Guatemalan Independence Day

To celebrate its 188 years of independence, Guatemala went all out with school parades, marching band competitions, and kids doing relays with torches. It's been a fun week but I think I've good on all of these things for at least another year now.

On the 14th, one of the middle schools that I'm working at asked me to be a judge for their 'civic altars'. Each of the ten classes was assigned a department (like states) of Guatemala and had to decorate their room to represent their designated region. They then also had to present on the geography, economy, traditional dress, etc. In every single class, they also gave each of us judges typical food from that department. In other words, I was given TEN lunches in one day and since there were only three of us judging, we really did have to try everything. That afternoon I was not feeling so great, but now just thinking about it makes me laugh.

On Tuesday, for Independence Day itself, I went to Xela with my sitemate Kate. Xela is the home of the Central American fair, which people come from all over to see. We decided to brave the crowds and watched at least a couple hours of the parade before we got bored and decided to head to the acutal fairgrounds. We each bought some typical fair food and wandered around marvelling at how many stands selling the exact same things manage to stay in business.

Yesterday my host sisters Maydi and Iris, who are 21 and 23, invited me to go try out the rides at the fair with them-- so I found myself back in Xela again. Luckily it's only about 20 minutes away. We actually had a really good time, even though the cheaper 10Q price (a little more than a dollar) was reflected in my also lessened confidence in the acutal safety standards of the rides. Everyone survived though, with lots of screaming and fun had by all.

Next week, we're starting with workshops for all 220 public elementary school teachers on how to implement environmental education in their schools. I'm nervous but am hoping it's the start of a good working relationship with schools in Cantel.