While Panajachel is a tourist destination on beautiful Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, in reality it is a tremendously poor community. The number of people living below the poverty level hovers somewhere around 70%. And that is a pretty low level of existence here. So when the Circus came to town from Mexico it obviously wasn't going to be possible for most children to be able to attend. When many families exist on tortillas and salt for food it was a luxury .
So Mayan Families... a local NGO...took matters in hand and rounded up a group of sponsors to send the children at a special rate they were able to negotiate. They quickly raised enough funds and arranged transportation to take every pre-school and many higher grades from a number of schools around the Lake. Here staff members wait with some of the children at the entrance.
Waiting patiently for the show to begin.
Lions and tigers and bears...oh my. But it was also lots of fun to interact with cartoon caracters.
After the circus it was time for a visit to the Mayan Families office for some new clothes.
And snacks of course. If you would like more information on Mayan Families and the wonderful work they do visit www.mayanfamilies.org
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