Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala

Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala gives thanks to Emily Jones, a longtime supporter of AAV, for all her hard work in hosting a fundraiser to purchase books for the Adopt-a-Village high school.  The Seattle event, “Dinner with a Doctor,” was sponsored by the University of Washington’s “Hand2Hand” pre-health philanthropy and community-service group, of which Emily is the co-activities coordinator.  Jill Hodges presented our organization’s programs with the acclaimed video she filmed and produced for AAV. The event was attended by 45 of the  university’s students interested in pursuing a career in healthcare, as well as medical professionals, including the Chief of Surgery from Harborview Hospital and the Chief of Pediatrics from Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Emily is an enthusiastic AAV volunteer and child sponsor of an eight-year-old girl, Maricela, (see photo) who lives in the remote village of Nuevo San Ildefonso.  Fifteen years ago, young Mam families settled the tiny community, naming it for their home town where land was overworked and in short supply.  They migrated to the only location they could afford to purchase land—a distant and remote area in northwestern Guatemala. Today, Maricela lives with 10 other families where they eke out a living by growing coffee on small plots terraced on the hot, low-lying mountainside.  When the coffee harvest is over, they migrate to the coast in search of seasonal work.

Life in Nuevo San Ildefonso entails daily hardships.  It is a pioneer life in every sense.  Land was cleared by hand and, for 15 years, families had to transport all building materials,  food and supplies on their backs up a long winding trail.  Family homesteads consist of crudely constructed cottages where chickens scratch around and pigs prepare themselves for market.  The village’s only burro is used to transport firewood.  A rustic wooden structure built by fathers serves as the one-room schoolhouse.  When the government refused to send a teacher because the village lacked the obligatory 25 school children, families fought their case and won, an unusual achievement in Guatemala.  Currently, after months of back-breaking labor working with picks and shovels, the village men are nearing the completion of their rough  four-wheel drive road.  

Adopt-a-Village has lent a hand to these hardworking families over the years, supplying rainwater catchment tanks, supplies, materials, and a school library, emergency food, and training in animal husbandry for several village members.

Despite their harsh way of life, the people of Nuevo San Ildefonso have a strong and positive spirit.  They do not give up even in the face of their defeats.  They are an inspirational people, and Adopt-a-Village is proud to call them friends.

The heavy fog has enshrouded the rainforest and neither moonlight nor the firefly’s intermittent flicker can pierce the obscurity.  It’s pitch black.  I awaken in the unfinished cabin, a small and simple abode elevated high off the ground to instil the sense of living in a tree house.  For all the years I have slept here, it remains without doors and windows, so pure fresh air is my companion of the night.  I look at my watch…4:30 a.m.  Slowly waking, I realize that our resident jaguar is likely still hunting and it will be another half an hour before the playful paxas (pashas) announce the break of day. 

The Mayan paxa is perhaps my favorite bird, not for his beauty, as he only sports black plumage and resembles nothing more than a lowly chicken.  He can hardly be admired for his melodic song either, because he has none.  Rather, he is held in awe for his thrilling aerial antics.  This is the bird that announces dawn and this is the bird that bids farewell to the day with as much gusto and style as any high diving pilot performing in a July 4th air exhibition.  The paxa introduces his show with a loud rifle-like crack immediately followed with the staccato rat-tat-tat of a New Year’s Eve noisemaker, then gleefully executes his high dives and swoops with a pretentious air.  More than once, as he mischievously zooms through my open porch, his din has knocked me out of my sleep and almost onto the floor.

However, this morning it is not the paxa that has awakened me, but voices, muted by the morning mist.  Two students have descended the mountain trail, carrying an enormous pot of dough just ground on the motorized corn grinder.  The next sound–firewood being chopped.  And the next–pots rattling.  At the Mayan Center, every student has daily work duty.  These students are on kitchen assignment.  Others, rising later, clean the goat stable, feed and water the chickens and collect eggs.  Yet others clean the school, weed the vegetable garden, or perform one of the more unpalatable tasks, such as scattering odor-killing wood ash down the latrines.

