Guatemalan School Kids by Catherine - GUATEMALA (6-week group)

Guatemalan School Kids, by Catherine
7/7/2007 10:38:57 AM Guatemalan School Kids

So instead of writing a general overview of what we have been doing, I am going to talk specifically about one topic: Guatemalan school kids. The other day as part of my Spanish lesson I visited a local school in the pueblo of San Jose. Kids between three and six years of age attend the school, including the very cute son of my Spanish teacher. It is a small school with only two classrooms and maybe around fifteen or so kids per classroom. There are also only two teachers. It is interesting because the kids between three and five years of age are grouped into one classroom and those that have six years are in the other classroom. I guess the teachers figure that all of the students between three and five years of age know about the same amount and learn at about the same rate, although this seems really strange based on American educational norms. The kids are a bit shy at first but soon warm up to you. The day I visited the school, they finished classes a bit early (classes end at 11 am anyway). I guess it was a special day because there was a piñata in shape of a tiger that the kids got to break. Candy flew everywhere, and a few of the braver kids even came up to me and gave me some of their pieces. The teachers were also selling snacks: a Coke equivalent, juice made of a Guatemalan fruit and jello, both in little plastic bags that you had to bite into, and these strange looking, large fried things that the teachers covered in mayonaise, ketchup, and chile. I tried the juice, jello, and the fried thing -- although I couldn't finished the fried thing and ended up giving it to my Spanish teacher's kid -- who couldn't finish it either! My teacher suggested that I bring out the small soccer (football) ball to play with the kids and that was an immediate hit. The kids became a lot less shy and some started playing 'hide from the scary gringo and see if she comes after us'. Soon basically all of the kids were running from me as I pretended I was asleep, only to suddenly 'wake up', growl at them, and chase them around and try to give them tickles. Unfortunately, the kids eventually figured out it would be even more fun to tickle me and I ended up on the ground in the fetal position with a mound of kids ontop of me a few times. One of the funniest parts was near the end when I basically put the kids in 'tickle pairs'. I would look at one kid, point to another kid and say 'cosquillas a el (tickles to him)!' -- and off they went.

The kids at the school are from poor families in the town of San Jose. They live in shabby houses, wear relatively shabby clothing, and have the cutest sets of horrible teeth I have ever seen. Yet, from what I observed at the school, they are some of the happiest kids I know. Getting to know them made my day, and happily, getting to know me seemed to make their day too.