It feels like Autumn!

Today on the bus to La Selva it felt as though autumn was in the air! I have seen several thunderstorms flickering over the mountains from my home in Xela, and travelling up into the mountains this morning, the rainfall is evident. The dusty roads have gone, and the fields are studded with luminous green shoots pushing through the volcanic soil. Most of these crops are maize - a very important crop around here. Everyone seemed to be out in the fields this morning, working with these enormous tools that I hadn't seen before I came here, enormous hoe-like things for turning the soil over into big mounds.

It's lovely to see the life coming back into the earth after so many months of parched dryness. From here on in it just gets better I guess.

But this is my last week in Xela, and my last 3 weeks in Guatemala, so it's not possible to feel totally happy. The children are as lovely as ever, and the villagers as friendly. This morning T and I were dragged into someone's house and force-fed plantanes. Have you ever had one? When I first came to Guatemala I really liked them, but now the novelty has worn off, and eating one is quite a challenge (although I'm sure I would have happily devoured one on Saturday, now I have returned to my normal eating habits, I really can't face them). It's something between a potato and a banana. It's not sweet or soft enough to eat raw, so they are served cooked, but there's something about them that I really don't like. Eeek! I hope I didn't cause too much offence by eating hardly any of mine.

This morning we set the children off an a science project, making posters using information on various environmental issues that T and I have put together in our no doubt confusingly bad spanish (yes, we're brainwashing them to be environmentalists from an early age!). It was quite interesting, as it's obviously the first time they have had to do anything like this. Due to lack of resources and teacher time, all of the lessons are pretty old fashioned, with the teacher reading out of a text book and the children copying down random facts into theirs. (Incidentally, this reminds me of a piece of graffiti I read at university, which went "lectures are a means of transfering information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of the student without it passing through the brain of either"). Tomorrow they will be putting their designs onto big poster paper and presenting them to the class - I can't wait! :o)

I'm also trying to make sure that the stuff we have done for the school at La Selva, (buying books and providing classroom assistance) carries on after we leave. To do this I have had to jump through a number of hoops provided by a local charity so that La Selva can become one of the schools it officially supports. My last remaining task is to get hold of a locking bookcase and transport it to the school. We have ordered the bookcase from a carpenter who promises it will be ready on Tursday (I will reserve judgement*), then somehow we have to get it from here in zone 1 to La Selva, on top of the chicken bus (with the chickens). Once we have done this, our task as far as the charity is concerned will be complete. I then need to put an advert in the local paper for volunteer teachers to replace us, and we can breathe a sort-of sigh of relief.

So if you fancy living in an absolutely gorgeous village in the mountains of Guatemala, with some of the poorest and friendliest people in the world, and some of the loveliest kids, in a place where the sun shines every single day, just drop me a line - you will be very warmly welcomed I promise.

*reserving judgement because for 3 months now we have been trying to get a plumber to fix a leak in the kitchen. The last one came 3 weeks ago. He said he was popping out for 5 minutes to get a part, and we haven't seen him since. This is pretty par for the course in Guatemala, so I'm asking my angels for a miracle that this bookcase will actually be ready when the bloke said it would be.

Mmmmmmmmmmm it's just started raining here, and that beautiful smell is pouring through the open doors filling my nostrils. I love the rain so much! :o)