Los Patojos / Rising Minds

Hola y bienvenido a mi ultimo blog!

Ya, el tiempo  vuele y dos y medio meses pasaron con una velocidad y intensidad incomparable. Parar respirar y aprovechar todas las cosas que constituyen Los Patojos para la ultima vez, lavè con mucha tranquilitud todos los platos. Y, tal vez como pre-transicion, lo hice la primera vez con una alemana en alemàn. Me sorprendì, alguna veces me salieron las respuestas en español… A ver como pasarà en Alemania…

Despuès practiquè con el grupo de las malabaristas baile de expresiòn. Intentamos imitar los elementos de la naturaleza como la lluvia, un huracàn o un terremoto al respecto de la tormenta tropical Agatha el ultimo fin de semana. No sè, saliò màs o menos bien, pero todavia nos falta la fluidez en los movimientos. El domingo habrà una presentacion de esto en la calle del Arco. Mi participacion no es tan necesario, tal vez si, tal vez no, es que manana voy a terminar con el descrubimiento de este lindo pais, entonces no me quedarìa  suficiente tiempo para practicar el baile.- A ver.

Ya, es la hora para decir adios -seguro que volverè!

Karsten

By now, I’m sure you have all heard about the natural happenings here down south. I just wanted to quickly write to tell you what happened in my own words and to my knowledge and share the words of Juan Pablo who sent out an e-mail to the Los Patojos Facebook group this weekend.

On Thursday, the nearby active volcano Pacaya violently erupted causing the evacuation of thousands of families from nearby villages as well as covering all of Guatemala City in ash and nearby towns. Other than the evacuations and some injuries, only one person was killed, a journalist, from this incident.

Two days later, Tropical Storm Agatha (the first of the season) hit off the Pacific Coast. Though I don’t know exact numbers, Agatha was a pretty strong and intense storm that not only hit Guatemala, but the rest of Central America this weekend. As of yesterday, the death toll for CA reached about 150 (the majority of those being in Guatemala). Though Antigua and Jocotenango were untouched by Pacaya and any damaging effects of Agatha, nearby villages like Ciudad Vieja have been hit pretty badly. The streets are filled with ash/mud, houses are either destroyed or also covered in ash, at least 40 families lost everything in evacuation and at least 10 bodies have been found. Luckily, volunteer efforts began organizing before the rain even stopped and have been going out to Ciudad Vieja to give help where needed.

Juan Pablo:

“Guatemala’s geographic location is enviable as it allows for a variety of climates in close proximity to each other. Even so, we cannot forget the risks involved in climactic variability. We are in the fire belt of the Pacific ocean, and in the oceans on either side of us make an ideal environment for frequent hurricane activity. On Thursday, June 27, two natural phenomenons arose in Guatemala. There was a rise in activity in Pacaya, one of our active volcanoes and the one most visited by tourists, and a powerful eruption resulted in a shower of ash and rock on village communities as well as in Guatemala city. Hundreds of people were forced to leave their homes and find refuge in emergency shelters in nearby towns. A reporter and two children were found dead after an attempt to cover the eruption. Simultaneously, in the southern belt of the country, a concentration of low pressure swept over the coasts of the Pacific ocean causing heavy rain and eventually turning into the first tropical storm (Agatha) of the Pacific of the season. The rain caused the rivers in the western part of the country to overflow resulting in significant material losses and hundreds of displaced people.

We are all fine, but public schools have been cancelled due to increased flood and landslide risks. Today the rain subsided and we hope the worst is over.

For more information, please dont doubt write, tomorrow we will know better the situation of our town and our country.

NEVER GIVE UP!”

Although in Spanish, www.prensalibre.com andwww.elperiodico.com.gt (two of Guatemala’s most popular newspapers) are both good, direct sources (easily translatable using translate.google.com).

Happy June!

Bienvenido a todos,

Hoy fue dia de comedor con Victoria. Casi una hora estabamos lavando los platos. Normalmente no hay ningun problema, pero la posicion de lavar todo, esta muy incomoda para gente como yo con 1,85 de altura. Entonces mi espalda ya estaba practicando deporte sin darme cuenta. Teniamos un poco retraso por culpa de los platos, pero en el tiempo  de tareas no habia mucho para hacer. Asi practicamos los malabares con Profe Selvin, un artista increible. Sabe manejar 5 pelotas!!! Yo por lo menos estoy contentissimo manejar 3! Despues otra practica de deporte vimos una pelicula. Pero se nota que es una actividad que les cuesta  a los rebeldes porque despues sus clases en la escuela es de nuevo algo solo de concentracion. Al final terminamos con la pelicula un poco antes por el inquietud de los rebeldes y el longitud extra. Luego hubo una reunion pequena con Calvin,  que una vez por la semana quiere saber como sienten los voluntarios o haya problemas. Pero todos estan contentos!

Hasta la proxima,

Karsten

Well, it is already Wednesday and the week is almost over.  Whew…  It is very hot and humid today,but that is not slowing the kids down any at all.  As one of the older volunteers (39 and holding) I wish I only had half their energy.  My son and I worked with los meteoritos today to make kites after homework was finished and a few face paintings!  The process was actually pretty smooth,but we ran out of time and so tomorrow will have to be the day we put them to the real test.  Hoping for cool temperatures and lots of wind tomorrow!

