About a year ago I wrote a post called Padrino.  It was about the kids I currently sponsor here.  This post serves as a nice update to that one.

This past November, I came to Guatemala because one of my kids, Carlos, was graduating from high school.  Carlos focused on accounting in school and wants to go on to some more studies.  He’ll be an entrepreneur, and a good one.  This is Carlos during the procession.  Each student is introduced individually as they enter the outdoor auditorium.  There is no way to adequately describe what a huge life step this is for kids in Guatemala.  Less than a full generation ago, it’s a step few kids had the opportunity to take.  Not that many years ago a paradigm shift began to occur in the new generations of parents with school age children.  One of the things that poverty drives is the need for each member of a family to contribute to the income of the family.  When kids were old enough to work, they did.  Becoming school age was often interrupted by becoming work age.  Add to that the fact that going to school costs money, and you have a culture where kids work instead of attending school.  In Guatemala, so called public school, is not just a matter of getting your child to school.  It’s like getting your child to private school.  All expenses related to going to school, tuition, books, uniforms, and supplies have to be paid for.  School was not even close to being affordable for most families.  So what changed?  As if by divine providence, ok, I’m just going to go ahead and call it Divine Providence, parents began to understand that their kids would have better opportunities at life by going to school instead of spending all day in the fields or on the streets selling trinkets, or bread, or tortillas, or anything that people might buy.  Couple that with organizations like Common Hope, and hundreds of others in Central America and throughout the world.  They have learned to connect people of resource and willingness, to families who want their kids to go to school but need help doing so.  Good people led me to sponsoring kids, and I like to think I’ve led other good people to doing the same.

I experienced the great honor of being asked to speak at this Graduation.  I was the final piece of the program and when I got on stage this is what I saw.  It was overwhelming and humbling.  That’s Carlos right in the first chair in the lower right of the photo.  The first thing I said to the gathering was that I wished they all could stand up here and see what I’m seeing.  I fumbled for my phone because I wanted so badly to capture that moment.  They were all laughing and I was holding back tears.  It was perfect. 

After the ceremony there was lunch and all kinds of various game stations to visit.  There were memory games, lego building challenges, bean bag toss, pickle ball, karaoke, (is that how you spell that?), and many more.

In this picture we were in line to visit a photo booth.  That’s Carlos of course, and his parents.  They are exact examples of the parents I described earlier in this post.  Also in the picture is Lesbia, a social worker for Common Hope.  She has accompanied me on all my visits with Carlos and his family over the years, and has become a great friend.  She has also traveled to Minnesota and spoke at Common Hope’s annual banquet a couple of years ago.  The game station idea was new.  It was great fun and a great way for sponsors and grads and their families to spend time.

The day did not pass without one other very emotional reunion.

In my speech I spoke of the heart ache of losing a sponsored child.  My little gift Ericka died of renal failure when she was just thirteen years old.  During the years she was with us, I worked on construction projects with her father and brother, and so got to know the whole family very well.  Unbeknownst to me, one of her younger sisters was also graduating on this day, and her mom and another sister were there.

After the ceremony they came and found me and in this photo we had all just finished a great cry together.  They were so thankful that I had honored Ericka’s memory in my speech.  Even now, as I’m writing about it, I get emotional all over again.

Which brings me to a good place to stop for now.  I’ll follow this post with another about my November visits with my other two kids.