Home Trip Journals Partners About Us Sponsorships

 

Sunday March 1st..

This is written by Lee.

We had breakfast at the Maya Tradition centre and then headed for the lake to get to Santiago.

We  crossed the  lake in a  25 foot boat with 115 Mercury.  The lake is surrounded by volcanic peaks.  It is a V shaped valley with very little shallow water shoreline.  With the depth of the lake it looks like there is not much fishing.   Once we crossed the lake we were met at the dock by a pick up, crawled in the back  and then headed for the  elder center.  The elder center is in the heart of Santigo city.  It is two story building with three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, office, and three dining rooms and a common area.  The primary function is to provide for the elders of Santiago.  At the present time the center serves 65 elders.  The center provides three meals per week, vitamins and medical care.  The elders at the center are the ones that have no one else to help them. 
Once at the center we were introduced to the staff, given a tour of the building and the mission of the center.  Diane could not have made a better choice for director, the director gets things done.

Sharing the dream is the only know organization that is providing for the elderly in Santiago.  Without Sharing the Dream, some of these elderly would be dead or living a more meager existence.

Sharing the Dream is committed to projects that can be followed thru on.  There is a problem with organizations coming to Guatemala doing something and then walking away with no long term commitment.  There needs to be the follow thru for projects.  The projects need to have commitment from all parties.

We then visited the Catholic Church that was built in the 1500’s.  Very impressive building for the time at which it was built.  We then visited an annex that was a memorial to a priest from Oklahoma who was murdered during the civil war.

From the church we visited two homes of the elderly that were sponsored by Sharing the Dream.  One of the women (Anna) lived in small hut no more then 15 X 15 feet with a tin roof, dirt floors, and corn stock walls.  It was a very humbling experience.   The other home visited was occupied by a brother and two sisters. One sister is blind the other has a deformed arm.  They have far better quarters then Anna.  But it still was margin living.

Before supper we met the scholarship students.  The students were nervous but very well behaved.  They were shy but answered our questions; the students all had high aspirations and appear ready to follow thru on their educations.    We had dinner with them and then they all left except for one  Diego Santiago.  He stays in the centre overnight as the guard.