From November 2009-March 2010, Hekab Be was fortunate to have the Gilgoffs, a family from Vancouver, join our team as regular volunteers. Over the course of the many months they were in Akumal, we got to meet all the members of their family, Betty & Robert, and their wonderful children Hannah, Adam & Sara. During that time they collaborated at the library in a myriad of ways, from giving English classes, to helping wrap Christmas gifts and make the pinata, to teaching the kids, to just plain having fun and playing around. It is rare to find people as dedicated as this wonderful family, so willing to share of themselves, generous not only with their time, but even more so, with their hearts. All we can say is THANK YOU GILGOFFS! You will be sorely missed as you left your mark on all of us at Hekab Be.
Robert rehearses the Christmas song with the kids
Betty and some kids admire their book in progress....
‘U Paliail Hekab Be’ – Mayan for ‘Children of the Open Road’ to me will always be a very special group of Akumal children whom we have come to know through the Hekab Be Biblioteca. For four and a half months this past winter my husband Robert, my now 16 year-old daughter Hannah, and I chose to live in Akumal specifically for the purpose of volunteering and getting involved with the Hekab Be Biblioteca. We had been living in Spain as a part of a 10 month adventure away from our home in Vancouver, Canada when, as the weather got colder, as our legal right as Canadians to stay in the EU was about to expire, and as our frustration with our inability to get involved with the local Spanish/Catalan community in Majorca, Spain increased, I stumbled on an invitation on the Hekab Be website from Akumal’s small community run biblioteca to come and get involved. So we booked our tickets and arrived unsure of just what we could possibly offer or what that involvement would look like. We were enthusiastic, patient, and willing to do whatever was needed with whatever skills a retired psychologist, an elementary school teacher with a strong technology background, and an outgoing energetic and athletic 15 year-old could bring to the task.
Unfortunately even between the three of us, we lacked one important skill, a fluency with the Spanish language. Carlos, the very able, wise and welcoming assistant director at the biblioteca was undaunted. He patiently explained that the Hekab Be Biblioteca welcomed volunteers. “But what can we do?” we asked. He didn’t provide any easy answers although he did tell us that the biblioteca has a good number of visitors from away offer drop-in, one-off classes for the children. He explained that the staff at the biblioteca, the director Leo, the assistant Belen and he often took on translating to make the classes work, but that such classes weren’t ideal on a long term basis. If we could do something different that didn’t rely on them, that would be great, he coached.
As a teacher I was determined that we weren’t going to come in and create more work for the staff. Our goal was to volunteer to help, to actually be of assistance. But how? Well first I felt that we ought to get a feel for the culture of the place. We had to learn who the kids were and what they needed. So without any other agenda we just started showing up at the biblioteca three, sometimes four times a week. We rarely offered “classes,” although we did do the occasional art project, card game or new playground activity, mostly without translation and instead with a great deal of energetic and creative sign language, thanks to Hannah. More often we tried to get to know the children and help them with whatever we could.
Over the four and a half months that we were in Akumal, we each found our own way of engaging the children. Hannah and Robert each have a pretty nutty sense of humor. They enjoy clowning and laughing. Hannah is not afraid to make mistakes and so dove into Spanish, having the children teach her new phrases and silly expressions. She made some fast friends with children and adults and reveled in the eagerness with which flocks of children joined into her adventures such as having one little fellow show up with a crumpled piece of paper, announcing to Hannah that it was clearly a pirate map and so they were off into the trees looking for treasure.
Robert also easily found his niche initially by finding a guitar so that by Christmas time he was accompanying singers at the festivities. He too enjoyed games outside and so would take on being the monster, the “tiburon” or the “vampiro” in the impromptu games of tag that the children called for again and again, apparently happy to have an adult get silly and just play. Robert also treasured some of the quieter times, particularly with some of the older boys reading in Spanish or even occasionally in English. Much of the time that Hannah and Robert spent at the bibiloteca was actually out of doors sometimes exasperated at the lack of fair play and turn taking on the playground, other times delighted with the agility and persistence the children showed.
My role was a little more difficult for me to sort out probably because typically in my role as a teacher I clearly must talk too much. I found it hard to engage without having enough language to verbally express my interest, curiosity, and willingness to help. I started bringing decks of playing cards and eventually had some of the children practicing times tables with me with the cards. I tended to follow the staff around a little more and ask for direction as to who to help with what. In the later months as we started on a book project, I often brought in my laptop computer to have children write bits and pieces about themselves. That coupled with the opportunity to see some of the pictures Hannah was taking of them on the screen gave me a bit more status some days, and occasionally I even had lineups of children waiting for a turn to work with me.
Once we’d earned a bit of a place, we were asked to try picking up both the children’s and the adults’ English classes for a couple of months while the regular volunteer teacher was away. With three of us planning for very diverse groups it turned out to be a real challenge that we didn’t feel particularly successful at but we had a lot of fun trying. Also in the final months, Robert, Hannah and I worked together on a book of the pictures of the U Paliail Hekab Be’, adding text all in Spanish about each of the children and adults who came to mean so much to us. Making the book really cemented for us how truly special these children are and what an amazing experience they helped to create for us.
Although we came to Akumal determined to get involved, we credit much of our being welcomed into the community to all of those who make up Hekab Be. Despite the adversity that this struggling library operates under, including but not limited to the ongoing struggle for stable financial support, or the revolving door of consistent community involvement, the children and community couldn’t have been more open, welcoming and generous with us.
And all of us at HB feel the same about the Gilgoffs!!
