Mayan Partners

Summer 2011 Trip to Panyebar

2011-08-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Three of the UC Davis InterVarsity alumni families traveled to Panyebar this summer to visit the school and meet with our friends in the village. The three families were those of Ron and Amanda Giles and their three kids, Ethan (15) Elaine (13), and Laurel (10); Ed and Lisa Snyder and their two boys Dominic (13) and Andrew (12). Leanne and I also went with our daughter Allie (7). (Little Kayla, 21 months, had to stay behind with grandma.) We were in the village for a week, June 11-18, and then two of the families spend an extra week in Guatemala before returning home.

The main point of the trip was relational, mainly to check in and see how the school was doing, catch up with the teachers and students, but we did manage to actually do some work.

With the help of helped repaint the basketball court and some of the walls at the school, and we also fixed the baños, for which the water intake had become clogged (and some fiend had made off with the toilet seats).

Overall Colegio Bethel Panyebar is in good shape. There are more kids at the school, about 75 now, than ever before, and they are expecting that there may be as many as 100 next year. They have noticed that a large number of kids are finishing sixth grade in the regional primary schools, and so the teachers want to try to offer two classes of Primer Basico (7th grade) starting in the beginning of the school year next January. To do this, some construction needs to happen on the new second level--a new banister needs to be installed to keep kids from falling off. This is important work and we covet your prayers and possible financial support for this project.

There are some challenges that have arisen related to Catholic-Evangelical issues among the staff. We are hoping and praying that they can be resolved in a fair and even-handed way, and that the school can continue to serve all children in the village regardless of denomination.

The school is seeing fantastic continuation rates into later secondary school. Nearly all of the graduates go on to the equivalent of 10th grade in either Santa Clara, Solola, or Quetzaltenango, where there is a little community of our former graduates all living together in some apartments!

Thank you for your wonderful financial support of what God is doing up in this small village in Guatemala!

Bruce

Environmental and Health Impacts from the Introduction of Improved Wood Stoves: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Guatemala

2011-02-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

Kent Moriarty of Mayan Partners, Dan Ludwinski, and Bruce Wydick wrote a paper on the impact of the the high-tech Onil wood stoves Mayan Partners introduced in Panyebar in 2009. The paper was recently accepted at Development, Environment, and Sustainability, a journal edited at Cornell University. Thank you all for your donations to the wood stove project. The good news is that they really work! Here is the abstract to the paper:

Abstract: Improved wood-burning stoves offer a possible solution that can simultaneously impact both problems of deforestation and problems of respiratory health in developing countries. We carry out a field experiment in which new fuel-efficient wood stoves were allocated in a Guatemalan village via the use of a lottery. A 2008 baseline survey was carried out on 2,148 individuals in 351 households, and then a follow-up survey was carried out in 2009, four months after households received the stoves. We find that households with the new stoves reduced wood consumption by an average of 59.1%. We also find indications of reductions in indoor air related health problems, where point estimates indicate a significant reduction in reported respiratory symptoms by 48.6% among women and 63.3% among children.

To read the full article, use the following link: http://usf.usfca.edu/fac-staff/wydick/woodstove.pdf

Trip to Guatemala planned for June 2011

2011-02-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

We are planning a trip to Guatemala for June 2011, tentatively June 10-19, although these dates could change a little bit. There are several possible activities we might pursue while we are there: doing another medical clinic, discussing the possibility of a wood stove business in Panyebar, a basketball clinic, and a work project on the school. Please e-mail Bruce if you are interested in going this year!

2010-04-05T10:31:00.001-07:00

March 25, 2010

Colegio Bethel, Panyebar – a small Christian junior high in the Guatemalan highlands, a lovely though very poor place. Not too much influence in world events, I suppose. So why continue to support such a place?

Well, because of kids like Hermosillo, a student who graduated last year. Hermosillo is the first generation in his family to go to school. He’s bright, thoughtful and ambitious. His family weaves the brilliant skirts that women wear but the business is not profitable enough to send him to school past 9^th grade. Talking with him and his family in Panyebar before we left last May, Hermosillo shared his greatest ambition: to become a doctor. A doctor. His mom shrugged her shoulders and quietly stated their hopelessness. “How are we going to do that?” But after graduation in October, Hermosillo applied for a prized full government scholarship to a boarding high school only an hour away. And he got it. He was well prepared, a good deal because of his time studying at Colegio Bethel.