Laura

What a Tuesday! The kids were full of energy from the start and the humidity was not going to hold any of them down. My mom and I have been with Los Patojos since last Thursday and today we worked with los meteoritos to finish up our sock puppet activity. The kids all presented their semi-arranged obras de teatro to the class and with the help of some improvisation they were a huge success. This was followed up with a brief session of glitter warfare that resulted in a few casualties and the loss of some dignity. One of the patojos also decided my mother’s leg would be a perfect canvass for his self-portrait and it turned out surprisingly well.

Tomorrow we hope to start our kite-making project. However, the wind has been hit-and-go lately but hopefully Mother Nature will send some help our way!

~ Nachito (Brett)

Como cada dia lo más bonito son las sonrisas de los niños…es un aprendizaje diario y doy las gracias a todos mis compañer@s. Trabajando con los Rebeldes estoy muy feliz y espero aprender de ellos más de lo que ellos pueden aprender de mi.

Un saludo,

Victoria

Is it really Wednesday again? Thursday is just around the corner? Seriously? Where do you go, time? Where do you go?

Today, as usual, I started off with English classes in the public school Rafael. The first class went really well and we had fun talking about our daily routines and making silly jokes. My second English class was a little more difficult and harder to control. All in all, I don’t know if we got much done. But, we still had fun (and when we boil it down to its finest point: isn’t that the most important thing?)

After class, I went to Los Patojos and began preparing lunch. A couple weeks ago I began tutoring an older student (think high school junior/senior) with Algebra (YES, Algebra). We began our individual tutoring sessions a couple weeks ago… and since then they have become one of my favorite parts about my week. Its great to watch her as she works and to see that she’s starting to realize that she actually CAN do this work and its really not that hard, just remembering a bunch of previous rules and patterns. Everyday she comes with questions on her homework and we sit down and go through example, after example. The other night, I was sitting in Central Park in Antigua chatting with a friend. My student (whose school is in Antigua) was just getting out of school and walking home. She saw me in the park and ran up to me to ask if we could change; not cancel; our Thursday math class to any other day this week because she had something to do. MATH!

Later that evening, I found myself in Adult English class at Los Patojos. Not many students showed up tonight so we had a short class: a quick review of reflexive pronouns.

Today was the first day I returned to Los Patojos after a few days of sickness, and I learned today that a visit to the kids here is a great medicine. The minute I walked in, all the kids ran towards, giving me even bigger hugs than they usually do. After the usual chaos after lunch I joined Mauricio´s class in a game, which my team epically won, and after that I helped Kevin and Ismael, against their will, with their

Hello again! Its been awhile since I’ve scribed the blog. However, let us take a moment to reflect on its beautiful new make over! ESO!

Wednesday is one my busiest days within and without the walls of Patojos. I start the mornings in the public school Rafael teaching English. Its such a different environment to teach in. On one side of the spectrum we have the public schools which tend to be disciplined (like any public school). Then we come to Los Patojos which is crazy, crazy, crazy and so it should be! English classes went well. A little disorganized today because no one remember their notebooks which have the lyrics to the song Juicy Moose that I have been teaching them. So after fumbling around with that, I taught them this wonderful rhyme:

Birdie birder in the sky

Hola y bienvenido,

soy Karsten, un voluntario de alemana, que pasa su tiempo con los “rebeldes”, el grupo de los adolescentes que ya escapó de la edad de los patojos.

A las 2 y media  empiezò el tiempo para las tareas. Normalmente no tienen muchas, pero hoy debí dar apoyo a 2 rebeldes en ingles. Construimos una entrevista entre una rebelde  y la canciller Angela Merkel. Tienen buenas ideas, de verdad, pero la pronunciacion las cuesta muchissima. Ahora saben que Angela Merkel no tiene hijos, “que malo”, y que tiene 54 anos. Pero lo mas importante, son capaz de pronunciar las preguntas. Mientras lo pronunciaba muy despacio, me di cuenta que mi pronunciacion es mas o menos aleman y que la transcripción fonetica es diferente. Entonces la rebelde desarollò su estilo como pronunciar con mucho exito. Asì aprendì tambien como aprenden las chapines ingles, y, al final, tengo mucho respeto por su aprendizaje porque para ellos es mas dificil que como un aleman. Después, a las 3 y media relajamos y platicamos para prepararnos a la siguiente actividad. Algunos formaron un circulo sentado y los demas estaban de pie directamente detras. Los que estaban sentados ceraban los ojos y respiraban tranquilamente. Los detras les daban carino en diferentes maneras, como un beso en la nuca o un abrazo, como queria cada uno. No había ningun problema que los adolescentes masculinos abrazaron a otros y viceversa con las rebeldes. Esto fue muy impresionante, no discutaron en ninguna manera, todos sentian como una familia con mucha confianza sin miedo de abrirse fisiscamente.

A las 5 y media terminamos y todos se fueron relajadissimos a su casa. Esto fue mi dìa.

Hasta pronto,

Karsten