San Juan La Laguna

Last night I had dinner with friends in San Juan La Laguna, Mayans who speak T´zutuhil as their primary language but also speak Spanish.  They  help  with the work of Education And More and give us a lot of help in San Juan.  We dined on refried black beans (volteado´s) and a dish that looked like scrambled eggs.  As it turned out it was similar — and consisted of eggs, lots of watercress (berro), tomatoes, onions and all was scrambled.  It was really tasty!

Renewing friendships and spending time like this with friends here in Guatemala is a special part of my work and trip with Education And More. I will be in San Juan for about 10 days as I visit the school and their projects and also the womens groups that make the weavings and handcrafts for us.  We will be discussing new projects and designs that we would like them to make.  One of the schools we will be checking on is further up the mountains in a smaller village called an aldea.  Our help has been requested so we hope to make time to visit and assess the needs of the school. We have a local volunteer who is helping with the work of this school.

We visited Nuevo Amanecer Christian School and found on that day many of the older children were practicing on band instruments in preparation for a big party for the anniversary of the school in May.  Instruments have been donated to the school and this really enriches the lives of the children. Work is progressing on the second level of the school and only goes forward as donations are given for the project.  This second level of 4 classrooms will house the Basico (junior high grades).

One of our projects was helping Nuevo Amanecer furnish classrooms with furniture for the teachers since the school was unable to afford this on their own.  Many classrooms have no teachers desks or bookshelves and none have file cabinets for the teachers to keep their supplies and paperwork in.  We brought a donation to help purchase the needed furniture which will enable the teachers to do their work more efficiently.  Thanks be to God for our supporters who help us make these projects and donations available.