Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos - Guatemala

Thursday started with a bang. Neighbors to the orphanage figured they had waited long enough and began popping off mortar rounds at around 5 AM.  Guatemalans do love their fireworks this time of year.

Jan Leiritz, the director of the orphanage stopped by at about 7:45 and for the next three hours we talked about the orphanage. Jan was born and raised in East Germany, his father was career military as were many others in his family. He had a different calling. Nine years ago came to Guatemala, met his wife Maria Jose and says he can't imagine ever leaving the children. He became National Director for NPH Guatemala three years ago. Did I mention he's like 6 foot 7?

Jan Leiritz

NPH Guatemala has 350 children who live on campus in Parramos, and another 130 who are either attending High School or College. Their college bound batting average is spiking next year going from 6 to 18. Impressive numbers. The on-site school is held in higher regard than the local schools attracting children from the local community attend. Most walk one hour each way with only one tortilla for the day -- the value of a good education is clearly understood. Additionally NPH has five vocational training programs: sewing, baking, cooking, metal working and wood working. NPH stresses vocational training at all of the 9 of their orphanages.

They have 100 children in K-6 and another 150 or so in 7-9 and vocational. Vocational training starts when children reach 12 years of age.

The Montessori school has 45 children. Finances come from Holland, and along with Harriett Neidermeyer (a German national who runs the program) there are four Guatemalan teachers. One of the teachers had been an orphan at NPH! The facilities are amazing.

Montessori School 

Their high school students live in houses run by the orphanage in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Each house has tios (uncles) or tias (aunts) who oversee the children. But in a hallmark of NPH's model, they are constantly striving toward self sufficiency. The children are responsible for life skills as basic as getting to school, washing their clothes, and cooking their own food.

While the orphanage is situated on only 17 acres, they do an amazing job of growing half of the vegetables they need on site. The green houses and fields are first rate.  They have a herd of goats and four cows for milk and cheese. The main source of meat are the pigs they raise. The hen population provides all the eggs, and they make bread in their bakery for the children at the orphanage. Having a bakery operation on site for vocational training has it's benefits. A german baker comes over several times a year to train and bake. Locals hear about his coming and actually place orders for their brown bread!

Tomatoes in the Green House

Lettuce you can drool over

They have a medical clinic on site with a doctor and four nurses. As part of the training program in Guatemala, future dentists must give a year of service, the orphanage benefits by having on site basic dental care.

We were just as impressed by NPH Guatemala as we were by NPH Honduras. We also learned something new. There is a program run by the European Union called SES or Senior Expert Service. Through the program experts in everything you can think of sign up when they near retirement at age 60. SES then takes requests from places like NPH and lines up the expert they need to visit. One psychologist, Ruth, comes on a frequent basis to train Guatemalan employees on basic therapy techniques for handling the children's psychological needs. For example, they have started group therapy with the girls.

The World Orphan Fund will consider a proposal from NPH to expand their agricultural production and create an agricultural vocational program at the orphanage. We're excited by the possibilities.

After NPH we headed to Hogar Madre Anna Vitiello. More about then in our next post.

Welcome to Guatemala

Wednesday

3AM. The first miracle -- I'm out the door on time to catch my flight in Milwaukee.  Out of darkness of Interstate 94 I was greeted by a billboard I had never seen before. It simply said "Children are a gift from God." Talk about your signs, even I could get that one.

I had to run through the Atlanta airport to catch my flight where two of our directors were waiting. Thankfully Brenda had texted me the gate number. I was at Terminal B and needed to be at Terminal E. Brenda and her husband Phil had flown in from Minneapolis the night before and had a rough go of it. Radical turbulence and lot's of throwing up. They got to the airport at 1:30 in the morning and spent the night there - figuring it didn't make much sense to pay for a hotel room for maybe 3 hours sleep.

As the plane winds through the mountains on the approach to the airport in Guatemala City you can't help but feel you're about to enter a very special and beautiful place. Plus I'm seriously happy for the warmth, it was 12 degrees when I left Wisconsin.

We weren't entirely sure our NPH contact would be at the airport. When things are settled in this part of the world, you don't get that familiar American reassurance of "see you tomorrow." We walked out the door after customs to a huge roped off crowd. Some had signs, but no NPH. We called the orphanage, couldn't find anyone who spoke english. I started calculating which of the 20 people Then I finally saw the piece of paper in the crowd.

The drive to Parramos took about an hour. We were surprised to find that the orphanage had hot food waiting for us in the volunteer house (casa voluntario), and soon Jan Leiritz, the director appeared at the door. He's a big man, but has a charming german accent and an air of humbleness about him. He introduced us to Cesario who speaks english and took us on a tour. Cesario came to the orphanage when he was 8 years old. He's 22 now and says he came back to help his brothers. I've always been struck by how NPH homes stress they are one big family. Here at NPH, that family is 350 kids. More about the orphanage tomorrow.

16 Days - 12 Orphanages

A team from the World Orphan Fund will arrive tomorrow at Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos in Parramos, Guatemala. It will be our second time at the Orphanage and the first of twelve orphanages we will visit over the next sixteen days.

