Friday, January 30, 2009

Deep Thoughts by Carey Cooper

I can't remember the last time I felt so tired and so fulfilled at the same time. It was probably a mission trip. :) And now my life is one big mission trip. And sometimes it's hard. Some mornings, I dread the long drive on Guatemala's windy, treacherous roads to the COLD mountains of Camanchaj. (Remember last year when I was complaining about my commute to Princeton? Ahh, those were the days...) And some nights, when I'm especially tired and frustrated, I wonder if I'm really strong enough to do this work long term. But other mornings, I wake up thinking about the children of Camanchaj and am filled with a deep sense of purpose. The feeling is new and sometimes I don't recognize it for what it is. I just know that I feel happy and at peace. And when that sense of purpose stays with me 'til night, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for my life with Jay in Guatemala.

As most of you know, since we arrived in October, I've been preparing for the opening of Camanchaj's first preschool -- meeting with parents, buying materials, planning a school menu, hiring teachers and cooks, recruiting sponsors from the US, and hundreds of other little things that a graduate degree in education didn't prepare me for! Well, the first day of school is finally here (Monday, February 2nd), and it wouldn't have been possible without the support of a lot of people (including you)! Above all, I am grateful for the help of a team of 21 volunteers who worked tirelessly the week before our community-wide celebration last Saturday. Jay has posted some photos and videos of the big week below. And I'll blog again soon about the first week of school. Wish us luck!

La Directora in front of the school - obviously still a work in progress at this point...

...but a few days later, with the help of countless volunteers, it all came together.

Setting up for the big opening celebration on Saturday morning.


Check out this 100-second video of the opening day celebration and school classrooms. It's not a party until the mariachi band arrives.

With our two teachers, Mary and Josefa. Carey and I are giants in Guatemala (I love it here).


Carey's speech on video - 2 1/2 minutes of dominating in Espanol!

It's all about the ribbon-cutting. Carey doing the honors with Salud y Paz director and founder, Dr. Phil Plunk.


One of our students, Diego, wearing his new school hoodie, his mother, Candelaria, who works as a receptionist in our Camanchaj clinic, and Inge, who is sponsoring Diego's education. This was Inge's last day in Camanchaj, and she was honored at our celebration for the work she's done at Salud y Paz the past two years.

Ready or not...24 eager five and six-year-old Mayan children are showing up at the school at 8 a.m. Monday morning. Dios mio!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

GO TIME!

It's time to get our game-faces on. Carey and I hosted the first of our 20+ teams in 2009 (a dental team from Oregon), and now we're hosting a team from Florida to help us get ready for the big preschool opening celebration this Saturday (the school officially opens on Feb. 2). Some pics from the action...
Represent! Dr. Black and Tina from Oregon! (they're Beavers, not Ducks)
Open wide! At the clinic we do both fillings and extractions, but in remote rural locations (like here in Lacama), we just YANK (2-3 per patient). Unfortunately, many of the people don't brush and for a comfort food/cheap treat, drink too many sodas and eat a lot of sweets.
Favorite moment: an elderly Mayan woman comes in complaining of a tooth ache. I try to ask in broken Spanish which tooth she needs pulled. She opens wide, the dentist and I peer in...and she only has one tooth left! ; )
The team took photos of kids and families and printed them on photo printers they brought. It was a huge hit b/c the people don't have the opportunity to take photos (for obvious reasons). The frame above was pain-stakingly decorated by one gentleman. He was SO proud of this photo of his family.
Each little village has a "Committee" that gathers occasionally to make decisions affecting the community. A very important meeting was taking place when we arrived in Lacama b/c another nearby town had just taken justice into their own hands and killed several men who were kidnapping and ransoming locals. Unfortunately, with slow police/government response, this kind of vigilante justice is not that uncommon.U.S.A.! Dr. Black's son teaching 4 locals life's most important lesson: how to play american football.
Jay with one of our translators, Fernando. Nice guy - too bad that ugly jacket will make this his last time working with us.
Members of the Florida team teaching Jose, one of our other translators, the Hokey-Pokey. Guatemaltecos agree: this is clearly NOT what it is all about.
Floridians making up for their election year gaffes in 2000 by building the second level of the preschool and preparing the classrooms.
If you're the praying sort we could use a couple... I'm sure Carey has a lot on her mind trying to train her two teachers and get everything ready for the daily growing number of students signing up for the school, and I have now graduated from amoebic dysentery to the wonderful world of some yet-to-be-determined stomach bacteria. We both need to be at our best during this important time. Thanks!
Love you,
Jay

