A short blog today as I need to head to a staff meeting. Things are poking along. Pedro, my director, is at his home in Zacapa because his little girl is in the hospital. He picked up four new computers for us this past week-end. My daughter and son went with him because it was at a large orphanage where they are very self-sufficient. Lots of garden veggies, fruit trees and farm animals for both eating by the 250 kids and selling for cash. I wanted my daughter to take pics for me. I will try and post some of them soon.
We are thinking that my husband, who has built many houses in the states, and Pedro, who is good at bossing people around, are going to pair up and hire a crew and order the materials and do the building. It will save us a ton. We have a local man doing free consultation for things we need to know.
We have heard that the government is turning down people who want to open new orphanages and we know many are closing so it makes for interesting thoughts on what the future holds.
I did get a good lead on a doctor woman who wants to help us set up a medical program for both the orphanage and the community so plan to meet with her soon.
Oh yeah the picture. Some of my 4-6 year old gang of boys having preschool at the hogar. My cook is in the background. The kids had their first movie morning today. My 3 youngest here at home went and said it was good.

I already wrote this once and did something wrong and lost it. So here we go again. The first picture is of my kids. My youngest bio daughter, four of my middle adopted kids and my oldest grandson [ 6 months ]. He and his parents have been visiting.It has been alot of fun having them. They kept our kids so my husband and I could have a night off in Jaibalita at an Inn we love there.
I love having my kids come. My oldest daughter gave birth in the states on Sat. to my fourth grandson under 6 months. He weighed 9.5 pounds. She weighs 120 pounds not pregnant so everyone was amazed. Her husband is in his third year of med school, but they decided to do a home birth with midwife. Sure wish I could be there to hold the whopper, but it will have to wait until we go home in June.

The next picture is the baby nursery. We have cribs for 7 babies. The paperwork is progressing on the two new ones we are supposed to get.

Next is Carlos in his new walker and Abram in his new car. In the middle is my daughter who is 2. The toys were bought with the $1500.00 that Neil, the Eagle scout raised. He also collected 2000 pounds of shoes, clothes and toys. His family is working now to buy a bus to bring everything down. They also are the ones who have committed to building our new road.

The last are some of the orp kids in front of the new rented house. They are ready to leave for school and have on the bookbags some of you donated.

Now for a little Guate news. The big City paper ran a three page article on the starving children of Guate. Gas has doubled in price here since a year ago. That affects us in two ways. One everything including food and building materials cost alot more and two we will need to take more kids. A rather gruesome story was of a baby found dead on the streets of Xela half eaten by starving dogs.
The reason I want to take more babies.

We now have volunteers helping a total of 18 hours a week working with the babies, the middle ones and teaching English. I think I mentioned last week we have a free weekly movie at a local small theater , play and group therapies and music classes going all with volunteer time.

Several people have asked what they can donate so here it is:
1] bactoban and neosporin for skin diseases; lice and also GENTIAN VIOLET which is very cheap. I know it stains permanently purple. I have used it for thrush with my babies and it works better than prescription meds.
2]lice and scabies meds. Can you tell it has been a bad week for skin problems.
3] FORMULA, esp. anti-allergenic and soy, bottles
4] diapers and pampers and wipes
5]good quality clothes and shoes in kids sizes
6]porta crib and twin bed sheets and quilts
7] wall hangings and posters
8] personal care products
9]school and craft supplies
10]OTC meds
11]toys
12] baby seats, walkers, and cars
13] rocking chair
14 ]kitchen supplies : silverware, plastic cups and plates, utensils and pots and pans
CASH< CASH< CASH for building

Oh I forgot, we received 4 new computers this week donated by a Canadian group. Now we just need to build the rooms for the tutorials.
The whole community of Mayan Indians will benefit from this gift. Thanks for the cameras.

thanks so much
Vicki
20.vicki@gmail.com

I noticed I had some comments. Finally, I guess some of you are saying, but you have to remember I turned 59 and this computer stuff is still new to me. If my kids have not shown it to me, I don't know about it. So one of you posted, you did not know how to contact me. My email address is 20.vicki@gmail.com. Another one asked about being summer house parents. We really need someone. Yes, you can bring your kids and no, you do not have to speak Spanish. Pedro, my director , is billingual. Your main job would be trying to keep American child raising standards into the orp. An example, next week I have to wrok with the baby staff to teach them to hold the baby when they feed them. Right now they porp all his bottles. But I bring the young ones to my house frequently and the love to be held and bonded to.
Now for the news. Did I mention last time that we heard thru the atty. for one of the big orphanages ,that has been doing close to 150 [ just a guess ] adoptions a year, that they found 5 babies in the trash cans in Xela and more abandoned at the hospital. That orphanage has decided adoptions are not going to start up any time soon. Since they depend on their money from adoptions, they are no longer taking any babies. They asked us this week to take a 2.5 year old girl who is microcephylac and developmentally like a 6 month old. Also they want us to take a 1 month old girl that is exactly the same age as my precious Noah. Anyone that knows me well knows I have always wanted boy/girl twins so that is what they would be. My husband and I went and visited the kids at the orphanage to make sure the 2.5 year would not be too much and she is adorable. We both fell in love immediately so have started the paper process of moving them to our place. It also is a money process, as I have to hire another nanny and pay for more medicals. Anyone who feels moved to help here, please do.
We moved the orphanage to a new location this week. A much better house that looks nicer and is bigger. Can take an extra 20 kids. And the rent was half the price. MY great staff pulled together and got us moved in and settled in 3 days. There is no yard, but it is right next to the big gym used to play basketball and a soccer field and basketball court. Also the only playground in Pana is a block away. I have been talking with a child psychologist from Denmark and she is going to start play therapy with the 4, 5, and 6 year old gang. We have 10 of them now. She and I are going to do a once a week therapy group for 8 of the teens. And she is going to help the orp social worker get social/psychological profiles filled out on each child. Also have lined up the music teacher at my kids school to start music classes at the orp one day a week. Also have got a local ministry that has a small movie room and a million dvds to show a free movie for the orp kids one day a week. We also think our 5 computers have arrived from Canada. We just need to pick them up and then build a room to put them in. More opportunity to help here folks.
Now for the building. Our two builders who we showed the land and the plans have dudded out. One came in with a bid way too high. Get sick of them thinking gringoes are suckers. The other is too slow. Taking over a week to get us a simple bid. But the builder we liked from back in Nov. popped into our house yesterday and said he is available. He gave us a good price back then when we thought we still needed to build the road first and we trust him and he is professional so we are showing him the new on the road location and the new plans on Tues. and hope he can get going asap. Also hope his price is still good. I would like to take a momonet and thank our many helpers. I am unable to write individual thank yous until I have a volunteer who wants to do that job. But we have an architech volunteering his time to try up very professional looking plans and many ladies sending doantions of clothes and materials as well as many some senidng donations of money. We could not do it without you.

