Project Guatemala Blog

Final Days

Happy New Year!

As I huddle from the cold back in Victoria, I update the last part of our project from sunny Guatemala.

We purchased two new goals for the aldea of El Llano in the Patzun area.

After a slightly painful 2 hour journey through the town of Patzun, we arrived at the village at dusk. Many eager hands quickly  put up the posts and fading darkness met the celebratory crackle of firecrackers.

We were invited back the following day to watch a tournament between local small villages.

In addition to the field repairs, we also donated soccer balls and uniforms to a number of schools and small villages, around the area.

Here are some photos of the field construction in the village of Moxocliot Alto, which we have mentioned before but couldn’t upload.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures.

We will have a final report about the project after my dad returns from Guatemala in a few days.

Mocolicxot Alto

We visited the small village of Mocolicxot Alto today to see the results of the leveling of a playing field on the local school grounds and to bring some uniforms and balls for the school.

A 40 minute walk/hike down and up a gorge takes you to the village of Moxocliot Alto from the main town of Patzun. We passed an old lady with no shoes making it look easy.

A large group of local kids were there to greet us as we walked through the corn and pea fields up to the school.

This multi colored one wanted her own picture!

Even though for now it remains dirt, the field had already been used by all members of the community old and young.

This area will be seeded and hopefully produce grass once the dry season has ended and further work will be done with the help of the municipality of Patzun to install seating on the side.

After being overwhelmed by the amount of initial gratitude and eager energy we presented the children of the village with a set of girls and boys uniforms as well as some balls that the school will be able to keep and make sure they are used by everyone.

The school has a girls team who plays against other teams in  the area, and won an inter-school tournament last year.

We were given a couple small presents (woven canadian flag) and a heartfelt thank you from one of the teachers, my dad´s, Lorenzo Magzul´s cousin (who blessed the field) and the community representative.

This village of 250 families is one of the poorest in the Patzun area and very few (1  or 2) children continue school beyond grade 6. We will continue to support the community with further development projects (last year our family donated supplies and new chalk boards for the school-Michelle Buck and John Lydon) and our ties will remain close.

In addition to the levelling of a new field, the excess dirt was used to repair roads around the town. With the contribution of 15 community volunteers who donated their entire day these much needed repairs were realized and the initial single goal of the project blossomed into two.

More tomorrow.

Kieran

Cojobal

We have completed 2 of 3 development projects in the Patzun area in the past few days. I will just let you know about the first one today.

The third project will be completed Sunday just before we take off back to Canada.

On Saturday we payed for and helped install the new goal posts at the field in Cojobal.

After paying the local metal worker, we jumped on the back of a flat bed truck,with the goal posts, and wove through the narrow streets of Patzun to Cojobal.

When we arrived we were greeted by members of the local soccer team and various members of the Cojobal community.

The installation was truly a community effort as everyone from local children to the land owner lent a hand.

Within literally minutes the posts were in use.

The real community celebration came the day after when Cojobal hosted a local soccer tournament, and we became officially part of the community as the Cojobal  community representative recorded the event in the towns History book.

The man pictured below, Ismael Marroquin (affectionately `Santa Claus´) is the owner of the land the Cojobal field is located on. He donated it to the local community free of charge as a place for people to gather and enjoy themselves, not only for soccer. He had lived in the city of Guatemala for 50 years before returning to Cojobal, his birthplace, a few years back and has been an active communitarian throughout this time.

Ismael also plays on the local team which, at 65 years old, is quite an admirable feat (try and find him in the team photo above). We shared a drink after setting up the nets and he agreed to let us tell his story and photograph him.

This experience has truly been inspirational and we will return to visit Cojobal as soon as we can.

Moving Along

Our first real update from Guatemala-

It has taken a little while, as expected, for things to develop here but our last 2 weeks in Guatemala are now packed with things to do.

Firstly-

We have identified one community where our funds will be used to completely change the landscape of a schools uneven playing area into a soccer field for children.

The aldea of Moxoclicot Alto near Patzun, Guatemala, where we are staying, will be the benefit of this project.

The area pictured above will be landscaped into a flat playing surface with two nets, and although it will be dirt at first grass will hopefully sprout during the rainy season to make better playing surface.

The landscaping should be completed by next week and we will be giving the school a set of soccer uniforms as well.

Today-

This morning we surprised the small village of Cojobal (located near Patzun) local celebration and gathering and gave soccer balls and uniforms to the local school and town team. We said a few words about our project and the community leaders spoke appreciatively and were clearly moved by the donation.

After viewing the state of their goalposts at their local field we have decided to fund the purchase of two new, good quality goals for the villages use. This will be completed this Saturday and we have been invited to participate in a celebratory game on Sunday!

