Vacation

The Guatemalan school year begins in January and ends in October. Many years ago, children provided for a large portion of the coffee harvesting work force, hence school break was linked to the ripening coffee bean. While some children continue to work the fields during vacation months, most kids stay close to home, spending time with family and playing with neighborhood friends.

For the past 5 years, La Puerta Abierta has taken advantage of the vacation months to reach out to children in Santiago and provide them with educational, fun and stimulating activities. In addition to offering an introduction class to kindergarten for our young students "Mis Primeros Pasitos," we have also brought our programs to 3 rural communities in Atitlan on a weekly basis via our Biblioteca Movil. Local children from surrounding communities gathered to hear fantastic stories, create colorful art and make new friends.

Last week, we were able to bring our 3 participating communities together for an end of the year holiday party. We had good reason to celebrate....another wonderful year of sharing education, creativity, literature, and love with the children of our community!

Celebrating Young Artists

La Puerta Abierta was delighted to collaborate with Fotokids and Angelika Bauer in hosting a Children's Art and Photo Exhibit last weekend. We were so happy to celebrate the young and talented artists from our community.

La Puerta Abierta has partnered with German artist Angelika Bauer for two years now in bringing creative art practices to the youth of Santiago Atitlan.

A Giving Family Vacation

La Puerta Abierta received a wonderful visit from Danielle and her family last month. She hoped to create a meaningful and alternative family vacation for her children and mother. I invite you to read about her experience spending a week with our center in Santiago Atitlan and encourage other families to consider a similar volunteer oriented vacation.

My twin 8-year olds, Zoe and Aiden, and I visited Santiago shortly after school got out with our offer to Amanda to use us in whatever way she saw fit -- we were open for anything. What that turned into was a whole host of small jobs spanning a week. My kids were mostly engaged in the preschool half of La Puerta Abierta during the mornings, assisting the 18 preschoolers with morning activities, preparing paints, singing and dancing with the group, helping clean up, and generally supporting the teachers in whatever way was helpful. They shifted between being participants (in songs, games, and even a parade) and being helpers for the little kids, and got to use the Spanish they have learned during their 4 years in our public Spanish immersion school. During class time, I was often in the library next door helping Chonita prepare materials for the week (LPA makes all their own educational materials, such as a poster on "los 5 sentidos" (the five senses) or "ninos del mundo" (children of the world)), or gluing in new activity sheets into the preschoolers' workbooks, or drying dishes from snack time. The separation was good, in that it helped my kids to act more independently and better focus on the needs of the kids and ways they could help.

We also had lots of chances to get out into other schools. LPA supports 8 other schools with supplemental materials and drop-in teachers. A typical "bolsa" contains several Spanish reading books for the teachers, plus some related enhancement activity for the local teacher to use in his/her class -- those bags rotate on a regular basis. Many of the materials we collected and donated as a school (Spanish books, school supplies, etc.,) find their way into these bags, and into the community beyond the four walls of LPA. We visited four of the 8 schools -- two in Santiago, and two outside in more rural areas -- for a few hours each with teachers Candelaria and Mildred. In both cases, we were invited to assist handing out materials or lead small group activities. My kids were often happiest when there was time to just play and kick the soccer ball around with the other kids.

Particularly in these rural schools, we all got a sense of the very basic conditions under which most Guatemalan students are learning. Classrooms are modest, materials are few, but the desire and the energy levels of the kids to learn is strong. In every case, Candelaria and Mildred were greeted with joy and lots of hugs by the kids. They represent a chance to have some fun with learning, by reading "Los Huevos de Dora" for example, and then painting their own eggs, which Candelaria posted onto "baskets" taped to the wall. Mildred brought puppets to bring life to the story of "Que dices tu?", engaging the students in figuring out which animal is making the "muuu" sound. Songs and active play are a big part of the LPA approach, and it is clear that it is a big part of what helps to excite the students about learning.