Ten of Colegio Bethel’s eleven graduates in October 2009 are now in high school, unheard of in this community even five years ago. And so it’s worth it. These kids may not change the larger world yet, but they will have influence on those in their community and country.

How, then, do we all continue to support Colegio Bethel, Panyebar? By doing as Mayan Partners has been doing for several years now. First and foremost we pay the teachers’ salaries. We work with the new local Board of Directors, empowering them to look after the school and its students. We keep in weekly phone contact with the directors so they are assured of our prayers and concern. We work to support the fledgling community library so that books are available for students from preschool to high school. And we pray, for Colegio Bethel, its leaders, the Panyebar community and for Guatemala.

Mayan Partners is in the process of becoming an independent non-profit. This will relieve some of the burden on Proyecto Fe that has so graciously helped us and the school. So hopefully by the summer, you will write your checks directly to Mayan Partners. We will let you know when the change occurs.

If you have any questions regarding the school, or would like to be included in more detailed updates, please let Bruce or us know.

Oh, and send your encouragement to the Colegio Bethel Girls Soccer Team which is going to the State competition in mid-April! Congratulations to the girls and their coach, Victoriano!

Peace be with you,

Ann and Kent Moriarty

On behalf of Mayan Partners

2009-06-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Guatemala, where the tortillas are toasty and warm and the weather is rainy and cold. (It´s winter here--the rainy season.) I'm down here for a couple of weeks starting a research project with Compassion International with my graduate students and checking up on our school in Panyebar. I've been up to the village twice to see how the school is doing and check up on our stove project.

Overall, despite a number of challenges which I'll describe later, Colegio Bethel Panyebar is doing great. The kids seem happy, the teachers are being paid (thanks to the Lord working through all of you), and a new committee of partents, teachers, and pastors is helping to guide the school to the next level.

The "success rate" of our kids after they finish Tercero Basico (9th grade) at the school is remarkable. A huge percentage go on to high school in Quetzaltenango or Solola, the bigger cities an hour or two away after they finish, maybe 60-70%. The first batch of kids who graduated from the school three years ago are now finishing their "Diversificado" (high school). One cool anecdote--A group of them, four guys and five girls, all about 15-18 years old, have rented a 2-bedroom appartment in Quetzaltenango, the second biggest city here--about two hours away. They cook for each other and watch out for each other as they go to different high schools and trade schools in the city. Most of them are Christians and they have this little community together in the Big City, all from the village. They're studying to be teachers, accountants, electricians, and some are doing university preparation. Quite a jump from coming from families where the average parental education is approximately 2 years for moms and 3 years for dads.
Many want to be teachers, which is good, because in this country there are a lot of kids to teach.

The new school committee is working great. They have got all the families to pay a small tuition of $7.50 per month. Anyone who can´t pay can help the custodian clean up on a Saturday, and they´re good for their tuition. The school has 56 kids now, the most it has had, although the goal is to have about 80-90.

The school faces some real challenges. We still have a ways to go before the school is really "finished" in terms of physical structure. Right now the school is not physically safe. We need about $1500 to put in a guardrail to keep the kids from falling off the main story which is elevated about 8 feet above the basketball court. The south wall of the classrooms leaks and needs exterior finishing, about $200 worth of work. In the larger scope of things, about $20,000 is needed to finish the upper level of classrooms, which need windows, flooring, electricity, desks, and fixtures. They want to add a computer room up there, and maybe we can help them with that. Also, the field below the basketball court needs leveling and a fence. It would make such a huge difference if somehow we could pull together this money along with our partners in Proyecto Fe in Alaska, who are planning a trip down in November I believe.

I also had a chance to visit 5-6 familes who had received one of the woodstoves people have purchased. Kent and a local guy here, Victoriano, installed 30 stoves this spring after the 5 a bunch of us put in last June. Wow. These things seem to be working fantastically. Every family I visited reported that they went from using 2-3 cargas of wood (about 60 pounds--what a person can carry from cutting in the forest in one trip) to only 1 carga. This saves each family half a day's work, or $2 (15 quetzales) if they buy it. Total savings in wood over a year then is about $100, the cost of a stove. This also means that the 35 stoves will save about 110,000 pounds of wood being chopped from the forest every year--not a small impact on local deforestation. Moreover, they produce much less indoor smoke. None of the houses smelled like smoke to me when I visited, and people reported fewer problems with kids coughing and lung problems. My RA Laine is doing a second wave village survey here in August, so we can get some real econometric impacts of the stoves, but so far in my small sample, the evidence is pretty darn good. Thanks to Jim for the stove idea, Kento for all his hard work putting them in, and many of you for buying them for people so we could do this field experiment in the village. We'll probably be publishing the results somewhere (informally) so others can learn from this experience as well.

