‘They found joy in the simplest things’
Hill teens build homes for the homeless in Guatemala
by LEN LEAR

All the Teens, Inc. volunteers and chaperones who traveled to God’s Child Project in Guatemala met the project’s founder and director, Patrick Atkinson, Sunday evening at “A Taste of Chestnut Hill.” They are, front row, from left, Olivia Dean, Jane Idler, Michael Dwyer, Meghan McDermott, Anne Dwyer, Jaylan Temple, Arianna Neromiliotis, Autumn Temple and Devon Cobb. Back Row, from left, are Meghan Dwyer, Marianne Dwyer, Mary Dwyer, Brendan Dwyer,Patrick Atkinson, Patrick Dwyer, Patrick O’Donnell and Matthew George.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food at the table, cross their legs and tyrannize their teachers.”

This comment could have been made yesterday by almost any of us older folks. But it was actually made more than 2,400 years ago by Socrates, according to his legendary student, Plato. (The quote appears on page 277 of the book, “Personality and Adjustment,” by social historians William L.Patty and Louise S. Johnson, published in 1953.) An even more acerbic quote on “the younger generation” is attributed to Hesiod, a Greek philosopher who lived more than 400 years before Socrates.

In other words, older people trashing the obnoxious traits of younger people is certainly nothing new. Fortunately, however, not all younger people merit this kind of verbal machine gun fire. Take the members of the Chestnut Hill-based group, Teenagers, Inc., for example, who were the subject of “Taste of Chestnut Hill,” a fundraiser held Sunday evening at Springside School. If selflessness were a perfume, this group of teenagers would reek of it.

These fabulous kids, led by their indefatigable Coordinator, Marianne Dwyer, engage in so many activities that benefit our community, I could not possibly list them all here. But I would like to devote this space to an even more remarkable thing these great kids did for another community, much more in need than ours. In late June of this year, 12 members of Teens, Inc., along with three adult chaperones, traveled to Antigua, a poverty-stricken town in Guatemala. There the kids literally constructed three homes from scratch so that three formerly homeless families could actually have dwellings to call their own.

The entire enterprise was coordinated with the help of The God’s Child Project, an organization based in Bismark, North Dakota, which provides volunteers who care for and educate orphaned, poor and homeless children and families in Guatemala and Africa. It was founded by Patrick Atkinson, who was present at the “Taste of Chestnut Hill” on Sunday.

Before leaving Philadelphia, the kids were warned to be ready for almost anything. Here is just a small fraction of the advice they were given: “You may be exhausted from a very long day of interacting with people and looking forward to a good sleep, only to be kept awake all night by loud, yelping dogs. You may find that you need to jam 20 people into a small commuter bus made for 10. You may travel a long distance in order to do something very important with the people — and find out that all you can do is sit and wait for the day to go by.”

Teens, Inc., kids and their parents had held seven fundraising events to help pay for the trip. “I also applied for grants and received five,” explained Marianne Dwyer, Coordinator of Teens, Inc. “And I wrote to some local businesses and families for donations. Some kids also spoke at their churches and wrote personal letters to family, friends and neighbors to raise money. We raised a total of $15,000 (which included $1,500 from the Chestnut Hill Community Fund and $1,000 from the Margaret Jacobs Charitable Trust). At the Campbell’s Place fundraiser, Teen Center and local churches, we collected school, art and first-aid supplies and clothes which we packed into 19 suitcases and shipped on the plane with us. It was quite a sight!”

All 12 teens on the trip were invited to express their views to this reporter on their remarkable experience in Guatemala. Following are the comments from those who did reply:

•Meg McDermott, a student at Gwynedd High School: “I honestly cannot say one negative thing about our trip to Guatemala. Every experience was something completely new and life-changing. Everyone in Guatemala is so welcoming and thankful for everything that they have, even in the poor conditions that they live. The mornings when we arrived at our families’ property where we were building their house and seeing them all outside waiting with smiling faces waving to us was one image I will always remember. Also on our last day of building the house, they said thank you to us, and the children gave my team a picture they had colored for each of us as their way to express appreciation for what we had done for them. This was amazing to know even while we were gone, they were thinking of us and trying to find some way to say thank you … We gained a new love and respect for this completely new country and also for its people!

