Roman

Roman is a cute “little” 13 year old boy who is learning first grade material.  Unlike many of our students, he does not have a discernable handicap, other then the environment in which he was grown up.  Dad works in the fields, Mom has some cognitive problems herself, and for some unknown reason, the family just never got around to sending him to school until last year, when he was 12.  At that age, he didn’t stand a chance in a public school, so was accepted at New Life.

During 2012, Roman was in a classroom with much younger children--appropriate to a first grade class.  He was such a behavior problem that the administration was considering asking him not to return to school in January (almost unheard of at Nueva Vida).

Judy Kerschner, the administrator, and Marisol, the director of the school and I discussed this, and we decided to see what would happen if Roman only came to school when I was there to work with him.  He would earn the privilege of coming for breakfast and going to recreo (recess) with the other kids.  Not an ideal  solution, but  surely better than not going to school at all.

We were uncertain how his family would respond to this plan, but they agreed.  In fact, Dad even brought him to school the first day and explained to me they would not have the money to buy his school supplies until the following week.  Could he come to school anyway? (Of course!)

Well, Roman has proven to be quite the math whiz, mastering both the concepts of addition and subtraction.  He is learning to read using both phonics and sight words, and is so proud of being able to read even simple sentences like the one he is showing off in the picture above.  (It translates:  “The strawberry is red.”) 

His behavior continues to be a challenge at times.  Given his small stature (even by Guatemalan standards), it’s sometimes hard to remember that he is thirteen.  I remember my own sons being somewhat a challenge at this age, and in some ways what he does is “typical” teenage limit testing.  Unfortunately, he still is in a school with much younger children who can be negatively impacted by his misbehavior.  Pray we can help him learn some self-regulations skills. 

I was very concerned about what would happen while I was in the States.  Brian Taylor, a young man from California who is volunteering at the school, is working individually with the kids while I am gone.  He struggles with Roman, though, and I wasn’t sure how things would go. (Not a criticism of Brian in any way—he just hasn’t developed the “mean teacher voice” I have cultivated over the years!)

The week before I left, Roman’s dad came to school.  Roman had been absent the previous week, and I had just talked to the director about sending someone out to check on him.  As it happened, Roman had to have his appendix removed, and would be out of school for about a month—returning about the same time I will.  Am I glad he had surgery?  Of course not.  But I am thankful that God timed his need for surgery as He did.  I look forward to having him back.  (I’ve always loved working with the “bad boys.”)

Please pray for his speedy healing, and especially that he will not contract any post-operative infections.  These are all too common in the unsanitary living conditions of the poor in Guatemala.

What does the future hold for Roman?  I don’t know.  I imagine he’ll work in the fields like most of the men from Santa Maria do.  But he will be able to read, write, and do basic math.  Hopefully this will prevent him from being taken advantage of by those who prey upon the limited skills of the rural people and exploit them financially.  Maybe this will help him learn to value education, so he will not wait until they are twelve to send his own children to school.

Most importantly, though, he is learning about a Father who created him deliberately and has a purpose for his life.  He is hearing of the Son who came to save him from himself, and the Holy Spirit who can empower him to be the kind of man he was created to be.  And he knows They love him, because he sees this love in action within the walls of the school each day.  If you ask me, that’s more than enough.

Domesticating Dick

Well, after our little sparring about the boys, I wanted to put on the record that at times Dick does actually listen to me.  On rare occasions, he even asks my opinion.

Last Friday was one of those days.  Dick decided, after months and months of talking about it, that it was time to finally replace his living room furniture.  He called and asked if I'd be willing to go to some town whose name he couldn't remember to look at furniture.  He promised that this was THE place to go for furniture, so we set off.

We ended up in San Pedro Sacatepequez, which is known for the manufacturing of quality furniture.  And look we did.  In the first store we went into, Dick found a couch he thought he liked, or at least could live with.  The price was not bad, but he wanted to keep looking.

This was Dick's first pick.

I kept asking the lady in the store if it came in other fabrics.

Dick kept saying, "I like the flowers.  It doesn't show when the kids spill stuff on it."

We were in and out of at least a dozen furniture stores, most of them very modern an elegant.  If you know Dick, you can imagine how much time he spent in these stores.  Most of them had very large living rooms sets, and we were looking for something relatively small.  The funniest was when the lady in one store offered to come out and measure Dick's living room and make some recommendations.  I would have taken her up on it just to see the look on her face when she walked into Dick's 3 room cement block house!

