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Miguel and Paulina waiting on the dock for us
The ride was really pleasant. Jorge would slow down and show us the birds
on the islands and take us through some of the small inlets. The water was calm
and it was a beautiful day. As usual the contrast between the rich and the poor
was quite evident. There were beautiful expensive houses along the river and
not far away would be a small hut with a woman washing her clothes in the
river. At one point a small boy in a cayuca (dug out canoe) came out to greet
us, hoping we would have candy or something to give him. We had some gum along
so gave him that.
Children at the orphanage
We stopped at Ak'tenamit. This is a clinic along the river. It has really
grown in the last few years. It started out to be a small clinic where they did
outreach work to the villages. It has now grown and they have a school, a
restaurant a crafts area and many other things. They mostly try to train the
native people in health care so they can take care of the people around. They
have a web page so you can find out more about them if you would like. I asked
if my friend Maria was there. Maria is a young girl who had been educated at
Casa Guatemala although she was a village girl and had a family. Anyhow, she
had been working at Ak'tenamit since they started. At one point she needed more
medical training so Sharing the Dream paid for her schooling. She now heads up
the clinic. I am really proud of her, she has really made a difference in her
community. Her dream is to go on to medical school. It is also a dream of ours
to help her when she can do that. Medical school in Guatemala is not very
expensive by our standards and is something we can help her do. Maria was a
meeting so I gave the group a quick tour of the grounds. We left word that we
would be back later to meet with Maria. We were going to eat at the restaurant
there but found out they only had fish, so we decided we would eat in Livingston
when we got there.
Livingston
The ride to Livingston was nice. Livingston is right on the coast and has
a Caribbean flair. The native people who live there are Garfuna and their skin
is very dark. The town is not very big but is very colorful and busy with
people braiding hair, and music playing. We walked around for a little bit.
This morning Marta had tripped on a step at the Backpackers and bruised her leg
and turned her ankle so a lot of walking was more difficult for her. She was
quite a trooper though and kept up pretty good. Ak'tenamit runs another
restaurant in Livingston so this is where we ate. The profits go back to
Ak'tenamit. Several people ordered different types of soups and when it came it
looked like it was the serving bowl it was so large. The food was great and
very interesting. We stopped and bought some coconut bread on our way back to
the boat. This is a treat from Livingston that is really good. You just break
off pieces and eat it. The bread we bought was still very hot and it was
wonderful.
Maria (on the right) and her niece
On our return trip down the river we stopped at the craft store in
Ak'tenamit, which is up the river from the clinic. ( I can't ever
remember if you say up or down the river, so please excuse) We were
going to meet Maria there. They called to see if she was coming and
pretty soon here she comes in a small boat. It was wonderful to see
her. She had just gotten back from a village visit the day before.
She looked very tired. She said they had seen 150 patients in 2
days. This was after boating and then walking and carrying their
supplies to the village. She is really quite a young woman. We
talked about her going on to medical school. She said right now she
is helping 2 of her brothers go to school and can't take the time off, but
she hopes to go in a year or so. She did say that her niece really
wants to go to nursing school right now and introduced us to her.
She needs money for transportation and books. After the group met
her there were people who seemed interested in sponsoring her. Maria
is going to put a budget together so we can look at it.
Children at the orphanage
After leaving Maria we traveled by boat to the hot springs. This is just a
spot by the edge of the river that has hot springs coming out. Kyle was the
only one that went in the water, although Marta went in a little to help her
sore ankle. I had forgotten my swimsuit so I wasn't going to go in and I think
the others were just enjoying sitting. Kyle said it was quite nice. I have
been in the springs on numerous occasions and always enjoyed it.
Our last
stop was back at Casa Guatemala the orphanage. We continued our tour of the
orphanage, the farm, etc. Miguel and many of the children joined us on our
walk. We spent quite a bit of time in the library seeing what types of books
they needed. We have been working on the library project with them for years.
They have so many English books, which they can't use, so we are trying to build
up their Spanish books. We are making quite a dent as they are starting to get
quite a few. You can tell the children are enjoying the books because some of
them are starting to look worn. The volunteer in charge of the library said
that the teachers bring their students in quite a bit to read. This is a change
from early years. Casa Guatemala has a web site so if you want more information
about the orphanage you can check that out.
We gathered up our empty
suitcases, Miguel got his clothes together and we went back to the Backpackers.
It had been a good day. We had dinner and of course it was dark early, so we
decided we were going to stay up until at least 9. Kaye was our game planner
and she had a couple of word games that we played. We laughed a lot about this
because even Kyle sat and played these games. We changed one of them to Spanish
so that was really quite challenging. Even with going to bed early there is not
much sleep at the Backpackers. There is noise continuously all night and then
when the noise stops the rooster's start. This is a good place to use
earplugs.
Tomorrow we will head back to the city.
Diane
Carlos
Carlos has been at Casa Guatemala for at least 18 years. The first time I
went down I met him. He is severely physically and mentally disabled. |
