Round and Round We Go

So, now I have a very pregnant child wandering in and out of my house.  Jackie has resisted all attempts to get her to consider adoption.  She remains determined to keep her baby and be a single mother without resources at age 17. When asked how she might get to the hospital when the baby arrives at the end of September she shrugs her shoulders.  Yet another very clear example of the amazing ability of the poor to not think past their next meal. I have agreed to see Jackie through her last year of high school albeit at a reduced level of both attention and cost.  She will be required to keep her grades up and also to figure out childcare for when she needs to report to her home schooling program to take exams.  She and her offspring will fall off of my payroll when she finishes high school. "No children while still a child" is the rule she broke.

Estela remains less than thrilled about the impending grandchild (and is very worried that given Jackie's size there might be two) which she knows she will have to support.  She says that Jackie will have to take the "chicken bus" to the hospital if the baby comes during the day time.  Imagine being in labor in an overcrowded chicken bus, though I would guess there will be a vast amount of experience available.  Imagine going through life saying that you were born on a chicken bus. As there is no bus service at night said baby, or babies, might have to rely on the volunteer firemen who often don't answer the phone at night.  Given the number of babies one sees everywhere I suppose it gets worked out somehow.

Astrid, on the other hand is scouring websites that offer foreign exchange opportunities for high schoolers.  She was stunned to find out that it would be possible to go to the US legally with such a program.  Just yesterday upon finishing with her math tutor she announced "I love math" and went on to say that her very new found love of math had opened up other career paths so, maybe architecture, but still maybe veterinarian. We went to a party the other night honoring said veterinarian and Astrid was subjected to a tirade about her father from a man clearly lacking in sensitivity. She took it in stride.

Future exchange student wearing new shoes.

Astrid had a bad day last week when a fellow student asked her loudly in the lunchroom why she only had one pair of jeans and one pair of shoes.  The offending student was silenced by her own friends and Astrid's ever increasing group of friends came to her defense.  It still stung however and she asked me why the girl would have done that.  I told her that the girl was likely jealous of the number of friends Astrid has. I suggested that, if it happened again, Astrid should give the girl a hug and tell her that she was sorry that it bothered her that she only had one pair of shoes but that her mother was a single parent with three kids who couldn't afford to buy her more shoes.

Denis who studies endlessly recently asked, one Saturday, if he could go in the car with me to pick up the younger kids at school. He clearly wanted to talk. He told me of a meeting with the director of his home schooling program and said he had decided to get his "bachillerato" (high school diploma, a big achievement) then take a one year course to become a mechanic. After that he planned to work as a mechanic while he studied either engineering or architecture and further he wanted to open a restaurant offering local food (the latter likely a dream of his mother’s).  A somewhat ambitious plan for a kid who, just a year ago, was completely demoralized after flunking out of school and was certain that he had no future.  When I first met Denis as a six or seven year old he expressed interest in engineering or architecture.  It is nice to see those dreams resurface as his self-esteem recovers.

My current task is to find Denis a position as an apprentice with a mechanic as part of his home schooling regime.  The first person I asked turned him down because of the sins of his father, some of which were perpetrated in the man’s neighborhood. It is very sad that these kids will be haunted forever by the misdeeds of their father.  They will have to work so much harder than others to prove themselves worthy.  My occasional driver, Vinicio who, having lost his own son in a motorcycle accident, has taken an interest in Denis and called today with the name of a mechanic who will let Denis work with him. 

Diego just wants to learn.  English, robotics, math ... he is not fussy.  I set him up with a refurbished laptop, the Khan Academy and "Scratch," the MIT software that teaches kids how to program and he is in heaven.  I have him testing offline versions of the Khan Academy and more that may well be used in rural areas in Central America where there is no internet access. He is carrying a heavy burden however, feeling responsible for his mother and his younger siblings. Poor kids here have a very real fear of starving to death if they see that a parent, often their only parent is not working.  Such is the case with Diego's mother right now. 

Diego and Astrid teaching themselves computer code using "Scratch."

Marielos is getting a well-earned dose of "tough love.”  She borrowed some money and, looking me right in the eye, assured me that she could pay it back at a rate of Q500 ($65) per month. Fairly quickly I learned that it was all a lie and that she not only had no money to pay me she has a yet unknown quantity of debts to the kind of loan sharks who break knee caps and worse. As so often happens here help turned up when it was needed in the form of a very capable psychologist named Olga. Olga is working with Marielos (and also Diego) to get her to give up on Alex whom she still mourns and to understand that she will get no further help from me if she tells one more lie about anything. 

You might ask “how in the world can she continue to carry on about a guy who has committed heinous crimes and left an unknown number of fatherless children to fend for themselves? “ The short answer is a “total lack of self-esteem” and the master psychopath tells her exactly what she wants to hear to keep her coming to visit him bringing food and money that she can ill afford.  I suspect he is the source of the debts that she cannot pay. Stay tuned. I will find out.

The highlight of their day was riding in the back of the car.

“Los chiquitos” (the littlest ones), Cris and Mishelle, remain delightfully oblivious to the drama swirling around them.  Both are thriving in the safe haven that is their school chattering away in a mix of Spanish and English.  Saturdays, rather than standing around in the market, while their mother now helps family members having lost her own shop due to lack of money for inventory, they all go to English classes then spend the rest of the day at my house being somewhat normal kids in spite of it all.

