Guatemala 09/09

This past month's trip to Guatemala was short but action packed. First of all, our flight had issues. I spend a lot of time in airports and on planes, so I have grown very accostomed to waiting and sitting. I have adapted such that I fall asleep almost immediately after getting on a plane, and generally I may only wake up once or twice. Usually the jolt of landing will bring me out of the sleep and I am ready to go. In this case I got on the plane and accomodated myself to my routine set up and sleeping position. I awoke an hour later to realize I am still in Miami and we are deboarding the plane. Very dissapointing to say the least.

Anyway, we arrived late so the day's itinerary was a little rushed. First stop was San Francisco Xavier's boys home. The road up to this home is incredible. It is very narrow and the "best" spots are little distances where they have filled in the road with stones and paved strips to drive on. We played chicken with a large truck, and realized that we, as the smaller vehicle would finally just have to take the whole road in reverse until we found a small area to pull off to let this large truck pass.

We have completed an agricultural project in the home to produce mushrooms (hongo ostra). The shady, damp, cool, high altitude conditions of the home are perfect for cultivating this product and the home can use its harvest for general consumption as well as sale for profit. The project was incredible and I was very impressed with the Brothers and the boys for how well they understood and explained the details to me. It was obvious that they had gained a lot of information from the technical training sessions and have already become experts themselves. The project is already producing mushrooms and the boys all agreed when I asked if they enjoyed the new addition to their diet. The experts who assisted us in developing this project actually forecast that this project may be the most successful in the country due to the exact conditions of the surrounding environment and this home has the potential in the future to grow and develop it to the point of making a substancial sustainable income for the home.

During each home visited we celebrated the month of September being Child's Month. Each celebration included piñatas, a special meal, gifts, goody bags, prizes, and brand new baseball hats.

The following day started with an Inauguration ceremony for a wonderful project that we just completed in Ponte de Pie y Camina girls home. This home had been temporarily displaced as they were in need of adequate dormitory housing. Food For The Poor, in collaboration with Caritas, built a new dormitory for the home that cares for approximately 20 girls. The dormitory is complete with four large bedrooms for the girls, two bedrooms for the Sisters and two large storage/closets. Food For The Poor had already compelted a project previously to provide adequate sanitation at the home and the dormitory was constructed with a hallway to lead to those restroom facilities. The dormitory was beautifully constructed and all of the furniture has already been moved in. The only thing missing was this ceremony and blessing so that the girls could start moving in. The home had prepared a ceremony complete with dance and song presentations. I was very pleased with the project and it is very clear to see what a huge difference it will make for the home. The girls are currently housed in the space that should function as the dining room/multipurpose room. The home administrators expressed their gratitude and included the fact that they will gain that space back to better accomodate the girls with their mealtimes and studying.

A big part of our program is to show these children that they are special and loved. Whenever possible we try to celebration special days or give them extra attention so that they can feel God's love in their lives. Through their direct contact with our sponsors they gain a special bond with someone who cares for them and is interested in them. By celebrating Child's Month in each of the homes, we also took advantage of this small holiday to continue in this mission to boost their self esteem and self worth. One of the items that each child received was a baseball hat. These are original team hats from the professional baseball league of the US. Its may sound silly, but as we passed them out you could hear "ooohhhs" and "ahhhhhhs" and inevitably someone would yell "SON ORIGINALES!" The fact that they were new hats and still had the official league tags on them was a very big deal to these children. Simple as it may sound, these children rarely receive something brand new with the tags still connected. The boys, being sports lovers, talked A LOT about them and asked me about the teams and where they were located in the country. It was fun to watch the kids get so overjoyed about these great items that we are able to acquire and distribute to them through the generosity of our donors.