We're ready!

Hi, we have all the food except for the bbq chickens waiting to be packed for tomorrow.

We have 270 baskets and if you want to get a late one in, please send it to us!

Today we have had two volunteers here who have helped straighten up the bodega...storage area. One of them was in heaven, she is a real organizer and this was her idea of bliss!

We had two puppies adopted out today...we were thrilled and then later in the afternoon, we had a boy bring two little white puppies that he found dumped on the street!

We have Caroline Tiffin from MFC visiting with us....she was at the Elderly Care program today and Susie who went with her called to tell me that it is so hot in the kitchen, that I have to give up my new fan and send it to the Elderly Care program. I was sorry to hear that because I have only had the fan for one day! :( But it apparently is stifling hot there so I am sure that they will be happy to have it tomorrow. The old refrigerator that we had has broken again and cannot be repaired. We need to start fundraising for a new one. We only need a small one.

Then later in the afternoon, we learned that one of the Elderly from the program in San Jorge had passed away....this was so surprising because we had delivered his lunch and he was seemingly , o.k. but had passed away suddenly. He and his wife had just had a mattress donated to them last week. Anna is putting up his photo and story on the Elderly blog. He was 87 years old and his wife is in her 90's.

We have been printing out a photo of each child in the pre-school today so that they can do a craft tomorrow at the pre-school. They will be making a photo frame for their mother and they will have a real photo of themselves and sometimes their mother together to put in these frames! I think the mothers are going to love it.

We also have been packing gifts today for each pre-school is doing a celebration....they will be having the mother's come, the children will perform something and then they will have refreshments.

In Tierra Linda, they are celebrating in the evening.....they have invited all the village, the pre-school and the high school are joining together to host the celebrations. They have collected money from all the families to help pay for the food.

Today we also gave about $70 worth of goods to the children of Xecotoj who are planning to celebrate Mother's Day in their little village. They are also doing it in the evening. We are very proud that two of these four students are our sponsored students and that they are doing all this work to celebrate their mothers. Thank you to the people who were able to donate this money to help the children be able to do this celebration. They still need about $50 US more if anyone would like to help them.

We had a visit from the community leaders of Chuitanimit and they are very concerned about the upcoming wet season. They are living in basically tents and the ground will be very, very muddy. They do not have cement floors , they do not have real houses....and the place they are living is on a hill. It is going to be a very difficult time for them.

They need a $100,000 US to be able to buy a huge property that will be their village. They were promised by the govt. that they would receive help relocating if they evacuated their village. Their village was in a lot of danger from the mudslides. They evacuated, they signed papers renouncing their ownership and have been waiting to receive the promised help. It doesn't seem like it is forthcoming. Several of the children from Chuitanimit attend the Mayan Families/ Mission Guatemala pre-school in San Andres.

The Health center called us to tell us that the Ultra sound machine that we had donated over a year ago is broken and needs repair to the tune of nearly $1,500 US.

We also found out, sadly, the one of our young students who is nearly 17yrs old ....has dropped out of school and will be getting married in the next few weeks. She and her boyfriend were found to have spent the night together and the solution is that they now get married. The mother in law - to be - has agreed to the marriage but on the condition that the girl drop out of school, " if she is going to be married- then she has to act married". We suspect that she may be pregnant but we don't know. The ironic thing is that I remember her mother being in just the same situation, she was pregnant at 17 but the boy did not marry her, she has raised her daughter as a single mother and really struggled and hoped that her daughter would take advantage of the opportunities that she had to get a higher education. But not to be now ....but maybe later. Please do not worry that it is your student, the sponsor has been advised.

Stephanie, our wonderful volunteer is working on our Annual Report....bless her!

Mayerlin is working on the sewing project and has many exciting ideas. She is doing a great job and we are so happy to have her working on the Women's Empowerment project.

Well, that is some of the happenings here today..... tomorrow we will be starting to pack at 7.am. ....thank you for all of you that were able to send Mother's Day baskets and thank you to all of you who shared the notices on your social networks....you never know when it can make a difference.

Sharon

Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES
Panajachel, Guatemala

Web: www.mayanfamilies.org