Oh well enough philosophying. this last week was eventful. Carlos the baby in the hospital 3 weeks ago broke out with a rash over last week-end and I made the staff take him to a new doctor I want to use. She is not free, but is a pediatrician and good.. He had impetigo and still had bronchial pneumonia.The impetigo came from his stay in the hospital. My dumb staff had been dividing his bottle of amoxicillan with 3 other children with coughs. So I had to get tough [ not easy for me to do ] and give them the word that he was to be isolated with a caregiver for him only and be given his new and better antibiotic religiously. if they screwed it they were in trouble. Then I have had to check it twice a day. I made them take him back on thurs. and he is doing alot better. Monday he goes for a final check and hopefully will get an all clear sign from the doc. Then Thursday I was thrilled to get a newborn. The PGN attorny [ over the orphanages] wanted to give him to a fancy orphanage in Solola, but they would not take him as there atty. has told them not to take anymore babies to show the government that they can not just drop off kids and not compensate. I know the woman who owns and runs this hogar. She said already in Xela, they have found 5 babies in the trash and many more abandoned at the hospitals. Well I had the staff take Noah with Carlos on Thurs and have physical. He had a bad sinus infection so the doc gave him an antibiotic. I also had her run routine tests and they came back HIV pos. The woman who runs the orp in Solola said she had a 5 year old test pos for HIV and then the next day he broke out with measles. When he was over them, his test came back negative. So I have high hopes for him. Jody is not sure he wants him to stay, but I sure do, so he is here for now.
Then we spent two mornings meeting with builders on the land. gosh I love it up there. It is a real aerobic exercise hiking it. I would prefer living there.
I wrote the above on Sunday. Both Carlos and Noah went to the doc on MOn. Carlos is well; over both the impetigo and the bronchial infection. I had him and Noah at the house today for several hours as the orphanage is moving into a much better house until we finish building and it was chaos there. The docs office called my employee about 3 in the afternoon and Roy relayed the message to me. NOAH WAS HIV NEGATIVE. I yelled so loud I know half of Pana heard me. he is way too little to be burdened with so much.
As soon as we finish moving in, I am going to send my social worker to Xela to see what we can do about the abandoned babies up there.

Here are a few more pictures of the last two

days activities . The top one is the new psychologist from Denmark who is volunteering with us. She and I are going to run a childrens' sexual and physical abuse group once a week. I used to do these groups in the USA. She will also be helping us do social/psychological histories on all the kids. The kids in the picture are the children in the orphanage who are in the preschool. The pictures were taken on the roof of our current home . It is the only place we have to hang clothes and do the preschool. We do have a certified teacher who runs it.

The picture of the little girl is Ana Maria. She just had her court date to determine where she will stay. With us or back home to her parents. She told the court psychologist she wanted to stay with us as her parents beat her with pieces of stove wood. pretty big wood to beat such a lttle girl.

The little baby to the left came to live at the hogar yesterday. He is one month old and is malnourished. We sent him for a pediatric visit and he weighs 7 pounds. I kept him yesterday and he has great sucking energy so I think he will be fine. He had no name and the doc made us give him one so it is Noah Dalia. Anyone who would like to sponsor little Noah, he sure needs one. We spent $150.00 yesterday just getting the proper baby equipment for him.

The last picture is of my youngest adopted daughter who could not stand that no one was taking her picture.

Thanks to all our donors. You are a big help.

Vicki

This picture is the road the land is on. My husband, Jody, and orphanage director , Pedro are meeting with one of 3 builders to get prices for construction. The buildings will start being built on this part of the property. That is a primary school in the background

Here are some pictures of the new land. the land is on four plateaus that add up to 17 acres. This is the second plateau, not able to be seen from the road, but easily accessible. This is the one we are currently clearing for the gardens. It had corn on it last year. the black area was burnt off. I want to put the cement soccer and basketball and little kids riding area where the black stuff is eventually.

The next picture is of the upper plateau, the one on the road where the buildings will get started being built.

Here are a couple of pictures for you. The one on the left are the two youngest at the orphanage right now. Carlos and Abram.[ Although we did get a call from the courts that they are sending us a 5 month baby from the hospital in Solola. They are riding in the double stroller that the Eagle scout raised the money for. My daughter bought it in the states, second hand for $50.00 and brought it down. The picture on the right is most of our staff at the orphanage at our weekly staff meeting. The little girls mother works for us and they both live there. The little girl has cancer and has to receive chemo and the mother had not been able to find a job. She is a good worker. Anyone that wants to help her with expenses of the cancer, let me know.

I want to write about a couple of the babies at the orphanage today. This is Carlos . He is 15 months old. This was taken back in Oct. right after he came to the orphanage with his 14 year old mother. He and his mother had a court date a few weeks ago to determine where they will stay on a more or less permanent basis. It might be go back home or continue in our orphanage or go to another orphanage. We knew the mother wanted to go back home and that is what she said when the judge asked her. She must be retarded because she then told him she was getting paid 100Qs to have sex with guys and needed the money, plus she wanted to go back and drink and party with her friends. Well the judge then requested she be sent to an orphanage for prostitutes and the baby stay with us. The mother, who was holding the baby, threw the baby in the air and my social worker barely caught him before he hit the ground. We then brought him back. About that time a flu virus went through the orphanage and Henri the 4 month old baby and Carlos had to be hospitalized. If you come visit us make sure I take you to the local national hospital. I visited several times while those two were sick and it was an experience.
So they came home from the hospital. Henri and his 18 month old brother William were with us a month during which time Henri gained 2 pounds and became somewhat healthy and then the mom wanted them back. Since we had temporary guardianship we could not do anything. She moved to the city with them where there is better prostitution. I went to the states for 9 days and when I got back had company of my kids and grandkids so would just visit the orphanage and make sure everything was running right. I did not like the way Carlos was being cared for as my staff's idea of recovery was to leave him in a crib in a dark room all day away from everyone. I started bringing him to my home everyday and giving him stimulation and fresh fruit juices and yogurt [ to counteract all the antibiotics he got ] and he has made an amazing recovery. One of the hardest jobs down here to retrain my staff. My social worker/nurse got mad at me for giving him fresh air and sunshine and I had to just ignore her. Plus they want to dress the babies like they are in the middle of a -50 degree snowstorm. I will start next week having weekly staff meetings trying to correct alot of the cultural things I find unacceptable; a very hard task as this is what they have done for generations. Women who have just given birth stay in a dark crowded room in a crowded bed for 30 days after birth. Bet they have some serious post-partum depression.Carlos , or Charles, is a doll. Loves to be involved with people and loves the food we are feeding him. My whole family is working with him and he is crawling now and tried to stand yesterday. My husband taught him to say hi.
Another good story. We have paid and bought all the land; 17 acres of farmland. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had the orphanage gardner and all the older boys as well as my two older boys start clearing the fields so we can plant crops. We have several people in mind for builders and hope to get that going soon. I spent 4 hours just hiking the land all the way down to the river, really a stream during the dry season, but I am sure a raging river during the wet. I want to build our house out there so we can be close by. Fruit tress will cost us about $5.00 each and we can grow oranges, lemons, tangerines, apples, pears, avocadoes and peaches. It was a magical place and I fell in love with it.
I really appreciate the donations that were in my home in the states when I got there and which I brought back down with me. laura you sure spent alot of time and money getting the kids some great things. We can't do it without all you wanting to help. Anyone want to come and spend an extended time as an orphanage parent. we sure could use it, esp. this summer when we go home.
Vicki

