New PCVs join Healthy Schools team

Free April/May

La Hora Chapina All the Healthy Schools news that’s fit to print

Content:

Tricks of the

Trade: Keep tho-se little buggers … errr … ener-

getic balls of joy on task

2

Letters to the

Editor: The diffe-rence between manos and monos

3

Parting Words:

Take a cue from Alexis Guild

4

Photo Essay: La

Pura Vida

5

Healthy Recipes:

Skin Scrub (It pro-bably won’t taste great.)

6

Presenting the newest generation of

Peace Corps Guatemala Healthy

Schools Volunteers:

Julia “Hugus” Dale, North Carolina

Don‘t call her ―Julia Gulia.‖ It doesn‘t

go over well. This Lost fan is also into

modern dance, which she doesn‘t con-

sider a sport, but I beg to differ. Do I

smell a secondary project in the works?

She was a history major who loved My

Little Pony as a girl, and the thing

she‘ll miss least about the States is ig-

norance. Her favorite quote is from fel-

low volunteer, Rebecca Dreyfuss: ―I

spent my college years wet.‖

Rebecca Dreyfuss, California

Besides being a world-class humorist

(see Dale‘s entry), Dreyfuss is a Peace

Corps legacy. Her aunt was in the first

class to serve in Ghana, her cousin

served in Mauritania, another cousin is

serving in Namibia and her brother is

applying. Her favorite book is The

Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara King-

solver and she played water polo at the

University of California, Berkeley.

Mark Forsberg, Minnesota

This cross-country and track runner

will be taking on the Cobán half mara-

thon this month. He was a History, So-

ciology/Anthropology and American

Studies major and his favorite book is

Nelson Mandela‘s autobiography, A

Long Walk to Freedom. The last time

he was in Guatemala was 2007, when

visited his sister and her husband, Kaci

and Corby Lewis, who were PCVs in

Alta Verapaz at the time.

Continued on page 3 La Hora Chapina

Publisher: Sheny

Huerta, shuerta@gt.

peacecorps.gov

Editor: Kristina

Crawley, kcrawley@

gonzaga.edu

Senior Reporter: Kristina Crawley,

kcrawley@gonzaga.

edu

La Hora Chapina is a newsletter dedicated to

providing PC Guate-

mala volunteers with

information regarding

the Healthy Schools

program. La Hora

Chapina welcomes

letters to the editor.

The Smack Down! I would like to take this oppor-

tunity to thank a group of ex-

ceptional HS PCVs. Rose

Winchell, Jessica Taylor,

Melissa Cuddy, Katherine Franks, Alexis Guild, Jillian

Geissler, Marlene Mora, Ellen

Kernan, Michelle Henderson,

and Nicole Hunt finished their

service in April, after two years

of outstanding work.

They were spread out

around the country, from Cam-

pur, Carchá, Alta Verapaz to

Pologuá, Totonicapán. Seven

of them started new schools

and two of them certified four

schools and started the HS

program in another four!

On behalf of my

―paisanos,‖ I want to thank

you for your two years of gen-erous service, fine work and

affectionate cultural sensitivity.

Please remember that

―Guatemala es su casa.‖ We

hope we will see you soon!

On the other hand, we wel-

come a professional, commit-

ted and enthusiastic new group

of 16 additional PCVs! Samra

Brouk, Adrian Ortega, Bethany

Harmon, Rebecca Schwartz,

Rebecca Dreyfuss, Mark Fors-

berg, Jareau Hall, Amanda Mayhew, Joanna Sylwester,

Joshua Eckley, Julia Dale,

Crystal Sand, Cori Purcell,

Sarah Suwalsky, Travis Snow,

and Valerie Walker have joined

us and are ready to continue the

good work started by the col-

leagues they are replacing.

Please join me in saying

farewell to our colleagues who

have left and welcoming our

new fellows!

Tricks of the Trade with Seño Katie

“Walk around

the classroom as

you speak. Look

children in the

eye or slide your

hand across

their desk as

you walk by.

Don’t ever give

them a chance

to think they

can get away

with talking.”

Page 2 La Hora Chapina

―Pay attention!‖

―Stop talking to your

neighbor!‖

―Do your work!‖

Ever get sick kids not pay-

ing attention? As adults we have been trained (at least

most of us) to sit still and lis-

ten for extended periods of

time no matter how bored we

are. But as elementary stu-

dents, they are still learning.

There are many ways to

keep students on task. Here

are some suggestions:

Keep your feet moving.

