I chose the right profession.

Day 4. The day has arrived. We are about to start the activities that we came here to do. Teach and build a house. For this we had to split into two groups. Group 1 started in the construction and Group 2 started in the schools. Group 1 consisted of myself (Andrea), Chris, Ashley and Sammie. Group two will write about their day, I will continue with ours as they were similar but different.

So... after filling our bellies we met with Lyz to begin our construction adventure. We headed over to the construction site where they put us right to work! Our plan was to bring part of the supplies with us to a home where they had already started laying the floor. This was an "affiliated" familiy who has been working with Common Hope for some time as they had already done the sweat equity hours for their first one bedroom home that was up and running and had now finished "paying" off their second. This family does not own their land so the homes they have are constructed of portable (although super heavy) cement blocks and portable walls so that if/when the times comes that they need to move they will be able to take their home with them.


We were immediately given the job of filling a few bags with sand and a few bags with rock for mixing some cement on site. Pretty simple task right?? We sunscreened up, drank some water and got our working gloves on. Ashley jumped right into the rocks and started shoveling rocks into the bag I was holding. We were told to fill the bags a little over half full. Good idea since they were quite large bags. So we did just that, soon realizing that the fuller they got, the heavier they got and the more impossible to lift. We were able to find a wheelbarrow to help carry the load only to struggle immensely and eventually needing help from the men giggling at us from the side in lifting the bags. How these men do this everyday, I do not know. We did make it through the all of this with minor scrapes and bruises. Needless to say, I chose the right profession and am not cut out for daily construction. (My large muscles may make you think otherwise ;-)



Once loaded up we headed to the home where the floor was just about set. We pounded a few metal rods, dug some trenches, made cement, and poured and leveled the cement around the flooring. Tomorrow and Thursday we will work on getting walls up and hopefully see a finished project.

Dirty, hot, sweaty and tired we made it up the stairs to shower before lunch where we were able to meet up with the rest of the group and hear how successful their time at the school was, making us feel all the more excited to jump into our own classroom of students to do a similar lesson.

We packed our backpacks and were off to school. Renato, Common Hope's educational coordinator, drove us the 5 or so minutes to a nearby school in San Miguel Escobar where we worked with two 4th grade classrooms for about an hour a piece. The students were amazing and the entire experience went beyond my expectations of a Guatemalan school. Renato explained that they have around a 10 year program with the schools, working towards the schools feeling independenct and with all the tools that they need to run a successful building. They were in about year 2 with this particular school and the effects of their integration and training were immediately obvious particularily in the area of classroom management. From classroom rules to a daily agenda, there were some good things happening at these schools so that students could be getting the most out of their day.

At each school that Common Hope works with they place a graduated teacher to help with planning and ideas and just all around support for the teachers already in place. Our Common Hope teacher was not more than 18 years old and someone who very obviously loved his job and had some good training in classroom management. He started each classroom with a review of the schools 5 rules for being respectful and how to support everyone in their learning. He had them tell him what the rules were, reviewed quickly how they look, sound and feel and then praised them appropriately for what he was seeing right away. It was quite impressive and unexpected. Then it was our turn. I led our team and students in a morning meeting similar to what we do back in Eden Prairie. The kids seemed to enjoy sharing their favorite food by smiling and laughing at others comments. Ashley led us all in an amazing rendition of "La familia sapo" which is a fun dancing/singing type chant. She had another activity planned but due to some technical difficulties she had to switch to the chant, which was super fun and the kids really got into it. Chris finished it off with reading our message to the students about what we would be doing over the next two days.

We continued with a reading of a book about a market teaching the students the strategy of Taxonomy which is used to organize ideas and vocabulary in alphabetical order which led into our creating a class book about the Guatemalan market. The students did an excellent job thinking about foods found in the market and an even more amazing job making their individual page. They were so creative, and really impressed me with their neat writing and wonderful sentences. In many ways they were showing work equivelent if not more impressive then my own 4th graders last year, which really is quite amazing considering they do not have a library, textbooks, college educated teachers, etc... It was so wonderful to see such good work being done with so little.

I could go one, but to sum it up, today was just another day that helped me remember why I went into teaching. Smiling eager faces just ready and yearning to learn something new. These children are the future of Guatemala and they are off to a great start.

In short, I chose the right profession.