I'm not Santa Claus, I'm Mrs. Claus!

Monday was the three month anniversary of our arrival in Guate and the first time I cried in front of my students. Please do not fret; they were tears of happiness for sure. Let me explain. Some of my students last week randomly decided that they wanted to pick up garbage during recess. No one told them to do it, no one bribed them, they were not bullied to do so, they just straight up wanted to help the earth. They had so much fun that they started an "Earth Team" in our class and asked for volunteers to help them in their efforts the next day. The entire class, all 22 of them, volunteered to help out. I ran around school asking for people to donate any grocery bags they had so these 8-year-olds could clean up the school when they could be playing intense games of futbol or that weird rope game thing I told you about earlier. After that day, I have had kiddos pick up trash every single day during recess. I asked all parents to donate plastic bags and we keep them in the corner of the class so students can grab them and pick up trash whenever they feel like it. If you're wondering if this was enough to make me cry I'll have you know I have gotten A LOT tougher in Guate and it wasn't this awesomeness that made me cry, it was the conversations we had following that totally did me over.

Earth Team! (don't smile TOO big, guys)

Since all 22 of my students were picking up trash at recess, they started to make a scene. Other third graders started joining in and almost everyday now, I see kids from other classes headed down the hall back from recess with a giant bag of trash. On Monday, Colin mentioned some students in the morning message for picking up garbage at recess on their own accord. Not one of the students mentioned was in my class. When I read the message to myself before the kids got to school, my heart totally sank. It was their idea, I had told Colin about it, and now not one of them was getting recognized for being such amazing citizens. I contemplated not reading the message to my students, or just skipping that part, but decided it might be a good lesson in being humble and doing the right thing... just because its right.

Well, the kids came to school and when it was time to read the morning message, I briefed the students beforehand that even if someone doesn't thank you for doing something, its still good to do it. I told them that when I was a kid I only helped out around the house if there was something in it for me. But now that I am older and more responsible, I help out because I know its a nice thing to do for my mom (and a few wiser kids yelled things like, "Yeah, Miss Hannah, you are too old for your mom to be making your bed!"--little do they know I am the one who makes my mom's bed... ZING!). Anyway, I didn't have to go too far with my little speech because my students all started chiming in about "doing what's right because your heart know's its right" and "setting a good example for others students at school" and all other things awesome. I felt the tears coming in when I saw how sincere they were about all this and how unaffected they were when they realized they didn't get credit for the initiative they had started. Then one of my students raised his hand and said, "Miss Hannah! Your face is red and your eyes are wet!" I just let it go. I asked if any of them had ever cried because they were so happy and they all recalled a time when they had. I just told them over and over again how proud I was of their character and how lucky I felt that I got to be their teacher. These little dudes are so incredible and I'm fairly certain they are teaching me more than I am teaching them most days :)

Okay, enough about crying. Last weekend Aubrey, Camille, Katie and Makenzie and I went to Lake Atitlan. You see that picture on the right side of this blog just below the map of Guate? The one with the sunset over a lake surrounded by volcanoes? Yeah, that's where we went. It was close to the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life. The lake was massive, the volcanoes were plentiful, the villages around the lake were endearing, and the views from every angle were breathtaking. We did a lot of shopping, walking, talking, and exploring and met some pretty awesome (and totally crazy) people along the way. We rented a boat for the day that took us from village to village so we could see more of the communities surrounding the lake. We stayed in one town called San Pedro for the night even though we were warned by our friends in the city that it was a town full of "crazy-hippie-druggies." Turns out, the warning was spot on but it made our stay so much more interesting (and hilarious).

This ain't Seaworld, this is a real as it gets!

After dinner we ran into some guy who was doing a "fire show" at this one bar across the street from our hostel. Of course we wanted to see some random dude juggling fire so we went. It was there that all the people who fit the stereotype of being from San Pedro were hanging out for the night. A few random people made their marks in our memory with their intense craziness but one guy forever changed Katie's life. This older gentleman in a winter coat had been trying to offer Makenzie and I cigarettes for about 10 minutes and when he finally got the picture that we a. didn't smoke and b. were ignoring him, he went up to Katie and said, "Estoy feliz! Y feliz navidad!" Katie was totally intrigued and struck up a conversation with him. Turns out, they guy was convinced that Katie was Santa Claus. Yes, the jolly man himself. Katie was quick to correct him that she was not Santa Claus but she was indeed Mrs. Claus. They talked about the elves working hard back up at the North Pole, and how busy Santa has been this time of year, and how he sent Katie out to make sure all the chimney's were clean and ready for him to slide on down. P.S. this whole conversation was in Spanish and this guy was eating up every word Katie said. It was probably the best laugh I have had in a long, long time. Katie says she will never forget that old, drugged, winter coat guy and hopes her husband gives him lots of presents this year.

Mrs. Claus and Santa's Little Helper

The rest of the trip was just as relaxing and wonderful and we had a little trouble getting ourselves motivated to go to school again on Monday. That is definitely the downfall of living in such an accessible, beautiful country. Everything is so interesting and exciting that one weekend away is such a tease. BUT this weekend, Katie, Makenzie and I are going with a teacher from the American School of Guatemala and his wife to hike the highest peak in all of Central American, Volcan Tajumulco. Its going to take the entire three day weekend (no school on Monday, November 1st because of Dia de los Muertos) but it is probably going to be the most exciting and challenging thing we've done since we got here. We are staying in a small town called San Marcos where Aaron's (the teacher from Americano) friend is serving in the Peace Corps and get to see how Guatemalan's live outside of the city. I really can't stop thinking about it, to be honest. And yes, family and friends, I will do my best to avoid falling rocks. Click here for more info :)

OH! You know what else I can't stop thinking about? The fact that I am coming home in 5 weeks! I'll be in various states in the U.S. from December 4th to January 1st and I'm really looking forward to this break and small dose of home. I know time will fly between now and then and that there will be plenty of awesome things going on here but still... :)