You have no idea how thankful people are here for your support.

Peace and blessings.

--Bruce

Mayan Partners Update

2009-06-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings Mayan Partners. An update on a few things:

First, Kent and Ann are back from Guatemala after living in our village, Panyebar, for four months. It seems like their time there really went well. Kent coordinated finishing the bathrooms, Ann taught in the school, and they also helped install 35 of the environmentally friendly (and lung-friendly) woodstoves many of you helped finance. (We will be evaluating the stoves this summer to assess their impacts; our introduction of them was done as a randomized controlled trial with treatment and control groups.) For more on their trip, you can check out their blog at http://kentnann.blogspot.com/

Second, I wanted to discuss an issue brought up by some of the Mayan Partners who give through individual child sponsorships. This was a model that we introduced a few years ago to raise funds for the school in its initial stages. Since then, two things have happened: We have begun to encourage people to sponsor the *school* for the long-term rather than individual students. Second, these students that were individually sponsored have graduated from the school. All of these funds whether given in the name of an individual student or to support the school directly go to pay for teacher salaries so that the students can attend without paying high tuition. This is the same model that many organizations use that connect people with individual students, but in the future, we would like to encourage people who are giving through individual sponsorships to switch their giving to support the school in general, and even increase giving if possible, perhaps to $40 or $50 a month, which would be a big help.

If you'd like to have contact with an individual student--that is great--and when I'm in Panyebar next week I can try to get you matched up with a student who has an e-mail account. One thing we ask though is that you don't send individual gifts to your student. We have found this makes others in the village jealous and in the end seems to do more harm than good. Also, if you have sponsored a student in the past and would like to know what he or she is doing these days, I can find that out for you when I go down.

Third, I'm going down to Guatemala next week to check up on the school and to carry out an impact study with some graduate students related to the work of Compassion International with other schools in the area. Also, we're going to re-survey Panyebar to see if the public health programs we did last year had any impact, and to assess the impact of the woodstoves. If anyone would like me to find out anything while I'm down there or make contact with anyone, I'd be happy to do that. One important thing I need to do on a personal level is to visit with the family of our former student we sponsored, Lourdes, who tragically passed away due to pregnancy complications last fall.

Peter, Jim, and I talked with the people at Proyecto Fe last week--excellent folks. They have been helping us channel our donations through their 501c(3) and asked us to contribute a little bit to their overhead, so we're going to contribute $150 per month, which seemed right to us. (About 10% of our monthly fundraising.) Peter is also going to be helping them with their bookkeeping and financial accounting.

Francisco, the head teacher, has said that the school would like to install a computer classroom soon. Anyone out there interested in helping with that project during this next year?

Also, we have dreams of adding three grades some day to make Colegio Bethel, Panyebar a six-year middle school + high school. It would be the only one in the area (big area). To carry these things out, we'll need more Mayan Partners and donors, and I want to highly encourage everyone to talk to friends about joining our team, and even bringing them down with you to visit the school in Panyebar. Pray that the ministry might flourish!

The Routine in Panyebar: Kent and Ann

2009-02-28T15:41:00.001-08:00

Above is the town of Panyebar. Below you see the two story building. Our "house" is the little one at the corner of that building facing us.

You never know what you might find outside your door when you walk out in the morning… the other day, it was a big pile of corn cobs; yesterday, a cow’s jawbone with teeth intact; everyday, plastic bags that have blown into the little dirt yard. Regardless of what arrives, it is usually a surprise.

But Panyebar is small enough that there aren’t usually too many surprises. We have settled into a routine that works pretty well so far. A shower followed by a cup of coffee while we sit in the sun…a nice start, esp. since the coffee is what we call “local-grown, plancha-roasted, stone-ground by hand, Guatemalan best” which we found at a local house where an ancient woman prepares the coffee as needed. This, as opposed to what everyone drinks (a couple of tablespoons of instant and a bunch of sugar in a couple quarts of water), wakes us up!

