Margarita's Family is Going Hungry (FA145)

Hi Everyone,
Another Family Aid family needs help.

Margarita came to our office last week desperate to get some help for her family.

Her husband Roberto had his appendix removed a month ago and since them he has been having problems digesting food. They don't have money to go back to the doctor or to buy medicines for him.

They have 3 girls, Ana who is 9 and Jenifer who is 5 attend the primary school in Solola and Meidy is only 7 months old and stays home with her mom. Margarita is unable to work because she has to look after the baby. Ana and Jenifer love the school and want so badly to continue going, however the family is in no condition to buy clothes, school materials or pay the fees and if the girls don't get sponsored they will probably have to drop out of school before the end of the year.

To make things worse, the family had to borrow money to pay for Roberto's surgery and for their house expenses, since the only income they used to have was Roberto's salary. The electricity of their house was already cut because they were not able to pay for it and they don't have any means to buy food, they've been basically living on just tortillas and salt.

The family's most urgent need right now, is help with food and the costs of Roberto's treatment so he can go back to work.

It costs U$150 to provide food for this family for one month. Sending Roberto to a good private doctor will cost US $50.

If you are interested in helping the children continue in school, you can sponsor one of the two children in primary school for $180 per year. To do so, please go to Donate Now, and enter $180 in the 'Student Sponsorship' box, and the number of the student you would like to sponsor in the 'Student ID#' box. Ana is student #1922 and Jenifer is student #1923. You can also email christine@mayanfamilies.org for more information.

For more information on how to help this family, please visit:

http://familyaidprogram.blogspot.com/2011/06/margaritas-family-is-going-hungry.html

or

http://mayanfamiliesconnectionguatemala.blogspot.com/2011/06/margaritas-family-is-going-hungry-fa145.html

Even if we can't sponsor these families or elderly in need, please consider spreading the word to all who may be interested in helping in some way.

Thank you!

Calling All Adventuresome Volunteers

Sharon says all our blog readers need to share in a little local drama, so I have to tell you about my day, the day before yesterday. Thankfully, my partner, volunteer Appy, took everything in stride. We went with Juan, the construction manager, to Tierra Linda.

We first stopped by the preschool at Tierra Linda. The kids were working on the letter "O". The assignment that the kids were working on was to fill in a bubble letter "O" that was drawn on a piece of construction paper, using little cut up bits of yarn. They filled the "O" in with one color and outlined it with another.



Most of the kids were done and having some free play time. One little boy however, had covered his entire paper in glue and only glued down a few pieces of yarn. When we looked for this particular little boy, we found him lying down on one of the other tables. I guess daydreaming was more appealing than the letter "O"!


They were so cute and excited that we had stopped by. Two of the boys had these tops that they would wrap up with a string and then release down onto the ground where they would spin and then the kids would all take turns jumping over them.

Then, we went to see the 4th, 5th and 6th graders. I interviewed the teacher and many of the computer class students on their and the community’s reactions to the stolen computers. This robbery has left these students without a computer class, and the whole community further alienated from technology.

The teacher told the story quite dramatically, but the kids and parents had a difficult time expressing themselves, Spanish being their second language. Although their vocabulary was limited to saying how sad, how very sad, how very very sad everyone was-- they made it very clear, having a computer class was synonymous to them to having access to education at all. Without the computers, the students will be unable to pass their grades and in order to move on in school will be forced to make the trip to Solala or Panajachel-- a trip which many of them cannot afford.




Finally, we got the story on videos, including confessions from the boys that the teacher and the girls were actually in tears when they discovered the empty classroom.



Then, it started to rain, and we realized that we had missed most of the traffick of pickup trucks taking goods to the market, which we depended on to get us home. Eventually a neighbor offered to make a special trip just for us. We made it to Solola, where it was still pouring, and changed to a big bus to go to Panajachel.



Mind you -our valiant volunteer, Appy, Juan and I were thinking only of food, since it was almost 3 pm and we hadn’t eaten. The only thing that could and did distract us from food, were the rocks falling down the side of the mountain as we passed over a particularly scary part of road, where half the road has crumbled away and the remainder is literally being held up by wooden beams.



