Today has had a very early start for some of our staff members.
Elisa and Kristen have accompanied several people to the hospital and the eye clinic in Guatemala City. They had to leave at 3.30a.m. to be able to get to the hospital at 7.am. and ensure that the patient would get a ticket to be seen.
One of the patients going in is the little 7 year old boy who has a suspected lymphoma in his neck. Hopefully, we will get some good news about him today. He and his father ( who does not speak Spanish) and a brother in law ..who does speak Spanish ...left their village last night to sleep over at our new offices so they would be able to get picked up by the mini van at 3.30a.m.
We are also taking Marvin to the eye clinic. He is having a very serious problem with his eye..and appears to be in danger of losing the sight in one eye. We hope that this clinic will be able to prevent this from happening. Thank you so much to his sponsor who is making this possible.
We are continuing our efforts to be able to move into the new offices. There are 19 classrooms upstairs for the Trade school and there are 30 rooms for offices, preschool, kitchen and dining room for the Elderly. This will be so fantastic because anyone who has visited us recently knows that we are completely out of room in our offices on Calle Monte Rey. We love the offices here but it is just so cramped. We are not going to know what to do with all this space but I am sure we will work it out!!!
This morning we have Spanish classes for the children of visitors who are here. The classes are given by a young woman who is a teacher at a local school. She is adjusting it daily to the ages and needs of the kids.
This afternoon we are offering a painting class for the children of visitors..and a few of our sponsored students.
At 2.30 p.m. we have a very fun class for about 8 students from the Tierra Linda Junior High School. Volunteer Tony who has been volunteering with us for three years now is here with his wife, Debra and daughter, Almaz. Tony is a magician and has often entertained the kids at the preschools and different functions here. But now he is passing his trade onto this group of students ....who knows, one of them may be able to make some money from learning these fun skills. Alberto, the clown ...or as he bills himself ( the Mayan Families Official Clown) is taking classes also to learn how to improve his skills. Alberto, works as a clown part time but makes a significant amount of money to help his family with this part time work.
We are also holding a spay and neuter clinic today ......two staff members left very early ....5.am. to pick up 7 dogs from Solola and have them at the clinic ready to operate at 7.am. We have 22 dogs and cats to operate on today.....and thankfully, most of them have people waiting to adopt them.
About two weeks ago in Panajachel, a member of the community passed away. John Pennington had been an architect and had opened a business making good quality chairs in his retirement. He passed away suddenly and his family came from the city and cleaned out his house. John had two dogs, big Huskys that his nephew brought to our offices and said that he could not find anyone to take them and would we please take them or else he would have to put them down. Of course, we added them to the already large amount of unwanted dogs that we have.
A doctor in Solola had said that he was interested in having them so we sent them to him, so he could meet them. He decided to take only one of them, the large male. This was obviously a very emotionally attached pair of dogs. As soon as the female started to leave in the pick up , she started howling and the male started howling. The female came back to our offices, one very, very sad dog who would only raise her head to howl. She howled for two days. I had been in the city but when I came back and saw how pitiful she was, I called the doctor and asked him whether he could possibly take the female as well and keep them together. He, unfortunately, did not have room but he did agree to give back the male ( who had also been howling sadly). We picked the male up and as soon as he came in the gate, the female ran to him and they were so happy to see each other! They are just joined at the hip and walk everywhere together. We hope that we have a new owner for them.....we will find out tomorrow. ...he has agreed to take both of them, if his wife decides she likes these dogs as well.
Susie is accompanying visitors Cindy and her family across the lake today to Santa Cruz and San Juan. Cindy has been holding mini clinics every day at the office, checking peoples blood pressure and attending to any problems they have. Yesterday she found that one of our young sponsored students was jaundice and her urine is very dark. We have sent her off for some tests.
We are preparing the fliers that we will be handing out at the concert in Guatemala City on Friday night. There is a group from Argentina who are called "Long Live the Queen" and they are Queen ( the rock group) impersonators. Juan Carlos Cheves who distributes the water filters here in Guatemala is organizing this concert and he has nominated Mayan Families to be the beneficiaries of any profit that he makes, after expenses are covered. It is a huge hall located at Tikal Futuro so we are hoping that it will be full on Friday night. He has given us 20 free tickets for staff so a lot of us will be at the concert on Friday night!
