Mission logbooks: discover Guatemala through our bilingual education project

At the end of a bumpy dirt road, which cannot be used during the rainy season, we arrive at the Aldea Seacte rural school, located in a small settlement/between 2 churches.

It’s Monday, a Civic Day dedicated today to the importance of the mother tongue: in the schoolyard, pupils are standing in single file, singing the national anthem with their hands on their hearts. The younger children’s class is responsible for today’s speech, which focuses on Mayan values.

Some fifteen parents are currently installing fences around the school. Community solidarity is essential in this country, where everyone has to get by as best they can; the State is weak and corrupt, and it is often the parents who must take care of repairing the infrastructure. There is a shortage of desks, textbooks, water sources, toilets, etc., in schools.

We talk to Ariel Choc, the school’s principal, who is very committed to the success of his pupils. The main language spoken here is Q’eqchi’, one of the 22 Mayan languages. The children speak Q’eqchi’ at home and don’t understand Spanish, which is Guatemala’s official language. Teachers have to manage multi-level classes with very large numbers of pupils. The school principal explains that Enfants du Monde’s bilingual school material is very useful for teachers, as it is designed both in Q’eqchi’ and Spanish. It also takes into account regional linguistic variants of Q’eqchi’.

The second school we visit is an urban school located in the department of Chimaltenango, closer to the capital. Spanish is the main language spoken by the majority of children in this school, as their parents did not teach them the Mayan language Kaqchikel, spoken by their grandparents and by people living in more rural areas of the region. The children are aware that learning to read and write in Kaqchikel will enable them to communicate more easily with their families, and to find work in other regions. They are also keen to learn English, which may allow them to emigrate to the USA, as some of them dream to do.

The children are excited to talk to me, and crowd in front of me to be interviewed, but they all fall silent when I unfold my tripod and start asking them questions – yet, I’m filming with a cell phone, a far less intimidating object than a professional camera!

There’s nothing like a game of cards – I borrowed a deck from my children upon leaving – to build trust and bring back their smiles!