Wheelchair Distribution in Oratoria (July 10, 2010)

Wheelchair Distribution

Today we got to tag along with Bethel Ministries for a wheelchair distribution in Oratorio. No one was quite sure what to expect today, as there were 80 people signed up, and the distribution was being held in the home of the local mayor. We were pleased to find out that we were using his outdoor area, which was large and covered, so we had shade, as well as the folks coming for chairs.

I got to work with Donna Mooney doing the registration and sign out. When people arrive, they are assigned numbers, and some distinction is made between those who will need special chairs and those who can use regular chairs with slight adjustment. After getting their number, these people wait, and wait, and wait for their turn to receive a wheelchair. Literally hours sometimes. I have been impressed that in every distribution I’ve been on, people are calm and patient, with little grumbling or complaining. Dick reminds me that many of these people have been waiting years for a wheelchair, so what’s a couple more hours.

When a person’s number is called, they go to an assigned station and receive a chair, which is then adjusted to as perfect a fit for the individual as possible. Limits are imposed by the chairs and parts available, but it is amazing what the Bethel folks are able to accomplish with what’s at hand. I jokingly call some of these “MacGuyver chairs” since they are adapted with whatever is available.

Today there were 5 stations—2 for special chairs, manned by Dick, Katherine, and Melissa, and one manned by Saul. Regular chairs were distributed by Ryan, Kris, and Leslie on one team, George and Jackson on another, and Jorge taking up the third position. Of the team, only Katherine had seated anyone before. After Dick did a quick training, they were ready and willing and did a great job. Ryan even got to fit a specialty chair under Dick’s supervision. I’m not sure the exact numbers, but I think we gave out about 60 numbers, and only had one chair left at the end of the distribution.

Local pastors counseled and prayed with each family after they had received a wheelchair, and each family was given a Bible. This, in some ways, was the most meaningful part of the day for me. It was amazing watching these men of God as they shared their hearts with the fellow Guatemalans.

The last stop was once again with Donna, as she took data on each chair that was given out, and we took pictures (for Bethel’s records) of each person who had received a chair. This was my major job today. I’m sure Donna could have gotten along without me, but now I know the data that needs to be collected whenever we give out a chair and I appreciated her letting me “shadow” her.

The Road to Santa Rosa Goes Through El Salvador (July 9, 2010)

Dick picked us up this morning, and the four of us (Dick, Ryan, Melissa and I) headed out for the Santa Rosa area of Guatemala. The team from Westside Church in Omaha had been serving there building a house for the family of Leslie, one of the girls at Hermano Pedro. We will join them tonight to help with a wheelchair distribution in this area tomorrow.

Dick had originally planned to drive the route through Guatemala City, but after I reminded him that we could go through Esquintla, he decided that would be a nicer drive, even if it would be somewhat longer. Not long outside of Esquintla, though, I was wondering if he regretted this decision. We were stopped dead in traffic, with cars coming toward us, but nothing moving in our direction. In Guatemala you can be stuck in these situations for hours. Today, however, it wasn’t too bad. Soon traffic started to move, and we discovered the source of the problem.

A bridge over a fast flowing river had been washed out by the rains. The steel girders seemed to have crumbled like tinker toys. We were re-routed to a dirt road with make shift bridges of what looked like no more than wooden planks set between piles of rocks, covering the fast flowing water. After we crossed the second of these, Melissa very quietly said, “Did I ever tell you I was afraid of bridges.” At first I thought she was kidding, but Ryan soon explained that she was very serious about this. She was a real trooper though, and hung in there through the last small bridge without even needed to find a Valium.

I, on the other hand, did fine with the bridges, but held my breath as we went up a “road” of mud and rocks on our way back to the highway. On the other hand, for Ryan, this “off-roading” was the high point of his day.

We continued on, looking for the town we would be staying in. However, it appears that since Dick’s last trip here the roads have “moved” (Do I detect a little sarcasm here Pat? Actually Pat was suppose to be navigating but she had once again drifted off to sleep. Older people seem to have a way of doing that. Dick) (I wasn't sleeping.  I had my eyes squeezed shut in terror!--Pat) and we soon found ourselves in what looked like a multi-lane toll booth in the States. Since this was somewhat confusing, Dick proceeded slowly, and eventually we discovered that we were about to enter El Salvador and were passing through the customs station! It only took half way through for the four of us to figure out what was going on, and that maybe we should turn around.

