Today has been a very full day! This morning, it was class as usual for Miguel and me. When we got home, I skipped lunch so that I could get some work done. Then it was off to the tiny village of St. Mateo (St. Mathews) to visit a school for indigenous children.
The Prodesenh School is where Dana has volunteered to work for a couple of weeks for the past five or six years. He brings suitcases full of clothes, shoes, and books from the U.S. and distributes them to the children here. He also helps them with their course work; reading with them and teaching them a bit of English.
The school is run by a woman named Judith Lopez, who is a fascinating character. She is a native herself, and grew up in this village of 4,000 people. As a girl, her prospects in life were very limited. She was expected to work in the house or fields and not waste time with an education. She had other plans, though, and went to school in Antigua...walking 45 minutes each day to school, and 1 ¼ hours back. It's downhill and quick on the way to school, and uphill on the way back.
She managed to graduate high school, and then became the first person from the village to graduate college. She went on to get a master's degree in administration. The villagers think that she's an attorney because she went to college.
Judith has devoted the last 13 years of her life to bring education to children in her hometown who would otherwise never go to school. People come here from all over the world to volunteer their time to help. Miguel and I wish her the best of luck!
On the way home, Dana wanted to show us a 5-star hotel in Antigua. It is certainly impressive! It's built on the ruins of several ancient monasteries dating from the mid-1500's. The hotel has incorpated the ruins into the architecture of the hotel itself. When they found an old mausoleum, they just made it into the centerpiece of the hotel courtyard...bones and all! How cool is it to be sleeping in a hotel with clearly visible skeletons in the yard? I'm getting inspired to write a ghost story about this place...maybe I'll ask if I can pitch a tent near the bones one night so that I might be inspired by the long dead priests...
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