Hermano Pedro Update—The Kids

Since many of you write and ask about particular kids, I thought I’d give you a quick update on a number of them.  Please pray for health for all of the children in the Anibal unit at Hermano Pedro.  Quite a few of them currently have respiratory infections, which can easily become life-threatening due to their fragile general health.  Here are some of my favorite people: (among about 120 other “favorites”)

 

Jessica has adjusted to life at Hermano Pedro, and is beginning to work with us.  She still likes to do what she wants to do, but is becoming more flexible. Katie seems to have a special knack working with her, as well as an extreme dose of patience.

Julian returned from his Easter at home much calmer and continues to be more tranquil here at the orphanage.  While still exhibiting significant characteristics of autism, he is becoming more social each day.  The Fulp girls have taken a real interest in him, and I can tell the difference.

Little Wilma is in the malnutrition unit, believe it or not!  She has rapidly gained weight and is quite the chunk. 

The picture on the left is Valentina when she first arrived in the malnutrition unit at Hermano Pedro.  The picture at the right is Valentina this month.  What a difference.  She has always been bright and alert.  Now she is absolutely radiant most of the time.  When Dick or I feel a little discouraged, we go up and hold her for a few minutes and she works wonders.

 

Dick continues to complain that whenever Maynor sees him, he only asks for Paty.  I still think this is an improvement from always asking for “pollo” (Camperos).  Maynor loves to work, and will bug me to death until I give him something to do!

Edgar has been one of the most withdrawn children I’ve seen at Hermano Pedro.  In the last couple of weeks he’s really started to come out of himself. This day he was absolutely giddy!

A new addition to  our family at Hermano Pedro is Alfonso.  He’s a pretty sullen little guy, who appears to be pretty homesick for his family.  He has begrudgingly started to work with me, but is often in tears.  Today, though, for the first time I saw him actually laugh.  Thanks to Bill Specht, an adaptive PE teacher, today Alfonso laughed out loud playing monster-ball.  Thanks, Bill!

Ervin, who in the past held the title to the nickname “monster,” is becoming more of a gentleman, though he does have his moments.  He is beginning to walk more and more with us, and absolutely loves young men volunteers.

Heidi has been having seizures on a fairly regular basis and has not been out of bed much.  Last Sunday I got permission to put her in her wheelchair and take her outside for a while.  She loved it! Now she has been in her chair every day for at least a little while and she is so much more alert.  Sometimes little things make a big difference.

 

Little Yofri moved down from the malnutrition unit a few months ago.  He is having more and more constriction of the muscles in his back, and we are concerned that his internal organs will stop functioning if we can’t get him into a straighter position. When he arches, you can see every muscle in his throat and it looks like his veins are about to burst. You can see in the photo on the left just how severe this has become.  Dick has put a special board in his bed, and the nurses seem to be using it with more regularity.  We’re also trying to work with him about 20 minutes a couple of times a day with exercises to help straighten him.  Please keep him in prayer as this is a serious threat to his life if we cannot resolve the problem.  He’s such as sweet little boy.

Bayron is a bright young man with very limited mobility.  It is amazing to watch him drive his powerchair using his head control.  Dick is continually challenged to keep the controller working, but somehow manages to keep MacGuyvering it back together.  This is a picture of Bayron right after I told him that a friend from the US was sending him a laptop computer to use for his school work and also for communication. (Thanks, Claire!)  He’s so excited now, I can’t wait to see him when it actually arrives.  He even said he’s going to share it with Nineth, his teacher, and the other kids in his classroom.

Fidel is one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met.  He “drives” his power chair and operates his computer with his left foot.  He also draws and paints.  He celebrated his 26th birthday this past week with a trip to the beach! In the past he has been taken computer classes at a school in the community on Saturdays.  Now the classes he needs are on Wednesday, and they are having difficulty finding space for him and his chair in the classroom.  Please pray for this to open up, as I think these classes are what keep him going.