Cris had thrown up his lunch so his clothes were in the washer.  Denis was outside washing cars.

Is There No Hope for this Place?

Monday morning of Holy Week Estela arrived with Astrid who was headed to the vet clinic.  As there were others in the house Estela asked if she could speak to me privately.  We headed upstairs and I closed the bedroom door.  I expected her to tell me that Alex had been killed in prison.

But instead she started crying and told me that her tiny, 95-pound, virginal looking, barely 17-year old daughter, Jackie, was four months pregnant.  Just that morning she had taken the still vomiting teen to the local health center where she was quickly diagnosed as five months short of being a mother.  Estela will be a grandmother by the time she is 36.  Estela reported that everyone in the household was furious with Jackie.  Denis asked through tears "how could you do this after everything Tia Joan has done for us?"  Astrid shouted "we can't have a baby in this house; we are studying."  Estela furious because Jackie had declined all offers of birth control saying "I am too young to have a boyfriend."

Fortunately, I had upcoming travel plans which kept me from seeing Jackie for about ten days which was almost enough time to cool down and speak to her rationally.  I asked her what her plans for the baby where and she indicated that she had none.  I asked if she was going to move in with the boy and his family. "No." I asked her how she was going to pay for diapers, clothing, food, medicine, education and she shook her head and said "my mother will help."  I reminded her, in her mother's presence, that her mother was barely making ends meet as it was, that she could ill afford another child, that she needed to work and the baby would not be coming to work with her at my house.

I further told her that I thought that it would make sense to consider giving the baby up for adoption, that there were wonderful families for whom the baby would be a miracle and they could give the baby a two parent home and many more opportunties than she could provide.  She shook her head.  I told her that she needed to think about it, that she needed to put the baby's welfare before her own, that she also needed to think about herself, her mother, brother and sister.  So, that is where that is at this writing.

Many more are delivering the same message to Jackie including, this week, a wonderful Guatemalan woman who is a psycologist.  As it turns out I just happen to know a wonderful family who is looking to adopt after losing a child last year in an accident. Stay tuned.  Who knows how this will all play out. The decision has to be Jackie's but those of us with a few more miles need to make sure that she is thinking somewhat straight.

A few hours after talking to Jackie the wonderful psychologist came to my house with the director of Cristofer and Mishelle's school to meet with Marielos and her fairly wise older sister, Gladys. Gladly, my only role was to take Marielos's three kids out for some dinner. Naturally, they chose McDonalds.  I had a tuna salad while they ingested poison in the form of fries, chocolate milk and a questionable burger. Upon returning to my house I was given the signal to carry on upstairs.  Cris had the iPad, Mishelle the iPhone and Diego worked on a homework project.  Some three hours later I got the word that they were finished downstairs.

Once again, we shall see.  It turns out that some of Alex's stories about Marielos's mother were actually confirmed as true.  While I like her father I have always felt that there was something missing with her mother.  No one but the mother had had a key to the house so no one could be in the house if she wasn't there. Marielos and Gladys confirmed that their mother is an alcoholic and, for whatever reason (still to be explored - could be all her fatherless children) the mother has been particularly hard on Marielos.  While she struggles to feed three children her mother has been charging her rent, increasing the amount quite regularly and routinely threatening to throw her and her children out for being behind in her rent.

I had often wondered why the two sisters (Gladys is divorced and has three slighly older kids and a big house) hadn't joined forces.  Quite obviously Marielos was still subscribing to Alex's stories of his innocence and expecting him home any day.  With a sentence of 42 years she has had to deal with reality. At the end of the lengthy meeting it was decided that Marielos and her three kids would move into her sister's house.  The two came by the next evening to explain their plan to me. They had told their mother that Marielos would be leaving and apparently, the mother wanted to keep 10-year old Diego as payment for the unpaid rent.  She likely would have pulled him out of school and put him to work.  The sisters said "NO" so the mother said she would be keeping all of Marielos's furnishings except her beds and television.  At this writing the move has likely already taken place and the next chapter will involve some debt restructuring along with some conditions.

However, amidst all the drama there have been a couple of bright spots.  Denis saved up his car wash earnings so that he could be a "carrier" in the Good Friday procession, one of the biggest of Holy Week.  It took a bit of scrambling and following the procession of several thousand people around town in order to catch of a photo of him at about 1:30 in the morning.

Denis is the one with the smile.

Denis and Jackie just received their first set of grades from their home schooling program and Denis had his highest grades ever with an 85 average.  He was beaming. Jackie, who gets an F is common sense did very well in other subjects.

Astrid, who continues to grow by leaps and bounds, has been longing for a puppy as she has seen a few rescued street dogs come in and go out again at the clinic where she volunteers.  A few days ago the vet called me and said he had a four-month old pure bred Golden Retriever puppy that had been abandoned at the clinic and asked me if I thought Astrid would like it. Yesterday she took "Nala" home with her.

Astrid, Nala and vet tech, Christian.

