It’s about time I updated again! Life in Santa Maria continues to be new and exciting. The feria, or town fair, is next weekend so all the schools are preparing for the parade and the new central park is going to be opening that weekend as well. My birthday was really nice- on Wednesday night, I shared tamales and chocolate with my host family and then on Thursday I was invited over to Israel’s house for tamales and chocolate. I also made a banana-coconut bread concoction in my toaster oven that turned out really good! They sang me happy birthday and other songs and it was a really nice meal. It was wonderful not to have to eat alone on my birthday! Tamales and chocolate is probably my favorite meal so far- the tamales are really good with a piece of meat and sauce inside. They are usually eaten with fresh bread or crispy tortillas. The chocolate is SOO good too- when I say chocolate, I mean the blocks that they melt in boiling water and drink. It’s really rich and creamy if you add a bit of powdered milk- perfect for a cold rainy night. That day as well I had a 4 hour meeting in the municipality so it was nice to relax for a bit after that. I was starting to get really stressed out as well, with planning for classes and trying to do more than I have time for, so I had to cut down on my Tz’utujil classes. It was hard because I know that my teacher really needs the money, but it wasn’t worth being so stressed out all the time. Now I only have class 2 times a week. There is a German volunteer in town who works in the preschool, so one day I went with her to work just to see what kind of stuff she does for a little while. It was so cute! The kids were absolutely adorable. They ate breakfast there- beans and tortillas and everyone had beans all over their face. We helped them brush their teeth afterward and played some games and then I had to leave. My English classes are starting to get more technical so I have to look for fun ways to teach grammar. I like our classes a lot though- we have about 4 students who always come to class and so we can joke around a lot and I can personalize the lessons a lot more. I learn something new about teaching every day! Sometimes it really stinks being a woman here because sometimes the guys don’t take you seriously. I’ve been asked out several times by married men with children, and it just makes the work environment uncomfortable. Fortunately, though, a strong “no” has deterred most of them for the time being. Just part of being a single gringa in Guatemala! My site mate Grace just certified three of her schools as “Healthy Schools” or “Escuelas Saludables”, so on Tuesday there was a big celebration for that. It was so neat! Each school did a presentation- two of the schools did traditional dances and one school sang 5 songs. It was really sweet. I took lots of pictures, so hopefully I will be able to post recent pictures this weekend. I’m itching to buy a corte and guipil, but they are so expensive! A little bit less than 1000 quetzales? So I’m going to have to save for a while. Other than that, I’ve been pretty busy planning for the taller for teachers that we will have. Getting approval from the CTA, writing practice lesson plans, invitations, the agenda, lots of things to do! There was also another clinic at the Puesto de Salud, except this time it was for diabetes. I helped out there in the morning. Diabetes is becoming a problem here so they want to be sure to catch any problems early on.
Today was market day, so I got lots of fresh fruits and veggies! It has to be my favorite day of the week. I usually have smoothies on market days too because of all the fruit (watermelon smoothies are my favorite so far!) and now there are sweet potatoes, or camote, in the market so I’m excited about making some kind of bread with those. I can’t make sweet potato muffins, but I’m going to try and see how it turns out if I just make it all in one pan. I also got the Mennonite cookbook More with Less for my birthday from mom and dad (thanks so much!!) which is wonderful! It has simple recipes with simple foods, most of which I can find in the market, so today I’m going to try out a broccoli stem/celery dish. Most of the recipes don’t call for stuff that you can only find in the supermarket, which is great because it’s a big trip to the nearest one. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with all the fresh food here, maybe because I survived on pickled okra, frozen veggies, eggs, and grilled cheese last fall in Georgia when I cooked for myself!
Also, Wal-Mart is officially in Guatemla! It has been here for a while now, under the name of Hiper Pais, but they officially changed the name to Wal-Mart recently. It’s taking over the world! They are the closest place I’ve found with peanut butter though, so they are good for that and spices/specialty foods that you can’t find anywhere else. The Wal-Mart nearest me is in Quetzaltenango, though, so I only go there if I really, really, really, need peanut butter since it’s about 2 hours away!
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