Birthdays and Clinics [ blog nos. 40,41,42,43,44,45,46}

We had a great team of Naturapathic doctors here for a week of clinics in Los Robles. I took advantage of the opportunity and had all seven of my children and myself get physicals. They did a very thorough jobs. One of the perks of running a mssion. Here is a pic of my daughter Emmie who wants to be a doctor herself.

It is something of a challenge to celebrate the birthdays of two of our adopted kids that still live with us and my birthday while living down here. We all kind of feel ripped off that we are not in the states with our big family and can not have the big family party. So this week, Feb.13 and feb. 17th we took off Weds., feb. 15th and took the kids to a nice hotel for breakfast buffet and swimming in the pool. Tony pictured here, was 10. and Alisa , in the above picture,was 12. The kids loved it and already are making plans for their next year's birthday here. We also had two birthdays in the states. My oldest son Matt was 44 and my sil Chris was 30.

Some of the docs eating the lunch that Casa de Sion prepared for them.

We saw many men at this clinic and many families

next to the top are Lillian's adopted twins. She was able to adopt them because Casa de Sion provided the formula and clothing. They were treated also. Each doc brought down a suitcase full of meds.
In addition to the clinic, we had our mama/tot program with any mamas and tots and we moved out of our house for 3 days while new tile was laid. We moved back in on Thurs. and spent Sat. and Sun. resting and getting resettled.

Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com

trying to catch up With the Blogs [ 31,32,33,34,35,36, 37,38,39]

Lots and lots going on. The reason I have not written. Plus my computer is not working and it has all the pictures. So this is an informational blog on my husband's computer catching up with my commitment.
We have started a Friday business meeting with Mario and Juan. Each week it gets longer and longer as there is more and more going on. [While I am writing this I am trying to shut out the screaming that my two teenage daughters are doing at each other; the joys of family life] .  This week there was a lot of talk about our responsibilities with the nutributter program. Basically Mario has to deliver it to all 24 communities and make sure that the two community leaders in each community know their role: giving it out to the families, showing them how to get the babies to eat it and making sure it is not given to the other starving children in the family. The nutributter arrived on Sat. so the work begins on Monday.
Sunday i tried to catch up with family stuff, like organizing myself to be the perfect long distance mom and grandma for the 7 birthdays happening in Feb.
Monday I met Carlos, the head on a naturopathic NGO that is bringing a team of naturopathic docs down the next week. I need to show him the clinic in Los Robles. he likes it and is excited about helping the people in Los Robles. I am excited about this team as I have used naturopathic meds for years and am a true believer. Also called to find out what was happening with the birthday parties of my two grandchildren that had birthdays that week.
Tuesday was running errands in town getting food and money in the house. Then returning emails, etc.
Wednesday's top priority was calling and wishing Cohen a happy 4th Birthday. Then homeschooling the kids here and then to Los Robles. Jody needs to check the construction on the guardian house and I need to talk to Dominga. I found out that Jeremias, the downs twin whose life we saved, has had his operation and it was successful.  I also find out that Maria in Nueva Victoria is having more trouble with her foot and it is infected again. We decide to take medicine and bandages to her mom and train her mom in how to wash it and then bandage it and put a sock on it to protect it. I work with Erin to contact our supporters and new people to try and get money in for scholarships and more feeding programs. We are hoping that Kids Against Hunger can be a help in letting us open up more feeding programs.
Thursday is spent working with my daughters who run our for-profit business in the states and our computer person. We do a lot.... of advertising in the phone books for the for-profit and are now starting our internet advertising. First thing will be a mobile website. This business is our biggest donor to the projects down here so it is very important to keep it growing. Each day takes some of my time and a lot of my husband's time doing homeschooling with the 5 youngest. Three of them are special ed and the other two hyper so it gets frustrating at times.
Friday is another business meeting with the staff. Plans are made for the 5 days of clinics we will have next week. Juan will be one of the translators so his jobs need to be delegated to other employees. Our kids here at home get a big surprise. One of our new volunteers teaches judo and he arrives for their class. Daniel is from Germany.
Saturday's priority is wishing bay lee a happy 5th Birthday. She and Cohen are having a Chuck Cheese party together. She has a princess cake and Cohen a cars cake. bay lee's mom and Bryan, my son who is his kids single parent, make cupcakes. Bryan's were double chocolate and homemade. he is turning into a good single dad. Takes the two kids to church every Sunday. My worries over leaving this situation are turning to pride over my kids doing so good a job. His sisters and sister-in-law help him with babysitting when needed.
Well that's is all for now.
The next blogs require pictures and I am hoping to get my computer fixed on Monday.

