Next summer, LHI will host an 8-day or 2-week service-learning trip focused on education in the indigenous community of Chajul, Guatemala. This is a unique opportunity to observe classrooms, engage in dialogue with teachers and school directors, and learn first-hand about educational experiences from Chajul’s students themselves — all in a beautiful remote part of Guatemala.

Past service projects have included planting organic gardens, supporting Chajul’s public library, building classroom walls, and preparing professional development workshops with local teachers. You will also get to play games with youth, take hikes, learn to make tortillas, hear from an ex-guerrillero from the Guatemalan civil war, take a boat tour of Lake Atitlan, visit a sacred Mayan site, shop at the world famous market of Chichicastenango, and much more.

For more information and to sign up, visit our registration site or contact operationsassociate@limitlesshorizonsixil.org!

Over the last year, we have achieved accomplishments our founders, Katie Morrow and Pedro Caba Asicona, once only dreamed of. Having begun with fewer than ten scholarship students in 2004, we now support 85 middle and high school youth in the indigenous community of Chajul. Thanks to their tenacity and dedication — coupled with LHI’s support and innovative programs — academic success and literacy rates are on the rise in the community of Chajul, Guatemala.

And yet, there is so much more to do! Each year, we depend on the support of generous donors like you to deepen our impact and extend our reach to even more children and families. During this year’s fundraising appeal we are again offering a matching gift opportunity made possible by our board of directors. It was largely successful last year and this year, we are aiming higher. Our goal is to raise $7,000 by the end of the year, and gifts over $100 will be matched by board members.

As an added incentive, donors giving over $200 by December 10th will also be entered into a raffle to win a gift set of hand-made, beautiful Guatemalan crafts, including jewelry, an embroidered handbag, and a hand-woven scarf. We’ll hold the drawing in mid-December to deliver the gift to you by the holidays, so please donate by December 10th to be eligible.

There are few organizations that stretch a dollar as far as Limitless Horizons Ixil does. This year we:

• Expanded Chajul’s very first public library to serve 600 registered library users. In August, we moved into a new and improved space with the help of volunteers and donors, and now serve 300 new members - a 50% increase over the previous year! This is a huge achievement in a region where 75% of residents are illiterate.

• Improved the Spanish skills of 40 students. For the monolingual Ixil-speaking population of Chajul, the lack of Spanish language skills is the biggest barrier to academic success and obtaining paid employment. In an effort to prepare students for future workforce and education requirements, LHI offers an annual Intensive Spanish course for local students.

• Graduated our first class of high school students. Over their six years as LHI scholarship students, our graduates have earned valuable professional and personal skills through LHI’s work-study program, intensive Spanish program, and computer classes. They will now receive training in résumé writing, interviewing, and job searching through LHI’s careers program.

Our goal for our annual fall fundraising appeal is $7,000, and we hope you’ll help us reach it! We encourage you to give at a level that is meaningful to you, and to spread the word to your family and friends. Thank you for your continued support and interest in the development of Chajul, Guatemala and Limitless Horizons Ixil.

Sincerely,

I arrived in August to volunteer with Limitless Horizons Ixil (LHI) – my first visit to the Ixil region. Expecting to focus on educational opportunities in the classroom, I learned the most where I least expected it — the election.

The climate as the September 11 Guatemalan presidential elections drew closer felt increasingly tense: frequent rallies, marches, and protests seemed out of place in the normally peaceful Ixil region. There were also the visits to Chajul from political parties where party supporters were given things like lamina (metal roofing) to increase party loyalties. Everywhere, everyone that I met had a vocal opinion on the election, which was notably a bit controversial in Guatemala.

One day while visiting a local family in Chajul for boxbol (the favorite local food), the conversation turned, of course, to the elections. Our 22-year-old hostess, Josefina (an LHI scholarship student), began to discuss her opinions on the elections, both local and national. She spoke passionately about her ideas, whom she supported, who she thought had the best chance of winning, and how she shared what she had learned with her family. A past school project had put her in contact with the town alcalde(mayor), a project that clearly shaped her thoughts on politics. Her opinions were well thought-out; her ideas clearly connected to the hopes of what would better her community. As she talked, I saw how this election connected to families living far from the political epicenter of Guatemala City.

I was drawn to get involved with LHI because of their commitment to education. Seeing first-hand how these educational opportunities are embraced by the youth in Chajul, empowering youth to learn and teach and become involved in their communities, is why I will stay involved with LHI after I leave Chajul.

Stay tuned! A presidential run-off election between the top two candidates will be held in Guatemala on November 6.

Since opening Saber Sin Límites in February 2010, it would be an understatement to say that Chajul’s first public library has been wildly popular.  With 507 members, demand had far surpassed the capacity of our one-room library, whose membership has grown by almost 40% in the last five months alone. With so many hungry minds to feed, it quickly became clear that we needed to expand. Thanks to support from Better World Books, Colorado Youth for Change, and generous individual donors like many of you, that dream has now become a reality.

After signing the lease of the new, centrally-located and well-lit building five times the size of our previous space, LHI worked with the owner to renovate the building and with a local carpenter to build additional furniture. Working alongside LHI scholarship students, youth group from experiential educational organization Where There Be Dragons used their creative minds and hands to paint furniture and a beautiful “Tree of Knowledge” mural in the new space during their July visit. To complete the transition, participants of the 2011 Summer Educator’s Trip rolled-up their sleeves to transfer the remaining inventory, paint a welcome mural, and debut the first Story Hour in the new venue. Our recently hired second librarian Teresa sure had her hands full with the record breaking 61 children in attendance!

