Groggy CARE Youth Corps (CYC) faces fill the dining room in the Hotel Regis. The time is somewhere between 7 and 8 in the morning, and due to last night's engaging presentation of Guatemalan culture, we're all exhausted.

Outside, a thick layer of clouds prevents the usual morning sunshine from sliding through the dining room windows. Last night's rainstorm has lingered behind, but is significantly weakened. Jerrell Jordan stumbles into the room. Wintta Woldemariam, Neena Panjwani and Kathryn Ebert - today's early birds - are sitting around the table already commencing in the conversation of the recently awakened.

The rainstorm struck at an inopportune time last night. A presentation in honor of CARE and its involvement in Guatemalan education began at 7 that evening. At 6:45, the rains hit as the "Turansa CARE," or CARE Bus, chugged up the mountain on spiraling roads from the lakeside city of Panajachel. By this time, it was "muy" dark outside, and the views from the road were converted into one color: black. So the CARE troop was forced into other modes of entertainment, like Karaoke singing without the Karaoke ... or the actual music.

Suddenly we noticed that the bus has stopped and parked in front of the gymnasium next to the Las Canoas school. We had made a triumphant return to the Las Canoas village after departing just a few hours ago.

CYC members participate in a traditional dance with members of the San Andres Semetabaj community. (All Photos © CARE 2002/David Rochkind)

As the rain fell heavily on the mostly-dirt road, and our shoes stepped from the bus into the large puddles on the ground, we noticed the large number of people attending this shindig in our honor. And butterflies rose in our stomachs as we remembered that we would not be the only people sharing a little culture this evening. Before the trip began, the CYC prepared a dance routine to present to our Guatemalan friends.

But besides the opportunity for some cultural diversion, the night also served a publicity role for CARE's staff in Guatemala. Eileen Rivera, our Guatemalan guide, explained that the Girls' Education project staff uses events like Culture Night to encourage education to mothers in the community.

"They use it to send a message," she explained.

CYC learn Kak´chikel with 6th graders at Las Canoas.

To deliver that message, CARE Guatemala showcased about a dozen original dances, varying from traditional Mayan routines to schoolgirls grooving to contemporary Guatemalan music. High school senior Hammad Ahmed commented on the educational benefits of the production, "I really appreciated the fact that they made the first dance more American. It got us settled in. And although some of the other dances were long and repetitive, they were really rich with the story of Guatemala's history and some of the Mayan traditions."

One dance showcased an example of courtship and another was a spectacular representation of All Saints Day, a day that involves flying kites to remember the deceased. A group of dancers began the performance with long sticks and baskets filled with flowers. As the show progressed, the sticks were connected in a circle, and a large kite was removed from under the flowers and connected to the sticks. Several smaller kites, all in bright pastel patterns, were raised into the air and were "flown" with sticks, rather than strings, by the dancers running behind the large, circular kite. Later on, Eileen informed us of the meaning behind the dance.

"That dance was symbolic of the community working together," she said.

Once revealed, the meaning was easily identifiable. All dancers were involved in the creation of the largest kite and even though only one performer could dance with it, all of the others received kites of their own.

The evening wasn't solely filled with dance. There were presentations of gifts to Mia Redd and mothers in the community, speeches from CARE's Guatemalan staff members, and a power outage due to the heavy rainfall. Don't fret; it only lasted for a minute or so. The back-up power generator was running strong.

There was also a skit performed in which a woman actually played a man. Once again, Eileen stepped in with insight into the significance of this in Guatemalan culture. "It means that things are changing. There was a time when women could not even dance in the traditional performances. Guatemalans are starting to become more accepting."

After more than two hours of watching Guatemalan dances and presentations, we got the chance to get up and strut our own stuff. With Wintta Woldemariam and Jerrell Jordan leading the tribe, Phillip Martin, Hammad Ahmed, Neena Panjwani, Nisha Jain, Kathryn Ebert and Claire Cameron stood atop the stage in the Las Canoas gym and danced to popular American songs such as "YMCA" and "Twist and Shout," and performed dances like the Macarena and the Electric Side. Nervous energy finally released, the CYC piled into the bus and slept all the way home.

All of yesterday's excitement meant that the usual 6:30 wake-up call this morning was a challenge. At 8:00 we climbed into the bus and gave our Las Canoas a final visit before we continued on to more sights.

Agenda numero uno: Learn Kak'chikel, a local Mayan language that we would need for regions in Guatemala that we would soon be visiting. Our friends, the fifth and sixth graders, got the pleasure of playing teacher, and we sat down to become the students. But the lesson was harder than we expected.

Kathryn sat behind me looked at the Kak'chikel words written on the board, listening to our young teachers say them out loud. "This is hard," she said. The truth had been spoken. Even our Spanish-speaking translators and Eileen Rivera, who has lived in Guatemala for years, has trouble with the guttural language. Here are some examples of the phrases we learned.

Let'et             Bicycle
Tz'ib'ab'al        Pencil
Shike bi?          What is your name?
Nu' b'i...         My name is...?
Takuyu numak       Excuse me
Saq'ar ixwonojel   Good day all

In the dialect - derived from Mayan languages used hundreds of years ago - the letter "w" makes an "f" sound, and "x" is the "sh" sound. Needless to say, practice is necessary. But it would have to wait because now there was mural space to fill, and afterwards a few more games to be played with the children before we all parted ways.

Ana Lucresia, 8, stands by a mural that she helped make with CYC at her school in San Andres Semetabaj, Las Canoas.

Painting handprints remained a popular activity for the Las Canoas students; they created a Guatemalan flag made entirely of small blue handprints. One handprint was made by a special little girl named Lillian, whom CYC members Kathryn and Hammad adored. "While the other girls would cover their mouths with their hands, Lillian strutted up and demanded to be embraced."

Lillian is representative of the changing roles of Guatemalan woman that we had witnessed the night before. During the first day of mural painting, the boys tried to prevent the girls from sharing in the artwork. Kathryn quickly hushed the boys and invited the girls to paint with them. The girls joined in, but maintained their reserved behavior.

During the second day, however, the young girls opened up and soon began to imitate Lillian's outgoing personality. Nisha Jain said, "On the first day, they were a little hesitant. But on the second day, they began to approach us. They got a lot more comfortable because they knew us."

Hammad Ahmed presents a check for $5000 to Mario Rene Ajbol. The CYC raised the money throughout the school year to benefit CARE educational projects in Guatemala.

And their comfort blossomed as the women of CARE and the girls of Guatemala engaged in direct combat on the basketball court in the Las Canoas school courtyard. Team Guatemala emerged with a strong victory of 20-6.

Ruth Fuller joked, "We quickly realized how old we were."

"Not old, but mature," corrected Mia Redd. But all CYC members agreed that it was satisfying to see the girls of Las Canoas playing a sport so aggressively and playing it well. The game was not won by luck, but truly by skill; these girls had game, strong game.

And then it was time to make our final departure from Las Canoas. We had witnessed firsthand the necessity for the Girls' Education project, and we gained an understanding of the phrase "be happy with what you have." As Hammad presented a check for $5,000 to Damien Perez and Mario Ajbal for CARE education projects in Guatemala, we could all see - right under our noses - the benefits of our hard work and the changes that were taking place in Guatemala. We could only imagine the changes to come.

Journal entries are written by Kenneth Butler, student-writer for the CARE Youth Corps.