Vacation at the Family Support Center!

The last month at the Family Support Center has been focused on preparing the children and youth for the end of the school year exams. This has meant a lot of reading, homework help, and working on multiplication tables. School is now out for most of the FSC participants and we have a lot to look forward to during vacation.

To kick off the end of the school year, we hosted a Halloween party on Friday, October 31st. In the week leading up to the fiesta we began making kites at the FSC as a way to celebrate the festivities surrounding Day of the Dead and All Saint's Day. Throughout the holiday weekend, families throughout Central America gathered in cemeteries to honor the dead. The kites, or barriletes, are thought to carry messages up to the spirits in heaven.

Intense kite making

We also have some big plans for our little garden at the Family Support Center! The other week we all spent some time outside weeding. With hands and tools we have begun to dig out the weeds that have sprung up among our remaining onions and chard during the rainy season. We're thinking about planting another round of fast-growing radishes as well.

Weeding the chard

Post-weeding chard

Since the produce from the garden is used to supplement food costs at the Family Support Center, we plan to take full advantage of the remaining wet soil from the rainy season in order to plant and harvest even more vegetables!


We also started teaching classes in Math, English, and K'iche', so that FSC participants are able to brush up on their skills during vacation. Amy, Adam, Lily, and Emma teach math and English classes, while Santos teaches K'iche'.

Emma's math class

Emma's math class

Amy's attempt at an outdoor math class

Other fun activities that we will be continuing from last year include Olympics, water games, and hikes around the valley! Stay tuned!

Turnip for what? (Nothing beets gardening)

On Tuesday, July 15th, a few of us from Pop Wuj went out to the Family Support Center to visit the kids. It was a relaxing morning filled with gardening, studying, games, and newspaper sailor hats.

All the kids and the adults get their hands dirty to help out the garden.

Amy and Gordito pulling out the pesky weeds.

Anibal and Jonathan help out as well, and Jonathan snagged a radish popping out of the ground to eat.

Doña Delfina serves the morning snack.

Making hats out of newspapers to end the day!

The Family Support Center, formerly known as "La Guardería," continues to host 41 kids between the ages of one and 18. This project is based in the home of Doña Delfina in the nearby town of Llanos del Pinal.

Radishes for all! Rábanos para todos!

The crops in the vegetable garden at the Family Support Center are growing fast.  The red beets, chard, and radishes are doing well, however the onions are struggling.  Thursday afternoon was sunny and dry so we took advantage and set to work in the garden.  We have more weeding to do, but it seems that our slug problem from last year has diminished.  We're using onions and coffee grounds to deter their advance! 

Family Support Center kiddos, Pop Wuj students, and volunteers weed the garden.

The plan was just to weed a bit and see how our vegetables were doing in the garden.  However radishes mature quickly and on Thursday we found that the radishes were popping.  We decided to harvest them and add them to the afternoon snack.

Selvin and Adam harvesting the radishes

The first batch of radishes of 2014

Leti, Norma, and Julio helping to wash the radishes

The kids helped weed and harvest and then we gave the leaves to the chickens and the unwashed radishes to Doña Silvia.  Doña Silvia washed and prepared the radishes before we handed them out to the kids as part of the Thursday afternoon snack.

Doña Silvia

This is about as fresh as vegetables can be! 

Yadira with her radish

The Vegetable Garden--Growing Again!

Another big outdoor project--the vegetable garden--was worked on in May. 

Along with brothers Edmundo and Hugo, Jack, and Gustavo, several Family Support Center kids tilled and prepared the garden for vegetables. We decided to plant chard, radishes, red beets and onions.

Rebuilding the beds

 Jack, Edmundo, Hugo, and a few of the kids cleared the soil of rocks and garbage.

Jack, Edmundo, and Hugo after finishing the prep

The following day Jack and Carmelina traveled to Almolonga to buy the starts and seeds.  We grow radishes from seed, but bought plantitas of chard, red beets, and onions to transplant to our garden.

Seeds, starts, and the prepped beds

Jack and Gustavo, a teacher at the Family Support Center, organized a work party among Family Support Center participants and planting was completed right before the Mother’s Day celebration. Now the rains will water the garden and we expect to have fresh, healthy vegetables for the children in the near future.

