Thought you all might find this interesting and also understand my desires to help pregnant women. First before you read the article. let me tell you we got 8 new children this week. Four from a mom who can not support them, all stairstep boys ages 4 to 10, two boys ages 4 and 6, whose mom has taken up with a new alcoholic and can not feed the kids, and two more boys ages 4 months and 1 year, whose mom we think is doing prostitution. She came with the mom of Abraham, Diego and Anna and their mom was beat to a pulp. She is definitely doing prostitution. Some really good news. Abraham is walking and now comes up to me and tugs at my pants and goes abuela, abuela the whole time I am at the hogar. Anna and Diego have started kindie.
We have heard that there are many abandoned babies in the hospitals now that adoptions have closed down in Guatemala. We verified this from several sources. Our social worker will be talking with some of the hsopital social workers on Mon. The orphanages that used to take them won't any more as they can not make money off adoption. I will take some, but need the financial help of all of you. We have also heard stories that some of the smaller orphanages are turning thier kids into the government as they can not afford to keep going.
Well here is the article on what birth is like for the Mayan women that live around the lake.
The Crisis Pregnancy centers in GA, USA donated many items to help these women. We are so grateful. Also we have some sterile birthing kits coming the end of the month to give to the midwives. Also we had tour groups recently who left enough money to pay for a stove, a double stroller, shoes and bunkbeds for the new kids. We could not do this without you.

ARTICLE ON CHILDBIRTH AMONG THE MAYANS
Childbirth isn't an easy process for any woman, but an article I came across this morning highlights the problems women, mostly Indigenous women, face in rural Guatemala. Part of the problem is poverty, made worse by machista attitudes towards pregnancy and childbirth
....in Guatemala, where 1 in every 71 women who becomes pregnant during her lifetime dies from causes associated with pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period. In the Latin America-Caribbean region that's second only to Haiti, where the risk is 1 in 44. Often women in difficult labor are carried down in a hammock by menfrom the 16-family community, a journey that takes about two hours. Once they reach the nearest passable road, they could try to flag down a ride. But more often they would still have to walk the rest of the way as well, taking at least another four hours.

A recent trip by the The U.N. Population Fund identified four demoras, literally delays, that contribute to the maternal health crisis.
First, the woman and her caregivers don't always recognize that there's a problem in time to act.
Second, once a problem is recognized, the woman often seeks thepermission of her husband, mother-in-law or other family member to go to the doctor or hospital. If she doesn't get it, she doesn't go.
Third--and widely agreed to be the most difficult to change--are thelogistics of lining up proper transport. Small communities often onlyhave one vehicle.
The fourth demora is making sure that women receive proper attentiononce they reach the hospital. If a clinic does not deliver top-notchcare, a woman's health may be endangered even if she makes it to thehospital.Some of the solutions being offered up seem logical, like using local midwives, training them to recognize signs of problems, and providing them with clean birthing kits. But instead of attempting to do some sort of mass education campaign so that women take charge of their own health decisions, community men are being trained to step in to urge women to seek help and are even armed with the power to give permission for the women to seek help.
I understand the need to deal with the immediate, provide sanitary conditions, create more local birthing centers, set up transport systems, etc. but once those problems are adequately dealt with, I still fear women waiting to get the go ahead from their male partners to take care of themselves.
Via / Women's e News
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Maegan la Mala
Start conversation Del

First news. To everyone I sent an email to yesterday about the container being sent to Guatemala from Springville, Utah. It is not going out until next week and my contact person Marcie Williams is going to let me know details soon and I will then post them.
Second news. My third little grandson was born fri. night. He is a doll and my husband and I will travel to the states in a couple of weeks to visit him. That is my third grandson since Oct. No. four grandson is due in Mar. Isn't that awesome. First six little grandaughters in three years and then four grandsons in 6 months. We start grandaughters again in Sept. when my daughter and sil adopt our first grandchild of color. Since we are a family of many colors we are excited.
Third news. I spent two hours meeting with the woman government atty. who is over our orphanage today. It was exhausting, but I thought it went well.
We are getting 10 new children this week from parents who can not feed or educate them.
A woman showed up at the orphanage today with a 3 month old and a one year old, Henry and William. She is a friend of the mother of three other children we have. Abram, Diego and Anna. Their mother is now doing prostitution and she was all beat up. It was so sad. The two new babies come on Weds. as the mom had to go get their birthcert. and other legal papers so we can have an atty. do everything right. Tomorrow 3 children 1, 4 and 6 are coming because their dad and mom have abandoned them for other partners. Thurs. a sib set of four ages 4, 6, 8 and 10 are coming because both their parents are dead and no one can support them. And one day this week the 5 year old sister of Manual, Rosa, Rolando and Carlos is coming. There are still two more younger than her and the mom is due with another one anyday. We had to buy more beds and another high chair.
We can use many things, esp. cash for the building fund.
thanks everyone
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

I am getting better about these blogs and I think I have gotten the picture thing together after another visit and another orund of instructions from my computer guy. This is my 17 year old daughter who lives here in Guate with us and another one of my grandchildren. My granddaughter in this picture is 19 months today. Can you tell I miss my grandkids.

Anyway another exciting week at Lake Atitlan and the orphanage. The orphanage was basically the same old feed the kids, clean, wash send kids to school, pick up kids from school, have tutor help with homework, more cooking, washing clothes and cleaning. That is good that we had no emergencies. We had something wonderful happen in the states. A GA. crisis pregnancy center was praying about who could use alot of donations she had that she could not use. I was having my own conversations with my Heavenly Father about helping the pregnant women and children who so desperately need help here on the lake. Somehow the two of us came together and the GA people are bringing a van load of donations to my home in the states. I will bring them here the end of Feb. and we will officially begin a program to try and lower the infant/maternal death rate here among the Mayans. This week I am going to Jaibalito and bring food and clothes to some severely malnourished children and to San Marcos to hunt up the four children who went home from our orphanage to their alcoholic parents two weeks ago. I want to see how they are doing and take them food and clothes. I will try and take some pictures for you.

The other picture is of our beautiful lake and one of the three volcanoes surrounding it. Here are a couple of stories that let you know what life here is like.

We lost our electricity early Friday morning. The problem was a tree that fell on the power lines about a mile from our house. The cleanup crew came with chain saws to remove the tree but were soon overwhelmed with the African killer bees that moved into the area several years ago. We heard stories of 1, 4 and 15 workers being rushed to the hospital. The bees apparently ate the meat of the tree and weakened it. We're not sure of the number but did see the ambulance barreling by. We finally did get lights again about dusk.

And then for the Guatemalan version of the Keystone Cops: But at a local cafe we heard The rest of the story. A local man was kidnapped riding in a tuk-tuk and taken to a seedy hotel in town. He managed to escape his ropes and the hotel and called the cops. They swished down on the hotel just after the kidnapped evacuated. The cops found only a couple having an illicit lunch rendevous and arrested them and them made the local papers.

We did hear a more upbeat story about kidnapping and Americans. A year or so ago an American was taken in the city but the FBI was called in and in short order they got their man. In general, American make good kidnappees because of that very reason.