Seven other sisters from the same congregation are studying to become secondary school teachers. On the same day, Sister Manuela Cucul also received her corresponding diploma.

All this was possible thanks to the realization of what might initially have seemed a crazy and visionary idea: to establish a branch of the Mesoamerican University of Guatemala (UMES), directed by Salesians, aimed at the indigenous population. Such intuition, or insight, peculiar to Salesian missionary Fr Jorge Puthenpura, the founder of the Sisters of the Resurrection, is instead already seven years old now and has now taken root enough to become a robust body.

The UMES campus in San Padro Carchá, in the Department of Alta Verapaz, is now one of UMES's branch campuses outside the country's capital (the others are in Quetzaltenango and Morales) and can now offer its students six degree programs: Business Administration, Educational Administration, Social Work, Middle School Teaching, Primary School Teaching, and the flagship, Agronomy, the course that attracts the largest number of students: with a predominantly rural population, it is of urgent utility.

Its development is such that the number of students is growing year by year. More importantly, most of them come from the indigenous Qeqchí. Such steady growth has already led to an expansion of campus facilities, with the construction of a new and modern three-story classroom block already in operation.

The Salesians have had a presence in the municipality of Carchá since 1935. Two hundred kilometers north of Guatemala's capital, the Salesian mission has evolved vigorously. Today eight Salesian missionaries work there, providing pastoral care to 430 rural communities.

The greatest successes during this time have been the adoption of the local language, q'eqchí, as the ordinary vehicle for pastoral work; the promotion of the laity as key players with an ample diversity of roles and functions; and the full identification of the religious with the ordinary life of the indigenous population.

Another important educational project for indigenous children is the three "Don Bosco Centers," which together educate more than 2,000 young people in the mode of formal education with boarding schools. This missionary branch is directed by Australian Salesian Fr Anthony De Groot.

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