Day 9: Stay With Me

Franco: It was a day where so much happened I'm struggling to begin this blog. Maybe starting with the easier part of the day will help get me started. The emotional side of what we experienced today feels like trying to piece a puzzle together in my head.


While most of the team was busy carrying building materials to Don Alberto's home and digging the water trench where the water pipes would be installed I went to visit a Doña Elena. She and her family had benefited from a concrete floor thanks to your donations. Doña Elena is a widow and a loving mother of four children. Her husband died a few years ago after six days of severe vomiting and diarrhea. Doña Elena pulled me by my arm to show me her new concrete floor. She was thankful to the donors and both teams of volunteers. She was proud of her floor and called a nearby neighbor to pose in the pictures below. Doña Elena is particularly happy she doesn't have to worry about the humidity or the dust now that she has a cement floor.

We then stopped to visit another widow, Doña Maria Magdalena and her seven children. What I most admired about her humble home was how impeccably clean it was given her circumstances. Doña Maria Magdalena shared her story with me. At first she was timid and shy but as she continued her story I could feel her opening up. Three years ago her husband became ill with a rare disease doctors were unable to diagnose. His primary symptom was insomnia. Doña Magdalena says her husband soon began beating her and their children, something he had never done in the past. This continued for about a year until one day she took her sick baby to the clinic in town. When she came back home her children were watching their dead father dangling from the ceiling of their home.


I could see tears swell up in Doña Maria Magdalena's eyes. She would stop and catch her breathe and after a short while continue. I sat quietly and honored her story by listening. Today, Doña Maria Magdalena works as a cook, washes neighbors' clothes in a nearby river, and does other odd jobs to keep food on the table.


ProjectHELLO currently sponsors five families living in Sibinal. If anyone is touched by Doña Maria Magdalena's story and would like to sponsor her family for $50 a month please contact me at PedroArgumedo78@aol.com or via this blog's e-mail address. Below is a picture of her and her family with one child missing. Thank you.

Olivia: Today I was thinking a great deal about the birth lottery. The birth lottery is a term I first learned about in Bob Harris's book, The International Bank of Bob. Basically, it's the concept that we, our essences, are born into the families and positions that we are at random. For instance, I happened to be born a white female in a middle class family in the middle of Missouri. However, maybe the chances of me being born into a poor family in southern India were the same? The birth lottery is seemingly random. I got lucky. Being as I am, I have more power, privilege, resources, health, and safety than a large percentage of the world. Part of me wants to call it luck. The other part of me doesn't fully buy the randomness of the lottery.


As I visit the families we're helping here in Sibinal, I keep asking "why?" Why does this elderly couple live without access to water - a basic human right? Why does this father have to cross a border and spend days away from his family so that he and his family can barely scratch out a living? Why did we have to take 5 young children into a clinic to be treated for serious upper respiratory and skin infections because of the poor conditions in which they live? Why do they have to grow up developmentally impaired because of malnutrition? Why does the mother of three of these children have to live in a situation that makes her vulnerable to continuous rapes? Why, why, why? Maybe the birth lottery is truly random, but then why are some chances far worse than others? For those of us that did get the better end of this birth lottery, do we have a moral obligation or responsibility to help those who weren't so lucky? Or not? It was random right? It's not our fault we got lucky...I don't know. I don't know the answers to any of my questions. I do know that I can help one person at a time. Maybe if we all did that, in whatever way we can, we can influence the birth lottery in a positive way. Wishful thinking, maybe, but helping one person at a time is better than doing nothing at all. Thank you to all the donors and supporters out there who make helping the people in Sibinal, Guatemala possible. And thanks again for reading.


Below are pictures of work being done at Don Alberto's home including his own water pipe line.

Emily: What a day! We had a change of schedule because of the children with the infections that we talked about earlier. the doctor gave us medicine to give to the children three times a day. The medication ranges from oral, topical, and even a shot. as a group, we decided to take on the task of doing the doses everyday. We had the first dose tonight and they kids handled it well. Except for Marianna, she is seven and her wounds are fresh, which burns a little more than the others.


Today, we also did work on carrying loads of sand, rocks, and cement to Don Alberto's house in the mountains. It made me regret not working out before this trip because walking up and down the mountains carrying heavy supplies is exhausting. But it's all worth it and i'll even lose a couple pounds!
Franco: This morning I called a private town doctor about the sick girls we had seen a few days ago. I told him about their skin infections and he told me to bring them in as soon as possible. Both teams had left to a different function. I asked Don Elfego, the man's whose home we are eating at, if he could take me to pick up the sick girls. We showed up and some of the children could not walk down the mountain because of the pain they felt due to the infections being on their feet. Don Elfego and I carried two of these beautiful children down the mountain to his truck where we transported them to a private clinic to get the best care possible.

Once we arrived to the clinic the children began asking for the rest of the volunteers. One of the little girls kept repeatedly asking for Emily. I decided it would be best to contact Emily. Soon thereafter, Emily and the rest of the team showed up. Even though I was inside with the doctor as he treated one child at a time I could hear the children and the rest of the team laughing and playing outside of the clinic. Distracting the children was important because they were nervous and scared to be touched and screened by a stranger. The doctor was a good man. During one of his examinations and learning about our humanitarian work in Guatemala he offered to join us next year and treat families for free as long as we let him know about our arrival a few weeks in advance. Below are pictures of the children being treated by the doctor. They also received medications and were diagnosed with bronchitis, fever, tonsillitis, impetigo (skin rash), pharyngitis, and moderate malnutrition. It was amazing and truly touching how we came together as a team to pay for medications (the doctor did not charge the children for the visit), and how we displayed the strength and courage necessary to help the children feel happy and distracted. It was difficult for me to say good-bye. I could see it in their eyes they wanted us to stay with them. The eldest girl came up to me and grabbed my hand and as my heart shook to its very core she asked me if I could take her with me.

Below are some images that restored me to sanity throughout the day. They are glimpses of hope in world where sometimes emotional pain blinds my path. Nature has a way of bringing me back even when I think my burden is too heavy to handle. Glimpses of hope. Thanks for reading.