•Autumn Temple, a student at Springside School: “My experience in Guatemala was somewhat what I expected. I knew what I was going there for, and I had some idea of what was going to happen, but it was still a culture shock when I got there, but I quickly got used to it. I liked everything about the trip. But if I had to choose my favorite part, it would be when we finished building the house and saw how grateful the family was that we had done something so generous for them. Going to Guatemala did have a lasting effect on me, and I would definitely go back and do it again.”

•Brendan Dwyer, a student at Bishop McDevitt High School: “The trip to Guatemala was no doubt the most unforgettable experience in my life. Not only did I have the best time of my life in the Third World country, but the trip itself was humbling and opened my eyes to the destitution existing in our world. I didn’t know what to expect on a trip like this because I think mostly everybody in our group was at least a little wary about building houses in a Third World country. I loved interacting with the children because they were all so friendly and happy to have us to build a home for them that would last for decades.”

•Olivia Dean, a student at Central High School: “I am so grateful that I was given the chance to have this amazing experience. It was much different than I ever anticipated. I had no idea building a house was going to take such hard work. It was probably the hardest work I have ever done in my life. Though it was hard, it was extremely rewarding. I enjoyed the whole experience, I loved it … I loved those kids! Though the work was hard, seeing the kids waiting for us every day made it that much easier. You could just see it in their eyes how much they appreciated us, and that really affected me. Those kids don’t have much and were still happier than most of us. They found joy in the simplest things. The only thing I disliked about going to Guatemala was the clothes drive. It was extremely hectic and extremely sad seeing kids/parents begging for clothes. It was hard to not feel guilty seeing people begging for things that I have so much of.”

•Michael Dwyer, a student at Bishop McDevitt High School: “The trip to Guatemala was by far the most enriching experience of my life. I gained so much respect for the culture of Guatemala because all of the people were so hardworking and were content with their scarce belongings. I felt spoiled since I am blessed with so many things, and the Guatemalan people have so little. Doing service work in Guatemala instilled me with so many values and virtues. Building the houses, distributing clothes and working at the homeless shelter were great service activities. Upon completing the house, the family received a dwelling place for shelter, but I left with so much more.”

•Matt George, a student at Bishop McDevitt High School: “Even though I knew I could gain a lot from this trip, I was not sure what I was getting myself into. I was not sure about how a country in such poverty would accept an American in their society. The only other time I have been outside the country was when I went to visit my Godfather who lives in Ghana. So it wasn’t that I was afraid to travel; it was more of the fear that we were the minorities in their country … To my relief, as soon as we arrived in Guatemala, we were greeted with open arms. Just in the first few hours of being in Guatemala, I could feel the sense of happiness in each person that I interacted with. Driving through the city the children would wave at us and say ‘Hola Americans!’ which was the greatest sign of welcome that I have ever felt. And as soon as the first day of work came, I started to feel those thoughts of ‘what am I doing here?’ As we opened the tool box, the first thing I realized was that every tool was manual. I was not aware of how much work we had in store for us until our guide told me to saw through a steel rod with a hand saw. And when I cut through, I felt somewhat proud of myself, but when I turned around, he had 10 more rods lined up for me. I must say the first day was the hardest but after that, it became easy. But all the hours we put in to working in the blazing sun or the pouring rain paid off when I saw the family walk into the house that I helped build for them. A sense of pride that I have never felt came upon me. Just to see the smile on their faces was all that I needed on this trip because it let me know that what I did was something special … It gave me a better understanding of the issues going on throughout the world and made me appreciate the gifts that I have been granted in life.”

For more information, email mdwyer325@ail.com.