Tuesday, March 15, 2011- Day 56

I would like to start by giving a little bit of details about the orphanage/girl's home.  The home has been opened for about 14 years. The property is owned by the Guatemalan government. We are not quite sure how the home was started but we think that the property was built to be used as some sort of military hospital but was never opened so the President's wife pushed to have it used as an orphanage. There are 3-4 nuns at the orphanage at all times but they may not be the same nuns since they rotate in and out. The Catholic church provides the nuns but do not provide any money for the operation of the orphanage. There is a Rotary Club from Ohio that pays for the girls tuition at school and provide $100 a month to the orphanage (which is not much). The facility holds 40 girls ages newborn 18 years old, right now there are 31 girls at the home. Our church Grace Community discovered this orphanage about a year ago. Our leader and another leader went last March to Guatemala and visited several orphanages to find a place that our church could jump on board with to help them out. They visited several places and each place mostly said they just needed a certain amount of money and if they wanted to help send the money and maybe come play with the kids. Well, Adolpho (yes our bus driver) told them about St. Mary's orphanage. They took the long and bumpy road to the orphanage. They asked these nuns what they could do to help them and they said they wanted to be more self-sufficient. They wanted them to teach them and give them necessary means to support themselves. The leaders than found out that they received minimal support and they were lacking food in a most disturbing way. They found out the they have been surviving on two meals a day. They were boiling a half a head of cabbage to make cabbage soup for lunch and boiling a melon for supper. Sometimes they would get a treat and the nuns would be able to get a bone left over at the market and make some sort of beef stock soup. When the leaders left that day they knew this is where they needed to help. They went to the market that day and brought food back to the girls. Our leader said the girls broke out in song when they returned with the food because they were so happy. Since that day our church has sent three teams (including ours) to this orphanage. Last July the team built a bakery for the home. A local baker came in to show the girls how to make many different types of bakery items such as breads, cookies, and tortillas. They were actually making cinnamon rolls when we arrived there on Sunday:) In December the team built a chicken coop so the girls can sell the chickens for money, use the eggs, and have meat from the chickens. They also painted several of the buildings on the compound. This trip we installed a playground for the girls and installed a better system for their clothesline. The girls wash their own clothes and hang them on lines. The clothesline were hung in all sorts of directions and were not hung properly. We painted one of the buildings and our main job was painting the enormous concrete wall that surrounds the compound. This wall is huge and we thought we would never find the end of it. This wall is very important to the safety of the girls. The prison is just up the road and if someone were to escape, guess where they would go. They have had several break-in attempts since December. They have already extended the wall once but would like it to be extended even more. There is also barbed/razor wire on the top but it may not be enough to keep people out. We did feel a little silly painting this wall but then the nuns explained that this is their home and they want it to look nice. We paint the walls of our home because it makes it look nice so they wanted their wall painted to make it feel more like home for the girls.We worked at the orphanage Monday-Thursday morning and we painted on that wall all four days It was hot and it was hard work but it looked so nice when we were finished. One group of our team also did a project and make flowers out of our hand prints on one of the walls and it looked so cute! I know I have not said much about the girls specifically but I want to do an entire post on them so you will have to wait until tomorrow. There is just so much to mention and so I hope I am painting an accurate picture of this place. Before I finally finish this post (sorry I did not mean to take up your entire day reading :) I want to share just two things that I took away from that place. First: we put way too much importance on our physical possessions. Who cares if their house is bigger? or if their car, phone, clothes, ect. is nicer? We are truly blessed with what we have and we should be using our blessings to bless others. Second: Ok, so this may sound a little weird and I almost did not mention it, but I will. I spend most of my life trying to lose weight. I have spent a lot of my blog talking about ways to be healthy and lose those extra pounds. This trip made me rethink my relationship with food. Our lives resolve around what we will be eating. Even our dieting resolves around food, good food, bad food, filling foods, foods high in fat, ..... see my point.  I think about how many times I have said "I am soo hungry" when the truth is I have no idea what true hunger really feels like. I have seen hunger with my own eyes. I have hugged, held, played, and fell in love with sweet little girls who know what true hunger feels like and it put my eating habits to shame. I am not saying that I will not struggle with my eating habits but it sure has put them into perspective.

[caption id="attachment_2444" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="The Prison"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2450" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="Part of the wall we were painting"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2449" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="Putting the play ground together"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2448" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="The chicken coop"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2447" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="The girl's dormitory"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2445" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="Their homemade clothesline"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2451" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="The active volcano in the distance of the orphanage"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2452" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="A section on the backyard at the orphanage. The wall we are painting is back there somewhere."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2453" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="Sweet Hand prints of the sweet flowers that live in this place."][/caption]