A visit to Maria's house

When I first decided to come to Guatemala, I never dreamed I would form some of the relationships that I have here. From new friendships to sisterly bonding, the experience has been amazing and I would not trade anything for it. One person in particular, my teacher and newfound sister, Maria, has been an inspiration and has done so much to make this trip special for me. 

Last Friday Maria took Demani and I to visit her house in Xecam (a village near Xela). This was the first time she had ever invited students before, and we were very honored. 

After riding a microbus and then a regular bus to get to the village, we took the scenic route to her house. It seemed like every single person we walked by knew Maria and greeted us. We stopped in a Tienda to get tostadas and cheese, chatted with the lady for minute, and continued on our walk. 

Once we arrived at her house, the first thing we had to do was see the cow (now officially named Demani) and the other animals in various pens around the rooms. 

Maria lives with one of her brothers, his wife, and her sobrino (nephew). Directly next door is another brother and his family.  They all share the animals. 

Speaking of animals... Other than Demani the cow, there are goats (personal favorite), sheep, dogs (one specifically named Odie after Garfield) and little kittens all around (one which Demani named Osito  which means baby bear in English). 

After meeting the animals, we tested our cooking skills by making fresh limeade, and Maria proved hers by surprising us with cooked chicken on tostadas that she had prepared early that morning. 

We hung out for a bit, but had to leave because camps were in the afternoon, so we said goodbye to the animals and ran to catch the bus. 

Maria has been a huge reason this trip has been so amazing for me, and this opportunity and experience at her house will be remembered for the rest of my life. 

 

(This post was written by Mackenzie, who along with her Hoops classmate Demani, was given the chance to visit their teacher Maria at her home. Thanks to both of them for all of their hard work and willingness to be open and learn). 

Three is not a magic number

Hoops Sagrado has a very long and storied history with the professional basketball team here in Xela. To say the rivalry is friendly would be a stretch...if this were college football it would be the marquee game during Rivalry Weekend. It always gets heated, the refs always suck and sometimes Hoops Sagrado wins and sometimes Xela wins.

So many grumpy faces. It was a good game though!

The first game on Saturday was the Hoops Sagrado Young Guns game and it was a good, close game. With just .2 of a second left on the clock, the ball was inbounded to Demani who shot it and made it, the only problem is the ref called him for traveling and therefore the bucket was disallowed. The bigger problem is, the whistle came after he shot the ball and he WASN'T traveling! Sigh...thus is the life of the visiting basketball team. In the end if was Hoops Sagrado 62 vs. Xela 63 (Alex 23P/1A/13R; Los 3P/1A/2R; Manny 1P/3R; Christian 2P/2A/3R; Djeder 12P/2R; Zion 2P/1A; Demani 7P/3A/3R; Kevin 8P/2A/2R; Renard 2P/1A/2R; Jesse 2P; Xander 3R).

The Xela coach suggested we take this picture before the game so everyone would be smiling!

Next up was the Hoops Sagrado women's team. It's been a long time (2009) since we've had a women's team available to play against the Xela women's team so for those of us who have been around for a while, this was a real treat and it was a great game. It was a tough, hard-fought match as proof by the fact that more than one player for each team had four fouls, but in the end Xela, who had the luxury of having two substitutes prevailed. Xela 63 vs. Hoops Sagrado 61 (KayKay 15P/1A/7R; Tee 31P/1A/13R; Tevanah 13P/1A/7R; Mackenzie 2P/1A/3R; Malaika 1A/2R).

Before the final game of the night, the Xela team honored their longtime coach who died unexpectedly earlier this year. Since we have been playing against them for so long and consider many of the current and former players to be our friends (and our rivals of course) it was nice to be there for this special occasion.

Special sentiments aside, the game was a tough one. Hoops Sagrado was up 5 at the half, but then down 3 at the start of the fourth quarter and in the end Xela won. Xela 70 vs. Hoops Sagrado 61 (Bryan 7P/2A/2R; Diggs 17P; Malik 7P/5R; Josh 3A/7R; Alex 2P/1A/5R; Stan 3P/1R; Michael 9P/4A/3R; Demani 9P/1A/1R; Renard 2P/1A/5R; Kevin 5P/2A/1R).

Hasta proximo Xela! Hasta proximo! 

A day at the beach

Tuesday was jam-packed, but fun-filled day! 