Routine includes school for me, where I now remember why teaching was so hard! My plans of using science to teach English have pretty much disappeared, as the level of kids’ English is at the learning-colors level. So, in addition to the actual preparation of 3 classes of science materials, I translate words into Spanish, even simple words like “pour,” “container,” “magnet,” etc. You get the drift! And we all have to suffer through my massacre of the Spanish language. I tell the kids that we are all learning together and they correct me as needed, which is often! I do give them English names as well as Spanish names for materials, so we’re working on it, but I realized that English is a foreign language for them and it is not like kids in the States learning English as a second language.

The other day we dissected a cow’s eye in one class, explored magnetism in another and 2 days ago (Monday the 9^th) I started chemistry with the youngest class of 7^th graders. The latter was a disaster. If I were teaching at home, I would call it the “class from Hell!” You know, kids aren’t trained yet in how to behave in class, they can’t sit still (especially since the class is from 5:35 pm – 6:15 pm), and of the 27 students, 75% are boys, immature ones at that. You can imagine… One of those classes that makes you feel like a failure. So yesterday I shut down the materials introduction and we took notes instead. Makes a teacher’s heart cry. One more shot at it today and perhaps I will choose not to do hands-on with them. As a visiting teacher who is not 100% conversant in either language or culture, it might just not be worth it and the kids just might not be ready. (UPDATE: kids

moved easily if noisily into groups and we are proceeding apace! Yes!

Kent has quickly endeared himself to many, including the family we are living with, the local carpenters and

contractors, and the school staff. He fixed the broken shower water-heater and fixed other water leaks at home. At the Colegio, he has fixed broken lights (one class had no working lights, so when the fog rolled in around 5, it was hard to see your hand in front of your face, let alone try to write!), is replacing broken windows and fixed the school bell which now rings out through the entire town.

The bano is now making serious progress. As one who had to use the “provisional bathroom” (read “pit toilet surrounded by cardboard blown apart by the wind”) in a moment of desperate need, I can hardly wait!

Wading through various misunderstandings and miscommunications has been challenging, but Kent’s Spanish

ability is up to it and already he has gained the trust of the local contractors.

For me, I would wish for a little more freedom. A teacher’s day is a scheduled day and I have to be at the

Colegio. But last weekend, we accepted the invitation from the dad of 2 of my students and we hiked to the spring that is the source of all of Panyebar’s water. This was, may I say, a killer hike.

The kids never complained and were spirited fun the entire 9 hours. Crossing into the nature reserve called Panan, the forest, now only a shadow of what it used to be, still had the power to amaze. Flowers, trees, bromeliads, even freshwater crabs at the spring made the hike memorable. Those and the aching knees and quads!

We made it home in time to eat dinner with the family where we are staying, as is the routine every night before

going to bed.As long as the neighbors aren’t playing their music super loud, or the wind isn’t trying to blow the corrugated roof off, or the dogs aren’t having extensive conversations, it is a blissful drop into sleep.

The girl above in the black is the daughter in the family we are staying with. The two playing are friends and the three below are the brother and sisters of the kids we walked into the forest reserve with.

Kent and Ann in Panyebar

2009-02-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

The longer we are here, the more we learn. For instance, we now know that there IS another secondary school in town, run by the government. It’s been here for 1 ½ years and is a free option for those who can’t pay the inscription at the Colegio. Only problem is that it is what is called a “tele-secondaria,” with two teachers for all of the students, and classes given by video. Not the best option. What we hear about the differences between the schools is of course about the quality, the number of teachers, the homework, etc. Sometimes I wonder how much is true and how much is learned recital, as in “Of course the Colegio is better; it’s a private school…” (Reality is that the students that leave Colegio Bethel continue to do very well in the Guatemalan system if they choose to pursue schooling beyond 9th grade.) However, the most engaging classrooms we have yet seen here in Guatemala belonged to a government school on a remote dangerous road rarely traveled.

