Off to camp

Soon after arriving here the Martin family invited us to volunteer with them at a camp that is hosted by a local foster home, Casa Agua Azul. The details are hazy to me, I’m still figuring things out. But it seems that Casa Agua Azul has 15-20 foster kids in a home near Fronteras, (the town we are staying at in Rio Dulce). And from what I can tell every year they sponsor a big camp for almost 300 children in the Rio Dulce area just down the river. There is a church group from Texas that started this camp, now it is run by members of local churches with minimal support from the Texas church group. Adults drive around in lanchas (small narrow boats) and collect kids from all over the river and bring them in the morning and then take them home every afternoon. Some of the kids travel an hour through the jungle from small villages to get on the lancha and come to camp. The camp goes for 4 days, the kids do crafts, sing, play games, that sort of thing. The camp itself is about an hour boat ride from where we are in Fronteras.

Our kids as well as Tamara and her kids from Scholé went Thursday, the day before camp started, to help get things set up. It was crazy hot, in 90s, with high humidity. There is no potable water at the camp space, so jugs of potable water were brought in by boat and then the volunteers had to haul the water as well as other supplies from the river to the kitchen/ camp area. Well water was pumped to the site to be used for flushing toilets, that sort of thing. The potable water was in 5 gallon jugs, without a handle, difficult to hold on to and carry, especially with the distance and terrain that had to be traversed.

To their credit, I’m impressed our kids returned the next day to keep volunteering after that long day working so hard in the heat. But the misery of that day was quickly forgotten in the excitement of watching the kids arrive at camp the next day in one lancha after another. They were very excited, singing, whistling, and all just as cute as they could be!

During the camp our kids did do some playing with kids. The first day Ben and Grace played pato y ganso (duck duck goose) with the kids and Tamara and Rita did crafts. They also helped in the kitchen, serving drinks and snacks. There were several ladies who cooked lunch every day for about 300 people. They were happy to put us to work; chopping onions, garlic, potatoes and carrots, skinning the chicken, and preparing the snacks and drinks. They even took advantage of Ben’s height and had him stir the pot of chicken since he had so much better leverage. He has really sensitive eyes like I do, can hardly stand to be around any smoke or fumes or even chop onions. I heard from all the ladies the next day how funny Ben looked standing over a pot of chicken, stirring and crying his eyes out.

It was hard work. Fortunately it was a little cooler the actual camp days (compared to that initial setting up day). The kids had to be taken to the local lancha at 7:30 every morning, and would return by 5pm or so. I only went with the kids one day, and on that day I handwashed more plates and cups than I have in a lifetime. The food was delicious, the Guatemalan ladies all nice and friendly. I was sitting and talking with one of the older ladies. She had been pregnant 15 times, had 5 miscarriages and 10 children. She asked me how big my kids were when they were born. I told her and you should have seen the expression on her face. She was even more surprised to hear they were not delivered by c-section. I guess American babies are a lot larger than Guatemalan ones (but so are the adults in comparison so really its all relative), and certainly my pelvic floor will never be the same. But it was funny to see her expression.

We had briefly met the kids from another boat in the area on New Years Eve, and they were also volunteering. They ware a family from Israel on S/V Rothim, with two teenagers and a 9 year old (and an infant as well). The kids hit it off right away. They were at the camp last year and volunteer at the foster home as well and were very helpful getting the new volunteers organized.

It was long days, hard work, and hot. When the kids returned in the evening they would run go jump in the pool and play until dark, then return to the boat and collapse with smiles on their faces, completely exhausted.