Our first shoe drive was a success
The day of the shoe drive was finally here. Our driver, Santos Juracan, picked us up promptly from our hotel in Antigua. We drove to La Torre (which is the town’s commercial center) in San Lucas, where we met Eugenia Santander who would lead us the rest of the way to the remote village of San Antonio Sacatepequez. It was a good thing we decided to meet her at a convenient place and then follow her the rest of the way. It was quite remote and involved driving on some very bumpy dirt paths. I don’t think the school receives much, if any, support but they were happy to have us when we arrived and welcomed us with open arms and glad hearts.
Eugenia asked the children to stand and be alert for prayers of thanks for the new shoes they were about to receive. I especially like the picture that Eugenia shared with me afterward…
As we unpacked suitcases full of shoes, Eugenia and the principal of the school, Cesar, arranged for the kids to stand in line — by gender and by shoe size. As the kids approached a table where I had spread out the shoes, they got to pick a pair from their size group, receive them from me, offer thanks and then go find a quiet place to try them on.
Some of the younger ones were too shy to say thank you, but most of them did. Most of them uttered their thanks in Spanish, but I even got a “thank you” in the first tongue, Kaqchikel, and a few good hugs!
This shoe drive was on a Saturday, so school was not in session. But, the kids eagerly came to the school house today to receive their shoes.
The principal mentioned to me that some of the kids were not in attendance because they were working out in the fields. Such difficult manual labor for little ones! When one dirty boy with big work boots got to the front of the line, it was explained to us that he was in the fields at the time of our arrival but that he was given permission to leave the field to get his shoes. His story made me a little sad… certainly made me think twice. Despite the hard work he is subjected to, I’m glad that he has a father in his life and still attends school!
After all shoes at the elementary school were distributed, we posed for a group photo and then I took one with just Eugenia.
Eugenia told me that she had hoped that I would be able to visit the secondary school too (so that I could hand out the larger sizes) but there was not enough time in the day. She is going to be delivering them on my behalf early this coming week.
When we were done with the shoe drive, Eugenia was nice enough to help us and our driver get from San Antonio to San Bartolome Milpas Altas, where Eugenia’s sister, Iris, runs the Backyard School!
We didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend there, but we did use the opportunity to work out a solution to a logistics problem for next year’s computer lab installation at the Backyard School! All is good now, and we took a couple of nice photos. Scott and Jefferson enjoyed comparing their ages and what they were going to be doing next year as high school seniors.
The “right” opportunity arose when I learned about a travel opportunity for adoptive families which would include volunteer work and cultural sightseeing. Being members of that team had a profound impact on me, Lillian and Andrew. Not only were we able to make a real connection to our son’s birthplace, but we met incredibly warm and generous people, all of whom we now consider to be a part of our “family.” In addition to the volunteer work I shared with the Team, I also was able to “give back” by performing as my alter ego, “Farfel the Clown” at a barbecue for children of The Backyard School. It will remain one the proudest and happiest memories of my life.