And Three Steps Forward .... except for Dad

Two days before the dreaded exams I was reading the newspaper while waiting for Jackie and Denis to finish their tutoring session.  A headline caught my eye and there it was.  Their father along with his three sleazy amigos had been sentenced to 42 years in prison, thirty each for kidnapping and twelve each for rape.  For some strange reason a prison "year" in Guatemala is only nine months long which immediately reduces that sentence by 25%. Estela and I decided to keep the news to ourselves until after the exams.  Estela collected the cell phones allegedly so that the two wouldn't be distracted from studying.  I sent a text message to Marielos who was visiting Alex that day asking her please not to communicate with the children about the news before Thursday afternoon.

Denis was the first to come out of the exams.  He was wearing a big grin so I knew that he had passed.  Jackie soon followed.  They said that they had only taken half of the exams, that the other half would come the following week but that they had passed the most difficult ones.  Over lunch their mother and I told them that we had news about their father, that he had been sentenced to a number of years but we weren't clear as to how many as there were conflicting reports. Marielos had reported that the sociopath himself had told her that his sentence was 12 years which was inconsistent with the news reports.  While Denis has pretty much written his father off Jackie is still wrestling with conflicting emotions. Now she knows that her father, while proclaiming his innocence and soon to be freedom, has been lying to her as well.  Likely also to himself.

Dad got 42 years today, kids got ice cream

We talked about life going on and the fact that everyone gets something that they have to deal with in life.  I reminded them that their father was very interested in them getting educated so the best thing that they could do was to distract themselves with their studies.  I told Jackie that each day it would be a little bit easier to accept.  I expected that the three would break the news to Astrid that afternoon but  apparently Astrid had read the same newspaper on the bus on her way home from school two days earlier.  At age 13, she had taken it upon herself not to say anything to her family because of the upcoming exams.  She had taken the newspaper off of the "chicken" bus and had thrown it away.  "I told you he was trash, " she told her older siblings.  

So, Marielos is finally mourning and well she should be but, hopefully, not for very long.  She told me that she was going to vist Alex and take Cris and Mishelle with her as they haven't seen their father for a year.  (So, why take them to a prison?) It is clear to me that he is pleading to see his children as a last desperate means of staying connected with his old, rotten life. He didn't care about his kids then, why would he now? He wants his desperately poor women to bring him food and money that they will be taking away from their children. Pay your dues dude. Too bad you can't hear your children all laughing together. Your loss.  

Denis is booming, his confidence well on its way to being restored.  He mentioned that he was studying astronomy in science and I told him that there was a Khan video on astronomy.  He had already watched it.  Last week he turned sixteen and I had vowed to find him some sex education so that he would know that his father's way of indiscrimate propagation wasn't the only way.  A friend helped me get him an appointment with a male staff person at WINGS, a non-profit family planning organization. I had promised him a box of condoms for his birthday.  With a visiting cousin I visited a local "farmacia" and said "please, we would like some condoms." The woman behind the counter was certain that I hadn't realized what I had asked for.  When I repeated my request her eyes got very large. After a pregnant (pun intended) moment I explained that they were a birthday present for a young man.  She then spread out the whole inventory and helped us to put together a great variety of "extra" this and "extra" that.  As I was afraid that Denis might try and escape I didn't tell him what we were up to until I dropped him off for his meeting.  I then told him that he was going to meet with a fellow who was going to tell him everything he wanted to know about sex and that he could ask him anything he wanted to.  Off I went. Much to my surprise several hours later Denis turned up and thanked me for setting up the meeting and said that it was very interesting. I am sure it was.

A day later Astrid showed up on for her Saturday volunteer job at the local vet clinic.  She seemed a little bit down.  I asked her what was wrong and she told me that the sister of her best friend at school was having her "quincenera" (15th birthday party) that evening at 6 and that she was unable to go because she didn't have a dress.  Her mother, who could well have afforded a dress for her daughter, clearly did not understand the importance of letting her daughter participate in school social events and even if she did wasn't about to participate financially.  I called Marielos in the market and asked her if she could help Astrid buy a dress and shoes so that she could go to the party.  Marielos and his sister spent the afternoon getting Astrid ready for the party. And what a party it was.  Guards, searchlights, music, dancing, fake champage (sparkling apple juice) and every kind of teen food imaginable.  Astrid had a blast.  One more step out of poverty.

Astrid ready for the party.

My next challenge is going to be to tackle Marielos's miserable level of self-esteem.  For reasons I don't yet understand she was not allowed to go past the second grade in school.  Now that she is starting to realize that her hombre is a lost cause she is dealing with the fact that she can scarcely support his children alone by selling hair ribbons in the market.  She is a good salesperson but getting a job elsewhere is impossible without a certificate showing that she has at least a sixth grade education.  She is looking for proof of completion of second grade and then we will talk about enrolling her in a home schooling program which would offer her the opportunity to not only build her self-esteem but complete more formal education.  The good news is that there are a number of children who are more than willing to help her.  The youngest (of the known children of Alex) who will be five in May will be able to help her with her English.

I speak English.

And Two Steps Back ...

