Safe Passage: Creando Esperanza y Oportunidad / Creating Hope and Opportunity

     

T-shirts worn by all the students at Safe Passage

This photo says it all: "Creating Hope and Opportunity".  The Cape Elizabeth 2013 Safe Passage team had a memorable experience volunteering at Safe Passage. The Guatemalan children seemed to enjoy our Olympics and Spelling Bee projects, in which we combined academics with fun. We noticed that the children were willing to engage in activities, regardless of the fact that we were yet another group of volunteers with whom they worked. They had a genuine desire to learn and work with us. The smiles on their faces said it all.

The program provided hope and opportunity to the Cape Elizabeth students because they now have a new perspective on life outside of our town. Many plan to use this service team opportunity to continue volunteer work in their school and community and some are going to sponsor a child in the Safe Passage program.

Thank you to the many community members who supported our fundraisers throughout the year. Also, a big thanks to our major donors: the South Portland - Cape Elizabeth Rotary Club, the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation, and the Cape Elizabeth High School Safe Passage Club.

Sincerely,

Cape Elizabeth 2013 Safe Passage Team

CE Safe Passage Team Trip Video

Mr. O made a wonderful video of our Safe Passage Service trip. It includes our excursions to San Antonio Aguas Calientes, the Filadelfia Coffee Plantation, our service work at Camino Seguro, a hike up Pacaya Volcano, and team members' reflections on the trip.

Video link is here.

CE Students and Chaperones

Day #9, Return to Maine, waiting in airports and Logan arrival

CE Safe Passage Team filling out the Guatemala exit form and the U.S. Customs and Immigration form, right after checking in bags at Guatemala City Airport.

Waiting in the Guatemala City airport for flight to Miami. Hmmm...could Will and Parker be watching soccer on the monitor??

Guatemala City Airport, waiting at our gate.










At Miami International Airport, tram from international arrivals to our gate for Boston flight.

Last leg of trip, picking up our bags at Logan and then off to find the CE school bus for our trip to Maine.












There was a loud HURRAH on the bus when we crossed the NH line into Maine. ¡Glad to be home!

Day #9, Returning to Cape, last day in Guatemala

After a busy eight days, we're ready to return home. We left for the Guatemala City airport at 10 a.m. from Hotel Casa Antigua on Monday, July 1. We had some time to walk around Antigua prior to our departure: last minute trips to the market, packing, walking around Antigua, or buying our last Guatemalan coffee.

Monday morning, half an hour before departure,  an Antigua street half a block from our hotel. We walked down this street, towards the volcano, to go to the banks, the main plaza, artists' markets, and past a team favorite restaurant, Monoloco.







Esperanza and Edgar gave us yellow ribbons to tie to our suitcases so they'd be easier to spot in the airport. ¡Gracias a los dos! It made it much easier in Miami and Logan to pull any yellow-ribboned bag off the conveyor belt. We had our 26+ bags all together in no time. We learned this trick from a large Bangor mission trip traveling with us on the flight down to Guatemala.

The hotel courtyard, while we're waiting to load vans.  Hotel personnel arranged fresh flowers in the fountain after a Saturday morning market trip to buy flowers.

Waiting in hotel lobby, Monday morning. Ready to return to Maine.

Van #1 on the way to Guate Airport, leaving Antigua area.

Day #8, Chichicastenango

Today, our last day in Guatemala, we went to Chichicastenango, an indigenous area in the Guatemala Highlands. Students bargained and bought souvenirs for family, friends and themselves. Chichicastenango is a explosion of sounds, colors, people, crowds, smells, hawkers, tourists, and more. It's the largest indigenous open-air market in Central America.

Day #7, Saturday afternoon in Antigua

After the bowling excursion, we spent the afternoon in Antigua. Students went to the local open-air market, hung out at the hotel, or visited some of the city's cultural sites.

Before our Safe Passage Good-bye Dinner, the students wrote lots of thank-you letters and post cards to the numerous relatives, friends, neighbors, and civic organizations that supported our trip. We'll mail them from the U.S. to be sure that they arrive.

After dinner the team posed for a group photo in the hotel courtyard at about 10:30 p.m.

Day # 7, Bowling Excursion with Safe Passage students on Saturday

On Saturday morning we left the hotel at 8 a.m. to walk to a rented chicken bus that would take us to Guatemala City. Buses are only allowed on the perimeter roads of Antigua, hence our morning walk.

  

We picked up the students at Safe Passage in Guatemala City and then headed to the bowling alley. It was a wonderful time because it was fun to teach the children how to bowl and we were able to fully integrate the two groups. There were two Safe Passage students and two CE students at each lane.

The majority of the children had never bowled so they had no idea how to roll the ball, keep score, take two turns at a time, or score the game. In some lanes, students just took turns rolling the ball down the lane while others played real games.

We heard balls clunking everywhere, music blaring, lots of laughter, and students excitedly waiting in line for free popcorn. After an hour of bowling, we shared pizza, soda, ice cream together and just hung out chatting for a while. The Safe Passage children clung to the CE students and really engaged with us. A very successful morning.

There are more photos on our team Flickr site. Many of these are from Team A, the Spelling Bee group, because I'm part of that team. 

Some of the first attempts at bowling while waiting

for the lanes to be set up. Not quite sure how it works...

 Inputting the names to prepare for play.

Lunch time after bowling.

Popsicles after lunch.

This student and a few others at the table loved  playing games on Parker's iPhone.











Ben received one of our team's "Kid magnet" award
because he seemed to attract lots of friends.
Here we are on the way back to Safe Passage from bowling and this little boy said, "This was the best day of my life!"

A successful excursion all around.

Day # 6, Friday, Pacaya Volcano hike

Today we hiked Pacaya Volcano, one of three active volcanoes in Guatemala. It took about two hours to hike up and about an hour to hike back down. This excursion was an unplanned activity, arranged by Safe Passage because there were no classes today so we couldn't complete our projects.

Pacaya's elevation is 2,522 meters (8,373 ft) and the top is now closed by the officials due to current volcanic activity. I'm not sure of the elevation at our starting point but the guide said we our hike entailed a 600 meter elevation change or almost 2,000 ft.

It was more steep and strenuous than we anticipated but we patiently worked our way up. The guides had frequent breaks along the way and they explained the history, flora, and geological history.

The locals have walking sticks you can rent (five quetzales each, about 60 cents) and there are horses available for a ride up the volcano. The horse handlers are very persistent and they follow you up the trail for the first thirty minutes or so. Good psychology because after those first thirty minutes, we were huffing and puffing.

At the top we posed for photos and explored a bit. The landscape is very barren and covered with tiny hardened lava stones.

The guides brought a bag of marshmallows and cut us marshmallow sticks along the way. While at the top, the students crowded around a steam vent to
 roast them.

We stopped at a rustic picnic area for lunch and then
 hiked back down to the vans. Many of us slept on the vans
on the return trip to Antigua and we were back to the hotel
at about 4:15 p.m.

Some groups went to the market but others hung out at the
hotel due to a major rainstorm.We had dinner at 7 p.m. in Las Palmas restaurant and
returned to Hotel Casa Antigua at about 8:30.

Tomorrow can sleep in because we don't leave until 8:30 a.m.
for our bowling excursion with the two Safe Passage classes.