Final week with kids at school in Santa Maria de Jesus

My stay in Antigua was six weeks altogether, but only four were spent working at the school in Santa Maria de Jesus. I can't believe how fast those weeks flew by! As I mentioned in a prior post, my first school week was spent shadowing the wonderful and amazing Emily, who left me a game plan to continue after her return to England. Weeks two and three were pretty normal (I suppose) with grammar lessons before the fruit break and math afterward, with a bit of arts and crafts or story-telling thrown in to break it up. The fourth week was mostly pre-holiday distractions, with plenty of crafts and songs and sports and parties to keep us from much academic work.

I was thrilled to have Zach come visit for Christmas week, arriving on Wednesday Dec. 17. Doreen granted unusual permission for him to join me at school Thursday and Friday (generally visitors are not permitted). We had sports day on Thursday, and Zach spent the day running around on the soccer field with the kids. On Friday we has a big fiesta to celebrate December birthdays and Christmas. Both morning and afternoon classes arrived at 9 AM for a party that lasted through lunch. All the volunteers (and Zach) helped to serve tamales, hot fresh fruit punch and chocolate-frosted donuts for nearly 200 students. The mothers who prepared the food seemed to really appreciate our help, and we all enjoyed watching the kids faces to receive such great food. After eating, Santa arrived to hand out a present to each student, and an extra gift for each student with a December birthday. Since this was also the last day of school for the year, all the volunteers lined up to receive a goodbye hug from each student. Mid-January will see the beginning of their next school year with all new volunteers and (if all goes well) a brand-new school building with three new classrooms! With six classrooms instead of only three, the classes can be smaller and more students can be enrolled. GVI just keeps improving their services in Guatemala!

Though I was only with them for a month, I will miss the 21 kids in my two classes at Escuela Victoria. I believe I learned much more from them than they did from me, but I also feel that a few of the kids made some breakthroughs with my support that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. For example, Alex was thought to be lazy and easily distracted -- but I believe that he simply couldn't see well enough to read the whiteboard assignments. When I wrote out the assignment for him on a piece of paper and gave him a bit of extra encouragement, he worked VERY well and proved to be a very bright kid. We're not supposed to have favorites, but it is impossible not to. They are all such great kids but Alex, Ronaldo, Paulina, Claudia, and Aurina Marina all made strong impressions and will not be quickly forgotten!

(Photos)