Hogar de Vida, San Andres Sajcabaja, Guatemala (June 28-30)

Day One, Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Early this morning Vickie and Norman Sutton picked us up to travel with them to the Department of Quiche. to visit the children’s home where they are serving. (Norman and Vicki are missionaries from Christ Community Church in Omaha.)  I have been as far as the town of Santa Cruz Quiche on previous trips, but had never been to the “back country” in this part of Guatemala, and had been wanting to see Hogar de Vida since Vicki and Norman visited me in Antigua a few months ago.

On our way out of Antigua we stopped briefly in Chimaltenango so Normam could look at Dick’s old Land Rover which he’s trying to sell.  I got to hang out with Brian, Jason and Fernando while the group took a “test drive.”  I have not seen much of Fernando lately since he attends a church in Chimal, and is busy keeping up with his school work.  (Fernanado is one of the first of Dick’s kids I really got to know, and will always hold a special place in my heart!)  As we visited, I could hardly believe that the handsome young man before me was the same little boy who used to “dive bomb” my bed when we were traveling just a few years ago.  Fernando has a real heart for Jesus and for children, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for him in the future.

The rest of the drive was mostly on paved highways, and time went quickly as we all visited.  The last bit of the trip (from Quiche to San Andres) was on a dirt road that could challenge almost any I had traveled on before with its curves and ruts. 

We arrived at the home and were greeted by a number of the children who were just returning from school.  Some of the kids seemed to be a bit shy around these new gringas, while others asked Vickie, “You only brought 2?”  (A team from LifeGate Church in Omaha had just left. . .)

 

After a quick lunch, we spent some time getting to know the kids.  I helped with some of the homework the kids had, and Katie got to spend the afternoon holding Alicia, an 8 month old who is the “baby” of the home. 

 

 

 

Vickie had asked me to particularly concentrate on Leslie, a ten year old who is still in first grade.  I don’t begin to have a handle on what is causing her difficulties, but I do know she reacted to her homework as many of my kids in the past have—what can I do to get out of doing this?  After a short time in which Katie and I absolutely refused to give her any attention if she was not working (we wouldn’t even look at her!) she broke down and started working.  She really seemed proud of herself when she finished her work.

After a quick nap, we headed over to Canilla, another town about 30 minutes away from San Andres, visit Duane and Leslie Ficker a married couple who moved, with their children,  to this part of Guatemala a number of years ago.  Leslie is a nurse and with her daughter-in-law Katie runs clinics in the area.  Dale is a pilot, and uses his skills in a variety of ways to minister to the people in this area, including flying Leslie and Katie into a remote area inaccessible by even four-wheeler, to run a clinic there once a month. They even have their own landing strip on their property! (Dick, are you jealous yet?)

Since Wednesday is a day off for both the Fickers and the Suttons, they get together each Tuesday night for a time fellowship and worship to begin their Sabbath.  It was an unexpected blessing for Katie and me to be included in this special time of prayer and I enjoyed getting to know their family and ministry just a little bit during this visit.  Sharing the wonderful challah Leslie had made was just an added bonus.

I could hardly believe it was nearly 10 PM when we headed for home.  The drive back, though on a dark dirt road, had none of the “stress” of driving the same type of road around Antigua or Chimaltenango.  Norman said that they are not too concerned about bandits on these roads, as we are back home.  Guess there are not enough gringos here to make it worth their time!

Day Two, Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Our second day here got off to a leisurely start.  Since it was a day off for the Suttons, we all slept in.  I woke about 8 am and did some computer work and prayed.  When Norman and Vickie got up, they made us a wonderful breakfast of bacon, eggs, and homemade sour dough toast. 

Since the children were in school for the morning, I did some more paperwork, amid visiting with Vickie.  Shortly before noon we took a walk through San Andres.

This town is so different from Antigua, or even Santa Maria de Jesus.  It’s just quiet, almost sleepy.  Walking by the market stalls, we could look at items without being immediately assaulted with, “For you, I have good price!”  I actually enjoyed the time in the market, though we really didn’t buy anything.

We headed to a Liberia (book and school supply store) where I wanted to get some things to work on with Leslie.  I found a couple of neat puzzle activities, as well as some books that are not available in Antigua.  The store owner seemed a bit surprised by how much I was buying, and I bet this was his biggest sale since school started last January.

We stopped on the was back to get some snacks and soda, and I was excited to try the cream soda I found.  It was the first time I’d seen this favor in Guatemala, and the taste was every bit as good as the cream soda back in the States.  Score!

After lunch Katie played with the kids as I spent some time with Leslie working on combining letter sounds to form words using some of the puzzle pieces I had bought earlier.  I think we’ve found something that will hold her attention as well as challenge her to learn.  She seems to love anything she can manipulate, and I think we can get a lot of mileage out of teaching her with tangible objects.  This is not often done here in Guatemala, but Alfredo, the tutor at the home, came over and watched and seemed quite interested in what we were doing.

