For the second year, a group of students studying Spanish at The Dalles High School is heading to Guatemala on a service trip to bring water purifiers to desperately poor Mayan residents on Lake Atitlan.
This year’s group is twice the size, with 10 students. On their nine-day trip next spring, they will work with Worthy Village, a non-profit, to distribute the simple water purifiers to families.
The purifier is two stacked five-gallon buckets attached with a basic filtration system that filters clean water into the lower bucket, which has a spigot to dispense the water.
If kept clean, they can last seven to 10 years, said Spanish teacher Brian Greeley, who is leading the trip.
With more students, they’ll be able to deliver more water filtration kits and have more of an impact, Greeley said.
The filtration systems are issued one per family, but often end up getting used by neighbors also.
The families are the poorest of the poor, often without cars, and usually doing day labor to get by.
Last year, students did three service days, but because of feedback that students wanted more work, this year they’re doing four. Their tourist days will include a day trip to Antigua, a UN world Heritage city.
Mayans speak Kaqchikel, but many of them also speak at least a smattering of Spanish. This year, eight of the total of 10 people going speak Spanish fluently.
Last year, Greeley was the only one.
Worthy Village will provide an interpreter who translates from Kaqchikel to English.
Junior Petra Van Kessel signed up for the trip “because I like helping people, It’s a main priority for what I want to do when I graduate college.”
She said, “I expect it to definitely be an experience that is going to be life changing.”
Junior Julia McClure said, “I want to go because I’m really interested in travelling but I’d rather travel with a purpose, rather than just go and tour.” She thinks it will change her perspective on her own life and be a great experience. She doesn’t know what to expect, but said, “I feel I won’t come back as the same person.”
The Dalles high School Spanish teacher Jill Pearson is one of three chaperones on the trip, and one of the eight who speaks Spanish.
She’s lived in Argentina and been to Mexico, but has never been to Guatemala.
She said with the kind of “volentourism” they’re doing, “You do see the sights, but with an emphasis on community service.”
She said she wanted to go when the opportunity came up because “the students that went to Guatemala last year have been talking about it pretty much non-stop since then.”
She hopes the trip for students will lead to “a lifetime of service.”
She said the trip will bring “poverty shock” to students in terms of resources and in some cases, the preventability of diseases. As relates to their trip specifically, it will show that access to clean water prevents disease.
Poverty is complex, she said, but parts of it have a simple solution.
Sophomore Denise Vega said she jumped on the opportunity to both travel and help others. She’s worried a bit about being away from her family.
She said Greeley has talked about the poverty at Lake Atitlan, “I think it will change my view, that I have more opportunities than others do.”
Senior Aylin Bustamante said she’s excited to see the Mayan culture and the life they’re living.”
And while they’re poor, “I feel their actual attitude is gong to be really happy and joyful. I think they’re just grateful for the small things they have.”
Her main concern is that she won’t be able to communicate with them.
Students need to raise $2,300 each for the trip, which is not connected to the school. They are doing a series of fundraisers, including raffling off a $240 weekender bag from Guatemala, made by Worthy Village.
Tickets for the raffle are one for $10 or three for $20. The drawing is Dec. 12 during an event at the Sunshine Mill, whch runs from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
People can also contribute to a GoFundMe account, which can be found at gofundme.com/tdhs-guatemala-trip.
Ana Ramirez, a sophomore, said of the trip: “You always hear about the poor countries but I really want to experience it first hand so I can see it for myself. I think that will be more eye opening.”
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