Presents for some of the students and their families

We brought some things for Odilia and her daughters.  We met them during our first trip, when Odilia was very sick and it was hard for her to work. Her husband was very abusive but he had died a couple of years earlier and Odilia was the sole provider of her 3 daughters. They are doing better than before but they still struggle every day.  Odilia is still buying produce for a restaurant located on the other side of the lake and she sells cheese in towns around Panajachel.

Students are required to learn to type on a mechanical typewriter.  We got one for Astrid.

Water filters and a mattress

On this visit we bought a water filter and a mattress for Chabeli. I had told Don that Chabeli and her children were sleeping on the floor, on top of some old cardboard and he went to the furniture store, all by himself, and bought a box spring and mattress and got them delivered to Chabeli's house.

Here is Chabeli, taking the cardboard that used to be their bed, out of the room

Angelica and Cristina liked the mattress!

Chabeli's children were happy to see we had brought some blankets in our boxes and they asked us if we could give them one. They were very excited when we told them yes.

 

Some of the presents we had sent in our boxes.  Some of the things were new, some were donated by friends and family and some I bought at Goodwill.

On my second visit to Tierra Linda, I brought a mattress for the old lady I had seen a couple of days earlier.  She was sleeping on a piece of wood.  She really needed a bed but I was not sure if we would be able to transport it to her house.  The road was still blocked.  Fortunately, we found this man when we were about to start carrying the mattress.  It was very heavy and I did not think we were going to be able to get it all the way up.  I was with a group of volunteers from Iowa but I did not want them to get hurt by carrying.  This man carried it all by himself, without stopping.  It turned out to be the son of the old lady so he was happy to do it.  I also had a pillow and a sheets.  I am hoping to get her a bed as soon as the road gets better.

We bought a water filter for senora Herlinda from Tierra Linda. Her house if falling down.  We hope to get her an Onil stove and a mattress soon.  We are also hoping to fundraise to help her build a new house in a safer part of town.

Giving out donations in Guatemala

 Sorting donations at our hotel

 

These were the bags we brought with donations.

When we arrived in Panajachel, Sharon told us they had decided not to open the boxes we had sent earlier and that they had held them for us to distribute the donations.  We were happy to see all of our stuff there.  We love Medrano Express. They pick up the boxes from our house and deliver the boxes at Mayan Families in Guatemala. We paid approx. $260 USD per box but it is worth it since most of the stuff inside are donations we get from family and friends. We sorted these donations first and later we brought the stuff we had brought in our suitcases. We gave us jackets and raincoats to some people as soon as we opened the boxes. 

I cannot turn these picture!