March 19-26th: Posts from the Balmoral Hall Group.

If you educate a girl, you educate a family…if you educate a boy, you educate a boy – a quote that had a huge impact on all of us today!

All of the girls concerns that the food was going to be awful turned out to be for not as we have had the most incredible meals at every place we have eaten. Even the meal prepared for us by the local women in Duenas met with the approval of all the students.

Our hotel is great and very comfortable and the couple who own it also own the restaurant next door where we eat breakfast and they also help to arrange all of our cultural tours. They hold a trivial pursuit tournament on certain nights and we have been challenged to a game.

We spent our first day in Duenas today and after a quick tour of Open Windows, we spent the next couple of hours walking through the village. Teresa, the founder of Open Windows accompanied us and as a respected member of the community, we were well received everywhere we went. We were taken to a small yard where a family of five sleeps in a room the size of a large closet and cooks in an outdoor kitchen about the same size. Three families share this small yard and kitchen.

Next we visited a “finca family”, a compound that is provided to the families of the coffee plantation workers. The size of the compound would be about half the size of the our school's gym and during the busy season, 500 people share this yard. I think this was one of the most influential moments of the day today.

The remainder of the first day was spent at Open Windows where the girls read mostly in Spanish to the children. It was interesting watching the interaction between two groups of people who couldn´t communicate but in the end read over 25 books with each other. The children loved teaching our girls some Spanish words and by the end of the day a real bond had been created.

After a very nice meal in the town center, we returned to the hotel and spent some time on the rooftop looking at the lights of Antigua. Each of group shared their favorite moment from the day and as Mr Williams and I had hoped, each of the girls understands why they are here and why what they are doing is so important.

Today was a working day with some girls rebuilding desks, some painting the new desks, some painting the outside of the building and a few preparing craft activities for the afternoon session with the children. The desks are actually not for Open Windows, but are being donated, once repaired to a government school which is badly in need of equipment and supplies. (word was out about the excellent painting and a school from another town called to see if we would come and paint their building as well…we sadly had to decline)

The afternoon was whirlwind of activities with the children that including reading time, craft time and play time. The girls did a great job of working with the local children!

I spent some time in the computer lab on Friday watching a computer lesson and realized that they had a shortage of software and lesson ideas. I spoke with the director of Open Windows and offered to help with some ICT training for the teachers and she loved the ideas. Mr Williams and I spent the better part of the afternoon updating software and downloading some free online programs that will allow the children to work collaboratively and creatively.

Just recently, Open Windows started a teen drop in program that runs a few times a week and we decided it would be great to stay and help out with this program. The older children attend school from 1 pm until 6 pm and after a quick dinner, they have the opportunity to attend the teen drop in program. This program is in place to give the children an alternative to crime or gang participation. Although the attendance tonight was not great, our girls had a wonderful time interacting with the teens who did drop in. After a few ice-breakers, a game of Pictionary was followed by some Dance Dance Revolution on the newly donated Play Station.

Lois McGill-Horn
Developing World Connections Participant

March 19-26th: Procession and Parade Day

On Sunday, we drove for about an hour and a half to get to the town at the bottom of the Volcano that we were going to climb. As soon as we stepped out of the bus, we were crowded by little boys selling us sticks to help us walk up the Volcano. In the end, everyone who had bought the sticks said it was probably the best $1.00 purchase they made on the whole trip. What looked like an easy walk at first, ended up taking about 3 hours. Our tour guide Roberto was making his first of a few trips up the Volcano that day. He was older than everyone of us and managed to stay in the lead of the pack with very little effort. When we finally made it to the top, it was boiling! Some of us ended up walking down to actually see the lava that had started flowing the day before. When we roasted marshmallows in a cooler spot, most of us had red legs from the heat. When we finished on the lava, we started the walk down to the bottom. By the end of the trip we walked into the bus dusty, tired, hot, and sunburnt.

After cleaning up, and eating a big dinner, it took us about half an hour to make it back down the busy street to the hotel. The practice round of the procession was on that night and we were asked to make one of the carpets out of flowers and grass for the outside of the hotel. We finished our design and watched from the balcony of the hotel as the parade walked over our carpet of flowers. It was amazing to see the amount of people that came out to watch the practice celebration, and to know that there would be way more watching the actual thing.After the parade, our day was finally over and we emailed and skyped our families then went to bed.

Alexandra
Developing World Connections Participant
Balmoral Hall Student

March 19th & 20th: The first days for the Balmoral Hall Students.

Today was more of a learning experience than anything else, the girls and I were very surprised with what we saw. It made us happy, yet it made us feel that we can not take what we have for granted. Everyone here is so polite and courteous.

March 19th:
Today we went to the village, San Miguel Duenas, where Open Windows Foundation is, we went for a walk around the village for about 2 and a half hours, it was really pretty, we learned alot about how people live here.
After we finished our walk we went to the Open Windows Library/School, and ate lunch. Then the children started to arrive. We started to read with them. It was difficult at first, then everyone relaxed, and the children started to teach us some Spanish. Then we came back to the hotel, and had a very good meal. Things have been going great!

March 20th:
Today we went zip lining, it was so much fun! We hiked up a huge hill, it was exciting and adventurous, yet a little bit tiring. We had the time of our life going down 8 fast zip lines. It took us about an hour and a half to finish everything, then we went to eat. After lunch we took our bus to another village, and we went for a boat ride on a beautiful lake called Lake Atitlan. We went across the lake to a small town where many people bought gifts for family and friends from the women's Cooperative . When we were finished our boat ride we wondered around the town some more, and then got back on the bus and back to the hotel it was a long day and a long ride, but most definitely worth it!

so far it´s been an awesome Experience, totally worth it.

