Volunteers in Mission – Guatemala
by John Moore
I recently participated in a Volunteer in Mission team in Antigua, Guatemala sponsored by the Southeast Jurisdiction of United Methodist Church. The team lead by John Benson of Raleigh, NC, consisted of 11 members from various parts of the USA. The primary purpose of the mission was to study Spanish at Centro Linguistico La Union Spanish School in Antigua. Secondary purposes were to learn more about Guatemala culture and its people, and to grow together as a small Christian community as we participated in various social outreach projects. My personal goal was to improve my Spanish and to learn more about VIM trips so that I might lead one next year to El Salvador. For this reason, I went to Guatemala for an extra two weeks before the VIM team arrived, a total of 4 weeks in country.
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posted by UMVIM at 9:31 AM
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I lived with a family only 4 blocks from the school. They have been cooperating with La Union School for 20 years providing a total emersion experience, family style for up to 8 guests at a time. While I was there, I shared the table with a family of three Koreans, a father and his sons aged 11 and 15, a young woman from Quebec, another young man from Korea, a Franciscan Padre from RI who will be serving in Honduras, and one of my fellow volunteers, Danny Box, from Mississippi. The school receives students of all ages and from all over the world. They handle at least 60 students at a time with a one-to-one student-teacher ratio. The school has a very active social outreach program to enable students to volunteer at a wide variety of projects. They also provide numerous opportunities to explore the Guatemala culture through dance classes, bike tours, hikes in the mountains, and trips to coffee plantations and macadamia farms, villages of various indigenous Mayan cultures, and other places of interest.
On my third day in country the school got me connected with a new after school day care center, called Semillero de Mi Angel Guardian that was started by a very dedicated woman, Marta Alvarez, who is a firefighter by trade. She got a 5 year lease on a dilapidated building that is fairly rapidly transforming into a safe and productive place for up to 25 children, aged 4 to 12, who are from single-parent homes. The project will enable the mothers to get jobs now and they won’t have to worry about the children while at work. Marta has enlisted several of her fellow firefighters to volunteer, and they teach the kids first aid, gardening, games, and school skills. I noticed the older girls (age 12) play an important role in leading the children. I had a great time playing with the kids, including a 12-yr old boy Ronald who has polio and is in a wheel chair. We played Bingo, and did math and Spanish flash cards. My VIM team passed the hat to get a truck to carry away at least a ton of junk, garbage, and trash. The project could not afford the $10 to get this job done, they in fact have no resources whatsoever. I was moved that there was a toilet available here, but no running water; the kids carried water from a public fountain 3 blocks away to flush it. I decided get both the electricity and the water turned on. The electricity required a new meter and hardware installed by a professional. We had to pay the overdue bills from the previous tenant, too. With the help of La Union School, we got all this attended to, and Marta and her kids were so thrilled they had a big water fight with a hose, and everybody pitched in and cleaned the floors afterwards. Much of the funding was made available from a love offering of the Sydenstricker United Methodist Men.
The VIM team also connected with a new school in Santa Maria de Jesus, a small Mayan Indian village on the flanks of a very large Volcano near Antigua. The town is dreadfully poor and dirty. We spent 3 afternoons painting wooden school tables and landscaping the facility. We again hired a truck to remove a large amount of rat-infested garbage and trash and leveled the soil in the yard. We arranged to turn on the water using funds from UMM and by passing the hat amongst us, however, they are still need another $350 to get electricity. I was very impressed by one of the 6-year old girls who was doing (perfectly) triple digit subtraction problems. The kids put on a dance for us to demonstrate their beautiful native skirts and blouses.
A mission of this type was a blessing to me because it provided incredible opportunities to relate with the people, especial the kids and some very dedicated adults who are trying to make a difference on extremely thin resources and virtually no budget. It is a joy to be a small part of these efforts. I hope, as a minimum, to raise a love offering for these two projects from time to time, and return to visit these truly wonderful people soon.
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