Who Steals Toothbrushes From Kids?! My Whirlwind Week!

Other kids, That's who! DAMN. IT. Maybe those dudes who stole my ipod and camera started their THIEVERY at like, hmmm 7 or 8? This has brought a much grander problem to my attention and it must be addressed. Ok, so like i said in my last post, one of my new schools is actually in the afternoon. It's the Urbana school right in the center of Santa Clara. However, in the morning there are classes as well. I was assigned these schools by my counterpart, the superintendent of schools...his reason for choosing my schools was that they had never had a PC Volunteer before. Apparently, the morning classes HAVE had a volunteer before, but that person was from Eco, a completely different program. They've never had Healthy Schools before. Also, the morning classes have over 400 students and the afternoon has only 40.
So I spent a good part of last week going around to my schools and convincing the parents and teachers how important it is that they buy a new toothbrush for their kids to have in school. I found some opposition of course because of the cost. some of these parents have 5 or 6 kids in the same school. I've got a few tactics i've learned to change this train of thought.

'How much does a toothbrush cost in the market?"
"5q"
"great, and how much does it cost to remove a tooth?"
"50q"
"interesting..."

They usually crack up, and some kids have already been bringing in their new soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste..etc. AWESOME! So the kids from the afternoon classes brought theirs in and they were stolen the next day by the morning kids. They are super discouraged....What the hell am i supposed to tell the parents now? I told the principle i would go to the morning school and talk to the other principle and see what we can do...the only plausible thing i can think of is add the morning to my new schools. I wish we had done this from the start, and i'll have to talk to PC about it but their not gonna say no. maybe if the kids in the AM has their own rincones de salud, they wouldn't steal the others?? wishful thinking I know but I gotta do SOMETHING! the principle said they are always having problems between the morning and afternoon..she said if I invited the teachers to a meeting with the morning teachers, they wouldn't even come. well, we'll just see about that. I know it must suck to have to share your school, but these teachers need to set WAY better examples for these kids...I'm not afraid, i gotta fix this and I got to do it PRONTO! wish me luck.

NEW STUDENTS!

Damn, I've been so busy. It's been exhausting but such a nice change. Since, I've only got 7 months with these schools, there is so much to be done if I want to make an actual difference in these schools, with these kids. This week I gave four workshops to the teachers at each school and i passed through every single classroom and did some activities with the students. Also I met with teachers and principles to do some project planning. We really are on the clock to get these done and this is my number one focus! I've been deciding which schools are in the greatest need of infrastructure projects and I have two front runners, Many more updates on that to come! meeting with the carpenters next friday to talk cost and materials.

The least of it =(

So you probably already know cuz i've been super upset about in on facebook, but my dog Newman was attacked by another dog, he's gonna be ok eventually but he's super hurt! He's got 3, 3-4 inch gashes on his ass and back and one on his face. He's got two drains inside the cuts and they had to shave half his bod! poor thing. I guess the owner of the other dog just stood there and let it happen. Newman is at the vets over the weekend for close care, I just can't wait to see him and give some love. I'm angry cuz this was so avoidable and we just love our dogs so much. Newman is the biggest and strongest of the three but he still only weighs in at 19 lbs. Our blind, 8 lb dog Oscar wouldn't have survived an attack like that. just vicious! There are more pics on my mom's mobile uploads if you want to see.... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Today my cousin Derek gets married! DAMN I HATE MISSING THIS! His bride-to-be's name is meghan and she seems super sweet and everyone in the family loves her, unfortunately i have not met her yet, they started dating while I was here in Guate, but hey! we're facebook friends! boo guatemala. They are tying the knot up in Maine today on a boat, beautiful small ceremony. My whole fam has made the trip up =) she speaks spanish too, so that will always be fun. Congratulations to you both I am so proud of you Derek. Les Deseo lo mejor! can't wait to party about this!


We got BIG DOINGS this week in my site, for the past two months atleast, a couple of super talented artists have been working on a huuuuuge mural in our central park. (also new) They have finished as of two days ago and Monday we will inaugurate it as a community at 7pm. The mural tells of Tzutujil history. The man in black and white depicted on the left is actually a living member of the community! talk about respecting your elders! It is certainly rare, usually people don't ever live to see themselves be memorialized. what a blessing to him and his family. i hope he speaks on monday night, though it probably won't be in spanish =) This mural is EASILY the coolest piece of art i have EVER seen in my life, its just awesome. here is a little teaser, on monday i will make a facebook album of it and all of its details. Congratulations to the artists! You have changed SMV forever!

This just in from mobile uploads! getting married on a sailboat!