July 2010

By Derin Dutz

There were many things that made an impression on me during my two-week long community service trip to Antigua, Guatemala. We volunteered at a rudimentary school in El Hato, a small village a few minutes away from Antigua. There, I was struck by how the kids made so much out of almost nothing. However, the perseverance, dedication, and love of the teachers made an even longer lasting impression on me.

There were only 7 classrooms at the school in El Hato. The 1st through 6th graders were taught until lunchtime. Then the teachers returned to the school to teach a whole new wave of 7th through 12th graders. The teachers were always kind, understanding, and did their best to give these children as many abilities as possible to successfully deal with the world they will step into as adults. All this hard work had its toll: the teachers seemed exhausted most of the days we visited.

With gratitude, they were relieved when we offered them help with such menial chores as drawing addition tables that they would normally have had to do by themselves at night.

One of the teachers, Ervin, really impressed me with his initiative to educate his high school students with CDs that would allow them to learn from a government-approved curriculum. He told us that he took time to find the best CDs that would help the students. With his efforts he has given his high school students a huge resource. Given the difficult financial conditions, the CDs were bought with a $50 donation, given to the school by one of the parents of a boy who helped with community service last year. Simple donations go a long way in El Hato and make a big difference! All the selfless had work of teachers like the one in my example is what made the biggest impression on me during my trip to Antigua.