It has been a hard day.

It has been a hard day today.

First the mother who died in the lake.  Her sons came to the office late this afternoon asking if we could help them.   I asked them what they needed most and they said some coffee and sugar for the people who would come to sit vigil tonight with their mother's body.  The boys were just 14yrs old and 16 yrs old.   They told us that their mother did not drown herself, that her body showed she had a stab wound to her stomach and that she had been beaten...they said that she was robbed but I am not sure if they knew what she had with her.  
They had been in Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela...2 hours from here when they got the message, they jumped on the bus wearing just a t.shirt, no jacket, they were cold and wet when they got here.  They could not talk and the tears were rolling down their cheeks.
They have decided to move back to Panajachel and live with their uncle and aunt.
Thanks to one of their sponsors..we were able to buy them coffee, sweet breads, sugar and 100 lb bag of corn.  Tomorrow we will take a big bag of chicken to them so that they can have lunch with the mourners before they leave for the cemetery.
They told me that their mother had planned to come to the office today to talk about their situation.
We dropped them at home, they walked down the lane way , carrying their bags of food....these kids have had a hard life and now they feel very lost but they are clinging to each other.

After lunch we walked out of our house and we noticed a lot of police cars down the street, we walked down closer.
A truck driver had been drunk ....he was driving a big truck, he ran over an 80 yr old man who was walking back from the market carrying his groceries....then the truck plowed into a parked car, sending it onto a curb, where usually there are children playing and adults sitting outside. Thankfully, no one was there.   The man is in a critical condition in the hospital and the truck driver is in jail.   Unfortunately, in these situations the drivers usually manage to pay their way out of jail.

After going back to the office, the reality of the dangers of the wet season were very apparent...a very large boulder had fallen down from the mountain onto the road coming into the town of Panajachel. Fortunately, no one had been on the road when the boulder fell.

But on the bright side we had the carpenter teacher start today who is going to teach the carpentry classes at the trade school we will soon be opening.  He seems like he is the right person!


These are a lot of things to happen in a very small town on one day!
Sharon
Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES
a registered 501.(c).(3) Non Profit Charity
www.mayanfamilies.org