This blog is for you Pud, an attorney friend who helps us work thru this a year ago.
Many of you have been to our old location at Cerro de Oro. We had two small houses and about an acre of beautiful land that had not been occupied for 15 years. We were looking for an orphanage location two years ago when the attorney owner of this property called us and said he heard we were looking for a spot to locate the orphanage. We looked at it, loved the gardens and thought we had enough space to build more buildings and put in a playground. So we did a lease purchase. $20,000.00 for a year and the rest paid at the end of the year when we would get the deed. Well thru out the year, the attorney who owned the property next door kept telling us he owned half of the grass land which would keep us from having a playground. He also had his guardian chase the kids off the property every time they went out to play. So we got a little worried. Our atty. owner kept saying " don't worry ". At the end of the year, I called our atty. owner bunches of times to come from his home in the city out to the lake and let us get the deed straight and buy the land. I had a couple of work teams coming for the summer and wanted to get some work done once we had a deed. Our atty. owner never came or even answered my calls. Finally I concluded he could not give us the property he had promised and convinced my husband we needed to look eslewhere. So we did and found our other acreage. We went home for the summer and the orphanage remained where they were.
When we returned, the atty. owner called me and wanted his money all $100,000.00. I agreed to meet him at the property the next Sat.I went thru the whole above scenario and told him we were not going to buy, but would like to pay a reasonable rent rent until we finished building. He was mad and his reasonable rent was another $20,000.00 for a year on houses that were worth about $500.00 a month total. So I told him no, we would move immediately which we did. We spent time and money replanting grass where all the little feet had trampled it and replaced some glass as well as did clean ups. And then moved on with all the other orphanage crisis.
Well Tues. we , my husband and I, were served with papers to pay about $20,000.00 to this atty. owner. We had 3 days to answer. He also requested our bank accts., the ones that feed the orphanage kids, be frozen and that my husband and I not be allowed to leave the country until it is settled. He also said the orphanage was not properly registered. Man did I freak out. We straigtened the last one out first. The orphanage atty. assured us she had the paperwork to show we were properly registered. Then yesterday we talked to a Pana atty we use to draw up temporary guardianship papers and realized real quick he was out of his league. So I called the American Embassy for a big city atty. and got an answer machine that told me to read their website and leave a message. I did and they have yet to call me back. Then I called a friend who has lived here for 30 years and bought and sold many pieces of land and he gave us the name of a great atty. who also speaks English and is honest and ethical. We drove 3 hours over very bumpy road construction and met with him at 3. His first words after reading the papers were. Man this guy is a real prick. He thought we had a great case, said the judge had already refused to demand we stay in the country and he thought he could keep that from happening. He found 22 ways to overthrow the lawsuit and two criminal charges against this atty. owner. The atty. owner was petitoning the courts to have us evicted and we have not been there since Oct., plus the man was trying to sale us land he did not own. Sure hope it all works out. Hi going to draw up the counter papers on Sat. and deliver them to us on Sun. and then we will take the and file them on Mon.
After that we drove back over the same road work except this time they had dynamited the road and it would not be open until 10pm. Luckily i got out of the car to ask a guatemalan man what was happening and he rode with us and showed us a short cut over very hilly, bumpy dusty roads that got us home by 7.
Our daughter, sil and grandbaby have been visiting and leave today so gotta go. We are suppsed to get a 16 year pregnant with her dads baby and a one month who mom is nuts.

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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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.

Here is a pic of Jody and I when we were in the states for the first grandson's birth.

