Adventures in Guatemala

I was privileged to spend a week in Guatemala last week. Since this was my second time I pretty much knew what to expect from the kiddos and what the orphanage would look like. I also knew that the key word for any trip to Guatemala is flexability. My job before we left was to handle the arts & crafts rotation for the kiddos in the afternoon. We knew the kiddos would be out of school because they have November, December, and part of January off from school in Guatemala. In the morning we were going to help around the orphanage, and probably do some painting inside and outside. What we did know was going to happen was the guys on the trip were going to finish up the well and have it operational so the kiddos would have drinkable water.

We got to the orphanage and pretty much all of the rotation and morning plans went out the window. There was a company painting the entire orphanage due to the fact that the First Lady of Guatemala was coming for a visit on Saturday(Nov. 14) and needed sprucing up. Most of the children needed to be off the campus all day, which meant if we were to do rotations we were going to have to do it at the park next to the orphanage.

This is the cistern for the well on tuesday. As you can see there is no water left, but it is a pretty big space. I'm standing a little over halfway in it.

One of the ways the well will be powered is by solar power and the boxes the panels came in had tons of bubble wrap in it. The children went BONKERS! and I mean bonkers! Poor Heather was nearly trampled by the kiddos here when Randy was throwing the stuff off the roof. We heard loud pops for the next thirty minutes! This is just a cute picture I got of little Erica. She was so proud of herself sitting on that ball!
On an aside note, the very fact that they could take the kiddos to the park without having to chase after most of them is a testament to how far this orphanage has come in the past 3 years. There were a couple of runners, but for the most part the kiddos were really well-behaved.

There were quite a few children that were still there from last February, including Raquel and her sister Abigail. They captured my heart last time and I swear Raquel recognized me when she saw me for the first time. They have both gotten so big and Abigail is a little Miss Sassy now. Last February she was so meek and quiet! Raquel looks older and has a slight edge to herself now. She tries a bit of a model-smoldering look when she poses for pics. Makes me sad to think about that.


So we got to spend a lot of time just playing with the kiddos and that was fun, but after a day and a half of that a few of us were getting restless. It was nice to play with the kids, but we wanted to do something special with them or for them. The well had gotten to a point that us novices with tools would hurt more than help, so that was out. On Wednesday, we got to go the the Zacapa Gallos/Guatemala City football game (that's soccer, folks) and that was a blast for me. Not so much for some others- like most of the kiddos after the first half.

Zuly (Zu-leigh) watching the came in Donna's sunglasses. Donna was lucky to get them back! You can see Byron asleep in the background.

On Thursday the older kids went to the Zoo leaving us with the 20 or so little ones. We were finally able to break out the arts & crafts stuff I brought along and we made Monster Masks and let them color 12x12 sheets of cardboard until it was time to go inside for dinner. They absolutely LOVED the monster masks and wore them throughout most of dinner. Thursday night was a special night because it was the first time that we were asked to actually eat with them. Normally we have a movie night where we buy the pizza for everyone, but this was all the orphanage's doing(well almost). They put on music and we danced and danced and danced like good Baptists. ;) They ate Pollo Campero chicken and some cole slaw type stuff (we weren't allowed to eat that). We got to have sausage and beef also and the beef was wonderful!! The sausage- not so much, but I don't like sausage. Then we handed out the presents we had for the children and I think that was pretty much the highlight of their week.

Luis in the sunglasses her got in his stocking. Each kiddo got a pair of sunglasses and they were certainly the hit of the stockings!

On Friday the children were pretty much allowed to come back into the orphanage that afternoon and we had lots of fun playing with jump ropes and doing relay races. They didn't quite get the over your head/between the legs ball relay, but it was really fun to watch!! I chased Raquel around the basketball court for about twenty minutes and I was exhuasted! Six-year-olds have a lot more energy than I do!

Relay races with the little ones- tons of fun to watch! That's Raquel in the front.
A couple of stories that made my heart break. There were three children at the orphanage whose parents were killed in a massacre over a fight about land. The youngest is just a baby and has scars on her hands from the bomb that killed most of her family. The middle girl, who is 2 or 3, runs and hides whenever she hears loud noises.

the scars:

The children at this orphanage are called "Social Orphans" which pretty much means they have family somewhere whether the family cannot care for them because they have too many, the parents are in a battle over custody in a divorce, or there are health issues varies from child to child. In order to retain parental rights to their children, the parents only have to visit twice a year. Some visit more, but the norm is only twice. While we were there we saw three family visits which we had never seen before. One visit was for a group of six children whose parents simply have too many kids then they can take care of and the mom was pregnant again because they do not believe in birth control.

Two of the sisters:

And yes, the well was finished and drinkable water was flowing through. And we all got a sip!

On Saturday we got to shop the Artisan Marketplace where I got lots of fun stuff to bring home.

Ways we saw God in this trip:

1. It did not rain at all the entire week we were there and the forecast before we left called for rain every afternoon.

2. Numerous little things that went wrong with the well were fixed with a little bit of effort.

3. The children and the way the responded to the Bible Stories and just how much they have changed over the years.

4. The First Lady's visit got the children fresh paint for the orphanage, new mattresses and new bedspreads.