Successful Volunteer Vacation in Guatemala

We have a wonderful supporter who brings us teams that do much good thru out the year. This was a nursing teams: RNs and student nurses who came to help. Below is the initial report they made on their work among our Mayan communities. I will post more pictures and comments from this great team as well as the amazing dental team we had: again dentists and students.

so many Mayans in Guatemala who need the medical help

some great nurses

our clinic needs the meds

the teams all seem to love Dominga's cooking

Below is the quote

"Saw the team off this morning at the airport and am spending the rest of the day in a home hostel near the airport with my feet up, listening to the rain outside, reading and catching up on email and FB. We treated over 325 patients, made great new friends, and learned a lot. I am grateful for every team member and their amazing contributions to the efforts to provide health care and education to the Mayan communities we visited. I will be back to Utah tomorrow night to get ready for the two June teams. The MTSU students are not only wonderful clinicians but awesome organizers, the clinic is in terrific shape and ready for the June med"

We had wonderful news yesterday. here is another quote from our accountant in Guatemala about Edison the little boy I posted about last week. he is deaf and now has the hearing aids he needs. TTL

"

I read your blog about Edison. It was nice to see what I wrote in your blog. Thanks. Now, I got new news for you:   “Remember Edison?, the deaf little boy from Agua Escondida, who you are helping with the transportation? Well, I have good news. I helped his mother (Rosario) to write a letter and I went with her to talk to some people from the school he is attended here in Pana to ask if they could help her with special ear phones for his deaf son. That was like one month ago. And guess what ????????? HE GOT HIS SPECIAL EAR PHONES. He had them on last Friday when I saw them. I didn´t have a camera with me that moment but I will get one. He doesn´t listen very well right now, but he has to practice and get use to the ear phones step by step. Rosario (the mother) is so happy and she told me to tell you about it. Now, the problem is that she doesn´t have money for the batteries and she is asking if we can help her?... She is gonna let me know how much are the batteries and how often they need to change them, and when I know , I’ll let you know.?" Great things are happening Vicki Dalia

Mother's Day Plea: Two Stories on Why We Want to Open an Orphanage/ Part 1

We have been working closely with Casa de Sion for many years and look forward to helping open the orphanage.  We share this story from their blog.

Many of you will remember Juan and his two boys, Juanito (on the right) and Erwin.  Juan came to work several years back as a guardian and field hand, and it was soon evident that Juan had some serious mental health issues.  He worked at a snail's pace and was perfectionistic to a fault.  But he was malnourished and pitiful and it was hard not to want to help him.  His presence at our facility on the weekends gave us security and his two boys obviously needed some structure in their lives.  They had been living on the streets of Guatemala City.  And that's what we were doing: helping kids (and adults that were really only kids). These boys

The boys did not seem to have a mother and were lacking many of the love pats a mother adds to a child's life. I tried to add some of the things to their lives that a mother would have made sure they had. It was hard tho as Juan did not cooperate. I wanted routine. I wanted discipline. I wanted cleanliness and a healthy diet.He wanted none of these. He loved them in an easy way as long as it required no effort. We got the boys in school next door and we didn't know it at the time, but this was probably the highpoint of their lives.  As if often the case with abused and neglected children (and adults), with the security (meals and a paycheck) of their new life we started having problems.  We decided that Juan was probably autistic which accounted for the fact that it took him a month to do a two-day job.  And part of it was plain old attitude.  Dominga complained of missing food from the locked kitchen. Then volunteers began complaining of money missing even from locked rooms.  We knew the latter was Erwin who could charm the socks off anyone.  We had several "come to Jesus" talks which didn't do any good.  Several times Juan was absent without notice for days at a time and his one redeeming factor--security--was useless.

After endless warnings, we eventually had to let him go, which was a heartbreaker for us, and he moved to Panajachel where he had been going to church and had engendered similiar sympathies among many of the members.  Months later he wore out his welcome there as he had with us and he and the two boys were on the streets again.  Roy, our accountant, had an old house he let them use and we gave them a monthly allotment of food--part of our fast offering.  In time they left that house and were living on the streets again but with a more lavish lifestyle that scared us.  It looked like the two boys were doing prostitution. 

Recently, the two boys disappeared for a week and Juan finally went to the police.  When the boys returned, the court got involved.  Juan did not have proper paperwork and the boys were sent into an orphanage, which will be their last best chance for a relatively normal life.  This story is not that uncommon with the rampant malnutrition that causes serious and permanent damage to the brain.  This and several other stories that we'll publish over the next few weeks are causing us to rethink opening the orphanage.  While it was one long battle for us with the government, the winners were the kids.

We also need a mature couple to make a  commitment to the running of said orphanage and our other projects among the poor Mayans of Guatemala .

If you feel the need to help out this wonderful cause please click on the donate buttons and give today.