We are officially back in Guatemala. While we were gone the orphanage had to move again as the original place we rented in Panajachel ran out of water. The courts started harassing us about no water; as if we were not smart enough to know we needed water for 35 kids. We also had to let an employee go who was not following employee rules and he called in lies about us to the courts. So basically poor Pedro and Olympia and the rest of the staff dealt with one inspection after another. Finally they seem to be over. When I went to visit the first day everything looked good and clean, new house and kids. I brought down impressive presents for the kids for all you wonderful folks who sent things to my house in VA. The kids sure did love them.
Then the land we are buying had problems. The 10 acres is fine; bought and paid for. The next 6 acres that is on the road was supposed to be paid for one third now and two thirds in a year. This was so we could start building and have enough money to build. Well everything was signed at the attys. office and then one of the brothers we bought from went nuts and went to his sisters house with a shotgun and told her he did not like the deal she worked out. Today Jody and I went up to the land to see it and talk with the sister. I gave Bethany, my college daughter who was watching the kids, instructions for what to do with the kids if her dad and I did not make it back. Just partly kidding. As you can tell we made it back. We are just going to pay the other two thirds in the next week and be done with the fighting and have the road front land set to work on. We decided to start our buildings there as it will be cheaper and wait to build the road to the bottom land when our Canadian donors who want to build the road come down. Hopefully the money will flow in as fast as it flows out. The bottom land will be great for farm crops and I made contact with a man in the states who will buy all the sun-dried tomatoes we can raise. But that will happen another day.
I was sick the first week we were here and did nothing except get my children started back in school and visit the orphanage. I have been wanting to start some other programs here as there is so much need. Mon. 18 wonderful people from the states came to Panajachel and brought things for the orphanage. While they were visiting, the Mayan representative came to the hogar with the mother of four of our children there. The mother also brought her 1 month old baby. Her four older childlren had been taken from her because she and the father are alcoholics and left the children totally neglected. None of them went to school and the oldest boy was used to beg from people. For some reason, these children were sent back to the parents. They were crying. They were pulled out of school to go with them and looked so neat and clean. Next week I am going to visit them with our social worker. I want to start a program where we help the children in the family home as many of them never leave there. I need funds to set aside for food and meds to take to these families and to give out to families in the community. We can use the the local Mormon church to give it out and I am assured we will have plenty of people. I want to focus on the children and pregnant women as infant and maternal mortality is so high. I over heard another story while eating out the next day. It was about a baby who had not nursed in several days and a gringo man gave the mom money to take the baby to the doctor. The dad took the money, bought alcohol and told the mom to wait a few days to take the baby. The baby died. This kind of thing happens all the time as dads seriously dominate moms here and kids are not on the important list. I want to be able to hand out formula and pediolyte and pay doctors for children who need it. I need funds for this. The next day I was having lunch out [ no I do not eat out everyday just these two ] while my 20 year old daughter was having some dental work done. When I and the two little ones with me finished, there was some food left. An old lady [ probably my age, but she looked alot older ] came up to try and sell me some trinket I did not want. It dawned on me she was lusting after my left over food so I asked her if she wanted it. You would have thought it was Christmas. I got a bag for her and she bagged it and took it. Obviously the old people can use some help too. Again I need funds to try and get more food out to these desperately poor people. So these are my new programs. At the present they are just running around in my head mostly from lack of funds, but if you feel so inspired.......
We hope to actually start buildings for the orphanage in about two weeks. Finalize the land and a builder, make sure the water spigots work on what we bought and run an electrical line and go forward. We have wonderful support from a variety of people. Another tour group with donations the first of the month. A man with Rotary money checking us out to help build a tutorial room for our orp kids and community kids, a man bringing dentists the end of Feb. We love the volunteer teams who come with donations and emotional and physical help. The team last Monday was great and Ryan Williams who lead them to us and repeatedly brings us help is always welcome. Ryan brought a $100.00 raised by a young man doing his eagle scout project. We are using the money to buy a new stove. Our old one only has two burners that work. I am also buying a stroller for my two youngest at the hogar so they can go to the playground with the other kids. Also some riding toys for the little ones. Our youngest is carlos david. He has captured my heart. He is 14 months and has a 14 year old mom at the hogar with him. He was very malnourished when he came, but now looks healthy and contemplative. I took him with me yesterday and bought him a cookie and got the sweetest smiles out of him.
Well will write regularly again.
I have two new grandsons, one born in Oct. and one born in Dec. I got to spend wonderful time with them both as well as the beautiful little granddaughters. I have another grandson due in Feb. and another in Mar. Four grandsons in 6 months. To add to my 6 granddaughters. And a new adopted granddaughter in Sept. I am certainly blessed.
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Well there is news to tell. First my life has been busy since returning to the states on the 20th of Nov. Of course there was Thanksgiving and all my kids were here except the two oldest and their families. My oldest son has a baby due any day and my oldest daughter and my sil and two granddaughters had a wedding to go to in CA. So there were 16 kids , some spouses and five grandchildren. My youngest grandbaby lives here with his parents. We made them a small apt. on the third floor so that someone would be in our house while we are in Guate. He was 6 weeks when I saw him first. We drove in our driveway at 2 am and his mama said he woke up just before we pulled in. I told her he wanted to officially meet his grandma. So it was another hour before we got to bed. He is so sweet and sitting and rocking him is my greatest pleasure right now. I loved seeing the other grandkids also. They are two nine month olds, one 16 month old, and one 3 year old. It was so special having them here for 4 days. All us ladies attended the baby shower of my grandbaby due in Jan.
Did I tell you what a treat it is to drive the roads of the US at night and not worry about banditoes. Or to not have to chlorox everything you eat. Or to not worry everyday about whether I am going to get lice or scabies from a new child at the orphanage. Or to not have to go to church and be responsible for how 40 more kids look and act.
I love the work we do in Guatemala with the kids, but it is so hard. The last week we were there, my beautiful 17 year old daughter was seen by the Diario, a hugh Guatemalan newspaper with a readership in the millions. They asked where to find her and tracked her down. Then wanted her to be on a two page spread in the paper and promised modeling jobs from the spread. Of course all the pictures would be in bikinis. I saw it as nothing but trouble and luckily after talking with my daughter she saw it the same way. I was so proud of her that she told them no. She loves living in Panajachel and I like many things about it, but you have to be so diligent raising children there. I guess you have to be in the states also.
Well for Guatemalan news. The orphanage land is bought. We now own 10 acres ready to be bulldozed and built on. ONly problem is the bulldozing is much more than we thought. A good fast guy wants $10,000.00 to do the work which includes a 1200 foot road, leveling for the buildings and a soccer field. He will have the work done in a week. Then the family we bought the land from offered us a great deal on a piece of the road frontage land. We have gotten them to agree to $8000.00 now and the rest in a year. They will even give us the title now, but that is another $8000.00 we need right now. The builder is ready to go and has promised to be done in 4 months with all the buildings. He wants to buy the materials now as they will go up after Jan. We are afraid to do it until the road is done. We need to move into our permanet home really bad as the children are having to move again. The hotel we were in can not handle our water needs so we are moving this week to another location with tons of water. This moving is very unsettling and we need a permanent location.
The government drives us nuts, constantly coming in and complaining about everything. They want us to have a 3 to 1 child, nanny ratio. And other things of a similar nature. Then after a week of complaining, they send us a pregnant 12 year old, a 5 year old and another 14 year old. This week we are supposed to get a sibling group of seven children.
So please, please help in anyway you can. We can use a volunteer staff here in the states organizing volunteers and donations and putting out emails everywhere. Always we can use donations. If you send them to my home in the states in the next month, I can haul them to Guatemala when I go back. Write me an email at 20.vicki@gmail.com for my address.
And the most precious commodity is money as it is keeping us from growing. Unless we get the money for the cost over runs on the bull dozer work and the extra land, we will have to reduce our buildings from 3 to 2.
I also want to start a feeding program as more and more mothers and children are coming to us for food. Very malnourished children who need the food. I want to start a crisis pregnancy program to help street mothers and teen mothers as there is nothing to help them. No social services here in Guate folks, only you and what you can do.
Thanks so much for all you have already done. Please keep it up. You help keep our spirits up.
Vicki and Jody

Here is our computer, Tony. He has been a great help.

Here are two of the great girls from Pan En La Boca who have helped us so much. The one on the right is me.

And here is the beautiful Lake Atitlan that we are located at. Makes you want to visit, huh

Great news.
I have a computer guy here and we are going to start having pictures on the blog entries.
Vicki

After having started back in May looking for land and a permanent place for the orphanage, we finally signed the papers and paid the money for 10 acres of basically flat [ flat for Lake Atitlan is definitely relative] land. It was kind of sad as we bought from two old sisters whose family had had the land for generations. When their dad died , it was divided among the 8 sibs. We will eventually be offered more of the sibs land I am sure. They did not have bank accounts and cashed the checks and took the money home in cash. Quetzals; it takes 7.62 to make a dollar. I do not know where they will hide it.
Anyway it is a done deal and we start road work on Mon.
We leave to go home on the 20th and have a ton to do before hand. We have the builder we want and are looking at a couple of gringoes who live here to supervise the job and report to us. We found out Thurs. our 10th grandbaby will be a boy. That means 3 boy grandbabies all witin 6 months. I can not wait to get home and hold the one that is already born.
Vicki

Today was a really hard day.Alot of bureaucratic stuff that made no sense and caused much emotional upheaval for a while. Enough so my husband and I were both ready to go home to the states and get ready to retire. [ with 10 kids still at home ]We were seriously wondering why do we do this.
Then I went to the orphanage to meet a new long term volunteer and do some training with a new employee. While there all the preschoolers came running up and gave me hugs. Abram,who just turned two, came to us a year ago so sick he almost had to be hospitalized. The back of his head was completely flat and he could not sit at all. But the worst thing was how he cried every time someone looked at him. Well we have all worked with him developing muscle tone, giving healthy foods and giving love and encouragement. Today he gave me a shy smile so I took his hands and practiced walking with him holding on to me. Then I let him go and held out my hands for him to take his first steps. He took three and gave me the biggest, sweetest grin I think I have ever seen. To think he now trusts me after all the neglect and abuse he had as an infant. It just kind of made up for all the bad stuff.
Vicki

