The scope of the tragedy in Haiti has so overwhelmed us of late that the help so needed in Guatemala seems to have taken to the back seat. One of the most proven ways to end the cycle of poverty in any country of the world has been through education. To that point I am shamelessly making a pitch here and on Facebook for an education project currently underway in Guatemala. My friend Vanessa has been traveling to the Panajachel region regularly over the past couple of years bringing food, medicines, and Project Santa to as many people as she can as a way of 'giving back' to the birth place of her daughter Arianna. (See the Shoe Drive link at the side of my blog----->)
This May she will be returning and the hope had been to paint, making book shelves, and loading those shelves with books for a library in the village school of San Antonio
Palopo . The director(aka principal) has had a dream for his children to have access to books of any kind and was working with Vanessa towards that goal. Then in one of those moments when you don't know whether to rejoice or break down and cry, he found that his student body of 215 suddenly became 500+ when registration day came this past January!!! The room designated for the library is now crowded with additional students and there is still not enough room for those that wish to attend school! The principle has offered up his teeny, tiny closet sized office for the proposed library project in May because he is so desperate to achieve literacy in this destitute population.
Now what the school REALLY needs is some generous sponsors to provide $6000 needed to build two new classrooms and a proper library. In the meantime, Vanessa has organized with the good people of
Usbourne Books for a book sale to benefit the school library!! This is a win/win kind of book sale. You see, you can either go online and order Spanish language books which can be shipped directly to Vanessa for the library OR you can order books for yourself and the sale generates a % credit towards free books for the school.
Books such as these which are on the
Usbourne site!! Just imagine the excitement the children of that school will feel to hold a real book in their hands for the first time!! By the way, did I forget to mention that the nearest public library to this school is an hour and a half car ride away...and these are kids who often barely eat let alone have access to a car!!!!! So if you have a few extra aid dollars left in your budget would you please consider visiting
http://www.ubah.com/BF37599 ? And if my some miracle my words are touching the heart of someone with $6000 extra dollars in their budget, would you consider sponsoring the new wing of the San Antonio
Palopo school at Heart4Children which is the Shoe Drive link
at the side of my blog??? Thanks for listening.
This would be a picture of her from just after the start of her school career. She claims that her competitive nature was as a result of being the 'different' child in the family. She was the 'bony blond' to her darker and chubbier younger brother and sister. Let's just say there are many of us who dispute her premise...sadly because the competitive gene has been clearly passed down...okay so my family can stop laughing now!!!
World War II came to an end and Loretta left her secretarial job to marry and raise a family. Raising a family would be an understatement!!! I remember at one point in high school, during a smart alack phase, counting out how many months my Mom had spent pregnant. Counting the miscarriages and my brother born premature who died at 1 day old, I remember being incredulous that she had spent 10 YEARS of her life at some stage of pregnancy!?!? Then , as if seven of us were not enough, my Mom applied to be a foster parent with our state's DCFS AND Catholic Charities!! 63 more children spent a portion of their young lives under our roof....yeah, 63! Two of those foster children stayed for good by way of adoption. So no need to say anything to her when we decided to pursue that avenue to build our family!!
She was there at the airport (it was allowed in those days!!) to welcome both of her Guatemalan granddaughters home and was the first one to embrace them in the family...besides Patrick and I that is. She was also all of the grandchildren's first and best baby sitter!!
When Julia was one I had to return to work and my Mom stepped right up! Her strength declines with every passing day these days, but back then she could have a hefty Julia on her hip as she carried a full gallon of milk up the stairs from the car....she was 75!!!!
She has always been sure to make every birthday and special occasion for all 13 or her grandchildren!! She has also never been one to let the grandchildren off the hook for remembering her special days...or her children for that matter! So even though the 'party' is tomorrow, we were sure to stop by today with a batch of scones that she had been 'hinting' about wanting for a week now! It gets harder and harder to see how much of a toll that Father Time is exacting on her physical being these days and the shock I feel every time my whip smart Mom 'forgets' one of my daughter's names goes right to the core of my soul. Ma, Mommy, Mom, Aunt Retta, Loretta, Grandma are all titles she has carried while on her mission to carve the bedrock of our family. As I stand here on the solid slab of family that she has made for us I feel a deep apprehension that her mantle must now be passed to my generation. She has set a veeeeery high bar and I cannot say with certainty that anyone of us is ready to step in...as she has always done...with a gritty determination that all will work in the end!
Much to our benefit, that overwhelming job can be made bearable by the MANY family members she has raised so very well! Happy 82nd Birthday Mom..and many, many more!!!!!!!
