Tuesday update from Guatemala

The team worked in the village again today. At the construction site they did some heavy lifting transporting 400 cement blocks, 20 bags of cement, and 20 bags of cal, and three square meters of big rocks from the street to the site where the house is. Luckily it is not too far and the path is straight and flat. The foundation is dug and filled with rocks. Tomorrow they will be mixing cement and pouring the foundation.

The filter crew visited some houses to check their filters and washed them. They also were able to install a new filter for a family.

Inside the clinic the nursing students have gotten very efficient at the well child check ups and we had to send Alejandra out a few times during the day to find more kids for them to see! In the afternoon she resorted to telling families that Gale was calling them to the clinic - people generally do what she asks them to do. We were a little surprised when everyone was coming in and hugging Gale. But when we found out what Alejandra had done, it all made sense.

1st day in the village

The team started work today in village Concepcion. The nursing students from St. Joe's are performing well-child check ups for all our sponsored children. They are recording height, weight, hemoglobin along with results from a urine test and a fecal exam. They are getting the kids who are really anemic in to see our Guatemalan doctor. It is a struggle to keep up medically with over 250 kids and the screening that they are going to do in these next two weeks is crucial to helping us keep track of our sponsored kids and keeping them healthy. Gale even taught some of the students how to look for parasites under the microscope for the fecal exams. The students did a great job and saw more kids than we had planned.

The construction crew split into two small groups. One dug out the foundation for a house being built for Dulce and Emilio. They worked super hard under the hot sun to get it all done today. They other group is working on water filters and started out today sifting and washing sand. Tomorrow they will go and pull in some water filters that need to be cleaned out and replaced.

Team's arrival and 1st day in Guatemala

Yesterday afternoon the team from St. Joe's team arrived in Guatemala. We met up with the Kearney family at the airport (they came down on Christmas day). After the long drive from the airport we had a yummy dinner followed by a quick meeting with only the most important information and then headed to bed.

Today we were up early to spend the day at Lake Atitlan. Some people did horseback riding around San Pedro and some chose to go kayaking. The others spent some time exploring the town. Everyone had a good time.

Tomorrow we start work in the village! Also Gale arrived this evening =)

Team here and having a good time

Billy amd Dru and the Christmas party team left today, and Saint Joe's arrived safely Friday afternoon. They got a good start on painting the Admin building here on PID campus and today went to the beach- tomorrow the work week begins in earnest! Good night for now. :)

New year, new sale!

Haiti bracelets (oil drum + painted + "Gems of the Antilles") are now $14.99 (originally $30). Get them while they last at our Etsy shop, PIDcrafts.

Merry Christmas from PID!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas, 

from the PID family to you and yours!

Image: Flickr

Orphanage Christmas Parties

Gertrude's Orphanage:

Billy and Dru, the annual Christmas Party people, brought booklets called "My Life" where we got the kids to write about what they are happy for in their life. They will have these for all the parties, they have coloring and connect-the-dots in them too. Today when we were at Gertrude's orphanage, the kids were a tough crowd to manage but they LOVED the visit. More than half of the kids there have some sort of handicap. Lynn from the team had big balloons for the wheelchair bound kids- it was brilliant! A lot of those kids have low fine motor abilties so the balloons were a genius idea.

Larousse Orphanage:

Samuel here getting the kids riled up. Tennis balls, My Life books, necklaces and games. Sounded like a good party!

(Photo credit: Billy Secord)

Here and planning for Parties

Billy and Dru got here Saturday, and their two assistants Lynn and Evelyn (first-timers to Haiti) got here yesterday. Today will be parties at two different orphanages. Will be sure to post pictures. They are a small team but its clear the parties will be great. We had the first ones yesterday for Blanchard kids. They made little booklets about their lives and necklaces, as well as the game playing.

Also on Saturday, we said goodbye to our last team. Only a week but many repeat volunteers who were tearful when they left.

