This past week we received the Essential Oils Distiller that was purchased for us by Friends of Ix-canaan and Dr. Bob Dixon in Calgary, Alberta.   It has been our dream, since we began Project Ix-canaan, to create essential oils…

Estelle Pham, our newest volunteer, is here visiting from Australia.  She arrived last week in time to assist in the English classes.  This week, she has a full schedule of activities planned for the kids, beginning with this…

Phoebe Mayer and Amy Anderson, from London, England, have been here all week to participate in the Ix-canaan Library activities.  They quickly became part of the team that was teaching English to the students, and learned about the program.…

August has been a busy month for volunteers.  First to arrive were Nina Scheliga and Mauricio Buschinelli, who had decided to teach English to the kids through a variety of games.  Most of the children here want to learn…

The children of this area go to school in the morning, and have begun coming to the library every afternoon to learn and play.  Earlier this year, Margo and Alex taught a group of children how to make paper…

Members of the Ix-canaan Women’s Group are justifiably proud of their Square Foot gardens, and are always thrilled to welcome visitors into their yards to see them.  Sonja’s garden is just on top of the rock wall … the…

Margo has now spent two 3-month terms working with the kids who come daily to the library, and over that period of time, has become very adept at managing a variety of activities at the same time.  Here…

Over this past year, one of the skills that Margo has been teaching the girls is needlework.  She had several patterns made up for little bags, and she brought a variety of different colored yarns to show them…

For the last couple of weeks, the kids have been enjoying a variety of activities with volunteer Jill Foster.  Jill has just spent several weeks in southern Guatemala, living with a local family and learning Spanish.  Now, she is…

Thanks to Jessie Bhangoo, a computer sciences engineer who has been volunteering here at Project Ix-canaan, I am finally able to blog again. Not only was I having a lot of problems with the blogs, but it had been…

One of the things that I took for granted as a youth was not only the ease of getting a good education, but the idea that it was always expected that we would pursure an education and that there would…

Bit by bit, I will be catching up on some blogging that was left far behind by circumstances.  Volunteers Francisco Mendes and Ok Mandoon are from Campus California Teachers Group.  CCTG is many things,…

What a wonderful surprise we had the other day when Project Ix-canaan was presented with this beautiful plaque thanking us for the support we gave the NUFED Academy during the past year in Computer…

On Saturday, Nikki, Cameron and I ran up and down thousands of stairs around the village as we delivered invitations to a seminar to all the hotel owner/managers in the village. The Seminar was…

We are excited to welcome 4 volunteers from the SIFE chapter of the University of Valdosta, Georgia … Cameron Hoopes, Scott Manley, Jeffrie Shipley and Nikki Mitchell.

SIFE is an international non-profit organization that works…

After building the solar ovens on Saturday, we planned a Solar Cooking Workshop for Sunday. The volunteers had done fundraising before they left home, and were prepared for the expenses of the food, as…

The students from the University of North Carolina were instrumental in organizing and facilitating our first Solar Oven Building Workshop.  From left to right above:  Julie Mikus, Brandon Dixon, Jessie Kruse, Avani Javer, Roshen…

This past school year, we have been collaborating with the Nufed School here in the village so that the students are able to add Computer Studies to their…

We recently spent 10 days working with a group of volunteers, mostly students from the North Carolina State University who organized two programs to benefit the local people.…

Thanks to Light Up the World, who donated this small solar lighting system, and Dr. Bob Dickson, who volunteered to bring it down with him when…