Just when I thought I had it all figured out cultural differences erupted.  I began hearing, second hand, that Estela (and what does she know being barely literate herself?) thought that Denis and Jackie should be in a proper school where they would be with friends.  I guess she had forgotten that both had flunked out of their most recent proper school. Also she didn't really understand that home schooling was not only the last choice but was likely the best.  Neither Estela nor the children could figure out where to place Victoria.  Was she a Guatemalan because she had a brown face or was she a gringa because she was raised in the US and spoke English as well as any other American?  Estela asked her if she had a maid (that would make her a gringa).  When Victoria told her that she did not Estela asked her if she had a washing machine.  When the answer to that question was also "no" she asked her who washed her clothes.  Victoria told Estela that she washed the family's clothes in a sink just as Estela does.  

Perhaps it was then that Estela decided that Victoria was really too Guatemalan to be teaching her children and she apparently communicated that fact to Denis and Jackie.  Denis did his best imitation of "macho" and announced that he should be able to listen to music while studying because it relaxed him.  While never impolite I heard Denis speaking to Victoria as a macho Guatemalan might speak to a Guatemalan woman.  One is always aware of the fact that the poor, dependent on the generosity of others, often have two very different faces:  one for gringos and quite another for their own kind.  The non-gringo face is quite often not a very pretty one and it is one that I fear that Estela's kids see all too often in their home. I was disappointed to hear it coming from Denis.

Whatever happened, Victoria announced that she was quitting.  We talked and I think that many of her buttons had been pushed as a result of the cultural confusion and the assumption that her brown face meant that she wasn't up to standard. And suddenly I found that I had reached my limit with the two adolescents.

Victoria and I made a plan.  We would talk to the two the next day before their mother arrived for work and then we would include Estela so there would only be one version of the conversation. I told them that Victoria was quitting, that I was tired of pouring money down the toilet and that, if they were not interested and willing to participate, they could just go home and just pick coffee for $3 a day for the rest of their lives.  I mean't it and they got it. When we had said everything we had to say I sent Estela and the two tormented teens home to decide what their future was going to look like.

I felt a sense of relief.  I had my house back and I had stopped the cash drain into the toilet.  I had done everything possible for the two and, as I had told them, I had run out of options and could not force them to take an interest in an opportunity that many other Guatemalan children could only dream about.  The three scurried out of the house wondering, I am sure, what had hit them.

Estela was very quiet the next day.  I was relishing the chance to get some other things done.  Towards the end of the day I told Estela that Victoria had reported that Jackie blamed all her recent failures and health issues on worry about her father.  Worry about a man who didn't care enough about any of his kids to stay out of jail, worry about a man who participated in a gang that kidnapped and raped women, worry about a man who won't even tell his children why he is still in prison after more than a year and a half? From the Internet I printed the front page newspaper articles from when Alex had been arrested and suggested that Estela take them home and have the two older children read them out loud.  Time for them to do a reality check rather than continue to believe the lies of their father who, of course, maintains that he is innocent, that it is all a big mistake and that he will be free very soon. I suspect that the truth is that he has been given a lengthy sentence but won't admit that to any of those whom he has devastated. 

I told Estela that, if the two didn't come to terms with the facts about their father that Denis would likely follow him to jail and Jackie would likely die from her inability to eat without vomiting.  And have a nice weekend!

On Monday Estela reported that the two had studied most of the weekend. True?  Hard to tell.  I was back and forth with the educational psychologist overseeing the homeschooling program.  She asked for a meeting.  I used the power of my checkbook and told her that Denis simply could not absorb another failure at the current time.  I had already been told that if the kids did not pass the exams scheduled for Wednesday they would not be able to continue.  I agreed to meet the director on Wednesday and told Estela that I was leaving at 8:30am, that if the children had decided that if either one or both wanted to continue their education that they should be at my house before 8:30.  I had no idea whether or not they would show up.  I further told Estela that if either wanted help I would be available Tuesday afternoon.

On Tuesday two smiling teens showed up at my door.  Jackie reported that she had finished everything but math and she needed help with reciprocals (in Spanish no less).  Astrid was there and found the appropriate Khan Academy video in Spanish and the two dealt with reciprocals.  Denis was in a panic as nothing came up when he googled "números cuadraticos" on the Khan Spanish channel.  I noticed that his favorite math teacher was online and typed in a message.  We need help with "números cuadraticos."  Within minutes I heard the Skype call from Ottawa, Canada and Denis got the help he needed.

Wednesday morning two very tense teens showed up at the appointed time.  We discussed that it would not be the end of the world if either failed the test.  That did little to reduce the tension.  Upon arriving at the homeschooling office, to the intense relief of Denis especially, the decision had been made to put off their exams until the following week.  A new schedule was settled on which includes more tutoring thus two visits a week for both.  Back in Antigua we went to a very cheap, cheerful and popular place for lunch.  We shared a table with a friend and her son who, coincidentally, was at the international school with Denis, did not want to go back and is now doing an online homeschooling program in English.  I could almost see Denis's brain make the switch from "stupid" to "privileged, even cool."  Homeschooling kids get to go out to lunch. The two boys are likely going to satisfy an extra-curricular requirement by volunteering together at a primary school in a nearby rural village.  We shall take it one month at a time and will hope for the best.  There is a Q100 phone card available to anyone who shows improvement. And that is just part of the bribery component.  It is my hope to drag these two, kicking and screaming if necessary, across the great divide from poverty.

