The objective of the field trip was to develop intercultural understanding and encourage excellence in the education of the fifth grade students from Santa Avelina. The purpose of the field trip was to encourage the students to continue their education past sixth grade.
The organization providing the grant for the project is the Educational Foundation of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an organization of women educators. Loydell Seward, a member of a Collin County, Texas chapter served as project director. Rebeca Galindo, from Guatemala City, served as the educator/tour leader and interpreter. Joining them was Cheryl Weeks-Roston, a HELPS volunteer; Linda Puster, a member of the Collin County chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma; and Brandon Roberts, Loydell's sixteen year old grandson. On Monday, July 25, 2005, they traveled for four hours on a private van from Guatemala City to Quetzaltenango.
On the same morning, eighteen students from the Santa Avelina School began a ten-hour bus trip from their village in the highlands to Quetzaltenango. It was originally projected that twenty students would be participating. Two of the students were unable to get permission from their grandfather to attend. Traveling with the fifth graders were the director of the school, Rosa Cordova Perez, and teacher, Juan Castro Cutz. Everyone arrived in the afternoon and checked into Casa de Cursillos, a Catholic seminary located in the city. Each room housed three people and had a bathroom with a shower. A classroom was available for use; and there was space inside the grounds to park the bus, which was available all week for transportation to the sites. The interior courtyard was a secure place for free time play. All meals were eaten at the center. The cooks were indigenous, so food was served that was familiar to the children. A chapel was available for morning devotionals and group singing. Each evening a wrap-up session was held to go over the activities of the day. Journal writing, group brainstorming, and art were used to help the children remember and record the activities.
After unpacking and settling into their rooms, the students met Clara Colop, the local person responsible for making arrangements for the group to visit sites that would fulfill the objectives of the field trip. She is forty-three, indigenous, and from a nearby village. She has studied at various universities and has spent seventeen years working with women. She founded Ixchel, an organization created to help women have the opportunity to make decisions, become educated, and earn money. She encouraged the children to value education, to study hard, and to have goals that include university, technical, or vocational schools. She also encouraged them to participate and to learn, not to just sit and be directed. Clara gave the group an overview of the activities for the week.
Monday evening's wrap-up session included brainstorming the day's activities, journaling and mapping the route. Each student was given a map on which to chart the trip. This map became the focus of the first page of their journal. The children then drew pictures of scenes seen during their bus trip. There were drawings of roads, road signs, a river, churches, villages, government buildings, markets, and agriculture.
On Tuesday morning the group started their tour of Quetzaltenango. The group visited the central park with its beautiful landscaping, magnificent monuments and statues. The central city was lively with business people, families, vendors, and tourists. Surrounding the park are banks, businesses, government buildings, a museum, and a multi-leveled city market.
The first place visited was the magnificent 16th century Cathedral of the Sacred Spirit, with stone columns and trim constructed by indigenous labor. From there, the group walked to the city hall, a beautiful Greco-Roman style building with arches and columns. The class was able to visit several offices, with an official explaining the function of the office. A highlight was visiting the mayor's office and the opportunity for the class to be photographed behind his desk with Rosa in the mayor's chair. When visiting the Museum of Natural History, the students saw a collection of artifacts, photos, and other items related to the history of the country. They used their Spanish reading and speaking skills to obtain the information. The city library, which was just around the corner, was the next stop. The children were introduced to the features offered by the library.
During the visit to the city market, they saw many shops that had indigenous owners. Shoes, electronic equipment, gifts, household goods, clothing, meat, groceries, and so forth can be purchased at the various stalls and in the shops. In Quetzaltenango, the indigenous are shop-owners, professionals, students, etc. Seeing indigenous Maya as business owners and professionals is the reason for choosing Quetzaltenango for the field trip over Guatemala City.
After lunch the group went to an internet café, giving each child the opportunity to look up information. From there they went to the city zoo. The zoo was not of the quality that is seen in the U.S., but was an educational experience for the children. The animal cages were labeled in Spanish, thus reflecting everyday use of the language. In Santa Avelina there is no park with playground equipment. The opportunity to play in and on the structures was unique and was approached enthusiastically. Then the group went to the San Carlos campus of the University of Guatemala. The children saw indigenous students pursuing a higher education and were given an overview of classes that are available. One of the objectives for the field trip was to encourage the children to stay in school and to discover educational opportunities that are available.
That evening, after the children wrote in their journals and brainstormed, they divided into groups and created murals that depicted some of the places visited during the day.
On Wednesday, the group went to INTECAP, an enterprise that is sponsored jointly by Guatemala private industry and the government of Japan. INTECAP provides vocational training for the low economic sector. The courses are free, though for some classes the students have to provide their own supplies. They must be able to provide their own room and board. To be eligible for enrollment, a student must have a sixth grade diploma and be between fourteen and eighteen years of age when they start. There are some scholarships available for students with good grades and an economic need. The group visited classes showing students training to be tailors, computer repairmen, hairdressers, bakers, chefs, car body restorers, machinists, welder, electricians, carpenters, etc. All programs are open to boys and girls.
