Graduation and Church Conference Season

We have entered into the graduation and church conference season here in the area of Quiche.  Many days are filled with either attending a local conference, a graduation ceremony or a graduation celebration lunch.  No dinners here, all is during the lunch time in the afternoon.

The other day Gaspar, Tomas and Kemmel attended the graduation ceremony for some of the ABC students and scholarship students graduating as elementary school teachers.  We had 4 graduates this year, 1 only in the scholarship program, 1 only in ABC and 2 in the ABC program and Scholarship program.  329 students graduated and Gaspar told me that 14 graduated from his community of Xepocol.  That is pretty amazing, that 10 years ago, it would have been 0 and now it is up to 14 this year, 8 last year, and more in the years to come, all from the same community.

Here are some pictures (most are not very good which means I should not look for a job as a photographer!)

 

Pretty large crowd, by the end all of the seats were full.

 Tomas, scholarship student receiving his diploma

 

 Marvin on the right with his diploma.  First in the family to graduate.

 

 Brothers Julio and Tomas graduating together.

 

 Santos David on the right

 

Julio



 

 Juan Sebastian

 

Juan Sebastian and his proud parents - This is child # 2 to graduate from this family.

 Santos David (he always looks so excited!)  Also # 2 graduate for this family.  Santos David hopes to continue to medical school and is waiting to take one more exam.

 

 Marvin with his proud family - His dad Pedro was one of the first to begin the churches of Christ in the area.  Mom and dad were both in tears.

 

 

Another picture of brothers Julio (left) and Tomas (right)

 Party at Julio's and Tomas's house - Julio in pink shirt

 

 Julio and Tomas with mom and dad on left and

a friend of the family (Tomas has the grey t-shirt)

 

Receiving council from the elders of the family

 

All in all a good week!



ABC Children gifts

As part of the ABC program, sponsors also have the opportunity to send a donation of $10 to purchase either a birthday gift or a a Christmas gift.  We started to talk about what to purchase for the children and though about our push on education and reading and found some illustrated Bible Story books that fit the bill for giving something to the child that they would enjoy and hopefully also read.  Cesar and Sheri were in Mactzul VI today passing out the gifts to the children of that community who received them.  We are encouraging them to read at least 2-3 times per week out loud to the family.  Here are some photos:

 Jaime

 Fredy

Leslie

Leslie #2

Leslie and her mom and dad.  Mom always cooks for us when at clinic - great cook!

Support a Scholarship Student

Looking for a way for your donations to make an impact?  Please consider the scholarship programs managed through Health Talents International.  In Guatemala, there are 3 scholarship programs offered to young people who are interested in completing a career in high school, becoming a physician, dentist, or physical therapist or becoming a nurse.    As you can imagine each of these programs can make a huge difference in the life of a young person, the local church and the local community.

Here are some of the scholarship recipients and their hopes for the future.  In total we have between 15-20 scholarship students and at least 10 future hopefuls.

Meet Gabriel.  Gabriel is from Paxot II and is the first in his family to finish middle school and will be the first to finish high school.  His plan of study for now is to be an elementary school teacher; however, his dream is to become a dentist with the possibility of serving HTI and his local area of Chichicastenango. 

Meet Maria Cecibel.  Maria is from a rural community which harvests apples, peaches and plums.  Her parents have little education and work off the land that is available to them.  Maria is the first to graduate high school at the end of this month.  She plans on starting nursing school in 2013 should she be accepted to the school of nursing.

 This is Marisol, also from the community of Paxot II.  Marisol will also be the first in her family to finish middle school and also high school Marisol is training to become a teacher and hopes to teach in her community of Paxot II. 

Meet Tomas - he is the second person in the family that will graduate with a high school degree.  The first was his brother Sebastian who graduated last year.  There will also be a third who is Tomas's brother Julio who is attending the same high school as Tomas.  Imagine the difference this will bring to a rural farming family and community.  They are part of the Xepocol church who in the last years has grown substantially and now have ministries through the young people that include children's Bible classes, vacation Bible school for the community, singing/praise team ministry, tutoring ministry and a computer lab open to the students of the church. 

This is Marvin.  Like the others he will be the first to graduate from high school in his family and also in his church.  What a responsibility! Marvin is the next to youngest of 11 or so siblings.  His father is a an elder in the church and suffers from a siezure disorder but is still a leader in the church and the community and still finds his way to support the family.  Marvin will also become a teacher and will serve as an example to many. 

Meet Mauri.  Mauri is a single child which is rare here but also has some very close cousins that the family takes care of.  Her family struggled and found a way to send her to high school where she received a degree in bookkeeping/accounting.  She is now on a scholarship to become a certified accountant / auditor.    She too will serve as a christian professional example to many young women looking for hope in the future.

As you can see the story is about the same for everyone, parents with little to no education, struggling to make a living and a better future for their children, but with a hope that education will provide an answer.  Most will be the first in their families to achieve these goals and some the first in their churches to do the same.  As a result they will be examples and christian leaders in their communities.

Please consider supporting these programs.  Pretty much all donations go directly to the student to assist in their costs of attending school.  These include transport costs (most travel at least 1 hour one way each day), snacks, school supplies, computer and internet work, etc.  The scholarship programs are developed to ensure that their is a partnership in funding costs between HTI and the families.

Your tax deductible donations can be sent to Health Talents International at PO Box 8303, Searcy, Arkansas, 72145 or you can visit the website for more information.  www.healthtalents.org

Cold Day, Warm Fellowship

Here in Guatemala, February is fraught with all kinds of unpredictable weather.  We are in the middle of dry season, but when February comes it can be rainy or windy or dry or a mixed bag.  Also, it seems like most of the earthquakes/tremors get fired up around this time.  Well, in January we are already getting some rain and cold, and last week we experienced several tremors.  Should be a fun month coming up!

Today we were invited out to lunch with one of our scholarship students and his family.  Fernando is starting high school, which is a big deal around here, but what makes it special is his mother is a widow, and would have no chance of sending him on without this scholarship.  We thought it was just a lunch, but it turned out to be a small gathering of people from the family and church to encourage him and present him with biblical advice as he begins his school year.  We each took turns reading from the Word wise counsel on working hard, staying faithful and being grateful to God for the blessings he gives us.  It was really touching to see this young man who lost his father at a young age, recieve fatherly advice from men in the church.  After the time in Word, we were served a huge meal of chicken soup and tamalitos before we headed to worship services.  As we headed out to church we got rained on a little and were kept alert through the sermon by the cold wind coming in the windows. But we were warmed by the genuine welcome we received from the church!

Checked marked as a great day!

Kemmel and I have had a good week knocking out some administrative duties.  Kemmel's has been working away on the pharmacy order for the quarter (and beyond) and also the budget for next year and got those taken care of.  We also received a grant recently that enables us to add on some new construction to our Clinica Caris building, so Kemmel got started talking with our building contractor about plans and costs of materials this week.  The plan is to add more storage space, freeing up rooms for dental and for medical exam rooms.  We also have scholarship applicant interviews coming up soon, so he has been contacting all the students to schedule their appointments--every year we have more interest from kids wanting to continue on to high school and even college.  This is at the same time exciting, but also worrysome due to limited funding for scholarships.  We pray that God will give wisdom to the Board as they select the winners o scholarships.
I have been working on continuing education for my board certification maintenance (fun!) as well as class material for our volunteer promoters' class--this month we study the eye and its function and diseases.  I've also been working on putting together our flipcharts for a nutrition program we are starting.  We found good pictures from the World Health Organization to add to the flipcharts and had one of our scholarship students "change wardrobes"  on people in the pictures to better represent ladies from this area. They turned out not too bad. The program will be offered to first-time moms starting during pregnacy, teaching them about proper prenatal nutrition, prenatal care, and the importance breastfeeding exclusively for the first 6 months. After the baby is born, we will continue with education about breastfeeding, child nutrition and illnesses and routine care.  The fun part, is we a looking to have female volunteers from the target communities to train to do one-on-one education during home visits as well.  These ladies will be older moms who have experiene rainsing children and now, training in nutrition.  Our goal is to involve the young mothers, their mother, their mother-in-law and the community volunteer in all of the education encounters so that we are all on the same page.  We will try to encourage open dialog and exchange of ideas so that familes/in-laws can better support the young mother.  It's a small program, but it should begin to address  the chronic malnutrition in the area on a community and family level.
Tomorrow back to clinic!