Journal November 22-28

Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 3:15 AM

(Click on any picture to enlarge)

IT’S KID'S CAMP WEEK. If you are wondering where Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday went to, so am I. I guess my only explanation is sentence # 1. IT’S KID'S CAMP WEEK. It’s a bit ironic that some of the days that have the most to write about are the ones that I simply have no time to write about, so once again my account of what went on during the past few days will be sketchy at best.

Most of Saturday was spent bringing camp volinteers to and from the airport.

On Sunday I manged to make it to church with nine of my kids and then caught up with Chris, Donna, and the volunteers and took most of them to Hermano Pedro Orphanage to meet the seven kids that would be coming ot camp on Monday. After that we divided into two groups, those that wanted to go souvenir shopping, and those that wanted to just hang out at the orphanage. I seriously question the sanity of this weeks group of volunteers because the majority of them went junk shopping while only a few of us stayed behind at the orphanage.

Monday was our first day of kid's camp. This year we have only about forty campers but other than the eleven that we brought in from two different orphanages all of the others brought family members so we are still sitting right at 125 people at camp. I have to admit that even thought most of our volunteers proved themselves a bit mentally unstable by choosing to go souvenir shopping on Sunday, they are doing an awesome job with the kids.

Since the eleven orphanage kids had no caregivers come along with them we are all kept quite busy feeding, dressing, and bathing them.

Calin and Fernando were a big help, especially with the eleven orphanage kids

Some of the campers pitched in and helped out as well.

Busy or not we are still finding time to let our hair down and do some clowning around.

Tuesday seems a bit of a bluer to me. I guess that has something to do with the fact that I roomed with 4 of the orphanage kids, one of whom refused to sleep most of the night, and also made sure that I did the same. In the morning everyone pitched in and an hour later we had them all showered and ready for a 7:00 AM breakfast. Like I said the rest of the day was a bit of a bluer to me but I was told that every one, even David who had kept me awake all night,had a great time. Tuesday night Mat offered to stay with my 4 kids so after treating a few bed sores I headed for home to get a good night's sleep. I finally managed to get the neighbor kids to go home but only after I agreed to go to a home with them to look at a little girl that has an eye infection. We got back home at around ten and I headed of to bed. Fortunately the two kids that are still at my house sleep much better than David so it is nice and quiet in the house. So why did I get out of bed at 3:15 AM to writ in my journal? Good question!

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick




Wednesday, November 26, 2008



It was another busy day today but a good one. This was the day that we took all of our campers to the beach. Other than having the alarm on the van that I was driving go off and continue to stay on until I could borrow some wrenches from the driver of the burning truck that we donated 5 gallons of drinking water to, and then having the a nearby mountain show signs of indigestion, we had a fairly normal drive to the beech.






One hundred twenty five out of the one hundred forty seven people that came along to the beach with us swam, so we were kept busy carrying campers to and from the pool and the beach. On our way home the clutch went out on one of the buses that we were using but the driver managed to drive it most of the way back to camp. I would love to write more but simply do not have the time. I guess that in order for you to find out just what camp is like is for you to come on down and see for your self

















Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick




. . .
. . . . .^ Click button
. . . .Video of Jose and his power wheelchair that he received at camp.


Thursday, November 27, 2008

I can't quite remember everything that happened Thursday but I know that we had a good time.

Friday, November 28, 2008.

Saying goodbye is never easy but it was a great camp.

Fact is we had such a hard time . . . . .
saying goodbye that we decided . . . . .
to take several of the orphanage . . . . .
kids out to Camperos after getting . . . .
them back to the orphanage. .. . . . .

. . . . .Are we all tired?

Was it worth it?

You be the judge.

