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Published: July 14th 2006
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Behind the scenes
Team members are getting the props ready and the script is hung behind the stage. On July 3rd we did two puppet shows in two towns. The early morning was in the country, on a very bad road. We were thankful that we had had no rain. The school was built by the community, the Official Rural Mixed School. It's mixed with both boys and girls.
The school is a simple cinderblock square, mostly courtyard, some protection from the rain with a small area covered by a tin roof. The latrine drains to a ditch around the building. But, there were beautiful flowers in the courtyard. The director walks from Quiche, over an hour away. They have no supplies and the blackboard won't take chalk. We did the puppet show, then passed out health kits and teacher bags, of pencils, scissors, crayons, etc. We also gave away the candy necklaces and small stuffed animals. These children did not eat the necklaces, but boys and girls alike wore them. They loved the animals.
When you look at these pictures, notice the beautiful lace blouses the girls are wearing. That lace is made and available only in Quiche. When we saw it on women in Guatemala City, we knew they were from Quiche.
Education is
enthralled children
Notice the lace on the blouses. It's found only in Quiche. The children are wonderful--as everywhere! extremely important to the communities, so even when there is so little, the parents still send the children to school. This building had been donated by a local farmer. There is a plan underway to improve the situation.
The second school, Chulumal, was one I described before. It's attached to a church that's supported by our hosts, led by Grace Par. This is also a rural school, but is in considerably better condition. They have several strong buildings, including the church. There are six classrooms and they have three computers in one of the rooms. From the displays on the walls, we could tell they were studying biology, geography, math, and reading. These students wore uniforms.
After the shows, we came back to our hotel, Gumaraah, a Quiche word for Utatlan or Kingdom. We ate a big lunch, the main meal of the day, then changed into work clothes. We drove to the Utatlan School and scraped and painted walls in classrooms as well as the front wall on the street, and the front of the pastor's house. As I said earlier, we worked hard the next day as well to finish as much as we could. We
more scholarshipped students
Students with scholarships come to say thank you. They would not be in school without the help. also spent a little time at the internet café.
On July 2, I was amazed by the fast paced schedule we kept. We went to church, did our first puppet show for the youngsters at Sunday School, changed to work clothes, ate lunch, went shopping at the market in Chichicastanago, then worked until dinner time.
If this were a football game instead of a blog, the last few paragraphs would be instant replay. And, speaking of football, the World Cup Soccer series is still going on. South and Central Americans have been rooting for Brazil.
On July 4, at 6:30 PM we checked into Casa San Jose in Guatemala City. We changed buses and facilitators. We now have a bus driver who is very familiar with the city, and Jackie (Walter’s wife) is our facilitator. We are hosted by CEDEPCO now. More to come about this part of our journey.
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Spook
non-member comment
Looks great, Susie! Good travelog!