Gradumacacion - en español

This post is in Spanish. For the English translation post, go here.

Anoche fue mi ultimo viernes in Xela y Guatemala, y por la tradicion in la escuela, me gradujé que solo significa nosotros damos un pequeño discurso u otra presentacíon (en español, por supuesto). Para mi graduacíon, hablé y canté una des mis favoritas canciones - Una Bendicíon de Irlanda. Aqui es me discurso para graduacíon:

Buenas noches a todos y todas. Soy Chelsea, como el equipo de futbol de inglaterra si eres de Guatemala u otra nacionalidad, y como la hija del presidente Clinton si eres de los Estados Unidos.

Si ustedes no me conocen, es porque estudié por la tarde esta semana y la pasada, pero he estado aqui por once semanas, casi tres meses en total, entoces yo soy anciana.

Me siento como, despues once semanas, debí hacer algo grande para mi graduacion, pero no sabia que. Mi novio me dijo, "Habla sobre kumquats." "kumquats?" le pregunté. "Si, kumquats. Es una palabra que suena sucio, pero no es." "Esta palabra solo suena sucio en ingles," yo le dije, "en español, kumquat no se parece otras palabras. Es solo kumquat." Pues, mi novio no estaba ayudando y no voy a hablar sobre kumquats.

En lugar de, solo queria compartir algunas consejos que he aprendido mientras he estado aqui. Porque en once semanas, aprendí mucho.

Primero - sí es su segunda o tercera semana, y todavia no ha estado enferma, pida un maestro o una maestra quien tiene su escritorio cerca de los baños. Porque es probable que vaya a necesitarlos.

Segundo - use el baño quince minutos, mas o menos, antes de la pausa. Porque entonces puede llegar a la cocina mas rapido y tiene primera eleccion del pan y bebidas, y eso es muy importante.

Tercero - Si tu quieres aprender las palabras mas coloradas, juega futillo con Carlos.

Cuarto - Debes aprender la diferencia entre la pronunciacion de "miedo" y "mierda" porque los dos significan cosas diferentes.

Quinto - Las mas donas y otras cosas horneadas estan en Bake Shop. Tu no sabias, pero la razon del porque viniste a Xela es la mejor dona de tu vida, y tienes que ir a Bake Shop.

Y por fin, Sexto - Si no eres un estudiante de la universidad en los Estados Uniods, y si no eres de otro pais (en otras palabras si tu higado no esta acondiciado) No trates de beber la misma cuantidad de bebidas que los jovenes. Si tu lo haces, vas a tener una goma, o posiblemente te despertarias todavia borracho o borracha. En un jueves. Eso no es divertido, yo lo prometo. Aunque tu maestra vaya a ser muy amiable y vaya a cuidarte.

Quiero expresar mi agradecimiento a la escuela y a mis maestras y maestros - por ahora he tenido casi la mitad de la escuela para mis maestros - Graçias a Teresa, Shes, Saul - quien me enseñó la diferencia entre la pronunciacion de "miedo" y "mierda", Doris, Rony en la escuela de la montana - otra pieza de consejo, si tu puedes, ve a la escuela de la montana, es una experiencia totalemente diferente y es buena. Graçias a Rosario y Marleny - Marleny me cuidó cuando tuvé aquella goma, y Graçias a Vilma, Luis, y Ailsa. Por ustedes, puedo hablar español. Hablo despacio, pero puedo hablar. Cuando llegué de primero, esencialmente no sabia nada. No podia hablar español y no sabia nada sobre Guatemala, la gente, la historia, ó la cultura. Ahora yo sé casi diez u once tiempos y modos. Cuando hablo, los mesclo frecuentemente, pero yo los sé. Tambien ustedes me han enseñado mucho sobre la historia de Guatemala y la cultura. La gente aqui es muy amigable, y muy generosa. Ustedes tienen corazones muy grandes y, a pesar de todo, tienen esperanza por su pais y su futuro. Todavia ustedes estan trabajando para un mañana mejor, y los admiro mucho por eso.

Por ultimo, quiero cantar una cancion la aprendí hace muchos años cuando era una consejera en un campamento del verano. Necesito cantarla en ingles porque, por supuesto, los palabras en español no sigue la musica. Esta cancion es una bendicion de amistad y originalmente, creo, es de Irlanda. En el campamento siempre la cantabamos para la ultima hoguera para decir "adios" al verano. La traduccion en español es:

Podría el camino subir contigo

Podría el viento siempre estar detras de ti

Podría el sol brillar sobre ti

Podría la lluvia caer suave en tus campos

Y hasta encontrarnos otra vez

Podría la tierra sostenerte

En sus huecos y sus terrenos

Gradumacation - in english

Este post es en ingles. Para la traduccion en español, vaya aqui.

