Day 6: Liz and Shanek

             Day 6 started with breakfast at 7am.  We were served scrambled egg with ham, fresh local cheese, black beans and oatmeal.  After fueling up for our first work day we headed over to the school where we met Nelson and the five students that are leading our groups.  Nelson is a teacher at the school.  He is very accomplished, only twenty four years old and extremely passionate about the school.  He has received an award for his outstanding teaching and leadership for the past three years in a row.  The students who are the leaders are Sayda, Wilmer, Reyes, Megli, and Alfonzo. They are all really sweet kids but were shy when we all first met.  To break the ice we played a game that let all of us get to know one another’s names.  As usual, we were confronted with the obvious language barrier, but we tried our best to get to know our student leaders, in our downtime. 

            The beginning of our project started with us basically cleaning and scraping residue off of the walls, and rearranging furniture. Some of us varnished the outdoor fence (which was built by the AB group from last year) while others worked on the outdoor and interior walls. It was not necessarily difficult work, but a bit tedious and repetitive at times. All in all though, I think we all shared the same enthusiasm for starting the volunteer work that we ultimately came to Guatemala to do.

            We were also introduced to Jorge Ochoa from FunCafe, who helps sustain and support the Los Andes community by promoting the education system.  Mr. Ochoa was very appreciative of our presence here in Los Andes, and came with brand new books to present to Nelson and Vilma.  He was very energetic, while the rest of us were slowly getting tired.  But, he got us involved and woke us up by engaging us in a sample of a class activity, which included singing and group interaction.  It was a special moment for us to see what our donations meant to the school and the overall community and to just experience the joy of the people, especially Nelson and Jorge.

            After a lunch break we continued work on the school building and surrounding area.  Inside we finished cleaning and started putting the first layer of paint in the walls while the outside teams did the same as well as continue the sanding of the fence.  Nelson helped us stay lively by putting music on over the speakers.  It was fun to see what they like to listen to here, and you could tell that they wanted to see our reactions and kept asking if we like the music. 

            At the end of the work day we were really proud of our first day and what we had gotten done.  We were ahead of schedule which is awesome because we want to make sure we complete our entire project with tome to spare.  When we left the school we went over to the local store in Los Andes. Here we met the President and the loan manager of the Solidarity Union.  They taught us about what they do in Los Andes to improve the lives of the people in the community.  At the store anyone from the town can open up a savings account.  The store takes out a percentage from the salary of each person and puts it in individual savings accounts.  This helps people learn how to save their money and manage it efficiently.    If a person has an account at the store they can also buy items on a tab so they do not have to bring cash with them when they go.  This prevents people from ever going hungry because if they are low on money they can buy food on their tab and pay it back at a later time. 

            It was really interesting to hear about the Solidarity Union and how they help the people in the community.  It is nice to see an institution within a society that is there to really benefit the people and not themselves.  We headed back to the house after for some dinner and down time.  We have yet to have a bad meal, and tonight was chicken, soup, rice, and veggies.  We all sat around the table and talked and eventually picked up our ongoing addiction to the card game President.  Everyone in the group gets closer every day, and by now we are all pretty comfortable with each other, which really makes hanging out fun. 

            We learned a lot about each other, especially when we played a game that is a mix between Pictionary and telephone.  It is a really simple game but there were some hilarious pictures drawn and wrong guesses and ridiculous clues.  We all had a great time laughing together and winding down from a long days work.  Time got away from us so Josh and Rado decided to skip reflection for tonight and have a longer one tomorrow.  We have an even earlier morning tomorrow with another full day of work so time for bed! Can’t wait to keep working!