The longer we are here, the more we learn. For instance, we now know that there IS another secondary school in town, run by the government. It’s been here for 1 ½ years and is a free option for those who can’t pay the inscription at the Colegio. Only problem is that it is what is called a “tele-secondaria,” with two teachers for all of the students, and classes given by video. Not the best option. What we hear about the differences between the schools is of course about the quality, the number of teachers, the homework, etc. Sometimes I wonder how much is true and how much is learned recital, as in “Of course the Colegio is better; it’s a private school…” (Reality is that the students that leave Colegio Bethel continue to do very well in the Guatemalan system if they choose to pursue schooling beyond 9th grade.) However, the most engaging classrooms we have yet seen here in Guatemala belonged to a government school on a remote dangerous road rarely traveled.

Right: the road going down to La Costa.

We had decided to bike down the mountains to “La Costa,” the flat plain that extends to the Pacific Coast. The road splits into two at the top of the highest ridge and we took what we soon discovered to be the awful road down. Dust 6 to 8 inches deep on the steepest corners covering rocks forced at least me to do a bit more walking. Houses perched at intervals along the way bespoke a deep poverty. And there, on a widened little patch beside the road sat a two-room schoolhouse. We rode into the yard and peered into the rooms,

expecting nothing. But these were the tidiest of little rooms, decorated with cheerful colorful greetings in Spanish and Quiche, all of the little chairs neatly stacked on the desks, a corner with towels hung on little hooks beneath children’s names. Clean, cheerful, welcoming rooms that revealed a care apparently seldom seen in rural Guatemalan schools. One of my thoughts was that Colegio Bethel, Panyebar could learn from those isolated classrooms and take more pride in caring for its space.

The first town at the bottom of the mountains was destroyed by Hurricane Stan and is still incredibly poor. This woman is drying coffee.

From the road we took back up into the mountains, you can see the road we came down. The school was right wherethe road hit the ridge on top...

Right now, somewhere outside our little house there is a marching band exuberantly practicing away. Another learning curve that I might not ever master: acceptance of boomeranging noise! We all know how sound echoes and in a place where most of the houses are build of cinder block and concrete, sound bounces seemingly forever. This would be fine if there was only one set of sounds bouncing around. However, we seem to be located at the nexus of the sound waves that burst forth from at least four churches within 5 minutes walking distance that all seem to hold their services at the same time during the evenings. Every church service is marked by the most off-key lead singer ever backed by the loudest band ever consisting of a bass guitar oompa-oompaing along, a drum set banging away and a keyboard repeating the endless chords. Not that we mind people worshiping God, but, Lord, the noise of it all! Earphones can be a glad refuge but only if you turn up the volume enough to cover over the oompa-oompaing…

Another thing I have learned is that it doesn’t always pay to accept invitations to lunch. Kent and I have been eating healthily with Rebecca and Juan here and have had no digestive issues at all. (The town’s water comes directly from the spring we visited in the mountains several weeks ago and is clean.) However, the teachers were invited to lunch at the house of one of the students. the house of pain...

Two of us have gotten pretty ill. The ickiest ill you want. So after three days of not being able to eat, I have started on tetracycline to kill it off. You know you’re supposed to have a prescription for this kind of thing but Kent just bought a bunch of powders mixed with chocolate (yum) that I will take over the next week. (Hope it’s really an antibiotic!) If things aren’t better soon, though, I’ll have to make sure it’s not some other sort of parasite. At least my body has started absorbing fluids again after a couple of days of dehydration worries, but I am weak and ready to get better.

Right: the road going down to La Costa.

The first town at the bottom of the mountains was destroyed by Hurricane Stan and is still incredibly poor. This woman is drying coffee.

From the road we took back up into the mountains, you can see the road we came down. The school was right wherethe road hit the ridge on top...

Right: the road going down to La Costa.

The first town at the bottom of the mountains was destroyed by Hurricane Stan and is still incredibly poor. This woman is drying coffee.

From the road we took back up into the mountains, you can see the road we came down. The school was right wherethe road hit the ridge on top...

Kent and Ann's Journey to Panyebar

2008-12-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

Kent and Ann will be leaving for Panyebar at the end of the year to live and work in the village for several months. They plan to drive down via Mexico. Please pray for their safety and for a fruitful and productive time. This is the first time any of the Mayan Partners team has lived and worked for an extended time in the village, and we bless them for the time they are taking off from work and their commitment to the work among the Quiche there.

