Nueva Esperanza

It feels a little odd to be sitting on my couch with my dog asleep at my feet finishing this blog. Absent are the sounds of Antigua traffic and teammates fixing breakfast and coffee. Reentry has definitely felt strange.

As Chris noted, we left Tuesday afternoon for the New Hope site. We drove through the typical city traffic and hustle and bustle. It wasn't until we reached the fringes of the city that the poverty was painfully obvious. Squatter-homes made of lamina (tin sheets) were dangerously perched on the sides of steep ravines. It was evident that a large rain storm would create a mudslide of homes. This of course foreshadowed the history of New Hope, which came to be after Hurricane Mitch (see Chris's post).

Abigail provided a history of New Hope on the balcony, which provided us with the most spectacular view! The next day after class observations we received additional information about the education being provided by the New Hope school from Mynor Lemus, the New Hope Program Director. Mynor who is Guatemalan is responsible for the oversight of the New Hope School, secondary education scholarship program and other programs for the affiliates and surrounding communities.

The next day we headed for the school for class observations. Eduardo and I sat in on the first graders. Class was in session no longer than 15 minutes before we headed outside to burn off some energy. We started with the game duck, duck, goose. I learned the Spanish words for duck and goose because it was not long before I was tapped as the goose and Eduardo learned the game. It was highly entertaining! Overall, it was truly a special day. I believe my highlight was at recess when I was led to the slide by the sweetest little girl. Slides are fun! New Hope is an amazing place doing amazing things with education for Guatemalan children! The trek into New Hope is not an easy one so it was inspiring to see such devotion from the Guatemalan teachers who teach in the morning and attend University in Guatemala City in the afternoon.

Upon return to Antigua we played a game of soccer as I mentioned in another post and later that evening Eduardo attempted to teach us the card game bullshit. Well, we were maybe five minutes into the game when it was apparent Eduardo did not remember the rules and was making them up as we went along. We quickly abandoned the game for Uno. :-)