Recital by Student Teachers Presented Four Times in July 2014

Number	Piece	Performer	Genre
(1)	When You Wish Upon a Star	Jeremy	Pop
2	Russian Soldier Story	Karthik	Pop
3	Sonata in E Major	Shourov	Classical
4	You’ve Got a Friend in Me	Jeremy	Pop
5	Pink Panther	Karthik	Pop
6	Farewell to Ireland	Karthik	Pop
7	Bethena	Shourov	Rag
8	The Prayer	Jeremy	Pop
9	Nocturne op 9 no 2	Karthik	Romantic
10	Disney for Two	Jeremy/Shourov	Pop
11	Moonlight Sonata	Karthik	Classical/Romantic
12	Intermezzo	Jeremy	Classical
13	Polonaise in C# Minor	Shourov	Romantic
14	Sonata in G	Jeremy	Classical
15	Les Miserables	Jeremy/Shourov	Pop

Summary by Jeremy Doan of Teaching 2014

I came to Guatemala knowing a lot of English, a good bit of French, and no Spanish whatsoever.  It was an interesting problem, considering that 60% of all Guatemalans speak Spanish and the remaining 40% speak their native Amerindian languages. Here I was, wanting to teach Guatemalans how to play piano when I couldn’t even ask them for a glass of water!

                  Needless to say, I had my concerns about living and teaching for a month from the moment the plane landed. After a crash course in Spanish in the car from the airport, a night’s rest, and a quick skimming of Spanish musical words and phrases the next morning, I felt like I would never be able to learn enough Spanish to get through a piano lesson. So I did the most reasonable thing: I told Mrs. Hadfield that I wasn’t ready to give piano lessons yet. She laughed, and told me to “just figure it out.” I’d like to say I did, and that I became a fluent Spanish speaker five minutes into the lesson, but in reality I couldn’t do more than say finger numbers, note names, and pantomime the rest. Half of the lesson was spent actually teaching music, and the other half was spent looking up words in my Spanish cheat sheet. Thankfully, the students in each lesson were very understanding, and just smiled as I fumbled through barely-coherent and fragmented Spanish explanations.

                  The teaching got a little easier as the first week went by. My students grew used to my mix of Spanish and English words I used to communicate, and little by little I picked up more Spanish words and phrases. On Friday of week one, we took a walking tour (in English, thankfully) through the nearby city of Antigua. The tour took us through museums with ancient artwork and artifacts, a jade factory, and a couple of abandoned cathedrals. Afterwards, we went out to a coffee plantation just outside the city, where we each tried a shot of espresso for the first (and last) time.

                  The second week went by in a breeze, and by the end of the week everyone had established a quasi-rhythm to their daily schedules. It still amazes me how quickly the students were able to learn, and how grateful they were to receive lessons (even from an Americano who spoke in broken Spanish!). Not a single day went by without some sort of progress, and no matter how challenging the pieces were, the students always left the lessons with smiles on their faces.

                  At the end of the second week, we took a trip to Lake Atitlan for an overnight excursion. Being surrounded by mountains and volcanoes on all sides, views of the lake were no short of breathtaking. In San Juan, one of the small towns on the lake, one of the women selling hand-woven tapestries offered to show us the weaving process. Of course, we agreed, and the woman led us up a steep hill and through narrow, unpaved walkways with tin-roofed shacks on either side. She led us into what looked to be the workshop, with a dirt floor and a couple of large weaving looms, where two men were hard at work weaving patterns into the tapestries. The rest of the visits were filled with similar experiences, walking through local outdoor markets, visiting town cathedrals, and exploring local events.

                  By the third week, we were all ready and eager to fulfill another week of piano lessons… or so we thought. Towards the beginning of the week, a group of about 10 boys and 5 mothers showed up for lessons in the afternoon class, effectively tripling our class size for that hour. They were all eager to learn to play and fairly obedient, but of course the lessons went much slower as it became harder to keep track of each student’s individual progress. Eventually though, we all figured out a way to teach the larger groups, and eventually settled into a rhythm by the end of the week.

                  Roughly halfway through the week, Mrs. Hadfield brought out some Spanish lesson CDs for all of us to listen to. What surprised me most was how we went through the first 5 CDs and I was able to recognize and understand almost every word from the unit recordings. It was only then that I realized how much Spanish I had actually picked up in just under 3 weeks of teaching.  We decided that there was no point in continuing the CD lessons shortly thereafter.

                  For the third weekend, we flew into Flores, in the northern part of Guatemala, and took an hour-long drive to Tikal National Park, where we visited archaeological sites in the ancient Mayan city of Tikal and hiked up the ancient pyramids. At the hotel later that afternoon, it became clear to us that the hotel only had electricity for about six hours each day, in the early morning and late evening. That meant that hot water wasn’t available for showers until the generator was up and running. It didn’t turn out to be a problem, as cold showers were the perfect remedy for the hot and humid weather in Tikal. What did turn out to be a problem, though, was the fact that the fan in the hotel room didn’t work until the electricity was turned on. We were able to solve this problem by taking very long and very frequent cold-water showers.