Sorry I have not written. Life just seems to always be busy. And the orphanage work has been so routine it was boring. The land we are buying has been twists and turns trying to get enough paperwork to protect our purchase from a family of Mayans who have no paperwork. So we have a good attorney and she is gradually getting it done. The land had to be resurveyed and we spent alot of time working with the surveyors making sure that was done right. It was nice time as it is beautiful up there with fantastic valley views. Jody had to spend all of Friday up there working to get the 1200 foot road bushwhacked so that the surveyors could mark the lines. He got bit again by 40 or 50 ants. The man does not know how to look down. Eight of the oldest boys went with the guardian from the orphanage and put in some good work time working with machetes and starting to take possession of the first land they will own.
The kids are through school until Jan. All of them but one passed and most of their marks were in the 90s. Most of these kids would not have gone to school if they were not living at the orphanage as school requires a stable life and the funds to pay for books and enrollment.
We have had some great help recently. Pan en la boca is raising significant amounts of money for us. Isamundo foundation has offered to pay for the road. Ryan Williams, with Bountiful Tours, brought a group down a month or so ago with great donations. And two days ago Russ and Susie Trepanier and other family members left the burning fires of San Diego to come to Lake Atitlan and bring us some much needed donations.
We moved the orphanage into an old hotel in Panajachel. All in all, it has worked out okay. We are still going through the adjustment period with staff and the kids and getting new routines down. Everytime we go back to the States or down here we have a 2 week adjustment period--getting settled in and getting new routines going.
We have a 7 year old boy coming new week. His parents are dead and his grandmother, who is raising him, can't afford the cost.

The kids at the orphanage moved this week. They have all the beds up and the kitchen functioning. And most of the clothes organized. It has rained solid since the day they moved so it has been very hard getting clothes dried. And what do you do with 35 kids on rainy days when you do not have an inside play area. The baby who came with the 14 year old mama is very cute. 13 months old and a boy. The girl mama is nottaking great care of him so we are woorking on getting him a seperate legal status than her so that we can give him the care he needs. I had to take him to the doctor this week for a skin infection. He has taken to me tho and did not want anyone esle to hold him. I have taken to him too. His name is Carlos David. I am working on getting the baby room set up at the new location.

For those who have been following this blog for awhile and remember the murder across the lake last June..... An update. About 3 weeks ago there was a double murder about a mile from the orphanage in Cerro de Oro. We have yet to get many details but it was 2 blocks from one of our employees house. The killers were wearing the same military fatigues and black ski masks. AND there was another murder on our old road where we personally lived at Chelchic Abah about this same time. Pedro talked with another gardner on the same road who is very scared. Again, the same custom. This gardner wants to quit but doesn't have any other options for a job. Vicki was certainly right when she predicted we were leaving a battlefront. Between the banditoes and the vigilantes. We feel very safe over here in Panajachel tho.

Our attorney is working on paperwork for land purchase. Buying property is more complicated here than the states because there is no registry of deeds in every county. Most land is not registered but our realtor believes that this might be which would be excellent.
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Just wanted to do a quick catch up.. My grandson is born. He is so cute. Big chubby cheeks. It breaks my heart not to see him for 44 more days. But he lives in my house so when I get home I can hold him for a long time. Also had another son have a birthday. He is 26. And another son will be 22 in two days. Then a granddaughter will be 3 in 3 more.
Life is busy down here with the little ones. I gave food and clothing and meds to a woman who comes to my house and has a sick 6 month old. I am not sure she has a place to live. She has two other children also. I am investigating where she lives. She is good at begging tho. I want to do an outreach program to these children who live on the streets.
Also , now that adoptions have virtually stopped in Guatemala, I am told by one woman who receives babies, that she will be turning over 3 or 4 of them to us at the end of the month as she can not find families to adopt or pay for their support. I have a special room for the babies at the new place we are moving and need to stock it with infants things. All these babies are under 3 mont This. Another woman has spoken to me about the same thing with her babies. They will first see if the birthmothers want them [ which they do not think they will be able to take them ] and then send them to us.
So start collecting formula and diapers and other baby things. This is not to mention the extra nannies we will need to hire.
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Sat. I met the man who has been renting us the place where the orphanage is currently located. To make a long story short, he was mad we are not buying it and said we either had to pay him $17,000.00 to rent for the next 6 months or get out asap. Well I can build bedrooms for 32 kids for $15,000.00 so I am not paying him $17,000.00. So we offered a $500.00 reward to several people in Pana we knew needed money to find us a place that would rent to 35 kids starting in a week. And one of them found us a place. An older non fancy hotel that is letting us have 5 rooms big enough to sleep 6 kids each and a bungalow house with 3 more bedrooms and a kitchen and big dining area. Plus a really nice sunny room for the babies. They pay the electric and will have their maid wash the sheets once a week. It is not perfect, but doable. All for $1000.00 a month.
Adoptions have shut down in Guatemala. No more referrals to families are being made and no one knows when or if things will start up again. UNICEF is very against adoptions and has offered $28,000,000.00 for them to stop. So we are preparing to receive infants. Anyway, we are moving all the kids on Tues. to Pana. We close on the land the first of next week and hope to start the road the following week. As soon as we can get building supplies in we will start the buildings.
Life has been busy. My down syndrome son was 10 today and my first grandson will be born on Fri. the birthday of my 25 year old son.