Last night was my last friday in Xela and Guatemala, and per school's tradition I graduated, which simply means we give a little speech or other presentation (in spanish of course). For my graduation I spoke and sang one of my favorite songs - An Irish Blessing. Here is my speech for graduation:

Good evening to everyone. I'm Chelsea, like the football team from England if you're from Guatemala or another nationality, and like the daughter of president Clinton if you're from the United States. If you don't know me, it's because I studied in the afternoon this week and last, but I've been here for eleven weeks - almost three months in total. Thus I am ancient.

I felt like, after eleven weeks, I should do something big for my graduation, but I didn't know what. My boyfriend told me, "Talk about kumquats." "kumquats?" I asked him. "Yeah, kumquats. It's a word that sounds dirty, but isn't." "This word only sounds dirty in English, " I told him, "In Spanish, kumquat doesn't resemble other words. It's just kumquat." So, my boyfriend wasn't being helpful and I'm not going to talk about kumquats.

Instead, I want to share some bits of advice that I have learned while I've been here. Because in eleven weeks, I learned a lot.

First - if it is your second or third week, and you still have not been sick, ask for a teacher who has a desk close to the bathrooms. Because you're probably going to need them.

Second - Use the bathroom about fifteen minutes before the break. Because then you can get to the kitchen much faster and have first choice of the bread and drinks, and this is very important.

Third - If you want to learn the most colorful words, play foosball with Carlos. (the director of the school)

Fourth - You should learn the difference in the pronunciation between "miedo" (fear) and "mierda" (shit) because they mean different things.

Fifth - the best donuts and other baked goods are in Bake Shop. You didn't know it, but the reason you came to Xela is for the best donut of your life, and you have to go to Bake Shop.

And finally, sixth - if you're not a college student in the US, and you're not from another country (in other words your liver is not in condition) Do not try to drink the same amount of drinks as the young folks. If you do, you will have a hangover, or possibly wake up still drunk. On a Thursday. This is not fun, I promise. Even though your teacher will be very nice and take good care of you.

I want to express my gratefullness to the school and to my teachers - by now I've had almost half of the school for my teachers - Thank you to Teresa, Shes, Saul - who taught me the difference in pronunciation between "miedo" and "mierda" - Doris, Rony in the Mountain School - another piece of advice, if you can, go to the mountain school. It's a totally different experience and it's good. Thank you to Rosario and Marleny - Marleny took care of me when I had that hangover - and thank you to Vilma, Luis, and Ailsa (Ay-ill-sa). Because of you, I can speak Spanish. I speak slowly, but I can speak. When I first came, essentially I didn't know anything. I couldn't speak Spanish and I didn't know anything about Guatemala, the people, the history, or the culture. Now I know almost 10 or 11 tenses and moods. When I speak, I mix them often, but I know them. You have also taught me a lot about the history of Guatemala and the culture. The people here are very friendly, and very generous. You have very big hearts and, in spite of everything, have hope for your country and your future. You are still working for a better tomorrow, and I admire you greatly for this.

Lastly, I want to sing a song that I learned many years ago when I was a counselor at a summer camp. I need to sing it in English because, of course, the words in Spanish don't follow the music. This song is a blessing of friendship and originally, I think, is from Ireland. At summer camp we always sang it at the last campfire in order to say "goodbye" to the summer. The translation in Spanish is:

Podría el camino subir contigo

Podría el viento siempre estar detras de ti

Podría el sol brillar sobre ti

Podría la lluvia caer suave en tus campos

Y hasta encontrarnos otra vez

Podría la tierra sostenerte

En sus huecos y sus terrenos

And the words in English are:

May the road rise with you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine upon you
May the rains fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again,
May the Earth hold you
In her hollows and her lands

Vamos a la playa! (let's go to the beach)

Alright, almost caught up on blog posts!

This is just a quick one about the beach trip school organized three weekends ago. We went to Tilapita, which is on the Pacific coast about 3 or 4 hours from Xela. It was a long day but a fun one. The climate on the coast is much closer to what people think of when they hear the term "equatorial" - hot and humid. Really hot. We got off the bus and were immediately sweating buckets. The town we were in was Tilapa, and we had to take a plancha (little skiff boat) across the mangrove estuary to the actual beach, which is called Tilapita. 

The palm-thatched roofs of the comedors on Tilapita - where we were headed

 We took a nice little detour into the mangroves a ways, there's a water path that follows along the coastline north towards Mexico - our guides told us you could follow it for hours and still not come out the other side.

