Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Wednesday April 10

Greenbank-Seagrave Mission Team

Wednesday April 10, 2019

Breakfast was at 7:30 again this morning – it was a beautiful morning to sit on the porch and have coffee.  Cereal, fruit and the last remnants of peanut butter were on the menu.  We shared our morning devotional (we do this every morning at breakfast) and were ready to hit the road by 8am.  We are falling nicely into a routine now.

Enrique took us to The School of Hope to drop off Brian and Stephanie who were working together to teach the English Classes with Carlosusing songs and poems to build upon their English vocabulary. Their songs of choice included:

*If you are happy and you know it
*Old MacDonald
*He’s got the whole world in his hands
*No more Monkeys jumping in the bed.
*Head Shoulders knees and toes.
*Hokey Pokey

Grade 3 and Grade 2 students were eager and did very well creating sentences from their word banks. They were able to add a couple more words to their banks today.  Regardless of their cultural background, there are some things primary students share. “A love for learning in a fun and active way.”

The grade Threes were introduced to the recorder today and it was amazing to see their eyes almost pop out of their heads when they were able to make their first musical note G. Thanks to Cindy Sutch and her granddaughters Ava and Aubrey who donated 33 recorders for The School of Hope.

The grade one and two students continue to make progress with the hand bells. (Thanks to Air Canada for donating the hand bells). Teacher Carlos shared that he loves working with the children and that Brian’s coaching this week has been invaluable to him and has given him strategies to teach the children. Stephanie applauds Brian for working with the children all week. She is exhausted, but a good exhaustion. 

Paraxaj School Visit
The rest of the team made its way to Paraxaj…a remote Indiginous farming village of about 40 families.  There are only 31 children at this school that is built into the side of a mountain. It is a spectacular drive out there as we see their crops, meticulously planted into the mountain, beautifully rowed and hand tilled earth.  Row upon row, and there are no weeds.  It must be back breaking work for them.

The children were eager to greet us, racing up with big hugs and excitement in their voices.  The school has just one teacher, and she is the Principal too.  She welcomed the team and we began our activity stations.  Today we had Science, Crafts and Game stations. 

The students were up to the challenge of building structures with Lego, blocks, sticks and foam triangles. Teamwork and an enormous supply of materials, allowed the students to build solid structures over 3 feet high!  The wind added an additional challenge forcing the students to strengthen their structures. In the end the wind won. A fabulous day of fun learning was had by all!

Krista led the craft group with the kids this morning.  Many of the children took to it immediately and it was a pleasant surprise that a group of three, 13 year old boys set to finishing their bracelets quickly, working while the other boys played soccer - and each completed a bracelet for their mother.

Rod, Kelly and Dianne lead the games this morning.  They had a smaller group of students in the rotations today but that did not diminish the enthusiasm as they joined our station.  The parachute was the first activity which they loved as usual and then they moved to skipping ropes and sidewalk chalk. Tic-tac-toe was a game they knew and created with chalk and Rod drew the hop scotch grid and later added candy to the game. They tossed a candy in a square which meant they could not jump in it as they passed along the grid. They picked up the candy on the return jump which they got to keep and eat! This became a very popular game needless to say. We ended with adding soccer, frisbee and Velcro ball toss to finish the morning. Fun was had as always for the students and our team. 

Once the children had all been through the stations, they had the lunch that was prepared by a few moms in the community.  It was rice with milk and protein powder wrapped in a corn husk.  They ate on the ground under peach trees in the shade.

 After the kids had their lunch, they resumed soccer and games, and small groups were invited in to “shop” for one item each and a hat.  The kids could pick from a pair of shoes (we have limited selection left) or a sweater/clothing item.  And then each got a baseball hat of their choice.  Once all of the children came through we brought the girls back in privately to give each a pair of underwear.  We then invited the moms and the teacher in to choose a few items for themselves and their families.  Everyone was excited to receive something, and it was kind of cool with a small group that they were able to choose what they liked.  One boy tried a Hurley Sweater on three times, but he also found a pair of women’s running shoes that fit him.  He was only allowed one item today (because of our limited supplies and we wanted to be fair), he went back and forth with his decision, but in the end the shoes won out.  He was happy with his choice, but we wonder if it was a decision between want and need.

We presented the teacher/principal with a suitcase of school supplies and soccer balls and jerseys.  She was excited to have jerseys for their gym class as theirs are old and worn and too small for the older students.  She explained that the government doesn’t provide enough resources for the children, and she doesn’t make enough money to buy them herself for the children, so they often go with-out writing utensils and supplies for the classroom.  She was overjoyed to see crayons, pencils, scissors and glue!  Juli applauded her dedication to the students, as their behaviour was so respectful and courteous to the team.  She is a great leader for the school and the community and in recognizing her work, she had tears in her eyes.  It dawned on the team, that working solo in a remote village she likely doesn’t receive positive reinforcement or encouragement all that often.  It was a moment.

Most of the team rode in the back of the pick up truck back to The School of hope for lunch.  Monica made us guacamole, fresh tortillas, boiled vegetables, chicken salad, cake and cookies.  We dined on the balcony again and regrouped for the busy afternoon ahead.


Dianne, Rod, Brian, Kelly, and Judy headed to the Build a Home site with Miguel and Carlos. Today’s project was to erect the walls on the cement pad that was poured on Saturday. We lifted 14 panels into place, drilled the studs and connected the panels with bolts. Two panels contained windows and one panel contained the door. Then we secured the sill plate to the cement pad with nails. Brian involved a local teenager, Juilo who was watching the action. Once Brian gave him a pair of work gloves and an RP Oil hat he was part of the crew. We could have used a sharper drill bit but we made it work. With a 2 ft machete we were able to make adjustments fit. The onlookers enjoyed candy. Kelly provides toys for the kids.  Miguel called “manana” and we packed and left the work site.  


Juli and Stephanie had the pleasure of teaching the sewing project of making draw string backpacks to five women from different villages today.  It was obvious that one of the women was new to the craft. After a few removed stitches and re-dos she completed her very first sewing project. All the women are eager to come back and make more backpacks tomorrow. Monica, the cook at the School of Hope joined in and completed one for herself. Juli somehow managed to step on a straight pin...The love and appreciation of the women as they leave is so heart-warming and rewarding. With this new skill they will be able to create beautiful backpacks with their traditional material and sell them or make them for their families as a practical bag for coming to and from the market.


Stan and Krista travelled into Parramos to complete the work on both stoves, and provide the families with their care hampers. The first family had strong family ties and were excited and grateful for their stove.  The father spoke some minor English and was very thankful to us.  The second family was a large family.  When Stan and Krista arrived, only 3 young children were home.  The older siblings and parents were out working.  They painted the stove and left a care package, as well as some extra goodies for the kids and sadly left, knowing the children were alone - but that is life in Guatemala.

Cathy and Doug spent the afternoon preparing for tomorrow’s Science Fair at the School of Hope.

Enrique made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way to Antigua…the team has run out of peanut butter!  Carmen had our laundry cleaned and set out for us and she also had dinner ready for us at 6.  She really is a remarkable woman!  Dinner tonight was lasagna, corn on the cob, salad, rice and beans.  It was a full and hearty meal!  We have spent the evening blogging, sharing stories and reminiscing over pictures from the day.  Thanks for reading and we will check in with you tomorrow.

Hasta Manana!

GS Mission Team




1 comment:

  1. I so love to read your day to day adventures with the children, family, and teachers. To see the children's faces in your pictures makes my heart melt. It must make yours melt as well because there is nothing like the now.

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