Almost immediately after we passed under the falling rocks, the road was closed for traffic.


But wait, there’s more. We soon heard a horrible sound on the back side of the bus. Everyone was on their feet thinking we were getting hit by a mudslide and asking the driver to keep going before more rocks fell. Turns out,a car had misjudged the curve and ran into the back wheel of our bus, totaling their car. Our bus only slightly skidded out, leaving us about a foot from the cliff's edge.



When we realized it wasn’t a mudslide, we stayed in the bus, out of the pouring rain, until another bus came, and we ran out the backside of one bus and jumped on another - - literally hanging out the door as it pulled away.



We made it home to Panajachel, in time, to wade through streets to the market. In the market, everyone was huddled around the back side of the market to see the back side of a mountain crumbling and sliding down in the rain. The neighborhood behind the market, had already been evacuated.



Appy did this all in flip flops by the way. So, this is a call for all volunteers who want a little adventure in Guatemala. If you're interested, now is the time. . .
Ely

Blessings from Loida

Loida is recovering well and sends all of us blessings! Thanks for coming together for this lovely woman!

Here is a letter from Loida with a personal message to all of you:

Dear Miss Ely:

I hope everything is well in your work and material life, and especially in your spiritual life. Above all else that you take care of, take care of your heart, because it is the mana of life. Prov. 4-23 (Prov. 4:5-9)

Well, I have to tell you that thanks to God, the day of the operation came and went, as always I was a little nervous, then during the operation as well a little, because the doctor told me that he suspected a small tumor in the nerve and it was exactly as he thought. Fortunately it was a benign tumor, but the doctor had to cut the nerve, which means that two of my toes are completely insensitive. The surgery was small but deep because the damage was under my toes.

The day that they took out the stitches, a friend took me, and it was supposedly a whole day trip, but we were stuck in the road for the whole night because a big mudslide fell and we had to go back to look for somewhere to sleep in Chimaltenango. And we left early the next day, but there was still no way to get through the road. We finally arrived in Panajachel, exhausted, but thanks to God, we were safe.

Now comes the difficult part because I have to get accustomed to the bother I feel now that my toes have lost all sensation, and until now, I have just now begun to feel the bother, but I will get used to it. Well I have spent my energy now, I just wanted to give thanks to you for taking me into account. Thanks for making my world a little less difficult. I want to tell you that the 5 operations I have endured, mostly all this alone. Now it is so different because I have so quickly found so many special people in my life like you, and others. Those that I have known for so long a time, years past, and some that I don’t even know. Nevertheless, they are special to me, and I ask God to bless all of them. Can you imagine it, now someone has volunteered to give me food massages. I feel so appreciated and thankful for this attention. I am thankful for everything from God, because there are so many blessings I don’t even feel like I deserve them. Only by his grace, it doesn’t matter the circumstances, all things help for good and when we understand that EVERYTHING has a purpose for our life, we should feel happy, even in pain. Thanks Miss Ely, people like you have shown the love of God, through service to your neighbor and that reflects always in your smiling face.

God bless you, give you much health, and may all your goals be fulfuilled.

Regards,

Loida Elena Muñoz and children

San Antonio Palopo Receives Aid

San Antonio Palopo was once again one of the hardest hit by mudslides. The people of San Antonio were deeply appreciative for the food and clothes you donated.

This community remains cut off from stores and roads by mudslides.

Mayan Families staff and volunteers went by boat to San Antonio Palopo yesterday to hand out food, baby clothes, and diapers, to so many grateful families who have lost their homes or had their homes filled with water and mud once again.

Over 50 families, received food yesterday-thanks to you. Over 100 people spent the night in the cemetery, where they felt a bit more secure from landslides.

This community has suffered fatalities once again, perhaps 4 people, now missing. Mayan Families was the only non-profit able to respond in San Antonio, because we were luckily able to get a boat to take us across, loaded with volunteers and donations.

The particularly urgent need right now in San Antonio is money for food and for traditional clothing. This community, like many we serve is 100% indigenous, and the women and over half the men wear exclusively traditional dress. Your donation for traditional clothing will help the families who have lost all their possessions maintain their dignity. Many of them only have the clothes that there were wearing when they evacuated.