The bus then took the class to Llanos de Urbina, visiting the battleground where the Maya king, Tecun Uman, lost to the Spaniard, Pedro Alvarado, in the 16th century. Tecun Uman became a national hero. Before coming on the field trip, Juan had prepared the students for this visit.
The McDonalds Corporation in Guatemala City arranged for the group to visit one of their restaurants in Quetzaltenango for lunch. The large group was divided into three smaller groups for a tour of the facility. On a rotational basis all of the children were able to participate in an experience that was new to them. A guide took each group through the facility, explaining the food preparation process from storage, cooking, and serving the customers. The importance of keeping the food at the correct temperature and cleanliness of the preparation process was emphasized. The class was treated to a hamburger meal, and the children were allowed to play on the playground equipment when they finished.
After lunch the group went to a theater at the Museum of Natural History. A troupe of amateur indigenous players from Santiago de Atitlan presented two one act plays. The first one, presented in traditional clothing, told the story of the spirit of the people that could not be killed by the Spaniards or the ladinos. The second was set in contemporary times and emphasized the importance of independent decisions when voting and not being tempted to let their votes be bought. The students went on stage for a group picture with the performers.
Again that evening the students wrote in their journals, brainstormed, and created murals depicting the places that were visited during the day. If the students did not finish their murals in the evening, they would get up before breakfast the next morning and go to the classroom to work on their projects.
The first place visited on Thursday morning was the Hall of Honor in the government building. A guide gave an excellent overview of the history of the local government. Then the group went to a glass factory in Cantel, a village near Quetzaltenango. The factory is an indigenous co-op in which all types of glassware are made, not just gift items. This tour allowed the children to see skilled craftsmen at work.
The group visited a pronade school in Chiusic, a village outside of Quetzaltenango. The Chiusic school serves the Quiche language group, so the only common language for their students and the students from Santa Avelina is Spanish, hopefully making all of the students aware of the need for learning and using Spanish. The Santa Avelina students visited a combination fifth and sixth grade class. After a greeting, the sixth grade was dismissed. The teacher from the school taught the Santa Avelina class a sentence writing lesson. With no advance notice, Juan was asked to teach a lesson to the Chiusic students. He taught a very good lesson on Maya numbers. After the lessons, we walked to the soccer field for two games, one for the boys and one for the girls. The Santa Avelina boys won their game. Although the girls from Santa Avelina lost, they made an outstanding appearance by wearing shorts, t-shirts, and tennis shoes. They had disappeared into a corn patch to change clothes.
The bus had gone back to the seminary for a lunch that had been prepared by the cooks. In the meantime a deluge occurred, and we took shelter in an unfinished cinder block building. The lunch was a real treat in spite of the surroundings.
A corte, or skirt, factory was visited next. This particular factory is in a home and specializes in tie-dying thread. There was a demonstration of the tying and dying process. Then the children were taken to the room where a man was using a foot loom to weave a corte. An Onil water purifier was in use in the home as well as a stove installed by a Canadian group called "Stoves for Guatemala". Onil stoves are installed in the village, also.
The bus returned to the city for a visit to the soccer stadium. Joining the class were the students from the Chiusic school. Xela won the national championship in 2007 and the trophy was brought out for the children to see. They were photographed with Rosa and Juan holding the gold trophy. A representative of an agency that promotes non-violence spoke to the group. The students from both schools then got on the bus and returned to the seminary.
Upon returning to the seminary, the students wrote in their journals and filled out a booklet called Exploremos Quetzaltenango. The booklet had been created to help them evaluate what they had discovered during the week. One question asked which place visited did they find the most interesting. The responses indicated that they favored the glass factory, the corte factory and INTECAP.
The last evening was celebrated with students, teachers and family members from Chiusic. Some women from the village prepared a typical meal consisting of tamales and pacha wrapped in banana leaves. Each group presented a musical program with songs and dances. One of the Santa Avelina students described the activities of the week using the pictures and murals that had been created.
Before leaving to return to Santa Avelina on Friday morning, each student was given a certificate of achievement from Delta Kappa Gamma and HELPS, International along with an individual photograph. No doubt these prized possessions will be prominently displayed in their homes.
When the fifth graders returned to Santa Avelina they presented a program for their parents. Most of the families as well as other members of the community attended the program. With a backdrop of the murals and artwork, the children took turns telling, in Ixil, about their experiences in Quetzaltenango. They sang and danced. The staff did not dominate the program – the students were center stage. The parent responses indicated a positive reaction to their children's opportunity to experience life beyond the village.
The students, teachers, and project presenters all felt that the week was a great success, justifying the trust that the parents had in the teachers, HELPS, and the Delta Kappa Gamma project by letting their children participate in a program that would take them many miles from home and to an unknown urban setting. A genuine intercultural understanding was developed as the students interacted with students from the rural school, shopkeepers and professionals in Quetzaltenango, and the U.S. project presenters. The students were made aware of educational opportunities available to them past sixth grade and professions for which they can be trained.
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