Now, the good thing about this re-routing, was that we now know exactly how to get to the El Salvador border on Monday, (That is exactly why I made this little 3 hour detour. Dick) (If you read the blog from July 12, you'll find this is a VERY poor excuse!--Pat) when we are scheduled to take a wheelchair there! The bad news was that, to get back to where we needed to be, we would once again have to cross the make-shift bridges over the rushing river. Ever the alert protector, however, Ryan looked at the map and found an alternate route. Since Dick had never taken this way before, I think this made his day. What made the day for me and Melissa was that the road was actually paved, had no real bridges, and came out where we needed to be!

We arrived at our hotel before the team did, and decided we would go and look for Bayron, a ten year old deaf child Dick had met at a clothing distribution, and I had worked with about a year and a half ago, trying to find the best way for him to communicate.

We located the house where he had been living, and were told that he, Grandma, and Edgar, his younger brother, had moved “just a little way” down the road. Now, anyone who has been to Guatemala knows that a little way can be anywhere from a block to a couple of miles, depending on the judgment (or lack thereof) of the person you are talking to. In this case, it was really only a few blocks, but to get there we had to walk down a major highway with chicken buses, trucks, cars and motorcycles coming at us.
We finally turned off the highway, and walked another couple of blocks back into a corn field, and reached the tin shelter this family of seven now calls home. Immediately, the family recognized Dick, and began yelling for Bayron. His face lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw him (this is deliberately vague, since the his/he could apply equally to either Dick or Bayron). The family welcomed us in without hesitation, finding chairs for us and having each of the children come and shake hands with us. Again, Melissa’s Spanish proficiency was most helpful. In situations like this, I can get by, but often am afraid I’m not really understanding everything being said to me.

We discovered that, because of his age, Bayron had moved to a different school. The teacher there did not have the patience to work with a child who could not hear, and told Grandma not to bring him back. So, this amazingly bright child, who could not wait to show us his school books, is no longer allowed to attend school. Dick and I looked at each other, and I knew he would offer to try to find a tutor to work with Bayron individually, and a sponsor to pay for his or her salary. I’m happy to say that we have a sponsor (thank you, Melissa and Ryan) and are hoping that Bayron’s teacher from last year will have enough time and energy to tutor him after she teaches her class every day.

I took out my camera, and handed it to Bayron, wondering if he would remember how he’d used it almost a year and a half ago to take pictures of everything and anything he wanted to remember. Once again, he became a master photographer, arranging people, posing them, directing their expressions, and taking their pictures—all without being able to speak a word. I also watched the pride which his entire family takes in his abilities and accomplishments. All too often this is not the case for children with disabilities here in Guatemala. It was beautiful to see this family so deeply love this little boy. It is clear that his abilities have been nurtured in this loving environment, where this family, with no “professional” help, has managed to teach him to communicate through a combination of movements, gestures, and noises. Even the four of us gringos were understanding Bayron without trouble before we left. We plan to return tomorrow or Sunday, to try to arrange for a tutor, and to take Bayron and Edgar with us to swim at our hotel. I know I’ll be seeing more of Bayron (right, Dick? Please?)

Chimaltenango Wheelchair Distribution (July 8, 2010)

This morning I took my first chicken bus ride with Melissa and Ryan. We headed out pretty early for Chimaltenango to help with a wheelchair distribution Dick Rutgers was heading up there. This ride was pretty uneventful, though it was interesting to discover just how many people you can fit into a standard size school bus seat! Some of the curves were a little concerning, but thankfully, we were not sitting right in the front of the bus, where they probably would have been hair-raising.

(Click on any picture to enlarge)

As it turned out, there were many people to help with the chairs, but Melissa’s language skills were put to good use interpreting for Dick. Ryan was a great sport, hanging around, taking pictures and helping out wherever he could. I got to wander around, taking pictures and talking with the mothers who had brought their children in for chairs. This ended up being a small distribution, since one of the towns scheduled to come was prevented from doing so by a land slide.

It seems that in every distribution there is one person who stands out in my memory.  Today it was a therapist I met who needed a walker for  one of her patients (the lady in white above).  The guys had to do some significant adapting to find one the correct size, so I had a bit of time to visit with her.  This lady had brought a number of children from Jalapa, where Bethel had had a distribution about a week earlier.  They had not had correct chairs to fit these special children, so were asked to come to Chimaltenango for this distribution.  This dedicated woman left her home at 3:30 am to get to Jalapa to pick up her patients and bring them all the way to Chimal.  When I thanked her for making this sacrifice for the children, she basically responded, "They need this.  What else could I do."  I don't know if this woman is a believer, but her attitude was a good reminder to me of the privilege of serving the "least of these."

