Youth Workshop

With the community histories complete and photography classes over (at least for now) we are turning our attention to the culture / customs part of the project. For the next several weeks we will be collecting, videotaping and writing about fun cultural facts of the Ixil people---


everything from clothing, language, and food to how the villages celebrate holidays and life events.
To kick this customs section off, yesterday we had a workshop for all the youth. The topic: What IS Culture? In order to get the students thinking about their own cultures, we shared a little bit about ours.
The teens got to decorate Easter eggs while we talked about their symbolism of new life in Christ. They learned about Thanksgiving and giving thanks.



We even had a mock birthday party, complete with birthday cake & candles, and a game of pin the tail on the donkey (or pin the tail on the My Little Pony, as it were). The afternoon was a blast, with lots of giggles and good cultural exchange.
At the end we asked the students to draw a picture of their favorite holiday here in the Ixil. Below is Carlos’s drawing.

He chose Semana Santa (Easter Week) as his favorite holiday and drew a picture of his family sharing a meal together.