More updates Soon,

thank you again too all of you who made this possible!

Kieran

Update

So far we have raised $800.00 on-line through www.givemeaning.com/project/katoki and $2400 off-line through soccer camps and fundraising bringing a total to date of $3200.00 for the Kato’ki project. Thank you for all who have donated your time and funds!!! It is not too late to donate -  See below for how you can help us reach our $5000 goal before Christmas. Even a $10.00 on-line donation makes a big difference. You also have an opportunity to bid on a beautiful art piece pictured below by Caitlin Ambery- bids close by Friday December 12^th. at 5pm!

November 30^th was indeed a lively, lovely event at the Belfry in Victoria. Thank you to musicians Art Napoleon, The Ecclestons, Chris Frye and the Bills, Adrien Dolan, Courtney Campbell and the B.C. Youth Fiddle Orchestra, poet Budd Hall, artists Stefanie Denz,  designer Shane Ricketts, Belfry volunteers and Oportunitas Aequea spokespeople Gavin Holley and Duncan Penn for a memorable evening. Thank you also to local bakeries The Roost, Cakes Etc, Cheescake 101, Bubby Rose, Wildfire, La Collina, Art’s Bakery, Patisserie Danielle, The Pink Sugar and Café Fantastico for donating fabulous refreshments!  Support these performers and businesses!

More Soon!

Home to Home

We have arrived in Guatemala!

We left Vancouver on Sunday morning at 8am and arrived to family at the Guatemalan airport that night, bags laddened with soccer equipment.

After a night spent in Guatemala city, we made the winding, ever climbing journey the next day up into the highland area of Guatemala to Patzun, where our Project efforts will take place.

We are just settling in and will be posting regularily once we have started progress.

Thank You again to all of those who attended our benefit concert/evening, it was a great success and raised valuable funds for the people of the Patzun area.

Kieran

http://www.canada.com/harbourcitystar/news/sports/story.html?id=78191913-ced8-4bd8-a4f1-7ee146596631

Project Guatemala Fundraiser

We are putting together a fundraising evening on the 23rd of November, please invite all your family and friends!

Playing for a Cause-Songs for Soccer

A Project Guatemala Benefit Night

at

the Belfry Arts Centre

 Sunday November 23rd 8pm Doors at 7:30

  Mark your calendars!  Please come!

Please join us on Sunday November 23rd from 8pm at the Belfry Arts Centre for an exciting evening of music and songs, poems, photos and reflections, all to support Kato’ki *, the Guatemala Soccer project which is raising funds to rebuild playing fields for children and communities in Patzun Guatemala. Kato’Ki means  “Lets help each other” in Cakchiquel, the Mayan language spoken by the people in Patzun.

 MC Art Napoleon www.artnapoleon.com, a nationally-renowned singer and story-teller, will be joined by Victoria’s “full contact folk” group The Ecclestons www.theecclestons.com, Chris Fry from The Bills, www.thebills.ca, Courtney Campbell with the B.C. Fiddle Orchestra, and poetry from Budd Hall, who together will guarantee an entertaining and lively evening for all ages. Victoria-based volunteer youth Duncan Penn from NGO sponsor Oportunitas Aequa and Kieran Magzul from Project Guatemala will give visual presentations on their volunteer work in Africa and Latin America to support children’s health and education projects.  

Admission is by donation  (Suggested $15/adult, $10/children & $40/family or what you can afford).  There will be delicious desserts, tea and coffee and dazzling door prizes. Gift Cards will be available for those wanting to donate to the Project in someone’s name, a unique and charitable Christmas Gift! 

The Community of Patzun

Project Guatemala is intended to help poor and under-resourced villages in and around the town of Patzun. Patzun has 49,000 inhabitants; with 20,000 in the main town and 29.000 in outlying villages. The town has a mainly Mayan population (95%) and the traditional customs, dress and language (kaqchiquel) of this culture remain strong. The women generally wear colorfully embroidered tops called Huipils and equally colorful, patterned dresses. A large proportion of the population are farmers and cultivate a wide variety of crops that includes the basic staple corn. The tortilla is made from corn flour and is the main source of nourishment for most people.

  Despite living in difficult conditions, the people of Patzun have great pride and interest in their culture and community health. The Project Guatemala campaign will promote this outlook as the community will have an improved space for gatherings and exercise. Our project will heavily consult and involve the Patzun community in the project as this ensures a sense of local pride and collective ownership in the field developments.

Opportunitas Aequa

Blog!

So, We thought it was necessary for this project to have a space where updates about the project can be posted.

Also we will be using this blog while down in Guatemala to show the progress of our project through pictures and stories to keep people involved.

Thanks for the support!

Kieran and the Project Guatemala team