our first stop after a day spent wandering around San Ignacio was the Mayan ruins at Tikal, Guatemala. a co-worker of mine drove us the 2+ hours across the border, and we explored the ruins in the rain. depending on who you talk to or what you read, Tikal is the largest Mayan site in Central America. regardless of the accuracy of that distinction, it's quite a place. the site ranges far and wide, and the temples, palaces and pyramids jut up out of the lush surrounding jungle. you can stand gazing at a temple in awe only to turn around to find a similarly shaped pyramid right behind you, covered in vines and moss. so much of the site has yet to be excavated. i can only imagine what it must have felt like to walk through the thick jungle and come upon the realization that you're standing in the midst of the relics of an ancient civilization, claimed by thousands of years of vegetation. spooky to say the least. we opted to go without a guide, but so much of what is said about the Maya is speculation, that we decided our imaginations would do us just fine. and in the misty rain, with the site nearly to ourselves, imagination had free rein.
we ended the afternoon with lunch, where mom and i drank te de la selva (jungle tea), made by boiling the leaves (or bark?) of the allspice tree. the liquid was nearly clear, but had a robust, spicy flavor. i'm going to have to go out to the forest and find myself an allspice tree of my own...
the Gran Plaza as viewed from near the top of one of it's twin temples. every year the plaza plays host to a gathering of Maya from all around Central America. they burn incense taken from the bark of a local tree in the stone circle set into the ground directly in front of the temple in this picture. the gathering was a few months ago, but we could still smell the char.
Mom loved what she dubbed "nature's decorations" of this fallen stone
tree root or snake?
i roped Mom in to doing some work on her vacation by inviting her to do a reading and literacy workshop for teachers. they teach at a Seventh Day Adventist primary school, and are experiencing difficulty with students that are far behind in their literacy skills. the school has just received a donation of 2,000 books from a teacher in Colorado, and mom's contribution was to share with them strategies for getting kids excited about reading and books. Belizean teachers have a tendency to be a bit over-workshopped, and if you combine that with the Belizean tendency to turn impassive and stone-faced as soon as one's butt hits a classroom chair, along with the complexities of advocating literacy in a language that isn't native to anyone here (even though it's the national language), mom's job was less than easy. but it's hard for anyone to tune out when she's telling a story (and she told three!). and i will always cherish the sight of a roomful of Belizean teachers doing readers' theater (to a Terry Jones book, no less). i'd count that as a success.
readers' theater
daughter of one of the teachers. this is exactly what we're going for, no true?
1 comment:
I am soooo jealous. I just bought a new pile of cameras and am thinking about defecting. Also, some UU person called and wanted to know how you were doing.
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