A NEW YEAR, ANOTHER YEAR, MORE EXCITING PLANS !

We encourage others to join us in our work. We ask that no volunteer pay their own way, but they work to fulfill the social model of being sent on behalf of a group. This is their challenge.

RLP groups will travel to Guatemala in February and July. Communicationa are underway for an Ecuador library with Merazonia, an animal rescue site located on the  border of the Amazon Basin and the Highlands and in Costa Rica, working with Emilce Salas and family, in a small farming community west of San Jose. Discussions also include working with a group on an island off the coast of Panama.

** RLP has brought the use of cameras and portfolios into our cultural exchange work. Volunteers will carry with them personal portfolios, sharing their families, communities and hopes and dreams. They will work with families with whom they live in the development of similar portfolios.

Our goal is to strengthen relationships with these portfolios and work to bridge the global technology divide through the use of photography. By implementing this technology, we have already discovered a new depth of understanding and the emergence of global issues and universal themes that connect all people across the world.

Resulting benefits for communities and volunteers are the opportunity to examine and share their lives: their existing community, environment and the culture that defines them. We look to increase understanding of global issues and a to better develop an understanding of other cultures and the value of recognizing and maintaining a strong sense of cultural identity.

• model use of science and social books into classrooms
• nights in the library, making of ABC Book  
• mornings working in the park 
• Personal portfolios and photography, cultural exchange tools

• mornings group projects
  
• interview and photo families
• engage others in information gathering, for family trees for cultural center
• mid afternoon meeting daily 
• nights at the library, no Sundays
• direct all volunteers to participate and complete own project
• two volunteers per evening to organize & train library assistants

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES

• spend time observing the art of Mayan Weaving
• visit an archeological site
• learn to make tortillas
• cook a meal for host family
• assist in cooking meal with host family, "comida tipica'

IN PROCESS :  

• Pen pal program, "Amigos del Mundo" 

1. WES 4th grade class writes to 4th and 6th grades in San Andres, Guatemala
2. Poems, letters, artwork
3. Photographs

• Volunteering

1. Pen pal letters
2. Read alouds in classrooms, art projects
3. Sharing lessons and co-teaching

• Exciting ABC Book 

1. Phhotographs of the children forming each letter of the alphabet 
2. USA surrounded by English words, Guatemalans surrounded by Spanish words
3. Published as book & hung as a wall display. P
4. Photographer & consultant Caroline Schneider, founder of the program "Your Story, My Story"

• Williams College sanctioned group,  WRLP,  Williams Rural Literacy Project

1. "Amigos del Mundo" pen pal program volunteers
   
2. Assisted in developing 2009 winter study course
3. Fundraising - books, San Andres library newspaper subscription

• Collaborations for local bilingual library continue 
  

1. Hilary Greene & Brooke Meade - Immigration Center
2. John Breen & Terry Miller - NB Adult Education 

• Grants & contributions 

1. Constance McCullough Award - International Association
2. Patricia H. Dennett & The Massachusetts Garden Club
3. Materials Donors Choose organization
4. Rob Swann and family have for a second year donated soccer shoes 
5. Williamstown pick up soccer

        6. Boston Area Returned Peace Corp Volunteers