Kids perspective-- Issue 2-- A Day in the Life of a Guatemalan Child

Today, we could not go to Spanish class because we had to experience what it is like for a lot of Guatemalan kids who are not able to go to school.  The ladies who live with us and help us are named Nina and Cata.  They are Mayan and when they were little girls they had to work and not play.  Cata could not even go to school.  The Mayans are the very first people who lived in Guatemala.  This is the Mayan rule:  the oldest child of most families can't go to school because they have to work in order to help provide food for their family.  Cata used to have to wake up at 2:30 a.m. to make tortillas to sell in the market each day.  We saw a little girl trying to sell stuff who went up to my dad and said, "Do you want one of these?"  She was selling homemade towels and we think she was about 6 years old.  Daddy said, "No gracias," which means no thank you.

So, today we had to spend had to spend half the day working and cleaning our house and we were not able to go to school.  So.... what did we learn??  Little Man says, "I don't like mopping.  I also learned that I like school and I am thankful for school.  School is a privaledge."  Dancing Beauty says, "Kids in Guatemala have to do a lot of work and not a lot of play.  And other kids have to do the work that their mom and dad do."       

Here's a Spanish word for you.... can you figure out what it means??  Limpiar

Write me back in English & tell me what that means!!!