Erin's starts the feeding program

Here is a link to the story of my daughter's trip to Guatemala to start our feeding program there. There are pictures with it.

http://iflifewereeasyitwouldntbesomuchfun.blogspot.com/2009/03/guatemala.html

The feeding/tutorial program has started

Last Monday my daughter was able to oversee the first day of the feeding and tutorial program. We fed 70 children and their teachers K-6th grade and tutored 35 of the oldest. The program starts at 12:30 and ends at 4:30. We had a nutritious soup with lots of veggies and some meat and a fruit. The kids brought tortillas from home. If we were to make the tortillas we would have to hire a second cook that we can not afford as they are so labor intensive. Tortillas are about the only thing besides beans that they get at home so we were not too worried about it. Thank you to all who donated silverware, bowls, cups and plates. My daughter helped to cook the soup to make sure the cook was not overwhelmed. She also shopped with the cook for a couple of days helping her see the best foods both for health and economics. The older children helped distribute everything and all the children washed up their utensils afterwards. They ate it all but were thrilled about getting a banana. You would think that in a country that grows so many beautiful fruits and veggies, the poor children would get their fill. But the fruits and veggies are the most expensive and are grown to make money from the wealthier hispanics. The Mayans can not afford them. So we are focusing on that trying to improve the health of the children. Erin also interviewed the applicants for the teaching position and choose a 22 year old Mayan woman who has a teaching certificate. Erin met with many of the children's mothers to try and make sure they had input. They actually wanted this woman as she was Mayan and would not put them down like the hispanic teachers do. Erin liked her best also. The moms thanked us over and over for what we were doing as they did not feel the children learned alot in the regular school. Erin was very impressed with their concern for their children's education. I will try and get some of the many pictures Erin took up on this blog.
If you would like to be part of this program financially we can increase our lunch/ tutorial days from MON/WED/FRI to add TUES and THURS. We only have enough to do three days right now. Also we could start tutoring the younger children.
Erin also met with Anselmo who has the 16 and 17 that one of our donors is sponsoring in school. She met with the children also. She said Anselmo was so emotional about the help he was getting. They were all so thankful. We still need sponsors for many more children.
Our water maybe in. I need to ask Pedro. I know he has the toilets and sinks and showers in and it is almost hooked up because it got to that point while Erin was there.
We have had some great volunteers stay with us in Los Robles. Thank you so much for all your help. And mant thanks to Erin for taking a week off from her family and helping to get this going.
20.vicki@gmail.com
Vicki

Staus of orphanage kids and new feeding program

I hope alot of you watched the video I sent. It was so sad for my family to watch. We have loved some of those kids for many years and still do. I have a 14 year old daughter who has always seemed somewhat slow. This year she was really struggling with school and we had a bunch of tests done. Her IQ came back seriously low and she was put in a learning Resources classromm. I cried for days after. Well this child loves the orphanage kids. She would live at the orphanage if I let her. When she saw the video, she was sobbing and I put my arm around her. She said " That's my family mom". That has been so profound for me as it really sunk in how right she is. They are our family. We have loved them too long for them to be anything esle. Please pray we get them back soon. Also if you can contribute financially, we can get our attorney to do more.

Here is the status. One of our formers orp kids, Juliana, was reclaimed by her aunt and uncle last month after having spent 6 months in the government orphanage. She clued us into what happened to the kids. We are not allowed to ask questions so it is hard for us to find out anything. Juliana said the kids were divided between several government orphanages. She said they were made to work and not fed as much. She lost 30 pounds. She said the kids cried themselves to sleep ever night and wanted to go "home". She told us this when we were down there in Jan. That same week the Pensa Libre[ country newspaper ] announced that the President.'s wife was closing the government orphanages. We don't know where the kids are now and can't find out. We know the judges are frantic for places to put kids as several of them call us every week asking if we are reopened. The $10,000.00 we spent on attorney fees got all the false charges against us dropped. The next step is to get us reinstated. We were only temporarily closed. We all pray this will happen anyday. The attorney said the person who needs to do it told him he is so busy with all the other things he is doing for the Pres. wife that he has not had time to do the paperwork. But remember there were over 200 orphanages shut down in the last year, not just ours so something weird is happening.

In the meantime or rather especially because of all this, we have started a feeding/tutorial program in the local community. Kids are starving to death and their schooling is poor to say the least. We help the Mayans. Alot of people don't like that as some of the Hispanics use the Mayans as serf labor and an educated Mayan won't do serf labor. My daughter flew to Guatemala today. She will go to the market with our cook tomorrow and buy the food for a simple soup and a piece of fruit. On Monday we open the doors of our feeding/tutorial program. We will feed 35 children at the school next door lunch 5 days a week. There are 35 more who need to have this lunch, but we will have to get more donations to do the next 35. Then after lunch the kids will be tutored for 3 hours in subjects by our hired teacher. This will help them compete for jobs in the future. If this is successful we hope to take the program to more schools for the Mayans.
REMEMBER US FOR DONATIONS FOR ATTORNEY FEES, LUNCHES AND TUTORIALS FOR MORE KIDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS FOR KIDS ESP. PEDRO'S CHILDREN

From the blog site of one of our Casa de Sion supporters. I just found this neat video of the kids in the orphanage when we were at Cerro de Oro. Many of you will remember most of the children. It made me so sad to remember them and know where they are now. Please pray that they will soon be returned to us and the only home most of them have known.

http://www.blogryan.com/maya-jade-orphanage-slide-show/

Vicki