OUR NEIGHBORS

Welcome to the village of Cayo Quemado.  This sparsely populated, yet close-knit town includes three bays and the adjacent coves and lagoons grouped on the forested south shore of the Golfete of Rio Dulce.  We are about 100 families, mostly Guatemalan, but with a small and growing Gringo community.  Restaurant, groceries, gas and a full-service marina are close-by, and for other supplies we go to Fronteras, ten miles away at the bridge, or to Livingston, only 8 miles to the mouth of the river.

The twenty mile long Rio Dulce and most of Lake Izabal is an entirely aquatic community in that we have no road access.  But, all houses and businesses have a small dock to accommodate guests and a motor launch for general local transportation.  We take a bus from Fronteras to the city and international airport.

Carla and David	Gary & Graciela	Jennifer	Martin and his catch

The Cayo Quemado village school has about 105 students, from 5 to 15 years old. At the start of the school year in January 2007, we provided all the older students with Spanish–English dictionaries and established a free lending library for the village. The library now has about 60 books including reference books on health, mathematics, computers, religion and art; plus a world atlas and children’s encyclopedias; as well as novels, poetry and magazines, all printed in Spanish.

Lori uses ESL textbooks and children’s books from America as guides in her English classes at the school. Since all of Guatemala is frightfully devoid of books, the students and their parents greatly appreciate the opportunity to have this learning resource so close to home. I want to thank David & Carla, Diane & Doug, Martin & Karen, Carol & Gary, Ron & Karen, Muriel Shea, Penny, Margaret and others for their generous contributions to both Telma's education fund and to the library.