From a Cemetery to CostCo

Buenas tardes!

Good afternoon from Guatemala City! We had a busy first day here that started with one of my favorite moments - seeing the face of the teen who uncovers the black bean dish at breakfast. This is actually the dish that CRS highlighted during the Lenten Rice Bowl project. In addition there were banana pancakes, eggs with tomatoes, queso fresco, bananas, watermelon, and fresh brewed coffee (I will admit the last item caught my attention - Sunday was a long day of travel to recover from in just one night!).

Watching the student assembly.

With such a substantial breakfast, the teens were ready for the day. As we have morning reflection prior to breakfast, the kids were set to head right out. Our first stop was to pick up our two police officers, Yvonne and Saulo (I may not be spelling their names correctly, my pardons). Next we headed to Francisco Coll Escuela for 1-6 grades. There we were welcomed by a brief ceremony.

A few students with a mother of three in her recently reconstructed home.

Then we toured two homes as we took a brief walk through the garbage dump community homes.

Walking the narrow streets of the district's homes.

After those tours, our next stop was the Santa Clara nursery. There we saw the classrooms, kitchen, and playground for the children of those who work in the garbage dump.

To help us understand the situation of what the garbage dump workers face without endangering ourselves, Tony, our driver, and Andres took us to the cemetery where the cliff overlooks the dump. We could then clearly see the dangerous scavenging work that the people in the garbage dump community do in order to scrape out an income of about $1 per day.

The garbage dump as seen from a safe distance

A memorial near the cliff
Barbed wire, roses, and a cross keep vigil over the workers.

In what posed the strangest juxtaposition of any trip, our next stop was the Guatemalan version of CostCo. There we picked up the bread, peanut butter, jam, chips, and other items for our lunches. We took our lunch to a local park for a picnic. Two teens enjoyed the seesaw while a couple of the girls kicked around a soccer ball with some local youth.

The fountain in the main square

The Cathedral

To get a sense of more of the city, we were then taken to the central square where we saw the Presidential Palace and Cathedral.

A memorial to the Archbishop who compiled the names
of the "disappeared" from the 36 year war.
He was killed the day after submitting his report.

Our last stop of the day was to enjoy hearing about the Paso y Paso (Step by Step) program that helps secondary students with scholarship funds, tutoring, meals, and more.

Our students with the Paso y Paso Program

After such a full day the teens are enjoying a chance to relax, shower, play games, and one is even reading a required book for his freshman college course.

Dinner already is smelling wonderful and we will follow that with the more involved evening prayer and an early lights out.

Everyone is excited for our first day in the classrooms and working on the second floor of the new school!

If you have any questions for the group or for us to pose to the staff and students here, please leave a comment!