On Thursday, the children held their annual mercado tipico. All the girls from the different grades set up stands to sell tipical Guatemalan anotojitos (snacks). The girls served dobladas, chocofresas, tostadas, gelatina and tacos. Everyone had a blast and Ventura and the teachers got into it as well. The food was awesome! The girls did a great job setting up their little stalls and everything was sold out within half an hour!
The men of the commuity got together this weeked to finish off the painting that the the Canadians had already made a great contribution to. We continued with the very noticeable color of mandarina. You can now see the school from Panajachel! The men finished the sides of the school and bathroom as well as the border at the bottom. The kids also had a great meal of chinese noodles, squash, carrots and green beans prepared by our new cook, Marta. She has 3 children attending the school and did a fantastic job her first day.

They also have re-surfaced parts of the road due to the heavy rains. We have been getting some great views of the lake in the morning and it has stayed clear until around midday.

We finished up a great week at the project with some help from our neighbors to the North. A group of 7 Canandians, led by Leanne, did some fantastic work in the community. With their hard work and contributions we were able to complete 7 new stoves in 1 week (I think a new record!) as well as paint the school and office. It was a huge contribution to the community and a feather in our cap to be able to complete that much work in such a short period of time. Not only that, we trained up 2 more masons, enabling us to complete 3 stoves in 1 week with 1volunteer. We started the week off with the stoves and the community showed their appreciation by putting on a folkloric dance show at the school as well as serving lunch to the volunteers with a traditional Maya dish called pulique. The food program was also supported by the efforts of this group and their donations will go a long way in provding the children with a nutritious, balanced diet. The work was hard but rewarding and the community was ecstatic about the new stoves and I kept getting compliments from all the families and the communitiy leaders. The real compliments go to the volunteers. Without their participation and sacrifice these improvements to the project would not be possible and 7 families now have new, eco-friendly stoves that will last a lifetime. Many of these families that we built the stoves for also had infants which is rewarding to know that these babies will grow up in a healthy, smoke-free environment. We also had the opportunity to do a little trip around the lake to the indigenous villages of San Juan and Santa Cruz. Miguel, our guide, started the morning in his traje museum where we learned about traditional clothing and the marimba, a xylophone type instrument that originated in Guatemala. During the trip we visited a historic church and even got a chance to make tortillas! The boat ride was fun and we all had a great time. Thanks again to Leanne, Rhonda, Veronica, Camden, Mithchell, Cindy and Hellen. Also thanks to the donors from Knox Presbyterian Church for the support given to the food program.

July should turn out to be a busy month. Maybe even more than June when we were working with the Town Council and Teachers. We are planning to have some volunteers working on stoves and painting this month. The enitre outside of the school is our main objective and we are hoping to get everyone invovled in the short time we will have. We will have the paint though! We are hoping to complete it in a day or a day and a half working almost non-stop. We also plan to build some new stoves this month and have trainied up 2 more tenders to help the the volunteers and transport the materials. We have the ability to start up 3 stoves in one day. Ventura and I put in a little extra time to maximize the presence of the volunteers and their stove-building tasks. Therefore, we are able to complete one stove in 2 days. After the initial foundations are formed, the volunteers will be busy preparing cement and laying block and bricks. With this month's group we will add 7 more energy-efficient stoves to the community.

Back in Class!

After a two week hiatus imposed by the government last month, all schools were shut due to the H1N1 virus. There have been no cases at the school or in the community. The children returned Wednesday and I think they were actually getting bored of playing around the campo and doing chores. Now they can wreak their havoc on each other at the school. It actually turned out well as I believe that at least the department of Solola would have shut down the schools anyways due to the heavy rains and cold temperatures. The oranges are back and we picked up 500 at the market where we also bought some squash and tomotoes. The students are due for another round of standardized testing coming up and the teachers are preparing them. Plans are also already underway forIndependence Day celebrations!

Mother's Day!

