Irma Magdalena

A few weeks back we decided to sponsor a child through Pueblo a Pueblo. They have 3 different types of sponsorships -- individual, school, or pregnant woman. We opted for individual, where our $25 per month will go toward school supplies and medical care for a child in Panabaj.

Panabaj is a poor village about a kilometer south of Santiago, where the Hospital used to be. In 1990 the government massacred several dozen people there, some of whom had not yet reached adolescence, and there's a small peace park erected in their memory. In 2005, a few months after the Hospitalito had reopened after being closed for 20+ years, Tropical Storm Stan caused mudslides that ruined the hospital, the town, and a large percentage of its residents. The area is now condemned, but is not empty. The government has built a new community on the other side of Santiago, called Chukmuk, and little by little is moving the residents of Panabaj there. The first wave bean last year, and the school only opened in February of 2009.

We were shown 3 applications of children that need sponsors. Two from Chukmuk, one from Panabaj. All were girls around age 10. Irma Magdalena's father left right after she was born, and the other two still had fathers, so we chose her.

Monday we met her. We had arranged to meet with the Pueblo a Pueblo representative, Irma's teacher, her mother and her outside the municipal building at 1:00 for lunch. Mother and daughter were the customary 30 minutes late, and the six of us went around the corner into Comedor Kathlyn's.

We had been warned Irma was shy, and were not surprised by it. In the small towns around Santiago most girls are pretty quiet. She never said a word the entire time, but communicates very effectively with her powerful smile, the kind where the face wrinkles a bit as she makes full eye contact with you through squinting eyes. Her Spanish is not strong yet as she's only in first grade.

Her teacher explained that the range of ages in her class is from six to thirteen, as many families don't allow their kids to start school until very late in life. Irma, if she passes each year, will be 15 when she finishes primary school and 18 when she graduates middle school. Middle school for most poor people is not much of an option, though, as it is not free. There isn't one in Chukmuk yet -- the students have to travel a few kilometers into Santiago.

Irma and her mother, Magdalena, both ordered fried chicken, rice, salad, tortillas and lemonade. Both saved the fried chicken for last, then slipped it into a napkin to take home. Magdalena washes other peoples laundry for a living. Her eyes fill with tears when she talks about her husband abandoning her and her four daughters 10 years ago. Two of the daughters are now married and have moved out. Fifteen is a common age for girls to marry here. The twelve year-old is still at home.