family and we have been helping them for about 6 years. We first visited with Rosemary. Rosemary is the 4th daughter and the one who does not have the disorder. Rosemary is just finishing high school and is doing her practicum. She wants to go on to college, but of course can not do that without help. She has had a wonderful sponsor who has helped her through high school. She would not have been able to go without help. She cannot start college until next January so she will take some English courses on Sat. until then. She will find some work during the week.

Lubia and I then discussed the other girls. There are 2 churches in Wyoming who have helped the girls. They provide money for diapers, special milk and medical and dental care. The girls need to go to the dentist so we discussed that. Lubia also would like to do some physical therapy with them but doesn't know how to do that. We will be having a group from the Luther Center coming down in May with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist so hopefully they can meet with her and give her some tips. This family lives in 3 rooms and the house is in very bad shape. The churches in Wyoming have raised quite a bit of money because when they do a craft sale they get matching funds, so we are going to help the family rebuild part of their house. It is wood now, and we will be redoing it in cement blocks. Lubia will be getting a bid to have this done. 

The last thing we discussed with her was her job at the center. We have hired Lubia for one day a week to do the cleaning. This is a wonderful way to give someone we work with a job. We want Lubia to cook when we have groups so we talked about that. She is very nervous about this because she is afraid that people won't like her food and she said she doesn't cook gringo food. We said she will do fine and Virginia will work with her. She had brought us some chile relano's for lunch and by all my estimations she is a great cook. We visited with them for several hours and took a lunch break. Seth had made us chicken ceasar salads, and I am sure they were wondering how we could eat so much lettuce.

About 3:00 Luis came. Luis is a young man who had lived in the orphanage Casa Guatemala but has not been there for 6 years. We have been helping him with his schooling. He is 21 and just finished the 9th grade. He had a huge gap in his education when he left the orphanage. Luis would like to go to carpentry school so we talked about what he needs to do to get that done. He won't be able to do this until next January. We discussed things he could do until then. 

Luis was going to stay overnight so he and I made dinner. We made stew in the dining room on the table because Kevin was painting the kitchen and everything was in an uproar there. It was fun to visit with Luis in my limited Spanish while we were doing this. We were going to have dinner and overnight visitors. My friend Barb who I have known for 20 years was going to come with some friends and stay overnight.

Barb started the cooperative Upavim in the squatters settlement 18 years ago. She now lives in Texas and was here for a visit. She brought 2 of the women from Upavim who were going to travel with us. We were all going to go to Pana on Sunday. They came about 7:30 after being lost for about an hour. We had a nice dinner and then the women and I made some jewelry with beads I had brought down. The girls in my school would be very proud of me teaching jewelry making as they are the ones who taught me.

Sunday Feb. 26th.

We got up early as we wanted to catch the early bus to Pana. We got on a chicken bus right outside our door and rode about 3 miles to the main road. We then walked what we thought was about a half mile to the bus going to Pana, but it turned out we had to walk about 1 1/2 miles. It was on a busy road with no sides going uphill, so it wasn't the most pleasant walk carrying all our stuff. Next time we will take another chicken bus to the other bus stop. It took about 3 hours to get to Pana so it wasn't too bad at all and a very pleasant ride. We weren't sure if the main bus would stop for us since we made arrangements over the phone and you are never sure what will happen. In Pana we got a small hotel for the next 2 nights. We spent the afternoon looking through shops and getting ideas for the Upavim women as they run the craft part of Upavim. This for the most part was a relaxing day.

Monday Feb. 27th.

We got up early and Sylvia and Angela and Barb went to a bakery and found us some rolls and juice. The owner of the hotel brought us some coffee and hot water for tea. We ate on our little patio in front of our room. We were meeting the Mayan Hands scholarship students at 9 in another part of town.

Scholarship students

The meeting with the scholarship students was wonderful. Clemente and Mykahila from Mayan Hands is in charge of them. Right now we have 11 scholarship students. Clemente would like us to do 20 next year. These are young people from the weavers group who wouldn't have the opportunity to go on to school if we did not offer them the scholarships. Two of the students couldn't make it because of the distance. I will briefly tell you about each one because it is quite interesting and in most cases very sad.

1. Paseuala

She is 24 and is from Nahuala and speaks Quiche. She is studying bookkeeping and is in the 10th grade. It is important for her to study so she won’t suffer in life. She lives with her mom, 2 sisters and one brother. She is a weaver, she studies in the morning and weaves in the afternoon. Paseuala is very soft spoken and shy and her Spanish is very poor.

2. Maria

She is 18 and is from Chantel near Xela. She is studying to be a teacher and is in the 11th grade. It is important for her to study because she wants to improve her life and her mother never went to school. It has been hard for her mother to support her children and she wants to be able to support her children.