I’ve written before about how Paulo will cry for hours on end, and how it breaks my heart.  He does stop and smile when you sing to him, but it needs to be a real, live person singing.  Recorded music does not have the same affect.  Imagine the impact it had on me to walk in and see Katie gently humming to him, and Paulo absolutely laughing at her.  I didn’t know he could laugh. . .I think this will be one of my favorite “memory moments” of Katie’s time here with us.

Julio is having a really hard time not being “king of the hill” and struggles with sharing attention with the other kids.  He is getting better at this, though, since he is so smart and verbal, often dominates the volunteers who visit us. 

Elmer is getting quite mobile without his wheelchair—though walking upright is still not in the cards for him unless he uses his wheelchair.  He’s quite the climber when we take him to the playground area at Pollo Camperos.  He’s really come a long way in cooperating and following directions.  The other day he even let me clean out his backpack and recover some of my activities that he had “stored” for me there!

While this doesn’t include all the kids, it does give you a fairly good view of the cross-section of the kids we serve.  If you have been down here and have a “favorite” you’d like to know  more about, just email me and I’ll try to update you as I can.  There’s nothing I like better than writing about “our” kids!

Hermano Pedro Update—Teams

When I first thought about coming to live here in Guatemala, I could walk into Hermano Pedro and often not see another volunteer (unless I was with Dick).  Over the intervening years, gradually more folks have come down to volunteer, either as individuals or as part of teams.

I have to admit that at times I am overwhelmed by the number of volunteers that are present at any one time.  On the other hand, a lot of kids get a lot of lovin’ and that’s good.  Recently, though, we’ve had some exceptional teams and I wanted to share with you a bit of what they have contributed to our work.

The end of May, a team of musicians came down to work with the kids.  They gave a number of performances in various areas of the hospital, and their talents were appreciated, especially by the elderly residents, who don’t usually get much attention.  After their performances, though, a number of them would break away from the group and “experiment” with the kids and their instruments.  This was a really sweet time to watch.  Gloria, who is deaf, loved it when the bassoon was played next to her leg.  It brought tears to my eyes to see Ervin, our resident rough-neck, playing the violin with one of these musicians.  This may not seem like much, but I know it meant a lot to our kids to experience music in a new way.  And I was awestruck by the willingness of these (almost) professional musicians to allow our kids to touch and play their valuable instruments.

Bill playing monster ball with Delmi and Estefani

Another team which has blessed us recently came down with Bill Specht, an adaptive PE teacher with a therapeutic recreation background.  After his visit to Hermano Pedro a couple of years ago, Bill sent down a wheelchair swing which has become a favorite of many of the kids at the orphanage.  This year he and his group brought us a “monster ball” which the kids are thoroughly enjoying.  Bill’s background in therapy also has been extremely valuable to me in teaching me some techniques to use with some of the kids whose muscles are severely constricted.  I’d love to be able to “shadow” Bill for a week as he teaches, but hope at least to be able to learn more from him when he returns again next year.

I have to confess that last Sunday, when we walked into Hermano Pedro, I was on complete over-load when I saw the number of volunteers there from two teams.  Both Bethel Ministries, and Hope for Home had groups visiting this afternoon, and I immediately felt like there were just too many people.  Man, was I wrong.  For as large of a group as was there, the afternoon proved to be refreshing and peaceful as each person on the team found a kid to love on and play with.  Often a lot of people can mean chaos.  These teams were different. Today I got to meet a number of wonderful folks who care for our kids, and spend a somewhat restful afternoon visiting with them and the children.  The was one Sunday almost none of the kids spent in their beds!

Thanks, to you all, for caring for our kids.

Help is Here (in the form of Katie Kuhns)

June 1, I was able to go with Leo to the Guatemala City Airport to pick up Katie Kuhns, and her sister Melissa Reinhart, both from Omaha.  Both young people I have watched with great pleasure as they have grown up to be great women of God.

Katie just graduated from Bennington High School, and felt God invited her to come down and work her in Guatemala during June and July.  This is her first trip out of the US.  Melissa, however, is an experienced “world traveler,” so she accompanied Katie down so she would not have to travel alone.

