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| Holding up the kid packs supplied by Marine View |
From our moment of arrival through our time of departure, we were literally surrounded by the children of Xoxlac. Not too surprising, considering they had never seen the likes of us before, or any other Americans for that matter.
They peered into our sleeping quarters on the school room floor. When we tried to close the big metal door at night there would still be an inch-wide crack and we could see little eyes staring through. If we did manage to close the door all of the way, there was a big uncovered window on the other side and we saw them standing up on something to watch. Unfortunately, I did not discover this until after I'd changed into my shorts.
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| Steve Drury hands out kids packs |
Whenever we would install the stoves in the houses there would be children watching our every move. They would just stand by the door and look in. We kind of got used to it after awhile. Sometimes we would play games and chase them around. Maxx, our youngest team member, seemed to have a natural way with these kids and they would warm right up to him more than the rest of us.
John Kirk gave them candy and soccer balls and that helped too. I loved making grunting noises and trying to scare them, but they would call my bluff and come right back after I waved my arms wildly in the air. They also enjoyed seeing their photos in our digital cameras. Larry was the master at that.
One of the most rewarding days was when we gave out the kid packs we brought to the school children. They gathered in the yard, one large group before school and another after lunch. Willy formally introduced us and, as we had on opening nights, our group took turns introducing ourselves in Spanish and they would say our names back. Except for Pastor Jon, who insisted on calling himself Santa Claus. The kids thought that was funny.
The packs had boring things like soap and toothbrushes but they also had jump ropes and tennis balls. Maxx, again being our youngest athlete, had the job of showing the kids how to jump rope and some caught on quite quickly. It was fun later to install some stoves and see the tennis balls being tossed around, even though there were no tennis courts in sight.
I could write about the challenges kids face in the village. How many of them don't finish school, even to the sixth grade, how many of them malnourished and suffer from childhood diseases and don't even live to their teens. Or how those who do marry about the same time they enter puberty and start having children of their own. One house where we installed stoves was no bigger than most of our kitchens, perhaps smaller, but yet there were four little kids running around and an infant slung on mom's back.
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| Doug and a village child |
Pedro, the friendly 32-year-old head school master I've mentioned previously, told us he is the father of eight. He married at age 13 and had six by his wife, then took another wife (or girlfriend, I'm not clear) and fathered two more children who live in a separate house. We got the feeling that isn't standard, but not rare either.
But we weren't there to solve any of the village's bigger problems, or even to address them. We were there to help improve respiratory health and offer hope through our simple act of installing stoves. And that's we did.
On our final day we ended up having some surplus candy. During our closing ceremony Marco and Willy asked the kids to join hands and gather into a circle. In piñata style a few of our team members tossed the candy and the children excitedly picked it up off the ground. There was even more left after that, and it became an all-comers fest where the adults were invited to go for the candy too. They were just as eager to grab it as the kids!
It was nice to leave with such high spirits, knowing we had brought happiness to a village so far away, especially to the children.
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| Children scramble for candy |
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