Experience Guatemala

Thursday was a very long day, but a very good day. I apologize for not writing for a few weeks (weeks! This trip is flying by!) but that just means I've gotten into a comfortable schedule and am having too much fun to write! So yay.

Thursday our schedule changed because we had a 'field trip' with our school, Cambio Spanish School. Before I explain our trip, I need to explain the amazing things that Cambio schools are doing:

Niños de Guatemala is an organization created to provide education for children who cannot afford it. Although school here is free, many families cannot afford the small things like uniforms or school supplies. This organization interviews families and provides them with education at one of their few schools in Guatemala, giving them an opportunity to see a future for themselves whereas for many people in Guatemala who do not have this opportunity, they lack a vision of what their lives could look like if only they received the proper education. Not only does this organization provide education, but it also provides counseling opportunities for families. The school has social workers and psychologists that work to gain the support of parents for their child's schooling, and if there are problems at home the social worker eagerly works to end those struggles. The schools hire mothers and fathers of the children to work as cooks or assist in other activities, in order to show the parents the value of their child's education. What stood out to me the most about this organization was that it really works to gain a better family bonding and stronger community. Trust is established with the families and the child's education is not the sole priority--the child's life, their relationship with the parents and vice versa, is what is focused on, and that is incredible.

Cambio Spanish School provides language courses for other students, like myself. A big chunk of the money we pay to take these courses goes to sending children to the schools built by the organization. How cool is that?? By studying at Cambio, we are helping children to receive an education, something I recognize more and more every day as extremely valuable.

Thursday was a long day because we took an 'Experience Guatemala' tour, where our first stop was in Ciudad Vieja at one of the schools created by Niños de Guatemala. We got the chance to play with kids and learn more about the vision for the schools to soon be self-sustaining. It was also really cool to hear about the social workers part in the whole process of providing education and to see what that looked like abroad.

Our second stop was to a coffin factory. When we were told about this part of the trip, I actually thought our director said Coffee factory, so when we arrived I was pretty surprised. It wasn't so much a factory as it was the backyard of a man who made absolutely beautiful coffins. He takes special requests from people in Guatemala City and then creates coffins from scratch, and we learned all about the process. It was a really unique part of the trip, but so much fun to learn about!

Our final stop was to a Chicken Bus factory. For those of you who don't know what a Chicken Bus is, imagine a school bus painted bright colors with fun designs and bright lights. Chicken Bus companies bid on old U.S. school buses and then travel to the U.S. to pick them up and bring them back to Guatemala. They are then cut in half, completely stripped on the inside, and put back together with different materials. They are painted bright colors and a new, bigger engine is installed. The buses are cut so as to be better on the roads in Guatemala, because it is really dangerous to drive such a big vehicle on the roads here. Chicken Buses are a very cheap form of public transportation. There are a few 'stops', but mostly the drivers and the 'picker' that rides with them looks for a group of people looking for a ride and then ushers them on the bus. The bus pulls away the minute the people are on the bus, even before they are seated, to get to the next group of people. It is a big competition between buses because the workers get paid based on how many people they transport. We actually rode a Chicken Bus into Ciudad Vieja and it was a really fun experience! The aisles of the buses are very small because the buses are cut, but it was exciting to drive around so fast, pulling off to the side randomly to pick up more passengers. The factory was really interesting because we got to see the process of how the buses are created. If you ever visit Antigua (or tons of other cities in Guatemala) you will see dozens of Chicken Buses everywhere you go. I think three just passed my window in the time it took to write this paragraph. It is another exciting part of this beautiful country!

After our tour we headed back to school, where we had our normal four hours of class, but from 1pm-5pm. My brain was already fried after such a full morning but my incredible teacher worked with me and we ended up having a really good afternoon of speaking in Spanish!

After class, the tutors and students set up the classroom so that we could give our Spanish presentations. Last week, we were told that we had to give a Spanish presentation in order to show what we had learned in the past three weeks. This was in accordance to SAU's regulations on our learning here in Guatemala. While I am not a fan of the fact that SAU is handing out packets on what we are supposed to be learning here (when the reason I am studying here is because I didn't learn any Spanish in my classes at SAU), we of course complied and wrote out our presentations--and it actually felt pretty rewarding to present them! I was really proud of myself for being able to give a 10 minute presentation in complete Spanish, discussing statistics and sharing details about a pretty complex topic. At SAU, I would never have been able to do that unless I was reading from a paper. Here, I was able to give my entire presentation with only a few note cards to remind me of some complicated vocabulary. It was a rewarding exercise! After presentations, we celebrated at Pappy's Barbecue by eating hamburgers and french fries.

The day was eye-opening and rewarding and I am so glad we got to "experience Guatemala." There are so many things about this beautiful country that continues to surprise me, both in good ways and bad. I wish the issues that the people of Guatemala deal with were more well known to others who have the means to help make a difference. If you are interested in supporting Niños de Guatemala by donating or sponsoring a child, check out the website below!

http://ninosdeguatemala.org/app/webroot/

Me with a Chicken Bus

Inside the Chicken Bus factory

View from the school!

One of the schools we visited

Ciudad Vieja

Learning how to make coffin's

We weren't allowed to walk any farther than this location because it is unsafe, but up the volcano live most of the poor Guatemalans, and the kids that attend Cambio's schools come from these homes. They usually have to walk about 45 minutes to school. There is no trash system, so the people will usually walk down the volcano and dump their trash here, or alongside the road.

The path that leads up the volcano

Inside one of the Chicken Buses before it is restored

At our school, giving presentations!