A Farewell to Conchucos

Our visit to Conchucos this morning will probably be our last. We’ve been to Conchucos four times since our initial visit on March 14^th, and during that time we’ve furnished tables, chairs, school supplies and complete uniforms to the pronoei. 

To the primary school we donated whiteboards and school supplies, and this morning we completed the things we promised by giving them tee-shirts. Earlier we had donated school supplies for 35 students; the number that Ed has registered but unfortunately the 11 students in Ed’s class…

…and these 9 in Guadalupe’s class are the only kids regularly attending. It could be that the confusion between the sugar cane cooperative and the Tumàn District of Education as to who is responsible for the school is keeping those missing 15 students away, but there are probably other reasons as well.

Though we may not have succeeded in enticing the 15 to return…at least not yet, we do feel good about providing the opportunity for the others to continue their education. On the day we delivered school supplies one of the boys made a short speech on behalf of he and his classmates thanking us for the donations and promising to use the things we’d given them and to attend school regularly. Before leaving today I asked that boy to step forward, and reminded him of what he had said, and asked if he and his classmates would continue to keep that promise. They said they would. We believe they will.

Our thanks to Clifton B, Chris R, Amy B, Graham T, the Alice Cool Foundation and others for making the Conchucos project possible.