Day 6!

DAY 6: Chelsea and Matt

5:30am we headed up volcano Atitlan in a tractor and a pick-up truck to see the sunrise and bird watch. Fuego, a volcano in the distance, “poofed” for us, which Olga said happens once each day. Two bird watching guides took us for a hike through the forest. We saw a black bird that is endangered and some of us even saw a native toucan!! Along the hike, we stopped by a tree that was over 150 years old and got to inside of it! The inside of a tree smells weird. Our bird guide said that it would take 8 hours to hike to the top of the volcano, which is hot and sandy. Along the hike, we also saw coffee plants, tea plants, and macadamia nut trees. At the end of our hike, we got a machete lesson from the bird watching guide—he told us that sometimes he has to sharpen his machete every hour when working in dense forests. We now know that we are accompanied by some professional machete-users…and some others who are not…

Once we got back to the school for the morning, Nelson was here to give us an information session on the different teaching practices he uses in the community and throughout the country. We all found it fascinating how excited Nelson was to see Chelsea, which just goes to show how much our work is actually doing for this community. Nelson explained that the main principle that they use is E.R.A. – educate, reaffirm, and apply. We found it interesting that it is structured for these rural communities and put in such a way that they can fully understand in addition to the fact that one teacher will teach multiple grades at one time in the same room. After Nelson was done, Vilma had set out a couple goals for us to work on for the day, and we all got started. While we worked, Nelson walked around and met each UMD student, asked their name, major, and year. This initiated a personal relationship with everyone, and even though our Spanish is rough, connections were definitely made and he didn’t seem to mind J Fast forward to the afternoon, we kept working on painting the school and others got started working on the fence, and by the time we knew it, time was up and we headed in for dinner.

We invited Nelson and Vilma to join us for dinner tonight, which was a wonderful and educational experience. We learned more about them; the sacrifices they have made and the effort they have put in to benefit the Los Andes community: time, energy, family, money, personal needs, etc. Olga emphasized to us that Vilma and Nelson are working to benefit the entire country of Guatemala, not just Los Andes. She mentioned that the risk of becoming educated is that it means you will probably leave your home community for school or work. This is a risk that they are all willing to take to benefit the entire country and reach their full potentials. Because of this, we feel like interpersonal relationships between people who live in developing countries seems stronger and deeper. This is very clear to us, even after being here for just two days. This strong sense of community helps the residents of Los Andes sustain their community together.

Returning back to dinner, Nelson made a good point on how we should all take our education seriously and realized how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to get a higher education. Although this made us feel somewhat guilty at first, his inspiration and motivation causes us to have a new perspective on how we should not feel this guilt but that we should be cherishing these opportunities and doing all we can to make the most of them. He made a point on how, whenever we may feel sad or stressed out, think about how these students feel and what they are experiencing – but we also realize that we haven’t seen anyone visibly upset and that their quality of life is through the roof. Education for adults is also valued in this culture and it was very cool to listen to Nelson talk about the radio lectures that are provided for the transition from primary school to a higher education. He mentioned that the sustainability aspect of this system involves the students helping give the lectures after graduating from the program.

Listening to all of the work that Nelson has done and continues to do over the years was a great transition into our gift to him and Vilma. As some of you may know, for the past year, UMD Alternative Break Guatemala participants from the past and present year have been raising money to help Nelson and Vilma afford to finish their degrees. Attending a university is very expensive, which has slowed down this process for them. Many tears were shed (video coming soon) and our hearts we warmed as we gave them the money that we fundraised and let them know how important they are. Vilma and Nelson were incredibly appreciative and also emphasized that money is not the only important contribution to success, but personal relationships are also vitally important. They made this clear by hanging out with us for the next hour and getting to know us better (side note: this fundraiser is going to continue, stay tuned!). Nelson emphasized how he hopes that we can do our best and be successful, which was really powerful coming from him.

The night is currently ending with the daily game of Avalon and we are listening to Julie getting yelled at, Vasily lying, and Lily getting defensive on how she isn’t a spy. And Bryce is clearly Merlin. P.S. we all seem to appreciate the tortillas a lot more after learning how difficult they are to make. P.S.S. hello to our families and we look forward to seeing you in the next week even though we will have to leave this beautiful place.