We spent yesterday morning walking the land we think would work for the orphanage. It is a bunch of siblings who own it and two want to sell their portions. The others are giving us free right aways thru their land for the road. ONe other sib has already come forth and wants to sell their 3 acres, so over time I think we can expand the acreage if we so desire. Right now 9.5 acres is fine. Enough to build for 200 to 300 kids, put up an on premises school and grow all our own food as well as a cash crop. There is also a beautiful spot that overlooks the valley for casitas that we can rent out to tourists or volunteers. The location is great. No lake views [ the reason it is so cheap ], but great farm vally views and within 20 minutes of Panajachel. There is an elementary school within walking distance and a basico [ middle school] within a 5 minute pickup ride. The man with us who does the road work and has the bulldozer estimated 100 hours of work at Q350s per hour [ $47.00 an hour for you gringoes ]. The road will be about a 1/4 mile long. This does not include any gravel. We have a building team on call that built a camp for a group of evangelists. They are Mayan and work a crew of 70 and can build us 3 buildings in 3 months. We know they can do it as we saw them do the camp. Two buildings would be bedrooms and baths for a total of 64 kids. The third , the same size, would house the kitchen. dining, living area. He quoted us all this including materials and labor for $45,000.00. Eventually the third building would be dormitory for kids and we want to build a hugh building that has a big kitchen and hugh room that can be dinig or auditorium or gym. But that building will cost $50,000.00.
Anyway, think on how you can help. We can use work crews and always money, plus your donations keep us going. Thursday, Pedro bought 10 new mattresses for the bunkbeds that needed new mattresses as well as more kitchen pots and pans and picked up maseca [ for the tortillas ] and rice and beans and dried milk from our friends Orphan Resources. We had to spend a $100.00 on a new ultraviolet light for the water filter. Plus forks and spoons. Anyone coming from the US. please Walmart has forks and spoons for 12 for a $1.00. I know because that is what I buy for my home in the states. Kids are terrible to take the silverware outside to dig with. Buy us some of the cheap Walmart stuff.
Now to end. My husband stepped in a bed of fireants yesterday walking the land. He was bit about 40 times and went into aphylactic shock and almost passed out. The realtor drug him up to the car and we got him home and zyrtec into him. He thought he was going to die and knew I would be upset with having to handle everything. NO KIDDING. But he is fine now and I was sure glad to see him beside me in bed last night. I just kept touching him to make sure he was still breathing.
We are going to need to move asap as the man we are renting from now is mad we are not going to buy where we are at and has threatened to kick us out. I am begging him to let us stay and pay rent for 3 to 6 months while we build. Pray he cooperates.
Oh yeah I went to my first Rotary club meeting last week. They are starting a club in Pana and were excited to see how great our need was here. Pan en la boca has gotten us some great sponsorships and Andree and Paul are thinking of raising the money for the road. We still need sposorships for kids and building money so feel free to help there. Attached are the pics and bios of 30 of the kids. I will list the 7 other new ones next blog.

Gosh we have been busy here. First we had two great ladies with Pan-en-la-boca come to Pana and check us out. We loved them and they must have liked us some as they turned over use of their 1999 Monterro Super Sport to the orphanage. And they have gone home and started raising building money and child sponsorships for us. Then my precious daughter, grand daughter and son in law came down and we did alot of legal work which needed Sarah's signatures. Then we had a great family group half of which are from Canada and the other half from Utah. They were all ages and brought some wonderful doantions and gave us a half a day of work time. In the middle of all this I had a major flu and bronchitis and was in bed and on antibiotics. Panajachel also had a tradegy as a young [ 15 years old ] German boy who has spent his whole life here was killed in a car accident. His brother was injured in the accident as well as a girl who was driving. The family is well know in town and the boys death has affected alot of people including my family.
We think tho we have found our land. It is 10 acres of rolling /flat farmland in a beutiful valley. The price is great; we just need to put in about 1200 feet of road. A man is meeting with my husband on Sat. to discuss the challenges and costs of this.We are excited tho and have started looking for builders and thinking of practical, economical building plans.
We got two new children at the hogar, a 17 year old boy and a 13 year old girl.
We are getting more and more support from many different areas and we sure do appreciate it.
I have a new grandbaby due anyday according to my daughter's doctor, our first grandson.

We visited the orphanage for the first time since we have been back on Fri. and took the donations that many of you sent while we were in the states. The kids were all glad to see us and I was surprised at how many more little ones we have. I think it is because adoptions are significantly slowing down in Guate and the competition for these toddlers is also slowing down. So instead of being potential children that the adoption system can make money off of, they are just kids who need a home. They are cute. Everything seemed to be running well. I was pleasantly surprised at how well organized the storehouse was with the supplies and donations. Thank you ladies who put time and energy in there. It certainly showed. I told the kids I would be back on Weds. and we would have a party with a present for each of them. I will then give out some of the donations. We have two great US ladies here representing the foundation Pan En La Boca. I met with them on Sat. and loved talking to two gringas my age about things like grandkids and retirement and priorities and need in Guatemala. They visited the kids on Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow we will meet and brainsotrm about the hogar. They were impressed with the loving relationship the kids have with the staff and the general happy attitude of the kids. My husband and I had the same first impression being back and that was we needed to move into better situated facilities, where we can be better set up to meet the needs of the children both physically and educationally. Ryan Williams brought down a great group of people and a bunch of bookbags filled with all kinds of goodies for the children.
We really get a ton of help with material donations. thank oyu so much everyone. Now if we could just get full sponsorshps on each child and some building fund money, we would be set.
Vicki Dalia
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

