Reflecting - Why Did I Do This?

            The purpose of this project was to volunteer, and to get some of my students to volunteer, to teach piano to people in Guatemala who could not otherwise have lessons so that someone could play the piano for church.

            I can’t say that I was inspired. Perhaps that’s what happened. But the way I remember it, when we were in Antigua, Guatemala for Christmas with Garth and Cheryl Norman, no one was at church the Sunday before Christmas that could play the piano, so my husband volunteered me. When I asked the 16-year-old chorister why she didn’t play, she informed me she’d taken lessons, but the teaching was inadequate to learn to play hymns.

            So spontaneously after the meeting, I asked the only member of the bishopric if I came to Guatemala to teach lessons, would it be a possibility to use the building, and he said absolutely, and please do come.  When I mentioned it to John Mann, who had graciously invited us to stay at his home along with the Normans, he offered his home for us and any student teachers for the duration of our program. He also insisted that if we were going to come, we needed to come for a minimum of three times. He then talked to the bishop in Ciudad Viejas, and said that if I taught in the church there I wouldn’t have to ride the bus back and forth to Antigua.

            In reflection, the concept was a ludicrous idea for me to even attempt, but I didn’t know it. After all, teaching piano is what I do. How difficult could it be to teach beginners?  Several adults assured me that Spanish would not be a challenge since the children and teenagers all learn English in school.  It’s true that some of them do – for about one hour each week.  The reality is I had to teach the students in Spanish; they did not respond to my English, and never spoke English to me.

            A week before we left Texas, John Mann told me was that 15 to 20 students had signed up. Then the day before we left it was “30 or so.” When we went to church the morning after we arrived, I was given an updated list of 48. Some of those never showed up, but the first week we had a total of 90 different people take at least a couple of classes. Three weeks ago we had 50 coming regularly, and only two of those have not continued to the end. I want to mention both of them.

            Adela was the 16-year-old young lady I met in December in Antigua. She was the inspiration behind the project, and so on the first Sunday in Guatemala we went to Antigua to hopefully find her, and we met her mother walking into church. Adela came to classes the first two weeks while it was vacation time for her, but then she could not attend the last three weeks because of her school schedule. Her family sent me red roses as a thank-you. (I passed them out to women on my walk home that day.)

             Adela introduced me to Pablo, who lives with her family. He is eighteen, and has the sunniest disposition of any young man I’ve ever met. His story is not uncommon. He parents divorced and moved to the United States when he was fourteen. He was too young for a work visa, so he “stayed” in Guatemala, the Adela’s family invited him to live with them.

            Pablo came to the piano classes as often as he could, often staying for a couple of classes to help other students, and frequently helped us take down keyboards and teaching materials at the end of classes.

            Saul , an intelligent 14-year-old, is the other student who did not continue. Saul came to class the morning of July 15, excited to choose his recital solo. He also planned to play an easy version of Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer. He was the most promising teenage student in all the classes, eager to learn and highly motivated.

One day I thought he was asking for my email, so I gave him a business card. He looked confused, and went to another student, showing the card. She went to the one student who spoke English. Saul didn’t want my email – he was asking to borrow my hymnal. He wanted to play from the regular hymn book, even though he’d only had two weeks of lessons.

            Saul was the student I thought was the most promising to be the first to fulfill my dream of someone to play for church. He also said he could practice at the church because his dad had keys to get in to clean the building.

            But after July 15, Saul never came again. I asked the bishop about him when we met this week, and he said Saul’s family sent him to a farm far away to work to earn money for the family. I asked about school, and was told this is not uncommon. Feeding a family comes before education. I cannot accept that this intelligent, young man will not get any more schooling.