Another adventure

We visited the mother and child who are sick. She did not want to go to the hospital yet.

The volunteer firefighter who spoke kakchiquel, resting on the way up the mountain.

Today I translated for a doctor who was visiting from New Mexico. We went back to Santa Catarina with the bomberos (firefighters) to bring a woman who had had a miscarriage and was still bleeding. We rode in the back of the ambulance, a first for me and I hope it will be the last time, especially one in Guatemala. It was very bare, just a strecher, an oxigen tank, IV and little else.

One of the firefighter's spoke Kakchiquel so when the doctor had a question I would translate it into Spanish and then the firefighter would translate it to Kakchiquel. Then the woman would answer and he would translate it for me and I would translate it to English. It was like a telephone game.

A family in need in Santa Catarina

The entrance to the house

It looked like this was were the mother was cooking.

One of the children, eating a cookie we gave him

This is where the children sleep, on the floor, in the corner of the room. They only had a couple of blankets. They also had one bed where the mother slept with the two year old but it did not have a mattress. They were sleeping in bare wood planks. We brought them some food and the children were very happy.

We had started at the bottom of the mountain.

On the way down

Our two guides with Titi

The mother and the baby

On the second day in the afternoon we went with Olga, the Mayan Families social worker, and Cindy, a volunteer from the USA, to look for a woman that seemed to suffer from Lukemia in another town called Santa Catarina. We hired a van to take us there since we didn't want to ride in the back of a crowded pick up like everybody else does around here. The dresses of the women in that town were very beautiful, they were turquoise and all kinds of blues. They also wore a head ornament.

We went to the school and the director told two girls to guide us to the house. The town starts at the level of the lake and it goes up. There are very narrow streets, in some parts are like stairs and others just rocks. The house we were looking for was way up in the mountain. Titi was tired and she didn't want to walk so I dragged her for some time and then Don carried her for a long time. Poor him, it was a very difficult climb for us since we are not used to it. Carlos didn't have any problem but Olga and Cindy were very tired by the time we got there.

The conditions of the house and the family were horrendous. It was a one room house made of mud bricks with dirt floor, there were flies everywhere. The mother looked very sick but the worst was finding a two year old who had a huge belly and very skiny arms and legs. He was not walking or moving much, he was just sitting there, covered with flies. The mother only spoke Katckiquel, so the 9 year old daughter had to translate for her. There was also a 5 year old boy and a 5 month old baby. The father is away working but when he comes back he only gives them 100 quetzals, approx.

We told the mother we wanted to bring her and the two year old to see a doctor but she said she needed to ask her husband if it was ok to go. He is not in town so it could be a while until he comes back. We went back to Sharon's house and she posted about the family on her blog. We hope to go back to convince the mother to come to the doctor with us.

San Jorge

Collecting information for sponsors. Don and Julio showing the teachers how to put the water filters together.

Carlos and Titi "teaching". A classroom that needs paint and electricity.

The school's kitchen.

On our second day in Panajachel we went to San Jorge, the other community that Mayan Families help. It is much closer than Tierra Linda and the school is larger and they have better classrooms and materials but they still need a lot of help. Mayan Families brought one water filter for each classroom so now the kids will be able to drink clean water. Don helped the teacher put the filters together and I took information to update the student's sponsorship page. We can't get over how cute the children are. The traditional dresses are so beautiful. I gave some materials to the teachers and Carlos and Titi had fun "teaching".

We are planning on painting a classroom. It is a new addition to the school so it is not painted at all. The problem is that water is leaking from the roof so we are hoping to have that fixed too. They also don't have electricity inside and only a small window. Don is going to bring electricity inside and put a couple of light bulbs on the roof. It is a very small classroom but the kids don't mind at all.

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Tierra Linda

School ended and the kids started walking home. We visited one house that Mayan Families is building for a mother and her children. It is only a one room house but they are extremely happy and cannot wait to move in.

Carlos showing school materials to the children.
The kindergarten classroom

Tierra Linda, at the bottom of the mountain

We left Guatemala City on Monday at 11 and got to Panajachel around 2:30. It is a beautiful place, you need to see it in person because no picture can capture the beauty of the lake, the volcanos and the mountains.

On Tuesday morning we went with Sharon and her staff to the school in Tierra Linda, a very remote and poor village in the mountains. It was so amazing. The kids are so beautiful. They were having a festival to inagurate a new classroom and t thank Sharon for everything that she has done for the school.

Carlos was very happy to be there. He played with the kids and had a blast "teaching" the kids with some of the materials we brought for the school. Titi was a little afraid at the beginning but she was fine after a while. All the girls wear traditional clothing and the looks so colorful and pretty.

Visit with birthfamilies

Titi's foster family

Carlos' birthfamily

Titi's birthfamily

We had a very nice time at the Aurora Zoo in Guatemala City. It is a very nice zoo!!

Yesterday we visited Titi's birthgrandmother in her house and we had a very nice day. We went to a park near the house and Carlos and Titi had a blast playing with Eduardo, Titi's brother, who is 8 years old.

Today Carlos' birthmother and birthsisters came to visit. Aracely had problems with her knee and she had to get a cast on her leg so she could not walk a lot. Vera and her sons came too so we had a full house at the hotel. The kids had fun playing on the computer center and the adults had time to talk and take pictures. We had dinner at Pasteleria Patsy's and we got a cake to celebrate Father's Day. It is incredible how alike Carlos and his little birthsister are. She is also a leftie and is so cute.

Tomorrow we leave for Panajachel and I need to go to sleep. I am exhausted, I can hardly keep my eyes opened.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We hope you are having a great birthday Grandpa. We had fun celebrating with you last Sunday!

We arrived in Guatemala City without a problem. We spent the day with Titi's birthmother and brothers and we had a nice time. We are planning on going to the zoo tomorrow. We will keep in touch.

Love,
Carlos and Titi

Little doves

An update on the little doves. They are not that small anymore. Yesterday they left the nest but they have been staying close by, on the ground, right next to the mother. They are almost her size. I guess they don't know how to fly because if we go outside they just walk and hide under the plants. After a while they go back to the same spot.

It was so much fun seeing them grow. At first the mother never left the nest and then she started leaving them by themselves for longer periods of time. The last couple of days she was almost never there but she was watching them from the roof. I guess she was encouraging them to leave the nest and once they did, she joined them again on the ground. They are the cutest thing!

Another drama in the garden

We have some mourning doves that make their nests in the garden but they are terrible at making them. They always choose the leaves of the self pruning palm trees and they have fallen a couple of times. The first time we didn't put the nest back on a tree, we just put it in a bush and the dove didn't come back. The second time I picked the eggs with a spoon and put back the nest in another leaf and the mommy dove came back but we never saw if the baby doves survived or not.

Well, this year they made a nest in the worst place, in the front, where it is very windy and in a lower leaf, almost ready to fall. We have been watching them for days, hoping the nest will stay in its place. The leaf is almost brown so I put some tape to secure it to the trunk and tried to tie the leaf to a trellis so it would not move so much with the wind. It still looked very dangerous for the nest so Don put something under the nest to protect it but the mommy dove was too scared and it was unble to come back to the nest so I took it off. It was supposed to rain a lot and it was very windy so I had to make a decision yesterday. I decided to move the nest to a hanging wire basket and see if the dove would come back to the nest. When I moved it, I saw there were two little birds there!! They don't look at all like a dove, they are so dark. I was able to take a picture. The mommy dove made many attemps to land on the nest any it looked like it was not going to work but after many tries she got it. It rained all night and it has been windy but they look more secure now. We can't wait to see if the babies grow up.

Their new home