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Friday, July 16
We had breakfast at 7 and left for 5 days. Our first stop was going to be Santiago Atitlan.We did the packing last night
and everyone packed very frugally. We had rented a van but the van stood us up so Ruth quickly called another van and
we got started on our journey about an hour late. The van that came was pretty fancy and I felt very uncomfortable going
to the villages in it. We were however glad to have a ride so didn't complain too much. We drove south and then
west so went through some coastal areas. Saw lots of interesting vegetation. We were stopped by the police and
they asked if we were tourists. The big fancy van was a give away. Anyhow they said they were going to call ahead
and let the police know so they could look out for us. Hmmm. Makes a person wonder.
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| School in Santiago--Marta teaching |
When we got to Santiago we went directly to the school that Sharing the Dream has been working to help. It
was already 11:30 and the children were going to leave soon. Sharing the Dream has helped the parents in this small community
right outside of Santiago Atitlan to become a parent association. This was done through private donations and the craft profits.
Once they become an association they can do more things, own land and work on building a school. When I first saw this
school a year ago April the children were outside under plastic. They are now in a rented space and the numbers have
increased from 125 to 250. As we were visiting the classrooms the parent association showed up to visit about some things.
We didn't know they were going to come and didn't have time to visit. We offered our apologies and made an appointment
to meet with them in the evening. After seeing the school we walked down and saw the land that Sharing the Dream
had purchased for the parent association to build the school. It is covered with coffee trees and although not large
it will be a great place to build a school. The parents in this community had been trying for 8 years to get a school.
The government finally provided them with teachers but with nothing else. We will enclose some photos of the school.
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| Carisa with children at school in Santiago |
After visiting the land we went to my friend Chonita's. This is where we were having lunch and spending the night.
It was wonderful to see her and her family again. Chonita had spent 3 months with my family last summer. We ate
a quick lunch and headed for San Lucas Toliman. We had a scheduled meeting with a new group. It was a group that
makes wooden spoon. We met at the Catholic Church in town and first met with Will Smith a man from the U.S. who had
started the spoon group. He told us about how they got started and said there were two groups. One was in the Peten
and worked with different woods then the group in San Lucas Toliman. Two of the women came who were part of the group
and visited with us about the project. Will then took Marta, Kyle and John to another house to try and make spoons.
That gave Ruth, Carisa, Kaye and I time to really visit with the women. We talked about quality and things we thought
would be good with spoons. One of the ladies whose name was Florinda asked if she could say something. We said
we would love to hear what she had to say. She said," Most people come and just buy spoons, they don't talk to us, they
don't help us with our quality and they don't seem to care about us only the spoons. You are the first group that has wanted
to talk to us". Then Florinda talked about how important the spoon project was to her family and to her as a woman.
We had such a nice visit with them. After about an hour we joined the group doing the carving. We were afraid
that John was doing such a good job on his spoon that he would want to start selling them on the street, The rest of the carving
group came and showed us their spoons. They were beautiful and we bought quite a bit.
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| Marta and John with carving lesson from Will Smith |
Diego our friend from Santiago Atitlan came by to pick us up. This is the first of our many rides in the back of
a pick up. The ride from San Lucas Toliman to Santiago Atitilan was beautiful. The volcanoes, lake and hills were
gorgeous Carisa, Kyle and I decided we wanted to do all our traveling in the back of the pick up. Of course we
were standing and enjoying the ride. The other 3 were huddled down and weren't too sure it was a good idea. Especially
around the corners.
When we returned to Santiago we had dinner at Chonita's and then were joined by the school parent's
group. I thought this might not be a very friendly meeting because I thought they wanted us to take the major responsibility
for building the school and the Sharing the Dream board had decided that after paying the bills for forming of the parent's
association and buying the land that we couldn't continue putting so much money into the school. Especially since between
the first proposal and the second the budget had increased 3 fold. There were about 6 men and 1 woman on the committee.
One of the things that had been frustrating to me was that at one point the committee was to deliver some papers to the lawyer
in Guatemala. They had been reminded several times but delivered them late. Because the papers were late getting
to the court house we had a small fine. We talked about this and how it had happened. I told them I felt like
it wasn't a very big deal to get the papers in on time since we were the ones that had to pay the fine. They explained
that the president had been out of town and it was difficult to get everything done. It helped explain a lot of the
problems. We did visit that when things like that come up it is all their responsibility and not just one person.
They apologized many times and I think it was good to clear this up. It helped them to understand we were not a big
organization with lots of money. They told me that because they now were a parents association instead of a committee
and owed the land that they put a paper together asking the government for the money for the school. They told about
how they had taken the paper to the Presidents wife when she was visiting Panahajel (the town across the lake) and she said
she would give it to someone. They were optimistic that the government would help. I was very glad to hear that
as funding such a big project is very difficult for us. We will see what happens.
After the parent committee
left we visited a bit with Chonita and her family and then went to bed.
Diane
Quote of the day...The above quote
from Florinda
go to part 3
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