September 24-30, 2018 American School, Canada, pillow cases, photo of Temple Missionaries, bananas

In Guatemala, US kids 
learn about Canada 🇨🇦 

Larry and Babette visited a school for the children of Americans working in Guatemala City. The students divided up and created booths and learned a dance about six countries, including Canada. The special event was the Equity American School’s contribution to world peace, through education. 



Parents of two of the students...




American School in Guatemala

In 1988, Bonita Hedrick Justice was directing the lives of her eight children in Guatemala City, which included home schooling. She was approached by some U.S. families living in Guatemala with the request that she apply her education and experience towards establishing a private school that could meet the needs of their highly motivated children. Her husband, Lynn, encouraged her and helped by handling the financial and legal side of the venture. They named the school “The Accelerated Learning Center,” offering a U.S. curriculum, small classes and music every day for all students.

In its second year of operation, at the insistence of parents working for U.S. AID and the U.S. Department of State, the school received a visit from a representative of the Overseas Schools Division of the U.S. Department of State and was soon approved for dependents of that agency. In 1994, its name was changed to Equity American School. 

 

How did the Justice family come to reside in Guatemala? Lynn Justice, born and educated in Indiana, was made Director, Temporal Affairs, for the Central America Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Later, he became an entrepreneur in the chemical industry. His avocations include aviation and woodworking. 



Current Temple Missionaries



President gifts his pillow cases


John Norman, center, made dozens of sofa pillow covers out of huipils (colorful tops made and worn by Guatemala women of Maya descent). 

Normans’ northern nobleness 


Another entry from President Norman’s blog, about his final Coordinating Council meeting north in Guatemala....

Elder Arredondo (Area Seventy) said some very nice things.  He said that he believed that I had been called to serve in the Guatemala City temple at this time to help the Coban area prepare to someday have their own temple and that I had made a difference.  He then asked if anyone else would like to say anything.  Many of the stake and district presidents expressed their thanks for our service.  They made me cry as they said explained how our service had impacted their units and how individually they had been influenced for good by our service.  President Cuz, from Senahu, said that mom and I had made the people of the Polochic feel valued and welcomed in the temple.  He said that most of the time they feel abandoned and isolated, but our many trips to visit them in their hard-to-get-to towns have made them feel accepted and appreciated.  He said the people of the Polochic will never forget us.  I was overcome with a feeling gratitude that perhaps our service has made a small difference here in this area. 


Bananas Bananas Bananas





Comments

  1. Unknown2 October 2018 at 18:41

    So Americans in Guat learn about Canada, but Americans in Spokane can't find us on a map? ha-ha. Cool School!

    ReplyDelete

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