Mission to Guatemala 2012

Feliz Dia de Madre!  Today is Mother’s Day in Guatemala.  We all got this message at 4 am with a 5 minute blast of fire crackers in the courtyard!

The team headed to Tecpan – a rural farming village about 2 hours west of the city.  We teamed up with JT Childrens Foundation – an organization that provided physical and occupational therapy for kids. 1/2 of the team stayed at the foundation assisting with therapy and the nurses gave CPR training.

The other half went out into a community in the mountains. We were at Melvin’s home. Melvin is a 14 yr old kid with CP. His home is on top of a steep incline – maybe 200 meters from the main road. Melvin walks down the stairs to the main road to get to therapy.  The stairs have been washed smooth over time. His handrail….barb wire! Yikes.

We spent the day cutting out new stairs and installed a rope for a hand rail.  Pretty good day of manual labor.  We did of course find time to play with all the kids.  Spanish is the 2nd language in this area. the main language is a Mayan dialect of Q’eqchi.  Super nice folks.

After work we headed into Antigua were we will be for the next 2 nights. Friday is our day off – zip lining and shopping.