After school, Aylin’s aunt picks her up and walks with her along the edge of the road as buses, trucks, cars, and motorcycles zoom by. Then they walk through corn fields on the edges of the city of Solola. The faded green adobe home that Aylin lives in, sits in a cluster of houses with clothing strung out to dry through the little courtyard that is formed. In this cluster of houses live grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Aylin has an older sister and younger brother. When she was six years old her mother was taking her own mother on a special birthday excursion. They got on a boat to cross Lago Atitlan and it capsized. Aylin’s mother and grandmother died. Her Aunt quit her job as a housekeeper to help her brother take care of his three motherless children. Her father is a bricklayer, her grandmother cleans houses, and her grandfather is a day laborer.

Tucked in between larger concrete homes is the tiny, bright green adobe house that Lupita lives in with her parents, brother, sister, and grandma. Her sister Mandy, who is 11, is very talkative and wants to be a lawyer when she grows up. Lupita smiles as Mandy rattles on. The pandemic greatly affected this small town. Her dad is a farmer and they were not allowed to take their goods to market to sell, since everything got closed down. Government officials would even confiscate goods if they suspected that rules might be broken. When he can, her father picks up sewing jobs with his brother who is a tailor and all the women in the family embroider. The children missed two years of school. They tried to keep up as best they could, but most of the teachers didn’t have the education or means to provide online classes. What little they were able to access had to be through the one device the family owns, a phone. Mandy showed that she has the makings of a lawyer by presenting a very good argument for why they need a computer. The scholarship money that they get is largely used to pay internet fees, which are more than two dollars a day. As a comparison, a day laborer only makes ten dollars a day and a farmer even less. They get internet on the days they can afford it. In 2022, the children went back to in school classes for the first time since 2020. The classrooms are split into two groups and the groups alternate so that each child gets to go to school two days a week. Lupita and her siblings are consistently at the top of their classes and get a sash at the end of each year at the school’s award ceremony. The main entertainment for children is futbol (what North American’s consider soccer). Lupita is particularly good at it. Her father won futbol medals when he was younger, and Lupita is following in his steps. She was the only child from her village chosen to go to the National Futbol Competition and the only girl on her team.

A little walk away from the bustle of Solola, is Ingrid’s home. Her youngest sister was a newborn when her father was run over by a car on the treacherous road leading into Solola. Motorists speed along curvy inclines while pedestrians walk on the side-walk-less edges of the road. Her mother was left with seven children and embroiders huipiles (typical blouses) for a living. Ingrid’s oldest brother dropped out of school to help support the family. Every family member works to help out. The young girls get paid tiny amounts to wash laundry for other families.