Tuesday, January 28th, 2014

Unfortunately, this post on our safe passage team blog is late due to spotty internet in the hotel. Sorry for the inconvenience.

At a quarter to eight, after another lovely breakfast, we boarded the Jorge-mobile (Jorge being our spectacular and extremely knowledgable driver) and arrived at the Safe Passage main campus in Guatemala City an hour later. The drive into the city was filled with anticipation over the classes we were going to teach throughout the day. After arriving we met Ada, the health teacher. This began the day with a somber tone once we heard the stories she had to tell about the abuse, neglect, and overall taboo toward the subject in the poverty stricken areas of Guatemala. There were horror-filled statistics, such as that 24 Guatemalan`s contract hiv/aids every day, and that many teens will get pregnant and have no idea how or why due to a lack of sex education.
The tone of the day only got better from there. At 10 we met with the 12th grade seniors to implement our art projects. Although we thought that there would be minimal participation and enthusiasm amongst them, they turned out to have loved the snow globes especially. We realized that they had never seen or talked much about snow, which made this relatively simple art project a true learning experience. After associating with this group, everybody is glad that they are joining us in our trip to the waterpark on Saturday.
After an eventful morning and a short lunch break, we went straight back to more classrooms. This time it was English classes with the 1st and 2nd graders. As we walked into each classroom, all the children jumped up from their seats and began to swarm us, giving us hug after hug with endless love. We played games and sang songs with the little ones, whose English was spectacular. It was very heart-wrenching to see the vultures hovering over the dump through the windows. We had the realization that after such a safe and joyful day at Camino Seguro, these children still had to return home to their dangerous lives. Following the English Classes, we implemented the same art projects from before with a class of 6th graders. They seemed to be more timid than the 12th graders, but opened up more during the activities.
This was the first day of intense interaction with the students of Safe Passage. It was the first step of a life-changing experience for many of us. Sometimes we just found it hard to beleive that these kids are living such tragic lives outside the walls of the Safe Passage compound. Although we were tired at the end of the day, we went to bed knowing that the next day would be just as rewarding as the last.

Thanks for reading!
Alex and Ben