Six Students and a Latte

The only reason I have had the time to update this blog is because I just returned from a lovely road trip to Chiapas, Mexico where I actually had time to sit still and write.  It makes me sad that there are so many wonderful places to visit and so little time.  San Cristobal de las Casas is reminiscent of Antigua but one cannot help marvel at how much progress Mexico has made in recent years.  Lots of artisans and colorful markets, real book stores, excellent restaurants, culture, inexpensive but chilly at 7200 feet of altitude.  We only found one restaurant that seemed to have heat and it was not in our hotel.  I was reminded of a Slovenian B&B owner once telling me "there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing."  True.  We all just bundled up and enjoyed the place.

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

The highlight was a private piano concert by the artist in residence of Na Bolom, the one-time home of a Danish archeologist and his Swiss journalist wife who trekked into the mountains and became friends with the indigenous.  They are both deceased and their one-time home is now a combination museum, hotel, cultural center and place of study.

Richard Pierce Milner

Today it was back to reality and all that six active children bring with it.  For the most part the school year in Guatemala starts in January when the coffee picking season is over. One exception is the international schools that keep a schedule corresponding to that of the developed world from where they draw many of their teachers. Thus, Astrid started her school year in September.  She is repeating the sixth grade having survived a year of learning English and dealing with a huge cultural divide and an imprisoned father.  She has, quite obviously, decided to make it work.  The first edition of the school newsletter for the year touted Astrid as a star student.  She has friends, her grades are good, she is gaining fluency in English and she is not letting the cultural divide get in her way.  For Christmas I saw that she got a recycled first generation iPad which puts her on equal footing with her fellow, far more affluent, students.  She asked me to install the "Pages" app so she could use it for homework. During the Christmas school break Astrid volunteered at one of the Antigua veterinary clinics where she was on hand when a circus owner brought in a baby (17 pounds) female African lion with a broken leg.  Astrid continues to go to the clinic on Saturdays and the vet has been so impressed with her interest and dedication that he has let her assist him with surgeries.  Astrid at 13 is likely on her way to beating poverty.

Astrid and the lion.

Sadly, Denis had to say "adios" to his one-time math teacher who returned to Canada in December.  Alex (not to be confused with Denis father) had spent most of his afternoons for the previous several months tutoring Denis in math, English and life.  Denis experienced a father figure, someone who actually cared that he succeed.  Gladly, the two talk regularly on Skype and I have promised Denis a trip to visit Alex when he graduates from "basico" (9th grade).  So, between that bribery, ongoing work with both Alex and an educational psychologist and the arrival of the perfect home schooling tutor Denis is tackling his return to formal education with increased confidence and interest.  His fears of being stupid and failing are rapidly subsiding.  He smiles and says "thank you very much" a lot.

For now the challenge is Jackie who, at 17, has been the most affected by her father's behavior and imprisonment.  Once a good student she recently flunked her second to last year of "diversificado" (high school).  I fault the less than stellar bi-lingual secretarial program rather than Jackie but, nonetheless, flunking out of school isn't much of a confidence builder.   Fairly quickly, Jackie was signed up for home schooling along with her brother.  During her school vacation she volunteered at the vacation program at the Montessori school that Cris and Mishelle attend.  As a result (and with a bit of conversation) she is, for the moment, setting her sites on becoming a teacher. With the start of home schooling it became apparent that Jackie was lagging, perhaps even ailing.  The good Dr. Oscar was called and he came by the house a couple of hours later.  Lab work showed that Jackie is suffering from anemia, likely the result of living on tortillas and bread.  Dr. Oscar who declined payment for his house call prescribed something to settle her stomach and a decent diet which I can now see to at least two times a day. 

As luck would have it a few days before home schooling was to get underway Victoria showed up.  She was introduced by a neighbor.  Victoria is a Guatemalan who was supporting her younger siblings by selling fruit in Antigua's Central Park at age six some 48 years ago.   She was befriended by an American couple who were able to adopt her after her father was imprisoned for molesting her and her mother tossed her out.  She was then raised in the US by two professors and only returned to Guatemala after raising two American children.  She is now married to a Guatemalan and they have a 12-year old son.  Victoria's passion is teaching, she has home schooled her youngest son in the past and was looking for work.  She found it.  I don't have a clue as to what I would have done if she had not turned up but I do know that I couldn't find a more perfect candidate.  A one-time child fruit vendor with a deadbeat dad and the same color skin who has succeeded in spite of it all.   School takes place in my living room or in my garden.  School lunches (and snacks and breakfast when necessary) are wholesome and nourishing.  I hear laughter and lots of conversation.  I watch Denis writing enthusiastically in his notebooks, using the Khan Academy website and I hear him asking lots of questions.  What a change!  Hopefully, with a few weeks of Tia Joan's school meal program Jackie will perk up and share Denis's interest and enthusiasm.