We had over 30 students on this trip, so we took two boats. You can see how full they were

Mangrove roots. Always cool to look at. They help filter the water that passes through the estuary, provide protection to the shoreline from erosion during storms, and provide a nursery environment for many estuarine and marine animals when they're young. They also house crocodiles.

A wide bend in the mangrove estuary.

I've been in mangrove swamps before, but these were the first I'd hung out in where we were warned to keep an eye out for crocodiles, so that was a new experience. We didn't see any, which isn't surprising, and on the whole I probably shouldn't have been as disappointed as I was. We did see lots of pelicans and other birds. There are many little fishing communities in and around the mangroves and the planchas and boats are one of the main forms of transportation, kind of like buses in the rest of the country.

Local kid fishing from his plancha

Another shot of one of our planchas out on the water

Once we wrapped up our mini mangrove tour, we headed for the beach. There were a bunch of comedors (restaurant/tienda shops) with large covered areas of tables and hammocks. We set up base in one of these that also had two swimming pools, which was kind of an interesting thing to have at a beach, although perfect for my taste. I didn't have to go far from my shade, water, food, or beer. I alternated taking dips in the pool with a bottle of beer and, later, fresh coconut juice. Y'know, straight from the coconut. 

Mmmm coconut juice!

The rip-tides and undercurrents at this point along the Pacific coast are not to be trifled with. We were warned several times about the dangerous strength of the current and admonished to use the buddy system, stay within reach of the lifeguards, and not go in past our knees. Folks reported that the water was warm and that they weren't kidding about the current - it was brutal. Later we found out that the locals considered it a really mild current day, and we all decided we didn't want to experience a bad current day.

The food was worth the entire trip. Fresh fried shrimp, fried fish, and seafood soup (complete with whole fish - you can fight over who gets to eat the eyeballs), were all on the menu. I also snagged a bite of someone's ceviche, which was easily the best I've ever had. Delicious!

Ode para mi zapatos

So I may be headed home in barely a week, but part of me will be staying here a bit longer. I'm donating my hiking boots to one of the gals I work with at Primeros Pasos. These sturdy feet protectors have been with me for six years now, and they've finally come to the end of their waterproof life. Already well past their recommended retiring date, they've developed a couple of legit holes on this trip and I'd already planned on replacing them when I got back. I figured passing them on to someone who can still get some use out of them was the right thing to do.

These boots saw me through two seasons of outdoor school and one season of summer camp. They still bear the marks of the first coats of paint on the Tween Creeks cabin ceilings, as well as paint from my first apartment in Boston. We've hiked parts of the Appalachian trail together, kicked up dust in Memphis, splashed through puddles in Niagara, and walked in the shade of redwoods. They were the butt of many a joke for their first three months of existence as I went to the store to get shoes...and came back with a date. Of recent note, they've been doubling as soccer shoes, which is also a bit of a joke, although they do the job as best they can.

I don't want to fathom how many layers of donkey poo, pond muck, and goose poop have graced their soles, and I can barely imagine how many miles of earth they have covered. I have been glad to count them in my shoe selection. They haven't always made me the most fashionable, but they have always made me the most comfortable and usually very well prepared for adventures. I am sad to see them go, but I hope they enjoy their new life walking the streets of Xela and the dirt roads of El Valle. If hiking boots ever deserved a retirement community certainly a land of volcanoes and mountains begging to be climbed would be it.

Hitchhiking gets two thumbs up!

Cross another form of transportation off my list: hitchhiking.

Ok, so I didn't hitchhike in the true sense of me actively flagging down a random ride. But this morning while waiting for the bus at Primeros Pasos to head back to Xela, a woman in a Ford Explorer with a baby sleeping in the backseat pulled up and asked where I was going and if I wanted a ride. She was going my way and it was faster, easier, and cheaper than the bus, so I said yes.

Her name is Ingrid and she lives essentially next door to the clinic and says she and the other neighbors often give us clinic folks a lift if they pass by and are going into the city. We made small talk as she drove, what I'm doing in Xela, how long I've been here, what I do at the clinic. When I told her where I lived in the states she said she had a cousin living in Boston that she had visited before. She mentioned the Freedom Trail, Harvard, and MIT. It was kinda cool to chat about home for a minute with someone who had been there. She herself had lived in Miami for six months to take ESL classes and also has family in Arizona, New Jersey, New York and some other states.

Our ride was only 15 minutes or so - and in a funny coincidence it turned out her husband works right near school in my part of the city, although she wasn't headed there this afternoon. She dropped me off at the same spot the bus would have and I walked the rest of my way home. All in all a very pleasant experience from a very friendly neighbor. My first hitchhiking experience was a definite success!