventures here, and receive some pointers on various programs and Spring Break planning. Here are some of his thoughts on his visit:

Before I left Guatemala in June 2012, I promised myself that I would make an effort to return within a year. The relationships I formed and the experiences I had were too valuable to throw away. Therefore, this past week, during my winter break from school, I returned to Guatemala.

It’s always a little different to return to a place as an outsider instead of an active participant. This time around in Chaquijyá, I had the opportunity to watch the new Manna Program Directors do what I had been doing for the past year.  It was great to see how Sarah, Jess, Ja, Nicole, and Julie had not only continued the programs in the community, but also implemented new changes for improvement. They have formed great relationships with the teachers, students, and families in Chaquijyá, and I can imagine they will have a successful rest of the year.

As for me, it was somewhat surreal to be back in the far away land of Guatemala. For my former students, it was as if I had suddenly apparated (Harry Potter reference) in the middle of their town with no prior warning. They were truly shocked to see me, as if they had seen a ghost. Aside from that, I received many warm welcomes from the teachers, students, and families I had worked with last year. I guess it’s difficult to forget the only tall, sunglass-wearing, white male who you used to visit the community on a regular basis.

During my year as a Program Director, I always wondered if I had made an impact. I think the jury is still out on whether my students will ever become proficient in English, but I can be sure that I was not forgotten. Just as they were not forgotten in my mind and heart. I can only hope that if and when any former Program Directors return, they will be received with similar open arms.  

What's it really all about?

 About a month ago, Lorena and I were up late talking, and she gave me a pop quiz. One question, four possible answers. The question was, “When you leave Guatemala, who are you going to miss the most?” The choices were varied, but my answer was easy and immediate. I said, “My students.”

Living in Guatemala had its ups and down. From making new friends but having to see them leave a few months later, traveling to exotic destinations but sometimes not being able to leave the house due to natural disasters, and having one of your closest companions, Oliver the cat, being taken away from you instantly one day. However, there always seemed to be one constant. Every Monday and Thursday in the afternoon, I had the pleasure of teaching English to 40 Primero Basico (7^th grade) and 11 Segundo Basico (8^th grade) students in Chaquijyá Central. I was not only their English teacher, but a connection to an outside, Western world that they might never see. Our relationship was much more than English nouns and verbs. I learned about their families, was given homemade crafts as gifts, and invited to community events. I watched their enthusiasm in the English language grow from simple excitement over learning bad words and swears to wanting to use English to tell me how they were feeling: “Cameron, are you happy? I am happy.”  When I walked into school every day they would greet me with a “What’s up?” They even wanted to describe their friends:  “Alfredo is fat. Claudia is pretty. Cameron the teacher is ugly."

Most of the time in life, people are focused on themselves. It is quite difficult to consistently dedicate your time to other people, while putting your interests aside. I can truthfully say that looking outside of myself and putting my efforts towards bettering the lives of my students was a truly rewarding experience.  Am I saying I didn’t gain any personal benefit and satisfaction? Of course not. I enjoyed every minute with them, whether we were learning, joking, arguing or playing soccer. However, if I had not put forth the effort to make a connection with my students, their positive influence wouldn’t resonate with me the way it does now. Was I a good teacher? I don’t really know. Having never done it before, it’s hard to tell. However, one thing I do know is that my students' personal warmth, laughter, and willingness to accept me into their inner circles made an impact on me. As I walked up the hill away from school for the last time on Thursday, I wondered if I would ever come back. I think I will. A part of me has been left in those two classrooms in Chaquijyá Central, and I guess I have to come back to rekindle that spirit. Before I left, I gave each student a class picture with words written at the top.  Estoy orgulloso de ti. I am proud of you. And I know I will be for a long time. Thank you for being part of my life. Se cuidan.

--Cameron Roth, newly-retired PD

Sunday Snapshot

Happy last day in Guatemala, Cam! We'll miss you!

Soap!

