Exploring the needs of Antigua

This week I have stayed in Antigua to study Spanish and do some investigating. I didn't really have a plan on what I would be investigating but each afternoon I have had some place to visit and some thing to see. I present three needs that I have found this week...

1. There is a private school in Ciudad Viejo which is near Antigua.) This school has about 45 students and they want to grow! They are reaching out to children who would otherwise not recieve an education. The school is not free but they do cover most of the cost. For families that are not able to pay they give oppertunities to come and do work at the school. This is a great idea because it keps the parrents involved and gives them ownership of the school. They need a lot of construction help which is what Mission Discovery does best. They would also love to have beccas (the spansih word for scholarships) for their students. My heart tells me that we will be working with this school in the future.

2. My Spanish teacher, Liz, took me to a plot of land that was given to her when her mother died last year. She would like to move her family there, but as of yet there is not a house on the property. I also visited her second cousin's house which was half-way up a fairly large mountain. This lady is constantly working hard, trying to provide for her family. The house they live in now has no running water, (which is a problem when you have to carry the water up a mountain!) The only thing she asked me for was to build a wall that would create a flat space farther down the mountian where she could build a house. She simply wants to live in a place that has things like electricity and running water and possibly sewer plumbing. As an added point of interest, I asked Liz if she had any aspirations to do anything else besides teaching Spanish to Gringos. She told me that she is willing to do just about anything to help her family but that she just doesn't know what to do. I asked her what a good job would be in this area and she told me there is a large need for English teachers in local schools, but that she would need more schooling. In a future post I will detail my idea to help Liz go to English school. For now I will just say that for $30 a month (for 3 years) Liz could recieve the training she needs to become an English teacher and greatly improve her family's life.

3. Finally, today I visited a school in a nearby town that teaches women how to make desrerts and pastries. These women can use the skills that they learn to earn a living for their families. The school accepts anyone but mostly they try to work with poor women. What a great thing that they are doing! They are giving women the tools to provide for themselves. This is especially important when there is a large portion of the male population that deserts their families or worse they stay arround but constantly drink and abuse the ones they are supposed to love. The women here are truly the backbone of the country. I know this happens eslewhere but it seems like it is just kind of accepted here which is a tragedy.

I am so glad to have stayed around for an extra week, and my spanish speaking ability is thanking me also.