3.Angela ( President of group)

She is 20 years old and is from Estancia Cantel near Xela. She is in college and is studying psychology and wants to be educational psychologist. Her home language is Kiche. It is important for her to study because when she was a child she suffered a lot because her parents separated she felt she traumatized and she wants to help other people going through this. She saw her mother beaten and being yelled at all the time. She said she never dreamed she could go to college and when Clemente said she might get a scholarship she filled out the paperwork to do it.

4. Ofelia

She is 17 and speaks Kichi’ and is from Estacia Cantel near Xela. She is in 3 year of Basico which is in 9th grade. She wants to be a doctor. It is important for her to study to be a doctor so she can help a lot of sick people in her country. She wants to be a general practitioner. Her mother embroiders. She lives with her mother, 2 brothers, and 3 sisters. Her mother was with her and came to the interview. The mother started to cry and said she couldn't believe her daughter had this opportunity. The mother said we are poor and can't help her. She said over and over..."Thank you for helping my daughter and my family".

5. Gabriel

He speaks Kichi' and is 19. He lives in Nahuala. He is in the 5th year of accounting. He will finish next year. He wants to go to the university. There are 10 people in his family and no one has gone on to school. His sister came along and said "my parents never went to school so thank you for letting my brother study.

6.Diego

Diego speaks Tzuthil and is 24 years old. Lived in Panabaj where the mudslide hit. His family lost everything. He lives in the temporary housing. He said "I am house number 21. This is his first year in University. He was a very impressive young man and you could see he will be a leader in his community. He wants to be a bilingual teacher (Tzuthil and Spanish) and give value to his culture. It takes him 2 hours and 45 minutes each way to get to school. He goes to a branch of the university in Solola.

7. Josefa

She is 17 and lived in Panabaj. Her families house was destroyed in the mudslide. She is now living in temporary housing. She is in 8th grade She has a mother and father, 3 sisters and a little brother. She would like to be nurse. She wants to work with her people. Her mother went through 4th grade and her mother didn't go to school.

8.Gloria

She is 25 and in the 8th grade. Her home language is Kakchiquel. When she was young she went until 6th grade. Her father died and she didn't have the money to go to school after that. She had the opportunity to go back to school and even though she is 25 she wanted to go. She wants to be a nurse.

It takes her 1 1/2 hours to get to school. She talked about going to school, " It is very hard, I get up and go to school, embroider when I get home and then do my homework. Sometimes it is 1 or 2 in the morning before I get to bed, but I am very thankful for this opportunity." It warmed my heart to meet this young woman.

9. Edy

He is 16 and in the 9th grade. He speaks Kakchiquel. He is from Al dea Xeabaj near Chimatenago. He wants to be a specialist in the Mayan language. He needs to go to school 3 more years for that. He lives with his mother and father and 4 brothers and 1 sister. He is the oldest. His mother is a weaver. His father works as a farm laborer, but sometimes he doesn't have work. 

I wanted to give you a mini description of the students. I wish you all could visit with them and see the hope in their eyes. This truly is "Sharing the Dream" with them. Thank you for those who have sponsored one of these students. I am sorry you have not gotten a photo or information. We will get that out to you soon. Just know your money has been well used and the students really appreciate it. If anyone wants to sponsor one of the other 9 that we are adding let me know. It is $500.00 per year. These students are from all over Guatemala and would not have this opportunity otherwise.

We spent from 9 to 2 with the students. They each gave a performance from their culture. It was wonderful. Some of them had brought friends and family to help them. One performance was about how they became named the "People of Corn" and how the gods had named them. They had set up the chairs like a theatre and of course we were all in the front row. Clemente had planned for a local person to bring in the lunch and it was wonderful.

Students putting on performance

In the afternoon we went to Maya Traditions, a group where we get crafts. We met with Dora. She is a young woman who lost her son who was 1 1/2 and a nephew who was 2 in the mudslide. They were both in her home. Her husband had gone to help some other people and did not think that his family was in danger. A tree had fallen above their home and had redirected the water, this hit their house and completely demolished it and the two little boys were swept away. Dora was holding on to a branch and her baby when the baby was swept away. Some of the tragedies here just tear at your heart.

Monday evening we went to dinner with Jane who started Maya Traditions. I really enjoy her and it is always good to meet and catch up on her life. We went down to the Sunset cafe and watched the sunset over the lake. It is gorgeous with the volcanoes and mountains in the background. The colors changed every few minutes. It is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Kevin had left earlier in the day for Santiago to start on the houses. The lake was rough so not a great time to cross, but he made it okay. Tomorrow we head to Santiago...

Every day is an adventure.

Peace,
Diane