As a Program Director, we are given freedom in creating new programs that will be beneficial to the community. For the past 8 months or so, I’ve been working on a health project focused on the production of homemade soap. This past Thursday, all of the hard work came to fruition. Let me back up a little to explain.

Manna Project Guatemala’s health program focuses on giving health talks to the students, focusing on themes such as personal and dental hygiene. One of the aspects of health we emphasize the most is the importance of washing one’s hands. Unfortunately, no matter how much we tell the kids to wash their hands, it is very difficult to follow through as there is a lack of soap in the school and the community. For whatever reason, the schools do not provide soap for the students to wash their hands. Seeing this, I came up with an idea. What if I could gather people from the community and figure out how to make soap cheaply and from commonly used items? This way, families would be able to have soap in their house, and would also be able to provide it to the school. Seemed like a good idea…but how does one make soap?

I started scouring the Internet for homemade soap recipes. The easiest ones I found involved mixing animal fat and caustic soda (available due to its use in the weaving community) with water to form a crude soap. At the same time, I met Francisco and his wife Candelaria, the local midwife, and pitched my idea. They seemed to buy into my theory and were willing to help me in any fashion. Off and on, for the next 7 or so months, I would pick up pounds of beef fat from Mario, the local Sololá butcher, and bring it to Francisco’s house in Chaquijyá. There, we would melt the fat and experiment mixing different measurements of caustic soda, water, herbs, leaves, and fruit juices to make the soap as refined (and pleasant smelling) as possible. Finally, we figured out a recipe that worked a couple times, and we decided to present it to a group of women in the community. I wrote up a bunch of recipes, separated measurements of caustic soda into bags, and presented to the women. After, Francisco and I gave a demonstration on how to make the soap. They seemed interested, engaged and excited that the soap was easy to make and worked well. 

My ultimate goal for the soap project is to have women make the soap for their family, and in addition be able to sell it to the schools and in stores for a small profit. Unfortunately, we are only at Stage 1 right now, as the women have just begun making soap in their own households. Since I only have a short amount of time left in Guatemala, I don’t believe I will be around to see my vision fulfilled, however I hope that the incoming volunteers will be enthusiastic to help Francisco, the women, and continue this project.

-Cameron

Tortilla Nation

Many people travel the world in search of culinary excellence. Popular destinations include France, Italy, Thailand and Greece, for those who love food and want to try new things. Unfortunately, Guatemala does not make that list. Not even close. Now, this is a personal opinion, so please take it with a grain of salt, but please, read on. Guatemala is “known” for its corn tortillas. These incredibly complex culinary creations involve the delicate mixing of corn with water. Corn + water = corn tortilla. Congratulations, you are now a Guatemalan chef. No, these are not the corn tortillas that your local Mexican restaurant serves. And no, Qdoba and Chipotle do not even use corn tortillas. But I digress. Corn tortillas are the staple of the Guatemalan diet. Whether you are served eggs and beans, grilled meat and green onions or you are lucky enough to receive chopped hot dogs and mayonnaise salad; it will always be accompanied by a corn tortilla. They taste like cardboard. They’re dry enough to make a fish thirsty. They don’t fold well enough to make a nice taco shape, and they are too small to carry much of your meal into your mouth. Guatemala is a beautiful country with warm and receptive people. I have enjoyed pretty much every second of the past 10 months. Come here to explore, go on adventures, learn Spanish, and meet new people. But don’t come here for the food.  

Woo! Spring Break!

Who can believe it’s February? Apparently time flies when you’re teaching English. And building a bottle school. And planning for Spring Break. Speaking of Spring Break, in less than a month, we will have our first group of Spring Break volunteers arriving in Sololá. Fifteen fresh-faced students from the beautiful Nashville campus of Vanderbilt University will be here for a week, experiencing a little bit of the Program Director lifestyle. The following week, we will be welcoming students from both Tulane University and the University of Georgia. Finally, to round out the month of March, we will be hosting medical students from the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Each group will be working on a week-long project in one or both of our schools in Chaquijyá. Now, preparing these projects ahead of time is no walk in the park. Let me paint you a picture.

