The people of Japan have proven time and time again is how resilient they are and how they can bounce back from any obstacle stronger than they started. I am sure this will be no exception. – Walter

Our Guatemalan bus driver (the ring leader of the attempt to fix the sister bus) toyed with things until the bus started and was turned around. He returned to our bus, announcing that we were switching to the defective bus. We filed off the bus…one passenger took note of our foreign status, saying, “It’s American bus,” in our direction, chuckling at his cleverness. Knowing we were between 2 & 5 kilometers from our stop, we opted to take the trek on foot. It worked out in our favor in the end…we never did see that bus pass by.

Needless to say, Antigua was worth the trek. I know it isn’t “real Guatemala”; it is expensive and more full of foreigners than Guatemalans. But you can walk the whole town, and there seems to be a breath-taking church everywhere you turn. It has cobblestone streets, and a beautiful park (and church) in its center.

As a side note, I almost didn’t make it out of Antigua. I had scheduled a shuttle out of town for 5 a.m.—the only safe way to avoid hiring a private shuttle driver to bring me to my destination. The “night watch” employee at my hotel knocked on my door at 4:30 a.m. to tell me my shuttle had arrived. Turns out we started driving to Guatemala City…we had to turn around.

I am happy to be safe and sound, back with the kiddies….who were happily working on their homework, sprawled out in the dirt after school today. They still ask me to take their picture sometimes—I try to curb this as much as possible to avoid distractions. But they are warming up more each day—they seem to welcome the “guest appearances” of volunteers, and the new energy and faces.

It started storming in Chiantla yesterday—this is unusual for this time of year, as rainy season (here, the beginning of winter) isn’t expected until May or so. The rain has been nice—it is much-needed, and it makes the roads less dusty. The Cumbre is already turning from brown to green. Although I prefer the brown hue. (I have been known to root for the underdog.)

Please contact us by email at info@seedsofhelp.org if you are interested in volunteering with Seeds of Help.

Here are some photos from past trips…

Interesting day.  Today Guatemala celebrated Dia del Nino (Kids day) and I got to spend it with the community of Los Cuchumatanes.  This is the second year we have had our preschool class in this school.  We took bags full of candy (as if they needed more sugar in their lives) and three piñatas.  One for the girls, one for the boys and one for just the preschool class.  I don’t know what they make their piñatas out of but they are extremely resilient and can take a beating. Usually after everyone has had a turn the teachers intervene and break the think apart by hand.  The kids were extremely excited and had a special place they wanted to break the piñatas.  Turns out it was about a 10 minute walk from the school and there wasn’t a house in site.  The thing that made the area special was that there were two large trees from which they suspended the target of their joy.  These trees were over 200 feet apart (I don’t know where they found rope long enough.)  Two kids scrambled up the tree like they were monkeys and had the rope strung in no time.

After everyone had their bags of candy we went back to the school to hand out surprises. We gave each kid a plastic piggy bank (a few were rabbits though) to encourage them to think about their futures and about saving money.  Several kids had their little piggies named  and were introducing them to their friends.

The highlight of the day was in the evening when we met with Celso and Florintina, two of our scholarship students from Fey y Alegria.  Florintina is just precious.  She brought her cousin along and she reminded me of how Florintina was when I first met her.  The cousin said nothing and sat quietly.  If asked a question she would respond politely and quietly and then try to sink further into the shadow.  By contrast Florintina starts out quiet but curious.  She is extremely gracious and quiet at first.  Once you get her talking though she becomes animated and full of life.  We had a long conversation about differences in her version of Mam and the version of Mam spoken in TotoSantos.  In theory the same indigenous language but with numerous differences.  Tomorrow we will show her where we hope she will be living as she has completed her studies at Fey y Alegria and will be attending the next level of education next year.