And lastly there was Diego, bright, polite, deserving, fatherless.  Marielos has had him in a (cheap) private school since pre-school.  He loves school and learning and likes to read and practice the little English that he has learned.  His mother felt that his school had failed him over the past two years and was unsure of what to do for this school year.  Enter Victoria who gained Diego a chance to take the entrance exam at the same private, bi-lingual school that her son attends.  I collected Diego after his 3-hour entrance exam.  He was staring hopelessly at a written English test.  After determining  that he didn't speak much English the director announced that he could not come to the school.  Much to my surprise Diego the "old soul" who takes amazing care of his younger siblings started sobbing and ran out of the room.  Only then did I realize that, at age ten, Diego realized that he had just lost a real chance to succeed.  Feeling that I had nothing to lose I challenged the director (who coincidentally doesn't speak a word of English). I told her that his father was dead, his step-father in prison, that he felt responsible for his whole family and that she had just kicked him in the teeth. And just how was he going to learn English if a bi-lingual school wouldn't take a bright, determined kid?  So, Diego started last week as a "temporary" student with no particular standing for this school year.  I told the director that I didn't care, that she just needed to give the kid a chance.  So, he floats between third grade English classes and fifth grades classes in Spanish and I am quite certain that he will succeed.  He is happy and he tells me that his favorite classes are English and science.  One of the bi-lingual teachers took me aside that first day and assured me that she would keep an eye on Diego as will Victoria.  At 2pm Victoria picks Diego up with her son and delivers him to the school that his younger siblings attend where he gets an hour of homework assistance and and another hour of English.

Chris, Diego and Mishelle

And the littlest two, Cris and Mishelle, once just another couple of kids growing up in the market are starting to read and write along with becoming iPad and iPhone experts.  Along with Diego (who by the way is now sporting retainers as an initial step in sorting out his dental issues) Cris and Mishelle are remarkably secure thanks, I think, to their adoring mother and extended family.

Diego, 10 and Mishelle, 4

And, if six kids and one dog weren't enough I came home one day and found "Latte" tied to the table in the garden.  An 18 pound probable poodle mix of a café latte color he was sorely in need of veterinary care.  I had seen him a few days earlier at a nearby shelter and had offered to take him on a trial basis.  Riddled with mange and infected eyes and ears but otherwise spunky and puppy like.  He spent a few days in the vet clinic where it was determined that he is almost blind from "juvenile cataracts" (which might dissolve). He is still on the mend but all of the kids (if not my other dog) adore him.  He is just the right size yet can outrun Denis, the star soccer player.  Just what Denis needs right now.  

Perfect dog for a bunch of kids.

Mucho Progreso

A year ago Denis scarcely spoke, Jackie cried a lot and Astrid was quiet and sullen.  Last Friday Jackie, Denis and I made a round trip to Lake Átitlan to deliver books donated by a Reno Rotarian to the Riecken Library in San Juan La Laguna.  Jackie asked if she could also go as neither of them had ever seen a library before.  Jackie is working as a volunteer for the vacation program at Cris and Mishelle's school thus I told her that she would need to ask permission to be away.  One has to be cognizant of the fact that mom with her sub-standard sixth grade education has few social skills to offer her children.  Though both had seen the lake a few years ago we arrived this time using a more scenic route and stopped at a place where one could see the entire lake.

Denis, in particular seemed overwhelmed at the site of this beautiful lake.  He has recently shown a great interest in photography (the plus side of being so visually oriented that he struggles learning a second language) thus I have given him access to my camera.  He grabbed the camera and immediately understood that there are some things that the camera cannot fully replicate.

We parked the car and walked the books down to a dock where we all boarded a boat for the trip across the lake.  Q25 ($3) for unknown gringos, Q20 for known local gringos and Q15 for Guatemalans.  The books traveled for free.

Yes, there are some buildings sitting in the water in this picture.  Lake Átitlan, surrounded by volcanos and Mayan villages is full of mystery and legend.  The level of the lake, which was created millions of years ago by a presumed volcanic eruption, goes up and down dramatically over time.  Earlier in the last century there was a change of 15 meters (over 45 feet).  This is something that the locals understand and accept.  They simply move to higher ground as necessary and build new docks when the others become submerged.

Upon arrival at the dock in San Juan the books were loaded into a tuk tuk for a ride up the hill to the community center where the library is located.  Jackie and Denis got their first look at a library. Imagine finding out for the first time that there was a place you could go and get answers to all of your questions.

Denis, with his very recently acquired self-confidence plied library director, Israel Quic, with questions about the lake.  How deep is it, how big is it, how did it get here?  They talked about all of the Mayan legends about the lake and the changing levels.  Israel told Denis about the underground city found by divers and archeologists.  Denis was fascinated and Israel referred him to an Guatemalan university website where there is a video of the underwater exploration.  Both kids were surprised to hear people in the library speaking a language they didn't understand.  Israel talked to them about all the Mayan languages spoken around the lake.

Back across the lake we went and I believe the two had learned more about their country and its people in one day than they have so far in their "formal" education.  Denis continues daily tutoring in math. life and soccer with his favorite teacher from last year.  Jackie has flunked out of her bi-lingual secretary program (I fault the school) despite having been a good student in the past so she will join Denis in the home schooling program with the goal of gaining her "bachillerato" and eventually a teaching job. The addition of an inexpensive, "student" laptop to my house gives all of the kids (supervised) internet access.

