Childcare in Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala

Although this was not my first experience in volunteering abroad, it is definitely one that will stay with me.

Volunteers stay in Antigua, a quaint little town with cobbled roads and a backdrop of volcanoes. There is plenty to see in this tourist area, and a quite active nightlife, for those who are interested.

Wally, from Maximo Nivel, accompanied us to our project on the first day. We caught a mini-bus from the market in Antigua, and this took us to the village of Santa Maria de Jesus, about 20 minutes away. Wally advised us to enjoy the experience, try our best to benefit the community, but also to keep our eyes open and learn. He gave us some background about the community - although the area is quite poor, the daycare is state-funded. However, after children are too old for the daycare, the families have the options to send them either to private school or to a state-funded school. Paying for private schools is generally out of the question and, because most families have around 15 children, even paying for school supplies to send them to public school is too expensive. A lot of children, once they are 5 or 6, will therefore have no further education and will work with their fathers on the farms or their mothers selling things in the markets. I saw a very young girl carrying a baby in a sling on her back. I presumed that this young girl was left to care for her brother while their parents were working. After Wally told me that a lot of the girls have children when they are as young as 12 or 13, I realised that the baby on this girl's back might not have been her brother.

Starting work in the nursery, I soon realised how warm and loving the children (and staff) are. On my first day there, the children were coming and hugging me and trying to climb on me and the other volunteers. They had very little reservation in playing with these three complete strangers who barely knew any Spanish. For my first few days, I tried hard to communicate in my broken Spanish with the children. However, I soon realised that it is not so much the words you are saying that are important. The children are very quick to respond to your tone and actions. Not knowing Spanish is not a particularly large barrier to having a great time at the daycare.

I loved being at the daycare and, hearing about other volunteers' experiences at other projects, I strongly suspect that mine was the best. If you are lucky enough to get a placement here, you will probably end up wanting to stay longer.