Whereas the Center employs a cook, it’s the students who really make the kitchen hum.  The peel the vegetables, cook the morning atol, (a hot drink made from boiled rice or corn served with sugar and cinnamon), and serve up the food.  But their primary expertise is the complicated task of making 300 corn tortillas every morning.  The first step is to build a hearty fire on the ground outside.  Once hot, the comal (a large flat pan) is set on top of the flames, and the process begins.  A “tortilla work group” usually consists of four students, three boys and one girl.  I would imagine that the girl is present to give the boys faith, as tortilla-making is definitely not on the list of a Mayan’s boy tasks at home.  But they are good natured about it, chattering and joking as one forms the dough into balls, another flattens it in the press, and the third cooks.  And while the tortillas don’t turn out like those that Mom makes, hungry kids devour them nonetheless.

At times, I wonder what they think, working, playing and studying in this remote wilderness.  What would I think, I wondered, if I had had such an opportunity in my youth?  I think I would have loved it.  No standing in line in the hall, military fashion, waiting for the teacher to give the OK order to enter the classroom.  No constant clanging alarms announcing the end of one class and the beginning of another.  No entrapment all day within drably painted cement walls.

The Mayan Center is a unique residential high school set in a magnificent and remote rainforest, designed to provide a perfect environment for serious study.  The students understand why they were chosen for their scholarships–to learn and to become future leaders in their communities.  They take their education to heart, expressing their gratitude not just verbally, but by their enthusiastic participation in all aspects of their studies and maintenance of their school.  Last week, when school director Pedro Sebastian and I were viewing the creative decorations made by the kids and placed in every classroom, he commented, “The students really love their school.”  I mentally added, “and their new friends, their cozy cabins, the fresh mountain air, and the joyful bird songs that waken them every morning.”

Hello again,

On March 8th, when 12 Mayan youths  stepped onto the soccer field at Monte Bello,  even the chatter of the children stopped.  Our Maya Jaguar boys sported white jerseys, black shorts, and white stockings.  Their black hair, cut short, and glistening in the sunlight, gave the final professional touch to their handsome black and white appearance.  No other team at this regional soccer tournament presented themselves so proudly or so well turned out.

Appearance aside, how would our boys do, I asked myself,  given that they had had no time to prepare.  The Mayan Center had received an invitation to participate in the tournament only four days earlier; in the following days it rained ceaselessly, making it impossible to practice.  The second challenge– team members came from many different villages, spoke five different languages, and each one had no way of knowing the style or strategy that the others used.

To be honest, I am best a lukewarm sports enthusiast, but today for  the first time in my life, all that changed.  I stood  there under the cloudless blue sky, as the soft breeze rustled the trees leaves.  The mountains, with their new multi-colored spring tree growth adorned the hillsides.  In this beautiful place of nature,  I looked at the eager and expectant group of kids and all I wanted was to see them WIN!

But as the opposing team stepped onto the field, it became clear that the odds were stacked against our students.  They were to play against a group of well-muscled men from a  seasoned soccer team.

I felt people jostling behind me.  Curious, I turned around to see that onlookers had left their comfortable places on the grass  and began ringing  the edge of the soccer field.  I heard voices murmuring, “Maya Jaguar, Maya Jaguar.”  “How strange, I thought, nobody knows anything about us, but they are repeating our name.”  It quickly became evident that they were rooting for our team!  We were the unknown dark horse and they were betting on the unknown.

Until this day, I had had no idea of the high level of skill it takes to play soccer well.  As the game began, I was astounded with the agility and lightening fast speed of the players.  They performed such feats such as twisting a leg behind and unexpectedly kicking the ball  high in the air and with amazing accuracy.  At one point, the team captain, Gaspar, shot off the ground like a human cannon ball, his head batting the ball with tremendous force across the field.   Manuel, normally our most playful and fun-loving student, turned deadly serious in his offensive moves, blocking, running, kicking the ball.  Without a doubt, he caught the other team off guard with his rapid twists and turns.

