Community service trip to Parramos, Guatemala

Our crack medical team in their scrubs and in the white shirts, their translators.

Every July since 2002, Nassau Presbyterian Church and the Latin American Task Force of Princeton have sponsored a community service trip to Parramos, Guatemala, a poor village in the central highlands. The 2008 trip is scheduled for Friday, July 4, through Sunday, July 13. It includes two weekends of sightseeing as well as work at Valley of the Pines school. The Princeton-Parramos Partnership takes on projects suggested by the school's teachers and parents. The work includes teaching English, music, arts and crafts, physical education and other classes, staffing medical clinics, painting and repairing buildings, and interviewing needy children for tuition scholarships.

In 2007, the school enrolled 443 children in grades kindergarten through 9. American donors provided 164 of them with tuition scholarships.

Participation in the trips is open to members and friends of Nassau Church, the LATF and others who are interested in learning about Guatemala first-hand.

Some 2007 accomplishments:

- Besides staffing a medical clinic at Valley of the Pines school, doctors, nurses, translators and child minders made daily visits to outlying villages that doctors rarely visit.

- Because so many children suffer from malnutrition, the school's president arranged meetings at which parents learned how to supplement a basic diet of corn and beans with healthy fruits and vegetables.

- The three teams that taught English at the school incorporated health education into their lessons. The students learned about healthy snacks and what to expect when visiting a doctor.

- The American visitors donated reference books, children’s storybooks, a computer and tables and chairs to the new public library in the Parramos municipal building

- The group worked with Guatemalan parents to make countless small changes and repairs at the school. Fluorescent lights now brighten every classroom, the kitchen has a vent for the smoky wood stove, and a water line connects the rooftop tank to the kitchen and bathrooms. The major painting project is finished and all of the classrooms have blackboard/ white boards.

- The music team found that the children enjoyed vocal warm-ups and movement exercises a la Sue Ellen Page. "The most fulfilling part of being on the music team," said one participant, "was returning to classes we had visited before and witnessing the kids' excitement for both songs we had taught them and eagerness to learn as many new ones as possible."

The 2008 trip will cost $1,725 plus about $200 for tips, taxes and weekend meals. For more information, contact: Jonathan Holmquist, 609 771-3744, jholmqi@temple.edu; Emily Heine, 609 683-5120,eeheine@aol.com; or Joyce MacKichan Walker, 609 924-0103, Joyce@nassauchurch.org.

On our way to Parramos, we had the water ferry across Lake Attilan to ourselves.

From a high vantage point on top of a pyramid, the group overlooked the largest central plaza in Tikal on one of our final days in Guatemala

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fredy Estrada in a consultation with some of the school officials..

The mothers prepared a traditional Guatemalan lunch for us, corn soup, and roast corn, served with salt and limes, chucuchite (chicken wraped in corn meal) and platanans. It was all excellent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There still aren't enough desks and chairs, so some children carry their chairs from class to class.

To save shipping costs, each team member carried a second suitcase with either medical or school supplies, or clothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New friends in Parramos

An English class for older children who sit at attention and repeat every word.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the school's teachers help out with painting.

Each music session began with stretching and vocalizations. Sue Ellen would be proud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mayor of Parramos meets with a delegation from Princeton who offer funds for the purchase of a table and chairs for the town library.

Doña María, a member of School Board, and grandmother of a student, helps Dave pump up one of the many balls he brought for his PE program