Child Sponsorship Christmas Cards!

Many thank to the team from the Immanuel Baptist Church in Ipswich who came to help with the mailing of Child Sponsorship Christmas cards!

Sponsors, your cards are on their way!

Transformation Tuesday from Guatemala

During last week's team Brian had the opportunity to do some much needed repairs on Isabel's house. Isabel is an elderly woman (in her 80s) who is sponsored along with another elderly woman by the Plymouth Godmothers. She receives a bag of food each month. She has been asking Abby and Gale for a while to repair her house. Last year PID bought her some tin to repair the worst spots. This time around it was her lucky day! Brian and Sergio went and took measurements and then went to buy the supplies to put new tin on her house. As you can see from the first picture the house wasn't exactly waterproof during rainy season with those big gaps near the roof. And the tin was so thin and rusted that just placing your hand on the wall could cause a big hole in the tin!
Isabel was so excited about these house repairs and was even supervising the guys. She wanted to make sure it was done right and even told Sergio to move a few things over a little. So adorable.
So now Isabel has a home that will keep out the waters of rainy season. From rusty tin shack with gaps to a shiny tin home - our #TransformationTuesday !

Team arrived safely!

The team is here and relaxing after a day of travel. Will check in after a few days of work. :)

Mission accomplished

The team left this morning after a successful week. The builders got a lot accomplished and the Christmas parties were awesome. All three of the groups on the team never stopped working. They even worked a bit this morning before they left. I made them all tell me that I will see them back here next year for next year's party. 

Day Two

Today we did two out of the three Christmas parties for elementary school kids. They all came and did crafts, got their picture taken, played games and got their present from Santa.

First Day of Christmas Parties

We starting celebrating Christmas today with the sponsored kids. The morning was a party for the youngest kids that aren't in school yet, and in the afternoon we had a pool party with the kids in middle school, high school and college. 

crafts at the Christmas Party

Melisa looking so adorable

Our four boys born with cleft lip and palate 

Your Christmas Gift From PID

We've got you covered this Christmas: a gift list AND a coupon. Happy shopping!

Visit our Etsy shop and use coupon code PIDCHRISTMAS between now and December 15 to get 15% off everything on your holiday shopping list. There’s something for everyone at PIDcrafts. And remember that each time you shop, your purchase makes a significant difference in the lives of the artists, and helps support PID.

For the kids: Handmade woven bracelets from Guatemala	For the world traveler: Set of "Desierto" shoulder bags from Guatemala	For the home decorator: Handmade oil drum palm leaf bowl from Haiti
For the bird lover: Hand-sculpted wooden pelicans from Guatemala	For the beauty queen: Painted oil drum hair pieces from Haiti	For the techie: Handmade "Nahaula" tablet cover from Guatemala
For the entertainer: Fruit themed oil drum platter from Haiti	For the shopper: Colorful floral wallets from Guatemala	For the jewelry buff: Our famous "Gems of the Antilles" bracelets from Haiti
For the animal lover: Hand-sculpted wooden horse from Guatemala	For the nature enthusiast: Painted palm tree from Haiti	For the writer: Photo notecards of scenes from Guatemala

Gingerbread Houses and Tylenol

Today was our first day in the village here in Guatemala. Lindsay and Melissa worked in the clinic seeing patients. Many people with fevers and cold and flu symptoms. Meli (our pharmacist) was handing out a lot of tylenol.

Liz, Tara and Brian did a lot of work packing school supplies into the backpacks for christmas presents. We also had some girls from the village helping out. They also started assembling the crafts for the christmas parties. Saturday begins the christmas parties that will continue on Monday and Tuesday.

Gale, Julie and I cleaned out the lab and got some stuff ready to donate to the Health Center in San Antonio. After this evening's team meeting Gale is meeting with the nurses going over some medical information and the rest of the team is working on crafts.

school supplies ready to go into backpacks