Talkin' it out with Celso, the principal of La Primaría Cooperativa

Vanderbilt is coming in a little less than a month to assist in building a playground in La Escuela Central. Essentially, the volunteers have 4-5 days to construct a full functioning playground that can withstand the madness of 275 children. Since January, the group and I have been brainstorming a plan of what we want to include in our playground. Easy? Well no. Getting everyone in the community on the same page in building the structures is probably the hardest part. The architect wants to build everything out of wood. He wants all the wood shipped in from the capital. The metal worker wants to build everything out of…you guessed it…metal. He wants to construct everything at his shop, for an exorbitant fee. Meanwhile, the director of the school wants me to present a blueprint to the PTA-equivalent to gain their support for the project. We need manpower from the community to assist in building the structures. No manpower, no playground. A lot of action going on at once.

However, this is fun. All this time I’ve made some great relationships, come up with cool ideas, and at the end of the day, we’re doing something for the kids! I know everything will get done eventually, and I’m excited to have the volunteers come and work next to us for a week. Stayed tuned for project and Spring Break updates!

See ya!

Cam

Welcome Back!

The Manna Guatemala team is back in business! After three relaxing weeks at home with our families for the holidays, we recently returned to our beautiful home in Sololá. Fortunately, Oliver, our flea-ridden cat had survived the holiday season as well. In fact, Santa dropped off a couple gifts for Oliver at the Roth household, so all is well. School will be starting soon, and we are very excited to begin our transition from in-school English instruction to after-school lessons. One of the highlights of the upcoming months includes the arrival of a new Program Director, Lorena, who we are all very excited to work with. Additionally, in the month of March, we will have four groups of Spring Break volunteers from Vanderbilt (who ya wit?!), Tulane, University of Georgia, and University of Alabama-Birmingham.  We look forward to showing these groups this beautiful country and introducing them to the friendly people. More updates to follow, so stay tuned to the blog! Hope you all had a very happy holiday season and here's to 2012!

Now it's time for the playoffs,

Cameron

Brought to you by Vitamin C

(Background music for this blog)

Do you remember when you graduated from sixth grade? Neither do I. In fact, most people in the United States do not have a graduation ceremony from sixth grade; they just treat it as another school year gone by. However, in Guatemala, graduation from sixth grade is a big deal. Recently, thirty of my sixth-graders graduated from La Primaría Central, marking the end of their required schooling. Some will continue on to Basico, our equivalent of middle school, while others will suspend or permanently end their education careers in order to work for their families. I have put up with taught these students since August (shout out to Ginny, who did a phenomenal job teaching 6^th-grade English in the eight months prior), and I am sad I won’t see them at school next year. 

 Although the Guatemalan and American ideas of graduation may differ, the emotions that arise during the ceremony are exactly the same. An accomplishment is an accomplishment in any culture and in any country. Sitting on the stage with my sixth graders as they were handed their diplomas, I noticed tears come to the eyes of the proud parents of each student. This sent me on a trip down memory lane, as my Mom loved to show her emotion during both my graduation from high school and college. Tough, hardworking fathers were beaming with pride as their children walked across the decorated stage and accepted their certificates. A proud parent is a proud parent, regardless of whether you speak English or Kaqchikel. Many parents held out their digital cameras and phones, recording this proud moment, as many American parents would have done as well. Loud cheers were heard from groups of families as their child was called. I saw my students being wrangled into “diploma-holding photos,” where the recent graduates try to look excited for about…say…25 photos at a time. It was a proud day for the sixth-graders of Escuela Central, and I wish them luck in the future. I look forward to seeing them around the community (hopefully studying in basico in the afternoons), responding to my presence with a resounding yell: “Camaron sin cola!” (Shrimp without a tail). Yes, my name means “shrimp” in Spanish, but I digress.  Wherever the thirty of them may be, they all have accomplished something, and they and their parents deserve to be proud. Buenas suerte a todos!

