November 19, 2008
I think the above is the correct date....I seldom look at a calendar here...kind of refreshing experience.
It has turned unseasonably cold in San Miguel...all the locals talk about ¨frio¨"...while it is very sunny and warm in the daytime...with the sunset the temp plumets..about 35 last night. We have gas logs in our house, but frequently the pilot goes out! So we lie on the floor turning the pilot dial and pushing the "encensor" (or something like that)...and if we are lucky after much failed effort we get a pilot light....then heat!
Scene of the day: a young guy in the bed of a pickup with truck with a lama..and he is selling chances for 10 pesos for some lucky person to become the owner of the lama! I didn´t buy a chance on it although the lama was quite pretty...I would be the unlucky one to win it!
Kristen and I continue to each meet a student in the library two times a week to have English conversation...My student, AnaValeria Luna Colunga is 14...looks about ll. Speaking English is very, very hard for her...but yesterday I got a Beverly Cleary book from the library shelf and asked her to read...she did really well!! It is the "ed" on the end of the word that proves hard...she wants to pronouce all the letters so will say "laugh..ed", etc. Spanish is easier in that you pronouce all the letters in a word...but I can totally sympathize with her. She would meet me every day if I could...eager to learn. We meet 2 afternoons a week. She does watch the Disney Channel and another Disney channel that is mainly about animals....you may know it..
Our other teaching experience is 2afternoons a week inthe Universidad Technologico where students are studying tourism and gastronomy...in other words studying to be waiters, work in hotels, be receptionists, chefs, etc. We take 2 buses to get there...about 30 minutes away and costs us 5 pesos each for each bus..... in total that is less than a US $1 each. The road to the school finally becomes a dirt road...and much to my surprise just before we arrive at the school I realized we were on a airplane runway!! I saw a small plane the first day we went but none yesterday!
So, yesterday, we role played with the students....Kristen and I were the difficult American clients in a restaurant..all in English. Really the waiters, cafe manager, and chef did quite well. We gave them a pretty hard time with sending back food, wanting to smoke in a non smoking area, questioning what was in the food, asking for the manager, finding problems with the bill...
When Kristen demanded to smoke the waiter told her how bad it was for her health and that she would die from it...maybe waiters in the US should try that approach!! The school is a government school and costs $20a month for the students. Students are l8 - 22 yrs. old.
The economy is slow here...so much impact from the US...usually the school we are in may have 50 students, but now there are about l0 of us. The director has had to let several teachers go. She has hopes for Dec. Jan, Feb as that is the high season, but also has doubts...well founded, I think.
On the other side of the coin, we have a maid in our apt. 3 days a week....cleans the house, washes our clothes, irons--even our underwear and will cook if we give her the $ to buy food. We invited company last week so Mary Anna cooked enchiladas, Mexican rice, made a salad and guacamole......Kristen and I had 4 meals out of this!!
We are meeting people who have traveled in Guatemala and are giving us good tips. They suggest we go to see the ruins at Copan, Honduras while we are there. (Ellen, since you have been there, what do you think?) This would be instead of the ruins of Tikal, Guatemala.
We will leave here Dec 1 for C. then on Dec 11 to Guatemala and to the US on Dec 22.
Since Ihave been in this internet cafe, it has grown dark outside and the temp is quickly going down so must go to lite the pilot and turn on the logs! Cost of internet cafe computer time is about 85cents an hour! Many internet cafes here.....
Until later.....karen