I'm back in action after getting into Logan Airport at about 12:45 am on Wednesday. Our trip to Guatemala was amazing to say the least. We got to Guatemala City no problem and met my friend Marybeth and her daughter, Amelia in the lobby. Amelia is just adorable and has the cutest personality. I wish we had been able to spend more time with them but things got busy.
We were picked up at 9 am on Sunday by Oswaldo, our driver for the weekend. We drove along the mountain edge for three hours in a 15 passenger van PACKED to the roof with suitcases and he kept us safe despite the near heart attacks I had driving on the edges without guard rails. The scenery is just breath taking there, what a beautiful country!
We arrived at Sharon's house (the woman who runs Mayan Families) and were greeted by her and her two daughter's Aleah and Zoe. There were already several families waiting when we got there. One of the families consisted of four children who lost their parents and are living in emergency housing made of boards and plastic sheeting. The head of the household is 17 and she will be getting married soon. This will leave the 15 year old in charge of her two younger siblings. These kids were so polite, so gracious, and SO beautiful. They have nothing to call their own, no means of income, and most importantly, no way to feed themselves. My mom and uncle will be sending them $40 a month from here on out, this will feed them each month and will give them one less worry. They couldn't thank my mom enough for helping them with this. One of them left a beaded key chain that she had made behind for her as a thank you, this meant so much to my mom.
Another family waiting was a woman who lost several family members to the mudslides. She also has no income and in turn, no means of feeding herself and her children. My neighbor and friend, Jane and her family, sent a check down with me to feed this family for a month. They were SO very grateful for this help! Thanks, Jane and family!!
Once we were done we packed up the van again and headed to San Jorge. This was the MOST emotional part of the trip for most of us. As we drove thru the mountain into this small village, the view of Lake Atilan was breathtaking. How is it that God makes such a beautiful place on earth, yet the people there live in complete poverty? A question that will always remain with me. As we drove into the village, you could see the people there have so much need. They smile, they laugh and yet they somehow seem so sad at the same time. Tiny one and two room shacks line the mountain side. Most have only openings for doors and windows, none have glass in them to protect them from the elements. The roofs are made of corrugated tin and most of the walls are either mud brick (mud mixed with straw that is formed into large bricks and dried) or odd pieces of trees and wood. Some of the more fortunate have houses made of cinder blocks but they are far and few between. Most families have only one or two beds (the size of our double beds), if they have any, and sleep up to 6 in a bed. Others, sleep on their bare dirt floors or if they are lucky, straw mats. There is no sewerage system there so everyone has an outhouse. Many have no running water, the ones that do have pila's, which are cement sinks kept outside that they fill to wash clothes, dishes and bathe from. Many families live without electricity. There is no gas so everyone cooks with wood. Those fortunate enough to have wood stoves cook with those, everyone else cooks over an open fire. The smell of wood burning permeates this village. A once pleasant smell for me became nauseating by the end of our trip. The ceilings of many houses are just pure black from the smoke. Nothing there is paved, the roads and pathways to homes are all dirt and rock. There are stray dogs everywhere.
The woman and girls were all dressed in traditional Mayan clothing. The boys and men dress in regular clothing. Shoes are a commodity there and you see many children with threads of what used to be shoes, some had none at all. I don't know that I will ever throw a way a pair of shoes again after this trip.
We arrived at the community building where, the woman's group formed with the help of Mayan families, has their meetings. We unloaded our suitcases filled with things we brought to give our sponsored children and their families as well as things for other families. One by one, the children entered the room with their mothers, to receive their gifts. The look in their eyes will always be with me. The joy, the nervousness, the sadness...it is a picture I see over and over in my head. Beautiful little faces filled with so much wonder, so much disbelief that all they were handed could be for them. As I watched each of my friends meet their families with such love and compassion, I knew that at moment, God intended for us to be there, to experience this amazing day together.
Meeting Irma Cecilia was incredible for me, an experience I find it hard to fully explain. She is such a beautiful little girl who deserves so much in life that she may never have. She was shy at first and looked so sad to me. By the last day, when we were getting ready to leave, she ran up to me and gave me a huge hug! Man, did that make me lose it!! I was able to visit their home before we left. They have a three room home that consists of a small dirt floor kitchen with a wood stove and two bedrooms, one for the parents, one for the kids. Their bathroom is an outhouse made of tree branches stacked side by side with plastic sheeting lining it. They have some chickens and they keep them on the other side of the outhouse structure. Irma and her brother and sister all share one bed in their bedroom. I never got to meet their father but he left me a message with their mom. He asked that she made sure she told me that he thanks me for all I gave them and he hopes that God will bless ME many times over what I have given them!! Imagine that?? All they need and HE is blessing ME!? Needless to say, this too, made me cry. These are people who need so much and expect so little...it is truly heart wrenching. I keep them in my thoughts and prayers and look forward to seeing them again sometime next year.
Before we left to go back to Guatemala City we were able to take all of our sponsored children to the shoe shop in Panajachel for new shoes. Each girl and boy happily tried on shoes until they found the perfect pair. Each wore smiles that light up the world around them, they were so proud of their new shoes!
Our ride home was quite interesting. As we started our trek up the steep slope of the mountain, our driver, on a tip from a friend coming the other way, quickly stopped the van and stared backing down the mountain at FULL SPEED! Once we figured out what was going on, we realized he was avoiding a group of "banditos" that were in the mountain ahead with guns, attempting to hold people up. SO, thanks to our incredible driver who can park a 15 passenger van on a dime, we turned around and went back to Guatemala City the long way. Although it took is about 4 1/2 hrs to make the 3 hr ride home, it was an experience I will forever remember. We were able to ride thru many other villages on the way home and see how each one differs from the next. I got a quick view of Kenza's birth town, Esquintla, which was neat too! Now I'm home and back to my regular life, forever changed by the people I feel so blessed to have met on our trip to Panajachel and San Jorge Guatemala.
He loved the Redskins cap I brought for him and was still wearing it the next day:
This is Miriam Josefina and her mom both in beautiful traditional clothing: 
Miriam has such a beautiful smile and such an innocent face.
Finally, a picture of all of us together: 
The following day, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit the homes of our sponsored children. We first went to the home of Luis Alfonso. Although I had brought him new clothes, I was disappointed to see that he was still wearing the same dirty clothes from the prior day. Most other sponsored children were wearing all their new clothes. 
This is the bedroom where Luis Alfonso sleeps along with his sisters. His father was upstairs in the parents room. He is very ill suffering from diabetes and cannot leave the room. In Guatemala, the homes are very unique in that each room has a doorway to the outside and very few homes have inside passageways. Access to other rooms is done through the outside. This family was a lot better off than some we saw as they actually have separate bedrooms for the kids and the adults, have another room for the kitchen. They have a small chicken coop outside along with a unique small building that you have to crawl on your hands and knees to get in or out which is a like a sauna and is the way in which this family cleanses themselves.
The final picture with Luis before we said goodbye
This picture is of their bathroom facilities with the lids covering the holes in the ground.
And, finally, one last picture of Miriam Josefina with her mother.
I hope soon to be able to gather my thoughts to tell you stories about another aspect of this trip that touched my heart in a very special way and to share stories and pictures of the families my family sponsors.