We started off by visiting our friend Pati's school in San Felipe. Pati has been a friend of the program for a very long time and she is the athletic director at the school. The morning kicked off with

introductions, speeches and dances and singing by the students in San Felipe. There were then three short games of basketball with the Hoops Sagrado folks teaming up with students and teachers from San Felipe to form teams. It was a great way to be able to play some basketball!

During and after the games is when a lot of the fun happens at San Felipe because every year, the students seek out the Hoops Sagrado students for their autographs and photos. I'm never really sure whether our students are amused or overwhelmed by the whole thing, but they all seem to take it in stride.

After the games and autographs we loaded up the bus and headed to the beach for an afternoon of sun, fun and food (photos below).

Back in 2007 we had a bus that broke down on pretty much every trip we took. We had been fairly lucky since then, until last night. On the way home our bus broke down and no matter the efforts of our great friend and driver Gato, it just wasn't going anywhere. While we were waiting for another bus to come and pick us up from the side of a volcano, the students entertained themselves by singing everything from the National Anthem (proud of them for knowing all the lyrics) to Christmas carols! What could have been an annoying end to a great day, turned out to be pretty OK after all.

Dona Thelma's House

Without a doubt, one of the highlights of our trip every year is the visit to the home of Dona Thelma and her husband Luis just outside of Momostenango. 

It's a long winding, sometimes slippy walk halfway down the side of a mountain to get to the house, but the views on the way down and once you get there are more than worth it.

While there, the students learn about how many of the beautiful handicrafts that are so readily available in Guatemala are made. The house where Dona Thelma lives has been in her family for five generations and the many of the looms that they use are hundreds of years old. The house was literally split in two by a mudslide during Hurricane Stan back in 2005, but fortunately the family was all safe and they were actually able to restructure and rebuild the destroyed portions of the house better than they were before. 

After the students have had a chance to learn a bit about how the wool is gathered, processed, died

and then turned into some of the lovely pieces, they all get a hand at trying out some of the process. There is an opportunity to spin yarn on a spinning wheel (no Sleeping Beauty's here!) and to pull some wool. 

The visit to Dona Thelma's is always great too because it allows the students to really see how many rural Guatemalans live, with livestock right there in and around the house. There are chickens, turkeys, dogs, cats and cows. This year the cows reminded us what city kids the D.C. students really are. There was a Holstein cow and a Brahman calf and it was the gray, floppy-eared calf that really threw the students off. One thought it was a donkey and another wanted to know what was the animal in front of the Holstein. Learning lessons every day! 

Even though the whole visit to Dona Thelma's house is great, the best part (at least for this blogger) is getting to make your own tortillas and enjoy some of Dona Thelma's fresh, warm tortillas with beans, picante, guacamole, and cheese.

The tortillas are so good even Tee ate some! :)

Chuisuc

Where did you learn to play basketball, play defense and offense, or be part of a team? 

There’s a good chance it was at camp, right? We know that camp is not just a place for kids to spend a fun summer, but an excellent setting in which kids can learn life skills that they will rely on long after the camp experience has passed.

Chuisuc has a nice flavor, that after you have tasted you can talk about it. Camp at Chuisuc is like you're around your family and love ones. The first day we arrived at camp, the kids were treating us like celebrities. Alec was like  "Larry Bird" from the NBA.

When Alec, Tevanah, Manny, and I were directing this camp program, I remember once asking a newly enrolled 12 years old, who was attending camp for the first time: "Well, are you ready?" The kids love when we are around them. 

The most important thing is when you get coaches, who speak a language they don't know and at the end of each camp day they learn a word.

Camp starts like around 2:30pm to 4:50pm Mon-Fri. The coaches get to ride the public mini-bus and after that, we take the "Chicken Bus" to Cantel, Chuisuc.

As soon as we get there, the kids get to what they are supposed to do. The Girls love when Tevanah says "Chicas ven aqui". And you always see a smile on them. Hector (me) is like the translator of the camp, even though the coaches try hard to use their Spanish #whatheyknow, and the kids are really proud of them. 

After the warm-up, we break up into boys and girls and each head coach (Alec, Manny, Tevanah and Me) meet with each kids to review their spot, and how to shoot the ball when playing basketball. We also talk about dynamics, we interrupt and make adjustments to ensure every child is getting the maximum experience possible. 

