Lucas again

Here are more photos of Lucas. He was feeling well on this day

When I went with Julio the next day, I could tell he was in pain. Julio brought him the mattress that was donated.

This is the bathroom Lucas uses. He suffers from chronic diarrhea and he has to use it many times during the day and night. It is very dark, the flash made it look lighter.

There is a drop to get into the bathroom

Leonarda is Lucas mother. She makes chuchitos (small tamales) to sell. She says her family cannot eat them because they are too expensive to make. She was making a soup for lunch with an herb and chicken bouillon.

Leonarda's kitchen is in the room that Lucas was building for him and his family. He had borrowed from the bank to build it with cement. He is worried because he still owes money and he is not able to work. He had to borrow money from his grandmother to pay July's installment. He showed me the receipt and said he felt so helpless to be lying in bed and not being able to work. He used to be a builder's assistant and gardener.

There was hardly any food in the house. Don and I bought them food for a week and a chicken and vegetables so Leonarda could make Lucas some chicken soup.

Lucas

Time is going too fast! Spent yesterday at Mayan Families' offices. So many families coming to see if they could be helped with food. Lots of children in need of shoes too. We gave shoes and jackets to some but there is never enough. We bought food for some families and Don loved meeting the families and having his picture taken with them.

Today I am going to visit again a 25 year old with terminal cancer. He is so sweet and he thinks he is getting better but the doctor is giving him only a couple of months to live. Mayan Families is buying him a new mattress and I am going to give him a DVD player that we brought and some board games that he requested. His favorite food is pizza and I am planning to get him a pizza before we leave. His house needs to have the floor fixed so I am going to take photos and see if somebody can help with that.

This is Lucas and his brothers. They are sponsored by Mayan Families.

We are also having a good time and enjoying the beauty of the lake and town. Our hotel is beautiful, lots of grounds and decorated with typical items. Since it is our third time here, we also know a lot of people and it is fun talking to them.

Panajachel

The trip from Guatemala city to Panajachel was very nice. Oswaldo picked us up at the hotel last Sunday at 10:00 and we made it into Pana in time to watch most of the Netherlands-Spain game and Don wore the Holland shirt that Henny had given him. We were sad when Holland did not win.

Carlos and Titi swam at the hotel for a while, then we walked around town. It was fun seeing again places and people we knew. Things have changed too. The kids loved feeding the stray dogs and Titi even played soccer in the street.

On the way back, I saw Vanessa and her kids walking in the street! It was fun talking to her and meeting her in person. Her kids are great. She was leaving the next day but she was hoping to come back and stay for 3 months. I am sure she will do it, she always does what she puts her mind to.

On Monday we went to the new offices of Mayan Families. Sharon introduced us to all the people working there. What a change from the first time we visited. Back then, there was only one computer that Sharon and Sandra shared. Now there are many computers and lots of people working on different projects.

I saw Claudia from San Jorge working. She is calling students and asking them to bring their birth certificates to collect and verify birthdates.

Amelia was handing out donations. She has been sorting all the donations received in the Medrano boxes. Since they do not have a lot of space in the new place, they still have a lot of stuff at Sharon's house. She looked well.

I also saw some sponsored students I had met before. This family is from Tierra Linda. They had brought their report cards and received shoes and clothes. The mother told me their house had been damage during the storm. Some of the tin sheets in their roof were broken by rocks that fell on them. Juan is going to take pictures and see how much it would cost to repair them.

The mother of these students has a skin infection on her arms and neck. She says it is very itchy. I think it is scabies. I offered to pay for her to go to the doctor. I cannot stand the thought of her having to endure the itch.

We are in Guatemala!

We made it safe and sound to our hotel. Thank you Noemi for driving us to Miami. We really appreciate it. The flight was nice and when we arrived at the airport, there was a van from the hotel waiting for us.

