Things are really hopping here at the lake and starting to in the city. I mentioned we can buyh the third house at the lake property which will complete our property there and give us alot of grow room. We will have to move the city orphanage as it is being sold and has no outside area for the kids. The man who wroks as our translator and good friend has contacted a relative who owns 10 acres with a 12 bedroom house outside the City about a half an hour. The location we wanted. She will rent to us for $400.00 a month. Our friend is going to view this property tomorrow. Also we interviewed a man yesterday as manager for both orphanages. We were very pleased with him. He is in his 50s and has helped his wife run another orphanage for the last 3 years. it is being run as we hope ours to be run. We hope to retain him as an employee in the very near futur. It will take a tremendous burden off my husband and myself. Then we will be able to devote ourselves to fund raising, policies and procedures.
We still have our Tzutihil children, but I fear the judge is upset with us.
Hopefully I will have internet in the home starting tomorrow which means there will be more daily reports.
Vicki
Director of http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Gosh I hope we have internet in the home by Sunday. The internet guy is supposed to come out then after having sent him tons of paperwork. It is very hard to keep up with 3 emails that have both business, orphanage and personal emails and write this blog as much as I need to.
We got a new girl at the city orp. The oldest of 7 and 13. She went to the judge and told him she was over worked and beaten by her mom, so he sent her to us. All she has done is cry and say she wants to go home. The parents have visited and want her home. Sounds like a teenage girl, huh.
I want to get some pics up soon as soon as I get the internet at home. We took the most adorable one of our first baby in the infant feeding program having his first bottle at age 2 moths. His mother´s milk was dried up. In just a week he has filled out and gained weight. I love to visit the orphanage and hold him. Our 3 Tzutihil children are still with us and doing well now that they are over their bronchitis.
yesterday Orphanhelp, Int. volunteered to buy us 15 sets of bunkbeds, a new washing machine for the Làke, and a new refrig and maybe stove for the lake. They are so wonderful. The supply us each month with our month´s supply of beans, masica for making the tortillas and dried milk.
The rain was bad yesterday. The streets of Santiago were flooded when I wen to pick up my 16 year old daughter off the boat. She had stayed in Pana where she goes to school late for dance practice. If it rained like that for several days we would have more mud slides.
That is it for now. thanks for everyone´s help.
Vicki
Director of
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Well we are in GuaTE and have been for the last two weeks. So much has happened. First, we had friends here who were helping put in organic gardens at the orphanage to enable us to be more self suffiecient and to teach the kids a trade. The man next door told us that the land we thought we had bought for the kids to have a playground and a soccer field were really his. So we stooped all construction until it was settled. It got settled Sat. and we do indeed own the land. The man now wants to sell us his house as he does not want to live next door to an orphanage. We think we can get it for $60,000.00. It will be a great addition as it is a big house and will complete the property very well. Now we just need to get the $60,000.00. We meet with him this Fri. to see the house.
We got our kids enrolled in a great private school in Panajachel where everything is taught in English. They catch the boat to school at the dock near the orphanage. My downs son is going to a special ed school with other downs children and 3 children from the orphanage. Two are girls who had such severe malnutrition they are very developmentally delayed and one is a new 8 year old boy who can't hear or speak.
We received 7 new children at the lake orphanage last week. The 8 year old boy and his 3 year old brother. Three sibs who are 5, 3 and 1. Very malnourished and neglected. And the younger sibs of Manual' family have moved in with their mom as the nanny for my malnourished baby program. They also are very malnourished and the mom was breast feeding the 2 month old but had no milk. We showed her how to make a bottle and how to clean the bottle. The baby was so funny when he got his first bottle. But by the next day he was sucking the bottles down for all he was worth.
Now our big dilema is the judge in another department is trying to take the 3 little ones we got last week and give them to another orphanage. We want to keep them here as the are Tzutihill and we have a Tzutihill casregiver and the other one does not. We are now up to 50 children.
Vicki
Director of http>www.safehomesforchildren.org