Tuesday at Mayan Families

First day back after the long week end celebrating Semana Santa. We finally closed on Thursday and re-opened today. Though we did have a few requests that we had to attend to over the week end. Sick people who needed treatment urgently but overall we had a great break.

Today we held a clinic with Opticians from the U.S......we started the clinic at 9a.m. and by 3p.m. 75 people had received glasses.

The group also left us 1,000 pair of glasses that we can distribute!

In El Barranco we delivered the tables, the chairs,the cooking equipment, changed the locks on the doors so that no one else can have keys for the location. In Panajachel we sorted out toys, puzzles, games, crayons, school supplies, socks, shoes, for the opening of the El Barranco pre-school feeding program on Thursday.

The girls from the San Jorge pre school received black cortes and blue blusas, the boys received jeans, blue polo shirts and black caps....these are in preparation for the big parade on Thursday morning that all the schools will be participating in . It marks the beginning of the San Jorge annual Fiesta .....they will have a pick up that is being decorated tomorrow afternoon by all the parents, the kids will carry balloons, there will be music and it will be the start of a big parade back to the village of San Jorge from the main highway. When they get to the village the children of the pre-school and their parents will all go to the Mayan Families community center and enjoy a traditional lunch of polik. The parents have all contributed some money into providing this lunch ....they have invited all the Mayan Families staff to attend but only Christine ( Ely's replacement ) and Alexa ( who is also Ely's replacement and will be Christine's replacement when she leaves in August) are able to attend.

Stephanie, our fabulous volunteer is almost finished writing the March /April Newsletter and should be in your inbox soon.

We finalized plans for a medical and dental group to come down in June. Two dentists and one G.P. , one paramedic and one R.N....will be coming to do a clinic for four days. We are very happy to have them come.

Our wood working shop has been working to finish all the tables and cupboards needed for El Barranco.

Zoila....who has been teaching in San Antonio was sad to say goodbye to the children there today. She will be the teacher at the new El Barranco pre-school. She lives very close to El Barranco and it has been really difficult for her to get to San Antonio, especially during the wet season, often two pickups and a boat to get to the pre-school. While she is sad to say goodbye to her fellow teacher, Griselda and the children, she is excited to be opening the pre-school in El Barranco.

Please look at the photos in the Picassa Web to see the people in the Elderly program who were fortunate enough today to get blankets and mattresses!

We also added another elderly gentleman to the feeding program in San Jorge, he has been bedridden for two years and has not been able to seek medical attention.

And at the end of the day, two students found a cat being attacked by dogs in the street, brought it to us in a bag and we are now looking after a very unhappy adult cat who would rather be somewhere else. We hope we can find that somewhere else soon for him!

Thank you for your support that makes all we do possible,

Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES
Panajachel, Guatemala

Web: www.mayanfamilies.org