While our camp continues to run 80 mph. We wish you could see all that's going on at the camp. A snapshot doesn't tell the whole story. In fact- it barely tells anything at all. 

During the time the kids get to practice with coaches, we also get students who are studying in the

afternoon and they would interrupt with us and spend their 30min break from class with us playing basketball or just us watching how the girls play vs. the boys. Some teachers love to join us too.

When Alex arrived to camp, the kids didn't know what to expect. A lesson that they might be learning from now on is that, what's going on and is most important at camp is children learning independence and campers  growing each and every day.

(A very special thank you to Hector for writing this blog post!)

A Mayan Ceremony

On Saturday morning we loaded up onto the bus for the drive to our friend Yanira's house. Her father is a Mayan Aj Q’ij (priest/spiritual leader) and we were lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to visit is home and learn a bit more about the Mayan culture and partake in a deconstructed Mayan ceremony.

Before the ceremony, we were giving a bit of a lesson in the importance of the Mayan calendar and every student was given their Mayan Nahual, which for lack of a better description is a person's Mayan spirit guide/totem. Your nahual is assigned to you at birth and has a heavy influence on your character and misdemeanor much the same way the zodiac does, although much more specific to a person because it's based on your date of birth, not just month. 

Each nahual is associated with an animal of importance to the Maya as well as associated traits, qualities and tendencies. A person's nahual is determined by their date of birth based on the Tzolk'in

calendar.

Typically a traditional Mayan ceremony can last for 2-4 hours, but for our students, while it may have felt like 2-4 hours for some of them, the ceremony was shortened.

For the ceremony, a circle  is created out of natural materials. First, sugar is used to draw the circle, and then ensarte (made from parts of trees dipped in resin) are placed on top of the sugar to create the foundation for the fire. Then, herbs such as cedar, sage, rosemary, tobacco, lavender, and flower petals are placed on top of the ensarte.

The other main components of the fire are candles in the colors of the six directions (red, black, white, yellow, blue, and green). Chocolate, cinnamon and honey are also put into the circle to bring sweetness and give thanks for the blessings in our lives.

During the ceremony we gave thanks to our ancestors and a blessing was said for each student and for Hoops Sagrado.

Following the ceremony we shared a small meal and then most of us hiked through the cornfields and woods to meet the bus.

Friday night lights

We'll get back to posting about the camps on Monday (someone didn't finish writing there's up...ahem!), but in the mean time there was basketball!

We didn't do our typical Friday night cena at the team house, instead we loaded up the bus and headed down the mountains to the coastal town of Reu (Retalhuleu is the full name, but everyone just calls it Reu) for three games.

With dusk fast approaching and bats flying overhead in the gym (I suspect some of the Hoopsters didn't realize they were bats otherwise there would have been some angst), the young guys team kicked things off. The young guys took a fairly significant lead, but blew it in the second period and then it was sort of touch and go from there, however they ultimately prevailed with a 55-51 win. It was a good game (Alec 13P/2A/10R; Los 4P/2A/2R; Manny 6P/4R; Ronnie 2P/1A/6R; Renard 2P/2R; Kevin 2P; Demani 7P/2A; Xander 5P/6R; Christian 2P/2A/6R; Djeder 6P/3A/3R; Jesse 2P; Max 1R).

The Hoops women's team, without a doubt, had the best game of the night. It was fast-paced and exciting till the very end. Mackenzie had an amazing steal at the end of the game that helped Hoops keep the ball with the clock winding down. The final score was 56-52 (KayKay 14P/5A/4R; Tee 30P/2A/10R; Tevanah 12P/3A/4R; Mackenzie 2A/6R; Malaika 1A/3R). Way to go ladies!

And last, but certainly not least was the men's game. For the first time the men's team was joined by Josh, Stan, Alex and Michael. Josh and Alex are with us through the end of the trip and Stan, a Hoops alumnus and Michael are here for about a week. The men's game was never even really all that close with the Hoops Sagrado men defeating Reu 65 to 50 (Bryan 15P/2A/8R; Diggs 6P/4R; Malik 4P/8R; Josh 3A/6R; Alex 9P/2A/2R; Stan 7P/2A/5R; Michael 5P/3A/1R; Demani 4P/4A; Renard 3P/1A/6R; Kevin 13P/1A/1R).

After the games it was time to load up the bus and head back up the mountain to the cooler climes of Xela! Whew!