Guatemala
How to Renew your spirit, Lose a little weight, in Ten Short Days - Bob Price (Click Link to Read)
Casa Guatemala - Mission of Love January 1, 2009
With sharing, comes love. With love,
comes peace!
Rashid Abdu M.D.
On a cold morning on January first, 2009, Bob Price picked me up early
in the morning, heading for our trip with the Mission of Love
to Guatemala. Kathleen Price, the Founder and Director
of the Mission of Love, had sent 75,000 pounds of building
material, medical/dental equipment, and other supplies to
Guatemala, some times in December. Kathy founded Mission of
Love about 20 years ago. During her travel with her husband, Bob, to
Mexico, she visited a clinic on the
Island of Isla Mujerus and found that she had more medicine in their
medicine cabinet at home, than there were in the clinic! From that
day forward, Kathy has dedicated her life to helping the poorest of the
poor in all parts of the United States and the world. This time,
it was the Casa Guatemala, an orphanage, of about 250 children, on
the shores of Rio Dulce, about 250 miles northeast of
Guatemala City.
It was at the request of another visionary, Angie
Galdamez, originally from Honduras, a widow, mother and
grandmother, who 30 years ago, visited an orphanage in Guatemala
City, and witnessed malnourished, and ill cared-for orphans, that
kindled the flame of love in her heart. Like Kathy Price’s
experience in Mexico, she decided to devote her life and resources to
those who have no voice and no hope, the orphans. It is
not strange that these two mothers and grandmothers became close
friends, each in her own way, making the difference in the lives of
those less fortunate.
The 15 volunteers with the Mission of Love came from Ohio,
California and Florida. Many of us
were repeaters. The mission was to build a greenhouse so the
orphans can grow vegetables, protected from the elements, including
vampire bats! The 15 of us volunteers, headed by Kathy Price and
her husband Bob, met in Houston, Texas, and then flew together to
Guatemala City, followed by a 6 hour drive across beautiful mountains,
and then by boat to the orphanage. There, all the lumber, that had
been delivered from Youngstown in
advance, in an Air Force C5, was in large piles at the
water edge, about 0.4 miles from the building site! Kathy has a
long standing arrangement with the Air Force to send large shipments
through the Denton program. The program allows a charitable
organization to send shipments to any part of the world, free of charge.
Through this program, Kathy has sent large quantities, including school
furniture and supplies, ambulances and even fire trucks! She is
the largest user of the Denton Program in the United States. Her
50th shipment, of 35, 000 pounds to Peru, was just before we
left for Guatemala.
On our arrival at the orphanage, our volunteers started to
work immediately, carrying the heavy lumber, including the 2”x10”x16’ to
the building site. There was also the extremely heavy 5”x4” by 16’
posts. Kathy purchased this steel-like post, locally.
This wood was so heavy; they had difficulty driving nails through it.
They called it “devils wood”! Our volunteers received help
from the locals, including the older orphans, who carried more than
their weight! They are hard working people with strength and
stamina almost unmatched.
The orphanage is a village-like setting, with several basic
buildings that house the administrative building, school,
volunteers and the orphans, who range in age from infancy to
18 years old. There is only two hour a day of electricity,
between 6:30 and 8:30 PM. The
small generator depends on gasoline availability. Consequently,
there is no refrigeration, so any fresh meat or fish has to be consumed
on that day. All the children looked healthy, and happy and
well cared for. Angie thinks of them as her own children.
All activities are geared for the children’s well being and safety.
There is a clinic manned by two volunteer nurses from Spain.
There is school with mostly volunteer teachers, or those with small pay.
After the 6th grade, Angie tries to raise fund for scholarships for
those qualified to go to high school and beyond. At the same time, she
owns the “Hotel Backpackers” with its restaurant, where many orphans
work and get the experience they need to function in the real world that
lies beyond the security of the orphanage. Angie knows where each
child is, what he or she is doing, whether their needs are met,
and what their aims and aspirations are.
Each child knows his/her duties within this great
“family”, according to ability and age. I was impressed to see
them engaged in those activities. They looked happy and proud of
what they were doing. I saw them washing their laundry in the
river and hanging it to dry on clothes lines in the sun. I saw
them work in the kitchen, preparing, cooking, and cleaning. I saw
little boys and girls standing around a galvanized sink, next to the
front door of the kitchen-dining room, like little brothers and sisters,
washing the after-breakfast plastic dishes without the slightest
discord!. I saw a little girl, no more than four or five years old,
filling a small water container in the river, carrying it to the balcony
of the office building’s second floor, and watering the many potted
plants. She looked so proud and happy that she was doing her job!
I saw them helping the volunteers, carrying lumber, and stones, and the
older ones pounding nails high on the building frame. But also I
saw them play like brothers and sisters, in the water, in
the school yard, and wherever the opportunity presented itself, and each
flashed a smile that was contagious and heart warming. Many
parents can learn from this orphanage on how to raise their children!
Besides our volunteers building an 90x30 foot greenhouse,
there were other volunteers, college students from
Colorado and
Wisconsin, who were building a classroom house. They too, were
hauling building material, including stones, on their backs for a long
distance. I was most impressed to see these young people come from
faraway places, at their own expense, building, teaching,
treating and nurturing these children. They come from all
over the world, because they believe in what Angie is doing, and want to
take part in this noble cause. It restores my faith and my hope in
the new generation that believes in sharing. With sharing,
comes love. With love, comes peace!
I met a young volunteer, from
England. He has been working at the orphanage, teaching and
working with the orphans on the village farm for a year and a half.
They plant corn, vegetables, fruit trees, and raise cows, pigs,
chickens, ducks and goats, for orphanage consumption.
He was relatively a well to do Englishman, but when he found Casa
Guatemala on the internet, he decided to visit. He returned to
England and sold his restaurant, and came back. His future plans
are to visit his parents in England once in a while, and after they are
gone, to return and live and work at the orphanage permanently.
Both, Kathy and Angie, have one thing in common:
Each is making a difference in the lives not only of those who are less
fortunate, but in the lives of those who discover themselves
through their work, like the hundreds, may be thousands of volunteers,
who were given the opportunity to see, to share and to love.
Perhaps we did help the orphans a little during our short stay, but they
gave us much more. The children made us better and our lives
richer, than before we arrived.
I will always be grateful for the opportunity. Thank you Kathy.
Thank you Angie.
Rashid A. Abdu, M.D.
Work of love in progress.