Fransisco Coll School cont.

This is where those workers live. In fact, this is not the worst part of the slum as a new group of squatters have recently moved in closer to the dump. For our visit to this area we had only one person taking photos, so I can only show you this one - but this community stretches on and on, no running water, the fortunate have corrugated metal shacks to live in, others build with whatever they can find.

All of this is built on filled in dump, the city dump has been gradually moving over the years and as it does it gets filled in and the poor build on top. Many of these people come from the rural areas of Guatemala in search of work, but having arrived in the city with nothing they find there are no jobs to be had, and so many end up in communities like this one scraping by in whatever way they can.

Amidst this poverty is one of the gratest beacons of hope I have ever seen - built on filled in dump and surrounded by some of the poorest living conditions imaginable is a beatiful little scool called Fransisco Coll.

The school, with it's light green walls and beautiful murals is where many of the children of this community are being given their only chance at a better life. We were welcomed into the classrooms where we were presented with crafts made for us by the kids - it was the most touching experiencew I have ever had, these kids were, after all, just kids. They were so happy and filled with love, and each day they are able to leave the squallor of their lives and enter this beautiful school where they recieve the greatest gift possible - hope.

Before Fransisco Coll was built, children were born here and worked in the dumpo their entire lives (as some still do), now they have a chance for something better. Education is the only logical starting point when you look at a situation like this, because the question is always "where do you start?" so the answer is with school, with children - give them an opportunity to create something better for themselves and we may someday break the cycle that allows living conditions like these to be considered acceptable.

We left the school and toured the area around it, then headed to the CEDEPCA offices where we had our lunch and got an explanation of the work CEDEPCA does not only with Fransisco Coll, but in trying to stop the cycle of violence towards weomen in Guatemala which has become so bad it now has it's own name "femicide" and thanks to a system of impunity continues to get worse. We also recieved an overview of the social/political state of the country and an explanation of the full contact politics that talke place here.

The next day we left for Xela, and I will stop here for now, since I am obviously having a hard time doing anything in short form (although this has been quite condensed).

***Please excuse the numerous spelling errors that are probably in what I have written, and what I will write in the future - the computer thinks in spanish, so when I hit spell check it's poor little brain can't figure out why every word is wrong.***