Astrid is quickly becoming a star at the Antigua International School where last year she was sullen, even angry and pretty unhappy.  Today she is smiling, quickly gaining fluency in English and amazing the teachers who just a year ago had little hope for her.  I took her to a concert recently and told her that she could come to the house anytime she needed to use the internet for homework and to let me know anytime she needed a ride.  Astrid is the only student in her school who arrives and leaves via the "chicken bus."  There is no service from the school to her village in the evenings which means she cannot attend school related activities after dark without a safe transportation alternative.  She has two advocates at the school who let me know when she might need something that is not available at home.  Recently that was a bit of money for a Halloween costume and, soon, donations for a food drive for a nearby impoverished school.

The evening of the concert Astrid asked me, in English, if I could explain taxes to her as there was about to be a debate in her humanities class.  We talked about economics, revenues, spending, taxes, why Guatemala was so poor, why the Antigua mayor was in jail (expropriation of tax revenues) and more.  A few days later Astrid called from school and asked me if I could please pick her up at school as she needed to use the internet for some homework.

One day last week the following arrived in my email inbox.  "I just wanted to share with you a major accomplishment for Astrid today. While in her Social Studies class, she raised her hand to read in front of the class. This is the first time she's done this and is an absolute display of her developing self-confidence and comfort at school. Mrs. Nicholas stopped the class when she had finished reading and told the class why Astrid had just done such an amazing thing. The whole class applauded her and she came to the library and told me how 'very, very, very happy' she was and that she felt proud of herself. This is a major step for her!" The debate was a great success and her advocates tell me that she participated and was firm about her positions. Astrid asked her mother if they could get a newspaper.

Next weekend Astrid and I will participate in a caravan taking warm clothing and food to earthquake victims near Quezaltenango. The more affluent students are likely to visit family in the US over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Astrid will be able to report that she went on a humanitarian mission.

As for the little kids life is good as they are still oblivious to the dark side of poverty that their (now) single mom has to endure.  Slowly but surely Marielos is coming to terms with the reality of Alex's situation and is starting to let him go. A typical day for her was yesterday. She walks to the bus with her kids then rode the bus to Antigua and then walked a mile to deposit her kids in their English class.  She then opened her shop in the market where she sells cheap earrings and hair things to a local clientele.  She is lucky if she makes $5 a day.  At noon she does the mile walk again to pick up her kids.  I visited in the afternoon and took Cris and Mishelle for ice cream. Diego was home sick.  Cris, 5, knows his way around the rabbit warren of a market the way most kids know their way around their block.  He led us to the ice cream store and back.

Thanks to their bi-lingual school what two weeks ago was "limone" was this week "green" as a preferred flavor.  Mom worked in the market until after dark.  I told her that I had some food for her and would give them a ride home to their village.  Upon arrival at the house that Marielos shares with her parents she indicated that no one was there and that her mother had the only key.  So, I was left with the choice of abandoning them on the sidewalk in pretty chilly and dark (and not terrible safe) conditions or coming up with an alternative.  So, we loaded everything back in the car and the kids took turns practicing driving with great enthusiasm.   Heaven knows where we might have ended up had I let Cris get his hand on the key.  Poverty really, really sucks.

Bougainvillea Lane ... Poco a Poco

Curious that there is never a dull day here in Guatemala.  Perhaps, that is the "hook".  It might have to do with the small size of the community or the fact that those without resources or education circle around the gringos with interesting and innovative tales of woe.  Or that all of the ex-pats who choose to live here have the same loose screw.

I now officially have six children on the dole.  While Marielos does not miss a beat in terms of her children's schooling I noticed that she was walking a mile or so round-trip across town twice a day to the pre-school to deliver and fetch Cris and Mishelle.  That meant that she didn't have the $20 per month for the "busito" which delivered them back to the market at the end of the day.  I asked her about Diego (9) and she started crying.  It turns out that she has been paying for him to go to a private "colegio" (deemed better than a government school but sometimes only a profit center) since pre-school.  Education, which she never had, is obviously very important to her.  Since food and shoes come first she is four months behind and Diego is being denied passage to the fifth grade.  I gave her $100.00 so that Diego could finish the school year which ends next week (in time for children to help harvesting coffee).  Diego might well be the brightest of the bunch and he really likes school. Marielos's mother (who wouldn't let Marielos and her sisters attend school) told Marielos that she should just take him out of school. Can you imagine? His father was assassinated, his step-father is in prison (no longer in jail but prison), he is a nice, bright nine-year old who likes school. Take him out of school for lack of $25 a month?  Marielos told me that Diego asks her a lot of questions about his school work and it makes her sad that she can't help him because "I never studied." Between now and January we will be looking for the best school option for Diego who, like Denis, is now hooked on the Khan Academy math videos.

Mesmerized by Sal Khan's math

Denis is 15.  On his birthday in March I bought a birthday cake with a "15" candle on it.  The following day Estela reported that Denis was really 16.  Hmmm.  I asked her how it was possible that she had two children aged 16 who were not twins.  She was adamant and seemed surprised when I told her that if Jackie was born in November that there was no way that Denis could have been born in March of the following year.  She told me that he was early.  Not that early.  I suggested that she go home and look at Denis's birth certificate, that Denis deserved to know how old he was.  Denis is 15.  He was born in March of 1997.  His is a very difficult age without a father in prison, without having flunked out of a fancy international school, without possible learning disorders, without being a boy.

