Retirement what retirement?

Me looking cool!

I really wasn't as angry as I look!   (click to enlarge any pic)

Marvin just sent me this picture from my trip to Coban, "Michael the Woodsman" ~ not sure why I am looking so preoccupied ~maybe the thought of the work ahead! And yes, I did use the chain saw despite visions of theTexas Chainsaw Massacre in my head! 

 El Plan Infinito

I learned today that Alice – the Founder /Director of CasaSito is happy for me to be the new coordinator of the El Plan Infinito Project with effect from Easter. So itwill be full steam ahead on this for a minimum of two years. I am so excited by the project, especially after having participated in the youngsters day out last Thursday.  I had a great time, I only hope the children also enjoyed themselves  (I know they did!) I felt well pleased with myself for making jokes with these youngsters in Spanish!  We visited the 5* Hotel Santo Domingo which boasts its own ruins, museum, art gallery and chocolate factory!  Then we retired to the CasaSito Volunteers house for refreshments!  It was a great way to meet the children for the first time. They were so well behaved (maybe a bit “too well”  ~ but there is a reason for that ~ things will change on the fun front!)

Jaime, the current coordinator of El Plan Infinito, and I are hatching a plan for a project very different to the kind of stuff the children have done in the past. We have been invited to participate in the 10th anniversary celebrations of another organisation Los Niños as El Plan Infinito receives funding from them.  Normally the children sing a few songs ~ but not this time!  This time we are retelling a Mayan tale of the twin Gods who became the Sun and the Moon, this involves rewriting the story, making some 25 masks, and creating some music/ sound effects. Both Jaime and I hope that this will be a really exciting project and engage the children in new ways and let them have a load of fun whilst at the same time learning about their own Maya heritage.

 

This video was made about 14 months ago, the new centre is built furnished and ready to go, except for the fact that it has no water supply. A saga, but suffice it to say that local politics are playing a part!  But Jaime is on the case and water should be "on tap"  in two to three weeks, then we can startto use the building, unfortunately without water for refreshmentsand the loos having 40 children about the place is not a good idea!  In the mean time we will use a room atth elocal primary school for the Maya project!   The lovely new building will be my "fiefdom"  and I can't wait!  

Prototype Tecolote (Mayan Owl) Mask

Going native- Lessons in being "Chapin"

Jossefet, was staying with me for a long weekend and he was a terrific help as he is very creative, artistic and generally really nice to be with! We spent the weekend gardening, cooking and making a prototype mask.

I am learning about all things “chapin” from Jossefet!  (Chapin is the urban term for a Guatemalteco!)   He is a very proud Guatemalan. So I am learning about cooking authentic chapin food, making coffee the chapin way  ~ by boiling water in an aluminium kettle then adding the coffee powder to the water in the kettle, the coffee is STRONG!  Then pouring the steaming brew into specially shaped mugs (chapin of course!) and drinking with loads of sugar.

Also learned  to make hot chocolate buy dissolving chocolate in boiling water (no milk!) surprisingly delicious and  to eat my fried plantains with refried beans, cream and cheese and a dozen other chapin things!

I am, even as I write this cooking rice the chapin way!

We got the barbeque going in the garden and on Friday had beef (lomito) and on Saturday we had two enormous  Tilapa ~ with guacamole, chirmol ( a grilled tomato, chilli and onion salsa), chapin rice and tortillas negras all washed down with tamarindo.  Lovely.

Typical Street Food Vendors

"Tostada"

In the evening we had just looked at a menu offering the same bbq beef for Q.235 per head (£20) and reckoned that with veg, soup, postre (pudding), coffee and wine the meal would cost around £80 or Q.960. So with good food very much in mind we headed to the Merced Church and eat our fill of incredible street food for a total of Q.40 or £3.40 for both of us.  I had tostadas, atol de elote (a drink mad from corn, hot sweet and thick) and then another drink /pudding of rice cooked with chocolate and pantains stuffed with a sweet bean mixture and the whole lot dunked in batter and deep fried! Heavenly!!   If a little tough on the old calories!  Have to say we felt somewhat smug, as we watched the Gringos trotting off to the expensive places~ even if we did have to eat our food city on the church wall! The place was packed, but I was probably the only European eating this amazing street food. 

General

(Not my passport!)

Today, I went to collect my visa, all went well except for the fact that they had calculated the date wrong and expected me to leave Guatemala on 31 March, not 28 April as I was expecting. Because of “Machismo” eventually the mistake was blamed on the computer and within ten minutes a new visa was issued to me – odd that it took 8 days to produce the incorrect one and so quick to issue the revised one! Anyways I am happy, so on April 28 I have to leave the country for 3 days before  I can re-enter.  But I am hoping that I will be taking part in the Latin American Academy of Eurochambres (if it is still on) it will take place in Brazil so that will take me out of Guatemala for 5 days or so. (Just heard that indeed I will probably be in Brazil the last week of April!)

Tomorrow I start my English teaching at my old Spanish School in earnest, I am expected to teach about 20 hours a week for the next month. So that combined with about 20 hours for CasaSito this month pretty much fills my days!  In March I will drop the English and start with CasaSito full-time.  (My student is Korean and has about 3 words of English non of which I can understand because of his heavy accent!)

My bank "helpfully" decided that somebody (I wonder who?) was using my card in Guatemala and blocked it!  After a call to them via Skype they "helpfully" unblocked it, having forgotten to read the note saying that indeed it was I who was in Guatemala!  Funny that they had not noticed the card being used for the last three months! .......

This weeks gallery is from the El Plan Infinito/ CasaSito outing last Thursday.

The El Plan Infinito gang!

The gang with Jaime, Miriam and Oslan from CasaSito

En Casa de Voluntarios for "Refecciones"

Two Little Angels

"Little Women"

This lad is very shy, but very cute!

Innocence personified!

Note:  The little lad who is shy, has a serious eye disease but sadly his parents simply cannot afford to get it treated, CasaSito is doing what it can to makesure it gets no worse, but he will probably have to wait his chance for when there is a visit from "Medecins Sans Frontieres" or similar ~ such is life for the poor communities of Guatemala!  We are all trying to develop his confidence and to overcome his disability, as inside there is a cheeky little boy trying to get out!

 Hasta  Luego Amigos!