Hi Aldea Maya supporters,
We just got back from a very busy trip in Guatemala. We once again were able to hand out supplies to every student who wanted to go to our Basico. This was made possible due to all our great sponsors as well as the Christmas card sales. Graham, now known as Senor Gris, and Vicki Calder were a huge help in handing out supplies to the 100 plus students and taking the photos. Students in third year Basico as well as our High School students volunteered.
we were also able to give gently used running shoes from Nanaimo tennis club to some of the unsponsored boys.
Vicki helped teach a mom and her daughter how to use a sewing machine. She noticed the mom was having difficulty threading the needle and gave her some reading glasses. This was one happy mom as she can now see to do her beadwork as well.
Through our partnership with Mapa- cafe in Germany and our Christmas card sales we were able to buy all the students going to high school bicycles and lights. Senor Gris was very helpful in assembling the bicycles. There is a video on our website of the students receiving their bikes. These are some very happy students!!!!
The students will use the bicycles to go to high school…removing transportation costs.
We also have greatly expanded our garden program. This was made possible due to the Christian School in Lacombe, Alberta and Ivy Turner’s golf event as well as the Christmas card sales.
Senor Gris built the structure for an outdoor classroom and the Alberta volunteers gave us tons of sweat equity. By the time they left we had 2 wonderful new gardens.
Our garden guy, Pedro and Jaime, our manager, have been taking quite a few courses on permaculture. We have built compost bins for every grade in the school. The students are learning all about worms.
Students helping to build new composters
Each grade now has it’s own garden area. The students have been harvesting plants and preparing food with their harvest. We are also shifting the focus to more native plants.
We also continued our nutrition and garden programs: this trip focussing on grades 2 and 3. What made this years programs better is we now have banana and papaya plants in the school garden that the students are caring for BEFORE they get their own plant. This should greatly increase the survival rates of their plants.
We also continued our partnership with Cameron Stoves. The Alberta girls helped to install 6 more stoves. These stoves are essential as they reduce the amount of wood a family uses by 70% as well as reducing the risk of burns, eye and lung problems.
Can you imagine trying to cook on this????
Audrey and Edith loading the heavy cement stoves into the truck.We also completed the home we have been building for Jasmin’s family. We were able to build this home due to our partnership with Porch de Solomon. We started the home building last year but it was stopped due to extremely bad weather and considerable problems with the neighbours.
However we persevered and the home got completed. The awesome thing about this building project is the fact that Porch de Solomon had started a home build near Santiago and asked Aldea Maya if we had a contact for a labourer. We had 2 students that were studying only on the weekend. In Guatemala you can study high school one day a week if you are 18 years of age. We informed Porch de Solomon we had 2 students and could they work alternate weeks. They decided to hire both students. This is amazing as both boys are learning a trade while completing high school.
I would like to thank Stan at Maximil for his generous donation that has enabled us to buy locking cupboards for supplies, a new bulb for our projector, and supplies for all the electives at the Basico. Furthermore we would like to thank all the people who volunteered over the last year and who sponsored students, donated items, bought beaded items and Christmas cards. Without you all there would not be an Aldea Maya.
Gracias