While giving a lesson, or even

giving simple directions, walk

around the classroom as you

speak. Look children in the

eye or slide your hand across

their desk as you walk by.

Don‘t ever give them a chance

to think they can get away

with talking to their neighbors.

Involve. A good lesson is a

lesson that includes the chil-

dren. We have all seen way

too many lessons in which teachers just talk while their

students copy notes into their

notebooks. Taking notes may

keep them occupied, but it

doesn‘t mean they are paying

attention. So, constantly ask

questions to your students and

do hands-on activities. Make sure all students get involved.

Don‘t forget the shy ones.

No down time. Never have

breaks in your lessons that allow the students‘ minds and

mouths to drift. Something as

short as needing to tape up a

poster or rummage through

your bag for a marker can get

kids talking. So, always be

prepared. Put the poster up in

advance and have your mark-

ers and everything else you

need for the lesson out in front

of you ready to go.

Keep lessons short. Not only

are elementary students still

learning to sit still, young ele-

mentary students physically

and mentally cannot pay atten-tion to one thing for very long.

Making lessons interactive

helps a lot, but how much the

students retain is what is most

important, and if a lesson is

too long, their brains go on

overload. Párvulos through

third-grade lessons should not

be longer than 15- to 20-

minutes, while the older kids

can go up to 30 or 40. This

applies to all types of lessons; mathematics, language,

Healthy Schools, etc.

Positive reinforcement. Get

students to do their assign-ments by reinforcing good

work out loud. If the students

are supposed to draw their

daily habits, and some stu-

dents are not doing their part,

walk to a working student and

say out loud how awesome

they are; ―Wow!! Freddy‘s

drawings are amazing! I‘m so

impressed! Great work

Freddy! (high five!)‖ The dis-

tracted kids will now want the same attention from you and

will get back to work in hopes

of earning your praise. All

kids need and want positive

reinforcement. *Katie Noren-Yeagle is a Healthy Schools PCV living in Aguacatán, Huehuetenango. She is a graduate of Linfield College in McMinn-ville, Ore. with a bachelor’s de-gree in early childhood and ele-

mentary education.

Teachers in Buxup, Jacaltenango, Huehuetenango act out techniques

for how to deal with rowdy students without disrupting the lesson.

Try out Seño Katie’s suggestions (and share them with your teachers)

for keeping energetic students like these involved and on task.

Volunteer monkeys around with teachers and CTA

Page 3 April/May

Letters to the Editor

So I am giving a taller to

all of my teachers (about 25)

to start the year off right. In

this workshop, of course, we

talk about our fundamental Healthy Schools themes. I

write a request to the CTA to

cancel classes and explain

what the taller is all about. I

give it to the CTA who in

turn signs it, stamps it, and

gives one approved letter to

each of the schools.

All four of my schools, all

of my teachers see the letter

when he returns it approved.

I see my teachers today at

my first school of the week and they are all compliment-

ing me on the letter and are

so amazed at my Spanish and

my ability to write such a

great letter and how difficult

it must have been. I accept

graciously the compliments

even though it's just a basic

letter and I really don't see

what the big deal is. Still I go

home feeling really good

about myself and how I've

finally won the respect of the teachers. Now that I've got-

ten their attention it's going

be a great year.

Just out of curiosity I go

back to my computer when I

get home and read over the

letter again. It looks pretty

good and I'm just about to

close it when I read, "la im-

portancia que los estudiantes

lavarse las monos." And just

for clarification, that's

"monos" not "manos"— the importance that the students

wash their monkeys. Yep,

their monkeys. Amazing. I

am so awesome. Really got

their attention, alright. Way

to start off the year right.

-Dana Weddle,

Tecpán, Chimaltenango

Continued from page 1

Jareau “Just call him Jay”

Hall, New York

He was an African Studies ma-

jor at Colgate University and he

already misses sushi. FYI: there

are a couple sushi restaurants in

Antigua, but I‘ve yet to try them,

and as his biggest pet peeve is

being around large groups of

drunken foreigners, he may want

to avoid AntiguaLandia. This

soccer player and 24 fan joined

the Peace Corps because he

―enjoyed the idea of living in

another country and being able

to contribute to its develop-

ment.‖

Bethany Harmon, Washington

Like me, she survived the col-

lege experience in Spokane, so

Guatemala should be no prob-

lem (I kid, I kid). Her worst job

was held at age 12 when she

spent a winter counting bee lar-

vae in a cold warehouse for $3

an hour, so she‘s been prepped

for those chilly temperatures

she‘ll be experiencing in Santa

Polonia. Her favorite book is a

collection of poems called Sail-

ing Alone Around the Room, by

Billy Collins.