We are trying to raise some funds for them to finish the bathroom project (which was done except for a fairly expensive drainage pipe), and we also are raising money for the wood stove installation project (see note above). Leanne and I are selling our Christmas CD we produced a year ago together to raise money for the project. If you would like to order some CDs to give to friends (or don't, but want to contribute to the project), you can do either of the following:

1) Send a Christmas CD order to ellenbtunes@yahoo.com with the number of CDs you want, and your address. CDs are $10 each or 12 for $100. $100 buys a wood stove for a Mayan family in Panyebar.

2) Send a check to Proyecto Fe directly at

Proyecto Fe, Inc.
P.O. Box 241966
Anchorage, AK 99524

And then e-mail us at ellenbtunes@yahoo.com and let us know how many CDs you would like, if any based on your direct donation to Proyecto Fe and the prices above. The advantage of doing this is you can get a tax deduction for your donation.

Let's all remember to pray regularly for Kent and Ann, for joy in their work, building lasting friendships with the people in Panyebar and at the school, and a fruitful time of ministry.

Bruce

Mayan Partners Guatemala Trip Reunion: BBQ at Orinda Pool

2008-09-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who was able to come to the Guatemala trip reunion in Orinda last Sunday. Superior time of quality barbaque (thank you for entrusting me with your meat), kids splashing us in the pool, and great conversation & memories from the summer. I posted a picture from the reunion (Adrienne, Elise, and Keith were also there, but left before we thought about taking a group picture.)

A few exciting new Mayan Partners developments:

1) The new transfer system from our contributions to teacher salaries is going very, very well. No more delayed salaries for the teachers. The now get paid regularly at the end of every month, and Francisco (the head teacher) sends a pdf of their signed salary receipt form every month to Proyecto Fe, myself, Jim, and our new Treasurer, Peter. We also gave all of the teachers and the principal a raise, and they are really happy about that.

2) Peter and Jim are talking about buying the URL www.mayanpartners.org, which will forward anyone using that URL to our blogspot website. Our own .org. Wow, sounds almost like something important.

3) Several people have talked about taking groups of their own friends down to Guatemala either next January or next June or July. This is great, and we encourage people to do it. Let's build up a stronger base of supporters so we can get the second story finished on the school and maybe even allow Colegio Bethel Panyebar to add a high school (let's dream big!). That way the graduates wouldn't have to travel to Quetzaltenango to go to high school.

Great summer, everyone. Thanks so much for the support. We currently have a surplus of about one month of teacher salaries in our Proyecto Fe account, so if we all keep consistent with our pledges to the school, the payments to the teachers should be in good shape.

Yours in Him,

Bruce

Reflections on the June Trip to Panyebar

2008-07-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Leanne, Allie, and I just returned two nights ago from Guatemala, tired but still filled with joy from the trip. At a personal level, the trip had so many facets to it that it may take a couple of weeks to digest the experience. For many of us, part of the trip was simply a reunion of InterVarsity buddies from UC Davis, and all the work and logistics that we had to plough through didn't seem to diminish the fun we had serving and laughing together (as always). Everybody was mad at Naka for looking the same as when we were in college 20 years ago.

On top of the reunion aspect, we purchased and installed basetball hoops, backboards, and posts to hold them up, chipping holes out of the concrete court some other people in the group had poured two years before. We financed a new bathroom for the students, and helped to get the contruction going (although it seemed to progress even faster after most of us left--the Guatemalans know how to build a solid outdoor baño without any help from Norteamericanos.) But it made us feel better to try to help, and to see Troy and Jim sweat just like the old days made it worth the experience alone.

The Guatemalan kids had a blast with the lanyards and other crafts that Jodie and others brought, and Jocelyn was amazing in integrating the Guatemalan and American kids in what was probably more than 1000 games of "duck-duck-goose." Although the wiffle bats lasted only about 45 minutes before they disappeared into the village, Robb's basketball camp was amazing. What might have been surprising was the raw basetball talent that already existed in the village, but building the court and having the camp unleashed an a pent-up enthusiasm for hoops that almost caught us off-guard. Supposedly the school lost the last game they played 98-2 (ouch), but we can better things to come.

One of the best moments for me was when Ron and Jim installed one of the new high-tech Onil stoves in a woman's house near the school. We went back the next week, and she was cooking tortillas on it, said she really liked it, and her house was free of smoke.