And then it happened!  I held my breath.  Antonio, our quiet and solemn boy postioned himself.  Everyone grew silent–the crowd, the opposing team, our kids.  Then–GOAL!  Our spectator students (me, too) screamed, “Maya Jaguar!  Maya Jaguar!  Va a ganar, va a ganar. (Maya Jaguar, Maya Jaguar, is going to win, is going to win).

They had pulled it off!  Twelve students from as many villages,  from  different language groups and cultural norms, had formed  a true unity through their beloved game of soccer!

What a proud day for the Maya Jaguar Center.  And for them.

Frances

Hello,

Yesterday,  I was reading  the course curriculum offered at our Mayan Center (15+ courses) and was reminded that our forestry class will undoubtedly be one of our most important.

Many people do not realize that the destruction of Guatemalan rainforests equals the speed of destruction of the Amazonian forests.  Moreover, the rainforests here are only second in  value to those in the Amazon.   Much has been written about this topic, but progress in stemming the vast denuding of the forests is indeed slow.  The slash and burn method used by the Mayan people is not only used grow their corn crops.  They are used to clear land to grow coffee.  If the coffee crops gave poor peasants  a decent income, one could perhaps find a rationale for this massive cutting of trees.  The fact is, it doesn´t.    Who gains?  The truckers gain.   The fertizer companies gain.   Certainly the coffee brokers gain handsomely.  And the government  fatten their coffers with export taxes.  And the people go hungry.

In my opinion, there exists a great myth in this region of Guatemala.  The government, companies, and nongovernmental organizations,  all urge the people to clear, clear, clear land and plant, plant, plant coffee.   Sometimes the world market price of coffee rises, but with the vast world competition of coffee, more than often, it doesn´t.   The poor campesino loses.

What to do?  The idea that coffee will make a person rich has been deeply embedded in the minds of the small farmers through exhortations over the  decades. Until that mind-set shifts,  forests will continue to fall  at a fast pace.

The thing is, there are options.  I am not saying that such a massive problem can be resolved, but at least it can be dimished.  Start small.  For instance, there is a great population living in 250 villages who spend their hard-earned money to travel to the only town in the region to buy their supplies.  They purchase near-rotting vegetables that have been  trucked in from great distances and sold at sky-high prices.  Why not use some of that precious land to grow vegetables to sell and barter?  Because the people believe there is only one thing to grow.  Coffee.

Secondly, land could be reforested.  New-growth trees have many uses–fuel, building materials, wood products.

These concepts are being put into practice by the Adopt-a-Village Mayan Center through our agricultural and forestry course.   Once students have learned the appropriate skills,  they will fan out to many surrounding villages to introduce and implement these new ideas. As students and sons and daughters of the people themselves, we believe their ideas will not just be accepted, but welcomed.

Adopt-a-Village is seeking funds to support these programs.  If you would like to donate, please go to our “How to Help” page or write to me at guatvillage.com.

I’m off to our mountain-top school.  More news next week.

Frances

Good morning from Guatemala,

After four and a half months absence from school, children lined up to enter their classroom today.   More than six weeks of this time is attributed to the long teachers strike.  Major highways were shut down due to protests on and off during this time, causing traffic to be blocked for hours.  Earlier this week, 75,000 teachers protested in front of the National Palace, sleeping under plastic sheets to escape the rain.  Part of their protest was that the government had not lived up to its 2009 agreement to provide teachers with the promised 8% raise.  As if the education system here is not bad enough, the children have now lost  over 20% of the school year.

This is just one more example of the poor education that Guatemalan children receive.   One-day vacations can extend into one week, as happens with Mother’s Day in some of the schools.  Teachers are constantly absent from giving classes due to an interminable amount of paperwork the government requires, or days-long absences due to meetings by the Department of Education in town.  Schools rarely have any books.  As such, teachers dictate their lessons for students to study at night.