Katie will be “shadowing” me the first few weeks she is here, and then we will decide what she feels particularly called to do.  While I love the company as she helps me each day, I want to make sure she is using her God-given talents in the way He calls her to.  Katie is not exactly sure what she will be doing with the rest of her life, but knows she wants to work with children.  Boy, has she come to the right place!

Rachel, Gracie, Katie and Melissa

In addition to the kids at Hermano Pedro, and at New Life School in Santa Maria de Jesus, Katie has been able to help at a couple of wheelchair distributions at Hope Haven. 

She has also found herself to be an “instant big sister” to two young ladies (Anita’s daughters) who are living in Mari’s house.  She seems to be enjoying this new role, as she is the youngest of four in her own family.  And Gracie and Rachel absolutely adore her. 

Katie dancing with Gracie at Mari’s

And I don’t even need to mention the fact that I think at least half of Dick’s boys from Chimaltenango have a crush one her!

I have felt a little guilty at Hermano Pedro, as it seems that whenever we walk in their I get distracted by a million things needing attention and somewhat fewer people who have something to say to me (including the kids!).  I was worried Katie would feel abandoned or lost in the shuffle.  However, each time I go looking for her, she is loving on one child or another, and seems to be enjoying herself.  Though our kids can be pretty challenging, she didn’t seem to need much time to adjust to being with them, and the love having her around. 

Melissa was only able to stay with us for a couple of days.  Her second wedding anniversary was June 6, and her husband really wanted her home for that, if you can imagine.  We managed to squeeze in a coffee plantation tour, and a trip to the market, so hopefully she had some fun while she was here.  I’d love to see her and Zach come back for a longer visit when they have time.

I know you’ll be hearing more about (and hopefully directly from) Katie, and I’m excited to see what God does in and through her this summer.  It seems she will be the first of a number of “interns” I will have down here.  Please pray that I can make her time here worthwhile.  I want to be able to bless her as much as she blesses us!

The People I Meet, Part Two (others from Hope Haven distributions)

As I wrote in my last posting, I’ve been doing more secretarial stuff than communication systems at the wheelchair distributions recently.  As I reflect on these past few distributions, I see how God is using this to develop my ministry.

Yeny

Sometimes a “quick hit” is all that’s needed.  Handing out a communication board and showing the child and the parent how to use it is all that’s required.   This was the case with Yeny, a beautiful 17 year old I met recently.  She could not speak, but could answer yes/no questions.  This left her mother playing 20 Questions each time Yeny wanted something.  After talking with Mom and Yeny, I was able to put together a simple board which she could use to indicated her most frequent needs and wants.  She was so excited to have this, we could hardly get her to put it down to be fitted for her chair.

Sara

Other days, God uses my “busy-ness” at the distributions to set the stage of on-going relationships with our clients.  If I can’t construct a board immediately, I have been taking contact information and will be visiting these folks in their homes to set up their systems. 

This is the case with Sara, a 36 year old young woman who had come in to receive her first wheelchair.  She is bright and intelligent, and I soon realized I could print out a simple board, but that would not really meet her needs.  (It would be something like putting wheels on a kitchen chair and calling it a wheelchair—it might help, but it might cause more problems and frustrations than the person already had.)  Sara has so much she wants to communicate, including abstract concepts such as feelings, that I think she needs a more sophisticated system than most clients receive.  So, within the next month, I hope to travel to Guatemala City to visit her and her family in their home.  Sarah’s brother could not give me their address fast enough when I suggested this.  He couldn’t believe someone would be willing to come to them.

Angel Noe

I was delighted to see Angel Noe at one of our recent distributions.  A few months ago, his mother had shown up at my door, saying she had heard there was a woman in this house who could help get wheelchairs for people.  We visited for quite a while that day, as she told me about Angel, her four year old who could not walk.  Apparently, Angel had had a high fever and convulsions when he was an infant, and this has interfered with his physical development.  His mental abilities do not seen to be affected; for a four year old he is sharp as a tack.

