English 
Español de Guatemala Quarantine Stories - La Maestra
Produced, filmed and edited by Yepocapa based CodigoFilm and crew, this short film follows a local teacher as she grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the travel restrictions, government issued curfews and logistical challenges of having to adopt remote learning and supporting her students through the pandemic.
Questions and answers From the Filmmakers (translated):
In Guatemala, education is one of the sectors that covid-19 came to destroy, many teachers lost their jobs, and children withdrew from schools, some of their own free will, others by decision of their parents , due to being infected with covid-19.
We chose this story because it is very hard to see how low-income families are the most affected, since they were not prepared for such radical changes … the families of the communities such is the case of Santa Sofía, (It is a community in the southern part de Yepocapa) and regularly live off crops and wages cutting sugarcane.
When COVID came (and we went into lockdown), many were left without sustenance, schools used new work methodologies, shifted to using digital platforms, such as zoom, among others, but they realized that it was not functional for everyone because many did not have a mobile device, or computer, and the few that did, have no internet access. so it was very difficult to follow the new process that way.
Then the teachers came up with an idea to make worksheets, but they had to go to the community and gather the parents, using all the necessary (safety) measures, then the parents took the task to their children, which at the same time was complicated since the students did not understand the studies or did not know how to solve the problems. In many cases the parents do not have schooling, that is painful to say, but some do not know how to read or write,
This process of using worksheets still continues, as it was the best way to reach the communities, the story of the teacher turning her house into a call center for parents and parents becoming teachers / facilitators, it was already complicated. On many occasions the information was misrepresented, but the students and the teachers of the educational system had to adapt to these abrupt changes.
The story of Alva Irene Xia is even more complicated, because to reach the community she had to solve both the part of the new educational model, as well as a difficulty that throughout her career entails a problem: It is that to reach the community they must cross rivers, 2 rivers that are born on the slopes of the Volcán de Fuego, that every time it rains the rivers leave their banks, and leave the communities isolated, the roads become useless because and to stop is dangerous due to crime. I think it is a perfect scenario to resign, but the teachers have fought against all odds and continue in their duty to bring the bread of knowledge, making the most of the effort that they are asked to do.
Well, for us as a team, transportation was difficult in the first place, since to get to Santa Sofia, you must use motorcycles, or 4×4 cars to get there, and just when we were on our way to the community, the motorcycle that we were carrying was ruined on the way, but a friend named Antonio Cardenas, we call him “Plimo” affectionately .. He gave us his support to take us on his motorcycle … This was a solution and a great help. Since he lives in the communities near the school, he knew about the way, the dangers and everything and he was guiding us and guiding us.
What touched us the most was filming the story, specifically on the part of the child, since in many of the scenes that we filmed the child’s reaction was exactly the reflection of the problem. We also learned to solve problems for our characters, since we had to request permission from parents, health authorities, educational authorities.
Knowing that any problem, no matter how big, always has a solution, you just have to search, fight and try hard, that lesson was what the characters taught us.
I would like the message of effort from each part of the educational community: student, parent, teacher, give their best effort so that the teaching-learning process can take place, and that in the midst of a disastrous educational system and a very corrupt government, the poorest and most vulnerable are always the ones who pay the consequences, but they always give that extra effort to fight against everything bad to get ahead.
We would like you to see this story as a problem that many teachers from Yepocapa and Guatemala in general have now, the government does not pay attention to that, the students continue without a clear process and the rest of the problems. We would like many students to take an example, many teachers and the general public that despite all the problems that a country presents, things can always be done well.
