By Pete McNamee | Peace Corps Volunteer
Hi Everyone!
Nawal Estereo has been continuing our work of providing support to our surrounding communities with educational, cultural, values-based programming as well as timely news updates to keep our listeners informed about local events.
In late June we invited several community educators to the station as part of our monthly forum series. Participants included teachers, principals and the superintendent of schools in Nahaulá. Each forum member answered questions from the moderators and discussed their outlook on the state of education in Nahualá and the surrounding communities.
In July we held another forum for community leaders, inviting several former mayors of Nahualá to come in and speak about their experiences. Each spoke of the unique challenges they faced during their time in office and how they were able to overcome such obstacles. The participants also gave some insight on current local municipal issues facing Nahaulá and their opinion on how they might be handled.
In local news, Guatemala has been subject to an especially heavy rainy season this year. The first large storm of the season began in May with Hurricane Agatha. While we have been lucky enough to avoid another storm of similar size, the constant rain throughout the last 3 or 4 months has resulted in significant damage to the road system. As a consequence there have been several mudslides that have occurred in the region with significant loss of life. The first weekend of September saw several mudslides on the highway outside of Nahualá, resulting in 25 deaths. Nawal Estereo was able to provide updates to the community throughout the ordeal and to alert the community to the tragedy and keep everyone informed. Our hearts and thoughts go out to those in our community and all over Guatemala who lost their lives due to these circumstances, as well as to their families.
On a somewhat lighter note, Nahualá and the rest of Guatemala just finished celebrating the 189th anniversary of independence from Spain. This week saw several parades filled with marching bands, dance teams and floats of school beauty queens from elementary, middle and high schools throughout the area. The parades ran for three days, culminating on September 15th, Guatemala’s Independence Day. The radio was able to broadcast all of the events thanks to small contributions from community banks and local businesses as well as the ongoing generous support of the GlobalGiving community.
As we have highlighted in previous updates, much of the funding Nawal Estereo relied on for decades has dried up in recent years. We continue to rely on your support and generosity to help cover our basic operating costs such as electric bills and equipment maintenance. Your kind donations have allowed us to not only strive daily to strengthen and preserve Mayan culture in Nahualá, but also provide necessary services and information during recent natural disasters. This last aspect continues to become more and more important as hurricane season begins to pick up and the soil in our area is already saturated, creating an ever-present threat of more mudslides.
On behalf of Nawal Estereo in Nahualá, Sololá, Guatemala, we thank you again for your continued support in all that we do and wish you all a great day!
Sincerely, Pete McNamee Pedro Sohom Cotiy And the Personnel of Nawal Estereo 93.1 FM
[Note: Pete McNamee has replaced Tim Slattery as the Peace Corps Volunteer currently working at Nawal Estereo. On behalf of Nawal Estereo and the community of Nahualá, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Tim for his 2 years of service in our community. Be sure to come back soon and visit!]
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