Today Rita and I head back to Chukumuk. As the weather is really windy and we want to spend a longer time in the village we decide to get accommodation in Santiago Atitlan. The windy weather can make crossing the lake in the afternoon a wee bit dangerous.
Aldea Maya is putting a teaching garden in the Chukumuk school yard. Unfortunately there are not a lot of places to chose from. The director, Francisco and I found a possible site. This garden will be used to teach about plants in both schools and the food that grows will be used in the Basico cooking classes.
The garden is beside the metal building we will be using for the Basico woodworking classes. It is far from ideal. And presently chock a block full of desks etc. We need to find another storage area for these desks.
We then have to make the building secure. It is made from metal sheeting,and is really noisy when the wind blows. The sheeting does not go all the way to the ground – not much of a deterant for people who want to to steal. It has a dirt floor. We will have to decide if it is economically viable to put in a cement floor. This is the future building site of a larger building that Aldea Maya may need to build!!!!!
The kitchen building next door is more secure and has a cement floor but still needs more work to be totally secure. Both buildings do not have electricity presently. The director, Francisco is studying Computer engineering on the weekends and is a certified electrician. He is going to wire both buildings. He would really like to own a leatherman multipurpose knife so that will be our payment.
We are also going to have a teaching chicken area. The eggs will be used in the home ec class and to feed students in the elementary school. I had found a great site. We are going to have the grade 5 students design the coops and have the Basico students build it. We will have the basico students build the gate. We will probably use the small area beside it to grow food to feed the chickens.
More students came today to collect supplies. I sent 3 boys out on a mission. To find the students who’s pictures were taken for Christmas cards and had not come to the school to collect them. Some of these students may not be allowed to go as the families need them to work. However others may not realize that they are receiving a scholarship.
Families also came to see if their children could receive supplies. Rita has been talking to all the Aldea Maya sponsored students to put a wee bit of personal information on the website about each one
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By this time Basico had started. The math teacher was unable to make it to class today. I therefore taught a spur of the moment English class. I drew a human body on the board and labelled body parts. We then removed the name of the body parts and broke the class into 6 groups. The group that could name the most body parts would win a prize. These students live a hand to mouth existence and the thought of a prize was totally exciting. All groups wanted to win and we caught several groups trying to use their new Spanish/English dictionary.
I had noticed that several Mayan families sponsored students were not attending Basico. Therefore the Basico Director, Gaspar, Rita and I set off to visit 2 families. Both these families are completely poor and do not think education in important. They were the first families to receive vegetable gardens. They did not look after them at all and now complain that they have nothing to eat!!!!
The first family we visited is Juan Daniel and Cristobal’s family. The 2 boys had just returned from a back breaking day of collecting fire wood up the side of the volcano. This family has at least 6 children but it does have a father at home. It took Gaspar and I over an hour to convince the mother that it was not a smart idea to stop the boys from studying. I explained that a life of collecting firewood would mean they would always be poor and when her and her husband were old, the boys would be too poor to help their parents. Children are very obedient here and neither boy said a word but you could see in their eyes that they were hopeing I would succeed.
You have to bribe these kind of families. I informed them they would get a new water filter. Also I would bring some papaya, banana and citrus plants. I will make the boys responsible for their care. They boys are really hard worker and I will hire them next week to help make the rock filled area for the new school garden a viable location. I also mentioned they receive shoes and clothes when they are sponsored neither item can the family afford.
Cristobal is in his second year of Basico. Last year the teachers often asked the students for money for supplies, This is not going to happen this year as each teacher is getting a budget!!!!
Finally the mom said yes…but the boys must work on the weekends and every morning.
Next we visted Natalia and Dolores’ home. This mom is quite lazy and Natalia does most of the work. Therfore the mom wants her to stay at home, 6 years ago the mom nearly died as she had 2 different types of amoebas and one was going to her brain. She could not afford a doctor or the medicine. Aldea Maya paid for all this and saved her life!!!. I therefore stress the importance of a decent job for Natalia so she would be able to help her family out in a time of crisis.
Natalia received beautiful necklace from her sponsor. She also said nothing the whole time but you could see in her eyes that she dearly wanted to go to school. Natalia’s sponsor was already buying the family a bed and mattress but the family did not know this. I used that as one of the bargaining chips. This is such tiring work but I need to be the advocate for these students. This family will also receive a water filter and I am buying beadwork from them at a good price. There are 2 young children in this family that the mom also wanted Aldea Maya to help.
