Hope Haven Distributions with South Dakota Team

One of the things I’ve had to cut back on with working in Santa Maria is going to wheelchair distributions.  This past week, Hope Haven had a team down from the University of South Dakota, and, having worked with their instructor, Lana, in the past knew I wanted to spend at least a little time with these folks.  It was great fun to talk about the “good old days” when I taught in South Dakota, and hear how the university has grown since that time.  The group had been up in Santiago Atitlan, but today had a distribution at the Hope Haven factory just outside Antigua.

It was a great day to come, too, because a group of our Hermano Pedro residents were slated to receive new chairs.  Here are some of our folks with their new “wheels”:











My presence here today proved to be another one of those “Godincidents” where I’m in the right place at the right time.  I was talking with a darling little girl, Maria de los Angeles, and her family.
 


Maria has a very unusual medical condition which none of the therapy or pre-med students from USD had ever seem.  We were talking about the options at Hermano Pedro, and a lady came over who was Maria’s teacher.  Amanda, one of the Hermano Pedro therapists who was at the distribution with the orphanage kids, was able to explain to them how to access their services  and I moved on to another child.

Maria was quite the “model” for pictures, striking a pose whenever the camera was around.  

Here I tried to copy her, not too successfully. . .

A short time later, Maricela, the teacher, came over and asked if I had time to meet someone.  She introduced me to Don Alfonso, the director of special education services from the Ministry of Education for one of the departments near Huehuetenango.  We talked at length about the needs of children with disabilities and the lack of appropriate services.  I really liked Don Alfonso.  He was friendly, down to earth, and realistic.  He didn’t care what the law said as much as making sure kids get what they need.  My kind of people.  He was very interested when I showed him some of the communication books we use, and asked me if I would ever consider coming up to Totonicapan and doing some teacher training. 

I gulped, and agreed that in the future we would try to schedule this.  He offered, too, to serve as a resource to me and a liaison between us and the Ministry of Education whenever there was a need. 
I love making local contacts, and love it even more when I can offer any type of support to Guatemalans working with special needs kids.



A few minutes later, Dick asked me to come and translate for him, and I met Gema, a really pretty astounding young lady.  Gema is about 8 years old,  and was born without arms and has only one foot. Though you would think this would limit her, it really doesn’t seem to.  She has learned to do almost everything with her foot that you or I would do with our hands, and doesn’t seem “handicapped” in the least by her disability.  She did say, though, that she would like to be able to get around by herself.



She has never had a wheelchair and her parents were delighted that she would receive one today.  They were beyond delighted when the Hope Haven team constructed a custom made table so she could more easily write with her foot. 



You can imagine their reaction, then, when Dick wanted to talk with the about the possibility of a power chair which Gema could drive independently with her one foot.



He even found pictures of Fidel, one of the young men at Hermano Pedro, who has one and goes everywhere with it.  We soon took measurements, got the address to their home between Xela and Huehuetenango, and Dick promised to look for the perfect chair for Gema.






  























Gema captured everyone’s heart—including that of Omar, the office manager at the Hope Haven factory.  He even managed to surprise her with a stuffed animal he found.