Over the past few weeks at Casa de Las Flores, we have been leading and participating in “tri-lingual language classes” in Spanish, English, and Tzotzil. We are infusing our  English lessons with our own studies in Spanish and Tzotzil  to break down the student-teacher hierarchy: we are all students and all of our are teachers.  Besides learning basic grammar and useful phrases, we use fun activities to “trick” ourselves into learners: translating AC/DC lyrics into all three languages, playing hangman and original games with flashcards and visual pictures, recording small skits in different languages, and making banners that read ” Bienvenidos a Casa De Las Flores/ Lek ti la Vulik Xae Sna Nimichik/Welcome to the Flower House!”

Beats sitting at a desk for 40 minutes while Ms. Johnson makes you recite the rules of past participle over and over!! And if school wasn’t fun enough, we also know how to reward ourselves with cool activities after class, like making planters out of recycled detergent containers

and, of course, playing futbol (not football)!! Que le vaya bien everyone!

This past week in Club Balam we have been focusing on photography. Our girls and boys have been using photography as a way to provide insight into their lives. Some choose to take a week and provide evidence of their daily routine while others choose to take pictures of what characterized themselves through showing what their likes and dislikes.This week was our first week of truly exploring our cameras and the technology behind them. We got to practice our new found skills in a trip to the zoo, next week will be providing a chance for the girls and boys to edit their own photos for their first presentation which will be show cased on girlsclubworldwide.org !!

We’ve been pretty lazy with uploading fotos, so I thought I would reproduce the values as listed on the wall of Casa de Las Flores. Also most of the words are cognates, so it’s good practice for any and all Spanish learners. 

Valores:

Alegria, Confianza, Optimismo, Esperanza, Responsibilidad, Cuidado, Empatia, Preservancia y Transparencia.

Fomentamos la

Satisfaccion, Afectiva, la Expresion Emocional, la Solidaridad, el Conocimiento intuitivo y sensible, la Resolucion Pacifica de Conflictos y la Belleza en lo Pequeno.

Plus, a few gems from Emily’s Tzotzil Class….

There are 4 words that never accept the possessive prefix and they are

k’ak’al (sun)

k’anal (stars)

ik’ (wind)

vo’ (water)

One can possess banumit (land) but it is extremely grammatically complicated. The type of thing that makes you angry that so many ancient Maya languages are dying out….

<3

Outside the Museum of Mayan Medicine
Inside the Museum Of Mayan Medicine’s Garden

I found these awesome poster ads for coca-cola in the Museum of Mayan Medicine.

Here are some close ups of the posters

Wreck Your Teeth! Drink Coca-Cola!

             If you want to be like him, Drink Coca-Cola!

Always want Gastritis? Drink Coca-Cola!

These are brilliant on many levels. Since other people can say it better than I can I will quote from www.killercoke.org

“Coca-Cola is delicious. This is what many people who drink the beverage would say if they were not being exploited. Yet, this is not the case in Mexico; in Mexico, citizens, while also being exploited in terms of labor, are indirectly forced to drink Coca-Cola because of the lack of water supply due to Coca-Cola’s use of it. In order to perform such debasing acts, Coca-Cola is affiliated with political parties and advertises extensively throughout Mexico. Thus, in order to make a profit, Coca-Cola exploits the citizens of Mexico by depriving them of water and wages through its connection with the government and advertisements that will inevitably delay Mexico’s advancement in the future.”

This week with Club Balam we went on a trip to a Museum about Mayan medicine. These days when we are feeling under the weather we will most likely run to a pharmacy to grab an advil, or peptobismal or maybe vitamin C tablets. Although these work, we learned that most ailments can be cured with plants or herbs. It was very interesting to learn about all of the various plants that can cure anything from headaches to diarrhea (a lot cured diarrhea )

Here some of the kids are checking out the tiny sauna, also used for healing purposes. It was located in the Museums Herb Garden which both grew and explained the use for all of the various herbs they had their Garden.

Whether you are in New York or in Mexico there are always ways to skip the drug companies products and heal yourself the natural way. So all in all, very informative and fun day!