Amanda “Manders” Mayhew,

Colorado

She‘s already missing dairy

products, but here‘s a word to

the wise: lactose intolerance has

a tendency to creep up on unsus-

pecting Peace Corps volunteers,

so proceed with caution when

you finally get a chance to con-

sume some quality cheese. Her

biggest pet peeve is people who

think they know more than you

about everything. But that

shouldn‘t be a problem here in

Guatemala, because as we all

know, all PCVs are experts in

medicine, agriculture, engineer-

ing and, well, just about every-

thing. Her mechanical bull re-

cord is five seconds and she‘s

going to have to buy some

warmer clothes, because she

thought it would be hot here all

the time.

Adrian “Adeedo” Ortega,

California

His favorite quote is, ―Go with

confidence towards your

dreams. Live the life you have

always imagined,‖ and that‘s

presumably what he‘s trying to

do by joining Peace Corps. He

plays soccer, beach volleyball,

baseball and surfs, and he got

his kicks from his Speak ‗n‘

Spell as a child in the 80s.

Adeedo says he‘s going to miss

Nana most from home and rec-

ommends the book Cien Años de

Soledad.

Crystal Sand, California

The Political Science/Spanish

Literature major joined Peace

Corps for an adventure and is in

good company with her fellow

Californians as she already

misses all things Trader Joe‘s.

Make sure your nose is clean if

you‘re hanging out with Sand,

because she can‘t stand nose

Continued on page 4

Page 4 La Hora Chapina

Continued from page 3

whistling (de acuerdo!). Her fa-

vorite book is Razor’s Edge and

she‘ll be trying to keep up with

Lost and The Office on DVD.

Rebecca Schwartz, New York

She joined Peace Corps ―to learn

in-depth about another culture

and in turn use her knowledge

and enthusiasm to try to give

back.‖ Well, she‘s already

learned that contrary to her prior

beliefs, Guatemalans do eat noo-

dles. Her musical education

started early with a Spice Girls

concert (―Shake it to the left!‖)

in the fifth grade. Her favorite

quote: ―Quotation is a service-

able substitute for wit.‖

Travis Snow, Connecticut

He studied Latin American

Studies and International Rela-

tions at Johns Hopkins Univer-

sity. Of his decision to join

Peace Corps he says, ―I love the

grass-roots, people-oriented ap-

proach to development as well

as the combination of idealism

with pragmatic realism.‖ A self-

described avid skier, cyclist

SCUBA diver and paraglider, he

calls 24 his guilty pleasure.

Snow‘s luxury item is noise-

canceling earbuds, ―for when the

Guatemalan music on the bus

becomes too much.‖

Joanna “Joey” Sylwester,

Colorado

Last Halloween, she dressed in a

blue jumpsuit with a rubber

chicken and electric cord tied

around her neck: Chicken Cor-

don Blu! Get it?!? A woman af-

ter my own heart, one of her big-

gest pet peeves is bad grammar

in text messages, and she lives

by the words, ―The early bird

may get the worm, but the sec-

ond mouse gets the cheese.‖

Also, Sylwester is proof that

they do play water polo outside

of California. She‘ll have to

swap stories with Dreyfuss and

Jessica Momberg. Four more

and we‘ll have a Healthy

Schools team.

Valerie Walker, Michigan

She has her bachelor‘s in print

journalism – which means I‘ll be

hitting her up soon for help with

La Hora Chapina – and her fa-

vorite toy from the 80s were

those irresistible little troll dolls.

She made a good call in bringing

along her Nintendo DS for en-

tertainment. Her biggest miscon-

ception about Guatemala? That

there would be endless amounts

of delicious coffee at every

street corner. I‘m sure in no time

she‘ll be downing gallons of

sugary NesCafé with ease. Editor’s note: New volunteer surveys were not received from

Samra Brouk, Joshua Eckley, Cori

Purcell or Sarah Suwalsky, though I’m sure they’re interesting people

and we welcome them, just the

same. Send those surveys to kcraw-

ley@gonzaga.edu to get your pro-file printed in the next Hora

Chapina!

Parting words from retired PCV Alexis Guild

What are your post-Peace Corps plans?

Grad school.

What are your proudest accomplishments in your

Peace Corps service?

Seeing my certified schools continue and improve

upon the Healthy Schools project post-

certification.

What advice do you have for the new volunteers?

