Adopt-a-Village in Guatemala

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