On school and rain and crazy tuk tuks

Our second day in Guatemala had us waking up to our new best friend the roster of the house. Rosa and her family have 20+ chickens for laying eggs and one very talkative rooster. Unfortunately this rooster is not a good timekeeper, as at 2am he thought it appropriate to sing to us very loudly. The windows in our room are not double pained and we could hear his lovely song. Fortunately one gets back to sleep quickly after a long day of traveling. But we made sure to give him a scowl as we walked down to breakfast.

Breakfast was pancakes and plantains and chocolate. The chocolate was warm and when it cooled it hardened like chocolate chips. That and the coffee fueled us up for the days activities.

At the school we met our teachers and were off to our classrooms. The classrooms are three sided rooms with the fourth side open. There is a small whiteboard on one wall, a table and two chairs. Michelle and Tim’s teachers did a quick assessment of their Spanish and they were off and running. Ales and his teacher spent a good part of the day drawing and talking about their art. It is good, because Alex enjoys art but doesn’t draw much. Most of the time he makes paper airplanes. Our house has paper airplanes everywhere :) The four hours went very quickly and it was nice to be able to have fun and ask any questions we wanted so we could really understand the language.

By the end of the day we all had homework for the evening. Alex had five math problems to work on, which he did while Michelle and Tim were talking to other students at the end of class. Tim had to write ten sentences and Michelle had to write twenty. Not sure exactly how that happened!

We returned home for a lunch of chicken soup. We are fast learning that Rosa is an amazing cook. The soup was full of local vegatables and chickens from their backyard. Poor chickens. Since her home is usually filled with students from the school we know the food will be ok for us to eat. This was one of our biggest worries, as none of us wants to be sick. We are all looking forward to more of her cooking.

We spent the afternoon walking around the city exploring. We bought some pan dulce and a quesadilla (no surprise that Alex was still hungry after lunch). We also bought new umbrellas from another shop as we forgot to bring ours (or our rain jackets) from home. And after our first night in Guatemala we learned that you either time your outings around the rain or you have something to keep you from getting soaked. However, the sound of the rain on the tin roofs is magical and makes it all worth the effort. We also found a park where kids were playing basketball, but Alex was too nervous to join in. We kept walking for a bit then went backup the room to rest.

Before dinner Rosa wanted to go to her church to deliver some lemons for the Sunday lemonade after church. So Alex and Michelle walked with Rosa and her son Kit to the church across town. It started raining soon after we left, but this time Alex and Michelle were prepared. The walkk was a long one, and towards the end Alex was getting tired. When we arrived at the church we found it was on a hill overlooking the lake. What a beautiful view to see each Sunday. On the way back we took a tuk tuk. A tuk tuk is a small three wheeled vehicle driven by madmen who know the exact dimensions of their vehicle and are not afraid to squeeze into tight spaces. Some of the streets here are barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. But the tuk tuks drive down them with a speed and determination that takes you breath away. Alex was verboten and presented to drive from the back seat. The joy on his face was refreshing. Needless to say, we were home in no time.

After a bit, dinner was ready. A simple dish of eggs, tomatoes and homemade bread and tortillas. It was simple but perfect and Alex ate his so fast you would hardly know he had been served any at all. Then he was off with the boys to watch a movie. Tim and Michelle stayed and talked with Rosa, her daughter and Rosa’s nephew. This family likes to tease, so Tim and Michelle fit right in. We played a fun game where someone would say a letter and we went around the circle thinking of words that had the letter. It is a good game to expose you to more Spanish words. And trying to define words using only Spanish is an amusing challenge.

Off to bed for us as tomorrow brings four more hours of classes and a mini lecture at the school on the Mayan calendar. Should be interesting!