Very early this morning I said goodbye to the Zaragoza Step team -- An all female team who have had a real impact on the community where they´ve been working.
First, a few pictures of our weekend away at Panajachel, on Lake Atitlan. ...
Romantic meal by the shore of the Lake!
During their goodbye party, it was fantastic to hear from the staff who work at the project, how the team have got stuck into all the different tasks that they´ve had to do. They were able to complete a mural project / renovate the play area of the local preschool - and taught english to some of the children. The school were so pleased with what they´d done, that they are now planning to complete another mural with the help of the parents group. It also gave the Director of the project the chance to speak to the parents of the preschoolers - encouraging them to get involved in their childrens education, and to develop their own education. (The project offers an adult literacy course for the many adults in the area who never went to school.)
In the project itself, they have helped with the children´s after school club, which helps those children at risk of dropping out of school. They teach Christian values in a fun way, help with homework - as well as simply being positive and encouraging about the children achieving something in life. The kids were so sad to see them go.
But their impact has been even broader than the work they have done. Part of the Step ethos is that teams live and work in the community that they are serving. So for this team, that included buying fruit and veg from the local market down the road. Even in the space of 3 weeks, they had become a recognised part of the community. On their last day, the lady who runs the fruit stall, that they always bought from, came to say goodbye and give them a huge fruit hamper, tearfully explaining that it was a thank you for what they were doing for the community.
