The Majahua Bus Fund: Help the kids in Majahua go to school

Majahua is the village to the north of Eden, about ½ a mile. It is populated by around 150 people of those ~46 are kids. There are two small schools in Majahua; one is a pre-school and the other an elementary school, grades 1-6.

Four years ago Anna Mendhem, our restaurant manager, started a project where she went every week to the elementary school in Majahua and took the kids out to the beach to pick up trash. Her visits were very popular and successful. At the end of the season Anna and the kids designed a t-shirt to commemorate their efforts. The t-shirts were great! Everybody wanted one. We started selling the shirts and keeping the money in a separate account. The question now was what to do with the extra cash!

Anna and I had discussed many times the “situation in Majahua”. When you have a community that needs so much where do you start? We observed that one thing that was happening was that most of the kids dropped out of school as soon as they finished the 6th grade. So our initial idea was to start a scholarship to fund the most needy kid in the community to the next school level.

Well that was a great idea. Anna Left Troncones and went to India to study Yoga which left me holding the bag. I called a meeting of all the parents who had kids who had graduated 6th grade the preceding spring. There were 6 graduates. I talked to them about the scholarship and finding the neediest kid etc..This went down like a lead balloon. Basically thdidn'tidnÂ’t understand why one kid would get all the money and the rest nothing. I saw their point. By any standard they were all barely making ends meet.

The local Majahua folk make money in two ways. Fishing or working at one of the beach places (like Eden). Until we came along most of the ladies in Majahua only worked at home. Of course this is a full time job as more often then not they have a whole passel of kids, have to make all their food on a fire and wash all laundry by hand. For a fisherman the take home pay per week is about 100 US$. There are no health benefits, retirement plans, or life insurance. Some weeks the ocean is too rough to get fish and sometimes there are no fish around. So as you can see it is a hard and insecure way to make a living. Now if the Mom works things get better. The starting salary for most menial labor for women is about 60 US$ a week. If they are lucky (like our employees) they get complete benefits and make more than that. So all in all a family with both parents working is making, on a good week, 160 to 200 US$.

I learned a lot about school costs. In Mexico school is free but you have to pay for the accoutrements. It costs about 20 US$ per kid for books and 20 US$ for uniforms each year. OK that seams reasonable. If you have 5 kids in school that is 40 x 5 or 200 US$ a year. Well itÂ’s a lot, but doable. They can use uniforms from the previous years and buy the books one at a time. So what is the big deal?

Well, the Jr. High School is in Lagunillas which is the nearest town on the highway. It is about 6 miles away. To go to school after the 6th grade the kids have to pay for their own transportation to and from school. It isnÂ’t paid by the state like in the US. For one kid to go to school in Lagunillas it costs 1$ each way, or 10 US$ a week. The school year is 40 weeks here, so the math is pretty easy. It is 400 US$ per year per kid to go to Jr. High School. Yikes!

At the meeting things started to quickly go out of the realm that Anna and I had talked about before she left. I decided unilaterally that the parents were right they all needed help. It would be good for Majahua and for the other beach businesses for the Majahua kids to keep going to school as long as they were interested in going.

With the money from the sale of the t-shirts and a 2,000 US$ donation from JimÂ’s Mom, Fran Garrity, The Majahua Bus Fund was born. I hired a driver with a vehicle to drive all 6 graduates to the Jr. High School everyday at no cost to them. The cost to the fund was 60$ a week.


TMBF started in the fall of 2003. It worked well! After the seed money was spent I started to receive money from our guests as donations. The year went buy with out a hitch.


(This was our first "bus" driven by Don Daniel, we soon upgraded to one with built-in benches and shade.)




In 2004 we had 12 kids for the bus 3 new graduates and 3 kids that had formally quit school and wanted to go back. It was great! Kids that had literally been sitting around and doing nothing were back in class. The rate of the bus went up to 100 US$ a week, which seemed fair as we were now driving 12 kids.

The school year 2005 started with a few changes. We had to get a larger vehicle, a van. We now have 18 kids on the bus! We have a new driver too, Marco. The rate is still the same (amazingly). But if the number of kids go up again next year we will need to get another van to go at the same time, so our costs will double. It is kind of daunting the costs going up like that, but exciting at the same time. The kids get to school. If they stay in school they wonÂ’t get married at 13 they might have opportunities for better jobs. They might see that life has more to offer them if they only reach out and grab it!

I will keep managing the bus fund and soliciting donations. It costs almost nothing to run. I put one add in the local phone book and that is it. The difficult part of the bus fund is that it is never over; there is no end date and no finished product. Never-the-less it is satisfying to see the kids getting on the bus, knowing that they at least have a better chance. If you are inclined to donate to the Majahua Bus Fund, send a check to my Mom with “Majahua Bus Fund” in the memo section of your check. Please include your e-mail or address so that I can write and thank you. The donation is not tax deductible.

Thanks to our recent contributors: November 2005

Bill & Mercedes Dorson
Kathy Green
Jan & Barry Wygle
Laurie & Ward Kingsley
Steve from MitraÂ’s Yoga group
Tami & Brian Schuler
Effie & Richard Weisfield