After a quick lunch we headed to the orphanage, only to find that all the kids would be in bed until 3 pm. We did visit some of them in their beds, and then went and visited Christina in the older girls area. By three, there once again were many volunteers and much commotion in the children’s area. Melissa did get to hold Arianna, Ryan pushed Carlitos around in his chair, and I held Gloria. I know that the kids get a lot of attention when there are many volunteers, but I can’t help but feel badly that even here, some kids are just not “popular” with volunteers. They are often overlooked, and left to sit in their chairs alone. They are the kids who are less attractive, slower to respond, more withdrawn. Part of my heart is always drawn to these who go unnoticed, for I believe they are in need of the attention the most. Many think that the brighter, more outgoing kids benefit more from attention and activities. I think that they just respond more quickly, more easily. But over and over, I see responses slowly emerge from kids who I originally thought could have cared less if I paid attention to them more. When these kids finally smile, it reduces me to tears.

Melissa and Ryan Arrive (July 7, 2010)

Melissa and Ryan arrived today after a 2+ hour flight delay. It was almost surreal to see them walk through the airport doors. See them was like having part of my heart come home. I’m so excited to show the Guatemala. And, it true Guatemalan tradition our first stop was Pollo Campero for lunch.


After lunch we headed to Antigua, chatting the whole way. Mari was waiting for us, and as I knew it would be, the first thing out of her mouth was, “Cafecito?” (“Coffee”) We had coffee and a snack, and I set out with Melissa and Ryan to show them a little of Antigua before dinner, since it was too late today to go to Hermano Pedro. I am so enjoying showing people “my” city. I still often call Omaha home when I’m talking (and since my kids are there, in some ways it always will be home) but each day I feel more like Guatemala is really my home.

At the request of a friend (see, Dick, I DO listen to you sometimes) I will post dates with all updates to help you make sense of things.

New Friends and Old

My favorite picture today.  Veronica helping clean the porch area at Hermano Pedro.  She is one of the most sweet spirited girls I have ever met.  Always eager to help.  And my heart melts every time I walk through the gate and hear her call out, "Patty."  Veronica has so much potential.  I pray we can find some way for her to put it to real use in the future!

Today has been a day for me to introduce a number of old and new friends to my kids at Hermano Pedro.  This morning we had a very large team come through, so, rather than spending time directly with the kids, I tried to help the team members find a kid to love on.  (I did get to hold Leonel and Leslie for about an hour, though, before everyone arrived.)  I have to admit that I don't like this "supporting role" as much as I do directly working with the kids.  However, it was well worth it when I looked out and saw more than a dozen young people feeding, holding and playing with kids.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's not about me.

I also have to admit that I like it alot better when the courtyard is full of kids and volunteers than I do when it is silent and all the kids are in their beds.

I also received a visit from a friend from Omaha, who is visiting her sister in Guatemala City.  Patricia, her daughters Annabelle and Annemarie, and her sister, mother, nephew and his girlfriend all came down.  I was pleasantly surprised when the first stop they wanted to make was Hermano Pedro.  I was even happier to find that the "gifts" they had brought for the kids were disposable diapers, baby wipes, formula, and other useful items along with cookies for a treat.  So many times it seems that the kids get small plastic toys that are lost or broken in a day.  Their sensitivity to the real needs of our kids touched me deeply.

This family dove right in and met, played with, and talked to the kids.  The kids had just been put to bed for "siesta," and since we weren't staying long I didn't want to take kids out of bed for just a few minutes, and then make them go back.  I think these folks were a bit overwhelmed by the severity of the handicaps present in the children, but that didn't hold them back from sharing their love with them.  I'm so grateful for the way they touched our kids lives, if only for a brief moment.  I also got to enjoy a wonderful lunch, great company, and an opportunity to make new friends before I returned to the orphanage for supper.

Tonight one of my housemates, Gideon, came along with me to Hermano Pedro to feed the kids dinner.  He's a 17 year old from New York here studying Spanish for a few weeks before moving to California to start college.  He only has classes in the morning, and wanted something meaningful to do with his afternoons.  He met a number of the boys, and immediately took to feeding Henry, who is quite the character.  Henry is one of the few kids here who has pretty good verbal skills and understandable speech.  They seemed to get on quite well together, and I think Gideon now has a Guatemalan admirer.

I guess I'm really sharing these events of today to remind you all that I'm not really doing anything remarkable.  It doesn't take a Mother Teresa to fall in love with the kids.  I sometimes wonder how people cannot fall head over heels for them.  It does take what I hope we all are committed to.  A willingness to do whatever God asks of us--not in some future "grand work" but in the here and now, responding to his invitations to serve every day.  My goal in coming to Guatemala was not really to feed kids and change diapers, but I am daily blessed through these activities. I have to tell you, I receive much more from the kids than anything I could ever give or do for them.

I pray you are blessed by what He calls you to do today.