Following NPH, we will visit eleven additional orphanages in Guatemala and Honduras: 

• HogarMadre Anna Vitiello Orphanage in Sumpango, Guatemala
• Mama Carmen Orphanage, in San Lucas Sacatepequez, Guatemala
• Rayo de EsperanzaOrphanage in Rio Dulce, Guatemala
• Hogar El Refugio Internacional in Naco, Honduras
• Nueva Esperanza in San Pedro Sula, Honduras
• Good Samaritan, San Pedro Sula
• El Refugio Aldea de Ticamaya, Honduras
• Our Little Roses, San Pedro Sula
• Hogar de Ninos de Emmanuel, San Pedro Sula
• Hogar Suyapa in El Progresso, Honduras
• Orphanage Emmanuel in Guaimaca, Honduras

Keep can track our progress as we post stories and pictures here and on our Facebook page.  

The Christmas Orange

I'd like to tell you a story my grandmother told me when I was six or seven years old. We had gone to her home for Thanksgiving dinner and the drive was rather a long one. I had filled the time with making a list of all the things that I wanted for Christmas that year.

Later that evening after I was ready for bed, I showed the list to my grandmother. After she read it, she said, "My goodness, that really is a long list!" Then she picked me up and set me on her lap in the big rocking chair and told me this story:

"Once there was a little girl who came to live in an orphanage in Denmark" (Now my grandmother was from Denmark, so this story might even be true.) "As Christmas time grew near, all of the other children began telling the little girl about the beautiful Christmas tree that would appear in the huge downstairs hall on Christmas morning. After their usual, very plain breakfast, each child would be given their one and only Christmas gift: a small, single orange."

At this point I looked up at my grandmother in disbelief, but she assured me that was all each child would receive for Christmas.

"Now the headmaster of the orphanage was very stern and he thought Christmas to be a bother. So on Christmas Eve, when he caught the little girl creeping down the stairs to catch a peek at the much-heard-of Christmas tree, he sharply declared that the little girl would not receive her Christmas orange because she had been so curious as to disobey the rules. The little girl ran back to her room broken-hearted and crying at her terrible fate."

"The next morning as the other children were going down to breakfast, the little girl stayed in her bed. She couldn't stand the thought of seeing the others receive their gift when there would be none for her."

"Later, as the children came back upstairs, the little girl was surprised to be handed a napkin. As she carefully opened it, there to her disbelief was an orange all peeled and sectioned."

"How could this be?" she asked.

"It was then that she found how each child had taken one section from their orange and given it to her so that she, too, would have a Christmas orange."

How I loved this story! I would ask my grandmother to tell it to me over and over as I grew up. Every Christmas, as I pull a big, juicy orange from my stocking, I think of this story. What an example of the true meaning of Christmas those orphan children displayed that Christmas morning.

-Author Unknown

Cold War Kids

Because members of the Russian Parliament were bent out of shape by the U.S. calling their country out for human rights abuses, they decided they would take it to a whole new level by passing a bill to make it illegal for American families to adopt Russian children.

The Russian measure was developed in retaliation for a new American law that will punish Russian citizens who are accused of violating human rights, by barring them from travel to the United States and from owning real estate or maintaining financial assets here.

Russian Orphans

Since 1999 approximately 45,000 Russian children have been adopted by American families.  So of course it makes perfect sense to deny children an opportunity to grow up in a loving family to prove a political point. We agree with U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul who said:

                "The welfare of children is simply too important to be linked to other
                  issues in our bilateral relationship."

Pray that the upper house, or ultimately Vladimir Putin put an end to this gamesmanship, because the only ones who will suffer are orphaned Russian children.

Have you seen our sister?

We received hopeful news from Honduras a few nights ago. New friends at the orphanage known as Amigos de Jesus told us they had two brothers at the orphanage who desperately were looking for their sister. All three came from Nueva Esperanza and were separated when the Orphanage burned down last November. They've been apart for over a year.

Nueva Esperanza After the Fire

We got connected with Amy Escoto at Amigos de Jesus though Father Den O'Donnell, one seriously cool priest from Pennsylvania who, along with others, founded Amigos. Amy asked us to check to see if Lucia (the sister) was at Orphanage Emmanuel, because she understood we knew people there. We were sad to find out she wasn't.

But we then asked missionary friends we know, Jen Cook and Joy Dodd (Joy to the Nations), to ask around at orphanages they visit near San Pedro Sula for Lucia, and four days later we got this note from them through Facebook:

We went to Las Casitas today to teach the last cooking class we were scheduled to teach and we think that we have found the girl Lucia, that you were talking about. She has been there for quite sometime. She uses a different last name. She is 15 years old she told us today. And she said that she has 2 brothers and gave us their names and ages. She thinks that they are living at Nueva Esperanza.

She is a sweet girl, quiet but informative. She gave us all of the info so we know that it is all genuine...her full name, age, how many siblings...we did not coach her, it was all from her, though she cannot remember her birthday, which is not unusual for the kids.

SO...we think that this may be her. 

We sent an email to Amy and guess what? We we had a match!

Thanks a ton, R.J.

We’ll contact them and see if we can at least get her here for a visit and we can perhaps look around for a place that is able to have her or maybe even keep the 3 together.

Muchisimas gracias for remembering this little family and putting the word out. I look forward to our paths crossing one of these days!

Feliz navidad!

Amy

So let's get this straight. We call a priest in Pennsylvania, who introduces us to an orphanage we've never visited. We then get asked by people there, we've never met, if we could find out whether a missing sister was at a different orphanage. We find she's not there, but ask missionaries in another part of Honduras to look for her. In four days. they find her and a broken family is connected. How do you explain that? There is only one way. God.

So when you see your children, grandchildren, sisters, and brothers over the holidays, say a prayer of thanks and hug them close. They are gift from God who never forgets a single one of His children.

From the volunteers at the World Orphan Fund we wish you a very Merry Christmas.