We had a remarkable time in the village today as we watched at least 600 children and their families receive blessings of food, toys, shoes and cake. The children performed several traditional dances as a thank you to us for coming and they were so adorable!! I was amazed at the way Arianna reacted to all of those children as well. She went and sat in the middle of those children and let´s just say a language barrier did nothing to hemper her from enjoying each of them!! It was so wonderful for me to watch her play and enjoy herself!! It was also so remarkable to look around and see her in the eyes of those around her. I am so blessed that God choose us to adopt Arianna and provide us the chance to return to Guatemala and let her help the people of her country!!
We did have a rather interesting dearture though. Someone telephoned Sharon talking about road closures due to an angry mob being formed in Panajachel closing roads down. Apparently the law enforcement here has been doing little to nothing about the people who are stealing and extorting money so villagers have decided to take matters into their own hands. One man and three woman were caught extorting money and the villagers seized the man and beat him to death, while also setting him on fire and when the police would not release the three women to them they formed a very angry mob. They threatened to burn the police station down and more if they were not released!! Once they were turned over they knelt them in the middle of the street as the women begged for their lives and another chance. One sadly was pregnant. They paraded these women down the streets and beat them along the way until the police stopped them at the waterfall and gained custody of them again. Thankfully they showed up just in time to spare their lives!! Such a sad tragedy here.
We had to stop and speak to villagers to remove large rocks from the road so we could pass and thank God they did do so!! We thoought we were free and clear but ran into another road block as the villagers cut HUGE trees and laid them across the road preventing anyone from passing. We went to San Jorge and dropped the donations off at the preschool. Julio phoned in for a boat to come get us so we could return to Panajachel. After a nice boat ride and a cold shower from the waves we arrived in Panajachel. We were shortly greeted by several police trucks with police dressed in raid gear while carrying tear gas canisters!! Gloria immediately took us into the court yard of a family while they phoned a reliable tuk tuk driver to come get us. We made it safely to the hotel but it was quite the adventure!!
I have learned several things today that I did not know. Some things I had an idea about became apparent. I know for sure now a very reliable mission team will need to be formed for next year. I also learned that many people in the world are not as they seem!! I also came to the conclusion that one can only look the other way for so long before it becomes too much!! I´m praying that God will send me someone reliable who has a true passion for helping the people of Guatemala to help me run the mission next year. If you´re flexable and would be interested in helping with collecting donations and shipping them out, fundraising for food bags, traveling to Guatemala to help distribute the items, and having an experience of a life time this is your opportunity!! This mission continues to grow each year and more people will be needed to travel so if you´re interested please email me or leave a comment with your email addy and I´ll be sure to send along the information. I will have the dates of the next year´s Project Santa posted soon. So start saving now and come along for a journey of a life time!!
Internet has been so SLOW and sporatic here that I have not been able to post photos but I will do it as soon as I can!! Thanks again for all of your support and please for my family as we continue on with the rest of the mission trip!!
Beginning to sort the donations.
Cans of meat for the food bags. These will provide lots of protein for the families!
Cases of cooking oil for distribution
The first five Medrano boxes
Pre-measured sugar, sacks of potatoes, and bags of carrots waiting to be sorted!
Food bags ready for distribution. They all contained rice, beans, maize, cooking oil, fruits, vegetables, and sugar.
Sacks of maize with pre-measure bags laying next to them!
Lee Jr. helping to unload the food truck.
Lee Jr. measuring out rice for the food bags.
Lee measuring out maize for the food bags.
Lee helping to unload the first truck of food.
Olivia was taking a break amongst all her furry friends!!
Sacks of pineapples
A look at the conference room before much unpacking was done!
Seeing some progress in the conference room! It had a lot more things in it in the end!!
The beginning of the shoe pile!
Some of the stuffed animals collected, and NOPE this is NOT all of them!!
One of the truck loads of food bought for distribution.
A truck load of bananas to include in the food bags and baskets!!
Yep the Medrano boxes are really that heavy, but they're filled with awesome and much needed supplies!!
Victor, our driver, even volunteered to help fill food bags!!
Fresh meat hanging in the market.
A very sweet woman in the market who we purchased food from. She had at least five little children with her at work. I can only imagine how hard that must be!
