Cony Spanish students volunteered in Guatemala with the Safe Passage program From February 18 to the 27 to help teach English and help in Safe Passage learning centers.
In Guatemala, students worked in Escutilla schools that are affiliated with the Safe Passage program. In the schools, the three Cony students worked as classroom assistants to help Escutilla students with English studies and accompany them on a weekend excursion, said Mrs. Gretchen Livingston, Highschool Spanish and coordinated the trip.
Livingston has led and volunteered with students six times before.
“Our Cony students always return with a greater appreciation for what we have here in the Augusta Maine area. They come away from the trip with a broader world view,” Livingston said.
Prior to her leaving to Guatemala with Cony, Senior, Kristin Merrill said “I’m most excited to see a way of living that’s so different from my own. It’s so important to me to see the world from different perspectives and this is really my first real opportunity to do so” and further went on to say “I’m expecting to gain a perspective along the lines of “this stuff is real.” We hear about poverty all the time, but to really be in a third-world country - and helping, not vacationing in a pretty part - is an entirely different experience.”
and then reflected on her experiences after her return to Cony. “My favorite part was being exposed to a lifestyle so different from my own, and doing so with strangers who quickly became my friends. It's so different to be surrounded by that level of poverty, as opposed to simply seeing pictures or reading about it.”