                  The next day, we traveled to the island city of Flores, which was small enough that we were able to walk around the entire island in 20 minutes. After a couple days of walking around, eating ice cream, and browsing through souvenir shops, we finally made our way to the airport in order to catch the flight back to Guatemala City. After waiting through an hour-long delay, we were finally able to board. The plane taxied onto the runway and began to take off, only to be cut short and sent back to the terminal due to mechanical issues. After an extra two-hour long wait for another plane to arrive from Guatemala City to pick us up, we finally made our flight back home.

                  The fourth week of teaching was by far the most productive week of all. We sensed that we had little time to finish teaching the students, and they were more ready than ever to soak up the information we taught. When we finally reached the last day of lessons, the feeling was very bittersweet. It was amazing to look back at how far each student had come and how much they had learned since the beginning of the program, but also sad to see the lessons come to an end so soon.

                  Looking back, Guatemala was a constant learning experience for me. I learned that sleeping under the covers is the best way to avoid mosquito bites at night. I learned that corn tortillas are infinitely better than wheat tortillas when dipped in sauces. I learned that walking on cobbled streets is much more comfortable than driving on them. I even learned that people are capable of learning or achieving anything as long as they have the will to do so. What was most surprising though, was that I learned how to speak Spanish in a month.

Summary by Karthik Devakumar of Teaching July 2014

            The highlights of my trip to Guatemala were teaching piano to the locals, visiting a coffee plantation and visiting the Pyramids at Tikal.

            The first couple of weeks in Guatemala were an eye-opening experience. Teaching the children of “Ciudad Vieja” was to some extent a challenge, but well worth it in the end. Coming up with creative ways, jokes, and methods to teach and get the kids interested in learning was of great use. Two of my own students, Guadalupe and Janerky have come a long way, from not knowing the values of the notes to being able to play complete songs.

            The coffee plantation was also another intriguing event. The coffee ban outer layer to my surprise tasted like bell pepper. Also it was cool to learn that women are more productive than men when it came to working in the fields, and that coffee could be used for soaps and moisturizers.

            The Pyramids at Tikal were an awe to learn about. It was a surprise to learn that it took 52 years to make each layer of a pyramid. Along with that, the hikes were great. The wildlife was abundant. On the trail we saw howler monkeys, coyotes, and tarantulas.

            I thoroughly enjoyed my experience teaching and touring in Guatemala.

Summary by Shourov Malaker of Teaching July 2014

When I first stepped onto the plane that would take us down to Guatemala, I did not know what to expect. Of course I was excited to have the opportunity to go to Guatemala, but I’ve heard all sorts of stories about pickpockets (my mom was very apprehensive about the placement of my wallet and passport within my backpack) and other disheartening things; none of these tales helped to sooth my anxiety. But, the ticket had already been paid for and there was no backing out this far into the process: my fate for the next month was already set. I put my headphones on for the remainder of the flight and next thing I knew, we had already landed.

As we exited the airport, we were confronted by a peculiar figure… well, peculiar in comparison to the crowd around him. Of course, the most obvious distinction between him and the rest of the crowd was the fact that he was Caucasian while everyone else was Latino, but that wasn’t the only indicator. He wore a cowboy hat and was a good six inches taller than everyone else (we were all a good six inches taller than everyone else). We later learned that he was a much more unusual man than his physical appearance made him out to be. He is a veteran and had a prestigious position in the army; he is a grandmaster of the freemasons; he was a prominent air traffic control man; he had a huge influence in the jade trade of Guatemala; he lived several years on a small boat off the Western Coast of Central America; he even claims to have been proclaimed dead six times. Do I believe in all his tales? Though the death claims seemed like a bit of a stretch to me, I do believe in all his other tales and I’ve only mentioned a few of them. His name is John D. Mann and he truly is an extraordinary and inspirational man. Did I mention he was to be our host for the next month?

We were greeted by a family of four when we arrived at Mr. Mann’s house in a small town called Ciudad Vieja. They were servants he hired but he treated them as if they were family. The eldest is the mother, Espy, though I believe that was only a nickname. Her children are Karla (18), Mayra (16), and Bayron (14). They treated us all like family the moment we stepped through those doors, and I am grateful to them all. I especially appreciate the food and freshly brewed drinks they prepared each day. Mr. Mann also kept a dog named Doby, which was a proper name for her: she looked just like the house elf from Harry Potter (although now I’m thinking it was just because she was a Doberman). Doby is a well-behaved dog, and cute, too; whenever I stopped scratching her behind her ears, she would simply force her face into my hands, and of course I scratched her some more. The house wasn’t bad either. It’s a sturdy two- story white building with a large front yard and a wall to enclose it all: a mansion compared to some of the scrap-metal shelters surrounding it. All in all, it was a very pleasant abode.

