Saturday, July 30, 2011

Parade!





This year, La Puerta Abierta participated in Santiago's community parade celebrating La Feria and our local saint, Santiago. The theme for the parade was stories and legends from around the world and we chose to represent one of our class-room favorite read alouds, Bill Martin's Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Our students were simply adorable!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Busy!

Just take a look at the variety of students who visited La Puerta Abierta Library last week.

Danielle helps a group of Jr. High girls learn a song in English.


Two young volunteers from Washington DC play games with local children.


Juan reads a new children's book.



IHF scholarship students work on their homework.



Chloe stops by to play.




Saturday morning creativity workshop.



Mildred helps two Sparks Foundation scholarship students with their math homework.



Montse teaches a music class.



A visiting volunteer helps Eric with his English homework.



And, Angelika teaches an art class for PHOTOKIDS.













Monday, July 4, 2011

Sometimes you just have to ask...

In early January we received a visit from Margee, a retired preschool teacher from Wisconson who was touring Guatemala with Farmer to Farmer, a grass-roots organization working in Guatemala to support peace and cross-cultural understanding. As we were just launching our new preschool program at La Puerta Abierta, we were delighted to have a vertran teacher on site.

Margee too, was inspired by her visit to La Puerta Abierta and amongst returning to the US, she started a book and supply drive within her community for our center. She began collecting art supplies and school materials from local libraries, elementary schools, and girl scout troops. She also sent a letter to Scholastic soliciting books in Spanish for our center and....4 months later, two big boxes of donated books showed up on her door step.

I continue to give thanks for our network of friends and supporters around the world who believe in our work at La Puerta Abierta and who not only sustain our programs, but allow them to grow and expand. Two of our biggest fans and supporters, Judy and her son Chris, made their second journey this year to Guatemala. In addition to bringing a suitcase full of donations collected amongst their church friends for the library, they also hauled our new Scholastic books to La Puerta Abierta.

Truly, I have received so much joy in my work...I'm living my dream and find my days filled with purpose and gratitude. I feel blessed that others can also participate in joyful giving from afar, sharing our story of La Puerta Abierta and caring for the children of Santiago Atitlan.

We send a heart felt thank you to Margee, Judy, Chris and SCHOLASTIC BOOKS!