Matthew 19:14

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

. . . . . . .Goodnight,
. . . . . . .Yours in Christ: Dick

Journal November 15-21 2008

(Click on any photo enlarge)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 8:42 PM

This week is the first of 3 weeks of camp and I am finding that there are simply not enough hours in each day to spend time on my journal. I will do my best to do a bit of writhing when I find the time but since I am already 4 days behind don’t expect much more than just a few highlights.
A good part of my weekend was spent running back and forth to Guatemala City picking up American volunteers that were coming in to help out at camp. At last count 15 Americans have come in during the weekend. After church on Sunday we took the volunteers to lunch in Antigua and then to the orphanage. My first impression of these volunteers was that they were fairly intelligent people but then they blew their cover by deciding to go souvenir shopping. I told them that I had a lot of junk at home that I would gladly give them but they seemed to want to help out the Guatemalan economy by buying the junk that was in the markets. I stayed at the orphanage until they finished buying their treasures. All I can say to any of their family members that receive these trinkets when their loved ones get back to the states is, please do not try to get rid of your gifts of clothing by dropping any of them in your church mission barrel. It could end up back here in Guatemala and there is no way even the poorest Guatemalan would be caught dead wearing any of that stuff.




Monday was our first day of camp and we ended up with right around 55 campers. Most of them brought friends or family member along with them so add to that the Guatemalan camp consolers and the American volunteers and there must be over 150 people at camp.

(18 year old Tim left & 14 year old Calin right)

This morning Calin and I went to the shop and repaired Tiny Tim’s power wheelchair. Tim who is 18 years old and the size of an 18 month old baby has been with out his power chair for a few months so I decided that repairing it had to be a priority. We got it finished just before lunchtime and then brought it out to him at camp. He was one thrilled young man.












After lunch Calin and I took 3 of the Americans that are here for only a week, out to visit some families. After stopping off at the grocery store to buy them some much needed food we visited several families that were in desperate need of food. It is so much fun to see how friendly these families are becoming now that they are getting to know us. Kids that would run away and hide from us only a few short months ago are now running up to us and begging to be held. Our visits went much too fast but I wanted to get the ladies back to camp before dark.







Tomorrow should prove to be an interesting day because we are taking all of the campers to the beach. Not only do we have to load all of them onto the 3 buses that we are renting but also once we reach the ocean we have to figure out a way to get there wheelchairs across hundreds of feet of sand to the beech. Well I am getting tired just thinking about it so I am going to say, “Goodnight.”

Yours in Christ: Dick


Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 9:31 PM


It is amazing how much difference a 6000 foot drop in elevation can make. Last night a lot of our campers had to be given extra blankets because they could not stay warm but today most of them were wishing that the temperature were a lot cooler. None of us complained to badly though because we had the choice of two swimming pools and the Pacific ocean to cool off in. Getting our campers into the pools or down to the beach proved to be quite a chore but judging by how happy they were it was worth all of the backaches that most of us have tonight. For most of our campers seeing the Pacific Ocean was the dream of a lifetime. This may sound strange considering some of them live only about a half hour from the ocean but many of these people seldom get more than a mile or two from where they live.

This Photo was sent to Pastor Bill, Chris, and myself by our not so good X-friend Mat.

Thursday, November 20, 2008, 9:53 PM
After stopping off at the shop to program a few power wheelchairs I headed over to camp to pick up two of the volunteers that came in from New York to help out at camp this week. Since neither of them have ever been in Guatemala before I thought that they would enjoy coming along with me to see a few families that live down near the coast. On our way out of town we picked up Calin and Caesar so that we would have an interpreter. Actually Calin was the one that was going to interpret for us. Caesar’s English is no better than my Spanish so he simply came along for the ride. Our first stop was at the home of Milton’s family. I have been promising him a wheelchair for quite some time but up until now could not find anything that would work for him. Even though he is doing a lot better than he was doing a few months ago when we admitted him into the malnutrition ward of Hermano Pedro he still remains very stiff and cannot bend into a seated position. When we got to his home his mother told us that his sister had taken him for a walk. I was happy to see that Milton’s whole family seems to be taking an interest in him now. Every one but Milton was thrilled with the wheelchair that we brought him. Actually I don’t think that he minded his new wheelchair it was getting near me that he hated. Ever since I took him and his mother into the Hermano Pedro Milton associates me as being the one that was responsible for his two month stay away from his family, in the malnutrition ward, so now every time he sees me he starts to cry. Mother promised me though that once we left she would put him back into his wheelchair and push him around in it.