The first day of teaching, I was slightly nervous. As we sorted through flashcards and folders, I wondered to myself, “How in the world am I going to teach these people?”  I remember when I first began my piano lessons back in the fifth grade: I went through these same flashcards and other folders then and it all looked like a foreign language to me. Teaching music would have been hard enough alone, but the language barrier between my students and me just made it all the more difficult. I did take a couple of Spanish classes, but I wasn’t at the top of my class; in fact, I was probably at the lower end of it. My friend Jeremy was worse off than I was: he had taken French classes and had no previous training in Spanish. However, he used the similarity in grammatical structure between the two languages to his advantage and he carried on with his teaching fairly well. Karthik, my other fellow volunteer, was much more proficient than I. He devised various methods to help the students remember the many things about music, including an original game to keep the kids focused and interested. In addition, he knew how to play the theme song from “Pink Panther,” which was a great crowd pleaser.

 Mondays through Thursdays, Jeremy would wake up at 6:30 a.m. while Karthik and I would set our alarms for 7:00 (though more often than not, we had to rely on Jeremy to drag us out of bed). Espy and her family would have an amazing breakfast ready for us at around 8:00. Mrs. Hadfield and we three volunteers would depart for the church at around 8:50 and arrive there at 9:00, though classes didn’t start until an hour after that. We taught two one-hour classes until noon when we would head back to Mr. Mann’s house in time for another excellent meal. We then made our way back to the church by 3:00 to teach three more classes. And then we would be done for the day.

 The first day we rode in Mr. Mann’s car because we had many things to transport. However, the remainder of the month, we would have to walk. The beginning part of our route to the church was comprised of a dirt road scattered with rocks that made it difficult to see where one was stepping. What I failed to mention earlier was that there were many strays wandering around on the streets, and they tend to leave behind many small “gifts.” They were quite generous with them, too. My shoes were the only ones to be blessed with such gifts throughout the trip. After that, my eyes barely left the dirt and cobblestone roads.

The success of our instructing varied from student to student. Some were very bright and picked things up quickly, while others needed a bit more coaxing. One of Jeremy’s younger students, Rita, didn’t even know her letters! After the first week with my students, I started to grow attached to them; not anything special, just a typical student-teacher relationship. I grew proud of the things my students would accomplish; however, with the language barrier, I was unable to properly convey my appreciation for their attention and diligence. I rewarded them with phrases such as excelente and muy bien, which probably got old and unrewarding after a while since I used them at least thirty times per session. In the end, a majority of them were able to complete the basic training book. By doing so, they received a keyboard to practice on until next summer when Mrs. Hadfield will return with a new set of volunteers. I wonder if my students will miss me because I sure will miss them.

We were not given a break during the weekends. As soon as we were finished with our working week, we were off to a tourist attraction. The first weekend, we visited Antigua, a city that was within fifteen minutes of Ciudad Vieja by car. There we took a walking tour through various points of interest, including a crumbling cathedral, a jade museum, and a chocolate museum. It was a nice place to visit, but nowhere near as interesting as the other two sites we visited.

The next weekend, we went to Lake Atitlan: a beautiful lake wedged between many dormant volcanoes. All afternoon long, we toured two of the twenty-eight villages sprinkled along the shore of the lake. It seemed that almost every street vendor there was selling the same things: the textiles all had the same pattern and the knick-knacks from store to store all seemed to come from the same producer. Window shopping became old fast; however, there was one small textiles shop that did catch our attention. There were tablecloths hanging from a clothesline from wall to wall and a lady on the front porch was in the middle of weaving another one. After Mrs. Hadfield made a purchase of four of these intricate cloths, the lady offered to take us to her house where they produced them; it was very interesting to see how they were made, especially considering that not everyone gets the opportunity to see it.

The weekend after that was our last major excursion: Tikal. Tikal was located in the middle of a jungle though the tour guide said it wasn’t always like that. After Tikal had been abandoned by the Mayans, the jungle was able to creep in. Even with the humidity, lack of air conditioning, and various insects that were as large as my palm, Tikal was a fantastic excursion. While there, we learned many things about ancient Mayan culture and saw many ancient pyramids they had built. We were able to climb to the top of most of the pyramids; however, they only permitted the use of wooden stairs to the top because of an incident involving a woman falling to her death a few years earlier. In Yaxha, another site of ancient Mayan pyramids, we were able to climb the pyramids on their original stone stairs. It was much easier to climb up then it was to get back down. When ascending, you only focus on where to place your foot next. However, when you reach the top, you realize just how high the pyramid is and just how steep the stairs are. Karthik and I (Jeremy wouldn’t climb the pyramid with us) had to crab-walk back down the stairs out of fear. But it was all worth it. The view was remarkable from the top of the pyramid. We could see over the top of the canopy and view a lake about a quarter-mile away.

 Guatemala was an amazing trip and I don’t regret it one bit. For those students who are prospective Guatemala-goers, I highly recommend it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you should not miss!