Anyway, while we were there I was walking through the town/village with my friend Danae. She had many stops to make, people to talk to and check in on. One of them was to see a little girl and her mom who ran a tienda (basically a corner store). This little girl was probably in 1st grade and was STRUGGLING to read. Danae had some phonics activities for her and her mom to do together to hopefully build her foundation for reading. Danae went over it with them and the little girl was excited and cheerful about it. Danae told me later that the mom had very little education and could not offer much help to her daughter. That's not uncommon, but it's still not okay with me. The teacher in me was dying inside.
Reading is EVERYTHING!!! Do you remember the TV show Reading Rainbow? Do you remember the theme song? Here it is:
And it's TRUE! Yes, books can take you on a million adventures, but being able to read and write can get you a job that pays a living wage and out of poverty! For some reason, more than the lack of adequate housing, more than the lack of food, the lack of education in Magdalena/Buena Vista, Guatemala just rips my heart out. Obviously the people there need food and they need a structure to live in that keeps out the elements (as opposed to shacks made of cornstalk or cardboard and mud floors full of bacteria and parasites). But I wish everyone could read, too.
When we got back from Guatemala I kept thinking about the problem of kids not learning to read. School is different there. It's free, but students have to bring in school supplies and have uniforms, otherwise they can't go. That's about $90 US dollars, which is approximately 718 quetzales, or almost 2 months rent. Oftentimes families are so poor they send their kids to work in fields, or to gather firewood from the mountain to sell, or to do other odd jobs to help support the family just so they have enough food to eat. So saving almost 2 month's rent to send their kid(s) to school instead of sending them to make money is just plain difficult. Even if they do make the decision and work HARD to send their child(ren) to school, there is no extra help or attention for struggling kids. There are no small groups or intereventions or anything. You either learn or you don't. On top of that, many parents are uneducated and are not able to help their kids if they happen to be struggling. And none of our American friends who live there know anything about a library. There isn't one.
Reflecting on all of these things, I felt like I had to DO something. So I went shopping. I ordered a ton of Spanish and bilingual children's books and early readers. And they are currently sitting in a box in my house waiting for either me to go back to Guat, or someone else who I can beg to send a suitcase full of books with (I know, EVERYONE is going to volunteer, right? Hehe.).
Fortunately my friend Holly is WAAAYY smarter than I am. She and her family are missionaries in Guatemala as well and she does A LOT of helping with homework for the kids in Magdalena. They come to her house after school and she moms them. They use computers, she checks their work, she tells them they need to not wait until the day before a report is due to get started on it, etc. You know, mom homework stuff. Holly either emailed or called me about a month ago with an idea to help many of the kids she knows and sees all the time to either stay in school or go back to school. All they need is sponsors. Duh! So Holly has been getting me pictures and information about the kids there and I have been banging my head against the wall and threatening to throw my computer out the window making cute little paper apples with a picture of each child and some background information. Then I get to take them to our community of faith and hang them on the tree my wonderful mom gave me so that I didn't have to make my own paper tree and amazing, loving believers pick an apple (or two or three or more) and provide $$ for the kid(s) to go to school! How brilliant is that??
And by the way, I am blown away by the people at Journey. In one week we had 75% of the kids sponsored! Un-freaking-real. So Holly is sending me more...=)
And here's the one that made me write this.
Meet Ingrid. She is 15 and in 2nd grade. She really wants to go to school, but her family is poor poor. (If Holly says she is poor poor, there's very little way to describe that. Everyone is poor there. Ingrid's family is the poorest of the poor.) Ingrid had dropped out of school because kids made fun of her glasses.
Guess how old kids are in 2nd grade? 7 or 8. Ingrid is twice that. But she wants to learn and I love that so much! She either didn't wear her glasses for the picture, or she doesn't have them anymore. I'm THRILLED that she ever had glasses to begin with, because very, very few people get to see an eye doctor there. This also makes me think that she is probably close to blind without them, otherwise why would her family have gone to the effort to get them in the first place, whenever that was?
Anyway, I just want to squeeze Ingrid and wear my glasses with her. I know she will be sponsored quickly and I'm already thanking God for that, even though it hasn't happened yet!
It has been a ton of work getting things ready for these kids to be sponsored and my youngest kid hasn't made things any easier on me while I'm trying to get it all done, but it's also been a COMPLETE JOY. I am humbled that God would have me serve these kids. I am completely invigorated
And now I hear a crying baby. Adios!
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