MOVING FORWARD

JANUARY, MARCH & JUNE 2009: SELF AWARENESS, ENGLISH AND PARENT CONFERENCES

Part of our goal is to broaden the girl's experience and knowledge.

• Each girl was given a Spanish copy of Chiquita's Cocoon by Betina Flores. It is written for Latina women whose culture keeps them down. Each girl had to do a report on what they got out of the book. The variety of responses was interesting, from the control of the church, male machismo, to their value upon giving birth to male versus female babies.

• The birth gender valuation and girl's interest in having fewer babies, prompted discussions about conception, fertility cycle and who determines child gender. The girls are now charting their cycles with basil thermometers, compliments of the very generous donation from Mabis Company, and fertility cycle beads. They will hopefully be the teachers in their villages. None of our girls had ever been taught anything about the fertility cycle or baby gender.

• Parent conferences were required to any girl who was not meeting the requirements of grades, English class attendance and/or email writing to Godparents. It was also a good time to discuss parent commitment through the remaining of their daughter's education. Generally, this was very successful as now, we all know the program expectations and future rewards for the girls, hence their parents after graduation. Unfortunately, one mother decided a good beating would make the necessary changes. Culture change is sometime slow and painful to see. 

• I also presented the cycle beads instruction and beads to some 150 villagers. We will continue with this in future visits.

• The girl's collective GPA continues to rise. The girls are surprising themselves with their results.

JULY 2008: HOME VISITS

One objective was to visit the becada and applicant homes to see how the girls live and to revisit Spirit objectives with the families, particularily the fathers. The visits were often challenging, such as Glendy via a road that is impossible in anything less than a truck.

           Glendy                                                Xenia and Mom

In many houses, they slept in one room. In some houses, they only had one room.  However, they were so happy with the visit and sharing their lives with their madrinas, current and future. A number of chickens lost their lives for the occasions.

Generally, the fathers are very happy with the program. I took the visits as an opportunity to explain the Spiri education benefits, with salary diferences. The mothers are 100% behind their girl's educational opportunity.

 2008:

• OUR GIRL'S EARNED AN 86% GPA!!!!!! in a country that does not grade inflate GPAs reached a high of 94% with 5 girls earning  90% or above. There is a feeling of striving for excellence with the group. The energy seemed to enfold the new ones as well as older ones who used to be struggling to maintain their grades. I spoke with one of the girls' who had been struggling with us for some time. She said there was definitely a change over the last 3 years.
• We took a chance on two becada parents as the new local management. One is a bookkeeper and the other a strong minded single mother. It was an inspired decision, as communication is close to immediate and after only a month, the girls have a Sunday English practice program. These two managers are dedicated to making Spirit even better. They also seem honored to be the local directors. I look forward to seeing more wonderful changes, as they gain confidence and success. They will be the first step in application evaluations. Their on-the-ground life among the poor will be invaluable.
• We are working closely with the director of the Genova middle school, the two Coatepeque high school directors and a school social worker to help access need and academic ability.
• A native speaker Sandy, from Canada started teaching our girls. She is academically well trained and loves working with girls who want to learn. She is limiting her teaching to Spirit girls and the girls love her lessons.   Brought down the first laptops, purchased from jewelry, coffee and handicraft sales. We hope to continue to provide computers from our fundraising efforts.

Absorbed, listening to Isabel and following in their books.

• Continued dental care for becadas and offered treatment to their families, thanks to volunteers from Australia, Bermuda, Great Britain and the US. Offered family care as a reward for their sacrifices.
• Home visits to reinforce program goals and access family commitment to their daughter's education. Attitude is much improved.

• Becada Merlyn won first in country and second in Spain for her senior research paper.          

• Distributed a huge donation of NEW DESIGNER clothes from Kelly Knight & Swatfame. The girls had never had such an opportunity of choosing clothes, much less new and high quality.

• Welcomed in 10 new girls.

2007:

• An energy within the group:.  I have been working hard to create a support group mentality. The becadas will naturally lose their childhood friends as their paths diverge. For personal and professional reasons, they need other future professionals as friends, supporters and future referrals. They are truly becoming "supportive sisters"
• The Dental clinic is up and running with the first group of volunteers. Our 13 girls all have beautiful smiles.
•  As I was hugging the girls good-by at the end of the Wednesday English class, 6 of them whispered in my ear variations of "I understand now. I understand what Spirit is doing for me and I have to do my part to make it happen. I promise to work harder."
  

The mid-term grades are coming in and they are working harder. What a delight!

WOMEN BONDING TOGETHER

We try to have one fun trip per year to Irtra, thanks to friend and supporter Clemencia who provides admission tickets to the world's greatest water park and western hemisphere's greatest overall park. It is a wonderful treat for the girls and the child in me. .

WATER PARK; building unity - day of being young - together

We had a day trip to celebrate a birthday and being a becada, thanks to Rotarian Clementia, member of the Retahuleu club. She gave us a pass to a sort of 6 flags water park. We packed a delicious picnic, swimsuits and spent the day being kids with big smiles. They tried every water roller coaster and there were many. 

Merlyn and Wendy with their delightful cavity free smiles

Enjoying new swimsuits from Bermudan volunteer dentist, Jewel

A more assured Mariela being young for a day.

FUN TIMES 2007

Eight girls were free for a lovely day at Irtra's water park. Lots of laughs and a picnic lunch, complete with wonderful mangos provided by Gema. They were to die for.

In January, we had a work day topped off with pizza, rewards for excellence and godparent gifts. They were quite the stars on cable TV in the 15 minute story. Marvelous coverage! Cristina spoke and while she was shaking and had icy hands, she did very well.