Volunteering, helping, friends, celebrations and more in December

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Volunteering and helping: La Escuela de Amatillo

We became quite busy, John more so than I, with repairs to another local school. A fellow cruiser couple were approached and agreed to fund and manage the necessary workforce a small village school.

The proposal for help was for a school in a nearby village called Amatillo. The village is situated on the property of a fruit farm. Some of the villagers work on the fruit farm and the farm supplies water for the villagers. However the is no electricity so in every way it is a typical village in Guatemala.

The villagers really wanted to fix up their school La Escuela de Amatillo (Amatillo School). The school is a three room building, government built years ago for the village children.

But why would they need help?

An average wage for a Guatemalan is 25 Quetzales a day (~$4 / day). Therefore most families just get by day to day with just the basics, there is no extra money. Also in Guatemala, the school year starts in January, and continues to October. To attend school a child has to be a legally registered Guatemalan citizen, there is no official hospital or any kind of record keeping in these small villages, the majority of children are born at home and without any official documentation. Then cost for a family to register a child as a citizen is approximately 150 Quetzales (~US$20), an absolute fortune for a Guatemalan family.

Another common problem is that in order to start school in January, the child must have a School Supply Starter Pack. The cost of the School Supply Starter Pack is 75 Quetzales (~US $10) per child. Again too much money for the family to afford and the government funded supplies do not arrive until April. This is disheartening as the children have already missed too much school and so most don’t bother attending.

Other needs that the villagers had was that the school needed fixing up, it was old, unsafe, ill equip and tired. Long story short: they needed help to get the school up and running for all the village children.

A Go Fund Me account was set up to raise the money needed to equip the school, ready for a January opening for all the village children. See here:- Escuela el Amatillo in Guatemala

We were part of the volunteer group that visited to 1st start painting the building, inside and out. What a day that was, we started out early leaving Catamaran Marina at 7:00am with all that we needed. From the public dock we traveled to the village, down a rough road, past dozens of vultures and driving through a river as the bridge was partway collapsed finally arriving at the school. We were all set to paint the entire building inside and out.

I painted with a hand brush cutting in. The building being made crudely of cement blocks meant that each block needed cutting in around with the paint. I painted so much that my right wrist ached for days after.

John used a roller and rolled all day. The villages were so keen that if you put your paint brush or pan of paint down or aside they would soon be claimed. There were mothers and children of all ages trying to help in anyway possible. Everyone was laughing and having fun.

Others were working on the toilets trying to fix them with new parts, while others were collecting more supplies, the villagers were either helping with the painting or with the fence being erected around the school. Busy, busy, busy, all morning and into the afternoon we painted and worked.

When we stopped for the day we went to Rita’s house for a meal and a small Birthday celebration.

John was back at the school for 2 more work days where he helped with desks, chairs, playground equipment, painting and other work.

He also was a daily part of the team working at the marina to build the equipment. In fact the first thing a few of the guys did was build a work area or rather extend the work area where the marina crew did their work. Thus giving everyone a work area.

I helped with the painting of the play ground equipment and such. So that has kept us busy.

Birthdays and Thanksgiving

There were again several Birthday celebrations, one was for marina staff Mavi and Rosa. Much fun was had by all.

Thanksgiving was another celebration. At Catamaran the cruisers buy, cook, prepare, serve and clean up Thanksgiving dinner which is for the staff. The day of Thanksgiving everything was organized and everyone had their tasks.

The afternoon started at 2:00ish with “games” played between the marina staff and the cruisers, well some of them, as the rest were working on the food.

The meal was served by us and then we sat all together for a large delicious Thanksgiving meal at 4:00pm. The desserts were next followed by clean up by us and the staff back to work. It all went very well.

Friends and boat work

We had several goodbyes with friends who have sailed for many different destinations. You sort of get used to good byes in our way of life.

We did get a few boat chores sorted. The new name was put on Aeeshah and she’s been cleaned inside out in anticipation of Chrissie and Quest’s visit.

Rocky: The Traveling Rock

Then our friends Derek and Carol presented us with “The Traveling Rock”. They had been given the “Rocky” when in Florida by a lady called Micheline. Derek and Carol are selling their boat and their journey is coming to an end and although they had not heard back from her they were reluctant to just leave Rocky behind. So, they asked us to continue the journey for Rocky. I agreed to include him in our travels and on our blog. Here for the first time is Rocky!

Chico

Chico has continued to enjoy his stay at Catamaran. Just the other day he came trotting down the dock with a snake in his jaws. Yes, a snake!! Thank goodness it was not a poisonous one, just a green snake. Gillian is watching him while we are away.

Guatemala City

It was soon time for us to leave the Rio and travel to Guatemala City then off to Miami and Bermuda. We decided to spend a day in the capitol and visit the central plaza and the market.

In the Plaza de la Constitucion we found they were all ready for Christmas, Feliz Naviadad, with an ice ring set up! We strolled around looking at the wonderful architecture of the Plaza de la Constitucion flanked by the National Palace to the north, the Cathedral of Guatemala City to the east, El Portal de Comercio to the south, and Parque Centenario and the National Library to the west. We wandered around the square and visited the Cathedral where a Communion service was taking place for a group of children. While in the plaza a memorial was being set up for all the young ladies lost in the Mayan struggles.

Off at the market we found again Christmas preparations were in full swing. Now this market is just massive, the prices amazingly low and the selection wonderful. We easily found everything we wanted and so were all set to travel home to Bermuda.