Santa Cruz de Virginia School

New School Being Planned for Santa Cruz de Virginia

This is the story of my visit to Santa Cruz two days ago. We are considering building a school here…. if we can find a way to haul materials.

Today I had one of the more harrowing trips so far, to visit a site for a school. Curvy, bumpy mountain roads for 4 hours, mudslides, crossing rivers and my driver was projectile vomiting all along the way. If I even thought of letting out a whine or a whimper, I would just remember Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea” and what he has to endure to do his work. This was easy in comparison!

We’d pass by shack after shack with nearly naked children standing barefoot in the mud and cold rain, usually responding to my waves and smiles with their own waves, smiles and sometimes if I was lucky, giggles.

The meeting was amazing in some ways. We met inside the large broken shack that they deemed the “school” with a mud floor, broken wooden desks and a leaky roof. I was amazed to see so many folks attending who were friendly, warm and appreciative of my help. I had brought a few boxes of school supplies as well.

We discussed building a new school on that site with bathrooms and a pila. It appears that we might get help from the municipality and other sources as well, which is very encouraging.

I literally was 2 or 3 inches taller from all the mud that clung to the bottom of my shoes. Folks cracked up when I made the comment about liking being taller.

There had to be at least 25 children in attendance, all continuously staring at me. I said to the folks “not many gringos come out this way, I imagine” and again got some laughs to break the tension of newness. Then I handed out balloons to the kids to lighten up the stares. Afterward they invited me for a lunch of spaghetti, beans, rice and tortillas (carbo loading for the trip back.)

I was literally (yes, literally!) covered in mud by the end. I had slipped so many times climbing the hills that my “bottom” had a “caked frame”, but I arrived home happy and warmed by such great people.