The Los Bances project is complete

The desert sun was bright but it was a cool morning and pleasant to work in. Martha, the teacher at the pronoei in Los Bances and me were assembling the two storage shelves we’d brought with us. We assembled the shelves outside because of better light and limited working space in the classroom.

Maribel was inside showing the kids the books and other supplies Martha had said she needed. We had already hung the whiteboard and gave each kid the opportunity to write something on it. The kids seemed to enjoy the books and were handing them back and forth to each other.

Martha is a strong-willed woman. She insisted on helping me to hang the whiteboard and lending a hand with assembling the two storage shelves. After all the work was done and the excitement was over Martha gave a powerful speech. She talked about the importance of education, and about her frustration with the lack of help for the school. At one point, as near as I can recall, she said, “…we ask the mayor and businesses to help us and what do we get? NADA!”...the word literally ringing off the walls. All the mothers vigorously agreed with her.

What we gave them doesn’t seem like much but outside of a bigger classroom she said there isn’t anything else she needs. The cost for this project was:

One whiteboard - $47.66

Erasers and markers - $8.96

Two storage shelves - $47.76

Teaching aids - $73.69

Transport - $26.79

Total - $204.86

The people of Los Bances would like to thank Chris Raupe, Clif Brown, Judy Berkow, the Brunner family and the Alice Cool Foundation for supporting their effort to educate their children.