We arrived at Lake Atitlan safe and mostly sound. The last 29 minutes of the plane ride were a little hairy. Mostly because it is the rainy season and it was pouring. Our house was not ready for us as the last inhabitants were still in it. They are building a new one and the plumbing was not working, so we lived in a hotel for 4 days. Actually it was a nice break as we could go to our new house and unpack buckets that were stored there, but then come back to a nice orderly place to sleep.
We are in now and really like it. The last resident, an American, said he had lived here for 4 years and never had any safety issues. I loved hearing that. The kids love it as all their friends are in Pana and we now have between 10 and 15 kids here alot of the time. But they have all helped us unpack and move in. School starts today for all our children unless Hurricane Felix hits here as it is predicted to do. Last nights forecast showed that Lake Atitlan was in the direct path of the hurricane. The school my kids go to has agreed to take my down syndrome son which I am thrilled about.
We are supposed to go to the orphanage today, unless the hurricane hits. Pedro, our new director, has done a marvelous job. Several people are looking for land for the orphanage on this side of the lake. We will go look at one 7 acre piece next Monday. We need sponsors for the kids so we can start building. Several people on this group are doing talks to groups and one is doing an auction in Oct. Everything helps.
Well gotta go. It was two years ago that Hurricane Stan hit and destroyed many many homes and lives because of mudslides. The river in Pana flooded and destroyed many homes, so we are anxious about what Felix will do.
I noticed something yesterday as I shopped the market and the tiendas loading up on food and supplies. There were a few Americans doing the same thing, but no one esle. I asked an American friend why and he said it is always like that; they never shop until they run out and then the stores are empty. Wonder why? Maybe they just do not have the resources to plan ahead?
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Well things are packed and ready to go. Thank everyone for the donations. We have many challenges facing us when we return such as finding a new location asap. It is hard to leave our land and family here. My daughter who lives in our house with her husband is expecting her first baby of Oct. 8 and I would love to be here. But I have to get the other kids started back in school and find the new hogar location so I will officially meet my new grandson on Nov. 20th when we return home for the holidays. Leaving family is the hardest part of this work for me. I have missed the kids at the hogar and my two dogs, a beautiful lab and a beautiful German shepherd. The lab almost died while we were gone, but Pedro , my great hogar director pulled him thru with the help of a vet. We have about 15 new kids at the hogar that I have not met yet so that will be fun. I am also looking forward to picking up our new little baby girl that is paritally blind and deaf. When I was a teenager I used to spend my week-ends working at a home for retarded children and I think they can be really special spirits. Altho I have an adopted downs son and he is just a normal bratty kid.
Evelyn and her sister with Pan en la boca are coming down the first week in Sept. to see how they can help us. The middle of Sept., my daughter and 6 onth old grandbaby will be in guate to sign some legal papers that only she can sign. Then the end of Sept. Mandala adoption services will pay us a visit.
Vicki
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Bofore I start with the news, everyone check for the attachments. We are sending you pics and short bios of 30 of the children who need sponsors as well as our sponsorship/donation form. Ask everyone you can thing of to help us get these children sponsors.
Our time in the states is almost up. We fly to Guate on the 1st of Sept. [ again I would like people to know that none of our personal expenses are taken out of orphanage money; they are all paid for by our personal money. Anything you donate to the orphanage goes directly, 100%, to it and the kids.] I am a little nervous as the elections are on the 9th of Sept. and there has been alot of political violence. But old timers have assured me that Panajachel, where we will be living is safe and we will only be in the city for an hour. Some of you have sent donations and I want to first thank you and second tell you they are packed and ready to go in one of the 24 rubber made tubs we will be taking down with us. My family has a big job when we return turning our house into a home. If you remember we were chased out of our last house a week before we left in June. We found a great new one in Pana a few days before our flight out in June, but our belongings were just tossed in there and I only saw the place for a total of 20 minutes. When we return we have the job of turning it into a home for us and our 10 kids. It needs a new frig and some beds and some drapes I know, but it is a great place in a SAFE location. My kids start school soon after our arrival.
We have received several new children at the hogar. A sib set of 4 and then single kids varying in age from 11 to 15. I accepted a 1 year old this week with microcephalia [ not sure of the spelling ]. Anyway her brain is small. She is partially blind and deaf, but supposed to be a sweetheart. I will pick her up when I get back down there. She is currently at an orphanage that only does adoptions. Pedro, our new hogar director , has done a super job while we were gone. His big project now is looking for more beds as we are full up. Again thanks to Harvey and Rod Martin with Orphan Resources as Harvey is looking for us.
Our land that I want so badly so that we can become self sufficient and not have to worry so much about fund raising may be bought by someone else this week-end. The realtor called me and said the owner had told him this. Maybe it is true, maybe not. We have borrowed the $100,000 for the land, but do not want to spend it until we have enough for at least two of the major buildings [ which is about $50,000.00 ].
We are slowly getting child sponsorships, but need to get more people on board with the fund raising. We have one group doing an auction in Oct. and have a great musical group ready to do a concert in early Dec. If any of you can do any kind of fundraiser or write any kind of grant for us, please email me at 20.vicki@gmail.com
Thanks again for all the volunteer help we received this summer while I was gone and all the donations people have collected and sent. They are great. We have a great kids store in Apex, NC giving us some wonderful clothing donations.
Volunteer Missionary Movement is supplying us with a Registered Nurse starting in Dec. Alicia is making a two year commitment to us and we are very excited.
As soon as we get back to Guate and I can find my internet hook ups [ my new house has high speed dsl so no more internet cafes, I hope ] I will be writing the blogs on Mon., Weds., and Fri. I am also going to start adding pics to them as it will give you a much better idea of what is happening. In the meantime go to this new website www.isamundo.org. We are one of their projects and if you click on Casa de Sion, you can see some pics of the kids.
Thanks for your love of these children
Vicki

Well our time in the states is quickly coming to an end. I have been to the foot doctor as I had a severe broken foot in Guate two years ago and needed the steel plates and screws checked and to the eye docter as I needed my glasses updated. I have two more appointments with the dentist and my regular doctor.
I have had a wonderful week at music camp with some of my family and friends.
Last week we had our family summer reunion; we had one at Christmas. All 18 of our children came, all the married kids spouses and nine grandbabies [ three were in utero ]. In other words, everyone came. It was awesome. We did a baby shower for the baby boy due in Oct., a baptism for our 8 year old and birthday parties for two daughters. We went on hikes, had picnics and ate all our favorite foods. On Sunday, we added my sisters' family and my dad to our already large numbers. My three oldest granddaughters[ 4, 3 and 2 ] have been here with me this week and that has been great. Tomorrow, my husband and I take grandkids home and take some time for ourselves. We are spending tomorrow night at an inn that has been in existance since the 1700s. We spent the first night of our honeymoon there 30 some years ago. Then we will go visit the kids who have bought new homes that we have not seen. That way when I talk to them in Guate, I can visualize where they are. My hardest part about being in Guate is missing my family, especially the grandbaby's births. I think newborn come out so wise and with such spiritual vibrations. I love to hold them and soak it up.
The orphanage is now empty of volunteers for a short while. Ryan W., one of our great friends, is taking a gang down the end of Aug. and Bob, a regular visitor is coming again. We received 4 new children yesterday. A sib group ages 15, 13, 8, and 5. They came from one of the three new courts who have checked us out in the last month. I expect to be full to capacity shortly. Please help us increase the amaount of capacity to 100. Attached is a sheet listing cost breakdowns and the current kids [ minus the last four ] and their ages and sizes. If you can do a full or partial sponsorship [ it costs us $175.00 a month to pay everything for one child ] of a child please do. Or contribute to our building fund. Or do a fundraiser or collect much appreciated donations. Or come and volunteer. We love you for any and all you do.
Vicki Dalia
Director of http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

We've been on vacation as you can tell by the last entry. Vicki was at music camp for a week and we have been visiting with the family.
But the orphanage has been VERY busy. Three local judges have been by in the last 10 days to inspect the orphanage. They were thrilled and we have five new children with promises of more. They are grateful to have a hogar nearby to send children. We are the only one at the lake taking our kind of kids. We got an 11 that had to spend 2 weeks in the hospital first as he had been beaten so bad. Also three little sisters living on the street ages 2, 4, and 6 and one little 3 year old whose mom would leave him and his brother and sister for several days at a time. We will receive the sibs soon.
We have two volunteer teams at the orphanage currently. A group of 6 young college girls who have cleaned and cuddled and played and bought shoes for all the kids. The best thing they did for me was organize the bodega [ our house that we store the donations in ]. They were there for 3 weeks and leave this week-end. Yesterday a group of high school kids and chaperones arrived. They will clean, cuddle and play also. Next week they will conduct a camp for the kids. They will cook an American lunch for them each day and do camp activities withm all afternoon. We love our volunteers at they do things with the children that the staff does not have time to do.