Next we went to the home of Gabriel and his family. Gabriel is a four year old that has spinal bifida. About a year ago I gave him a wheelchair that Ronny had outgrown. On my lat visit I had discovered that his family had some how lost a special cushion that I had made for his back. Today we made a new one and Gabriel’s family promised to secure it firmly to his wheelchair.








Our next stop was at Ronny’s home. Our two people from New York were overwhelmed by the friendliness of this family. The rest of our day went by much to fast because even though some of the members of our crew had just met this family they had indeed bonded to them. Not only did we visit with Ronny’s family but most of them went along with us to fist their aunt and uncle and their grandmother who we have also been able to provide with new homes. We could have easily walked there from Ronny’s house but some of the fields along the way have just been worked up so there was no way that Ronny could make it there in his wheelchair. Besides that his brothers and sisters love riding in my car. Today Ronny’s little brother Arlando did the steering.



Ronny’s aunt and her children were a bit shy at first but proudly showed us the new prefabricated house that Howard and Saul had put up for them last week. It is nothing fancy but to them it is a castle. It has a cement floor in it that is high enough off from the ground that this family of nine should no longer be knee deep in water every time it rains.

Grandmother who lives only a hundred feet further up the trail is equally as happy with the house that she has been in for a little over a year now. I don’t know weather or not my friends from the USA were prepared for the hugs that grandma gave to all of us but bruised ribs heal. It is hard to believe that this is the same lady that snapped at me telling me that she did not want a house when I first presented the idea to her a little over a year ago. That day she told me that she had been promised things all of her life and she was not about to believe that some one was going to come in and build her a house for free. Less then two weeks later I watched as her as she raised her hands towards heaven and thanked God for the new home that she was standing in. We had planned on making this our last visit of the day until Ronny’s mom told us about a five year old girl that needed a wheelchair. Soon we were all on our way down the dirt road to visit her and her family. Arlando quickly hopped onto my lap and proclaimed to the other kids in his family that he was designated driver for the rest of the day.



The family of the little girl that we visited with was excited to here that we were going to do our best to get her a wheelchair as quickly as possible. They were very friendly and would have liked it if we could have visited longer but we had to be back at camp by 6:00 PM.



Tonight is the final night of teen camp. I usually like to stick around and hear the speeches that the campers give as they go up to receive their certificates but I know that I had another group of kids camped out at my gate when I got home so after treating an ongoing bed sore that David, one of our camper has been fighting for over four years now, I headed for home where there were more kids. They have all headed for home now so I think that I will call it a day.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick

Friday, November 21, 2008, 10:29 PM

Today all of the teen campers headed for home for another year. This has been one of the smoothest running camps that we have ever had. Both campers and staff had a wonderful week and even though everyone was tiered no one wanted it to end. Tomorrow seven of the volunteers that are here from the USA and Canada will be heading back home but several are staying and nine others will be arriving for kid’s camp that will start on Monday. I have already been getting phone calls from some of the kids that will be attending and they are very excited. When I returned the teens to Hermano Pedro this morning all seven of the kids that will be coming from there seamed to be extremely excited as well. Mercedes was crying when I arrived at the orphanage though. She is still having a hard time understanding why Ascension got to go to this week’s camp while she had to stay home. I once again explained to her that she would be going on Monday along with Sonia, Moises and four others. Her tears suddenly turned into a large smile so I think that she is counting the days.



After visiting with the kids for about an hour I headed back to Chimaltenango to pick up the volunteers and take them to Hope Haven’s new wheelchair factory in Antigua. Mark gave us a tour of the facility and introduced us to the workers. Everyone was quite impressed with the work that is being done there.