One of the classes we visited was one which had, some months earlier, prepared a "caja de tesores" for our elementary school. The treasures they sent up not only taught our students about life in Guatemala, but helped to facilitate an exchange of goods, so that when we came down in July with our donated treasures (assorted pencils and Silly bands and such from our school's 3rd grade Girl Scout troop), we were able to reciprocate their generosity. It was a true blessing to be able to deliver those treasures -- along with several materials that our students had prepared to describe life at our school and life in America -- to the kids in person.
We lived with a homestay family, which was wonderful. My kids adapted quickly to the food, the local transport, the modest conditions and lukewarm showers, and the work. This is the second such volunteer experience we have done overseas in a Spanish speaking country, and in each case, I have seen the kids grow and mature, and show sides of them that are not often evident to me in the craziness of our daily lives.

With any luck, we'll be able to return to LPA in the future and/or find other organizations in the future that are as willing to accept us as volunteers as Amanda and her staff have been. Amanda was conscious of ensuring that we had a good volunteer experience (that comes from our shared experience as Peace Corps Volunteers, I think...), and yet didn't go out of her way to entertain us -- which I respect, particularly given the many many hats she wears. That gave us a sense of autonomy and freedom that we used to explore Santiago. I would encourage anyone with the means and opportunity to do so to find their way to Santiago to spend some time with Amanda, Chonita, Candelaria, Mildred and all the other wonderful teachers at La Puerta Abierta. You'll come away inspired and changed, and with the knowledge that you have indeed have an "open door" waiting for your return.

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!

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.

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!

Sharing

At The BPA we engage in good, soulful, service work nearly every day at our center in Santiago Atitlan. Recently, we felt inspired to "share the service wealth" with another grass-roots library in Santa Catarina Palopo. We visited Biblioteca Ru K'ux Na'oj, "el corazon de conocimiento," to help them design and paint a mural for their library. Our resident artist (and volunteer) Bonnie, aided in the creation of a captivating visual which represented our journeys with reading. Our team of librarians accompanied her to help with the project. Local students from Santa Catarina also collaborated with painting the mural.

Nurse Janie

Nurse Janie and her daughter Sophia visited La Puerta Abierta last week to participate in a week of service oriented work in Santiago Atitlan. In addition to being a trained nurse and mother of three, Janie is also on the advisory board of Starfish One by One, www.starfishonebyone.org, which supports Guatemalan teens with academic and leadership training. Janie was busy teaching nutrition in a fun and dynamic way for our BPA students and her daughter, a talented musician, enchanted our students young and old, with her singing. We are so grateful for our network of supporters around the world who collaborate with our projects in a variety of ways. Thank you Janie and Sophia!

Mildred

18 year old Mildred is our newest and youngest teacher at La Puerta Abierta. Throughout the school week, Mildred visits 3 rural schools with our traveling library program bringing story hour and book kits to hundreds of Santiago children. We are so lucky to have Mildred aboard at La Puerta Abierta. She is adored by teachers and and students alike for her enthusiasm, compassion, and totally sweet smile.

Behind the Scenes

Throughout the school week, BPA librarian Mildred visits 3 rural schools and hundreds of children bringing books, story hour, and creative teaching techniques to the class room. She is our Traveling Library Coordinator, our library on feet. We are so grateful for her efforts to share the gift of reading with the children of Santiago.

Here are a few pictures of her afternoon at rural school Panul.

Paul's Firefighters Visit La BPA

We received a wonderful training from Paul's firefighter team at La Puerta Abierta last week. The team lead us in a training of first aid and CPR. All our staff and many parents participated.

We send out a warm muchas gracias to Paul and his team!

Talking "Trash"

The Saturday morning reading group received a special visit from Environmentalist-Artist-Poet and long time resident of Santiago Atitlan, Violeta Luz Foregger. Violeta has been working on the creation of a children's story, Berta Basura, about a local girl who takes a journey to discover the impacts of trash on her community. Violeta visited our center yesterday to share the tale Berta Basura with our youth who will be participating in illustrating the story.

Miss Bonnie complemented that activity with an exploration of English words in nature.

We are so grateful for the help of our volunteers at La Puerta Abierta.

Art Classes with Angelika and Fotokids

Santiago's beloved artist, Angelika Bauer has been collaborating with La Puerta Abierta for over a year now bringing art technique classes to the youth of our community. This year, she has chosen to work with Fotokids (www.fotokids.org), a group of budding photographers from our town. This past week, students explored contrast and graduation using oil pastels. They delighted in smearing together rich colors and experimenting with new artistic techniques.