These issues have negatively affected the students at our Mayan Center.   I know we have the best kids possible, but I feel so badly to see their ignorance in spelling, writing a sentence (let along an essay), and the inability to fully comprehend what they are reading.  We have a tough battle to overcome.

The good news is that our students are the most enthusiastic and eager to learn that I have every come across.  Yesterday, when class was due to close at 4:00 p.m., they exhorted their teacher to continue with his math lesson!

We also have the good fortune to have found capable teachers sincerely interested in educating their students.  Novel methods have already been introduced to help them overcome the deficiences in their past education, and the kids are more than up for whatever suggestion is proposed.  All teachers, whether they teach language and literature or not, are encouraging the kids to read, read, read.  We have a small collection of books for them to read at night and to take home with them.  Additionally, the teachers have split the students into small groups, so the learning opportunity is much more intense.  I have no doubt that with students and teachers such as we have, that the kids will overcome the type of education they received in past grades.

Adopt-a-Village continues to help in primary and middle schools.  Our Books Across Borders program that our donors so generously support means that these schools now have reading materials.  We are helping in the village of Monte Bello with school materials, books, a new blackboard and seeds for the school garden.  At the Rio Hermin middle school, where most children received scholarships from their sponsors,  we’ve supplied the school with manual typewriters, school materials, reference materials and books.  These students will have a head start when they enter high school.

I have lots of news to share with you,  so I expect to write again soon.

Frances

Dear readers,

I’d like to tell you about Luis, a Mayan boy I met some 17 years ago in the village of Quetzali.  Mr. and Mrs. Barsan of Medina, Ohio, were sponsoring the toddler at the time.  Luis’ story is just one example of how Adopt-a-Village sponsorship helps the children, especially with education.

One day, I found this little guy at my cabin doorstep.  His mother had died in childbirth, and whether it was because he had no mother, or was unusually small, or just plain shy, it was evident that he had no friends.  Luis was a lonely little soul and I felt badly for him and invited him to visit me whenever he wanted.  He began coming daily to play with the small toy cars I’d kept from my now-grown son’s toy chest.  Luis was quite content to play about my feet as I worked and seemed to have quietly “adopted’ me as his second mother.

Soon after, AAV’s second major project began—a much needed primary school. Our volunteers had worked for a year to raise the funds and now the fathers labored for several months with us to build it.  Meanwhile, Luis took great interest in the books and drawing materials I had given him. I made a rustic “desk,” nothing more than a wooden board placed on tree trunks teetering on the uneven ground below. With that unlikely furniture and paper and crayons, he began to turn out dozens of colorful drawings.  He was ready for schooling!   When school opened, Luis showed himself to be an avid student, although he continued to stay pretty much to himself.  After he graduated from sixth grade, AAV helped him attend middle school.  Then, with no more opportunities for additional education at that time, he moved to another village to work.

One day this past December, as the AAV scholarship committee was finalizing applicant interviews for high school entry, Luis appeared at the office doorstep—only a few feet from the from the door where I had first met him.  He had heard about our scholarship program.  As I gazed into Luis’ bright eyes, I saw a fine young man, transformed from his timid days.  He took his entry exams and won his scholarship!

As school began, I observed him taking the lead in organizing student projects.  He made it his job to make new students feel welcome.  He was voted to the Student Council and when he spoke at the first council meeting, he said, “I want us all to be friends.  I want us to work in unity and be part of one of the best schools in Guatemala.”

I am sharing this story with you because it echoes many similar stories over the years.   Hundreds of Mayan children have received primary and middle schooling because of our sponsors.  Now, we usher in a new era.  Despite countless challenges and seemingly impossible hurdles, AAV has implemented an unrivalled educational concept in Central America—one that combines academic, vocational, and practical community education that will open up job opportunities and to give students, their families, and their community members, a better future.

Thank you again for sharing in our vision, for sponsoring a Mayan child, and for making it possible for children to become educated and have a better life. 

