Meeting Hilda

Hilda’s mom, younger sister Monika, Lydia, Hilda, Bethany

Aside from visiting four Guatemalan villages, we also had the opportunity to meet two of my family’s sponsored children as well as a little boy that my family’s church sponsors.

Our first full day staying in San Lucas Toliman, the children sponsored by the members of our group arrived right after breakfast. We met Hilda (17), Damaris (9) and Jose (5). Our family has sponsored Hilda for a number of years.

The center has a huge covered basketball court complete with a stage and bleacher-type seats along the the side. For this event, the court was set up nicely with tables—for the most part, each of the sponsors had one table, but with three kids, ours was the largest.

Each child (or elderly person, in some cases) arrived with at least one parent, a translator and a social worker that lives in the same area of the sponsored child. In some cases, the child would have both parents with them along with a younger sibling or two who were unable to stay back in their village. So, each sponsor/couple had  5 or more people to get to know at their immediate table to get to know throughout the day. Lydia and I had 14!

With that said, the first of our sponsored children to arrive was Hilda. She and her mom, sister Monika (age 7), social worker and translator traveled for seven hours, each way (on broken, twisty “roads”, mind you) only to spend about 8 hours with us. They left the night before, arrived in the early morning, and then traveled back to their oceanside village until late in the evening.

 

Hilda was very moved at meeting us, as was her mother. Hilda clung to me for a good five minutes, just sobbing and thanking me for coming to meet her.

Hilda enjoys drawing, so we were able to bring her some crayons, colored pencils, coloring pads, etc.

In between our drawing and planned entertainment, we had some time to jump rope, play soccer and ball games with all the kids. It was very neat to see sponsored kids from all over Guatemala come together and play!

  

We were able to talk to Hilda through her translator. She was surprised we live nowhere near an ocean (she’s mere minutes from one!). She’ll be graduating from high school next year any wants to become a nurse.

They had a presentation part of the afternoon, and each of our three kids had something prepared. Hilda read a poem about sponsors and their sponsored children friends.

With Monika, Hilda’s younger sister.

Until next time…

Villages of Guatemala- Part I

When we were in Guatemala, we were able to travel to four villages that are part of CFCA’s 65 subprojects. There are over 81,000 children sponsored through CFCA in Guatemala alone, so we only met a small number of the families. One of the couples in our group has traveled to Guatemala four times and visited sixteen completely different projects! The residents of the villages consider it a great honor to host sponsors, but due to the number of subprojects, do not get the opportunity very often!  

Our first village visit was on Sunday as we traveled from Guatemala City to our main location in San Lucas Toliman on Lake Atitlan.

As our bus pulled up, we were met with crowds of people, firecrackers, shouts from the young boys, and more hugs than I can count!

It was hard to believe they were so excited to see US- we came to see them! They welcomed us with signs, confetti, parades, pine needle carpets, costumes and bands. Day after day we were treated like celebrities at the villages- everyone wanted pictures with us, were cheering for us…it was incredible, unbelievable and humbling!

(Also, while walking in the parades with the families, we quickly realized that we felt like giants! Most of our group towered over the locals.)

At each village we would be able to listen to families who have been helped by CFCA’s programs. The kids would dance (or read a poem or perform a song) for us, and then they would come grab us and we would join them. Yes, even I (Bethany) found myself on the dance floor multiple times. Unbelievable, I know!

In this particular village, a few of the moms got up to show us items they have been working hard on- soap and the wall hangings you can see in some of the pictures.

The project would treat us to a local meal—we ate a lot of chicken, tortillas, cooked vegetables, and rice throughout the week! Afterwards, we had some time to visit with the local residents, which for most of us non-Spanish speakers meant pointing to our cameras, saying “foto?” and the kids responding ecstatically with “Si! Si!”

                                                  

A local boy and his cow, likely purchased by CFCA and/or his sponsor to help supply his family with beef/milk

Until next time…

We're Home!

Lydia and I have had an amazing trip to Guatemala. I am sitting in Houston for a layover so I thought I'd pop in and say hi! We have many stories to share but they will be shared slowly over the next few weeks. I have seven straight days of kid watching ahead...nothing like jumping right back into "real life", right?

Until I am able to sift through pictures our group has taken, here are a few from my phone. I did not have it with me most days so there are not many!



This little guy is 5 year old Jose. Lydia's church back home sponsors him and we were able to meet him as well as his mother and younger brother Bryan. Jose was shy at first but very busy!



The view of two volcanoes from our CFCA regional center, where we stayed most of the week. Sometimes the clouds would roll in (very low clouds!) and you wouldn't be able to see the volcanoes at all.



The cathedral in Guatemala City. You can kind of see the market spread all around.



The market in the square. There were so many things for sale, but the vendors were not pushing for sales here like they were in Antigua later in the week.



So many bright and colorful things for sale!



The majority of the crafts are handmade.



The view from our hotel room the last night. We traveled from the center to Guatemala City to make it easier for some in our group to get to the airport on time for their 6am flights back to the States.

Much, much more to come (after a good sleep!)

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