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Sharon
Elisa and Kristen have accompanied several people to the hospital and the eye clinic in Guatemala City. They had to leave at 3.30a.m. to be able to get to the hospital at 7.am. and ensure that the patient would get a ticket to be seen.
One of the patients going in is the little 7 year old boy who has a suspected lymphoma in his neck. Hopefully, we will get some good news about him today. He and his father ( who does not speak Spanish) and a brother in law ..who does speak Spanish ...left their village last night to sleep over at our new offices so they would be able to get picked up by the mini van at 3.30a.m.
We are also taking Marvin to the eye clinic. He is having a very serious problem with his eye..and appears to be in danger of losing the sight in one eye. We hope that this clinic will be able to prevent this from happening. Thank you so much to his sponsor who is making this possible.
We are continuing our efforts to be able to move into the new offices. There are 19 classrooms upstairs for the Trade school and there are 30 rooms for offices, preschool, kitchen and dining room for the Elderly. This will be so fantastic because anyone who has visited us recently knows that we are completely out of room in our offices on Calle Monte Rey. We love the offices here but it is just so cramped. We are not going to know what to do with all this space but I am sure we will work it out!!!
This morning we have Spanish classes for the children of visitors who are here. The classes are given by a young woman who is a teacher at a local school. She is adjusting it daily to the ages and needs of the kids.
This afternoon we are offering a painting class for the children of visitors..and a few of our sponsored students.
At 2.30 p.m. we have a very fun class for about 8 students from the Tierra Linda Junior High School. Volunteer Tony who has been volunteering with us for three years now is here with his wife, Debra and daughter, Almaz. Tony is a magician and has often entertained the kids at the preschools and different functions here. But now he is passing his trade onto this group of students ....who knows, one of them may be able to make some money from learning these fun skills. Alberto, the clown ...or as he bills himself ( the Mayan Families Official Clown) is taking classes also to learn how to improve his skills. Alberto, works as a clown part time but makes a significant amount of money to help his family with this part time work.
We are also holding a spay and neuter clinic today ......two staff members left very early ....5.am. to pick up 7 dogs from Solola and have them at the clinic ready to operate at 7.am. We have 22 dogs and cats to operate on today.....and thankfully, most of them have people waiting to adopt them.
About two weeks ago in Panajachel, a member of the community passed away. John Pennington had been an architect and had opened a business making good quality chairs in his retirement. He passed away suddenly and his family came from the city and cleaned out his house. John had two dogs, big Huskys that his nephew brought to our offices and said that he could not find anyone to take them and would we please take them or else he would have to put them down. Of course, we added them to the already large amount of unwanted dogs that we have.
A doctor in Solola had said that he was interested in having them so we sent them to him, so he could meet them. He decided to take only one of them, the large male. This was obviously a very emotionally attached pair of dogs. As soon as the female started to leave in the pick up , she started howling and the male started howling. The female came back to our offices, one very, very sad dog who would only raise her head to howl. She howled for two days. I had been in the city but when I came back and saw how pitiful she was, I called the doctor and asked him whether he could possibly take the female as well and keep them together. He, unfortunately, did not have room but he did agree to give back the male ( who had also been howling sadly). We picked the male up and as soon as he came in the gate, the female ran to him and they were so happy to see each other! They are just joined at the hip and walk everywhere together. We hope that we have a new owner for them.....we will find out tomorrow. ...he has agreed to take both of them, if his wife decides she likes these dogs as well.
Susie is accompanying visitors Cindy and her family across the lake today to Santa Cruz and San Juan. Cindy has been holding mini clinics every day at the office, checking peoples blood pressure and attending to any problems they have. Yesterday she found that one of our young sponsored students was jaundice and her urine is very dark. We have sent her off for some tests.
We are preparing the fliers that we will be handing out at the concert in Guatemala City on Friday night. There is a group from Argentina who are called "Long Live the Queen" and they are Queen ( the rock group) impersonators. Juan Carlos Cheves who distributes the water filters here in Guatemala is organizing this concert and he has nominated Mayan Families to be the beneficiaries of any profit that he makes, after expenses are covered. It is a huge hall located at Tikal Futuro so we are hoping that it will be full on Friday night. He has given us 20 free tickets for staff so a lot of us will be at the concert on Friday night!
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Sharon
Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES
a registered 501.(c).(3) Non Profit Charity
www.mayanfamilies.org
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