We finally came upon the store that Dick was looking for in the beginning.  Nothing more than a tin shed.  "This is my kind of store," he said as he pulled into the parking lot.

I was pleasantly surprised when I walked inside.  The building was nothing to look at, but the furniture was quite nice and reasonably priced.

We looked at a number of living room sets and Dick sort of liked one we found here.  I really liked it but was concerned that the legs were too weak to hold up to all the kids in his house.  When I liked it, Dick no longer was as interested in it.  "It looks like it belongs in my grandma's house."

Right around the corner from this set, there was a wooden and faux leather set.  Very manly, Dick said.  He said it reminded him of the couch his dad had in his office.  When he sat down in the chair, he looked totally at home.

So, this, friends, is his new couch (you can't see it to well under all the pillows) and chair.

We are slowly making progress--this picture proves that Dick actually went shopping without kicking and/or screaming.  Now if we can just get rid of the shower curtains he uses as living room drapes, we'll really be getting somewhere!

A (Somewhat) Typical Day Here in Guate. . .

Every time I’m in the US, folks ask me to describe my typical day.  While the overall rhythm of life here is the same, each day seems to hold its own challenges and treasures.  Now that I’ve been teaching three days a week and we have residents in the home, though, things are a little more routine.
I get up at about 5 and immediately head for the coffee pot! 






While it’s brewing, I put away the dishes from the night before, and begin purifying a 5 gal. bucket of water.  Used to be that this bucket would last me half a week.  Now with the boys in the house, we go through two a day!

When the coffee us ready, I take it back to my room and have a cup of coffee and visit with Jesus.  Long ago I gave up on “devotions” (I always hated how formal that sounded) and just try to spend some time chatting with him.  I like to do what my friend, Scott Hardee, describes a just enjoy Jesus.

Then it’s time to turn on the shower, make my bed, put out my clothes, and wait for the hot water to make it back to my room from the on demand hot water heater in the laundry room.  This seems to take FOREVER when you’re waiting to shower.
When the boys start moving around in the kitchen, I know it’s time to go out and get them off to school.  They take care of their own breakfast, but there always seems to be last minute items them have failed to plan for the night before.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I head out the door shortly after them.  I have to admit that I enjoy the luxury of driving to Santa Maria, as previously I had to leave even earlier. 

On the days I don’t have school, I move a bit slower.  Flor, my housekeeper comes it about 7:30 and when I’m home we usually have a cup of coffee together and catch up and plan for the next few days.
Mondays and Saturdays, I set out for the market.  Again, with the car, my life is so much easier.  It used to be that I would have to make at least 2 trips each of these days to the market to manage to carry home enough to get us through to the next market day.  Now, I just have to make the trip to the parking lot!

I love the variety of fruits and vegetables we have here—many I’ve been introduced to only since living here.


And, yes, I do buy my meat in the open air market.  I never thought I’d get used to this, but have manage to find a couple of vendors with good meat and sanitary practices.  It still seems strange to me that I can buy beef to grill for only 12 cents a pound more than ground beef, though I have to admit the ground beef is so lean that I have to put oil in the pan when I brown it.  More often, we buy chicken, which is less expensive, and once in a while some pork chops.  I’m starting to learn to “translate” what we call cuts of meat in the US into the terminology here. . .but I still find my meatman chuckling at me now and then as I try to explain what I want to cook.

When I get home from the market, we put our produce through a “clorox soak” and dry them out before putting them in the fridge.  By now it’s almost 1:00 and  Flor has lunch ready, Miguel and Fidel are waiting for me, and Fernando is just about coming in the door.  Cesar has a full day of school, and will eat when he gets home, sometime between 2 and 4 pm.

Monday and Friday are office days.  Monday planning for the week at school, and Friday doing the myriad of bookkeeping and record keeping for the ministry.  Friday is NOT my favorite day, but a necessary one.  Sometimes, when Dick is going out to a village for the day, I’ll play hooky and go with him.  Not the best for keeping current, but it helps keep my sanity.

I have to admit that many afternoons I take a nap.  I just seem to run out of steam about 2 o’clock.  I don’t like feeling like I’m slowing down, but the sad truth is, I am in my sixth decade of life and am trying to respect the needs of my body.  I at least settle down in my comfy chair and read or watch CSI, Criminal Minds, or NCIS and zone out a bit.