Natasha,
Developing World Connections Participant
Balmoral Hall Student 2010

March18 - 26th, 2010: Balmoral Hall High School Students head to Guatemala

Last Day for Kamloops High School Students in Guatemala:

Today was our last day in Antigua. We woke up and went for breakfast at Fernando's as per usual. Then some of us hit the daily market, the one we went to on our first day here. It was so funny to see the newbies trying to talk and barter and work their way around the crazy Guatemalan traffic. We felt like seasoned pros at this time. After this we went to McDonald's. The service is so fast, it's like they know what you are going to order. We sat in the beautiful courtyard to eat. We have been told that people have their weddings in the McDonald's courtyard haha.. Sort of hard to believe until you see it.

We came back to the hotel and went on the roof to suntan (or for me, lay in the sun with SPF 60..). It was so nice out! Sara and Riley got TORCHED. They are so burnt. We met the rest of the Canadian group that we had met last night.. It's so fun to compare their experiences in Guatemala and in Canada. We went out for dinner at Subway. Spanish Hannah Montana was playing! First TV I have seen in ten days :). After that we walked back down to the market because we all have so many quetzals left that we needed to blow. After that we walked back to the hotel for a team meeting.

ANOTHER procession was going on. This time they all wore red robes. People would pay to carry this thousand pound statue. The music was very loud and very heavy. We all met on the roof and reflected on this past week. We talked about not forgetting about the things we saw and learnt because it is so easy to slip back into old patterns.

Torry Harris
Developing World Connections Participant

March 13th: Lake Atilan

Hola! Sorry for the long delay.. Today was Riley's 17th birthday! We went to Lake Atitlan. It was crazy! It was about a two and a half hour drive on the WINDIEST roads. We travelled through some pretty poor towns. The first thing we did once we got to "the most beautiful lake in the world" as it's dubbed, we went ziplining! It was so crazy! We got strapped up and climbed about twenty minutes up a mountain and went down eight different ziplines. It was SO much fun! The lake was so beautiful and it was huge. Most of the water is filled with parasites so you can't swim, but some parts are fine. We ate out for lunch at the Sunset Cafe. There was an Iron Man going on. Lots of runners dying in the heat! We took a boat to two different islands. One was crazy -- it was literally built on the side of mountain. All the streets were cobble stone and burned your calves as you CLIMBED up to the shops. We saw lots of women weaving scarves etc. The second island we stopped at was fun. We went into a cafe and got ice cream. All these little boys were asking Shane to buy them ice creams. So he did..all like six of them. Women and their children would hassle you like crazy because they wanted you to buy their goods. They would follow you up the street and back down to the docks where the boat was. We travelled back to the mainland and took the bus home. Everyone fell asleep; we were so exhausted. We came back to Fernando's for dinner and had potato and leek soup, salad and an enchilada. The enchilada kind of looked like a really big pizza pop. For dessert everyone had tiramisu and we sang Happy Birthday to Riley. Fernando and Gerlinde (his wife..they own our hotel next door too..) made me a chocolate cake without eggs. It was soo nice of them. We went up on the roof at night and hung out on the swings. We met a Canadian group from Toronto that was staying here after they had just built two houses this week.

Torry Harris
Developing World Connections Participant

March 12th:

Today we woke up at 7:30 AM and realized it was the last day with the kids :(So sad!) We came to Open Windows and started putting together the desks and then painting them. Ali and Riche sorted through the eight suitcases we brought. They are both feeling A LOT better, by the way.

At 10:30, Teresa wanted to take us to see the finkas. They live on the side of a mountain in San Miguel. It was so sad! They literally have nothing. Once we reached the top of the hill, around thirty kids came to see us. We brought them mints and they were so excited. They were all really dirty and none of them were wearing shoes.. We also brought some soccers balls. Every day they have to walk down the mountain to wash their clothes or attend church or just do daily things that we take for granted. Their houses are made of tin with tarps as roofs. Lots of people in Guatemala have pets that they cannot probably take care of. We have seen hundreds of dogs and horses that are starving! They are all so skinny. So skinny that you can see their rib cages.. When it rains, the kids can hardly walk up the hill because the water is higher than their knees. Their mayor built a cement playground when the majority of the village wanted a place where they could wash their clothes. Teresa said if the mayor was female, he probably would have taken a more maternal approach and would have given the village what they needed. She said that most men don't even think about washing clothes because down here it is considered women's work. I agreed 100%. The kids did not even use the playground, they still just play in the streets.
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We returned back to Open Windows and worked on the desks some more. The Doctor was in today.. One comes a couple times a year.. A group from Winnipeg is coming next week is going to finish the rest. In the afternoon, we helped the kids in the library. At 3 pm, we were all divided up into groups of ten kids and two members of our group. We had to teach them a game.. My group taught jump rope and hopscotch. Some taught soccer baseball, sewing and hand clapping games. When it was time to leave all the kids sat down in the courtyard and gave us cards and certificates. I, once again, cried!

We left the kids:( at OW and walked to Liz and Tom's house for a bbq. Their stories were so cool. Tom just came down here for a trip similar to ours and then he ended up staying forever. Doesn't sound like a bad plan to me... :) We left there at 7:15 PM. It was hard saying bye to Teresa and the others! We drove home and went to Fernando's to see how he made chocolate and coffee. So cool!

I hope that the snow melts before I get home because the weather is SO nice down here. All my love to my fam-jam and friends and thank you so much for taking the time to read the blog:)

Torry Harris
Developing World Connections Participant