Meeting the crew

Back in 2018, when I was living in Cologne, I met Martin Müller, a German bookshop owner from Wuppertal, at a gathering of Guatemalans in Northrhine Westfalia.

What was he doing there?

It turns out, Martin knows our own country probably better than most of us do.

At the end of the 80s and early 90s, Martin and his wife Anna started collaborating with a project that supported communities in the Ixil Region in the department of Quiché, in the western highlands of Guatemala. The Ixil Region was one of the most affected by the 36-year long civil war that happened in Guatemala until 1996.

At some point, the project was about to be stopped due to some difficulties. Yet then, Martin and Anna, got together with Aroldo, their partner in the Ixil region, and María Elena, a women who had been engaged in the project for long. And they decided to continue with the educational part of the project in the region.

And so, APEI was born. Amigos Para las Escuelas Ixiles is today an association, funded mostly by private donations from Europe, that supports education in several communities in the Ixil Region by building up schools and providing scholarships.

Martin visits Guatemala every year to see the projects. And this time, I have the privilege of joining him in his tour through the communities to get to know their work and, especially, the people they work with.

Today, I met Martin in Antigua, where he usually stays before his tour through Quiché. We had dinner with his colleague Maria Elena, who directs the association in Guatemala, and Rolf and Claudia, an adventurous swiss couple who started supporting APEI some years ago.

Tomorrow we depart to Quiché. I'm very excited!Read more