More Books

Hi again everyone!
Angelica just finished purchasing the remaining books with our first round of donations.  These books are the ones we mentioned at the beginning of the fundraiser, the different Encyclopedia+Learning sets for each age group.

Don't they look wonderful?  Hopefully they'll enjoy lots of use at La Escuela Pacaja!

On another note, Liz is going to Guatemala soon, so we'll make the donation to the school once she gets to Xela. 

The rest of us wish we could go as well!

And finally, once the 4th Grade fundraiser settles we'll be making another donation to the school.  We should be able to purchase another set of fun storybooks for the children with that money.


Look at all those brand new materials!




Closer look at some of the learning sets.



First round of books!

Hello again everyone!
Yesterday the wonderful Angelica of KindredVolunteer purchased some children's story and activity books from a local library.  Next week she'll begin to purchase the large sets of books for each age-level at Pacaja, which we mentioned at the beginning of this project.  She'll also look into getting educational games to help kids learn! 

It's all thanks to you guys that we've raised so much and are able to buy these extra, fun, materials.

I've attached a picture of the books bought so far, it's nice to see the familiar titles on the chapter books =)
Hopefully the kids will enjoy these stories as much as we all did when we were little.

We'll keep you updated with each new purchase, and we'll be sure to get pictures of the library once it reaches the school and the children!

Something for every age group!

Money Transfer completed!

Hello everyone,
Angelica received the wire with all your donations, and she is currently in the process of buying the materials.  We will post pictures and updates once everything is set!

Transferring Money in 2 phases

Hello everyone!
It turns out that the 4th grade fundraiser Erin helped coordinate for Escuela Pacaja will mail a check in April, so for now we will wire the money we have already raised to Kindred Volunteer.  This way Angelica can purchase somebooks and shelves first, and then purchase another book set in April with the fundraiser money.

We're wiring the money to Guatemala, and it might take a few days with all the international red tape.  But as soon as the materials are purchased we'll post pictures!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

Bank update

Hello again everyone,
Just a quick note on our fundraising situation.  Angelica and Orlando are currently trying to set up a bank account at a US bank for Kindred Volunteer.  They are working with one of their US-based associates to achieve this goal.  There's a lot of red tape to wade through, but if they manage to acquire the US account, it would help their organization receive volunteers and donations.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed!

In the meantime, we're still awaiting the results of Erin's school's fundraiser in January.  After that, we plan to send all the money we raised to Angelica, who will purchase the library materials for the new school year (in Feb. 2011).  We've set a deadline of Jan. 21st for the money transfer, so that Angelica will have enough time to get everything in order.

We're all very excited about this, and we hope you are too!

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving!

We'll post an update soon -- Orlando visited the US last week!

-ZZ

Angelica's Visit to Pacaja

Hi everyone!

Angelica visited the school a few days ago, and said that Pacaja's current library consists of one shelf of books in a classroom.  The school apparently also owns a large empty shelf that can house the new materials your donations will purchase.  This is great because it means we can devote even more of the money to books (and less to furniture).

We think that it would be nice to eventually move the library out of a classroom, into its own separate space.  Maybe that will be a volunteer project when Kindred Volunteer takes off!

Right now we are waiting for the results of the fundraiser Erin wrote about.  Hopefully we can set up some sort of penpal exchange in the meantime, so that when the Guatemalan kids return to school next year (they are on their year-end vacation) they can start writing to the American kids! 

Once again, thanks for all of your care and support!

This is the school's current library, situated inside a classroom.

Another shot of the classroom.

Empty shelf that will house the new materials we will buy!