At first she didn’t seem to understand what we what to do, but after a few demonstrations, she caught on quickly. She would try to “read my reaction” to tell if she was correct.  Using my best poker face, I tried to teach her to check herself to decide if she was right.  It took a while, but the high point of my day was when she put together a word, and immediately said “perfecta” before even looking up.  She really was excited to succeed, and succeed she did.

Since the other kids had seen what we’d brought, I took the puzzles over to the kitchen area, where Leslie very willingly shared her treasures with the other kids. They had a ball building the piece into cubes, and shooting “dice” to read the letters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About five o’clock I decided to return to my room, and passed through the team kitchen.  I saw a group of children crowded around an adult who I could not distinguish.  As I  circled the group I saw Norman sitting on a stool as three of the girls were cutting his hair.  They were having a ball, and since he keeps his head basically shaved, there wasn’t too much damage they could do.  I think of all the things I have seen here, this touched my heart the most.  What I saw was here could only be described as a family—with the kids enjoying the privilege of cutting “Dad’s” hair.   While this may be a children’s home, it is so much more.  Here the children experience the love they had never found in their own homes—they are a family in every sense of the word.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

I spent some time this morning working on my newsletter for this past month.  Each month it seems harder to find the time to put one together, but I do enjoy sharing with all of you what God is doing here in Guatemala.  Sitting at the dining room table in the team area of Hogar de Vida is the perfect setting to get into the mood to write about this amazing country.

About 9:30 Vickie reminded me that their pastor’s wife would be selling granizadas (as she put it “snow cones on steroids”.  Would I want to walk down with her and the girls to get one?  If you know me, you know that sampling “local” food is one of my favorite pass times, so we were of in short order.  Not before, though, we picked up about five of the preschoolers, plus Marta who did not have school today.

Again I enjoyed the peace and quiet of walking through the streets of San Andres.  It was a bit unusual, though, to walk through a town where I am “inspected” as the new gringa.  Norm and Vickie seem to be the only North Americans living in San Andres, and though they bring teams in, we are still somewhat of a curiosity to the local people. 

The granizadas were  nothing like those I had seen in Anitgua.  Here they are crushed ice, two juices, bananas, and two types of fruit toppings.  They were amazing.  There are what they call “taco granizadas” which are savory rather than sweet, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to try them—somehow salty ice didn’t hold the same appeal as the sweet.

 

We sat down outside one of the local schools so the kids could eat their treat.  They had great fun sharing with each other, and even mixing the fruit and taco favors (yuck!).  They were really sweet—when I complimented two of them for sharing, they all began to share and want their pictures taken doing it.  The kids in school were having their morning snack break, and discovered we were outside, and soon filled the windows.  I was afraid that the school kids would be jealous that the little ones had treats.  Instead, they were passing their crackers out the window to share with the little kids.  I have seldom seen such generous kids.

When we got back, Katie, Amanda (a young lady from Arizona who is staying with the Suttons also) and I prepared lunch which we shared with the Fickers who had come to San Andres for a meeting.  I also got to meet Victor, who runs a drug/alcohol rehab program in Quiche, as well as Roy, who works with Agape ministries in Quiche.  Victor was very excited when he discovered that I knew about the Celebrate Recovery program, and we talked at length about how he was planning on implementing it in his home.

           

After lunch I again returned to my newsletter, at least until Vickie came over about 5 o’clock to tell me that Leslie was sitting all alone in the dining area with her homework.  I went over to find that all she had to do was write 7 words twelve times, but the task seemed to overwhelm her.  Couple that with the fact that the kids that Norman and the girls had taken swimming had just return, and it was almost impossible for her to pay attention to her work on her own.  With a little encouragement, and a lot of blocking of distractions, she was able to complete it without too much distress.  Vickie and I talked about ways she could help Leslie on a regular basis, and will begin letting her do her homework in the team area away from the other kids, where it is more quiet. 

I still don’t really have a handle on why school is so hard for Leslie, but did discover that with a little one-to-one attention she can accomplish a lot.  However, individual help is not something she’s going to encounter in the over-crowded Guatemalan school system.

For supper we had homemade pizza (a la Vickie and Norman) and no bake cookies to celebrate Manuel’s (one of the Hogar kids) birthday.  That is, we celebrated after he got dunked in the “pila”—a tradition at the home!

 

 

 

 

 

It will be hard to leave here tomorrow.  I’ve grown quite fond of the kids, and even more fond of Norman and Vickie.  I love the fact that God has provided me with friends from “home” even though we didn’t know each other in Omaha and now call Guatemala home.  I think this is part of the “hundred-fold” He promised us. 

Thanks, Vickie and Norman, for a wonderful four days.  I can’t wait to come back!