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Posted by: | CommentsErupting Volcano, Floods and Earthquakes, What a Week!
Posted by: | CommentsI am sure that most of you know that Guatemala was hit hard last week when Volcan de Pacaya erupted. However just a few days later tropical storm Agatha blew in and has devastated Guatemala. We had four small earthquakes, two the day Pacaya erupted and two the following day.
Tropical storm Agatha did horrendous damage to many parts of Guatemala. Many bridges have been destroyed, leaving people isolated and unable to get supplies and medical care. People died, many disappeared and many more lost everything including their homes. At Semillas de Amor we lost large sections of our security wall when trees on the other side of our land came crashing down, hit our electric poles and then our wall. We were without electricity or running water for four days. Our biggest concern, when the security walls came down, was that someone would come onto our land, to rob the children’s home, which would put all of our staff and our kids at jeopardy. We have an armed guard, however, to be safe we brought in another guard. Although there were suspicious people walking around in the middle of the night the armed guards were enough to keep them away.
I drove up to the children’s village on Sunday, the day after the storm, and have included photos of the damage we sustained. We were fortunate that there was not more damage and that we were able to get everything fixed so quickly.
As always, we are grateful your your generosity and donations to Semillas de Amor via Seeds of Love. To continue to help us keep the children’s home open please click on Semillas de Amor which will take you to the page to donate. Thank you!
Thank You to our Wisconsin Work Team
Posted by: | CommentsA huge thank you to Pam and Rich Garman for arranging the work team, hosting their visit to Guatemala and working alongside all the team members. This is the second year that our Wisconsin work team has visited, and for many this was the second year on the team as well. What a treat for us. This year our work team built an amazing play set for the kids, painted, built an arbor, installed our drinking fountain and did lots of maintenence work. Needless to say that my “honey-do” list was long for this team and I am so grateful to everyone who came and worked. Our kids love the new play set and I am thrilled with everything that that was done for us. The work teams are made up of people who work long hours and then spend their vacations and money giving back. We were fortunate that they gave back to us, at Semillas de Amor.
About the foot lockers. When I was asked by Pam and Rich, several months, ago for our wish list of projects, on my list of priorities were foot lockers for our oldest kids. Children raised in institutional settings do not have their own bedrooms and rarely have a place to keep their personal items. This can be very difficult for children because anything that belongs to them is generally used by everyone. I feel that it is very important for kids to have their own personal space, a place that is theirs. Craig designed amazing foot lockers for the kids, and then he and Rich built 17 footlockers for our kids. When the foot lockers went into the kids’ bedrooms the children began to dig under their mattresses, in the pillow cases, under the pillows for their things they had safely put away and put them in their own locker. All the kids were informed of the new rule regarding the foot lockers, no touching anyone else’s locker or risk losing yours. Privacy is somewhat of a novel concept in institutional settings, although only a few of the foot lockers have been seized. What a difference these foot lockers have made in the children’s lives. A space of their own. Thank you Rich and Craig!
A huge thank you to our Wisconsin Team, Mary, Jack, Barb, Rick, Ann, Tim, Kathy, Kathy, Dave, Nancy and Craig, Rich, Pam, Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Guatemala Mission, Lisa and Jason, Scott and Julie, Lisa, Connie, Tom, Helen, and Todd. See you in 2011!!!!
