Osvin and Jonatan happy to receive nutritious porridge

When Matt and Adam Richman of Chester Springs, Pennyslvania, heard about the two little Mayan boys, Osvin and Jonatan, (see our previous blog) who lived in a tumble down shack with a mud floor, no furnishings, and only an open bonfire to cook upon, they wanted to know more.  Mrs. Richman told her sons that the two youngsters were part of a family of eight children and an abandoned mother, all of them struggling to survive on a handful of tortillas a day.  Matt and Adam told their parents, “We are going to sponsor them.”

Matt Richman, age 15, is a magician.  Yes, at his young age, he is a professional magician–winning  a scholarship from the Society of American Magicians to attend the Sorcerer’s Safari camp in Canada last summer. He began making a name for himself two years ago when he presented his card tricks at local restaurants as a strolling magician. Since then he has expanded his business, working at the outdoor cultural events in Phoenixville, where musicians and entertainers perform.

Matt Magic

Here is a kid who is serious about his trade—see his Raise Rise card trick in person or on You Tube on his website (www.mattrichmanmagic.com) and you will be coming back for more.

His 13-year-old brother Adam is a balloon entrepreneur. Adam wows crowds of kids with his creations of an amazing array of hand-crafted balloon creatures.  Want a Pink Panther?  Or a Parrot-on-a-Perch?  How about a futuristic dog, a crazy cat, or some other weird animal? Want action? Watch him blow balloons with his nose!  (H-m-m-m).

Adam's balloon animals

Matt and Adam, two compassionate and caring young people, are now sending a portion of their earnings to Adopt-a-Village to ensure that Osvin and Jonatan will have food and clothing in the future.

We applaud you, Matt and Adam.

Frances

Hey!  What do you think about this great picture!

I traveled to Nuevo San Ildefonso a few days ago, a rather tortuous trip that required a four-wheel drive vehicle to climb 4,000 feet over a steep boulder-studded road, slippery with mud.  After an hour of challenging the mud with spinning tires, the hardy pick-up arrived, somewhat less glistening clean, at the base of the tiny community.

To my surprise, the entire village turned out!  It was Sunday, and the families, not working on that day, were happy to have an event in the making.

People gathered outside the one-room schoolhouse, chairs were set out for the moms and kids, soft drinks offered to the guests, and the men made speeches, as is the Mayan custom.  When I explained Natalie’s gesture of friendship to them, it was clear that the Nuevo San Ildefonso parents were moved.  They prepared gifts that I would take back to the United States for her.

Upon hearing of Natalie’s desire to learn how to weave, Juana Alonzo took me to her hut and introduced me to her young daughter who she was teaching to weave.  So I include her photo for you to enjoy.

Let’s keep those friendships blooming!

Frances

In the more than 25 years that I have been traveling to Guatemala, I do not remember a time when the weather has been so punitive as it has been this year. In February, the Pacaya volcano, located just outside Guatemala City, erupted, spreading volcanic ash over the entire city.  The ash mixed with the ensuing rains to create a cement-like mixture that caused a shutdown at the international airport for days, and brought untold infrastructure damage to the city.

In May, the deadly tropical storm, Agatha, swept through the country, causing hundreds of deaths, creating over 100,000 reported evacuations, and costing millions of dollars of damage.  Since then until now, the rains have not ceased.

By the end of August, the water-logged country had suffered thousands of landslides, some of which buried homes and their inhabitants, obliterated roads, and blocked access to towns and villages.  Bridges were washed out countrywide.  Areas of the international Pan American Highway closed and whole sections of pavement simply crumbled under the tonnage of mud and disappeared  into the gorges below.  Government earth-moving equipment was impotent to keep the highway cleared as the rivers of mud continued to flow daily, uprooting trees and anything else in their wake.  As we inched along the highway on Sunday, I hoped we would not encounter one if those avalanches of muck and tree limbs coming our way.

Yes, making the two-day trip to Guatemala City was was unnerving.  I estimate we passed more than 300 mudslides, some small, some gigantic.  The massive slides blocked the entire four-lane highway.  There, bulldozers had plowed open narrow passageways for one-way traffic.    The normal six-hour trip seemed to take sixteen.   Throughout the journey, we were forced to hop-scotch into oncoming traffic, sharing miles and miles of highway with the northbound vehicles.  We were on high alert, not knowing what we’d find around each curve.

On August 30, the day before I left for the United States, the BBC reported that human losses and infrastructure destruction continued to accumulate, with rivers running at dangerous levels, flash floods, mudslides and landslides.

It feels good to have left all that rain and mud behind.  Not so good to know that the hurricanes are heading Miami-way.

Good wishes to you all, and please send good wishes to our Guatemalan friends.

Frances

Here is the sequel to Brigidito´s story.  After receiving his small pay for washing the truck, he added those earnings to his  past year´s savings.  Then he and his dad travelled to town to buy beans, cooking oil, salt, sugar, milk, and laundry soap for the eight fatherless children he wanted to help.

Upon arriving at the family´s hut, the children drew near to him.  It was obvious that this young guest had come to visit them, and them alone.   One by one, their little faces lit up as he placed his heartfelt gifts in their hands.

Later, on the ride home, he was quiet.  What was he thinking, I wondered?  I didn´t ask.  I didn´t want to intrude upon his private thoughts.

Osvin and Jonatan

Five-year-old Osvin and his younger brother Jonatan are just two of the  little kids in Guatemala caught up in extreme poverty and its devastating consequences.  Abandoned by their father, they live with a sick and overworked mother who is overwhelmed in her attempts to support them and eight other siblings.   It is clear that the children’s most minimal needs of food and clothing are  not being met.