The biggest surprise was Celso (known to some as Ancelmo).  When we first met him we recognized right away that he was a bright young man.  As he was the first person in his village to graduate from the 6^th grade we felt he had lots of potential.  He was very quiet and respectful.  His first year at boarding school took some adjustment.  He went from sharing one teacher with 6 other grades to living with students from all over Guatemala and having a variety of new teachers and topics.  This is the end of his second year and I could barely recognize him as the same person.  He is still respectful and very polite but he is now a young man.  He is enthusiastic and well spoken.  He is quite animated and thoroughly looks forward to exploring any new topic that may present itself.  He is extremely appreciative of the opportunity we helped to give him.  He no longer wears the cowboy boots and hat of his youth and he recognizes that he has to be an example to his family and other youths of his village.

When: Saturday, September 19, 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
Where: Faith Ministries, 5103 State Road 46 West (Past CVS on the left)
Suggested free will donation: $10 per person | Raffle: $5.

Kids will be grouped by age for their own special classes while adults enjoy their
own yoga time in another room. Teachers include Kathy Therber, Sarah Hess
and Tracy Lehfeldt. After yoga, a raffle for Guatemalan goods, light snacks, and
information on Florentina and Seeds of Help’s work in Guatemala will be presented.

Contact (Yoga): Kathy Therber ktherber@hotmail.com or 342-7627
Contact (Seeds of Help): Walter Able wable04@gmail.com or 552-1007

Sponsored by Yoga Now and Seeds of Help

See photo and description of Florentina on the blog prior

Florentina Simon Perez is a lovely and bright 16 year old Mayan girl. She has received a Seeds of Help scholarship since 2007. Before we met her, young Florentina was working as a maid to try to earn money to pay for her schooling. Even though she makes her own clothes, she was unable to make enough money to pay the fee. This year she will complete 9^th grade and is the first person in her family to have studied past the 3^th grade. Florintina is also the only person in her family to speak Spanish as well as her families regional Mayan dialect of Catchikel. She is from the village of Colotenango in Huehuetenango (pronounced way-way-tn-ango), Guatemala where she lives in a two room adobe block house with her parents, sister, brothers, sister-in-law and grandmother. She has attended school at Fe y Alegria in Chiantla for the past three years and despite language barriers and the new environment for education has done very well with her schooling. With our help Florentina would like to continue her studies to be a nurse. With your help we can help make it happen.

Florentina is one of a dozen young people in Guatemala that are trying hard to get an education and learn for the betterment of her family and community. Seeds feels very fortunate to be able to help provide the opportunity for primary education and beyond.

Guatemala School Scholarship Recipient: Florentina

Guatemala School Scholarship Recipient: Florentina and Family

Seeds of Help has several various water tanks which are essential for helping families and schools get through the dry season (november to march). The tanks catch rain water off the roofs of houses and schools during the rainy season. They take several weeks to make as the holes need to be dug, cement poured and dried, among several other steps. Seeds of Help has made hundreds if not thousands of tanks to assist the people of Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Here are some photos Neto graciously shared with us for our Seeds of Help Blog:

Cashew Fruit – A rare site!

flying out of Indianapolis, but if you are in another area and would like to see the real guatemala please contact seedsofhelp@yahoo.com.

Our tentative itinerary is:

March 14th- Fly into Guatemala City Airport (GUA) early afternoon, drive to Panajhel, dinner at the beautiful sunset restaurant over looking the majestic Lake Atitlan

March 15th- In the morning travel to Chichicastenango to explore the largest market in Guatemala.In the afternoon we will drive to the department of Huehuetenango and stay in”the city of “huehue”.

March 16th- Journey up the mountain to visit the areas that Seeds of Help operates. Meet woman’s groups, school children, and participate in a cooking class where Seeds teaches the woman’s groups prepare fresh, local, and economical vegetables, and fruits to create more nutritious meals.

A girl from Seeds Groups

March 17th, 18th, 19th- work in a middle school (Fe y Alegría) in Chiantla with students.Various groups and sessions to teach the students skills they can pass onwards to their family will take place.

March 20th- Drive to Guatemala city (a journey that can take 4-8 hours depending on road blocks) stay in hotel downtown to catch flight home early the next day

March 21st- Fly home