Perhaps because this small community is full of ex-pats with the same loose screw there are people willing to help Denis.  He worked with a tutor on both English and Spanish along with his younger sister, Astrid, during the summer months.  He continues daily tutoring sessions at the same school that Cris and Mishelle attend.  I quickly made the arrangement for him to walk Cris and Mishelle to the market after school saving Marielos the a mile a day.  Denis adores the two little ones and takes his responsibility very seriously.  Good for everybody.

Last week Denis and I met with an educational psychologist who is on the staff of a home schooling program.  I decided that they merited a visit because none of the materials that they sent me had a single spelling or grammatical error.  Almost unheard of in Guatemala because of the poor quality of the education. I liked the woman. Denis liked the woman. She said that she would like to see him once a week for the balance of the calendar year, that he could then start (again) the equivalent of the 8th grade in January (when the coffee has all been picked).  Walking out of that meeting Denis was almost teary eyed and he gave me a big hug and, in English, thanked me "for helping" him.

While Denis had been offered the chance to return to the international school for their "extra-curricular" program (after all he was their star soccer player) Denis told me that he did not want to go.  Done.  I understand.  His favorite teacher was his math teacher who had made a real effort to move Denis forward.  Oddly enough this man is also called Alex.  Alex and his wife (who was the second grade teacher) are Canadians and wander the world teaching.  Three years in Columbia, three years in Libya among their most recent adventures.  At the end of the school year Alex offered to help me with a math program for Denis.  We had a tentative plan to meet this past Wednesday.  On Monday morning I received an email from Alex indicating that he and his wife had both resigned from the international school the previous Friday over what sounds like a ridiculous issue with the new director.  Alex said that he was now free to help Denis.

Alex and his wife will be around until Christmas and he now comes to my house several days a week in the afternoons to spend time with Denis and tutor him in both math and life.  They go to the market and do math problems with bananas and avocados.  They walk and they talk in Spanglish. Alex's Spanish is about the same as Denis's English.  Soon I will ask Alex if he wouldn't mind working condoms into a math problem for Denis. Denis cannot believe that so many people want to help him.  I have told him "no peace until there is a high school (big deal here) graduation."  He and Alex use the Khan Academy website (check it out if you haven't www.khanacademy.org) and materials that Alex has.  The real value is that he is teaching Denis that there are people who care whether or nor he succeeds.  He is also teaching him to understand the concepts behind math and to reason and, heaven knows, he has way more patience than I have.

After all the school work I give Denis Facebook time (I set up his account and made sure that all of the privacy settings were on).  Yesterday he ran the battery out on my laptop but in order to do that he had to read, write and type.  Go Facebook!

Astrid is back at the international school along with her determination to graduate.  She was somewhat dismayed to find out that she would have to repeat the 6th grade having lost most of last year to learning English.  On the first day of school, however, after a year's time she finally found a friend, another girl who is being sponsored, whose mother is a maid and who is also struggling with English.  Not only does Astrid have a friend but she now gets to be a mentor to the kid she was a year ago.  She is smiling.  She is happy.  School is hard.  Last Friday there were no classes so she came to my house and worked on the school math website for five hours doing over 500 problems.  She is studying the solar system in science, her hardest class.  Sal Khan to the rescue with his videos on the solar system.

Jackie is in a rotten school which she originally picked, I suspect, because the only career she had ever heard of besides maid was bi-lingual secretary.  She is a diligent student who loves to read and who should be a teacher.  Her only B is in English.  She is flunking most other subjects (silly things like shorthand, typing, nothing academic) which means that she will not graduate next year (I suspect that this is a sustainability program on the part of her rotten school).  If diligent students are flunking out then there is something wrong with the school.  It is quite likely that she too will be enrolled in home schooling with Denis come January.  I have already told Estela that I will not give this school another centavo. Not exactly what I thought that retirement would be about but I suppose it should be about something.  During the coffee picking school break Jackie will be working as a volunteer at the bi-lingual Montessori  that her younger siblings attend.

The "chiquitos" (little ones) are flourishing, mixing English with Spanish.  They are both such happy kids.  I credit their mother and extended family full of doting grandparents and aunts for that. Cristopher takes one look at me and pleads for my iPhone.  Mishelle just grins showing dimples inherited from her father who isn't around to see them.

Mishelle (r) and friend getting down and dirty at school.

Speaking of their father Alex (the felon not the cherished teacher) has been transferred from the local jail to one of the nastiest prisons in the world, Pavon, on the other side of Guatemala City.  It is out of reach for any of his many families thus he likely hasn't had a visitor in the four months he has been there.  Still no trial, no sentence.  A Guatemalan friend has suggested that the reason that his case has taken so long to make its way through the shabby justice system is, perhaps, because it is a very big and involved case.  Just today he called the house pleading for food. When I asked him where he was he answered "zone 18." I gave the phone to Denis who seemed under-impressed   Once again Alex expects his case to be resolved in November (there was last November too).  He has yet another new lawyer. Of course, despite evidence and witnesses to the contrary he maintains his innocence.  Vamos a ver.