An Impromptu Summer Vacation

Snack time in El Desvio.

Things are a little off kilter here in Soledad Grande lately. I was really getting into the swing of things working in my schools again since classes started in February: getting to know the new students, teaching about nutrition and dental hygiene, preparing to plant our gardens in May when it starts to rain again. Then two weeks ago one of the teachers in Pino Dulce pulled me aside to inform me that "all the teachers in Guatemala are going on strike tomorrow". My first question was, of course, why? "We haven't been payed yet this year". Ok, I guess that sounds like a decent reason. My second question was, how long? "We have no idea, at least two weeks". I realized that the kids were going to be out of school for at least three weeks, since Holy Week was in three weeks (there is always vacation the week leading up to Easter). Sigh. So here we are in the second week of the strike...and who knows when the kids will be back in school! The two teachers in El Desvio, however, were still giving classes last week. So on Tuesday we harvested some Swiss Chard from the school garden, and I taught the mothers who were assigned to make the kids' snack that day how to make a healthy snack. A couple kids refused to eat it because they "don't eat vegetables", but in general it went over pretty well!

I'm working on it...

Another thing disrupting my normal schedule (and the schedule of everybody else in Soledad Grande) is the lack of water. Normally the potable water comes on once every four days for a few hours. The village owns a few springs that feed into a big tank, and then they use an electric pump to pump water to all the houses. That doesn't sound like very much, but everybody has barrels to save water in, and my family even has a little tank. So even now, when it hasn't rained since November, we don't suffer too much from lack of water. Until the water pump broke. Two weeks ago. Now everybody (and by everybody I mean all the women and girls) have to walk to springs or creeks to bath, wash clothes, and carry drinking water back to their houses. And now a lot of people are complaining of stomach problems, a result, I'm assuming, of drinking spring water without boiling it. This is all a little more rustic than my Peace Corps experience has been so far! But it could be worse. There's a clean spring about 15 minutes from our house. The only problem is that I can't carry a jug of water on my head with no hands. But hey, at the rate things are moving, I'll probably be a pro by the time they fix the pump and we have water at our house again!

Early morning sunshine on a weekend walk from Soledad Grande to San Antonio Las Flores.

Blackberry picking with two of my favorite girls: Lacey and Leslie.