We had a great day on Monday. A special day with clear skies and about 200 mothers and grandmothers came along for the celebrations. We brought in a folkloric group led by Miguel. His group has been operating in Panajachel for about 2 years now and have added a lot to their repetoire. Along with the traditional marimba, this year Miguel added some folkloric dances and Maya myths to be presented to the kids. It was very exciting as Miguel had the children participate in all the activites. Little Erika and Diana performed on the maracas and some of the older students were all fitted out in different trajes (traditional dress) from all over the country. It was a fantastic experience for all as Miguel spoke about the history of the designs and their origins. He is very passionate about preserving the ancient Maya traditions and is a huge advocate of a cultural-educational experience. He gave a great motivational speech that really struck a cord with everyone. It was very emotional and such a treat to watch these youngters experiencing a bit of culture outside their regions and it was an introduction to ancient weaving techniques and design origination. Miguel finished his presentation by speaking of the hardships of the indigenous for centuries going back to the Spanish Conquistadors. The last part of the speech was incredibly moving and he spoke of the importance of family remarking that, "the women of Guatemala are the heart and soul of this land", it was very emotional and his main goal is to preserve ancient traditons, language, cuisine and manner of dress as well as the ceremonial religious aspects of their traditional faiths.
Miguel is a descendant of the Maya and speaks 3 indigenous languages as well as English, Spanish, German and a little Hebrew. He praised the efforts of GVI to have such an ambitious vision on education while at the same time helping to preserve and expose this next generation of Maya to the ancient traditions of their ancestors.
Everyone was entertained by the marimba and the folkloric dancing. It is an honor for us to promote the cultural heritage of this remarkable little community in the rural mountains of Guatemala.

What would a Mother's Day celebration be without food and entertainment. The mother's received a special meal of
sweet bread, a beef vegetable stew, rice, and a huge amount of tortillas and hot chiles! The children also had their favorite chow mein with plenty of vegetables, a banana and their atol drink. At the conclusion of the day the children all passed out presents to the mothers that had been hand-crafted by the students.

Happy Birthday!!!

On Thursday we celebrated the birthdays of the children. In total we had 23 birthday boys and girls. The kids were excited as we pulled up with the piñatas and it was difficult getting everything out of the van with the curious children blocking everything. The Kindergarten kids were the most excited and it is still a new experience for them. The other grades and the teachers were enthusiastic about the birthday celebrations and also it was a holiday on Friday so it was a little chaotic at the school. Adding to all that we also had the end of semester report cards being handed out to the mothers and grandmothers of the children. Seno Marta and Profe Gregorio helped me set everything up while the other teachers attended to the mothers. After our fruit break we set the piñatas up and seated the birthday children.
There were a lot and they were excited about receiving their presents. We had 8 from the 2nd grade; that was the biggest group and also 6 birthday boys and girls for the 5th and 6th graders. The gifts for the older kids were a type of change purse and a card playing game along with a new notebook and pen. For the little guys I purchased some marbles and little “superballs”. Each of the children was given a new notebook and pen or pencil as well.

They also had a great lunch that day with a healthy portion of rice and beans and a good serving of vegetables (carrots, onions, squash and tomatoes). We are seeing a lot of different types of squash at the market right now. One is called guicoy and it looks like a pumpkin though it is a lime-green color. I have also been seeing zucchini (calabacin), however, they do not differentiate the naming of the two vegetables here and that is called guicoy as well. There also are huge gourd-like pumpkins that are called ayote during this time of the year. These pumpkins are also green when ripe.
Next week we will be celebrating Mother’s Day at the school. It is a very popular holiday here and all the schools hold a special event for the mothers that day.

This past week has been a lot of fun. Ross, our "tecnico" from Antigua has come to find out a little more of the GVICA in Lake Atitlan and we have had a busy week. We started off with a visit to the headquarters of the Grameen Bank here in Latin America based in Panajachel. Following a meeting with Borhan (Bank Manager) Ross and I went to a Grameen center in Santa Catarina Palopo which has 35 women borrowers. It was the first Grameen center set up here in Guatemala. On Tuesday Ross and I made a trip to the market to pick up the products for the food/fruit program in the community. We then made an excursion across the lake to San Lucas Toliman on Wednesday where we met up with Guillermo, the President of the co-op of farmers where Allegro sources their coffee. Guillermo gave us a tour of their coffee processing facilities and spoke about the different projects the co-op is working on. Ross has enjoyed seeing the project and will be working with us in the coming year to handle the bookings for the next phase of the WFM Volunteer Program.The school year is going well. We are into the second semester of the year and plans are being discussed for the upcoming Mother's Day celebraions next month. Mother's Day in Guatemala is a huge celebration and schools all around the country will be holding special events and activities. We are planning to hire a folkloric group to come to the community and perform. Their performance will include traditional marimba music, folkloric dances and ancient Maya myths that will be presented in the children's native language of Kakchiquel. It will be a community event and the mothers will be at the heart of the celebrations. They will be competing in carnival-like games and raffles and we also will be preparing a special meal for this day.