Day 109: The Art Classes

Second day waking up super early. Second day missing that silly bus. But now I know why: The bus makes one big loop around the city instead of (like others) stopping at the market and retracing the route on the return trip. So, I have been waiting on the wrong side of the road, not looking in the right direction. In fact, yesterday, the María Victoria might have passed me by while I was looking down the opposite side of the street. I got a bit angry at the amount the tuk-tuk driver charged me, but I paid up since it was only really an excessive amount in Guatemala. Thinking like the tourist I really am, it was not as big a rip-off.

Today, I helped out with Emma's classes. Normally she has three classrooms to visit (Grades 1a and 1b, and Grade 2), but today it was just the first-graders. We had two lessons with each class, one of English Language and one of Art. We did the same project with each group: for English we worked on colors and body parts, culminating in a monster head drawn per instructions from Emma as to the number and color of the facial components. With one class, there was a curious number of monsters with noses located in the forehead area, causes still unknown. The kids are super cute, very excited, and there was one child in each class that shows an incredible knack for language: one girl, and one boy.

Art by 1b

Grade 1a

The second period that we had with each class (after break time, of course, as well as their other periods) was Art in which the project for today created a lovely combination of chaos and creativity. The children chose a printout animal shape (all animals introduced in a story told weeks before) and then hunting through magazines provided by an Earth Lodge donator, tore out little pieces of whatever color and glued them onto the animals. Once the animals were feathered, haired, and scaled in all sorts of colors they were cut out and glued onto different colors of crate paper. The rest of the space was then decorated with crayons, and we hung the artwork up to add a splash (cannonball sized) of water to the classroom walls. For the most part during the Art period we spoke in English. Only in a couple situations did we need to resort to a word or two in Spanish, which was excellent as the children's comprehension level was very high.

After classes, I helped Emma carry all the leftover supplies back to the Earth Lodge. There I ate the sandwich that Angelica packed me, but I was still hungry, so I ordered an Earth Lodge burger for lunch. It was quite delicious. Next time I order from them, though, I think I shall try the giant salad because it lived up to its name when two other people ordered it, and it looked rather good.

Because today is market day in Antigua, there were more buses going back and forth between El Hato and the market below, so I was able to go home with the 3.15 bus which got me home at about 3.40. It was nice to have a very low key afternoon, trying to not spend a lot of energy so that the mornings are not too rough. Today was OK, but I think that tomorrow will be worse, the third day always is. The body realizes that the first day was not an accident, that the second was not a joke, and the third day it does everything it can to not make it a habit.

Just finished dinner with Angelica and the other two guests. I cannot remember names, or I would include them, of course. They are quite 'upper' class Guatemalans, with their manicures, make up, and a way of talking and holding themselves that is really quite different from most of the people I have interacted with here. They are very friendly and good-humored, but they seem to live in a slightly different world.

Friday tomorrow, end of the penultimate school week, I am looking forward to getting a haircut on Saturday. Excessive hair and excessive heat fit the equation in which the sum is greater than either of the two parts. Still no severe sunburn though, must be doing something right.

Chao.