El Chocolate

The community El Chocolate is situated 18 kilometers / 11 miles north-east of San Martin Jilotepeque. The altitude is approx. 1200 meters / 3970 feet above sea level.

It was founded on December 8th 1988 and in the beginning was just a piece of land for agriculture. Later some families in the neighborhood came to this land and created the community of El Chocolate. There are 34 families with about 120 persons living here. 50% are Evangelic and the other 50% are Catholic.
You may think El Chocolate is named after chocolate, but actually it was named after a chili pepper that is called chocolate, which was grown in this area. Unfortunately, there are no chili peppers anymore, but nowadays they grow bananas, coffee, oranges, guava´s and jocotes (a Guatemalan fruit) to be sold at the market at San Martin Jilotepeque.

The current school has existed for 20 years and at the moment there are 35 children attending, ranging from the ages of 7 to 14 years old, with a mix of 18 girls and 17 boys. The school has 2 teachers; Hector, who is also the principal, teaches the children from 4th to 6th grade and Pedro who teaches 1st, to 3rd grade. Every day the mothers take turns making a snack for the children and they deliver it to the school. Pedro is thinking of taking extra English classes to improve his English so that can also be a benefit for the children in their English class. Pedro lives in a community 20 minutes outside San Martin Jilotepeque and he loves the community of El Chocolate.

Besides all the basic subjects that the children get, the teachers also give gymnastic classes on a field that they rent which is situated a short walk from the school. Further they try to give them swimming classes once in a while.
When the teachers or members of the community visit other communities, they are not called by their name, but they are called Los Chocolates (the chocolates). ¡Ya viene el Chocolate!- There comes the Chocolate!

Elementary School
Population (approximately): 200
Construction Started: January 26, 2015
Classrooms: 2
Bottle School: 63