By 4 o’clock, I’m starting supper. (Flor leaves at 2.) We won’t eat until 7, but when everything is cooked from scratch it takes a lot longer.  I’ve developed the Guatemalan habit, too, of cooking the food early, and then sitting down with a cup of coffee about 5, and waiting for my second wind.  Sometimes, if we’re both free, I’ll have coffee with Mari.  About 6:30 I’m heating up what I’ve cooked previously, and by 7 we’re all sitting down to eat. 

Eating supper with four guys, ages 16-28, is anything but quiet, but I have to admit I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in my life.  Miguel, especially, has quite the comebacks.  One night I jokingly said, “I can’t take this anymore.  Jesus take me home.”  Without missing a beat, Miguel looks me straight in the eye and says, “Yep, you’re gonna die of happiness!”  He gets me like this all the time.  Most nights the boys chatter on and forget I’m there, and there are many nights I am grateful for having raised 3 sons when I need to redirect the course of the conversation. I often feel like the housemother in a frat house!

The boys clean up after dinner, and by 8 I’m in my room and ready to call it a night.  I usually check Facebook, answer emails, and if I’m not too tired, get on Pinterest for a few minutes.  Then it’s lights out for me (the boys will go to be between 10 and 11), to get ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
As you can see, while there are some distinct differences from life in the US, much of my time here is spent just doing the ordinary tasks of daily living.  Some of them, like paying bills, take a lot longer than in the States.  We have to pay our utilities either at the bank or the utility company, and this often means waiting in line for at least a half hour.  There are no SuperWalmarts in Antigua, though there are 3 in Guatemala City, so there’s no one stop shopping.  Meat and produce at the market, bread at the bakery, meds from the farmacia, school supplies from the libreria.  We hang out clothes out to dry rather than using the dryer (though I do use the washer rather than wash clothes by hand in the pila—cement sink.)  All this eats up time, and sure doesn’t feel like doing ministry.  Just a lot of running around. I’ve learned, however, that part of my ministry is to take Jesus into these places where ordinary life is lived out daily.

I think how relatively easy we have it here in Antigua, really in most of Guatemala.  And I remember the “jungle missionaries” who live so isolated from the lives they knew in the US.  We have running water, electricity, enclosed houses.  I often say that if you can’t make it as a missionary here in Guatemala, you’ll never make it anywhere else.  I’m glad I seem to be making it!

A Friendly Divorce???--From the Marriage that Never Was!

I posted this, and Dick, of course, had to respond.  His responses are in red.  While he thinks he's right, I am posting this mostly to prove he always has the last word!  Enjoy your morning chuckle at our expense. . .

Dick starts out saying: Pat  added a few comments to what I just published and even though what I wrote was truthful and absolutely correct I will publish what she wrote solely for your amusement. 

For all of you who continue to wonder what, exactly, is my relationship with Dick Rutger's, I thought you might enjoy reading his (tongue in cheek) take on it.

In his journal today, Dick wrote:

Pat and I often kid each other about our friendship being somewhat like a friendly divorce. (Only a confirmed bachelor would joke about a friendly divorce---Pat) (At least in a divorce you don't have to  invite all of your relatives and get all dressed up.  Dick)

-Pat gets the kids during the week and I get them on the weekends.  (Except like some dads, he only takes some of the kids.    I still haven't gotten him into taking Fidel so I have have the weekends alone--Pat)  (Not until she takes the ones that hang out here all week. Dick)

-We each take credit for all of there good traits and and claim that the other is to blame for the bad ones.  (Now wait a minute--it surely wasn't me who taught them to leave the toilet seat up--Pat)  (At least you have a toilet seat.   Dick)

-When ever one of the boys ask for money Pat tells them to ask talk to me and I tell them to talk to Pat.  (I think the try to get $$$ out of both of us, myself--Pat)  (This is a sure sight that we are not married.  We both agree on something! Dick)

-None of them look like either of us but most are closer to Pat's height than mine.  (Come on, they all have my brown eyes and what used to be brown hair--Pat) (Come to think of it they all resemble me to,  2 eyes, 2 ears, one nose and one mouth.  Dick)

-Academic wise most of them take after me, but Pat is working on that. (She hired a teacher to come in and work with them.)  (Now if I can find a Spanish tutor for Dick--Pat) (You just have to give me a little more time and I will be able to understand everyone in Guatemala.  I already have most of my neighborhood speaking English.  Dick)

-They are all strong willed and always right.  The vote is still out on that one.  (No you can not vote for 2 candidates)  (This is an easy one--Dick is stubborn and I'm persistent.  And I'm right about this one!--Pat) (See what I mean? Dick)

One thing for certain though we bouth love them and could not be prouder of them even though they can drive us crazy at times.  (Okay, on this one I actually agree with Dick.  He's right for once!--Pat) (I think that Pat meant to say as usual.  Dick)

I have been praying for years about what the boys in my home would do once they got older.  For at least six of them God has answered that prayer through the new group home that Pat has started.  Granted for now only Miguel is working full time for Pat but Cessar and Fernando are living there 5 days a week and are attending School in Antigua.  Esbin, Marcos and Kevin are working for Pat on the weekends and who know what will happen once more people move into Pat's home.

