A Helping Holiday in Guatemala

"My name is Juan Manuel. I work for Iberia as a flight coordinator in Malaga airport. 

In March, 2017, Iberia, Mano a Mano –“Hand to Hand”, the NGO founded by Iberia employees– and the Rural Community Development Association (ADECOR in its Spanish acronym) launched an “Iberia Classroom” to enhance the employment prospects of students at the secondary school in the rural “Los Tunayes” zone in San Martín Jilotepeque. 

A few months ago, the airline invited interested employees to serve as volunteers to support computer classes at the “Iberia Classroom”. 
 
I had always wanted to volunteer for an NGO, and I seized this chance.

No sooner said than done. We left Madrid bound for Guatemala in early July. At the airport, we were met by representatives of the Iberia NGO who gave us a number of cases containing the household items we would need in our quarters, as well as gifts for Iberia Classroom students.

Mano a Mano and Iberia had built two new classrooms and nine bathrooms at the school in the village of Los Tunayes, 15 km from the town of San Martín and 60 km from Guatemala City. One of the classrooms was equipped with computers and a fibre optic line. That room was our destination.

We reached Guatemala after an 11-hour flight, and we were greeted by Bartolomé, who was responsible for the high school, who not only drove us to the village but also put us up in his home, which was very modest, with a wood stove for cooking and no hot water in the bathroom. In addition, one of his children had shopped for supplies for us at the town of San Martín, some 8 km distant. All this helped us to fall into step with the local way of life.

We first met with the school principal Gladis and the teaching staff to discuss the scheduling and contents of our classes. It was agreed that we would teach the kids how to use computers.

The fibre optic lines had been installed only a few days earlier, and we had to start by updating the operating systems of all the computers.

Soon, it was time to meet with our students, all between the ages of 15 and 18, and in coordination with the regular teachers we began by checking their levels of competence in order to adjust the contents of our teaching.

We initiated the kids into the use of the Office suite –Word, Excel, and Power Point– and, also, show them how to go online and to use the social networks responsibly.

They were enthralled by Google Maps and Flightradar24, and delighted that they could find answers to almost any question from Wikipedia and from YouTube tutorials. We explained how hard –and sometimes impossible– it is to erase anything we post about ourselves on the social network and advised caution.

One day a student invited us to a birthday party, which, instead of being an afternoon snack as we’re accustomed to, was a breakfast at home, with grilled pork, guacamole, corn tortillas, salad, and coffee. The whole family wore native Mayan dress. They were very attentive and hospitable to us volunteers, and it was a very heart-warming occasion.

The last day was dedicated to games and handing out the gifts supplied by Mano a Mano and the ones we had bought ourselves –football jerseys, a pétanque game, balls, handbags for the girls, rucksacks, etc. The pétanque game was a great success and even the teachers played. We also played the handkerchief game, which, to our surprise, they were unfamiliar with. 

Departure day was a very emotional occasion –lots of photos with students and teachers were taken and a group of students came up to formally express their gratitude for our help.

It was a very rewarding experience to transmit useful knowledge to the students, and for me, personally, it was very enriching to spend a couple of weeks as a part of a society very different from our own. I would love to do it again!