Do You Want to Visit our Mission?

Over the past few years, several activities have been developed and have become routine when we have visitors to Caminando por la Paz. These include:

• Meeting visitors at the airport upon arrival in Guatemala
• Transporting them to the program home in Zona 18
• Introducing the program: what we do and a bit of our history.

Short Visits. Groups with their own leaders who are visiting several programs in a limited time frame usually make short visits. There may be time for several activities at the program house:

• Lunch
• Neighborhood walk. Considered by most to be a highlight of the visit, it provides an opportunity to meet some of our neighbors. After the walk, we often hear that participants had impressive interactions with some of the people we serve.
• Meet with our students. Often this is anticipated with a bit of trepidation by visitors who don’t speak Spanish. Walk into the room five minutes later, and you will see individuals with kids—drawing pictures, gesturing, or miming. They quickly learn that knowing Spanish is not important.
• A recap session with our staff completes the visit.

Longer Visits: The first question usually is, what shall we do? People often want to accomplish something during their visit. Our suggestion is to talk with our staff when you are here and pick whatever seems best for you. Sometimes the answer is to just be present with our people. They truly love and appreciate your being with them.

Visits of more than a day may include several activities:

• The Guatemalan Maryknoll Affiliate Chapter offers a welcome presentation. This varies from time to time but is basically an introduction to the culture and history of Guatemala.
• With Caminando por la Paz, there are many opportunities to enjoy the culture and learn some of the history of the area. 
• It is possible to arrange a visit to one of the schools in which we have placed our kids. If the visitor is a child’s sponsor, we try to set up a visit with the school of their student.
• A visit to Antigua, a colonial historic city about two hours from the capital. It is a world heritage site, and often visitors enjoy a day or two there. Antigua offers student-guided tours of principal sites; tour with an enactor who presents Hermando Pedro, a local saint; a view of ruins from the 15^th century destruction by the volcano Agua; visits to a coffee museum and a music museum; and a marketplace with local items.
  If the tour stays overnight in Antigua, we can arrange lodging and family-style meals with families we have known for over 25 years, who have hosted language students.
• In the past, visitors have also gone to other parts of the country. Sr. Dee’s program near the border with Mexico operates a hospice for those with AIDS, but the trip is very long and would include an overnight stay in a hotel. Groups have also visited the nearby river crossing that migrants use to continue their efforts to reach the US.
• In Guatemala City, several museums offer opportunities to uncover local history. The Holocaust Memorial Museum compares the genocide during WWII to the violence during Guatemala’s “Time of Violence.” We often visit the garage where Bishop Geraldi was murdered and see a presentation on the life of Geraldi, who sought information about the genocide. His tomb is in the nearby Cathedral.
• Visits to a nearby coffee farm can be arranged.
• Our program also accommodates visitors who wish to visit places not listed here. We stand ready to provide the means to accomplish such visits, including helping visitors staying after their group has returned to the US.

If you want to stay a couple more days:

As you know, we sell Father Tom’s Family Coffee to raise money to support our educational programs. We can arrange a visit to the coffee finca in Honduras, which would entail an additional two to three days and one or two nights in hotels.

The basic tour would include a visit to the coffee fincas to learn all about coffee. The growers would take you to see coffee trees in the fields and explain all their efforts to harvest the coffee beans and process them before taking them to the beneficio—the complex where coffee is prepared for export.

You would also visit the beneficio that supplies beans to our roaster in Tom Ball, Texas. The people at the beneficio will provide a facility tour and explain all the processes they employ to prepare the coffee for export the coffee.

Whatever amount of time you have, we look forward to your visit!