Tobi´s First Week at Camino Seguro

So I have finished my first week at Camino Seguro, and it has been really difficult and wonderful all at the same time. I´ll share with you guys what a typical day looks like for me. I wake up at the crack of dawn each morning with many roosters singing and the sun shining in at about 4:00AM; I do my best to sleep through it, but I´m not very good at that yet. I get on a chicken bus (named because we are packed in like chickens, think sardines) a little after 7:00AM that takes me from Antigua to Guatemala City, which in the world of buses is simply known as Guate. There´s a guy that works on the bus called the ayudante that hangs outside the bus yelling, "Guate, Guate, Guate!" all the way there to let people know where the bus is heading. The advertising works so well that by the time we get there the bus is crazy full. Basically these are converted school buses, and we sit three to a seat and have people standing in the aisles (welcome to the Latin American concept of personal space). The ride takes about an hour usually; although in my first week we have had both a broken down bus which required us to get on another bus and standstill traffic due to an accident that meant that the trip took three hours instead of one! You never know what a ride on a chicken bus will bring.

On the way to school we drive by the Guatemala City dump, which is the largest in Central America. By the time we get there at 8ish, the dump is bustling with the activity of people trying to find enough food and recyclables to make it through another day. There are also hundreds of vultures flying over it all the time. And long before I see the dump, I can smell it. The odor is horrible and overwhelming, although I am growing quite used to it. It is a good reminder of where my kids come from; most of their parents work in the dump, and their "houses" are right across the street. I usually cry a bit when I see the dump each day, but I am also so happy to be there.

When I get to school I report to my fourth grade class. Guatemalan children only go to school for half a day. Therefore we have a morning class and an afternoon class, each with about 20 students. We spend the bulk of our time at school helping children with their homework for that day. I mostly help with math because I don´t have to understand Spanish very well to be able to do that. The language barrier makes it very difficult for me to do a whole lot more in terms of the homework, but I did get to help a student with a project where we made animals out of clay on Friday. That was a lot of fun. Much of the homework that the students have in Guatemala is very basic and repetitive; it also often requires many resources, like a dictionary or the internet or art supplies, that my students would never have access to. The project provides all sorts of resources and support for the students, including food and additional support for the families. We also do a special activity each day, like computers, sports, woodworking, English, etc. They really do amazing things with these kids.

The teacher in my class is a Guatemalan woman named Miriam, and she interacts beautifully and gracefully with the students. She loves them well and runs a really tight ship, which is great for the kids. She is also very generous with my poor Spanish and helps me understand what´s happening and how I can help the kids. She actually goes to a Math training on Wednesday afternoons, and I got to see the class without her. It was a disaster; all the magic in fourth grade happens because of her. (I think I´ll stay home next Wednesday, just kidding)

The kids seem like any other kids, with a few exceptions. In my fourth grade class I have children ranging in age from 10 to 13. Some of them smell a bit like the dump. Many of them come to school in clothes with holes or stains. And it´s not the sort of place where you make jokes about zippers being down because many of them are obviously wearing pants that were thrown out by someone else because of the faulty zipper. Some of them wear the same clothes each day. I think that this week we will check them all for lice. But really they are beautiful, happy children. They laugh and play and lie about having homework. They like to read books and work puzzles and play Uno. They pretend to have to go to the bathroom so they can get out of class. And there is a joy about them that is contagious.

At the end of the day I get back on the chicken bus to head from the stench of the garbage dump to the beautiful city of Antigua. The bus provides a lot of time to think (and study Spanish), and everyday on at least one of my bus rides I thank God for these kids and for this month and for the change that it will surely bring in me.

I´ll try to add some pictures to this post soon. I´ve got some great ones of the kids, but they are at home and I am not.