Escuela Caracol is now formally in the midst of its first official school year! By starting in January, we are actually mirroring the typical school year in Guatemala, which runs into October. Courtney is teaching the 13 children enrolled in KinderCaracol, and I am teaching a small homeschool-style first/second grade for two girls. As I write this update, Courtney is baking heart-shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day. The kids in KinderCaracol are having a great time sewing, baking bread, making tamales, and harvesting and preparing organic coffee beans from our very own plants. They also enjoyed putting together a circus with the help of some visiting clowns (see pictures below). My students have begun with form drawing and math in the mornings, language lessons and music in the late mornings, and classes in the afternoons that vary from handwork and juggling to yoga and swimming. We are also excited about the completion of our first composting toilet! This environmentally friendly baño organico was made possible by the work of the Calacirya Foundation. It not only conserves water and prevents dangerous runoff, but it shows the children that we can actually turn our waste into nutrients to help grow our garden. The walls were built with a recycling technique that uses plastic bottles filled with plastic trash (see pics below), and the drain water from the sink is recycled to clean the toilet. The school is lucky to have a visiting gardener volunteering with us for a few weeks. His name is Joe, and he is working with the children on soil building, which is one of our main goals for the school’s garden. The children enjoy preparing and designing the beds with him, while also learning about how plants decay and in turn provide soil for other plants. We may even end up with some chickens before he leaves. Many thanks to all of you who contributed to Escuela Caracol over the holidays – it was a wonderful boost to the start of our school year. We continue to seek funding to give this work a strong and sustainable foundation. Your support is truly making a difference in the lives of these children. Short-term goals: - Accreditation: we are starting this legal process now, which will include the hiring of a Guatemalan administrator to serve as our liaison with the Ministry of Education. - Water tank: dry season is upon us, so getting a tank and building a tower for it are a high priority. - Teachers: we are actively seeking two full-time teachers for next year. - Classroom building: we hope to start planning the next phase of our development – adding a second floor to what is now our office. Ideally construction would begin in October or sooner. http://www.calacirya.org/shapeimage_2_link_0
February 2008
Update
Escuela Caracol 2008
Composting toilet in process
Building with bottles
Composting toilet complete
Image detail
Side-view
Wendy loads cargo for Lucas
Heber coloring
Wendy watering the garden
Making bread
Amarilis helps Lucas wash
Leo loads cargo
Sorting and shucking coffee
Working with the grinding stone
Removing the husks with smiles
Eumelia
Storytime
Leo
Acrobatics
Lucas the lion
Princess Tara
Althea
Leo with Suzanne the clown
Lucas
Juggling and balancing
Circus prep
Around the back
Movement work
Cirque de Caracol
Leo balancing a club
Pyramids
Advent spiral
Path to Advent spiral
Lighting the Advent spiral
The lit Advent spiral
Advent fiesta
Playing in piles of pine
Luminary
Holistic Education for an Intercultural Community
 
 
San Marcos La Laguna • Lago Atitlán • Guatemala
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