Xavier High School
Antigua, Guatemala Service Trip

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Eight students from Xavier High School served as volunteers with the Asociación Nuestros Ahijados in Guatemala from June 10th through June 18th , 2007. Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados is a non-profit organization located on the outskirts of Antigua, Guatemala, whose mission is to serve the poorest of the poor. While serving with Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados Xavier students distributed clothing to 200 people in the town of Cerro El Niño, helped take care of infants and children at the San Juan Malnutrition Center, served dinner to the homeless at the Santa Madre Homeless Shelter, spent two days digging and planting gardens for some desperately poor families, and spent four days constructing a house (4 construction teams) for four families who were living in dirt floor shacks made of corn cane, cardboard and tin.

The students also experienced a tremor or small earthquake the first day at their construction site, climbed an active volcano, attended mass and bargained at a Mayan Indigenous outdoor market in the Highland village of Chichicastenango, practiced their Spanish, and lived with a Guatemalan family during their stay.

Spanish teacher, Julie Brannaman, organized the service trip for the Xavier students. The Xavier students were Kiyla Ortmann, Bryan Washburn, Dana Terrones, Mary Ballard, Merideth Erusha, John Erusha, Jason Turley and Paul Seifert.