This family lives in Ciudad Vieja, a very poor community just outside Antigua.  Mom said she knows others in her area who need wheelchairs or special education, and I plan to visit her soon, not only to bring Angel a communication booklet, but assess what we can do to help the others in her area. 

Elisandro, held by his younger brother

I met Elisandro when I went over to meet this “little one” I saw with his mother, only to discover this child was thirteen years old.  He looks extremely malnourished and quite fragile.  But, Mom says he has always been very tiny, and she has managed to keep him alive and apparently fairly healthy in spite of his weakness.  I don’t know what, if anything, we can do to help this family.  The rest of the family appears to have adequate food and does not appear underweight.  We will, however, be keeping in touch with them to see how Elisandro and the rest of the family fares in the future.

The People I Meet—Rosalinda

Tonight I’m having a hard time sleeping.  In fact, it’s about 4 am as I’m writing this.  These folks have been on my mind most of the night, so I finally have decided to give in and get up and write.

The last few days have been rather disappointing. . .I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished very much.  At the distributions I’ve taken on a lot of the clerical work as Omar, the Hope Haven office manager, has been out sick since he had surgery weeks ago.  Typing and taking pictures is not as much “fun” as working directly with clients.  After all, I came to Guatemala to work with kids on communication, not be a secretary.  Oh, how hard it is for me to put aside my agenda to do the work God has for me in the moment.

I met Rosalinda because, as I worked in the office, I heard someone screaming loudly and unrelentingly.  I walked out to find a woman struggling to control her small child.  I could not tell at first if this was a girl or a boy.  I only knew he/she was in torment, and Mom was looking like she couldn’t take much more.  I walked over and gently asked Mom’s permission to touch the child and try to calm her. 

As I picked her up, Rosalinda began to fight and struggle even more, and I wondered if I should have left well enough alone.  But, slowly, as I managed to get her into a cradled position in my arms, swinging her slowly from side to side, her body began to relax a little.  She began to struggle a little less, and scream a little less loudly.  (I am so grateful to Sue, a physical therapist from the States who brings down teams, for showing me this calming technique.)  After about 5 minutes, Rosie was calm and content, and we could put her back in a sling on her mother.

I think Rosie is probably somewhere on the autism spectrum, and all the people and the change in environment were just too much for her.  Mom says she often gets this way, and as she talked about when it happens, it seems like Rosie can’t handle too much stress or change.  And Mom is exhausted.  There were a lot of things I could “teach” her to do with Rosie, but this single mother of four just doesn’t have the time or energy to do much more than she already is doing.  So we just talked about how hard it is to care for a special child like Rosie.  It seemed Mom relaxed a little, knowing we weren’t “blaming” her for Rosie’s outburst, and accepted her for who she is.

  The social worker from
  SOSEP,  the governmental
  agency who had brought this
  family to the distribution, told
  me a bit of their story.  The
  entire family is malnourished,
  living in the simplest of
  shelter, and barely surviving. 
  Was there any way I could
  help them get food?  There
  are so many in their community in this state that the social workers have run out of resources. 

So, I’m bringing this need to your attention.  If anyone is interested in sponsoring this family, a food sponsorship would cost $35 a month to bring in nutritional supplements to this family of five.  If you are interested in helping meet this need, please email me for more information.

As I reflect on this encounter, I realize I was exactly where God wanted me, doing exactly what God knew I needed to do to help this family.  Mom, I think, needed someone to say they understood how hard her life was.  Rosie needed someone who was not too emotionally involved to help her calm herself in a frightening situation.  The social worker needed someone to listen to her frustrations as she tries to help so many with so few resources.  And I needed to learn it’s not about what I like to do, or even think I should do, but it’s about being available to do whatever God sets before me. 

I remember my prayer and “mission” for this year:  to love the one person God puts in front of me in each moment.  Thank you, Father, for answering my prayer today.

(I’m happy to report that Rosalinda LOVED her wheelchair and seemed to feel safe and secure sitting in it.  The look on Mom’s face was priceless as we told her that sitting in it, Rosie looked like any other seven year old “student.”  I’ll let you judge for yourself. . .)