Bjugstad Family Connection in Guatemala

These are the types of connections that can only be made over a Sunday cup of coffee in places like Sheyenne, ND or in an Arizona snow-bird refugee camps. Allyson Phelps sent me an email a few months ago to say that we were probably related. She is serving in the Peace Corps municipal development program and arrived to Guatemala in September 2005, about 4 months before we did, so we hadn't ever met but shared common friends. A few weeks ago we went out to lunch in Guatemala City to sort things out. Here's the linage we came up with, maybe someone will find it interesting enough for the family history books. If anyone has anything to add, you can leave a comment on this post.

>Corby Lewis, Peace Corps Volunteer (Jan 2006-now) in Salacuim,
Cobán, Alta Verapaz
--->David Lewis
----->Marian Kruger
------->Bernice Bjugstad
--------->Andrew Borreson Bjugstad and Johanna Julseth
------->George "Judd" Bjugstad
----->Wilmer Bjugstad
--->Erica Bjugstad
>Allyson Phelps, Peace Corps Volunteer (Sept 2005-now) in San
Raymundo, Guatemala


Allyson and I after lunch in Guatemala City

Child of the week

In an attempt to show what an impact the donations to the scholarship program have made, I thought I would post information about a child once a week. Those of you that donated through Friends of Guatemala should be receiving a letter from the child we have chosen to give your money to. They all took the letter writing process very seriously and when they were handed the piece of paper with your name on it, they just stared at it. None of them can believe that someone in the United States wants to help them.
I'm always amazed when I see all the activities that the kids are getting involved in. It's hard to imagine that without your support, they would not have the chance to do any of this. Through this program, leaders are being created in the community. Every day I am reminded that education is the ONLY way to break the cycle of poverty that exists here. When we held our letter writing meeting, one of the most humbling discoveries was that many of the student's parents could not sign their names or help their child read the directions we passed out. Instead we used their fingerprints as a signature and the older kids helped the younger kids with the instructions. Already it was evident that the large majority of children had surpassed the educational abilities of their parents. The struggle to educate here is immense. Little by little steps are being made. Thanks for your support and this is where your money is going...


name: Claudia Chub
age: 16
grade: 7th
favorite subject: math
favorite sport: soccer
# of brothers and sisters: 2 brothers, 4 sisters
future goal: to be a college graduate

Claudia was recommended to us by her 6th grade teacher as someone with motivation to study and a great sense of respect for those around her. Her teacher told us that she was not enrolling in classes this year, due to the increase in prices for junior high. Her family was simply unable to come up with money to send her to school this year. It's fairly rare for girls in Salacuim to go beyond 6th grade. There are always more opportunities for the boys and the girls really have to fight for an education. It is very common for many of the girls to get pregnant at 13 and be bound to the house and a family with no more than a 6th grade education. We were determined not to let this happen and that's when we found Claudia.
We were instantly impressed with how well spoken she was and her ability to communicate her thoughts and desire to study. She has continued to impress us with her organization and the responsibility she takes for all her studies. Since being enrolled in school, she has become an active player on the basketball team, she is participating in typing classes (one hour a day for the entire year) and 2 nights ago she was crowned ¨senorita simpatía¨ or miss friendliness.


basketball practice


typing class


¨senorita simpatía¨

Many of the children we encounter do not have a lot of support from their families. Not because they don't want to help their children, but mostly because they don't know how or lack the ability to help. Claudia's parents have been involved from day one. I will never forget when we invited them over to our house to talk about enrolling their daughter in our program and after we told her that we were going to help her out this year, both her parents started to cry. We had not received a reaction like this before, but they truly were grateful that someone was willing to help their child. You could tell that this was a life changing event for them.


Claudia and her parents, Martin & Rosalia

The money from Claudia's sponsor is going towards her tuition, uniform, typing classes, fees for sports and extracurricular activities (such as pageants) and also paying for her to take her exams every couple months. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it all adds up to making her experience a successful one. A couple hundred dollars goes so far here and it's amazing to see how it has change Claudia's life.

Weekend in the City

Kari & I just returned to Salacuim after being in the City/Antigua area last week. We took a week long course from the Peace Corps to try to take our Spanish to another level. We took advantage of the trip to take in some Guatemala City culture over the weekend. Here are a few picures...


