Another visit to Juan Jose's village

Yesterday, my family went with the Canadian team to the same village I wrote about in my previous posting. The team had built chicken cages for 3 of the families because they are the ones who had lost their crops in the mudslide. The team will also be buying them chicks to raise for eating and selling. This will replace their income from their crops until they can get their crops replanted.

Plus they built one for the widow in the village. She's the one that smiled so pretty for me on the last visit




The team spent several hours moving the mud from the mudslide in the back of a lady's yard so that she could plant a garden. The mud was extremely sticky and heavy and many times when they tried to throw the mud, it would just stick to their shovel. But they accomplished an amazing amount of work while they were there and will return for one more day of work.
My kids helped too. They are awesome workers! I preferred taking pictures although I did get my shoes muddy from helping a little.


Remember that there were 6 people killed from the mudslide but two boys were dug out in time and saved? Here is a picture of the two. When the medical team from Casa Angelina visited a few weeks later, they found that one of these boys had broken his leg and so someone from Casa Angelina helped monetarily so that he could get a cast.

Our Trip to the Village Yesterday

Juan Jose and Norma--House parents at Casa Angelina--This is his village






Yesterday, Glenn and I and one of my children, Annaliese, went to a village with the teams that are visiting Casa Angelina. This village is about 2 hours from my house and about 1 hour from the orphanage.

The connection with the village comes from one set of parents at Casa Angelina, Jose and Norma. They are parents at the orphanage to 15 kids. They happened to be off work last month on the weekend of the tropical storm Agatha and so were visiting their home--this same village.

In the middle of the night, they heard screaming and ran to the house where it was coming from. Because of all the rain, a great mud slide had burst through the house of Jose's cousin. Jose and others began digging immediately and eventually uncovered 2 boys, alive. They kept digging only to find the pregnant wife, who had gathered her other kids around her, all of whom had suffocated in the mud. Six were dead--the pregnant wife and 4 kids.

The house where the family was killed


It was an extremely sad time. When Jose's cousin found out, he could not stop crying. Jose tried to comfort him.



Casa Angelina, the orphanage we are working with, have helped out much. They brought 800 pounds of food to them quickly after this mudslide and loss of lives. Many crops were also lost in the mudslide.

Yesterday, 5 vehicles full of people and food, traveled to the village. Once we got off of the main road, I was amazed how far the road we followed went. It just kept going and going, curving around mountains, up and down hills, mudslides visible along the way, people smiling and waving as they stepped out of the way for the vehicles. The terrain was beautiful with green and trees everywhere.

When we got there, we pulled over off the side of the dirt road and parked right by the house that had been swallowed by mud that had swallowed lives.

We climbed the hill to the right and found the villagers waiting for us in one area. Most of the team sat down to eat lunch while I went over to the villagers and began talking to them. I met Jose's parents and little sister, along with the village children. I had fun talking to them.

The oldest person there intrigued me. I love to draw indigenous people with lots of wrinkles and this lady had them, so I took a close up picture of her.

The oldest person there.

There were about 14 people on the team that came to the village and they handed out two bags of food to each family, and then, according to the number of the people in their family, they received a towel rolled up with a toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, and soap for each person.

One of the ladies expressed her gratitude to all of us.

When the older lady received her goods, I followed her and the two men up to her house, being curious about where she lived.



Her daughter in law was up there too with her two children. I found out that when I had tried to speak spanish to the older woman, she did not understand me because she speaks Checkshekel. The older lady was smiling and so I thought I would take a picture. But as soon as I pointed the camera her way, her smile faded. I knew that is what they do here in Guatemala. They are taught to look serious for pictures.


So, I told her daughter-in-law that in the United States, we smile for photos, but in Guatemala, everyone is serious. After she told her mom in law in Checkshekel, the older woman smiled and I took a picture and her daughter in law teased her that she was American.

Isnt' she beautiful! She was so cute!

Some of the team allowed the kids to begin taking photos with the team's cameras. Some were taking pictures and one was taking video on an ipod. When they asked to use my camera, I decided that I trusted this particular girl and showed her how to take pictures with my camera, how to make the picture closer and further away, and how to press the shutter half way to get a focused picture, looking for the green square before pressing all the way.




She did great!

I loved my time in this village and wished I could communicate more with them and find out how they were all related with the family that died and what they have been through.

I only got a very small glimpse into their lives, but what I saw, I enjoyed.