After visiting two wonderful universities in Guatemala City, last Tuesday night, we found ourselves in route to Antigua, home to Brillo de Sol. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Letti Lopez, the director of this elementary school, along with a few of its students and faculty. Following our first day at Brillo de Sol, we decided to begin by administering evaluations to the children, all of which took about two hours to complete between the seven of us. It was a great experience for us all, and the time spent with the children was very memorable! 

Our third day at Brillo de Sol consisted of performing another set of evaluations from a different program which had just recently been introduced to the staff by a group from the University of Redlands in California. It was very exciting how encouraging everyone was to receive these evaluations of their students. Overall, these two days seemed to be a huge success, as seems to be the theme of this campaign! 

Behind us is pictured the beautiful city of Antigua, full of historic buildings, friendly people, wonderful food, and of course, many volcanos.

This is a picture of just some of the wonderful students and great staff that make up Brillo de Sol, with whom we have made many lasting memories.

Here, Joel, or otherwise known as Batman, and his sponsor (madrina) Ms Dechert are chatting away before we all head off to begin the language evaluations. 

In this picture, Dr. Petersen is engaged in a fairly intense memory card game with the children of Brillo de Sol. 

** As of right now the internet connection seems to be very... very weak (due to the pouring rain outside), so it is taking what feels like hours to upload pictures; therefore, we will be uploading more pictures of our time at Brillo de Sol in the next couple days! 

 Well, we made it! It was an interesting series of events upon arrival. Gwynn and Jennifer got in with no issues after their two weeks of Spanish immersion in Costa Rica. Christiane and Roger were delayed due to weather and got in quite late. Lastly, poor Doug, Mike, and Allie were met with mechanical issues, and we rerouted multiple times only to get in at 5am they day after they were expected.

 After everyone arrived, there was just enough time to catch a few Z's, get fueled up on delicious Guatemlan cuisine, and practice the presentation. Unfortunately, due to the flight issues, our suitcase with the majority of our presentation materials did not make it on time; however, we made it work and had our first presentation at the Universidad del Valle in Guatemala City (UVG) on day one.

 What a response from UVG!  We were joined by several faculty members, administrators, and students, all of whom actively participated and expressed sincere interest in Dr. Petersen's research, and the evaluation/intervention programs that we introduced.

 They enjoyed it so much so, that they asked us to return the following day, provide a brief additional training, and talk about possibilities for future collaboration between our departments and institutions.

 

 Of course, we obliged, and scheduled in a second meeting, which fit in PERFECTLY right before our next presentation at the the Universidad de Rafael Landivar. Yes, it was certainly a busy day, but we were able to improve upon our presentation and make wonderful personal and professional connections with several professionals and students in Guatemala!

 During our third presentation, at the second university, Ms. Christiane Dechert went boldly where she has never gone before... she joined the presentation, COMPLETELY IN SPANISH!