Nutributter extravaganza and Blog Days 25,26,27,28 29, 30

Here are the pictures from the Saturday meeting of the nutributter people. We had 35 members from our community workers show up. We had to pay transport which added up to $70.00 , but they are distributing the nutributter for free and never get to enjoy this kind of hoopderah so any that wanted to come came.

Dominga and Mario are in the picture with Peter Rololf, the pediatrician from Boston. MA who got the USAID grant for the program. Mario and Dominga surveyed and are working the most communities of any of the NGOs who participated and did the most thorough surveys. We did 24 communities. It was Dominga's first claim to fame and she was so excited. 

The program consisted of lots of nutritional info comparing nutributter to mother's milk and incaparina. Of course mother's milk is the best, but if it is not available it is not available. Nutributter won out over incaprina with the vitamin and mineral and calorie count. Plus it requires no water so eliminates the poison water factor.

Then the community workers were showed how to train the parents in giving the butter to their babies.

Then the heads of the NGOs all signed a contract agreeing to certain things. So there is a pciture of me signing and then Dominga and then Mario.

Finally we got to eat lunch in a beautiful location overlooking Lake Atitlan. There were probably 250 to 300 people there. 

 our table

 

 our view of the Lake from our table.

All in all i think everyone enjoyed themselves and got motivated to do a good job. We received the first of our nutributter last week and started distributing it this week. Mario is having to go with all the community workers in each pueblo and show them exactly what to do so it is still a lot of work and a lot of gas money.

The next day Sunday  was our usual, church in Spanish, teach the kids at home in English, rest, go for a walk and watch Ben-Hur.

Monday, Jan. 30 turned out to be pretty exciting. I drove my 17 dau. and 15 year old son to Pana. I dropped the son at school and took the daughter to the Thai rest. where she is doing a culinary arts internship. I wanted to be there when she started because the owner was not going to be and my daughter does not speak Spanish and the regular cooks do not speak English. Soon after we arrived and I had ordered fresh orange juice and blue corn pancakes my son called. All the schools in Pana were canceled as the vigilantes and the police were in a battle. The main bridge was blocked by vigilantes with hugh rocks and fires and they were there with their machetes and what guns they had and the police were there with their guns drawn. I told Caleb to get to where I was asap and Scotia that we would start her internship another day, called the owner, collected the two kids and headed home. We were nervous they had closed off the yellow bridge we have to cross to get home as they had closed of the road from Pana to Solola. There were no cars on  the roads and the kids and I were speeding as fast as the Mitsubishi would go. The yellow bridge was being kept open by 35 police officers ready to fight. We made it across and raced home. We heard later that they were fighting because the vigilantes wanted to partol their own neighborhoods at night as the police were not arresting the criminals. The police were instead arresting the patroling vigilantes and the vigilantes were at the end of their tolerance.

Tuesday was calm and we worked all day with our homeschooling kids and getting the 38 student scholarships straightened out. It is a lot of work.

Wednesday Scotia started her internship and and she loves it and the Mayan women love her. She does the waiting on the gringoes and prepares liquidos and breakfasts and everyone is happy.

Thurs. Jan. 30 , was our day off and after much work with the programs[ getting the scholarships worked out and paid for 38 kids is a lot of work.] and the kids we were ready for it.