September 28, 2009
Left foot in Guatemala, Right foot in Honduras
I was in Guatemala today! This is Ellen and I with one foot in Guatemala and one foot in Honduras.
We went to Santa Rosita and Los Arcos (about an hour and a half on very bad roads from Copan). These two communities are next in line for new classrooms. There was a community meeting to see if there was enough interest to complete the classroom with volunteer labor. Immediately after the meeting, the men were having their own meeting organizing the work teams. The materials should be delivered in the next couple of days if the rains hold off.
Almost all the communities have one good classroom but only one. The children who are not in the classroom are housed in makeshift areas that are sometimes only a little tin roof with the rest being completely open. These are photos of the school in Santa Rosita. I was so impressed with the kindergarten kids ( that were housed in what seemed to be a wood shed). They have a Montessori curriculum that was provided by World Vision and these little 4 year olds could read words.
The communities are in the hills, and breathtakingly beautiful. There are huge fincas that grow coffee and chile’s and cardamom and other things. Most of the work available is picking coffee and working on the finca’s. The folks in these two areas are Chorti (indigenous people).
It was a most interesting but very long day. Tomorrow I’ll take some groceries up to the orphange and in the afternoon the bus to San Pedro Sula.
Santa Rosita school
Ellen and Carol
Some of the crowd at the community meeting