http://richardsinnola.blogspot.com/

Thank you to all of you who tuned into our family's adventures in Central America. Please check out our new blog:

http://richardsinnola.blogspot.com

Love, Diana

Mexico ... otra vez

Adios Guatemala

Richards are not in Guatemala any more. But we are glad we were for two years. We are glad we conquered our fears and doubts to step beyond our comfort zone. We are glad that we were able to discover the beauty of Guatemala's landscape and people. We are glad that Shalom's life was so enriched by friends and language. We are glad that we leave with so many dear friends. We are glad to bring home our most precious Guatemalan souvenir, Dahlia Sol.

Birthday Girls!

Happy Birthday to Shalom (May 22) and Dahlia (May 23) who turned 3 and 1. We celebrated in our back yard with many friends from the American School and Shalom's school.

Tikal

We finally made it to Tikal, the Mayan ruins in the north of Guatemala. This site is known for having the tallest pre-Columbian structure in the Americas. It is in the heart of the Mayan Biosphere, the second largest protected jungle in Central/South America next to the Amazon. Over the years, the jungle has overtaken the pyramids, many of which are yet to be unearthed. We didn't see any jaguars or get to raid the tombs, but we did see a ton of monkeys and other critters. When we first arrived, all four of us took a blazing hot afternoon tour with a group we couldn't really keep up with. When it cooled off, I got to have a nice evening walk alone through the park, and Michael woke up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning for the sunrise tour. We got a package tour which included the short plane ride there and back, and two nights in a hotel walking distance from the ruins. The pool at the hotel wasn't working, though, so we spent our second night at the air-conditioned Westin with a pool and a little beach on beautiful lake Peten Itza.

N'awlins Bound

Our family is preparing for our next big move, which is bringing us to Louisiana. Though we are saddened that we will not be returning to friends and family in Chicago, we are very excited to be starting a new chapter in New Orleans. Though I (Michael) am from Louisiana, I don't feel like I really know the city. I am really looking forward to exploring and contributing to rebuilding. Also, I am looking forward to being closer my family in Louisiana. A great job opportunity is what will bring us down there. As most of you know, Katrina devastated the New Orleans Parish school system, which was already in dire straits. This event, however, might turn out out to be a silver lining on the cloud that was Katrina. Now in New Orleans, reform-minded educators - led by Paul Vallas- are flocking to the city to undertake one of the most compelling transformations in the history of urban education. I will be in the awesome position of founding and leading a new charter school. It is a unique opportunity to directly affect the lives of children and families in New Orleans (and those hoping to return) while contributing to the larger reform experiment. Over the next year, New Schools for New Orleans (thanks to the Broads, Gates, and Fishers for the $17 Million) will be supporting and training me in an incubation period, where I will be planning my dream school. We will open in the fall of 2009. Needless to say, this was an opportunity I could not pass up. I look forward to discussing details and getting ideas from all of our friends and family. Reservations for Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest chez Richard will fill up fast, so make yours soon. We look forward to playing hosts down in the Big Easy!

Semana Santa

We had been looking forward to it for months, and finally our week of Richard-Dreyfuss toddler baby Spring Break madness arrived! The very adventurous Dreyfuss family came down to spend 10 days with us touring Guatemala. We rented a 12-passenger van, packed in four car seats, four adults, and a ton of gear, and toured the country. We spent two nights at the Posada Santiago in Santiago, Atitlan on the lake (Atitlan) in a cabin with a little kitchenette. Santiago is an amazing little town where the indigenous culture is very strong, the lake surrounded by volcanoes is awesome to behold, and the Posada is a lovely inn with beautiful landscaping and a great restaurant. We then headed further west to Fuentes Georginas, where we stayed in some very rustic cabins at the hot springs. It was pretty cool there, so the springs were very steamy! I had an awesome time there for a little while under the moonlight at night which made up for the lack of sleep I experienced while Dahlia clung to me all night. We made a side trip to visit a coffee finca about half an hour downhill from there where it was much warmer. Our third stop was in Las Lisas on the Pacific coast. Although Guatemala's beach is pretty rough, it is still great to experience sun, sand, and the relaxation of lying in a hammock in front of a beach cabana. Lastly, we stayed in a couple of cabins at the Earth Lodge above Antigua, a backpacker hang-out with a great view of volcanoes Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango and pretty good food, too. In Antigua proper, we visited Finca Filadelfia, a high-end coffee farm and hotel and got to witness one of the Holy Week processions. The pics are from Good Friday, so there is a decidedly somber mood. We had meant to stay two nights at the Earth Lodge but detoured a bit before heading there to return to our home in Guatemala City for one night of regrouping. Overall, our trip went well, especially considering the time our children spent in car seats! The real test will be whether the Dreyfuss family ever goes on vacation with us again! I really hope so, since, among other things, Tony takes awesome pictures. Be sure to check out his at the link below!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/sutono/sets/72157604263590318/show/

Music Festival

While I was in Chicago with Dahlia, Michael went to a music festival with Shalom. They spent the day with some of our colleagues who were at the festival and then camped out for the night. This daddy-daughter music festival & camping outing is becoming somewhat of a tradition since Michael also spent a few days over the summer camping with Shalom at the 10,000 Lakes Festival. Corey from school took (and then colored in) this picture of Shalom, who had fun painting and getting her own face painted.

Feliz dia del Carino

Shalom, with one of her valentines, our little neighbor Juan Fer. He even picked a flower from the grass to give to her!

Sibling rivalry

Part two of our Saturday morning fun...

Creeping? Crawling?

Just this week, Dahlia has made great "strides" in creeping (crawling?), sitting, and standing up with support. This is the kind of fun we have at 7 in the morning on Saturdays when the rest of the world is sleeping.

Casa del Sol

One of the things we enjoy most about our time in Guatemala is the excellent and affordable child care. That extends to Shalom's preschool, Casa del Sol. Her teacher, Carmen, has created a Waldorf school where the children garden and play in an environment that is designed to be "unstructured." Shalom goes every day unless she is sick, but some of her schoolmates only go two or three times a week. A friend of her teacher picks her up and drops her off, so there is little hassle for us besides remembering to pay, sending fruit on Wednesdays, and repairing the broken toys Carmen has been sending home lately. Every day, the kids work in an organic garden from which they harvest and eat vegetables. On Friday, I spent a few hours there since Michael and I had no school. First, Shalom and her little friend Simon (damn that kid's cute--he really makes me want to adopt a little Guatemalan boy) played indoors with some wooden vegetables. Then, the kids put on their rubber boots to go outside. Shalom and Simon took turns filling watering cans which they dump in random parts of the garden. There are quite a few gringo American kids enrolled, but they are outnumbered by the Spanish-speaking Guatemalans which makes for a bilingual but mostly Spanish-speaking school. Besides the gardening component, the Waldorf philosophy advocates letting children's imagination run wild in a neutral environment, so the school features a lot of unpainted wood toys, colorful scarves, and nothing decorating the walls. The students help cook and then eat a healthy meal each day. When I got home, I eyed our many bright-colored electronic noise-making toys with a new dose of skepticism.

Check out their website:

http://waldorfguatemala.blogspot.com/