Still at Hermano Pedro

A side benefit to me of the whole long process of Fidel being released from Hermano Pedro was getting to know the young men in the men's mental health ward.  I knew a few of them who had moved up from the children's area during the years I've been here, but many I knew only by sight, if that.  Now, when I walk in they get so excited they can't wait for me to greet each one.  And, believe me, I don't get away without talking to each one of them individually.  

Gaspar shed a lot of tears as Fidel prepared to leave

The reactions of the other patients to Fidel leaving have been varied.  A few definitely want to come and live with us and make this known in no uncertain terms.  Even one who is non-verbal gets his point across well when he drags me to the door and gestures to indicate he wants to come with, too.  It breaks my heart to leave him each time.  In getting to know the young men I realize that there are at least ten of them who would be appropriate for a house such as this.  Many need much less care than Fidel, and it's tempting to just jump in and take a whole bunch right away.  

Edgar is Fidel's best friend

Through much prayer and discernment, however, we believe we are to move slowly.  This is such a new concept in Guatemala that we have no one to look to for direction, and daily are having to figure out new bumps in the road such as paying for expensive medications,  fixing broken down wheelchairs, defining staff roles and finding coverage for sick staff.  It is prudent to iron out these issues while we have the flexibility of only one resident with disabilities.  But believe me, my mother's heart wants to take them all right now.

Willi always makes me laugh

And seldom do I see David without his trademark smile

One very special new resident is Osmin.  While he is 18 years old, I doubt he weighs 50 lbs.  He was been at Hermano Pedro only a few weeks.  I have to admit that the first time I saw him lying in bed with a feeding tube, I assumed he was cognitively as well as physically disabled. Man, was I wrong.  

Though he is pretty much immobile, the nurses are taking wonderful care of him and are managing to prevent bedsores. But lying in bed all day was really wearing on him, and coupled with his homesickness, Osmin was becoming quite depressed.  Dick had talked with him about the possibility of a power wheelchair, and he brightened substantially.  Dick then asked me to get to know him, too.

I have found Osmin to be a bright, alert, young man, who is desperately lonely.   In spite of his disability, he has completed fourth grade of primary school.  He misses his home and family in Quiche desperately.  He talks about returning home, despite the fact that his family cannot adequately care for his significant needs and this could mean his death. How I wish I could find something he would like to do, given his limited mobility.  I asked about reading, and he looked at me as if I was crazy.  (By the way, this is a pretty normal reaction from an 18 year old Guatemalan.  I get it from my boys all the time when I mention reading for fun).  I'd love to find some kind of tablet he could us, but there is no wireless in Hermano Pedro, so its usefulness would be limited, but I think still worth the effort.  If anyone has an old iPad or tablet laying around that they would like to gift to this young man, please email me.

The other day Dick managed to put him in a power chair which had been specially constructed for Osmin by Bethel Ministries.  The batteries were purchased by a donation from Carlos, a regular volunteer from El Salvador who has taken a special interest in Osmin.  And Dick and his boys did the final seating and taught him to drive it.  A great example of collaboration to get the work done!

Osmin took to driving his chair like a fish to water.  He was immediately traveling all over Hermano Pedro, explaining his chair and demonstrating its special features to all who would listen.  In fact, he over did it a little, and was in bed in the afternoon from a headache, probably from all the unaccustomed to movement!

Miguel visiting with Osmin as he recovers from his
morning of moving around independently for the fist time in years.

Please remember Osmin in your prayers.  Pray for his continued improvement (he is now off a feeding tube) and increased strength.  And pray that we can find some meaningful activities which he will enjoy to keep his mind busy and his heart happy.

You can see, I've gotten quite attached to this group of young men. I hope to visit them more often, so they know we remember them. I hope we can bring a few at a time over for lunch periodically, and to watch a movie.  There are a couple of wonderful male volunteers who frequently come to the unit, as well as the ever-faithful visits from Dick.  It seems, though, that as a woman I bring something unique to the unit.  I feel like "Momma" to so many of them who no longer have their own mothers.