Kari and Chris at a National League Soccer Game


Kari at the National Palace


Us at the National Plaza


Kari at the Zoo

First Scholarship Meeting

Last night we held the first group meeting for the scholarship program. The program is supporting 19 kids with the $4,300 (still growing...) we've received so far. The students brought their parents to the meeting where we described the program rules and goals, signed contracts for the year and wrote thank-you notes. Each student promised to receive good grades, help with various community projects through the year and to send correspondence to their sponsors during the year. The group was excited and very thankful for the opportunities that they've received.


Two of the scholarship students writing thank you notes.

We also helped the local youth group "JAGUAR" form a committee to begin to manage the scholarship program. Their committee helped us run the meeting. The group is very well organized and working hard on various community projects.


New Scholarship Committee of the "JAGUAR" group.

The Dream Team

A couple of weeks ago, Corby was asked to be part of the long tradition of Peace Corps volunteers in Salacuim to coach the junior high boy's basketball team. Well, they're not really a team but rather 15 kids who want to improve their basketball skills. At the end of March they are headed for the mini olympics in Chisec and they will be competing in soccer, volleyball and basketball. They have soccer down. Most Guatemalans were born kicking a soccer ball and can dribble a tin can down the street without it ever touching the ground. Us northerners find this amazing and usually amuse the people here with our lack of soccer skills. The one thing we do bring to Guatemala is height. When Corby arrived in town, he was by far one of the tallest people they had ever seen. This may be why he was the natural choice to coach the team this year. Lucky for them, Corby did come with the skills as well. Having played basketball all his life, he was eager to start teaching these kids a few things.
By default, I was asked to coach the girls team. Unluckily for them, I had not played basketball all my life. However, I do enjoy the game, I'm tall enough and I can shoot a ball. Here, that's enough to be a coach. The girls really don't get much credit for doing anything athletic. We are still living in the 1950's where they are expected to cook and clean and title 9 has not arrived in Salacuim yet. I reluctantly said yes because I think they deserve a chance to play, but was worried about my ability to teach them how to play.



We started out slowly. Corby has his team on the court at 7am doing layups and working on drills. I was lucky if 4 people showed up by 8:30. We attempted drills and they looked at me like I was crazy. I tried to get them to fight for rebounds and they were not interested. By the end of the first week, we threw all that stuff out the window and just started to play. The girls are tough when they play. They are not much for the fundamentals of the game, but they love playing against each other and they play hard. There hasn't been one practice when someone hasn't left the court bleeding or hasn't gotten hit in the head with the ball.



The boys, on the other hand, are starting to really learn some of the fundamentals and are slowing improving. There are the obvious barriers that they are all working against. Most of them are barely over 5 feet tall, some do not own tennis shoes and show up barefoot and the girls usually come to play in flip flops and skirts. Nevertheless, they are out there practicing as if the NBA draft were coming to town.



Both teams had their first game last week and some of the improvements really came out. They are all still traveling double dribbling, but they are starting to work together. They definitely are the Dream Team of Salacuim.

Insight into Peace Corps Life

Home improvement projects are fashionable among our friends back in the states. Before we left for Guatemala, any relaxed get together with friends involved the obligatory "How's that --yard, kitchen, bathroom, or floor-- project coming along?" question. We've never owned a home and sometimes were jealous of all the interesting stuff others are doing.

Recently, we did a bathroom project of our own. Last year our composting latrine was located 20 meters from our house, behind the foul smell of a neighbor's latrine, and up a steep hill that was "peligroso" after a little bit of rain. One day last year we rallied 20 kids to push and pry the concrete base of an unused latrine closer to our house. We finally finished the project last week. Now we have a warm, friendly environment for any of you that may be thinking about coming for a visit; no more excuses.

Before:

***note the steep hill and neighbors non-composter***

After:

***note the lighting scheme***

One child at a time

We are really excited to report that over the holidays over $2,400 came into our scholarship fund from family, friends, coworkers and people we have never met. There is more on the way too and this year is looking like a good year to send some kids to school. Right now we have 14 children ranging from 5 to 17 enrolled in our program. It has been difficult to cooridinate all the things that they need to get started in school. The school system in Guatemala is not nearly as organized as we are used to at home. Often times it has involved Corby or I making late night trips to the store to buy materials for the next day. A full scholarship includes yearly tuition, all the school supplies for the year, uniforms and shoes. We will also be supporting them in their yearly activites that require money to participate in.



Our efforts to choose students were mostly placed on kids that were not planning on going to school this year for reasons they could not control. A large percentage of them do not have fathers and their mothers do not work outside the house. It is nearly imposible to come up with money to live, let alone go to school. Each day we learn that the need is endless. We literally have had a line of people at our door nightly asking us for help. We hope that we can make a difference with this money and begin to stop the cycle of poverty that exists. Through education this can be done.



