Merry Christmas!
¡Feliz Navidad!

Here are some photos from assorted Christmas gatherings and traditions.


Lots of fireworks coming from all directions at midnight on Christmas Eve add greatly to the excitement! (this is the street in front of my apartment) Note the one just taking off out of the plastic jug...The fireworks start at about midnight, and run for about half an hour. This is not a controlled fireworks show, but every family in the city setting off their own fireworks in the streets, on the roof, everywhere!

Christmas tree in Sololá.

Melany and Irvin with an Irvin-sized tree.

My landlady and her family, waiting for midnight.

Commercialism and capitalism at it's best; a Christmas picture
with my friends Astrid, Lourdes, Irvin...and millions of teddy bears.

And, the fireworks on New Year's to top it off, video taken from the roof of my friend Shannon's apartment. (On Christmas it's just as exciting)

Everyone in the city setting off fireworks, coming from all directions!

Kites!

This is November 1st in Santiago Sacatepéquez. It's the day of the dead, or all saints day. They make these kites, fly them, present them and the town cemetery fills with people, flying kites, building kites, eating, watching, taking pictures, sitting on the tombs, etc. It's an amazing event.

These kites are possibly my favorite thing about Guatemala. These are the giant ones...not fly-able, but just look at how beautiful they are!! And how long it must have taken each team of young adults to make them...out of tissue paper, packing tape and bamboo.

And here's a video: fun stuff!

Guatemala #15: The story of 2008 part 4

Okay, I lied, this is also the best!

Ángel, playing and singing a song that he wrote:)

Here are the words (loosely translated)

I'm just a little bird, who wants to know more about God
When I go to school, I'm happy, singing to the Lord

Guatemala #15: The story of 2008 part 3

And.....the best for last! These are pictures from an activity we did during the past two weeks (the equivalent of a summer camp) with children every weekday morning. We did games, and songs and prepared a musical drama for the Sunday church service, called "The Red Guitar". It was about a cricket who got a red guitar for his birthday that didn't work! No music came out of the guitar! So, the cricket's friend, the worm, goes searching for musical notes for the red guitar.

It was amazing! We did one week in Zone 11, and another week in La Brigada. The first two photos are from the games and arts activities during the week, and the last three are from the performances.

Game in Zone 11

Making the red guitar, in La Brigada

Mosquito, canary and cicada in Zone 11.

The frogs give the worm the note G for the red guitar!

Full cast in Zone 11, singing with the now functioning red guitar!

Guatemala #15: The story of 2008 part 2

Concert in Zone 11

Concert in La Brigada

Two students receiving guitars that they were able to buy paying little by little, thanks to a donation we received to buy instruments.

Visits to three different nursing homes, to sing and play for the residents.

Erin Weaver, a wonderful volunteer who helped us out in June, gave several classes explaining how the violin and other stringed instruments work, and helped Yeimi begin to learn to play!

Preschool music class in the church Pacto Renovado in Carranza. This church runs a preschool, and we helped out every Thursday with musical activities.

Guatemala #15 : The story of 2008, part 1

So, once upon a time (in 2006), a girl named Beth went to Guatemala. She lived with families, and learned spanish and learned to like beans, and a whole bunch of other new foods. She started working, and helped start a music school in the Mennonite churches in Guatemala City. She faithfully reported to her family and friends for one year, but then, she might have dropped off the face of the earth for all they knew, as her blog posts completely stopped appearing for months and months. However, she continued working hard and completed 2 years in Guatemala on November 2nd!

Here, at long last, is an update from Beth:

Hello! I've been busy for a long, long, time, but thought that maybe someone out there might like to see some pictures from this year (this year!). I don't think I've posted anything since January. Okay, I just checked, and I posted a couple in January, and one in April. How embarrasing!!!

So, first, some lovely pictures from activities we've done this year in the newly named Academia Menonita de Artes y Recreación (AMAR), or Mennonite Academy of Arts and Recreacion. The acronym spells the verb "to love" in Spanish, which expresses what we hope this space to be for people, a space of love, respect, learning, creativity, expression...a safe space. These first pictures are from concerts we've done this year with students from three different communities in and around Guatemala City (Zone 11, La Brigada and Bárcenas Villa Nueva, for those keeping score at home, haha). The distance between the two farthest communities is 2 to 2 1/2 hours by bus.

