The members of Li Ch’utam arrived back to the volunteer
house today exhausted after our first-- hopefully not our last--organized field
trip with fifth and sixth grade students and maestro Ronny of Nueva
Mercedes. With twenty-five of us crammed
in a mini-bus, our destination was Agua Calientes of Finca Paraiso, just
outside of of El Estor, a beautiful lakeside town on the edge of Lago Izabal. For a majority of the students, it was a
first time experience leaving the Polochic Valley of Alta Verapaz, therefore being a mysterious adventure.
Our
first stop was in El Estor where we sat alongside Lago Izabal eating breakfast,
taking photos, and interacting with people passing by who seemed intrigued by
our caravan. Maybe it was the smiles on
the kids’ faces that made it quite obvious to the residents of El Estor that today
was no ordinary excursion for us.
Around noon we hopped back in the
mini-bus and finished the trip to Finca Paraiso admiring the green, mountainous
scenery along the way. Practically
running to the hot springs, each of us was extremely eager to take advantage of
the time we had in this special environment.
We spent the day swimming, cliff-jumping, and taking mud baths in the
hot sulfuric paradise. Additionally, it
was a welcoming day for our two new volunteers, Quentin Veuillet and Jess Lyga,
to get to better know the students in a greater casual setting. We are very excited to have two these new
fresh energies, each appearing to have many ideas and skills to share with our
project.
As much fun as the day ended up
being it still carried with it a hint of finality as it was the last day in the
Polochic for one of our volunteers, Samir Messaoudi. Following our return to Mercedes, Samir
thanked the children for allowing him to take part in the everyday activities of
their village and school. There were
dozens of goodbyes with seemingly hopeful undertones of “See you soon.” As a volunteer myself working within a
limited time frame, to see Samir leave hesitantly (and likewise with Michal
just over a month ago) it is a reminder to seize each day, and even more
importantly stands as confirmation that the relationships that we are building with
these children and soon to be young-adults are very genuine.
In some sense, I feel that we are
entering a new chapter in the school year in Mercedes as we bring in our new
volunteers as well as continue to build relationships with the children,
teachers, and community. The other day
as Samir and I were traveling to Teleman we were encountered by the father of
one of our students, Jose Julian, who was excited to shake our hands and
compliment us on our work with the school.
He was so enthusiastic about the IT classes he even told us that he
hopes to be able to purchase a computer for his household in the near future so
that his children will have more time explore and learn. Speaking of the after-school class, Jess,
Quentin and myself have been brainstorming and plan to spend the next week, a
national “Rest Week” without classes, to build a more structured and diverse agenda on activities,
scheduling, and monitoring. We are climbing steadily and taking some exciting leaps along the way.
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