This is one of our most popular Seeds of Help activities.  The Guatemalan children work with our staff in making compost, working the soil, planting the seeds, weeding and maintaining the crops, making and applying organic fertilizer and pesticides, harvesting, and preparing food—all done at their Guatemalan schools. Creating these school gardens introduces new crops and teaches all those involved the valuable skills for better practices in Central American farming.

One of Seeds of Help’s recent projects is using recycled tires found as garbage all over Guatemala to make small movable gardens. This is a great way to get younger kids to participate in the garden projects.  It introduces the Guatemalan children to new produce and teaches them to utilize a waste material in an attractive and easy to maintain way. It also helps them to develop a fundamental understanding of how nutrients, water and crops work.

Once I found my hotel in Pana, I relaxed. I found a nice dinner spot, walked around, and bartered for handmade bracelets. This went on until I got scammed by a five-year-old who was trying to sell me unnecessary items. He was relentless, despite my insistence that I didn’t, in fact, NEED a device that would allow me to eat pizza and store my remote control simultaneously (okay—this is a bit of an exaggeration.) I insisted time and time again that though his goods were lovely, I had no need for them. He went in for the kill, telling me he was hungry. (He must have sensed my bleeding heart for small, cute Guatemalan children looking helpless.) I told him again that I didn’t need anything, but that if he was truly hungry, I would buy him some food. He silently marched next to me for the next few blocks….this confused me, until he marched me right up to a local food vendor, mumbling “pollo” under his breath. I sheepishly handed my money over to the vendor, and handed the to-go box full of fried chicken and French fries over to the boy. Naturally, this unusual scene attracted more child vendors—one of whom aggressively demanded I buy her mangoes, and then moved on to demanding pollo. All this eventually lead me back to the safety of my hotel room. I got told by a five-year-old.

After my trip to Pana, I happily ventured back “home” to the Chiantla/Cuchumatanes region (where the children may stare, but will not call you out). Our group of volunteers was greeted last Thursday with Nuevo Progreso’s students yelling, “Gringos!” in an uproar. We sang songs, played games, and caused general havoc for their teachers. The kids tried to teach us Guatemala’s national anthem, I sang parts of ours for them, and our German friend, Clemen, attempted to teach them Germany’s. We met with a women’s group in the Cumbre last week, where Señora Coni spoke about the importance of self-esteem. We are working with the preschoolers at Escuela Cuchumatanes on their colors, shapes, and numbers, as well as general practice of motor skills to prepare them for primary school. The new preschool teacher is encountering some problems with students with separation anxiety…Cicabel, their original teacher, is out on maternity leave for a few weeks. (This has resulted in behavioral issues in one student in particular, who attempted to lock us in the classroom with a padlock last week. He went on to tell us he was sick, and when we tried to walk him home, he ran away from us. We started to run after him, until we realized that all of his neighbors were staring…and how this must have looked.)

Part II coming soon…

If you would like any more information or to purchase photos you may do so by contacting us at info@seedsofhelp.org and all proceeds go directly towards children’s scholarships.

Girls from a school where Seeds of Help works.

Seeds of Help has a new volunteer in Guatemala. Her name is Valerie and she will be our guest blogger for these next couple of weeks. Her voice will be the day to day activities of what one volunteer with Seeds of Help experiences. Below is her first weeks thoughts and observations as well a photo of Val with Brenda and two Seeds sponsored girls.  Both girls speak an indigenous language, Mam, and wove their own clothes.  Mirabel (between Brenda and Valerie) will be helping some of our women’s groups by teaching them to weave.

Below are some photos of our volunteers both peace corps and regular. If you’d like to volunteer with Seeds of Help please contact us at info@seedsofhelp.org Generally a basic knowledge of Spanish and vast stores of patience are crucial as Guatemalan time isn’t like American time!

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.

We raised enough money to cover Florentina’s first year of technical school. Guatemalan children generally get school provided for them for the first 6 years by the government. If the child wants to continue, the family must pay for a middle school (like our junior/high school). Then past those three years, if the child wants to get a degree in a trade like shoe making, mechanical work, construction, nursing, teaching, they go for another 3 years (like our college/trade schools here) which again the family must pay for.

Most families in the rural area of Huehuetenango, Guatemala have 6+ children so they can hardly afford to feed their families much less pay to send their children to school. When we first met Florentina we saw her enthusiasm to continue her education and wanted to help her achieve her dream. Women in Guatemala have an exceptionally hard time continuing their education as they are perceived as the care takers and often marry young and have to care for their families. So, Florentina who wants to continue to study nursing and teaching is a beacon of light and with our help she’ll be able to go to school as well as be a great example to other young woman in her area.

Photos were taken by Jarvis Cooper of Faith Ministries in Columbus, Indiana.

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: