|
We
could wait until 12:00 but I remembered that at the crossroads between
Morales, Puerto Barrios, and Fronteras that there were quite a few
buses. We hitched a ride out to the corner and waited there… Sure
enough by 10AM there was a nice bus going to Guate, so we got on
board. It is a 6 hour drive. We arrived back and caught a
cab back to the centre. We spent the evening catching up on
phone calls, e-mails, and reading. We did decide to go for a walk
when it was just about dark. I had told Mark not to walk outside
the gate because it was dangerous. So much for that. Diana
(who works for Sharing the Dream and lives at the centre) and Isabel (a
Sharing the Dream scholarship student who lives at the centre
too) went for a walk with us to get some ice cream. We
walked about a mile in the direction that I thought was
dangerous. The two women just kept saying “It will be
fine”. There is good news and bad news to this story. The bad
news was that the ice cream store was closed. The good news is we
didn’t get mugged.
June 10, 2008
Today
our first stop was at Upavim a women’s organization in the
squatter’s settlement. Upavim has a clinic and a doctor who works
mornings there. We met with the doctor and also the board of
directors. Mark explained a bit about what he was doing and there
was a discussion for about an hour. It was interesting because a
couple of times the doctor would refer to the women and say that they
would discuss it but it was ultimately up to the board. This is
really how a true cooperative should be run. They had
some great questions and they will continue dialog with
Mark. The women are always very hospitable and
thanked us for coming and invited us to have a snack. We had a
rice drink and bean sandwiches. The bread was from their
bakery. Actually the sandwiches were quite good.
Our next
stop was Casa Guatemala clinic in the city. We were to meet with
Dr. Arturo Canzali.. We didn’t get to the clinic as quickly
as we wanted and Dr. Canzali had already left to go to the private
hospital where he works. Dr. Canzali has worked at the clinic for
over 25 years… I showed Mark the children at the
orphanage/clinic and then we jumped back into the cab (ever faithful
Hugo our driver) and went to the hospital where Dr. Canzali
works. It was interesting to see the small private
hospital. Mark and Dr. Canzali visited about the potential of
students coming down. Dr. Canzali’s wife is a doctor that works
at a private University here in Guatemala City and we will be meeting
with her on Friday to see what connections can be made.
Next we
headed out to Antigua and had a nice lunch. We then went to
Hermano Pedro’s hospital and met with Dick Rutgers a volunteer there
from Hope Haven International. I wanted to have Mark see what the
hospital looked like and especially the orphanage part that deals with
children and adults with disabilities. There is about 250 young
children and adults that live there permanently. It breaks your
heart to see the older children in beds and the younger children in
cribs that look like cages. It gave Mark a good idea of how
archaic some of the treatment is for people with
disabilities. One of the highlights of being at Hermano
Pedro’s was meeting Chris Mooney who heads up Hope Haven. I have
heard a lot about him from my friend Lana.
We returned to
the centre and I met with Laura Wilson a young woman from Vermillion
who has volunteered at STDG in Santiago since January. She is
writing a book on the elders so we discussed the book and her stay in
Guatemala. What a wonderful treasure she is and a great help to
STDG. I will let you all know when the book is ready for
sale. It should be great.
Tomorrow we are off to the lake.
I won’t be in contact until Friday or Saturday.
Diane
Go to June 11-13
|