We now see some of the kids running to school to get there early. The enormous sense of self-confidence and pride they have in carrying a backpack, wearing new shoes or having the school supplies that are requested is amazing. We only wish that all of you that gave could be here to see what an impact you have made. Thank you for your generousity. We will continue to update about the program.

A brief...or not so brief update

A flood in our office at the end of November has taken us out of communication with the outside world until now. We finally have our internet back up and running and are excited to report all of our activities over the last 2 months.
Thanksgiving found us in the city awaiting the arrival of Kari's sister and her boyfriend. Our first visitors from the states! We did a jam packed tour of Guatemala with Katie and Kristoff, which included a couple days in Salacuim, a visit to Semuc Champey, Lake Atitlan, Antigua and the longest zipline in Central America. We were really grateful to be able to spend time with the two of them, especially around the holidays.





The beginning of December started off with us celebrating our 29th birthdays in Guatemala, as well as taking a road trip to Livingston and Tikal with our office before everyone left for Christmas vacation. With Christmas quickly approaching we headed to Antigua and spent Christmas Eve with our host family in Santo Tomas. We took part in their traditional celebration of mass at 11pm and dinner at midnight. The family of 40 stayed up until 5am celebrating. We were glad to have people that we consider good friends to spend the holidays with.



A couple days after Christmas we were fortunate to have our friends Tim and Julie pay us a visit as well. We took off for Honduras for a 5 day trip to the Bay Islands, where we enjoyed island life and New Years Eve on Utila. We ended our trip with a few days in Guatemala and enough time to take in Antigua, the market in Chichicastenango and a trip to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan.



The last couple months have been full of travel and time with family and friends, which we are so grateful for. It really is an amazing experience to have people come and see what we've been up to for the last year. The newly uploaded pictures say it all.

Thank You

A big thank you to all that have donated to our scholarship fund. We appreciate all the support that we are receiving on behalf of the kids from our community. A special thanks to our friends in Northeast for organizing the benefit party and to all that attended. What an amazing group of people we know.
We have exciting to news to report. Mario Rax, one of the older children on our scholarship page, has been awarded a scholarship from the NGO we are working with to attend a three year school in Rio Dulce where he will be studying ecotourism.

For those of you who are still interested in donating, there is still almost a month left before school starts. We'd love to be able to give a few more children a chance.

Donations can be made directly to:

Friends of Guatemala • P.O. Box 33018 • Washington, D.C. 20033

be sure to place Corby and Kari Lewis- Cat. II in the memo section of your check to ensure that it is earmarked for our project.

Happy Holidays!

Meet our Neighbor

On a daily basis we get to hang and with all kinds of interesting Guatemalans. We thought it would be kind of interesting to introduce some of the people we spend time with. Kind of a "who are the people in your neighborhood" series.



"Grandma" as we affectionately call her, or "Abuela" as all the locals call her, is our next door neighbor. Maria Prado seems to take on the role as the town grandma. She lives in the lot next door and we share a backyard, a well, at times the same path to a latrine, and many fruit trees. Generally if she wants to get bananas out of the tree, she has Corby chop down the entire tree. That's just the way they do it. She's always great about bringing us bananas, oranges and lemons when she has extras.

Most of her day is spent making tortillas that she sells around town. She makes several trips to the molina (corn grinder) starting at 4 am to get a head start on the crowd. Her house is the primary stop for all of the out of town workers that stop in Salacuim to do business. She'll serve them beans, eggs and tortillas at a good price.

One time I asked her how many grandchildren she has and she looked at me sweetly and replied, "bastante". In other words, "enough or lots". She started to count and name them all and got distracted. We made it to about 22 grandkids before we started talking about something else. She recalls that she had 13 children in total, but 6 of them have died. It's hard to ask her about the past and what she recalls because the past is often an undiscussed subject in Guatemala due to the turmoil. We know bits and pieces of the story of her husband being shot near our front yard nearly 25 years ago during the war. But she survived the war and survived Salacuim being burnt to the ground. She still talks about being alone and lonely, although there is rarely a moment in the day when her yard isn't filled with the neighborhood children that seem to adore her.

Although Salacuim is a very safe place to live, she guards our house when we're out of town. I wouldn't mess with her either because at over 70 yrs old, Abuela can still swing a machete with the best of them.