By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    As part of a team of 14 Cape Elizabeth High School
students traveling to Guatemala later this month, soon to be freshmen
Jack Queeney and Ben Berman said they were looking forward to teaching
the local children some skills outside of the classroom.

     “Jack and I decided we were going to play ultimate Frisbee with the kids,” said Queeney.

    He and Berman offered their perspectives during a
recent interview with Susan Dana at Cape Elizabeth Middle School.

    Dana, a seventh and eighth grade Spanish teacher,
will lead the group of students on a service trip for Safe Passage, an
organization that provides a variety of support services for the
children of families working in Guatemala City’s garbage dump.

    Last year, students collected school supplies for
Safe Passage and they could have done that again this year, but instead
the students will have the opportunity to assist teachers in the local
schools.

    “It seemed like a great opportunity to not only go
down and help people, but also improve our Spanish,” said Berman.

    Dana has been at work organizing the trip since
January and the students have held several fundraisers including a
bottle drive, raffle,  a Yankee Candle sale and a Spanishathon, in
which students pledged to speak only Spanish for four hours. The Cape
Elizabeth Lions Club also provided some funds based on an agreement
that the group would do a presentation on their trip when they return
and help out with a pancake breakfast or two.

    Half of the funds will be used to purchase supplies
to leave with the local schools and half will be used to pay trip
costs, which include a mandatory $100 donation from each participant.

    In order to go on the trip, students have to have two years of Spanish under their belt.

    Both Queeney and Berman have had five years of
Spanish so they feel confident they will be able to get their points
across.

    Dana said Guatemala has a free, public education
system, but children are responsible for their own uniforms and books.
The $150 a year for school supplies is “completely unreachable” for a
poor family, she said.

    Part of Safe Passage’s mission is to support public
schools by offering tutoring, medical support and emotional support,
Dana said. The organization also provides a stipend to parents if their
children attend school because when their children are at school, the
parents are losing a source of income.

    Dana said one of the unique things about the Safe
Passage program and a result of founder and Maine native Hanley
Denning’s vision, is that volunteers go into the schools with an
attitude of “what do you need?” and “what’s going to help you?” rather
than a predetermined curriculum.

    One of the projects that Cape Elizabeth students
will be involved with is helping the children create “Soy yo” books or
“This is me” books. With digital cameras and a printer that the group
will leave for the school, Cape students will take pictures of the
children and then they will work together to fill the book with words.
At the end of the week, the children will have their very own books
about themselves. 

    On Jan. 18, 2007, Denning died in an automobile
accident in Guatemala City. It was during a tribute event in March at
the Merrill Auditorium, that Dana and Berman said they were really
inspired by Denning and her organization.

    After seeing a screening of the Recycled Life, a
documentary about the dump, Dana said she was struck by the dignity of
the Guatemalan people and the dignity that Denning showed to them.

    The students will be staying at a hotel owned by
Safe Passage in Antigua, which is 45 minutes outside of the capital
city. According to the Safe Passage Web site, the Lazos Fuertes hotel
not only houses volunteers, but it also serves as a training ground for
local youth between the ages of 13 and 15. The participants learn all
about running a hotel and restaurant, skills that will hopefully
prevent them from having to make a living in the dump.

    When asked how families make a living in the dump,
Berman said the people sort through the trash looking for things they
can sell, such as plastic bottles.

    Dana said she heard from a student who had made the
trip that the smell was indescribable. She said the people are working
and living among hypodermic needles and medical waste in this dump that
spans acres and acres of land.

    Within the last several years, she said, the
Guatemalan government has taken action to prevent children under the
age of 16 from entering the dump. Due to methane gas buildups, fires
are a frequent occurrence.

    “It’s still not safe, but it’s safer,” she said. The
students will not visit the dump, but they will not be able to miss it
as they travel through the city.

    Dana said the students would spend one day with a
social worker, visiting some local homes. She said the presence of a
social worker is a good idea as there will be “poverty these students
have never seen.” 

    On the other hand, Dana said there is a “richness to
family values that we forget (and) a real richness to their lives there
(in terms of) a sense of community that is being lost in our culture.”

    The trip is certainly providing a method of bringing
people together in Cape Elizabeth as Dana said she knows of a number of
adults who would like to make the trip.

“We want to plant the seed for Cape Elizabeth,” she said.