That is when it happened. I don’t know if it was the fumes from the paint that was being used on the wheelchairs or I had misjudged the sanity of the volunteers that were here all week. I had almost forgotten about the souvenir shopping that they did last weekend because all during camp the entire group seemed fairly sane but once again today all but one of them went off the wagon and insisted on going souvenir shopping. Linda the only sane one in the bunch (besides my self of coarse) accompanied me to the orphanage while the rest of the group yielded to their shopping addictions. I made them promise to show me what they bought and tell me what they had paid when they had come back to their senses though. I told them that I needed a good laugh.

Linda and I figured that we would play and visit with a lot of the kids in the time that it would take for the rest of the teem to run out of money, but the first two kids that we picked up proved us wrong. When it was time to leave we found ourselves still holding the same two kids that we had picked up when we came in to the orphanage two and a half hours earlier. These kids have a way of doing that to you.

Well, it is getting late and I have to make several runs to the airport tomorrow, so I think that I will head off to bed.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick

Journal November 9-14 2008

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Sunday, November 9, 2008, 9:00 PM

Tonight I am once again in a motel room in Rabinal. I decided to try this one because it is rated one of the top 2 motels in this town. Of course that doesn’t mean much considering there are only 2 motels in this town. 2 weeks ago after staying in the other one I decided that I would try this one even though people that I talked to in town told me that it was not all that great. After spending a night in the other motel and discovering that the only thing that was soft about the beds were some of the fuzzy bugs that were in it I decided that this one couldn’t be any worse. I was right it isn’t any worse. I am afraid that it isn’t much better either though. At least here the water has stayed on and the shower has an electric widow maker showerhead. It does not work but at least it has one. There is some kind of a tree outside that keeps dropping seeds on the roof but I will hopefully be able to sleep through that. I guess I should count my blessings though because it is not a coconut tree and there are no visible holes in the roof that are large enough for any seed to drop through.

Abner and Daniel have come along with me on this trip and they are staying in the motel room next door. Since most motels charge by the person and not by the number of rooms that you take I decided to get them a room of their own. That way they can watch TV as late as they want to. This morning we headed out with 40 water filters that we are planning on distributing in a village tomorrow. Julia and her husband Luis who are friends that live in Rabinal will accompany us. They have found a village that is in need of them. I had hoped that we could bring some more filters into the village that we brought some into last year but the river is still to high to cross with mules and that is the only way that we can get them into that village.

Today instead of staying on the mane roads we went cross-country. This cuts off over 50 miles but it is certainly not Corvette country. There is a lot of beautiful scenery along the way though and we even stopped off at one river and went for a swim. About an hour further down the road I nearly had to turn around because of a truck that was stuck on the road. The truck that was half buried in mud was not all that big but neither was the road so I barely squeezed my way past it. I thought about seeing if I could pull it out of the mud but when I saw that it was loaded with cement blocks and bottomed out in the mud I decided not to take a chance of doing a lot of damage to my land cruiser.

Well either the wind has died down or the tree outside is running out of what ever it is that is falling from it because the racket has died down to where I think I can get some sleep, so I will say goodnight. Now all I have to do is decide weather to go to bed smelling like sweat or take an ice cold shower. Come to think of it I did swim today so I guess the shower can wait until morning.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick

Monday, November 10, 2008, 11:21 PM
After breakfast we went and picked up Luis, Julia, and their two kids and headed for an aldea (Small village) that I have never been to before. We were able to drive nearly all of the way to a school that also serves as the local meeting hall but had to walk a last bit of the way because a section of the road is gone due to a land slide. The landslide has also caused part of the school to drop down a few feet but they are still using it. We had no trouble getting the water filters the rest of the way because nearly all of the 100 plus residents of the aldea were waiting for us and everyone pitched in and helped. Abner had his hands full because he was the only one that knew both English and Spanish. Conversation got a bit tricky because Abner’s voice is not all that loud so what ever I said to him was translated to Luis who in turn repeated it to the villagers that knew Spanish than one of them translated it to the people of the village that only know their Mayan language. This could have gotten a bit confusing, especially since I was explaining proper dosages of the parasite medication that we were giving out and the amount of bleach to add to the water that was to be put into the water filters that were also given out. Everyone did a great job of interpreting though and all of the instructions seemed to be understood.




