Group Volunteering: Minnesota comes to Guatemala!

[h4a] “Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” ~Elizabeth Andrew [/h4a]

Group of volunteers arriving at their project — Our group’s first day volunteering, teaching English to a group of 20 children in a reinforcement program.

This week we welcomed our latest group to Guatemala and to INLEXCA, all the way from Minnesota, USA! This wonderful group of six have joined us for ten days of volunteering and traveling, exploring the wonderful things Guatemala has to offer. This week, they started the week teaching English in a local reinforcement program. With a group of 20 kids, it wasn’t easy, so they split the kids into three groups and rotated between them, ensuring that all the children learnt all the English they were teaching, The children loved their ideas and creativity and enjoyed learning new things!

Two volunteers working with a group of children — The volunteers split the children into three groups, rotating and working with each group, ensuring all the children learnt everything taught that day

After this they spent some time in a local soup kitchen in Santo Tomas. The soup kitchen opens at 9am for the cooks to prepare a delicious meal for 90 undernourished children from the local town. Whilst the food was being prepared, our group got stuck into brightening up the play area by painting it yellow and blue! It was such a huge area it took all morning!

A volunteer painting with three little boys helping her — A lick of paint added to a grey wall to brighten up the soup kitchen.

Just as they had finished, the kids started arriving for their lunch ‘Caldo de Gallina’ or chicken soup. First the children washed their hands, followed by a vitamin supplement, and finally, they sat down to a tasty lunch! After the hard morning our volunteers were invited to sit down and enjoy the lunch with the kids!

A group of kids waiting for their lunch — The kids lining up for their lunch and receiving their vitamin supplement

As I said, this group are with us for ten days and after a weekend relaxing on tour of Guatemala, they will visit a local health clinic next week before heading back to the US.

This group asked us to develop a custom-designed itinerary for their trip, keeping in mind the best way they can make an impact whilst allowing them to enjoy the trip as well. If you would like to talk to someone about your own personalized group volunteering plan, click .