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Deep Thoughts by Carey Cooper

Reflections at three months:

I miss some silly things like bubble baths and girly stuff that’s expensive here (although a team from Utah brought me face soap – wahoo!). I also miss some things that we take for granted in the States like drinking water straight from the tap and yes, flushing toilet paper. Mostly I miss my family and friends from Texas and New Jersey. And Molly.

But there are also a lot of things I don’t miss. Like my cell phone. Or my car. Or those knots in my back from working on a computer all day.

It would take all day to describe all that I’ve learned about myself, others, and our world over the past three months, but I will say one thing. Learning a new language is kicking my butt! One month of school wasn’t even close to being enough, and we’re doing our best to speak Spanish at home, but it’s so frustrating. I’ll leave you with an example of a typical conversation between the two of us (translated into English from Spanish).

Carey: I go to store now. You want go to store?
Jay: No, I no need things from store.
Carey: No, I ask you want to go?
Jay: What?
Carey: (now yelling) You want go to store with me, or no?
Jay: I can hear. I no… What is word?
Carey: What word?
Jay: (in English) deaf
Carey: I don’t know. Look in dictionary.
Jay: Where is dictionary?
Carey: I don’t know, but I need go before light.
Jay: What?
Carey: I make error. I need go before dark. You go?
Jay: Where?

Monday, January 5, 2009

Mexican Math (aka The Grapes of Wrath)

90 # of days foreigners have in Guatemala before they have to renew their Visa by jumping the border to Mexico
30 # of hours we spent in a microbus traveling to/from/around Mexico this last week
14 # of pesos you get for 1 US Dollar (it's a good time to visit Mexico!)
13 # of combined ways there are to say the word "vomit" in English and Dutch
12 # of grapes you're supposed to stuff in your mouth as the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve in Mexico
6 # of people we crammed into 1 room for 5 nights at a hostel in San Cristobal de las Casas
4 # of Dutch friends Carey and I went with to Mexico to celebrate the New Year
3 # of people who vomited in the microbus during one of our stomach-churning drives
1 # of grapes it took for Jay to contract an intestinal amoeba and then pray for a quick death

Since our 90 days in Guatemala were up, Carey and I planned a trip with several Dutch friends to a very cool town in Mexico called San Cristobal de las Casas to renew our Visas (even people who have lived here for 10+ years do this every 3 months - great system, huh!?) San Cristobal may be the "hippest" town in Mexico, and was a side of Mexico I didn't know existed. Picture Vishnu-worshipping Mexicans with dreadlocks selling anti-war t-shirts. Very interesting place. If you really want to stretch your vacation dollar and visit a beautiful, colonial town with lots of things to do, you may want to visit one day.

C & J with Lenny & Marija trying to look "hard" before we boarded a boat for one of our day-tours. We may need some practice.
On our boat in the Canon del Sumidero. Gorgeous place with up to 1000 meter cliffs hanging over head on both sides.
We got so close I could have pet the thing. Yeah, this would be allowed in the States.
Agua Azul. Wow.
The sign said "No Swimming" in Spanish. It's a good thing I don't know the language : )
Misol-ha. Just another beautiful waterfall in Mexico.
Palenque Mayan Ruins. Coolest place ever. Was it worth spending 6 hours in a microbus smelling of vomit? Yes. Well, maybe.
My theory is that the little house on the right was the "love shack" of Palenque. Of course it's just a theory.
At 5 p.m. on Dec. 31st the Dutch celebrated Holland ringing in 2009.
Later that night. It was comforting to learn that white people are universally bad dancers.
The fateful moment at midnight.
I've never read the book, "The Grapes of Wrath," but I can only assume that the author visited Mexico on New Year's Eve one year, stuffed 12 grapes into his mouth at midnight, then 2 days later realized that he had been outwitted by a single-cell organism. Dote!

Carey and I hope you all had a wonderfully peaceful holiday season and wish each of you all the best in 2009.
Love,
J & C