We visited many organizations (up to 4 in one day!) in the capital and had a field trip to a small village north of Quetzaltenango to visit a group focused on economic development in their small town.
The trip into the mountains makes for a long couple days, but it is so worth it to get out of the capital and see the people and the amazing environment that is Guatemala.We visited the trash dump where hundreds of families live and pick recyclables out of the freshly dumped trash. Often, the people gleaning the goodies from the trash are run over by the earthmovers or buried in trash slides.
We were given the tour of the dump site by representatives from Camino Seguro, which provides child care and early childhood education in a clean, safe environment for the families living at the dump.
We visited an organization that works with the families of those killed in Guatemala's 36-year civil war. H.I.J.O.S. seeks justice for the children of those killed in the genocidal war.
We went to the U.S. Embassy, but did not get to meet the Ambassador on this trip, because Ambassador James Derham had just left the country, and the new Ambassador had not yet arrived. We don't have any photos of our visit to U.S. Soil inside Guatemala because photography is not allowed in the Embassy.
The students at San Carlos University, the Sector de Mujeres, and Jorge Alvaradoose daughter Claudina was brutally murdered were all important stops on this visit.
Besides the education of U.S. Americans who join our delegations, we are running an education program in Guatemala at two schools where we teach children how to have constructive interaction between boys and girls.
We hope this will lead to improved gender relations throughout the children's lives, a group of boys willing to speak out against men's violence against women, a group of girls strong to stand up and not tolerate violence.After 10 days of emotional visits, we were happy to return home and start working to change the sad realities we learned about.
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