LeMaistre's Report on Visit to Guatamala's "Ripple Effect", Tameja School
Posted by John Borst
on Nov 04, 2010
Our trip to Tameja was eventful, as we travelled about 40 kms past corn fields and an above ground pipeline, following a winding gravel road. The pipeline takes fuel from the coastal port to the interior of the country. The pipeline and road are maintained by Perenco Oil Company. We drove through at least 5 rivers as there are no bridges. During the rainy season the road is washed out in many places and the rivers rise to a level that makes transportation by road impossible.
This caused a delay in the construction of Tameja School, as it was impossible to transport the building supplies into the community. Perenco repaired the road as soon as the rivers' water levels subsided and assisted with the delivery of the building supplies. Perenco also prepared the building site, by levelling the land.
We arrived at the village and were quickly ushered to the new school. Several children gathered around, happy to have their picture taken. The building is the largest building in the community. Most of the buildings are residences made of wooden boards and thatched roofs. The school had cement block walls with poured cement beams and roof trusses made from cement and steel.
A community leader, who greeted us on our arrival, walked up to a large shelter. The roof was thatched, held up with poles made from peeled tree trunks. He picked a large animal horn off a table and blew it twice. It was an eery, loud call. I watched with interest as he carefully laid the horn down. Out of the hills, and down the road trickled the villagers. Moms, Dads, tot, kids, teens, all gathered under the shelter and took their places on long wooden benches.
We wandered into the shelter and were seated. The community leader began to speak in K'che, the native language for that community. It suddenly made me realize that the Guatemalan Rotarian that escorted us to this community couldn't speak to the residents any more than we could. We'd brought along a fellow named Nixon, the on site supervisor, who could speak both Spanish and K'che. The speech was long and emotional and I could tell it was from the heart. Nixon translated from K'che to Spanish, and then Julio, the Rotarian translated from Spanish to English.
The leader spoke of what a new school meant to the community, how they would take care of the school and be proud of it. He was very grateful and wanted to make sure we knew that our investment was appreciated.
While we sat listening to several speeches, a little girl wandered over and climbed up on my knee. The parents seem to take very good care of their children, and their community. Gord made a speech, translated into Spanish and then to K'che. Julio made a speech...several other people made speeches. The kids remained quiet and listened intently with their parents.
There are 35 kids registered for kindergarden and 147 registered for grades 1 to 6 for next year.
The classrooms should be finished within the month. There is one paid supervisor, but all other labour is volunteer.
There is a middle school (grades 7 to 9) in the community. They meet in a shack down the road from the new school We were told that 29 students completed the last school year, but 40 have registered for the next year, starting in January. There is also a small computer lab that has 10 computers in it.
The community would like to have a scholarship program started to financially assist students in middle school and high school. The parents would like to have a high school in their community, as the students have to travel 16 kms. over a very rough, dangerous road to go to school.
We delivered a large bag of school supplies, and Julio delivered 10 soccer balls. The soccer balls created alot of excitement, as I'm sure the kids have never seen so many balls at once!
We left the community with a feeling that we are really doing something special there. The people take care of what they have; they take care of their families, and realize the importance of education. It's a very special place, and I hope that someday you will be able to go and see for yourself. The help you've provided really means alot to this poor, isolated community. This school will be the centre of this community.
Thank you for your support of this great project!
Deb & Gord LeMaistre