Take your time and don´t let the teachers walk all

over you just because you are new and trying to

be culturally sensitive. Sometimes, you need to

be fuerte to get things done.

What advice do you have for the yearlings?

Make the most out of your final year of service.

Go to school events, birthday parties, weddings.

The full school year is the time when we can get

the most out of our schools and when many of our

goals are accomplished.

What will you miss most about Guatemala?

The people — both Guatemalans and other PCVs.

And, of course, the Bake Shop in Xela.

What is the craziest/weirdest thing you ever saw/

experienced here?

I almost fell out of a back of a pickup truck once.

I had to literally grab for someone to pull myself

back into the truck.

What is your most anticipated meal?

Turkey sandwich on sourdough roll, followed by

Cold Stone ice cream (cheesecake with black

cherries and brownie).

Page 5 April/May

In February, my teachers and I assisted a bottle-project training put on by Susana Heisse and her or-

ganization, Pura Vida in San Marcos, La Laguna. It was a great experience not only for the educa-

tion, but also because of the team bonding that took place during the trip. Here are some photos:

Page 6 La Hora Chapina

Letter from the Editor

La Pura Vida: Training minds, changing hearts When my teachers

and I were pre-

sented with the op-

portunity to attend a

bottle-project train-ing in San Marcos,

La Laguna, Sololá,

honestly the first

thought in my head

was: ―Ugh! This is going to be a logis-

tics nightmare.‖

I can hardly get all six teachers to

show up on time for a meeting at school.

How in the world am I supposed to get

them to a town more than six hours

away, and on the other side of a lake?

How will we get there? How are we go-ing to pay for it? But in light of the fact

that we are building our kitchen using

the bottle-project technique, we couldn‘t

exactly pass up the chance.

Well, I was right. Getting the trip

organized was a huge headache. I won‘t

go into details. I‘m sure you can imagine

the moaning and groaning, the postpon-

ing and the groveling for money from

the muni that went into the process. But

in the end it was all worth it.

My teachers and our albañil got a

first-hand look at just how this project is

going to come together. And they were

blown away by the passion of Susana

Heisse, the one-woman show behind Pura Vida, the organization that put on

the training and promotes environmen-

tally responsible practices.

Not only did we get a hands-on ex-

perience with a bottle construction, we

also got a tour of the eco-friendly hotel

in San Marcos which has figured out a

way to reuse or recycle virtually all the

trash it creates. Susana, a German trans-

plant who just received her Guatemalan

cedúla after 18 years of living in-

country, has also been the driving force behind the creation of a recycling center

in San Marcos.

When we had our post-trip meeting at

school the next week, my teachers‘ en-

thusiasm for the project had doubled.

They were more energized and positive

than I had ever seen them.

And while the peak of that energy

may have worn off a bit, we can still feel

it as a driving force behind the project.

We‘ve been having difficulty getting

project funding approved by the muni

(even though using the bottle method

has lowered our costs from some

Q60,000 to around Q20,000), and before

this trip I would have expected some-thing like that to cause the group to com-

pletely lose steam. Instead, they‘ve re-

sponded to the challenge.

We were recently accompanied by

our CTA in a meeting with the mayor to

appeal the negative response. Four of the

six teachers from the school showed up

with half-a-day‘s notice and waited for

two hours to be seen. We exacted a

promise from the mayor to come down

and see the school and reconsider sup-

porting the project. The teachers are also optimistic about pursuing other funding

options.

I‘ve always been leery about giving

advice in this column, because I think

every volunteer‘s situation is unique.

But I‘ll go out on a limb here and say

that if you have the opportunity to take a

trip with your teachers – for whatever

reason – do it. It was a huge boon for us,

and I bet it will be for you, too.

Kristina Crawley

Quote of the Month

“He who helps a child helps humanity with an immediateness which no other help given to

human creatures in any other stage of human life can possibly be given.”

— Phillips Brooks

Homemade skin scrub

Dry season, wet season, high al-

titude — this country is not great

for maintaining healthy skin. Try

making a homemade scrub on a

Peace Corps budget:

2 Tbsp. used coffee grounds

1/2 cup sugar

Oil

Mix the coffee and sugar.

Add oil to cover the coffee mix-

ture. Use it to treat the skin on

your hands, feet, body and even

on your face. Contributed by: Andrea Stanaway

La Hora Chapina is always looking for new healthy recipes. Please email

yours to Kristina Crawley at kcraw-

ley@gonzaga.edu.

Healthy Recipes