Soon we will add a fund-raising page on the website [http://www,safehomesforchildren.org ]
The challenge is to find a permanent location that will allow us to grow. Vicki is talking to local Rotary Clubs and whoever will listen that might want to help with fund raising. Another non-profit has volunteered to help raise money via sponsors for each child. That would be a great help; it would allow some of the other money to be channeled into the purchase of land and buildings.
We will put photos of the children up on this blogger so everyone can meet them. As you will see they are surprisingly like every other kid you know including your own. They love the idea that they have a personal sponsor that is paying for them individually. They love getting "IN" clothes and shoes. "IN" clothes for them is anything that does not have big holes or stains in it. They don't like being considered orphans; they love the idea of belonging. While most have had a rough start in life, they are making rapid strides toward success. At last report all were passing at school and some were excelling.
We have a new administrative asst. Rosa Bevins who will intro herself to you soon.
Anyone wanting to send donations can email me at 20.vicki@gmail.com. If they get here by the end of Aug., we can take them to Guate when we leave the end of the month.
Thanks so much for your help
Vicki Dalia
http://www.safehomesforchildren.org

Thanks for your

We are home in the states from Guate. A long travel day. 3 hours drive from the lake to the airport, then the flight home and then 3 hours from the airport to our home.
We finally had a birthday party for my 17 year old. She had missed it as it happened the day we had to flee our home. Today was the 3rd birthday party for one of my granddaughters. It was nice to be here for it. I will miss the one for my one year old grandaughter on Monday, but hope to see her soon. The states feel so safe. I can leave my doors open when I shop in our little town and my pocketbook in the cart at Wal Mart while I walk a few feet away.

While walking the streets of Panajachel we met an American that has lived down there for over 30 years--20 of those years in Santiago. He moved out 10 years ago because it was difficult. He reiterated that it was a violent area; murders were common. When we mentioned some of the problems the orphanage was experiencing from some powerful ladinos, he said there was an ingrained prejudice against the Mayans. Those in positions of power did not want to help them and made it difficult on those that did because it upset the social stata. The Mayans were at the bottom working for next to nothing ($10/day is great). Many work as guardians and gardeners for $100/month. You can imagine the upheavel if they were to be paid a normal wage. While no one readily admits it, it seems to be a fact of life--not unlike our own problems in the United States.

I hope this comes out in English as it is in Chinese on my screen. Well we have officially relocated to Panajachel, a much more tranquil town on the Lake. I found a great house for us yesterday while my husband and kids were moving us out of the unsafe one. The kids love being here as this is where they go to school so all their friends are here.
We also looked at the land that we want to buy for the orphanage in great detail Tuesday. It still looks like the best deal esp. after we have investigated a couple of more pieces. We have also ascertained that it is unsafe to leave the orphanage in its currant location in Cerro because of the high murder rate. We met with the head men of the Aldea, or small pueble, where the land is located. We have to have a right away thru some of their land for the road and electric. It was a very interestiing meeting as their goals for their families and their lives are the same as ours. They were excited about us locating there. Hope they do not want a lot of money for the right of ways.

well so much for us being okay staying in our house. We received a note yesterday on our windshield of our car telling us in spanish to leave our house and not come back. They did not want to hurt us. So I left with the kids. My husband. oldest son and security guard stayed with our belongings. We are packing up our belongings today and storing what we do not bring back to the states. We will lool for a house on the Pana side of the lake where we are relocating the orphanage. It is alot safer over there.Apparently my security guard seeing the murder has upset some people. Plus we are the only full time residents on the road and our going up and down the road all day interferes with someones plans. We will live at motels until we travel home.
Today is my 17 year olds birthday.

After the murder on Monday, we had a sizable earthquake on Wednesday. We've heard stories of a 6.8 but local stations are calling it a 5.4. I'm more inclined to believe the latter. There was no damage that we could see, but everything was shaking for a little bit. It's a eerie feeling.
In 1976 there was a 9.2 quake that destroyed much of Guatemala. Since then construction has changed and should be much more secure.
Our realtor is back and he is currently on the ground and running to check out the property we are interested in for the orphanage. He will be talking to nearby property owners to make sure everyone agrees where the boundaries are and how much they would want for easements because we need to get electrical power in. We also need a better access than is current. There are no property deeds and registry as is the case in the US so these steps are important.
We got another boy from a nearby pueblo. He's 15 years old. He was living with his Grandfather who could not feed or educate him. Seems to have a sweet personality.
I stopped by the hogar on Wednesday after being in Antigua. Josue, the new almost 3 yr old, was walking around in a snow suit and boots, enjoying the 75 degree weather. When I asked why he was dressed so, the staff said that he had been a little cold.

The good things first
We received three new children: a 19 year old living on the streets with her 7 month old son and a 15 year old boy living with his grandfather who can not feed him. Both teens are good kids. Just have dead moms and non existent dads.
The bad thing now. On Monday I sent my sons Seth and Tony up our road with an orphanage employee to go to the preschool at the orphanage. Then I drove up the mile long road to make sure they had a ride and drove home for a meeting with Pedro who is now director of the orphanage. He then walked up the road to catch a pick up ride over to the orphanage. On the way up he spoke a few words to the guardian for the house next to our house and then passed him. Pedro was about 450 feet pass him when he heard gun shots and turned and saw the man fall to the ground. He also saw 3 men in military uniforms and ski masks. They shot in his direction so Pedro ran and jumped on a pick up that was passing. He called me at home and told me to barrciade all the doors and lock Jody and I and Gabby in our bedroom until he got there with the police. He got there 3 hours later; some experience. The man who was killed was targeted by the soocial cleansing group that works the area. They are cleansing the area of robbers, drug dealers and kidnappers. Everyone has assured us we are in no danger. We still spent the night in panajachel, but came home yesterday and I actually slpet last night. Pedro slept at the housse with us and with his gun. Boy my life is some adventure.

We've had a couple of new children come into the orphanage. One was a 10 yr old girl from around the lake. She had been living on the streets for years and she was a handful. The first thing she did was run away. Nico was bitten trying to restrain her. She eventually jumped in the lake to escape and Nico had to fish her out. She had a feral look, like she'd raised herself. One of the things she taught our littlest ones, going to pre-school at the hogar, was how to pick and choose the best worms to eat.
The 2 yr old sibling of one of our current children was also placed. The mother was so grateful. Over and over she thanked Vicki because her life was miserable and impossible for raising a small child. She had lost her factory job.
We are supposed to get a 19 yr old with her 6 month old baby on Monday. She's living on the streets and finally admitted that she can't make it on her own.
A sibling group from a local pueblo is supposed to arrive on Sunday. The mother cannot feed them. I'm also sure they are not going to school or doing anything else that they would need to have a chance here.

We are currently trying to develop a share program to help raise the money to match the grant we've been offered. We are thinking of $20 a month till it's paid off. We will have more details later but contact me if you're interested.

Vicki Dalia
20.vicki@gmail.com

A quick blog
First we had a great day at the hogar on Weds. We had a circus troupe from Los Angeles come and entertain the kids. It was a blast. They brought costumes and face paint and dressed all the kids up.
Second we have a donor who has offered to match any donation we get for the purchase of the land and the cost of the buildings up to $100,000.00. So far we have had a $5000.00 donation. So we have $10,000.00 raised. Here is a cost break down
Land $90,000.00 that is 25 farm land acres, enough for self sufficiency and a money maker like avocadoes.
2 right aways $2000.00
electric lines $2000.00
road $1,500.00

Dorm and living space per 30 kids $25,000.00
We need two of these to start with

Auditorium, kitchen, laundry, office and staff volunteer building $50,000.00.

These prices are based on materials plus labor so if any of that is donated, that cost is gone.