Onward to camp,

Cameron 

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls...

Picture this, but in our house, with a trashcan underneath.

Start collecting wood, hammers and nails. We’re going to build an ark. The rain, which has been coming down for the past 40 days (more like 12 hours), has confined us to our house in Sololá. Look out the window and you will see, well, nothing. Living at approximately 6,500 feet has encased us in a milky white cloud, limiting our vision to the outside world to about five feet. However, where most people have to hike to see a waterfall, we have our own, conveniently located between the first and third floors. Our balcony recently flooded under the door, causing water to careen down in a majestic cascade into a tranquil collecting pool (trash can) on the bottom floor. If you listen closely, you can hear the tropical birds flocking around this new natural wonder. Actually, that’s probably just our cat Oliver, stuck in the closet. The normal honking sounds of the chicken buses passing by our house have subsided for the day, as I don’t think even the bravest and/or craziest of drivers would take on the windy, half-collapsed mountainous road between Sololá and Panajachel in this weather. But then again, you never know.

Alas, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Rainy season will be coming to a much-needed (personal opinion) close in a couple weeks. With the end of rainy season comes the end of carrying a rain jacket everywhere, from a five minute walk to the market to an overnight trip to San Pedro. For us, rain may seem like an inconvenience, but for our local Guatemalan amigos, rain is sustenance. Rainy season keeps the crops on the farm growing, which they can sell in the market to support their families. When the rain stops, plants stop growing. This is a yearly cycle in Guatemala that has been happening for hundreds of years, so the farmers are well prepared for the dry season. They will find other ways to make money during the dry season, and once again prepare for the blissful rains to fall from the sky again. They do not melt as the Wicked Witch of the West once did, but maintain their lifestyles with knowledge and preparation. We will try to do the same as we continue to adapt to life in Guatemala, but for now, I think I just heard Oliver go down our waterfall in a barrel.

-- Cam

Strangers in a Foreign Land

This week's post comes from Cameron, the fourth and final member of the 2011-2012 MPIG team. Enjoy!

Have you ever been stared at like you’re an alien from a different planet? I’ve been in the beautiful country of Guatemala for almost two months, and I’ve been gawked at almost every day by countless Guatemalans. To clarify, these aren’t the kind of stares that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie receive. No, the Guatemalans aren’t rolling out the red carpet and pushing through crowds to get our autographs. We just look different.

Personally, at an (American) average height of five feet and nine inches, with brown hair and white skin, I fit in perfectly… in the United States. But nobody in Guatemala looks like me. Countless times I have been on a chicken bus (the lovely converted school buses that are packed like sardine cans, but with people—definitely illegal in the United States) and have had young Guatemalan children shamelessly stare at me. I’ll make a funny face, they’ll laugh and turn away for a second, but rest assured, they will fix their deep brown eyes on me once again. And I don’t even have the worst of it. The kids love Dana’s freckles, Emily’s extremely foreign, blonde hair, and Kelsey’s gold, sparkly shoes (imagine Dorothy’s, but gold). 

And, even after community members have grown accustomed to the way we look, any change in our day-to-day appearance is cause for renewed staring. The students and teachers were shocked when I first wore my glasses to school, and I immediately became cuatro ojos (four eyes) for the day. One of my students looked up at me for a solid thirty seconds (I’m the tallest person in the school… again, something that would never happen at home) and finally said, “Hey…what happened?” 

The kids love to look at us, whisper to each other, point and laugh. Do we take offense? Of course not, because they’re just having fun. We are in their country, playing by their rules. We are here to build relationships, put our ear to the ground, and help in whatever way we can. But to do any of that successfully, we need to learn to laugh at ourselves. That’s part of the fun.

Cameron