HAVE ORANGE BAGS [ FULL OF GUATEMALA DONATIONS ] WILL TRAVEL

THIS SAGA OF THE ORANGE BAGS STARTED A YEAR AGO AS MY DAUGHTERS AND I SORTED AND PACKED MANY OF THE WONDERFUL CLOTHING DONATIONS GIVEN TO US BY A CARING KID'S CONSIGNMENT STORE.

LUCKILY THE DAUGHTERS WHO HELPED ME WERE IN THEIR 20S AND 30S AND NOT THESE LITTLE MUNCHKINS WHO ADDED SPICE.

 NEXT WE HAULED IN OUR FAMILY TRUCK DRIVER AND HIS FAMILY [ MY SON JOEY AND DIL CRYSTAL AND GIRLS ] JOEY WILL DRIVE THE TRUCK TO PA WHERE IT WILL BE LOADED ON A CONTAINER AND SENT TO GUATEMALA

THE WHOLE FAMILY PITCHES IN TO LOAD THE TRUCK. ANOTHER SON AND MY HUSBAND PACKING AND HAULING

THE GUATEMALAN FIVE [ THE ONES WHO LIVE WITH US IN GUATEMALA] PRACTICING THEIR GUATEMALAN DANCE CLASS MOVES WHEN THEY TIRED OF LOADING BAGS

THE CONTAINER TOOK FIVE MONTHS FROM WHEN WE GOT THIS LOAD TO PA AND WHEN IT WAS DELIVERED TO US IN GUATEMALA. HERE IS
 MY TEAM WHO WILL UNPACK, SORT, AND CLASSIFY GETTING READY FOR SEVERAL CLOTHING ANAD SHOE DISTIBUTIONS.
BTW THERE ARE OVER 200 BAGS. THANKS KAREN AND CREW.


YOU CAN HELP PAY FOR THE NEXT SHIPMENT DUE TO LEAVE JAN. 2014

Vicki Dalia
www.casadesion.org
20.vicki@gmail.com

Construction underway

 We arrived on September 25th and after settling in we hired a builder to start with the new bodega.  It is next to existing kitchen and will also house a bathroom and laundry room.  These latter two rooms are required by the government authorities for an orphanage.  The bodega (warehouse) is large 6m. x 7m. and must hold all the existing supplies in the old building which will turn into the orphanage.  We had to move the old outdoor firepit behind the new building and outside what will be the play area.

 The builder began on Oct 2nd and expects to finish about Oct 24th with everything but the roof.  He had to find some extra long beams and we want them to dry, at least, a little.

 We also have to extend the dining area by ten feet and put a perimeter fence around the main yard area.  Our afterschool feeding-tutorial program ended this last Friday with the end of school and we will begin work on the dining area on Monday.  Later this week we hope to start on the perimeter fence.  When we talked with our consultant about opening the orphanage 3 year ago, they were demanding a 6' block fence topped with 6' of chain link and then razor wire.  It sounded like a prison to us.  They have scaled it down to 6' of chain link and I am hoping we don't have to do the razor wire on top.
In the beginning of November we should have these projects stable enough to begin on the 3rd floor which will be the new (&improved) volunteer housing.  It will be lighter and more airy.   We applied for a matching grant of $15,000 and think we have a good chance of getting it.  We will not know till February so keep praying.

Children changing the world

Addy, Katie and Marcus

Many of you will remember my daughter, Katie, and her saving her change to bring bubbles and tattoo stickers to the kids in Guatemala when we went down 1 1/2 yrs ago.    Since we have been home she has had grander plans.  Every time I would put away clothing that no longer fit; she would say "let's put that in the yard sale pile".  Every time the baby outgrew a toy she would say; "that will be great for the yard sale".  Somehow she got it in her head that she was going to hold a yard sale to raise money for the kids in Guatemala.  I agreed with her but didn't make any real plans.  But as the summer was drawing to a close Katie really started pushing me to do the yard sale.  I realized that this was a good opportunity to teach my children about giving.  I finally committed, enlisted the whole family, set a date and reached out to friends to see if they had anything they wanted to donate.  The response was overwhelming!  We also decided to do a lemonade stand and bake sale.  I decided that the kids would be able to be more involved in selling food then manning the yard sale.