Abner has come so far in the past few months. It was not all that long ago that I vowed that I would never again take him into a village with me. That was after he had a temper tantrum while we were hiking in to bring some medicine to Erica. It is not a good situation having a crying Guatemalan kid with you in a strange village. Especially if you don’t know the language and the kid is mad enough that given the opportunity he would likely tell the villagers that you were kidnapping him. Today this same young man was standing beside me sharing with the people that we had come to their village to share the love of Jesus with them. Both he and Daniel did such a great job of helping out today that I am going to reward them by taking them to Champey tomorrow.






It took a few hours to get all of the water filters assembled and handed out but we finished up at around noon. Before leaving we hiked in to visit the family of Rubin, one of the teens that comes to camp. I have never hiked in to see this family before because Julia and Luis usually deliver his invitation on Luis’s motorcycle. We had a good visit. Seeing his home and others that we passed by on the trail going in reminded us of just how much poverty there is in Guatemala.




Well it is getting late so I guess that I will head off to bed. It better be a good one because this motel is costing the 3 of us $35. That’s about 50% higher than last night’s motel. Then again they claim that this one has hot water. I will soon find out.Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick

Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 9:28 PM

Guess what. I managed to get that hot shower last night but only after operating on the electric showerhead. While working on it I tried to be careful because I was quite certain that they did not call them widow makers for nothing. I would have felt better if there would have been a shut off switch some where but that was long gone and some one had wired it in to direct current. However, even though I was standing ankle deep in water from a plugged drain, I felt reasonably safe because since I am not married, I figured that the name widow maker could not refer to me.





Today we went to Champey. This has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Were it not for the fact that it is at times impossible to get to even with a 4 wheel drive vehicle, I think that it would be more popular. In a way I am glad that it is not easily accessible though because its remoteness is part of its charm. Anyway enough writing since this is unofficially a day off for me, so here are some pictures.
























Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Last night we stayed in the same motel. We got the same room so the shower worked fine. Standing in the same ankle deep water was not all that bad other than the fact that it was the same water that was in it last night. This morning it was a bit deeper though. I think that was due to the fact that the toilet tank sprung a leek during the night.
We once again decided to head cross-country to get back home today. I even found a new road today that cut off about another 25 miles. (The word road in Guatemala refers to anything that has ever been driven down with any type of vehicle, even if it was 50 years ago.) This one can even be found on a few Guatemalan maps though. I have an idea that these are maps from the fifties because none of the bridges that had at one time crossed any of the rivers were there anymore. At least this gave me the opportunity to get the lower half of my car washed four or five times. There were a few times that I wondered if I was going to get it completely washed but fortunately it had not rained there recently so we managed to find fairly shallow places to cross. Since it was a hot day we even got out of the car and swam in a few of the rivers that we crossed.

We finally pulled into my alley at around quarter to eight. By eight a dozen kids were in the house and things were back to normal. Calin told me that his sister Claudia’s wedding, that is going to be on Friday was nearly canceled due to no bridegroom. Claudia’s future husband and his father had withdrawn some money from the bank for the wedding, and were followed to there home that is only a half block from mine and robbed them. Much like the many other robberies that have been going on around here the robbers knew exactly how much money they had taken out of the bank. As the three robbers were leaving one of them turned and aimed his gun at Claudia’s boy friend. He was sure that the robber was going to shoot him but instead the robber hit him over the head with the gun and left. I am not sure if this was related but that same day a man about a block away from here was shot and killed.

