St. Marks RC School
Since we began our project St. Marks Roman Catholic Primary School (SMRC) has been a prime focus of our attention. The school has 3 teachers in which one of the teachers is the principal Mr. Ac, he also is our neighbor and most trusted companion in Otoxha. There are 80 students in 6 Standards or in the U.S. called grades. The ages of the children are anywhere from 4 to 14.
In SMRC you find a very unique situation as the only government funding is the teachers salaries, and the Catholic Church only provides for chalk and furniture, all other expenses depend on the teachers salaries or their dependency on charity. The reason I believe the government only provides for salaries is due to the fact that in the Toledo District of Belize the Maya have communal land. This means Maya communities don’t pay taxes on the land they live on or their farms, they are thought of as Maya not Belizean land. Naturally I understand why funding from the government is very limited here in Maya Toledo but the educational situation of these communities is very tricky and can be costly for the teachers.
Another hamper on educational and socio-economic development of Maya Toledo is the cost of high school which as I said above gets very minimal funding from the government. The cost is $300 BZ a year or $150 US, which for families that mainly consist of subsistence farming is a very unrealistic cost for them to pay. So often youth which should be attending High School are home or on the farms working to help their families, instead of gaining an education which surely is the key to growth.
This is why Andra and I have taken it upon ourselves to focus on the development of SMRC and its youth. So far we have organized and painted the library; as long as it’s kept organized this will ensure easier access to subject based research in the school. We have also began writing and researching possible grants for SMRC including reaching our hands out to other NGO’s who’s specific purpose is educational development, this includes looking for scholarships for high school. Already we are organizing an end of the year party (or in Belize, marathon) which will include raffles and other games that will help fundraise for the 2011/12 school year.
We have a lot to work on still but I believe we are committed to seeing the children of Otoxha succeed in the future for their sakes and for the Kekchi Mayas sake.
The Progress of the Families Gardens
Currently well into the 4th week of being in our project area and 2 weeks into starting the gardens the families have completed 4 gardens and 5 are in progress. I believe this work has been the most difficult for us as we always struggle with the families to move them into action.
Our philosophy is that it is their garden therefore their whole family should build it. We came to this conclusion solidly when we found they equated NGO volunteers to givers. “Give me this!” “Build it there.” “When will you come to make my garden.” It was clear to us they have had many weak minded individuals in there community before. With this reality we faced, forcefully we have pushed the families to action, slapping down their pleas of “I’m to weak” or” I’m to lazy,” and reinforcing their successes with “now you see you are strong and you did do it yourself!!!” Of course once we have seen that the family has taken the initiative we go over and help with the manual labor for short periods of time.
Since we asked Humana to supply us with more tools we have a system where up to 4 families have tools at one time, so even the thought of building all the families gardens is nearly impossible plus the fact that we’d never do that. So far only 3 families didn’t build their gardens after having tools for more then 3-4 days. We are sure to check on families everyday or every other day and when our self-empowerment techniques don’t work, and examples and advice go unheeded then we take the tools. Of course we haven’t given up on the family because they didn’t build the garden, but at the same time we must not build or “give” the families anything, just as were told not to with children so it applies to all peoples all ages everywhere.
I think this “giving” or “charity” non-sense overshadows the real need for development which stands in contrast to charity. As I believe charity can hamper creativity and create dependency, without realizing or dealing with the real social issues which created this dependency in the first place. Not to say I don’t appreciate philanthropy but I think the honest groups and people in this field should carefully examine and discuss the best way to move people from dependency to development
Personal Feelings
I think these past two weeks have been the hardest on me since I started my adventure in Michigan in October. Andra and I have been feeling the culture shock and the initial excitement or “honey moon” stage is over. I miss my home in Colorado and I really miss my family, every night we talk about our families and how much we love each others families and the funny quarks we all inherited from them. I think if I could see them one time I could move on from it because it’s only a matter of months before we are united with our 2 families or our now one bigger family. I know that’s probably not possible and that this is only a faze but one with which we both have agonizingly been suffering with, which hasn’t been helped by our demanding drive to make change. I hope they are all well, I really miss their faces and their laughs.
All my love for my One Big Family
Brian
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