Welcome to the School the World Blog!

What does 5 years of impact look like?  See it in 2½ minutes here.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJuERe8L0Hk] 

As I sit here in the airport, waiting for a plane to take me home, I feel happy. Over the past 16 days, I got to meet some of the most amazing,
driven people I have ever known, including the School the World staff, who work tirelessly to improve conditions here; the many village parents I talked to, who despite having so little for themselves are sacrificing to better educate their children; and the students, who have a burning desire to learn and grow

In a community where families have next to nothing in terms of material wealth, any possession has a big effect. An extra shirt could mean getting to go to school in clean clothes. An extra chicken could combat malnutrition. An extra toy—maybe some bubbles or a doll—could bring hours upon hours of fun.

I have visited fifteen schools in the past week and a half. Each one is certainly unique, but schools in rural Guatemala are bound to share some characteristics. For example, students are fascinated by us Americans (I am pretty exotic), and are curious about our visiting their village. The more outgoing children follow us around. Some ask questions. Others lean over our shoulders to see what we’re photographing. Our visit to Rio Mactzul today initially included these aspects, but the moment someone whipped out a soccer ball, visitors were no longer the most intriguing option for the students.

A bottle of Poland Spring + a five-minute shower + a flush of the toilet + a washing of the hands + a load of laundry in the sink ≈ 20 gallons of water. Within the past hour, I—a single person with reasonable needs—have used 20 gallons of water, roughly equal to how much half of the student population at Colonial San Juan uses during the length of the school day. To me, this is unfathomable.

Sibaca is more difficult to get to than any other place I’ve ever traveled. Ever. We thumped and thwacked up the side of a mountain for what felt like an hour until we finally arrived at the community’s school.

“¡Hola! ¿Como te llamas?” My Spanish may not be perfecto and my accent is likely atrocious, but after greeting child after child with the expression, “Hello! What’s your name?” I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to communicate the sentiment.

It’s unfair to evaluate the contentedness of a Guatemalan citizen based on my own definitions of comfort and happiness. Still, I catch myself doing just that. While here I’ve thought, “Life must be boring without Wi-Fi,” and “These people have to prepare their food every day completely from scratch. What a burden!” From a logical standpoint, I know I am wrong to assume that lacking Wi-Fi is boring and that preparing food is a burden, but it’s hard to separate my standards from local ones.

Today is August 9, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Today is also Keb Aimagi in the Mayan Calendar, a holiday dedicated to asking god for forgiveness of sins. Today is the day I got to celebrate the former by learning about the latter, and what a day it was!

Pixtup