We are staying once again at the Gran Tikal Futura in Guatemala City and it is wonderful. We got a great rate on Expedia and then got the third night free! We could not ask for more. Our suite is huge and we get access to a lounge with free drinks and snacks. Carlos and Titi relaxed on the indoor pool and tomorrow we will be walking around this area. There are lots to see. There is a mall on the ground floors, a bowling alley and lots of restaurants and stores within walking distance. It is good to be able to relax after having to work so hard to prepare for the trip.

We brought the phones we had used last time we were in Guatemala and we were surprised to see one of them even had minutes left on it. I was able to make calls immediately.

We are hoping to buy some blankets to bring with us to Panajachel.

Can't wait!

Don, Carlos, Titi and I are extremely excited about our trip to Guatemala! We leave on Thursday and we are busy packing the donations we will bring. Thank you so much to everybody that donated items. We wish we could bring much more but we can only bring 8 bags for now. We were hoping to send another Medrano box before we left but we ran out of time. We will definitely do it as soon as we come back.

It has been two summers since we were there and we can't wait to go back and see family and friends.

We will try to keep in touch through this blog. You can email me at carmen@mayanfamilies.org

Tropical Storm Agatha

At the end of May, tropical storm Agatha hit Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and the south of Mexico and it brought lots of damage to the area. In Guatemala there were widespread floods and mudslides. That was the weekend that we had Titi's birthday party and I was busy all weekend so I was very shocked to come to my computer on Sunday night and see pictures of the devastation. I was even more shocked to learn that Sharon's home and the Mayan Families organization' headquarters, were in danger to fall into the river. We had just bought tickets to go and visit them and I was so sad to think of all the damage this storm was doing to so many people we knew.

It was a very rough week for Guatemala and the effects will be felt for years. There had been a volcanic eruption earlier that week and the ash had caused lots of damage already.

You can see pictures from Boston.com

There was almost no media coverage of the damage here in the USA and most of the Mayan Families Connection members tried to write about it on their blogs and Facebook. Thankfully, that brought donations and Sharon and Mayan Families were able to help as much people as they could. They sent food and material donations to the most affected towns.

Mayan Families have posted lots of pictures of the devastation and the help they have been able to provide thanks to their generous supporters.

Photo from the Mayan Families Picasa albums. You can see more pictures here:

Photo Albums

Sharon and Dwight's home is still standing but the river is now at the back of the house and they have had to move out. Sharon says that hundred of people have losts their homes and they will not be able to rebuild in the same place for fear of more mudslides.

Members of MFC from different parts of the country sent emergency shipments and Don and I decided to send a box with some of the stuff we had collected. We sent mainly shoes, jeans for boys, baby formula and some other items. Thank you so much to everybody that has donated items. I am especially grateful to Geraldine and her mom Sara for all their help.
What Mayan Families needs the most is money to buy food and supplies for all the people that have lost their homes and the people that have been affected by the lack of tourism in the area. They were already living on very little and now they have nothing. Lots of people eat only a couple of tortillas a day and now they cannot even afford that. We are hoping people will open their hearts and will see the need and will continue to donate.

To donate, please go to www.mayanfamilies.org

Valentine's Day 2010

Originally posted on February 14th, 2010.
Happy Valentine's Day! We had a nice day. We got to see Mema, grandpa, Izzy, Mary, Larry, Keri, Laura, Ron, Maria and Jenna. Ron and Maria invited us to brunch at their condo and it was great to see everybody.

We love the Valentine's Heart we got from Guatemala! Mayan Families is doing a fundraiser to raise funds to put cement floors in a school in Guatemala. It is called Nueva Esperanza and it is in the town of San Andres Semetebaj (We have been there). The school needs a lot of help but the first thing they need to do is to put cement floors in the classrooms. Right now they have dirt floors and it gets very dusty in the dry season and it turns into mud in the raining season. The children at the school colored hearts to thank the donors and they will be putting the hearts in the classrooms. We made a donation in honor of the whole Weinberg Family and we hope they will like the heart as much as we did.

Lots of shoes

Originally posted in October 2009. I asked Carlos, Titi, and the neighborhood kids to help me sort the shoes that we had received so far. Most of them were donated by Titi's Brownie Troop. They are going to make children very happy in Guatemala. Thank you!