Some more disturbing news that I received today was from my friend Rolland Elf. He called to say that Ana Marib, a little girl who lives north of Huehuetenango whom we had measured for a wheelchair on a visit in September had died. I remember her well because her Father had refused to let us see her at first because he did not trust white people.

Well there is still no place like home and it is good to be back. I am tired though so I think that I will say, “Goodnight”.



Yours in Christ: Dick

Thursday, November 13, 2008, 10:58 PM

Calin, Fernando, and Marcos came along with me to the orphanage today. Shortly after we got there we were met by David Black. His wife Luanne spent about two months volunteering at Hermano Pedro during the summer. David and Luanne have both been in Guatemala several times prior to that. Today David helped the boys and myself fix some wheelchairs in the morning and then at around noon we took five of the kids out to lunch. After lunch I showed him around the orphanage and introduced him to some of the kids. His wife had fallen in love with Lionel when she was here and David also took to him the minute that he saw him. This evening as we headed out of the orphanage David shook my hand and told me that today was his birthday and that he could not have thought of a better way to spend it. I think that we will be seeing a lot more of both David and Luanne here in the not to distant future.


A few hours ago Alex came into my house demanding supper. Not 30 seconds later Alex was on his way out of my house with little more than an empty stomach. Every now and then I have to not so gently remind the kids that this is not a restaurant.. Poor Alex just last night he asked me for some money so that he could buy some white shoes for Claudia’s wedding. I had to remind him that just last week when I asked him if he wanted to make some money by doing some work for me he had said no. He is a good kid but some times he needs a little reminder that I am his friend but this is not a bank or a restaurants.

Fernando on the other hand put me to shame earlier this evening. It is my prayer that some day I become as wise and compassionate as this 12 year old. Since the three boys did such a good job of helping out at the orphanage today I stopped off and bought them each a few pieces of pizza. They sell it outside of Camperos for just over a buck for 2 slices and a coke. As I walked up to the pizza stand a little boy whom Fernando had already struck up a conversation with, asked me if I wanted him to shine my shoes. Not that my shoes could not have stood to be shined and 2Q (25 Cents) isn’t all that much but, I was tired and hungry and I just wanted to sit down and enjoy my pizza so I politely said “No thank you,” picked up my pizza and walked over to the table where Calin and Marcos were already at. A few minutes later Fernando came over to the table and sat down. After we prayed he looked up at me and asked me if it would be all right if he gave one of his pieces of pizza to the little shoeshine boy. I told him that it was OK with me but reminded Fernando that he was the one that had told me how hungry he was and that was the main reason that I had stopped for Pizza. Fernando then told me that he was indeed hungry but the little boy that he wanted to give half of his pizza to had not eaten all day and had to be hungrier. A few minutes later the little shoeshine boy had his own 2 pieces of pizza and a coke. We asked him if he wanted to join us but he told us that he had to get home before dark. He said that today had been a good day. He had made 10Q shining shoes, and that was the amount that his father required him to bring home before he was allowed back into his house.


Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick


Friday, November 14, 2008, 7:16 PM

Today I made the first of many runs into Guatemala City to pick up some of the Ameriacn volunteers that are coming here to help out at camp. During the next 3 weeks.we plan on having 3 one week camps for some adults, teens, and kids with dissibilities. Please pray for this our ninth year of camp. It is always a buisy tiem but a rewarding one.

Yours in Christ: Dick

Journal November 1-8

Saturday. November 1 – Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Since I have fallen way behind on my journal entries and have not yet figured out how to get 30 hours out of a 24 hour day I am going to combine 5 days into a single journal entry. Remembering back 4 or 5 days gets a bit difficult at my age, and my typing has not gotten any faster, so I will let my pictures do more of the talking than my writing.

Lots of kids all weekend. .

. . . . . .. .(click on any picture to enlarge)

. .

Birthday Parties

Official
"Go Fly A Kite Day"

A quick lunch after church










Orphanage visits
































































. . .

Orphanage outings

Medical stuff

Dishes and house work

N
O
T

!

I even managed to find the time to get a little bit of rest.