Yesterday, AAV’s driver sent me these photos and told me that the only clothes these two little guys have are on their backs.  Without a helping hand, these kids will grow up continuing to suffer from malnutrition, ill health, and little hope to be educated.  It is you, our readers, who can reach out and help.  Sponsor Osvin.  Sponsor Jonatan.  Sponsor both of them–and give them a fighting chance in their young lives.

Or send a small donation so we can buy them food.

Thank you,

Frances

United Nations statistics show that Guatemala has the 6th worst level of malnutrition of children under five in the world.  In the rural area in northern Huehuetenango, poverty and malnutrition is extreme.

Brigido is a Guatemalan child who lives in the village of Quetzali.  He is in third grade.  Despite his young age, he is well aware of other children who have less than he does.

I want to share a letter I just received.  It came from Amy, mother of little Natalie who is featured in my previous blog.  She writes:

“That is a wonderful blog post.  Thank you for posting it.  I can’t wait to show it to her kindergarten teacher.

I don’t know if I ever told you about Natalie learning how to weave on a backstrap loom. I had found out about a sheep shearing demonstration at a local historic sight.  They had all things related to wool such as spinning, dyeing and weaving and all sorts of looms set up to try.  Natalie was instantly attracted to the backstrap loom.  She had no idea that they were used in Guatemala.  She couldn’t stop weaving on it.

She loved weaving!  I told the woman demonstrating that Natalie was from Guatemala. Last summer, we went to her home and she made Natalie her own backstrap loom (a small one out of popsicle sticks).

Natalie says she was born to weave!  She loves her Guatemalan heritage and is very interested in it.”

Great story Amy, thank you for sharing with all of us.

Frances

P.S.  Here are some photos of girls from the village of Nuevo San Ildefonso in their beautiful backstrap-loomed blouses made by their mothers.

Seven-year old Natalie, along with her school friends, recently created a giant poster to send to Mayan kids in Guatemala.  Why? Natalie’s teacher at a Budd Lake, New Jersey primary school was inspired to learn about the friendship between Natalie and Alicia, a Mayan girl in Guatemala; she recognized an opportunity to bring awareness to her students about children living in other countries.

The poster’s theme is “Friendships Bloom Around the World.”  Under the teacher’s guidance, the kids were encouraged to “express friendship through art.”

Alicia, a young Mayan girl living in the remote village of Nuevo San Ildefonso about 30 miles south of the Mexican border, exchanges photos and drawings with Natalie through the Adopt-a-Village Child Sponsorship program.   Alicia will receive the large drawing when Adopt-a-Village president travels to Guatemala later this month.

Alicia lives a small impoverished community of families who speak Mam, one of the 24 different Mayan languages spoken by the indigenous people of Guatemala.  The community is known for the beautiful and intricate designs of blouses and skirts that the mothers weave on back strap looms.  (See Alicia’s blouse in her photo)

Thanks Natalie for your poster! And give our thanks to your teacher and classmates!  What a creative way to open the doors to international friendships!

At the height of the tropical storm Agatha, I was horrified to learn that our more-than-spunky school administrator, Pedro Sebastian, had traveled to Guatemala City to obtain books for our high school students.  On the bus, people had squeezed in, packing three to a seat.  Others jammed the aisle.  It was a common enough mode of travel for those too poor to afford something more comfortable, but traveling through a tropical storm in gale winds on a flooded highway was not so common.  However, eventually, the bus reached its destination.  Whether it was due to the driver, heroic in his own right, who had successfully manipulated mudslides, inched the bus over hazardous bridges and steadied it in the high winds, or due to the very noticeable cross that hung from the rearview mirror, passengers were left to decide.

At 5:00 p.m. the same day, Pedro called me to say he had collected the books he’d come for and was now getting ready to board a return bus bound for Huehuetenango.  Of course, I thought he was joking!  It would mean a night journey in the torrential downpour on the now even more dangerous highway.  The trip would take him through Chimaltenango, the region worst hit by the storm. Landslides had buried entire communities there and dozens of people had been reported dead. “Please don’t go now,” I implored him.  But Pedro, a fatalist, wasn’t going to let a life-threatening storm delay him.  He gave his signature laugh and said, “I have to go, I’ve got work to do.”

From the time he’d left the villages where Adopt-a-Village works, more than 30 inches of rain had drenched the mountainsides.  AAV’s driver told me how the earth, transformed into mud, had slid down and buried sections of road.  Pickup trucks, full of passengers in back, sunk into the muck up to the floorboards.  Others fishtailed wildly, fighting to stay on the road and continue their journey.  I’d had to travel that same road in rain and mud three weeks ago.  I remember the fishtailing and my fright.  It was far worse now.

In all of Central America, Guatemala was most devastated by the storm.  Over 100,000 people have been evacuated from their homes.  The authorities continue to search for bodies.  You can imagine that I am anxious to leave the States to see that all our Mayan friends are safe.  I am worried most about the poorest families, and especially the widows and children we help who tend to live in the remotest areas in the flimsiest structures.  I ask myself, “Will their crude huts still be standing after such a fierce storm?”

Frustratingly, at this time of writing, the Guatemalan airport is still closed as crews continue to clear the cement-like mixture of volcanic ash and water from the airstrip.  However, my hope is to leave on Friday.  I will write again after reaching Guatemala.

Frances