High Schoolers Build School Infrastructure with Recycled Trash

Thanks to Mayan Families Donors for making it possible for these high school students to give back to their own community.
The ICI High school students wrote us this thank you note:

Hello from the High School students from the Institute of Computers and Information. We are sending you these photos of our project in which we placed the eco-blocks (of recycled material) and then stuccoed the walls for a school store in Panajachel. We are very appreciative of all your help, as well as with Edy (the health project coordinator) and you for receiving all the messages and also for all the staff at Mayan Families for connecting us with the foreign visitors, who came to see our project.

We were so happy your work allowed us to communicate with them despite the language barrier. Please let them know we are so thankful from the bottom of our hearts. And God bless them. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Mayan families donors donated some of the construction material, and the elementary students filled thousands of plastic bottles with plastic trash, packed full. Then they coordinated and built the school store with these eco-blocks, and stuccoed on top. This building will serve over 500 students who attend this public school in Pana for years to come. Great teamwork!

Ana (#1244), Adriana (#1246), Luz (#1245) Sahon Matzar Survive the Storm

Agustin and Luz Sahon Matzar have 8 children, including Ana (#1244), Adriana (#1246) and Luz (#1245).

Like many other of the poorest, struggling families in Panajachel, the best piece of land they are able to afford, and call their own was not the safest. They lived in the river bed on the dangerous side of the stone retaining wall, along with many who have lost their homes, and all their possessions inside.

Storm Agatha knocked down a wall around the perimeter of their home, and carved out from underneath the foundation of their home, leaving them essentially homeless.

They were luckily able to escape the raging river together. But it all happened so quickly, they were not able to save many of their things inside.

Anything you can give to help this family find temporary shelter, and new or used shoes and clothes, would be greatly appreciated.

Refugees from Agatha

Families in Panajachel waited in line to speak with Mayan Families Staff about their homes and fears.











Rodolfo and other staff collected the stories of various families who were seeking refuge from the storm in the Panajachel Gymnasium.























Little Walter and his family spent the last 2 nights in the gymnasium.












Cesar Bernabe and his family will stay indefinitely until they find a safer place to stay.










Oscar, Walter, Alberto, and Astrid, stay together in the gymnasium, while their 3 siblings and mom go look for water. Their house was under an area of frequent landslides and too unsafe to spend the night.







Astrid changes little Walter's diaper.













Rudy Armando, Dulce Maria, and Tomas Alexander

Housewarming with the Reyes!

The Reyes Family has a bigger home! Thanks to a loving anonymous donation, this large and ever-growing family now has a little more room. Before the donation, the 11 children (3 mos to 18 years) and parents were all sleeping in one bed together. This one room was the entirety of their house.

The Reyes generously invited, Mayan Families to celebrate their new home, which is now 3 rooms, all secure, wired with electricity, and ready to shelter them for the oncoming rainy season.

Barbara, a generous volunteer from Kansas City whose church is also contributing to a new home for a neighboring family, shared in this event. Mr. Reyes was very happy to host Gloria and Julio, our managers, Susie, Barbara, myself-Ely, and Juan the Construction Manager responsible for this great work. We feasted to our hearts content, and enjoyed the view from his porch in San Jorge. The Reyes family was sad that Sharon was ill and could not come, but sent home samples of the great food for Sharon, her family, and the rest of the staff.

Mr. Reyes works as a day laborer. He earns $26 US per week. He was so happy and proud to open up his home to us.

Afterwards, all the children crowded in for the pictures! Lorena (#1248) is 13yrs old. She is in 3rd grade in 2010. Gloria is 18yrs old. Jose is 15yrs old. He is 5th grade in 2010. Susie Yolanda (#1249) is 12yrs old. In 2010 she is in 3rd grade. (Lorena and Susie are both sponsored by Bonnie). Julio is 9yrs old. In 2010 he is in 2nd grade. Olga Floridalma (#1227) is 7yrs old. Manuel (student #1183) is 5yrs old and in 2010 he will be going to kindergarten. Ester Nohemi (#1184) is 3yrs old. She is in the pre-school in San Jorge. Rosa is 2yrs old. And the baby is 3 months old.