TOUR OF COMMON HOPE
I had a tour at Common Hope today. It was given by Lys, Moises’ mom. I had her give me the tour in Spanish because I was the only person at the tour for the day. I understood it all except for a few words like scholarship and when new words came up I politely stopped her and asked her for a definition. First she gave me a history of Common Hope.
She said that a couple came to Lake Atitlan to help the people. They started with education because they believed that educaiton was the way out of poverty and to develop the country. They soon realized that when the kids were sick, it really inhibited their education. So they focused on education and health. After a while they noticed that many of the kids’ illnesses were caused by poor living conditions and were preventable. So the 3 focuses became education, health, and living/housing. There was a civil war and someone threatened the couple that they needed to leave or that they were going to be killed. So they were forced to leave. They tried to keep connections and the wife ended up dying and the husband lost the drive.
However, the son took over where they left off in the same mind set of his parents and the 3 focuses to get out of poverty. He changed locations and set up in the Antigua area. They bought a piece of land and worked from there. For education, they provide incentives for the teachers because they are overworked and underprepared. A new teacher can be thrown into a room of 40 kids and is supposed to engage every kid in education. Common Hope provides an aide in the classroom who is well trained and gives the teacher good hints on how to control the class and the best way to promote education. They also provide substitute teachers for schools. If a teacher is sick, there simply isnt class. There is no system of substitute teachers waiting to fill in spots. Common Hope also focuses a lot on first grade. 30% of the students in Guatemala fail 1st grade. Those who fail 1st grade are less likely to succeed in the future as well.
After a hurricane came through and demolished a village, it was in need of serious rebuilding. Common Hope had enough experience with how a school should be run and how the teachers should teach. So they decided to open their own school in the village. It has proven higher passing rates than the other schools. And they don’t just pass everyone to get better numbers. they make sure the student is prepared before moving on.
For the tour we went to San Juan Del Obispo. It is the name of the village of the bus I take everyday. There are many Mayan people living there. We started in the the town square. There was a big wash basin where people wash their clothes for free. This one has fresh running water pouring in and is much cleaner than the one in Antigua. They had this central washing basin because in the past the houses didn’t have their own running water. Typical of any town square, there was the cathedral, the school, and the government building. I got to go into the school and take a quick peak. They were in recess. I don’t get why they get recess if they are only in school for 4 hours a day. There were tons of kids running around from first grade to 6th grade. They are pressed for space/teachers that they have half days. First set of students come in at 730-1130. Second group has class 2-6.
I am still trying to figure out how the school system is run here. But most up to date I have heard is that the government says school is free but in reality they have to pay for their uniforms which are expensive, all their books and supplies. The families are big. Its not uncommon for a family to be up to 10. For this reason, it may not be on the top of the priority list to send the kids to school since there are so many and its is expensive. The families that are in affliation, Common Hope covers minumum over 50% of the kids. Meaning if there are 6 kids in the family, they will for sure pay for 4 to go to school and the family may need to cover the rest. Common Hope is believing in not giving the family everything. They believe the family needs to be thankful for what they are given and need to keep working to get more. For example I visited a home of a family who received 2 rooms. They had part of the house floor paved, but other was dirt. I asked why they didn’t put in a concrete floor in for them. They told me that everything cant be handed to them. In order to receive a room, they have to put in a certain amount of hours of work at the Common Hope site. Common Hope has a building yard on site. Here they build the framing of the the house and then they put it all together at the house. The material is nothing fancy. It is fiberglass/plastic.
The house I visited had a mud entryway. The mother of the house made tortillas on a wooden stove and sold them. The stove was in a room and roofed so that isnt healthy for the lungs but the hall it was attached to was open air, but the floor was dirt. And there were flys around the fruit that they were going to eat. There were two bedrooms that Common Hope provided with paved floors. Multiple people lived in these tiny rooms.
At my house, Ingrid the 2 girls and the baby share a room. And in the room next to it with an doorway inbetween covered by a sheet is where Marina sleeps. My teacher also shares a room with other people besides her husband. She said that in her house there are 3 families that live under one roof. I am pretty sure that all the members of each family sleep in one room, meaning 3 rooms for 3 families.
VOLUNTEERING:
In class I drew a picture of a farmer and a bull because to introduce the letter O, Isabelle told a story. She said that the farmer and the bull got along well. But whenever the bull saw red, he would get angry. The farmer would say Oooooo and it would calm the bull down. And when he said Oooo the letter left his mouth. So I drew a farmer with the O and the happy bull.
HOME:
The rainy season is in full swing here. It suddenly gets freezing when it rains and the winds blow in.
I was pathetic and went to bed at 930. I did make notecards though that I studied the next day on the bus.
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