The public health class was another highlight that some people missed becuase they had to leave the week before. We invited 100 families to attend, and about 80 came--a higher take-up rate than we could have expected. The women learned about how diseases spread though villages, about hygene, breast-feeding, and the importance of proper nutrition. We gave away some prizes each day by lottery, and on the last day, gave away a stove, which Keith and Malinda will have to install later. The USF graduate students are carrying out a comprehensive census and survey of the entire village that will be finished by this August. From this survey we should have a better idea of the kinds of things we can do with the school and the village in the future.

We also had some productive conversations with Max, the principal of the school and with some of the teachers. There had been some problems in getting our donations through Proyecto Fe, through Emilio, and to the teachers in the past few months. We decided to start a new system in which Proyecto Fe will send a set amount at the end of each month to Pam Chevalier (the local missionary who works with PF). She will then give the money to Francisco, one of the teachers and the school accountant, who will then obtain receipts from the teachers and take pdf's of the receipts and e-mail them back to PF, to Pete (our new treasurer--congratulations), and to Pam.

We would very much like to give them at least a small raise now, with the prospects of another raise for the new school year in January if some incentives are met (specifically, an enrollment of at least 70 students), and if some new people who went on the trip would be willing to sponsor the school for even $25-50 a month, that would give us the financial room to increase the pay of the teachers by 10% or so over the next year.

Thanks for a fantastic time and a great experience. Leanne and I really felt the Lord was closely with us on the trip, keeping us safe in the heavy rains, and (most of us) from "Atitlan''s revenge".

Yours in Him,

BW

June Trip to Guatemala

2008-02-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

Greetings Mayan Partners,

Just wanted to update everyone about our June trip to Guatemala. Dates for the trip are June 15th to June 30th. Here are some details about the trip: While there are a number of people who have indicated an interest in the trip, this time the group will consist mainly of Mayan Partner folks (many of whom are Inter-Varsity alumni) and a handful of Inter-Varsity undergraduates from USF and UC Davis. It seems that there will be several families going on the trip (IV Staffworker Troy & Brooke Turley and their two kids, our family, and Pete and Allison de Laveaga and their two sons). Also I think Robb and Ron are planning to bring their sons with them. This is great because the place we are going has a lot for elementary school aged kids, especially those who like basketball and soccer, because that is what the Guatemalan kids
like to do!

There will be several projects. The first will involve some construction on the school we sponsor, maybe including building a new baño for the students and teachers. Also, I am planning to go there a week ahead of time with several of my graduate students from USF to set up some household survey work around Panyebar related to a public-health training field experiment we are going to be carrying out as part of a three-country project. We also plan to have a clinic, working with a Guatemalan doctor named Jose Israel and some nurses and a doctor that may be coming with us. Mostly though the purpose of our trip is to be with the Guatemalans, let our kids play with them, develop friendships with them, and visit the school.

Some people may only be able to get one week off from work--that's OK--there will probably be a group able to stay only a week. We'll probably have some kind of orientation day in May up in northern California for many of us going on the trip, and then another time together in LA the day before we leave from LAX. (We'll likely fly to LA and spend a day there for a last orientation with the southern California folks, and then fly down on an overnight to Guatemala City.) Flights usually cost about $600-650 roundtrip from the Bay Area (less from LA) and you can plan on about $150 per week per adult there for food and motel plus a another $50-100 for miscellaneous ground transportation.

We are really looking forward to this trip! Please e-mail Jim Porter or myself to let us know if you plan to come on the trip so we can get a rough idea of who is in. We're expecting about 15+ adults or so plus kids. All His best,

Bruce

Updated Financial Information About the School

2007-10-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Greetings Mayan Partners: I just posted a link to an updated spreadsheet that shows contributions (I deleted people's names) and money sent to Guatemala for the operation
of the school. Have a look. In short, we've sent in $10,340 to the school so far this year. We've been helped this year by some contributions from donors in Alaska with ties to Proyecto Fe, which has meant that total donations have come in at $23,295 with funds going out to the school coming to $18,854, leaving a small surplus in the account. Note, however, that much of this other money has gone to or is earmarked for construction projects at the school so that we are providing most of the funding for the teachers and principal's salaries, which is what is required to keep the school running.

You saw Jim's note on the November trip--postponed until June. We've set the tentative dates for June 16-30th, and would love to take a good sized group down at that time.

Bruce