11-15 November 2024: Making dinosaur bones at the School of Hope

My time as a volunteer at the School of Hope was during their four week “vacation school”.  One of the objectives was for the students to have fun while learning in a less formal setting than they had during the January-October school year.  During the first week I was helping out in the science lab, I suggested to Eunice (the Guatemalan science teacher) that we have a class and lab exercise on Dinosaurs.  After all, kids love dinosaurs, right?  During an internet search, I found a five-minute video in Spanish about dinosaurs (“dee-no-SAUR-ios” in Spanish) as well as   instructions for making dinosaur bones using a mixture of flour, water, and salt.

So, on the Monday following my return from Honduras, we showed the video to two groups of students, then had them mix up the ingredients to get the correct consistency for making the bones.  The result was a variety of sizes and shapes of bones based on drawings I showed them.  I had hoped that once the bones were made, we could let them sit and harden for a couple days, then Eunice, Carmen, and I could bury them in sand in the lab trays.  After that, the kids could play at being junior paleontologists, carefully excavating the bones with brushes while being careful not to break them.  Unfortunately, that never happened as Eunice had several exercises in her lesson plan related to making Christmassy items.  Still, I think the students had fun making the bones and learning about dinosaurs.

My biggest problem at the school was my lousy hearing.  I’ve had hearing aids for about five years and normally don’t need them except in noisy restaurants.  I bought a new pair in September that were supposed to be state of the art but they were so uncomfortable that I sent them back for a refund.  So I was stuck with the old hearing aids which didn’t work very well at the School of Hope.  It was noisy – hey, what do you expect from kids? – and the acoustics in the rooms which had metal roofs were not helpful.  Add to that, the challenge of deciphering Spanish spoken rapidly and understanding kids which can be a challenge even if they’re speaking English, and I often found myself rather lost. 

My housing situation in Antigua continued to be positive overall.  Violeta and Fernando prepared good vegetarian meals and the two young women (Diana and Maya – both volunteers at the school) who were staying there were quiet but delightful.  However, there was a negative in the person of Michael, the annoying guy I mentioned in the first blog post about this trip.  Michael’s room was right across the hall from mine, he was on the phone a lot, and he talked very loud.  At first, I would listen to his calls to try to figure out what he was all about.  I was also able to glean more insights from his soliloquys at dinner and the few conversations I had with him in the parlor area outside our rooms.  There were three subjects on Michael’s mind:  his businesses, his health, and his religious beliefs.   

It seemed he was in the business of buying and selling gold from South America.  I had a hard time believing he was making much money at it – otherwise, why would he be staying in a hostel and not in an upscale hotel?

He suggested that I look into the benefits of structured ionized water and micro-clustered water.  I think he also had a business involvement in these products.  I did check briefly on-line and got the impression that their health benefits are unproven and maybe just outright quackery.  If any of you readers have reliable scientific information to the contrary, I would be interested in knowing about it.      

Regarding his health, he was having abdominal problems.  I suggested that if he had a parasite, he might easily get rid of it with Cipro, my antibiotic of choice for quickly knocking out Third World stomach bugs.  Violeta had suggested that he go to a doctor.  He told her that he had but the doctor had provided no relief.  I suspect it was because his ego and twisted world view didn’t allow him to listen to a conventional doctor’s advice.  Instead, I gathered from one of his phone calls that he was planning to cure his abdominal problems with some New Age-y machine which he was trying to buy in the States.  He complained that the cost was $1000 and he didn’t think it should be more than $500.  Plus, he was miffed about the $100 shipping charge.  He also thought that the enemas (colonics) he received at a local health spa would help but so far they apparently hadn’t.

As for his religious beliefs, thankfully he didn’t talk about them openly.  I heard snippets during his long phone conversations with fellow adherents.  The Bible was mentioned but I never caught the name of a specific religion or spiritual philosophy.  

It also annoyed me (as it did Diana who couldn’t stand to be in the same room with Michael) that he had lived in Ecuador for four years, and off and on in Guatemala, but never even tried to learn Spanish.  He was arrogant about it, acting as if everyone worth talking to in Antigua spoke English.  He even pestered Fernando to learn more English. 

By the third week, I’d heard enough of this weirdo and turned on the white noise app on my tablet computer whenever he was talking on the phone.  Diana, Maya, and I tried to eat dinner at different times from Michael.  Diana flat out refused to eat with him after he burped into her face at dinner one night (he seemed to me an uncouth slob).  Fernando seemed bemused by this strange gringo and Violeta prayed for him.  I think they put up with him because he paid his weekly room and board.  Michael and I came to verbal blows during my final week in Antigua – I’ll cover that in a future post.