Big sisters make the best supervisors

Many of the kids were very excited upon learning of the continuation of the vegetable garden. It will tended for with care by everyone.

Gustavo, helping some of the kids plant chard.

The food produced by the vegetable garden will offset the food budget for the Family Support Center.  Monday-Friday the Family Support Center serves a hot lunch and two snacks to 41 children and youth.  Food is the second largest item in the Family Support Center budget, totaling approximately $9,200 USD per year.  To donate to the Family Support Center, please visit Foundation Todos Juntos.

Chard and red beets in the ground!

 

Garden and Recycling Projects

Tuesday was dedicated to a couple of the environmental projects, as our General Projects Coordinator spent the entire morning in Llanos de Pinal leading a group of students in weeding and planting new radish seeds.  It was a hot day, and the work was difficult, but after three plus hours, it was good to see the huge difference it made in the garden.  In addition to the radishes, which we planted in two beds and around the sides of the garden, onions, cabbage, and red beets make up the remainder of the vegetables.  These vegetables will be used by the Family Support Center to help off-set the cost of the food budget, one of the higher expenses in all of Pop Wuj’s projects. 

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On Tuesday afternoon, the General Projects Coordinator spent about an hour with two students sorting Pop Wuj’s recyclables, which is now required by the recycling center to which we take our plastic. Apparently, they will no longer pay the normal price for all plastic #1-7, but rather will pay the normal price for #1-5 and less (30 centavos per pound) for #6-7. 

We also walked a few blocks to the nearby recycling center, Don Tito, where we take our aluminum, glass, and tin.  Aluminum is quite valuable here, which is excellent for us, as our Thursday fundraiser for the school’s projects is predicated on drink sales.  As a result, the 8 pounds of aluminum we gave equated to 24 of the total 28 Quetzales (roughly $4 U.S.) we received for the recyclables.  We don’t recycle for the money, but it certainly doesn’t hurt when we come out ahead to help offset some of the costs associated with the environmental projects.

Changes and Expansion!

From July 13, 2012

Next to the Family Support Center we are putting the finishing touches on our new garden. Once a greenhouse, the site was transformed to better accommodate the Family Support Center´s needs.  Jenn, a student enrolled in the Spanish Social Work program, lead renovation efforts which entailed installing raised beds, fertilizing and turning the top soil, planting new seeds and seedlings, and installing a fence. The children of the Family Support Center got in on the fun and were active participants in the transformation. They are enjoying the fruits of their labor by participating in educational lectures/activities on gardening. This week we will commemorate the opening of the garden by installing a sign indicating the name of the garden. The name will be put up to a vote for the children to decide. A new era of healthy yields await the garden!

The rainy season has produced fertile conditions for our Reforestation Project. Together with the families involved in our community development programs, Pop Wuj has shared experiences of planting trees and giving back to the earth. Our most recent work saw 100 trees of different varieties planted in Cantel. In addition, we recently planted trees on the skirt of Volcano Santa Maria with the children of the Family Support Center. On both occasions, the success of the project and the lessons involved in reforestation were of equal value.  In two weeks time, we will return to the sites to check up and to see what progress has been made with our “arbolitos.”

The increase of students has brought more life, festivities, and most of all, recyclables, to the school. To adjust, Pop Wuj has increased the number of visits to the recycling centers to one time per month, and maybe we have hosted an extra party or two. During our next visit, we will invite students to tag along and tour the centers that we visit to gain a better understanding of the recycling system in Guatemala.

In the upcoming weeks, we will continue to do what we do best: build stoves, garden, plant trees, and recycle, but that’s not all we have in store.  We have plans to decorate the inside of Pop Wuj with herbs, plants, and an array of flowers that are indigenous to Guatemala.

Stay green!

Painting, Garden, Reforestation

            The most recent work at the guadería has been reviving the outdoor area: repainting the jungle gym and play area, turning the broken down greenhouse into a productive garden, and planting trees in different areas of Llanos.  During the kid’s week-long break they were able to help out and be a part of the project – including climbing up part of the volcano Santa María to plant trees.  

            We continue to provide special help to the kids who are repeating a grade, so that when they move on they can continue receiving a scholarship.  This involves the work of Ashley, the academic support teacher, and social work students from the school.   In the next couple weeks we look forward to watching the garden produce vegetables and are looking to set up a compost system.