A picture's worth a thousand words! (or at least I hope it is, at least these pictures will give you a bit of an idea of what we have been up to).

Blessings, Beth

p.s. - look for more updates soon, I've got a bunch more pictures and possibly videos I'd like to put up!

Children miming playing the recorder and the keyboard to the music that I played with another teacher.

Children demonstrating their newly acquired music literacy!!

Second year guitar students from Mixco playing and singing at the Mennonite Church Jesús Luz y Vida in Boca del Monte. (Jesus Light and Life Church)

First year guitar students playing a chord progression in Bárcenas Villa Nueva.

Giant musical notes! Kids demonstrating music literacy in La Brigada, Mixco.

Cultural Imperialism

Update: Here are the accompanying photos for this post that I was just able to take...

I'm not sure that this title is the right description for the following, but I'll let you all interpret as you wish!

Context: suburbs of Guatemala City

I saw this sign for a private school which proudly proclaimed:

At the same school: Guatemalan Flag flying alongside the US Flag

*sigh*

Guatemala #14: Concert and Peachey family in Guatemala

So, I'm going to take you on a whirlwind tour of the past 4 months with a series of posts(I last posted in August...AUGUST!) So, get ready, I had a bunch of posts building up in my head and my notebook. Even so, I'm going to skip a couple of important things, which I will hopefully post later, such as a trip to Zacapa, a trip to El Salvador, a group from Nicaragua and Honduras that we hosted here in Guatemala, my friend Rachael's visit, a Central American Anabaptist Meeting, a recycling project and a mural!

But, now, to the fun stuff, the Christmas concert, on December 15th!

Keyboard group playing Joy to the World

Kids singing about riding on a donkey to Bethlehem.

Choir

Two wonderful keyboard students playing Campanas de Belén (Bells of Bethlehem)!

Kids on Guitar

And, my family came to visit! We covered a lot of Guatemala in two short weeks, and saw some very different sites, took some very fun bus rides, and met a whole lot of people.

Here are some pictures from our trips:

Tikal, Guatemala - an ancient Mayan city, most of which is still covered by jungle. It was built and inhabited more or less between 200 and 800 AD. The biggest buildings have been excavated, and in this picture we're standing on top of one of the tallest pyramids in the Mayan world. Note the other pyramids and temples in the background.




Lake Atitlán, (Panajachel, Santiago and Panabaj) - We visited a couple of towns by the lake.


Then we took a two hour ride in the back of a pick-up, around the lake, up high, very high in the mountains. The 3:00 bus out of Santiago hadn't come that day, so a man with a pick-up truck offered to take us to another place to catch a bus, as he happened to be going that way. We didn't realize how far of a drive it was, but it was worth every minute, because of the amazing view we had almost the whole trip of the late afternoon sun and clouds over the volcanoes and the lake. Part of the time we were up so high, we were in the clouds!

Antigua

Lunch in Antigua

Christmas Day, Phở at Shannon's house!

I'll finish up with a list that my parents had me write down, of all the products that are sold on public buses. They told me I should write a blog post about it, because it shows the differences in context between Guatemala, or Central America, and the US. So, one very common part of the informal economy is to sell things, especially on buses. It takes skill and perseverance, as the buses are crowded, dirty, noisy, and weave back and forth through traffic. A bus vendor has to keep their balance while passing out their product and collecting money, and find a way to make their sales pitch so that all can hear above the noise of the bus and traffic without straining their voices too much so that they can then get on another bus and do it all again.

Here is a sampling of the products you can buy while on the bus:

jello
phone cards
many sorts of fruit
marshmallows
popcorn
cashews or peanuts with lemon
empanadas
rice and chicken
quesadillas
toothbrushes
water, juice or soda
chile relleno (stuffed peppers)
natural medicine (capsules or packets)
stickers
pens and highlighters
bracelets
calendars
ID holders, wallets
pen flashlights
ice cream
tamales