School the World

Day 7: Monday was bittersweet as our final day in the community. We celebrated a dedication ceremony with our student service learning participants, Guatemalan students and members of El Arenal community. We dedicated the new reading corner, repainted the classrooms, and playground.

After our dedication ceremony, the mothers of El Arenal came together to cook us a traditional Guatemalan lunch to enjoy before our drive back to Guatemala City.

Once we arrived in Guatemala City, we enjoyed our final dinner together as a group before the airport.

Thank you to the community of El Arenal for welcoming us so openly, and thank you to our student service participants for all of your hard work this week!

Day 5: Saturday was a fun-filled and meaningful day for all of our participants. Everyone experienced a shadow visit in local community members’ homes, where they took part in daily activities like making tortillas by hand, washing dishes and clothes, and feeding animals. These moments gave our students a deeper understanding of daily life in Guatemala and strengthened the connections we’ve been building all week.

Back at the worksite we completed all of the project, finishing up final touches for the new reading corner and re-painting the classrooms. After finishing the project, we headed back to the hotel and had dinner and discussion.

Day 4: our student service learning participants led teaching lessons with the local Guatemalan students, grades ranging from kindergarden to 6th grade. Our travelers taught the students things like phrases, colors, and animals in English, and they also participated in activities and games, learning from one another.

We made great progress on the worksite painting inside and outside of the classrooms, as well as finishing up the playground, and starting the reading corner bookshelves and mural.

Recess as always was filled with joy. Facepaint and nail polish were a huge hit, as well as chalk, soccer, bubbles, and jump rope.

After working hard and having fun in the community, our students played in a STW staff versus student service student game of soccer. We finished off the night with group dinner and discussion.

Today we are looking forwards to another great day, and are finishing off our work project.

Day 2 was our first day in El Arenal! We started our day driving from Antigua to Santa Cruz del Quiche and stopped for a delicious breakfast on the way.

As soon as we arrived in El Arenal, our student service learning participants were greeted with a welcome ceremony. Local community members, Guatemalan students, and STW staff all were so excited to meet our students!

Once the ceremony was finished, our participants played games with the local students, and then got straight into painting the inside of two classrooms.

After an amazing first day in the community, we returned back to our accommodations where we had dinner and discussion.

We are looking forward to another great day tomorrow!