LHI staff members are tremendously excited about the increased potential of Saber sin Límites to satisfy the desire for a safe, public space that encourages literacy, academic success, and community in the culturally rich Ixil region where roughly 70% of residents over 15 years old are illiterate. Based on the 24 library membership applications we’ve already received since opening the library two week ago, it seems the rest of Chajul is excited too!

“Open to Interpretation” by Christina Lacy, Program Associate

For as long as I can remember, I was always told that - without a doubt – if you filled the gas tank while the motor was running, the car would explode. Or the world would explode, I can’t remember. And while the factualness of this claim is debatable, I was still very uncomfortable while the chicken bus full of women, children and, most importantly, me, sat helpless in the gas station just waiting for a disaster to happen. As beads of sweat formed on my forehead, I looked around the bus: nobody else seemed to care.

They were just impatient to get to class, to their plot of land outside of town, or to the market to sell their produce. While I had already learned from my travels that what is common sense in the United States hasn’t necessarily reached global consensus, I wondered what else I’d dwelt upon that held little importance to the rest of the world. Is it really that inappropriate to bathe in public? Do I really need to tip a bad waiter, or for that matter, a good waiter? And who said I was too young to marry my fourteen-year old boyfriend? I think we could have hit it off.

The truth of these statements depends on which side of what border you happen to stumble onto, and all arguments are legitimate. Tattoos are both a form of personal expression and indicative of criminal association. Jogging is both a healthy form of exercise and a last resort to escape pursuit. Instead of competing with these contending interpretations, I’ve learned to integrate them into my cultural repertoire. I cover my tattoos and I work out in my room (sometimes – let’s be honest). But it’s still difficult to remain objective.

There are some things I just can’t reconcile with my personal beliefs and experiences. It pangs me every time a child throws a wrapper in the street or out the bus window without a word of condemnation from his mother. It worries me that our students often eat the same meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and don’t receive the nutrients and energy they need. I see so much potential for change in Chajul, but I struggle with the fact that it’s not my culture to change. Despite this frustration at the challenges that Chajul faces, I have no doubt regarding its capacity to overcome them. I have no doubt because LHI scholarship students are conveying this same frustration to others in their community.

Middle-school students Micaela, Antonio, and Lupita are developing a campaign along with business leaders and The Philanthropiece Foundation to clean up the streets of Chajul. Gaspar arranged a city-wide debate between Chajul candidates to promote accountability in local politics. Baltazar has repeatedly expressed his desire to work towards organizing local farmers after he graduates to receive better prices in the global marketplace. Maybe it was too simplistic to originally label these complicated issues as “cultural differences,” as permanent staples of Chajul culture that a foreigner needs to get used to, like playing soccer with rubber muck boots or eating boxbol with your hands. Maybe these are real problems that need to be addressed.

Like I said, this isn’t my culture to change, but it seems change is already underway. Every one of our students has overcome financial limitations, gender norms, or language barriers to convince their families and community to prioritize their education. And every year, LHI receives more applicants than the year before. Looks like the world isn’t going to explode after all.

We have hosted nine groups in the last three years, and Executive Director and Trip Leader Katie Morrow has led over 25 trips in Latin America over the last eight years.

Join us this summer for a learning experience of a lifetime!

July 28 – August 4 (6 credits available), or
July 28 – August 10 (12 credits available)

For more information and to register, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/visitlhi/

Guatemala’s presidential elections will take place in September of this year. Political propaganda now covers the countryside, even in the remote town of Chajul. The previous elections, four years ago, were some of the bloodiest on record, with over 50 local candidates and party activists murdered. After 36 years of civil war, and crime and violence currently spiraling out of control, intimidation and fear are the name of the game in politics.

Chajul has nowhere near the level of violence and crime that plagues the capital.It is a rural community still steeped in traditional Mayan practices. The cycle of the corn crop warrants more attention than the political machinations of any one party. People want jobs, healthcare, education, and security, but they depend on the rainy season to grow the crops that will feed their families. Politicians come and go, but corn has sustained their bodies for millennia.

Limitless Horizons Ixil (LHI) has no affiliation with any political party, but as an organization working in education in Guatemala, we understand the effects of ignorance. Every family we work with was somehow touched by the civil war and the genocide that took place in this region. Although people want to forget the horror they witnessed, a vast majority are completely unaware that the leading candidate in this year’s election, Otto Peréz Molina, is a former general who helped orchestrate the mass murders in this very community. Children and adults gladly accept a day’s wage to paint a party logo on a wall, oblivious to what that symbol actually stands for.

LHI focuses on educating the youth in Chajul, and our goal is to provide a new generation with opportunities that their parents lacked. By offering scholarships to students in need, and then following up with tutoring, guidance counseling, job-training opportunities, computer classes, and Spanish lessons, we encourage them to learn about their country and its history and to form their own opinions. These students have the potential to think and vote and form the kind of community that they see fit. We want them to one day live without fear. We cannot rid the country’s political system of corruption and violence, but we can continue supporting our students through their studies so that one day they can. Bring on the rainy season!

Check out great photos and wonderful testimonies on their trip blog.

The festivities continued the next day at a recreation park called Boxbolandia (named after the Ixil region’s favorite food!). Everyone enjoyed a beautiful sunny day swimming, playing soccer and basketball, and eating delicious snacks like fresh fruit salad and chuchitos (corn tamales filled with chicken and tomato sauce). It was a perfect way for the scholarship students from more than six different schools to celebrate the end of the academic year and share each other’s company. Usually busy with school or work, they found a rare opportunity to just be kids. With all the hardships that many of our students face daily in their lives, it was refreshing to see them smiling and carefree.