 Marcus with his sign

Katie with her sign

Marcus and Katie happened to be home sick the day we hung the signs, but Addy was in school so I didn't get a picture of her with her sign.

The morning of the yard sale started off with bang.  The sale started at 8:30 and people started coming at 7:45!  Luckily a couple friends came to help me and another friend showed up with her kids to help with the Lemonade Stand.  

The kids took turns being in charge of the stand.  It was entertaining to see my shy son running up to yard sale customers to see if they wanted to buy a cookie or some lemonade.

Marcus and Ava

Marcus making a sale

Katie and Zoe

Katie got up bright and early to help me set up everything.  She had a soccer game at 8:30am but rushed home to do her part. 

We ended up getting rained out at around noon.  The kids were pretty disappointed until we counted our money.  We made over $750!  That will buy a lot of formula!!!

For some reason Miss Addy kept seeming to miss the camera so I just wanted to give a little shout out to her because she did a great job of doing her part!

 

We are hoping to take the formula down ourselves sometime the beginning of next year.   If anyone is interested in joining us for a family team please email me.

Also, if anyone is interested in doing something similar let us know and we send you our rack cards (brochures) to hand out and bracelets made the local women to sell.

ONE OF OUR AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

 We have 60 kids in our middle school sponsorship program . Part of what they need to do to get the scholarship money is help out when needed. This boy is helping to straighten and clean up.

 Part of our after school feeding program requires that the moms of the students do the cooking. Here are two mom's doing the cooking.

 These organic veggies came from our gardens

Here is the teacher for after school program in Los Robles

















Thanks for your time

Vicki Dalia
20.vicki@gmail.com

A Story of Despair and Sorrow Among Mayan Mamas and Their Babies

I spent the better part of yesterday at the Chuti-estancia Mayan mama/tot program. Every Thurs. we have this program in a different community.  The first Thurs. of the month is Chuti. We now have

104 mamas and their assorted kids under 5 so maybe 200 littles. I knew ahead of time there were 4 new Mayan women who wanted to do this program. I was still recovering from strep throat and a fever of 103, but I had been on the Zpac now for 2 plus days and did not want to miss this program. I have to tell you I can  sit there and watch these women and kids and just feel happy, glowing. I don't know why. I don't know why I feel so honored to be helping and learning from this group and my other mama/tot groups. But it is not just me. Lots of our volunteers feel the same way and don't want to miss a mama/tot program while here. I think it has to do with being humbled by their humbleness, by their survival lacking so much of what I take for granted. So let me tell you a little about each one and see if you want to sponsor them and feel that same thrill of being able to help. I am not telling you their names as I can't remember them. But I remember their looks of despair and their sorrowful eyes.I will be getting a written report on each one with their names, etc if you want to sponsor them.

So this young lady is 16. She is in the picture above also. No husband and a 4 month old. She hung back from the others and looked so sad the whole time. She really touched my heart. Her baby is the 4 month old pictured at the bottom of the page 

This one gripped my heart also. An older lady with a 6 year old and a 15 day old. When I asked about the husband/boyfriend the other women told me, "sex, pregnant, papa gone". We have the best time pantomining our ladies conversations.
 A whole slew of women brought her in to sign up for our programs. I was so proud of their sense of community and women helping women.
To top it all out, she has no breast milk "absolutely none sworn to me by about 15 women"
Neither of these two ladies had any.... nada education. They also both seemed to have lower IQs. Her baby is the 15 day old at the bottom

THIS LADY ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE SHE LED A LIFE OF LEISURE AFTER THE LAST TWO, BUT SHE IS 19, MARRIED TO A HUSBAND WHO WORKS IN ANOTHER TOWN, HER BOY IS 13 MONTHS. ALL THESE WOMEN NEED SPONSORS OR RATHER PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THEM ENOUGH TO HELP THEM STAY IN OUR PROGRAMS. THEY WERE ACCEPTED YESTERDAY BASED ON MY KNOWING THAT 3 OF YOU WILL STEP FORTH AND SPONSOR THEM.  WELL TIME TO GO WRITE ME AT 20.vicki@gmail.com