La Vega School Project
January, 2006

In January, 2006 10 volunteers traveled to Guatemala to help build an Amigos de Guatemala funded classroom and school kitchen in the aldea (village) school - La Vega.  Also two other projects funded by Amigos de Guatemala were completed.

La Vega is a small primary school in a Mayan community.  The school is overcrowded and is limited to a small piece of property.  The school had a VERY dangerous unvented kitchen, unsanitary pit toilets that were full and overflowed during the rainy season, and the grounds are dirty, dusty, and fill with mud when it rains.  Finally, their unsecured well had been vandalized and the pump stolen.

Amigos de Guatemala with the assistance of local NGOs was able to correct all of these problems.  The traveling volunteers worked with local volunteers to build a new classroom & kitchen including digging a new well inside the kitchen.  These new facilities are rebar reinforced block structures with painted walls, good lighting, and cleanable tile floors - a much more suitable environment for educational activities.

The traveling Amigos de Guatemala volunteers were: (click on the names for photos)
Bob & Jan Hatmaker - Groveland, CA Rotary Club
Tom & Adelia Hornick - Marina, CA Rotary Club
Cliff Guinn - Marina, CA Rotary Club
Tom & Miki Gilbertz - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Fred Ledesma - Soledad, CA Rotary Club
Bill LeNoble - Soledad, CA Rotary Club
Claudia Day - Groveland, CA Rotary Club

As with the previous year in Tunaja, the Amigos volunteers worked side by side with local parents who volunteered their time to build the school classrooms.  The president of the parents group -Pedro Cingo Luis - provided excellent leadership.  These men, the ever present children, and the teachers provided a rare multi-cultural experience.  All our lives were enriched by the experience!

We began our trip this year in the historic city of Antigua.  This was the former capital of Guatemala and retains much of its history and charm.  It also affords excellent shopping and dining.  It is a better place than Guatemala City to begin - and, more safe.

We traveled to Zacualpa by private van stopping over in Chichicastenango to see Mayan Sunday market as we did the previous year.  In Zacualpa our lodging was the same as previous visits.  Please refer to the "Tunaja" page for more information and pictures of Zacualpa.

Our work in La Vega involved mixing cement and laying brick similar to previous years.  The new and unique experience was the digging of a water well - BY HAND!  We hit water at 28 feet on the last day.  Climbing in and out of the well, using the hand made wooden lift, and watching the local men dig the last few feet was amazing.  We were proud and we all lived to tell about it!

Also on the last day at La Vega the teachers cooked us a meal of thanksgiving and each class gave a short presentation.  We presented each child with a toy and soccer balls for each class.  Words cannot express the enjoyment and satisfaction of this experience!  Leaving La Vega on the last day was difficult.

In addition to the La Vega school classroom/kitchen project we were able to inspect two other projects funded by Amigos de Guatemala in 2005/06.  First we visited the site of our Tunaja 2005 project.  We finished this project with the addition of a large cement patio/playground which was previously mud in the rainy season.

Finally, we visited the Las Joyas project.  This school had built an adobe building with two classrooms.  They ran out of money so the building had a dirt floor, no electricity and no doors or windows.  We finished that project by adding a cement floor and patio, doors, windows and electricity.  With the addition of a coat of white paint it transformed the classroom from dark and drab to bright and cheery.

We completed our travels with a couple days of R & R at Lake Atitlan.  Besides the beauty and fun of the lake environment, we witnessed the damage caused by Hurricane Stan in Oct, 2005.  One village of 400 was buried in the night killing everyone.  Our favorite lodge was flooded with a mud slide but they were just getting back in business.  For those who had been to Lake Atitlan before it was amazing to see all the areas around the lake streaked by mud and rock slides.  We were happy to see that the school in Jaibalito received only minor damage and no one lost their lives in Jaibalito.

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Panchoy Hotel in Antigua

Panchoy Hotel

Antigua ruins