Sincerely

Frances

Good Morning dear readers,

Yesterday–a cold, rainy day– I left the Mayan Jaguar school, but with happy memories. I remember my last day in class–the air was charged with the  high energy enamating from the students. Putting one of our key concepts in process–that they play an integral pa in the management of the school has sparked a flow of ideas they have been presenting.

The students first request is for a field trip to a volcanic lake situated in a great protected forest, about a two-hour hike from the school. The lake contains freshwater shrimp and the kids hope to make a good catch. The school’s forestry professor will lead the trip, and a local guide will be along to identify birds, trees, and edible plants. The kids plan to bring back some of those plants for their dinner.

I shall to be back in the States by Friday and will be in the office and available for any inquiries before I leave again in two weeks for Guatemala. I look forward to hearing from you.

Frances

Two days ago, I arrived at the school campus just as lunch was breaking up. As the pick-up truck slowed to a stop, one of the students came running down the hill toward us, waving his arms wildly. It was Cesar, easy to identify with his cheeky grin. As I opened the truck door, he was shouting, “Good afternoon! Good afternoon!” And said with hardly a trace of a Spanish accent! Behind him, all the other students lined up to greet me with “Good afternoon,” proud of of their success in learning some basic English over the past few days.

It wasn’t all they had learned. As we met in the school room, I was astonished to hear the student council president report on how the group had organized themselves. Their leadership skills were already in full swing. Luis, a high-energy kid, had prepared a daily task list, jobs that were assigned to each student on a revolving basis. According to the school cook, Luis had taken charge of the kitchen duties, rising before dawn to grind corn for the tortillas, forming the masa in a press, and then cooking and turning the tortillas on the stove. Three others had been assigned to assist him. Others cleaned the chicken coup, gave them an “outing” for a bit to peck at the grasses, and of course collected the fresh eggs . Others chopped wood, cleaned the school, and tended to the goats.

At the meeting, one of the topics turned to food, specifically food that the mountain offered for the taking. The kids rattled off a list of a dozen foods, including greens, root vegetables, and fruits. I could see that it wouldn’t be long before they would be scouting the forest to discover something exotic to add to their diet of beans and tortillas.

Perhaps the best part of all was to hear the pride in their voices as they talked about beautifying their school by planting trees and flowers, removing unsightly stumps and keeping the grass cut. And then, there was sports. Mayan kids love to play soccer, basketball and volley ball. They described how they could make a volleyball net using trees vines. “Just buy us the ball,” pleaded Gaspar, vice-president of the group, we will do the rest.” One volley ball coming up!

Frances

Hello everyone!

These past few days have been the most exciting that I can remember in AAV’s history!  Our long-held vision is now a reality–our Mayan Center school is in its second day of operation.  Our students are already immersed in classes and projects.  They arrived on a frigid day, and I trekked to the dormitory area with them, anxious to see their reaction to seeing their little cabins.  There was no assigning cabins, not even time to assign!  They ran from cabin to cabin, deciding which one they preferred.  (They are all identical!)  What was surpising to me is that without a couple of minutes, they had paired themselves off (two to a cabin).  Inside they found the solar lights that had been installed the day before by volunteers from Florida, their cots, small study tables and chair.

The next morning, the sun was shining and their group met outside under the trees.  Thirty-five percent of the students are girls, a much higher percentage than I had hoped for.  And most striking was their ability to voice their thoughts and opinions in the meeting.  They were considerably more vocal than the boys.  Before I arrived to join them, two students had taken the lead in planning their first work project.  (Every student is responsible for two hours a day in maintence, i.e., making tortillas, tending the chickens, cutting firewood).  For each task, there were ready volunteers.

It was a grand first day.  I tried to imagine what they were thinking.  What would I be thinking at the age of 15 to find myself on top of a remote mountain, keeping warm in a small cabin, trekking down the mountainside the rustic kitchen for hot tortillas and beans.  One of the girls related, “I woke up in the morning, not realizing where I was.  I looked outside to see the circle of cabins and to hear the birds singing, and I was so glad to be here!”

–Frances