February 13-15, 2009
With the children at the Guardalaria Virgin del Camino Center in Guatemala City.
Aikidoka in the capital city of Guatemala City came together last year to form AHAN Nippon Kan Guatemala. This February, Homma Kancho visited for the first time and taught at a six hour practice held at the Escuela Central Aikido, coordinated by Pablo Buentafe.
Scott Olson, General Headquarter Instructor, Father Fransisco. Pablo, Homma Kancho.
Homma Kancho was accompanied on this visit by AHAN Nippon Kan General Headquarters Latin America Coordinator, Scott Olson Sensei who has been to Guatemala on previous occasions to work with this new but enthusiastic group of Guatemala students. In Scott Sensei’s younger days, he worked in the mountains of Guatemala as a volunteer carpenter, building need new schools for local communities in need. He speaks fluent Spanish and has a great understanding of Latin cultures.
Proceeds from the seminar were donated to the Guardalaria Virgin del Camino Day Care Center for underprivileged working mothers. This organization helps young mothers with free day care and meals for children 3 to 7 years old, so that they might work to help support their families.
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- AHAN Guatemala, Escuuela Central Aikido students.
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- Practice
One of the goals of these AHAN fundraising seminars is to raise the most funds possible for donation to local community charities. To this end, it is always Homma Kancho and Nippon Kan Instructor Staffs strict policy to not accept teaching fees, or spend precious seminar resources on fancy dinners, accommodations or entertainment for instructors or organizers. On this trip, Homma Kancho and Olson Sensei actually stayed in a working monastery run by Father Francisco who welcomed them with wonderful yet modest hospitality.
After the seminar Homma Kancho was shown a few sites of Guatemala with a trip to La Antigua, the old capital city’ to experience the culture and natural beauty of Guatemala.
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- Father Francisco and Homma Kancho.
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- A visit to La Antigua.
We thank Homma Kancho and Olson Sensei for the visit to our country.
Written by
Pablo Buentafe
Escuela Central Aikido
AHAN Nippon Kan Guatemala Coordinator