Why does going to high school have to be so hard?

It is corn harvesting time in Uniòn Victoria! It has been quite the experience to see what may be the cheeriest time of year, when the corn is ready to be picked and enjoyed.

Besides sampling everyone's delicious white corn we want to share a note or two about what we have been up to recently...
In collaboration with the former accompanier, as many of you know her name by now...Rebecca, we have been following up on some of the projects she had worked on during her 2 years in Uniòn Victoria. One, very necessary, area of concentration was finding opportunities for the 9th graders to go on to high school. It sounds easier than it is because here in Guatemala, in rural areas especially, there aren't high schools. I hear we are one of the few CPR (Communities of Population in Resistance of the Sierra...for more info visit http://www.cprguatemalaproject.org/About%20the%20CPR.html) communities with even a middle school with grades 7-9.

Schools in Guatemala have a very poor reputation for their quality. However, Rebecca has been in contact with a school that is willing to look at the applications of our 9th graders if we guarantee their individual funding. We are excited at this opportunity for the 6, possibly 7 students who are graduating middle school. This particular place is called ¨Jovenes Mayas Kajib' No'j¨ (http://homepage.eircom.net/~kanoj/ it is in English!) It is an association that runs a house where all the students live, cook together, speak their indigenous languages and are encouraged to preserve their family's culture, religion and everyday practices. Even the boys are made to cook and clean! The coordinators at the association find the school that offers their individual interest of study (namely mechanics, accounting, business, technical drawing, bilingual secretary and university prep.)and sends them respectively to the schools nearby. This is a unique situation. Going to a typical high school program, for these teens would mean finding an apartment, eating from street vendors and living a life on their own. As the culture in the bigger cities encourages more mainstream Spanish, these kids would be able to live in a family environment with other teens of their heritage.
The drawback of course is money. The tuition is $2,000 US per year. There is little chance that any of these families would be able to come close to this quota. So, here comes the fundraising ploy! As the students get their applications together, we will see who is really committed to going off to school and who is not. But for now, we want you all to know of this need for the community. The committment would also be until the teens graduate, which should be a 3 year term. I know this is a huge financial burden on anyone, but we are still going to try to support these eager students in a chance in the developing world around them. This may not be their ticket out of poverty, but is a step in the right direction.

On another note, we are working with the health promotors in trying to meet their request to recieve training for parasite testing right here in the health clinic. There is a San Lucas Mission sponsored hospital in San Lucas that we're hoping will agree to do the training, free of charge. We have made some initial contacts with the mission about this possibility yet haven't heard anything definite yet. We have our fingers crossed.

We have also been working and interacting with many of the families in the community. It is time to harvest corn which is done by hand. One day we helped carry lumber, milled up in the mountains with a chain saw, down to the community. Think about the steapest hike you have ever done and then add carrying a 2x12 board into the mix. We both carried one board each while Emilia our neighbor carried two. It definently made us think about just how wastful we (in the US) can be simply because it is so easy to get what we need or want.

We are doing well, parasite free for a few months now...which is a record! Thanks to all of you for thinking of us often. We love getting your letters and emails (especially when they include pictures! Hint, hint).
Keep in touch!