Wednesday, December 7, 2011

"I Can't Leave Glendy" - Sharon's Perspective


Student sponsorship

In some areas of Guatemala it is not uncommon for adults to have only a first or second grade education as their families were not able to afford to send them to school when they were children.  The charitable organization we worked with in Guatemala is called Mayan Families.  They see need and figure out a way to help.  The organization was started by a woman from Australia who married a man from California.  Through the years they have adopted two beautiful daughters from Guatemala and now live down there full-time.  Most of their staff is composed of indigenous Maya with help from a number of interns and other young people, many from the United States, and other volunteers who go down to help when they can. I do not have the words to adequately describe the wonderful people who are on their staff.  One young man speaks three languages:  English, Spanish and Kakchiquel.  He grew up in a village a few miles from Panajachel on the beautiful Lake Atitlan, where Mayan Families is headquartered. 

In my opinion, one of the most important ways Mayan Families helps is by running schools for the indigenous people there in the “highlands.”  Through those schools they are touching many aspects of the lives of the students in addition to an education.  At school most of the children receive some good food, sometimes all that they will receive that day.  They brush their teeth at school.  This one activity has greatly improved the dental health of the children just from last year to this.  There is a team of dental volunteers who goes down to treat the students and they were very surprised in the improved dental health of the students this summer over last.  



Part of the way Mayan Families pays for the schools, from pre-schools through university, is through student sponsorships.  When someone selects a child for sponsorship, usually from the website that lists students in need of sponsorship, that child’s education is paid for that year by the sponsor.  Hopefully the sponsor will continue to sponsor for additional years, but if that is not possible, one year is the first step. The child receives shoes, a backpack and school supplies in addition to an education.

One morning we overheard Sharon, who helped start Mayan Families, mention to one of the other women in our group that she could indeed arrange for her to sponsor a child and there was a loud chorus of voices from the rest of the adults sitting in the van as we were preparing to head out to some activity.  We all wanted to sponsor a child!  As a result, we were presented with a list of names needing sponsorship, so we just picked from the list.   By afternoon when we returned from a very rainy day of building stoves our sponsored students were there waiting to meet us!  What a great time that was.  There were cameras snapping everywhere, and the little ones loved looking at our cameras to see a review of their images.  We were able to take the moms and kids over to the donations area and give each of them a filled backpack, clothing, shoes, blankets, etc.  What a fun time we had.  


My roommate on the trip, Christi, selected a little boy because she has a son back here in the US and because she thought Cesar might be in need of some of the special care that she wanted to give.  Watching Christi with Cesar was so heartwarming.  She was also able to donate to Cesar’s mother a quilt that had belonged to Christi’s mother.  









Then it was time for me to meet “my” Glendy!  I immediately fell in love with both Glendy and her mother, Rosa.  Rosa was able to go to school through the third grade and speaks a little Spanish, so that’s how we communicated.  Mayan Families had staff there to translate for us, but we did fine with smiles, hugs and a few words in Spanish.  We sadly had to say good bye that afternoon.  However, Mayan Families surprised us with bringing them back on Friday to join with the group for a lunch in a real restaurant.  



Matt & Angela’s family has sponsored a little girl for a while and they were taking her and her family out for lunch along with the three children being newly sponsored by Amherst Elementary School in Tennessee (sponsored through funds raised in their “dunk the principal” money).  So the rest of us joined them.  I don’t have any idea how many were at lunch that day, but there were 25 of our group plus all the sponsored students and their mothers and many of their siblings.  What a chaotic treat that meal was.  I imagine many of them had never eaten in a restaurant before.  It was touching to see how the moms all held back starting to eat.  I thought they were just being polite, so my friend sitting next to me suggested we start eating so they would start.  Later we realized they were holding back so they could take the chicken home to feed their family members who did not attend.  We sent many “doggie bags” home with them that day! 



It was so much fun to try to communicate, take pictures, enjoy the beautiful view of the lake from our open air restaurant built on a dock, play little games with the kids as we waited to be served, dance to the wonderful music, just generally share a special time together.  After getting to know Glendy and Rosa so well, it was very difficult to say good bye.  A few days later as my airplane lifted off at the Guatemala City airport a thought flashed through my head:  I can’t leave Glendy!  Now, how silly is that? !!  However, she is now often in my thoughts and sponsoring her schooling and helping her family with other needs is a joy to my heart.  I would recommend it highly to anyone who is interested.



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